Chapter 586: Fate (Part 2)

"Xu Lingyi coughed quickly, and Shiyi Niang also responded.

The two of them sat up leisurely.

Xu Lingyi asked his son: "Who was fighting?"

Jiang'er tilted his head, looked at his calm father, then looked at his calm mother: "Dad and um..." His eyes were full of confusion.

Xu Lingyi waved to his son.

Jiangeer ran over.

Xu Lingyi hugged his son and asked him with a smile: "When did Dad and Mom fight? Huh?"

"Just now!" The boy widened his eyes.

"Do you know what fighting is?" Xu Lingyi asked his son.

Jianger nodded: "Suifeng fought! He fought with Chang'an!" When did Suifeng fight with Chang'an? How could he fight with Chang'an?

Eleventh Lady was completely confused after hearing this.

Xu Lingyi asked his son, "How do they fight?", and Jiange made a "press" gesture and said, "Just fight like this!"

"So what happened to Daddy and Mom just now?"

Jiange'er thought for a long time and shook his head.

"Then why do you say Daddy and Mommy are fighting?"

Jiang'er looked at his mother in bewilderment, as if asking for help.

This guy even wants to fool his own son!

Eleventh Lady complained in her heart and hurriedly carried Jian'er over: "Jian'er, are you here to tell your mother a story?" She asked her son softly.

Upon hearing this, Jian Ge'er nodded repeatedly: "Mom, tell me a story!"

"Okay!" Eleventh Lady carried her son out of bed, "Let's go tell stories!"

Jiangeer smiled happily.

The maids and old women who were leaning against the couch fan to listen to the noise all dispersed. When Eleventh Lady came out, she was standing aside with her hands hanging down respectfully.

Eleventh Lady did not return to her inner room until midnight.

"Why are you here so late?" Xu Lingyi was leaning on the bed reading a book. "Did Jian Geer make a fuss?"

"No!" Eleventh Lady glared at Xu Lingyi, "You keep asking me what fighting is?"

Xu Lingyi said "Oh" calmly and nonchalantly: "Aren't I afraid that you will lose face?" Then he returned his gaze to the book in his hand, looking like he was reading seriously.

Eleventh Lady was furious about this.

Luckily, they were just joking with each other. If they really "fought", it would be so embarrassing!

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but mutter a few words under her breath, such as "Really?" and "I don't know who won't let go."

The other one pretended not to hear and told Shiyi Niang that Madam Liang mentioned the marriage: "Since she thinks her daughter is so good-looking and doesn't want to marry her off easily, and she deliberately took the opportunity of the Liang family's grandson to come to Yanjing, I'm afraid she has some ulterior motives. Either the father is too concerned" or the girl is too concerned. What I mean is, just don't even look at it!" Shiyi Niang thought so too. Otherwise, she wouldn't have teased Xu Lingyi instead of being teased!

"I understand!" she responded and let down the curtains.

Xu Lingyi nodded and asked her seriously, "By the way, how did you tell Jiangeer to "fight?"

Eleventh Lady didn't expect him to ask this and was a little surprised.

A smile slowly appeared on Xu Lingyi's lips: "How about we give it a try?"

Things developed just as Xu Lingyi had expected.

After the banquet, many families have expressed their desire to marry into the Xu family. In the past, they had the excuse that Xu Siyu had no academic achievements, but now that shield is gone, Eleventh Lady is in a dilemma.

She had never seen a real daughter of a rich family, and she didn't know any of them, but others knew everything about their family. Because she was a daughter of a rich family, it was very difficult to find out about her, which made her feel a little unsure.

Considering that Xu Siyu would set up his own family in the future, she wanted to find him a wife who could stand on his own.

At this time, Mrs. Fang brought her son to Yanjing.

According to etiquette, she first visited the third lady.

The lady nodded slightly when she heard this, and then she said to Mother Du, "It looks like our child is going to be controlled by someone."

Mother Du was sitting on a small stool cutting the lady's toenails and said with a smile, "As long as life is good, it doesn't matter who is holding the other in their hand."

The lady smiled and said, "That's right. They have moved to Sanjing Hutong now. I don't see it, but I don't worry about it. As long as someone who understands the family's affairs can take care of it in the end, that's enough!"

Mother Du smiled but did not answer, and then she took a rest after serving the lady.

Early the next morning, the third lady accompanied Mrs. Fang to pay respects to the lady-in-waiting.

Mrs. Fang was not tall, with regular features and a gentle look. She looked like an ordinary lady. This made Eleventh Lady mutter in her heart: If she had seen this in other occasions, she would never have imagined that Mrs. Fang looked like this. She looked like either her father or her grandmother. And Mrs. Fang's younger brother was only ten years old. Although he was polite and considerate in his actions, the curiosity in his eyes from time to time made him look childish and cute.

The lady seemed to like him very much. She pulled him aside and asked how old he was, whether he had been enlightened, what he usually did... She also asked someone to invite Xu Siyu and others to meet the guest.

Mrs. Fang saw Xu Siyu's admiring look and praised him several times. From the tone of her voice, Fang Ji said a lot of good things about Xu Siyu in front of the family. Xu Siyan, who was one year older than Master Fang, and Xu Siyi, who was two years younger than Master Fang, hit it off with Master Fang and soon played together. As for the young brothers, Qin and Shen, they were brought out to pay their respects to Mrs. Fang and then taken back to their own rooms.

