Chapter 187: Betrayed by a marriage, only three months to live!
Pei Nanjia was somewhat surprised as to how Li Qingluo knew about Qingyangzi.
Li Qinglu shook his head: "My grandmother lived in Qingsong Temple for thirty years. Have you forgotten about that?"
Pei Nanjia was momentarily dazed, then forced a pale smile: "I know many people want to help him, but I just can't stand it..."
Li Qingluo grasped Pei Nanjia's hand: "What exactly happened? Nanjia, although Grandmother thinks Qingyangzi is innocent, Grandmother and I both want to help you."
"Was Qingyangzi really framed by you?"
"But why did you do this? If Qingyangzi is found innocent and released, you will be implicated in this case for false accusation!"
Before Pei Nanjia could answer, someone behind her spoke first, replying to Li Qingluo in an unfriendly tone.
"Our Jia'er was poisoned to this extent because of him, do we still owe Qingyangzi something?"
Pei Nanjia: "Mother!"
Li Qingluo and Princess Nanping quickly turned around and saw a woman dressed in simple clothes walking in with a worried look on her face. Her appearance was extremely similar to Pei Nanjia's, and judging from her age, she should be Pei Nanjia's birth mother, the concubine from the second wife's second courtyard.
The second master of the second wife is Pei Nanjia's father.
His father never married a legal wife in his life, and the only woman in the entire backyard was his concubine, Pei Nanjia.
Most people in Jinling praised him for his loyalty and righteousness, but many others cursed him for being shameless and disregarding etiquette and moral norms, even treating a concubine as the mistress of his household.
Moreover, the couple had no other children besides Pei Nanjia.
She has only this one beloved child.
Li Qingluo suddenly remembered that besides Pei Nanjia, there was another exception in the Pei family.
That was the second master of the second branch of the family. Like Nan Jia, he was also out of place compared to the men of the Pei family.
Because, I've heard, he's currently quite a favorite of the Emperor.
She was even more popular than Duke Pei...
The men of the Pei family, just like the women, clearly wished to live a low-key life and hide their talents.
And then there's Pei Sanlang, who clearly looks like an extraordinary young man, yet he spends his days idly fooling around.
Moreover, he seems to have inextricable connections with the former crown prince and even the Lotus Sect.
This Duke Pei's mansion is truly a place of intrigue and strangeness.
Li Qingluo stood up to greet Pei Nanjia's aunt, and Nanping, still somewhat bewildered, followed suit.
The woman, who knew proper etiquette, quickly stepped aside and said hastily, "Ladies, please! I am but a concubine, and I dare not accept your greetings. It was my fault for being rude. I apologize to you both."
Li Qingluo still bowed slightly: "You are Nan Jia's mother, so naturally you are also an elder."
Nan Jia smiled at her aunt: "Mother, why are you here? Luo'er and the princess are my true friends, Mother, don't worry."
This concubine's surname was Guan, and everyone in the Pei State Duke's mansion called her Concubine Guan.
When Aunt Guan heard her daughter say this, she wiped her eyes and came over with a smile, saying, "Mother is very happy. I've heard you mention it before, Jia'er. Now Jia'er finally has true confidantes. As soon as I saw them, I knew they were indeed excellent girls."
"So, do you want them to know about your affairs?"
Pei Nanjia nodded, her face pale.
Aunt Guan tightened the fur covering her body even more.
Then he slowly revealed the truth: "Back then, when Qingyangzi was the second son of the Chen family, who was the Minister of Revenue, Jia'er's father and that Minister Chen had been classmates since childhood, so the two of them privately arranged a marriage between Jia'er and that Chen Erlang."
“But a few years ago, Qingyangzi suddenly became a monk without any regard for Jia’er’s reputation or the difficulties he would face.”
"Although his family later suffered a great calamity, and we understood his reasons for suddenly becoming a monk back then, he has never personally explained it to Jia'er."
“Jia’er is stubborn. He wants him to say it himself that there is no possibility between the two of them, or he can write a letter of annulment. But every time he goes back to Qingsong Temple, Qingyangzi avoids him like the plague. He sees Jia’er as if he has seen a poisonous snake or a ferocious beast and will not see her at all.”
"Jia'er has already been delayed for several years, how many more years can she be delayed?"
"Although we only have one illegitimate daughter in our second household, she is our only precious darling. How could her father and I not be anxious?"
“Last month, the master personally visited Qingsong Temple again.”
"But ladies, guess what our master saw with his own eyes?"
"They are at Qingsong Temple, preparing for a wedding. And the person about to be married is none other than Qingyangzi!"
Princess Nanping slammed her hand on the table and stood up: "How can a Taoist priest get married? What kind of strange thing is this? Isn't he afraid that the gods in heaven will strike him down?"
Li Qingluo pulled Princess Nanping aside and explained, "I also heard my grandmother say that Taoism in this world is divided into two schools: the Quanzhen School and the Zhengyi School."
