Looking at the pair of little children, one dazed, the other anxious, Lady Dingbei Marquis was a little confused. Why was the Lord of Qinghe County also here?
"Why do you want to drink it? Are you stupid? Can you just drink this stuff randomly?" Qinghe sobbed. The gentle little girl became anxious and hit his arm with her fist.
Her soft strength felt itchy to Xu Guangji, who had practiced martial arts for many years, and he was worried that her hands would hurt.
Looking at her red eyes, Xu Guangji smiled, "If you drink it, I can marry you."
Qinghe stopped crying and raised her little face to look at him.
Xu Guangji said, "When I said I wanted to marry you, I wasn't joking."
He didn't believe in love at first sight before, until that sunny day when he took one more look at her. Then he realized that when love really comes, it is unreasonable, surging and overwhelming, making people fall into it uncontrollably.
Seeing that he could still smile despite being like this, Qing He felt even more guilty and cried, "I don't want to marry you!"
Xu Guangji's smile froze.
Qing He turned around and begged Princess Jing Yang, "Mother, I won't marry him. Do you have the antidote? Give it to him."
The eldest princess said, "There is no antidote for this heir-killing soup."
Qinghe's face turned pale and she stood there at a loss, her thin shoulders trembling with strong emotions.
"Qinghe, don't you want to marry him? If not, then his medicine will be wasted." The princess sighed softly, "Well, if you really don't like him, then I will personally apologize to the Dingbei Marquis' Mansion..."
When Qing He heard this, he shouted hastily, "I'll marry you."
He has done so much for her, how could she let him down?
Hearing this, the eldest princess' beautiful eyes revealed a hint of helplessness. She could only force her shy little daughter in this way to get her to speak out her true feelings.
When Xu Guangji heard that Qinghe was willing to marry him again, his heart, which had just fallen off the cliff, suddenly flew up again.
His tall figure stood in front of Qing He and he looked at her deeply, with the passion of a mature man and the youthful joy of a young man, "Qing He, are you really willing?"
Qing He's thick eyelashes were still shrouded in tears. She nodded, her soft voice a little hoarse, "I am willing. But I'm sorry for you, I..."
Xu Guangji shook his head, "It's enough for me to marry you."
He looked at her warmly, grinning.
Qinghe's face turned red, her heart skipped a beat, and she lowered her head in embarrassment.
Seeing her little children like this, Princess Jingyang winked at the wife of Marquis Dingbei, indicating that she should go out with them and leave the space for them.
The wife of Marquis Dingbei was in a very complicated mood at the moment. One moment she was happy that her son had brought home a beautiful woman, and the next moment she felt distressed when she thought of the bowl of medicine her son had drunk, and she wanted to go out and calm down.
The two mothers walked out of the hall together.
Glancing at the precious chrysanthemums planted in the garden, Princess Jingyang turned to look at the wife of Marquis Dingbei and said gently, "Don't be too sad, dear. What your son Qilang drank was not some kind of heir-destroying soup. It was just a bowl of soup to dispel cold and strengthen the spleen."
Madam Dingbei was stunned. "......?"
Princess Jingyang sighed, "Qinghe has him in her heart. If I harm her, Qinghe will feel bad. Alas, how can I bear to see her feel bad? She is the flesh that fell from my body, the pearl on the tip of my heart. I only hope to find a man who is devoted to her and can be trusted. As long as she lives a good life, I don't want anything else...
Madam Hou, you are a woman, and you have given birth to a daughter, so you must understand how important marriage is to a woman. Especially Qinghe's body, alas, I really don't want her to suffer any grievances and pain. I have no choice but to resort to this measure, after all, it is difficult to tell my true feelings, I hope you can understand. "
Mrs. Dingbei Marquis also realized at this time that everything that had just happened was just a test.
After thinking about it carefully, she could understand the eldest princess's worries, so she said a lot of words to express her attitude, and solemnly promised that if the county lord married into her family, she would never let him suffer any grievances.
Princess Jingyang listened to everything, nodded and smiled, "If that's the case, I can rest assured."
…
Three days later, Emperor Zhaokang personally issued an edict to officially confer the title of Princess Qingping of the second rank on the head of Qinghe County, with a fief of 1,500 households.
Everyone thought that the Princess of Qinghe County was the only daughter of Princess Jingyang, and it was understandable that Emperor Zhaokang, as an uncle who loved his niece, conferred the title of a county princess on her.
Unexpectedly, the next day, an imperial decree granting marriage was sent from the Zichen Palace to the Dingbei Marquis Mansion.
Everyone thought that the eldest daughter of the Xu family was going to get married to Young Master Xie, but they never expected that it was actually the marriage between Princess Qingping and the seventh son of the Xu family.
As soon as the decree came out, there was an uproar among the aristocratic families in Chang'an.
How did it suddenly become the princess and Xu Qilang?
What about the eldest daughter of the Xu family and young master Xie?
While others were talking about this, the Dingbei Marquis's Mansion had already happily begun preparing for the wedding. The wedding date was chosen by Qin Tianjian and was scheduled for the third day of August next year.
The extra year would also allow Duke Xie's Mansion in Longxi to make proper preparations.
When Tao Ti first heard about Qinghe and Xu Guangji's marriage, she was surprised and happy. She congratulated Qinghe and made Qinghe's face blush with embarrassment.
At this time, Queen Zhou of Ganlu Palace fell ill due to "an occasional cold" and was bedridden for several days.
As for Pei Lingbi, who was in solitary confinement, he was so angry when he heard the news that he smashed a lot of porcelain.
When Emperor Zhaokang heard about this, he ordered the palace maids to take out all the porcelain in Pei Lingbi Palace, and also ordered someone to make her a set of iron tableware for her to smash.
