Chapter 81 Hurting It's really hurtful when you say such words
Before Pei Huaian could pull Meng Wanxin out of the water, he saw Shen Youran fall into the water as well.
The boat completely flipped over and sat upside down on the water, just enough to pin Shen Youran underneath.
"Leisurely!"
He loosened his grip, and without caring about Meng Wanxin, he dived into the water and pulled out Shen Youran who was trapped under the boat.
At the same time, Pei Huaijin and Qing Jian, who came over after hearing the noise, saw the boat capsized in the lake and three people fell into the water. One of them was Shen Youran. Pei Huaijin became anxious and jumped into the water regardless of Qing Jian's obstruction, and took Shen Youran from Pei Huaian.
Pei Huaian then swam back to Meng Wanxin, grabbed the drowning and unconscious Meng Wanxin, and swam to the shore.
Qing Jian and Xiao Ci had already taken off their outer robes. As soon as they got ashore, they immediately wrapped the two ladies in their clothes and escorted the four of them to the nearest room.
Shen Youran just choked on some water and was not seriously injured.
Meng Wanxin's condition was more serious. Pei Huaian pressed on her abdomen and forced her to spit out a lot of water before she woke up.
The maid brought clean clothes and towels, and the four of them changed into them. When asked about the reason for falling into the water, Meng Wanxin felt very guilty and said that she just wanted to enjoy the scenery by the lake, but she didn't expect the railing to suddenly break, which implicated them. She felt very sorry.
Pei Huaijin caught the slightly evasive look in her eyes when she said these words, and he had some guesses in his mind.
Afterwards, he asked someone to send Meng Wanxin back first. Pei Huaijin then asked Shen Youran and his seventh brother why they came to the lake.
Shen Youran said that she came here after Pei Huaian, and Pei Huaian said, "A maid told me that someone was looking for me and led me to see that person. I happened to pass by the lake..."
But now the maidservant is nowhere to be found, so naturally the person cannot be seen either.
The four of them soaked in the cold water and were blown by the wind after getting ashore. Although they drank ginger soup in time to drive away the cold, except Pei Huaian, the other three fell ill.
Needless to say, Meng Wanxin had drowned and caught a cold, and was so sick that she couldn't leave the room.
Shen Youran and Pei Huaijin caught a cold. Shen Youran was better. After taking medicine for three days, the symptoms of the cold were alleviated.
Pei Huaijin, on the other hand, had just fallen ill a few days ago due to taking unclean folk remedies, and now he had caught a cold, and he was also poisoned. This cold had been tormenting him for half a month before he showed any improvement.
For this reason, Qing Jian couldn't help but say a few words to his master: "The situation that day was not critical. My lord knew his own condition, so why did he insist on going down to save people himself? I can handle this kind of thing..."
"You Ran is my wife. She fell into the water. I was worried and didn't trust anyone else to rescue her..."
Besides, she was wet, how could she let others touch her?
Although the seventh brother touched her, he came to explain afterwards that Shen Youran was trapped underneath the boat after it capsized, and he was eager to save her and didn't think too much about it.
Pei Huaijin naturally wouldn't blame his seventh brother. Under the circumstances at that time, not to mention him, anyone else would have to prioritize saving people and wouldn't have the time to think about anything else.
But those people outside obviously don't think so.
Many people ran to the lake after hearing the shouting that day. Although there were three people who fell into the water, they only knew two of them.
One was Pei Huaian, the protagonist of the flower viewing banquet that day, and the other was the eldest grandson's wife who helped the old lady arrange the banquet. As for Meng Wanxin, she had always lived in seclusion in the Pei Mansion and had no friends in the capital, so naturally no one knew her.
As the story was passed around, its meaning changed from an accidental fall into the water to a romantic joke in which the eldest grandson's wife of the Taifu Mansion and her younger brother-in-law accidentally fell into the water while boating in the lake.
Originally, Mrs. Pei picked a good future granddaughter-in-law at the banquet, and the two families had a very pleasant conversation at that time. However, after this incident, Mrs. Pei asked the matchmaker to come to her house to propose marriage, but the other party said that her daughter was still young and wanted to stay for another year, which was considered a polite refusal.
For now, the youngest grandson’s marriage has been put on hold, and even the eldest grandson and his wife have been affected.
After Mrs. Pei learned what had happened, she knew what was going on. She called Zhu to Chunxuan Hall and asked her to send the girl from the Meng family away as soon as possible.
"I thought he was an honest and well-behaved child, but he turned out to be a restless one. I kept him around, but ended up causing trouble..."
"Mother, Meng is innocent. She wouldn't risk her life." Zhu had considered that Meng had done this deliberately, but seeing her pitiful and guilty expression, she felt she was overthinking it. "Mother, since things have come to this, why not let Xiao Qi marry Meng? They're both innocent anyway. This way, we can dispel the rumors and create a marriage. Isn't it..."
Before he could finish his words, Madam Pei glared at him fiercely.
"She deliberately fell into the water in front of Xiao Qi. Wasn't that her plan?" The person involved was confused, but the old lady, as an outsider, knew it all. "Impossible! Xiao Qi is so elegant and has a bright future. He absolutely cannot marry a girl with bad intentions. Let's not talk about this again."
However, this matter not only concerns Meng Wanxin's innocence, but also Shen Youran's reputation.