"The Quanzhen School has strict precepts. Taoist priests must leave home to live in temples and cultivate themselves. They must not marry, eat meat, or drink alcohol. They believe that 'abstaining from alcohol, sex, wealth, anger, attachment, love, worry, and anxiety' are all obstacles on the path of cultivation. They must be cut off in order to achieve enlightenment."
"The rules of the Zhengyi sect are not so strict. They believe that 'if yin and yang do not interact, then there will be no more worldly existence.' Therefore, Taoist priests of the Zhengyi sect can marry and have children, and they can also eat meat without abstaining from meat."
"Grandmother said that Qingsong Temple is a Zhengyi sect. The previous abbot took his wife down the mountain to travel around the world a few years ago, so the position of abbot of Qingsong Temple was left to his personal disciple Qingyangzi."
"But if Qingyangzi is going to get married, hasn't he written a letter of annulment to Nanjia yet?"
Nan Jia smiled bitterly and nodded slowly: "You're right, Luo'er. When my father saw this, he was naturally furious, so he beat Qingyangzi up."
Li Qingluo gasped!
The Taoist priests at Qingsong Temple are not to be trifled with. If Qingyangzi is really beaten, will those Taoist priests just stand by and watch without intervening to stop him?
Unless Qingyangzi himself forbids them from interfering!
Li Qingluo looked at Nan Jia: "And then? How did you get poisoned?"
Nan Jia: "My father loves me. On the way back, he bought me chestnut cake from a pastry shop. But after I ate it, I vomited and had diarrhea and vomited blood. That night, I lost consciousness."
"My father hurriedly begged the palace gates overnight, knelt before His Majesty to plead for the imperial physician to return, and even sought out renowned doctors of all ranks in Jinling City to save my life, but I was diagnosed with poisoning."
"But how could I have been poisoned?"
“Father will naturally investigate further, and eventually it will lead to the chestnut cake shop. The shop itself is fine, but after investigating further, it will lead to Qingyangzi’s fiancée.”
"Rumor has it that she is a woman of the martial arts world, but also a poison doctor. On the day my father fought Qingyangzi, she happened to be at the pastry shop and went in shortly after my father."
"Luo'er, Princess, is there such a coincidence in the world? My father had the evidence and almost killed his way to Qingsong Temple. When my father told the truth, Qingyangzi was somewhat surprised, but he only said lightly: Her sect encountered an emergency, so she left Jinling two days ago."
"Qingyangzi was also packing his bags to go to the woman's sect and bring her back."
"Luo'er, what does their business have to do with me?! If he had written the letter of annulment earlier, why would my father have acted so impulsively and caused him trouble?"
"And that chestnut cake, was she originally going to poison my father, or did she intend to kill me?"
"If my father eats this chestnut cake, and I have no way to enter the palace to beg for the emperor's favor to summon the imperial physician, nor can I summon so many famous doctors, could my father lose his life because of this?"
"If my father dies, how many more days can my mother and I struggle in this Pei mansion?"
"Luo'er, it was because I harbored resentment and hatred that I falsely accused Qingyangzi in the Jinling government office in a fit of anger."
The woman who poisoned the food had no chance of escaping.
The authorities have already gone to her sect to arrest people, and it's absolutely impossible for Qingyangzi to leave.
Therefore, Pei Nanjia used this despicable method to imprison Qingyangzi. If the woman truly loved Qingyangzi, she would surely come back to save him.
Furthermore, she now hates Qingyangzi intensely.
As Pei Nanjia spoke, tears streamed down her face.
How could she not hate?
It was just a letter announcing the annulment of the engagement, yet Qingyangzi refused to give it to her for so long.
So, was he heartless, or did he have feelings for her?
Over the years, she has thought about everything.
She even had a sliver of hope for Qingyangzi and harbored some delusions in her heart.
He didn't even dare to see her, yet he couldn't let go of her in his heart.
It wasn't until this brush with death that Pei Nanjia understood.
Regardless of what Qingyangzi truly thought, the fact that he became a Taoist priest without uttering a word back then meant that their fate together was over.
As for his decision to marry another woman without giving her a letter of annulment, it is simply an insult to her.
Pei Nanjia: "Luo'er, I am willing to bear whatever the consequences may be. But I will not allow the person who poisoned me to go unpunished."
"Since I don't have much longer to live anyway, what's wrong with risking my life to fight them?"
What did Pei Nanjia mean by this?
Seeing that Madam Guan was wiping away tears, Li Qingluo didn't ask any further questions.
Princess Nanping, being sensible, did not press the matter, but her face still showed unconcealed sadness.
After saying those words, Nan Jia was already exhausted.
So the maid took her back to rest, and only then did Madam Guan say to Li Qingluo and Princess Nanping, "Jia'er's poison has already entered her heart and spleen. Even the imperial physicians have no way to cure her... They say that Jia'er has at most three months to live... She can live."
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