Chapter 215 [Extra] If Uncle Hadn't Died

Yun Wan also saw the contents clearly and her breath suddenly stopped. "Xiaobao is missing?"

Her voice trembled and her face turned pale.

"How could Xiaobao suddenly disappear?" Yun Wan grabbed his arm, her tone anxious: "What else did Asui say? Did you search the entire capital?"

When she thought that her daughter might have met with an accident, she felt dizzy.

When it comes to the safety of her children, she can't help but worry.

Emperor Jingxuan seemed to be lost in thought. "Madam, please don't worry. Asui only said that Xiaobao is not in the palace, but nothing else."

"Given our son's personality, he wouldn't have sent just one message if he wasn't sure of Xiaobao's safety. So, Xiaobao might not be missing, but is most likely hiding somewhere."

If my daughter was really missing, the Xuanlong Guards would have sent the news long ago.

Hearing this, Yun Wan gradually calmed down. "My husband, you mean that Xiaobao secretly followed us here, and maybe he's on this boat now?"

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Emperor Jingxuan nodded, his son Mingyang was very brave.

The two men stood up and walked out of the house, just in time to meet a maid who was carrying a tray of food and acting stealthily.

Seeing the two of them, she subconsciously tried to hide, but when she realized there was nowhere to hide, she stood there with her head down and said nervously, "Master and Madam."

Glancing at the cakes and fruits on the wooden tray, Yun Wan remained expressionless: "For Xiaobao? Where is she?"

Knowing that the young master's behavior was exposed, the maid dared not hide it and told the truth: "The young lady is in the room at the end."

She pointed in a direction.

Yun Wan and Emperor Jingxuan walked straight to the room, opened the door and walked around the screen. What caught their eyes was their daughter sleeping soundly on the pillow.

After seeing the person with their own eyes, the two finally felt relieved.

Mingyang, who was sleeping soundly, was unaware of anything. He turned over and continued to sleep, revealing sleep marks on his face.

Ten-year-old Mingyang has begun to take on the appearance of a young girl, with delicate features, a slender figure, and baby fat on her snow-white cheeks that has slightly faded.

Yun Wan sat on the edge of the bed, reached out to tuck the corner of the quilt for her, and gently touched Mingyang's face with the palm of her hand, her brows lowered and her eyes gentle.

She asked why the little guy was so well-behaved and obedient before leaving, and it turned out that she had a trick up her sleeve and secretly followed him onto the ship, and even persuaded the palace servants to cover it up for her.

It really is true that if a child is quiet, he is bound to make trouble.

After sneaking around on the boat for the past two days, it seems like he didn't eat well and his face has become thinner.

Mingyang smelled his mother's scent while he was sleeping, and opened his eyes drowsily, "Mom...some bugs bit me."

She snuggled into Yun Wan's arms and acted coquettishly.

Yun Wan scratched her nose unhappily, but her tone was doting. "If your brother hadn't sent a message to me and your father, would you have stayed in this room and not gone out?"

Mingyang chuckled, "I thought if no one finds out, I'll give you and Dad a surprise when we get to Yangzhou."

Emperor Jingxuan snorted, "Surprised? It's almost like shock."

Mingyang pouted and retorted: "Who told you to take me away secretly? I also want to go to Yangzhou to play. Anyway, I'm here, you can't send me back!"

Turning around, she begged Yun Wan, "Mom, can you please let me stay with you? I swear I will never disturb you and Daddy's time alone!"

She clasped her hands together and looked at the two of them with watery eyes.

Yun Wan and Emperor Jingxuan looked at each other and both saw helplessness in each other.

"Mom, look, where are you bitten by insects?"

Mingyang stretched out his arm to show her, "Here, and here."

As Yun Wan applied the medicine to her, Emperor Jingxuan instructed the maid, "Go clean up the room next to my wife and me, and ask the kitchen to make some of the young lady's favorite food and bring it up."

Although it was different from the original plan, since his daughter had come with him, he didn't want to send her back to Beijing, so he just thought of it as an extra little tail.

........

It was April when the official ship arrived in Yangzhou, a time when grass was lush and birds were singing, and everything was flourishing.

In Fengshui Lane in Yangzhou City, a family of three recently moved into the old house of the Cen family, which had been vacant for many years. The man was handsome, the woman was beautiful, and the daughter was pretty. They were dressed in gorgeous clothes and had an extraordinary demeanor. They looked like they were from Kyoto, and they became the topic of conversation among the neighbors after dinner.

The family of three was Yun Wan's family, and the house they lived in was the old house passed down from the Cen family, where Yun Wan lived with his uncle when he was a child.

In recent years, Cen Yuanzhou has been very successful in the officialdom. Except for a few years when he was sent abroad, he stayed in the capital and rarely returned to his hometown in Yangzhou. He only had the old house and ancestral tomb renovated inside and out.

After decades of absence, Fengshui Lane is still Fengshui Lane, with earth-shaking changes.