Shen Youran's reputation is Pei Huaijin's face.
Zhu knew too well the importance of reputation. When Shen Youran was kidnapped by bandits, it was Shen Yunshu who shielded her from the outside rumors. As a result, Shen Yunshu lost her reputation and was not recognized by the royal family. She could have become the emperor's grandson's consort, but now she ended up in divorce.
For this reason, Zhu called Pei Huaian and analyzed the pros and cons with him earnestly, hoping that he would marry Meng Wanxin, firstly to give Meng Wanxin an explanation, and secondly to restore Shen Youran's reputation.
Pei Huaian went back and thought about it for two days, and decided to agree to his aunt's proposal and get engaged to Meng Wanxin.
However, even though he agreed, the old lady still refused to agree. Zhu had no choice but to ask her son to take action and let Pei Huaijin go to Chunxuan Hall to persuade the old lady.
Shen Youran heard about this and went to Gengyun Court to find Pei Huaian and asked him, "Do you want to marry Miss Meng because you want to be responsible for her?"
"Although it was unintentional at the time, I still touched her, so I should be responsible for her."
"So according to what you said, you also touched me, so you also want to marry your sister-in-law?"
Pei Huaian didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "That's different. You are my sister-in-law and you used to be my sister. It's reasonable for me to save you."
"Then she is your cousin, so it is reasonable for you to save her." Shen Youran didn't want to break up someone's marriage, but felt that two people shouldn't be forced together so hastily.
Just like when she exchanged marriages with her elder sister, if she had not had proper physical contact with Pei Huaijin, and if Pei Huaijin had not coaxed and frightened her, she would not have agreed to the marriage exchange without these two things.
Therefore, she felt that Pei Huaian and Meng Wanxin were not yet at the point where they had to get married.
"But people are spreading rumors about you and me," Pei Huaian finally revealed the real reason why he wanted to marry Meng Wanxin. "Since outsiders think that there were only two people who fell into the water, if I marry my cousin, they will know that it was actually my cousin who fell into the water, and this way I can save your reputation..."
"I can't go to each of those people one by one to explain, but the innocent will be cleared, so we just don't care."
"Don't you care, brother?"
"Don't worry, he's a very reasonable person and he definitely won't care..."
Just because she was kidnapped by bandits before and Pei Huaijin treated her as before after returning, Shen Youran knew that he would not attack her this time because of the rumors outside.
However, this time, Shen Youran only guessed half right.
Pei Huaijin didn't make things difficult for her because of the rumors, but when he heard Pei Huaian's intention to marry Meng Wanxin, he agreed with his approach: "If they get married, the rumors outside will be self-defeating. That's a good thing."
Hearing such words from his mouth, Shen Youran was very surprised: "Why do you think so? They don't like each other, and I don't care about my reputation. Why force them to be together?"
"You live deep in the inner courtyard, so you don't hear many rumors from outside. People in the mansion won't spread those words to you. But I go out every day, so I know how unpleasant those words are." Pei Huaijin said in a serious voice, lacking some of his usual warmth. "You and I are one family. Now that your reputation has been damaged, it's my reputation that has been tarnished. I'm an official outside. If my reputation is lost, how can I convince others?"
Shen Youran looked at him in disbelief: Although every word he said made sense, it was too selfish.
"You can't just think about yourself. Do you have to sacrifice their marriage for your own sake and my reputation?"
Pei Huaijin said indifferently: "Seventh brother and cousin, the man is talented and the woman is beautiful, they are quite a match."
"It's not a question of whether they are compatible or not, they just don't like each other."
"Relationships can be cultivated slowly after marriage. Isn't that what we did back then?"
“This is different.”
"What's the difference?"
"Everything is different! It's just different!" Shen Youran was angry and anxious, "You weren't like this before, you shouldn't be like this!"
"I've always been like this."
"No, you clearly don't care about your reputation and face. You also know that life is more important than innocence. When you rescued me from the bandits, you didn't care about these things at all..."
"That's because everyone thought it was your sister who was kidnapped, so it didn't harm your reputation. I also know you weren't bullied by the thieves, so naturally I won't hold it against you."
Shen Youran's face turned pale. "You mean, if my sister hadn't stopped the rumors for me, if my reputation had been ruined, would you, would you... not like me anymore?"
The room fell into a brief silence. Pei Huaijin's eyes fell on her trembling lips. After just one glance, he looked away, his tone still cold: "That matter has passed. Now let's talk about the matter between Seventh Brother and Cousin..."
"No way!" Shen Youran looked at him disappointedly and pushed him out of the bedroom. "Hypocrite! I don't want to sleep with you tonight!"
Then his pillow was thrown out.
Pei Huaijin picked it up and stood at the door for a long time before turning around and leaving.
As soon as I walked out of the main room, I met Qing Jian.
He handed the pillow to Qing Jian: "Help me clean up the study. I will sleep in the study tonight."
"My dear," Qingmian's expressionless face was also covered with a shadow. He had heard every word of their quarrel just now. "My dear, your words are really hurtful."
"I know." The moonlight was like water, illuminating his face with a chill. Pei Huaijin raised his head slightly and sighed, "But if I don't hurt her, she won't leave..."
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The author has something to say: Happy National Day! It’s time to finish the main article!
I will give you the final chapter of the main text tomorrow!
See you at nine o'clock in the morning!
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