Chapter 195
Pei Lingjun spoke in a low voice, each word spoken with utmost seriousness.
"And you, would you be willing to give me a proper status?"
Wen Shu's previously groggy mind cleared considerably. Looking into the young man's dark eyes, she suddenly felt a little guilty. "Um... I..."
"Still not willing?" Pei Lingjun moved an inch closer, their breaths almost touching. Wen Shu instinctively tried to back away, but the man wrapped his long arm around her and held her tightly in his embrace.
"It doesn't matter..." His words were tinged with melancholy, his chin resting on her shoulder as if in resignation, "Being a secret lover is alright..."
"You—" Wen Shu was speechless. What nonsense was Pei Lingjun spouting?!
He, the heir of the Marquis of Ningyuan and a member of the Xiaolong Guard, became her mistress.
Wen Shu hugged her knees and trembled.
——
Within the capital city.
Inside the magnificent palace, with its carved beams and painted rafters, and the rising smoke of incense, it was clearly a solemn and dignified scene. However, the atmosphere inside the hall was far from peaceful.
"Grandmother, you must do me justice..."
The woman's silent sobbing was amplified in the otherwise quiet hall. She knelt in the hall, her thin shoulders trembling violently.
After a long silence, the person on the main seat said wearily, "You were just released from confinement by His Majesty, and then you came to the palace late at night to cry and complain to me. It seems you still haven't given up."
Her granddaughter practically grew up under her care. She's grown into a beautiful and lovely young woman with an air of nobility. Although she's not very old, she's one of the most distinguished women in the entire capital.
Born with wealth that most people can only dream of, when have they never been satisfied?
How many scholars in green robes have passed the imperial examinations in Dasheng? How many wealthy young men are there in Jijing? Why must it be him alone?
“Grandmother…” Jiang Xianyi choked up, “Xianyi can’t let him go.”
"Even though I have hurt you so badly, you still won't give up?" The Empress Dowager's slightly hoarse voice rang out, filled with deep sorrow.
As a woman, to love someone in such a humble way is destined to have one's sincerity trampled upon.
Jiang Xianyi sobbed as she looked up at the person on the main seat. The Empress Dowager sat blankly on the brocade throne, like a withered, lifeless sculpture, a decaying and opulent figure covered in dust.
Upon seeing the Empress Dowager's graying temples, Jiang Xianyi finally couldn't help but burst into tears.
Since Grand Tutor Cai's death, my maternal grandmother lost her right-hand man, and after several blows, her health deteriorated.
Moreover, my mother once said that it was highly likely that Pei Lingjun was responsible for the death of Grand Tutor Cai.
It has been over a month since the court opened, but he still hasn't returned. He doesn't show her any sincerity either. Sometimes she really wants to question him and ask why he treats her like this.
After Jiang Xianyi had finished crying, the Empress Dowager said, "I heard that he has not yet returned from Shanzhou?"
Jiang Xianyi paused, then looked up. "How did Grandmother know?"
The man's whereabouts were kept very secret, and the Imperial Guards obeyed only His Majesty, so other officials dared not inquire too much about the Imperial Guards' whereabouts, and very few people knew where he was.
The Empress Dowager recalled the secret report sent by her subordinates the day before, ignored Jiang Xianyi's words, and said to herself, "He got very angry over a woman in Shanzhou and even injured someone. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have been able to find him so easily."
"Because of a woman?"
For some reason, Jiang Xianyi suddenly recalled a face from a portrait. Although the woman was the illegitimate daughter of a prefect in Anyang, she was exquisitely beautiful, with a naturally elegant demeanor...
She couldn't help but shudder. It was because of this woman that she had been repeatedly threatened and interrogated by Pei Lingjun. If she hadn't relied on the fact that Pei Lingjun had no concrete evidence and insisted that she knew nothing, allowing him to deal with the several nannies and maids around her, he probably wouldn't have let it go so easily.
Although he had angered Pei Lingjun and was reported to the Emperor, who found a pretext to confine him to his quarters, it was undeniable that the woman was dead!
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