"The only things I can recognize are the river and the willow tree outside the alley." Yun Wan sighed while sitting in the carriage.

Then she smiled and said, "But this is enough."

After all, this is a period of several decades.

Emperor Jingxuan patted her shoulder gently, silently comforting her.

Mingyang leaned on his mother's shoulder and asked curiously, "What kind of people are my grandmother and uncle?"

She knew they were going to the suburbs to visit the graves, and she was very excited sitting in the carriage.

In other words, Mingyang has been cheerful all day long since she came to Yangzhou. It is obvious that everything unfamiliar to her is interesting.

Yun Wan said softly, "They are very good elders..."

She followed her memory and picked out a few memorable things to tell her daughter.

Emperor Jingxuan smiled and listened silently.

Perhaps visiting the graves brought back many memories of Yun Wan's relatives. That night she dreamed of her uncle's death many years ago.

........

In the eighth year of Jingxuan, the third son of the Lu family became terminally ill, and the doctor determined that he had only one month to live.

When the news reached Yangzhou, Uncle Cen Zhuo immediately discussed with his family and bought a boat ticket, preparing to set off north to Beijing the next day. As soon as his niece's husband died, he would take his niece back.

Unexpectedly, he caught a cold that night and his old illness relapsed. Just when all the doctors in Yangzhou shook their heads, saying they were powerless and suggested that the Cen family prepare for his funeral, Cen Zhuo suddenly recovered from his illness.

As soon as he recovered from his illness, Cen Zhuo immediately bought a new boat ticket and rushed to the capital. After he arrived in Beijing smoothly, he found out through some inquiries that the third son of Duke Lu had passed away yesterday.

Cen Zhuo wiped his dusty face and thought that he had finally caught up. He then found an inn to stay in and looked for a suitable opportunity to contact his niece.

Seven days later, on the day of Mr. Lu San's funeral, the sounds of suona, gongs and drums shook the sky.

The room was filled with the lingering bitter smell of medicine, but was as quiet as a breath. Yun Wan, dressed in mourning, sat alone in front of her dressing table, feeling chilled to the bone.

She curled up with her knees hugged, her mind revolving around what she had just heard from her mother-in-law: she wanted to kill her to be buried with her husband.

The cold and ruthless conversation repeated in his mind over and over again, and Yun Wan gradually felt hatred in his heart.

She couldn't just sit there and wait for death. She had to find a way to save herself, and it would be best if she could get rid of the Lu family completely.

After making up his mind, Yun Wan changed his depressed mood and cheered up.

At the same time, she received news that her uncle was coming to Beijing.

........

The uncle and nephew found an opportunity to meet briefly in Yun Wan's spice shop.

The uncle and nephew, who had not seen each other for many years, had tears in their eyes when they met and asked each other about their well-being.

Upon learning that her uncle came to Beijing to take her back to Yangzhou, and even fell seriously ill and nearly died before coming, Yun Wan burst into tears and became even more determined to leave the Lu family.

Cen Zhuo was so angry that his eyes turned red when he learned that his unfortunate niece was being bullied by that family and even in danger of her life.

He said righteously, "Don't worry, Ah Wan. Even if it costs my own life, I will make sure you leave that cannibalistic place!"

He knew that the richer the family, especially when the marriage was for the benefit of the family, the more likely they would ask the widowed daughter-in-law to "voluntarily" remain faithful for the sake of the family's honor and interests.

Not to mention the hard life of widowed daughters-in-law from ordinary families, there is no need to say more about the widows from wealthy families who remain chaste. They wear plain clothes and eat vegetarian food, just like nuns. There are many rules and they cannot do anything out of the ordinary, otherwise they will be criticized and cursed.

He had seen women in Yangzhou who were forced by their in-laws to remain faithful to their husbands. They were pale and thin, with dull and lifeless eyes filled with numbness. They were as calm as stagnant water, which made people feel sad.

A Wan was his sister's only child and Cen Zhuo's only niece. He and his wife had always treated her as their own daughter. He was unwilling to let a good child be buried in that cannibalistic backyard in her prime years.

This was a unanimous agreement between him and his wife. At worst, they would just support A-Wan in the future.

"Uncle, don't talk nonsense!"

Yun Wan interrupted anxiously, shaking her head repeatedly with tears in her eyes, "I don't want my uncle to risk his life for me, I want you all to be fine!"

Cen Zhuo raised his hand to wipe the corners of his eyes, a loving smile appearing on his weathered yet gentle face. "Hey, okay, we'll all be fine!"

After the greetings, the uncle and nephew discussed the next steps and had no contact with each other for the next few days.

The next day, Cen Zhuo went to the Yun family and asked Yun's father to take his eldest daughter back to the Yun family. As expected, he was rejected and then kicked out of the Yun Mansion.

The result was as expected, but Cen Zhuo was not discouraged. After being driven out, he sat on the stone steps in front of the Yun Mansion, lowered his head, wiped his tears and sighed.