The old lady politely invited Mrs. Fang to have lunch with her. Mrs. Fang did not refuse. But after lunch, she left on the pretext of not disturbing the old lady's nap.

Eleventh Lady escorted Fang's mother and son, the Third Lady and others to the Chuihua Gate.

Just when he was about to turn back, a servant ran in, panting.

Seeing Eleventh Lady, he bowed and said, "Fourth Lady, I'm going to Shaohua Courtyard to deliver a letter to Second Lady!" Eleventh Lady was stunned.

The second wife lives a secluded life and rarely goes out. No one knows who sent the invitation to her.

She observed carefully and found that the person who came to visit the second wife was actually Mrs. Gao.

"What's wrong with you?" Mrs. Gao smiled when she saw the second wife. "When Roujin got married a few days ago, everything was fine. How come your sister-in-law is crying secretly at home after she came to visit?"

The second wife frowned slightly as she listened.

What she hated most was Mrs. Xiang gossiping about the Xiang family in front of her family members.

But before she could open her mouth to refute, Mrs. Gao sighed and said, "What can I say about you? One of you has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. You never refuse to take care of things that you should take care of, and you also take care of things that you shouldn't take care of, but you just won't admit it. The other one has been spoiled since childhood, and you speak without restraint, without even a beat. Logically, as an outsider, I shouldn't get involved in your affairs. In the past, I just watched from the side and talked about your sister-in-law behind her back. But this time, I really can't stand it!"

Strike first!

These four words flashed through the Second Lady's mind, but she remained calm and picked up the teacup to drink the tea.

Mrs. Gao felt that the lady from the Xiang family was not easy to talk to. She didn't care, her expression darkened, and she continued: "I won't talk about anything else, just the marriage between the second young master of the Xu family and our Rouna! If it weren't for you making a fuss, how could it have come to this? The second young master of the Xu family is easy to talk to, after all, he is a man, and he can take his time to choose. But it delayed our Rouna!"

The second lady raised her eyebrows slightly.

At first, it was the sister-in-law who felt slighted and blamed her for taking the initiative to manage the family affairs. She just refused without thinking twice. Now that Roune's marriage is not going well, it is her fault!

As she spoke, her mind raced.

She usually didn't have much contact with Mrs. Gao. With a relationship like theirs, they would always visit each other for no reason. She started by mentioning the difficulty of Xu Siyu and Roune's marriage...

Thinking of this, her face changed slightly.

The Xu family is not a family of vegetable gardeners. If they want to get married, they can get married. If they don’t want to get married, they will make a big fuss.

Not to mention that Xu Siyu has passed the imperial examination and Qin is no longer around, so his future will be easier and easier. Even if Xu Siyu was still a commoner today and Qin was still alive, she would never do these things that humiliate the Xu family!

"Mrs. Gao didn't ask much about my sister-in-law's affairs before, after all, she didn't understand the situation." The second wife said sharply, "At the beginning, my sister-in-law felt humiliated by my proposal of this marriage, and she disagreed no matter what. Because of this matter, not only did our lady feel bad, but even my fourth brother's wife still blames me for my inappropriate behavior. Why did I hear Mrs. Gao's tone of voice actually seem to be a bit blaming? If my sister-in-law knew about it, I'm afraid even Mrs. Gao would blame her, thinking that Mrs. Gao didn't take her seriously and actually wanted her daughter to marry into such a family..."

Mrs. Gao listened to the conversation and thought that she was here to mediate, not to quarrel, so she immediately smiled and said, "What you said makes sense. However, you may have been a widow for too long and did everything alone, so you forgot to discuss it with your sister-in-law..." She then explained why Mrs. Xiang disagreed. "Otherwise, with the friendship between the two families, the marriage would have been concluded long ago. Why wait until today?" She smiled again, "Speaking of which, these two children are really destined to be together! Otherwise, how could one be so eager to get married while the other passed the imperial examination!"

Her guess was confirmed. The Second Lady smiled coldly. She was too lazy to talk much to Mrs. Gao and just sat there listening absent-mindedly.

Mrs. Gao did not give up, and continued to sigh and complain, "You know your sister-in-law's temper best. During the years when Lord Xiang was in office, she ran around to take care of Lord Xiang and suffered a lot. She raised the children with great difficulty, but first there was the matter of Yijia, and then there was the matter of Roune, which made her so confused that she even lacked the confidence to speak in front of others. You don't know that at the family banquet a few days ago, she was ridiculed by my cousin's wife. Normally, your sister-in-law would not be able to bear such anger. But this time..." But she said nothing, took Roune and Yijia home, and burst into tears when she got home.

"Roune was there at the time. Afterwards, she kept comforting your sister-in-law.

"It is said that Roune is a calm and steady person. But no matter how steady she is, she is only a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old. I don't believe that she is not a little sad in her heart! Otherwise, why did she refuse to go out when the Second Young Master invited her to a banquet that day? Was she afraid of being laughed at by others?"

The second wife was not on good terms with her sister-in-law, but she truly felt sorry for her nephews and nieces.

Hearing this, he fell silent.