The Yun Mansion is located in the west part of the street market. It was the time when people were coming and going to the market. Seeing this, passers-by couldn't help but be curious. What happened made a grown man cry in public?

Someone asked.

Cen Zhuo opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself, a look of embarrassment and grief appearing on his elegant and thin face.

"I'm crying for my unfortunate niece. She's the eldest daughter of the Yun family and married into Duke Lu's mansion. My niece's husband passed away a while ago. She lost her husband at such a young age and has no children. I wonder how difficult her life must be in her husband's family."

"She is my sister, the only daughter of Minister Yun's original wife. I felt sorry for my niece, so I wanted to discuss with my brother-in-law about bringing her back to her parents' home, but who knew..."

He beat his chest and stamped his feet, his face filled with grief and he burst into tears. "Who would have thought that my brother-in-law would say that a daughter who is married off is like spilled water, and that this matter has nothing to do with the Yun family! My poor sister who died young, my poor niece who is left alone and helpless..."

Many people showed sympathy upon hearing this. It is said that if there is a stepmother, there must be a stepfather. Isn’t the eldest daughter of the Yun family too miserable?

Minister Yun was indeed cold-blooded and heartless. He actually cruelly drove out his brother-in-law who had come all the way from Yangzhou.

In fact, Cen Zhuo, who had not seen Yun's father, but was driven out by his current step-wife, was very satisfied with their indignation and immediately touched his face and sighed:

"Forget it. If the Yun family doesn't agree, I'll just come a few more times. After all, my niece is the legitimate daughter of the Yun family. We can't just bully her because her mother died young, right?"

In the next few days, Cen Yuanzhou came to the Yun Mansion every day. Since no one let him in, he sat at the door all day, attracting many people and neighbors and colleagues to watch the show.

Soon, the matter spread throughout the capital and became known to everyone. The Yun family's selling of their daughter became a topic of conversation for many people after dinner.

So the Yun family had no choice but to invite Cen Zhuo back into the house. They didn't know what they talked about, but after Cen Zhuo came out, he paid a group of people to go to Duke Lu's house with drums and gongs, saying that he was entrusted by the Yun family to ask the Lu family to let the newly widowed and childless daughter-in-law return to her parents' home.

There was no rule in this dynasty that a widowed wife had to remain chaste for her husband for the rest of her life. On the contrary, widows were encouraged to remarry, rebuild families and continue having children.

Therefore, Cen Zhuo's request did not seem excessive to them. After all, any family that loved their daughter would not want their daughter to be a widow for the rest of her life.

However, compared to the Yun family, not a single person came out of Duke Lu's mansion.

Just when everyone concluded that the daughter of the Yun family would remain a widow for the rest of her life in the Lu family, Yun Wan accidentally knocked over the soup that the servant had just served at the Lu family's funeral banquet.

The soup just happened to spill onto the silver bracelet of a guest who came to the banquet. The bracelet suddenly changed color, which frightened the guest so much that he shouted, "The food is poisonous!"

The guests at the banquet changed color when they heard this, put down their chopsticks and looked alert.

After inspection, it was found that the bowl of soup that Yun Wan overturned did contain a large amount of arsenic. If someone drank it, even a great immortal would be powerless.

Yun Wan was so frightened that his face turned pale as paper, and his thin body was shaking, which made people feel distressed and sympathetic.

Then, in full view of everyone, she knelt down in front of Old Madam Lu and cried out:

"Please, mother, let me go and give me a chance to live! I and my husband love each other deeply, but I still want to live and don't want to be buried alive with him!"

She seemed to be frightened out of her wits and accidentally told the conversation between the master and servant that she had overheard that day.

She spoke incoherently, but everyone grasped the key point, which was -

The poisoning was instigated by the old lady of the Lu family, just to kill her daughter-in-law to bury her with her dead son!

The whole room was in uproar.

When poisoning occurred at the Lu family's banquet, the guests demanded an explanation.

The Lu family sent people to investigate thoroughly and discovered that the nanny beside the old lady had committed suicide by taking poison. A bag of used arsenic was found in the house.

Now the evidence is conclusive.

That afternoon, Cen Zhuo went to the Dali Temple to beat drums, suing the Lu family for abusing his newly widowed daughter-in-law. Under duress, the Yun family also became plaintiffs.

They can accept that the daughter of the Yun family remained a widow and committed suicide for love, but they cannot accept that she deliberately poisoned the family. What is the difference between this and breaking up with each other?

For a time, under Cen Zhuo's operation, even the children on the street knew about this matter. There was an old lady named Lu in the east of the city who poisoned and persecuted her daughter-in-law to be buried with her dead son!

Three days later, Yun Wan successfully obtained the marriage certificate, packed her luggage and dowry, and happily boarded the official ship to Yangzhou with her uncle.

Looking at the ripples on the lake, the fishy smell of water wafted into Yun Wan's nose, and the depression and gloom between his brows were swept away.

She is finally free!