The Dingbei Marquis Mansion was joyfully preparing for the wedding, but the Yongwei Marquis Mansion, just across the street, was filled with gloom and sorrow.
It is now the end of August, and the one-month consideration period that Zhang gave to Yongwei Hou has also arrived.
In the study, Zhang took out the divorce agreement that she had prepared long ago, and calmly pushed it in front of Yongwei Hou, saying without any sadness or joy, "Sign it, and part ways amicably."
Yong Weihou clenched his fists tightly, frowned, and looked straight at Zhang, "Do you really have to make trouble?"
Zhang said, "I'm not making trouble."
Yong Weihou grabbed the divorce letter and said, "You are not making a fuss. You are already old and your daughter is married. You still want a divorce? Aren't you afraid of being laughed at if you tell others about it?"
Zhang wanted to have a calm conversation, but the man in front of her kept provoking her anger.
She had endured for too long, pretending to be the dignified and serious mistress of the Marquis's Mansion for so many years, and she was really fed up.
She sneered, "A joke? The divorce was a joke, so am I not a joke now? Over the years, you have taken in so many concubines and given birth to so many illegitimate sons and daughters. Do you think I am not a joke in the eyes of others? Tao Bosong, that's enough. I can't live like this for even one more day."
Yong Weihou frowned, "What's wrong with taking concubines? What man doesn't have a few concubines? Besides, you never cared about it before. I always thought you didn't care..."
Zhang simply laughed as she listened, "I don't care? Just ask yourself, what woman in the world is willing to share her husband with others? Don't you know? You're just pretending not to know."
Marquis Yongwei looked as if he had been exposed, his face turned ashen.
After a moment of silence, he tore the divorce letter into pieces and threw it into the paper basket. "I will not divorce you. Never."
Zhang had expected this to happen. With a cold face, she took out another letter of divorce in duplicate from her sleeve and said firmly, "Unless you kill me today, I will divorce you."
Yong Wei said angrily, "What do you want? Do you think divorce is a glorious thing? Where will you go after the divorce? Back to your mother's home? Your parents have passed away long ago. Will your brother and sister-in-law allow a divorced woman like you to return home? Besides, what will happen to A-ti after you divorce? How sad she will be as a daughter of a divorced mother."
"You still have the nerve to mention Artie to me? What, you want to be a good father now, why didn't you think about Artie when you were dealing with the Third Prince in private? The Third Prince is ambitious and has coveted the position of Crown Prince for a long time, don't you know this?"
"I, I..." Marquis Yongwei hesitated for a moment, "I'm not planning for the future of the Marquis' Mansion. There are more than 300 people in the mansion, and I have to consider them."
"Heh." Zhang felt that the man in front of her was so hypocritical that it was disgusting. She was really blind to have wasted half her life on this man!
She also didn't want to waste any more time arguing with Yong Weihou. They had already argued many times before and there was no point in arguing again.
She tapped the table lightly, her dark eyes calm, "If you don't sign, I will go to the palace to ask for an audience with His Majesty. His Majesty will definitely meet me because of our friendship in the past. When the time comes, don't blame me for being crazy and talking nonsense in front of His Majesty."
Yong Weihou glared angrily, "You!!"
Zhang was confident and gave a cold smile, "If the dirty things you did behind people's back are exposed, it will be embarrassing for everyone."
Yongwei was very angry, and his chest was heaving violently.
Zhang waited quietly.
After a while, Yong Weihou calmed down a little. Looking at his wife sitting upright, he couldn't help but sigh, "Su Su, I once loved you sincerely."
If Zhang had heard this before she gave up, she would probably be somewhat moved.
But now her heart has already become dead and broken, and can no longer stir up the slightest ripple.
Seeing that she was silent, Yong Weihou shook his head and sighed, "I don't know how you became like this."
Zhang resisted the urge to spit at him, clenched her fist, and said through gritted teeth, "Stop talking nonsense, just sign it now."
Seeing that she didn't even look at him, Yongwei Hou knew that things had come to this point and it was too late to reverse the situation.
After hesitating for a long time, he finally picked up the wolf-hair brush and signed the divorce agreement.
Zhang took her own divorce letter and felt her heart beating fast. Complex emotions were surging in her chest. Her hands were shaking slightly and her eyes were swollen and sore.
Among the myriad emotions, the most common one is the feeling of being relieved of a heavy burden.
Finally.
Finally, she was no longer the wife of Marquis Yongwei.
She carefully put away the letter and left the study room without hesitation, with her back straight.
…
People often say that times of trouble are here.
For Chang'an City in this golden month of August, there are indeed a lot of things to do.
First, at the beginning of the month, the Rongdi delegation came to the capital, and then there was the marriage between Princess Jingyang and Marquis Dingbei. And at the end of the month, Marquis Yongwei and his wife actually got divorced?
When the ladies from the noble families first heard about this, they were all shocked and suspected that it was fake news.
until--
Zhang moved out of the Yongweihou Mansion quickly and moved into her own mansion in Yiningfang.
Marquis Yongwei was also impeached by Yu Shi in the court, saying that he favored his concubine and killed his wife, causing unrest in his harem. Emperor Zhaokang therefore fined Marquis Yongwei three months' salary and ordered him not to attend court for seven days so that he could sort out the mess in his harem.
All the ladies from the noble families were shocked: Zhang is so bold!!!
Just when everyone wanted to see how lonely this rebellious wife of the marquis would live after her divorce, Zhang's life became more and more carefree.
Zhang has not been the marquis's wife all these years for nothing. She has money, connections, and a daughter who is the Crown Princess. She has power, money, and status. Why would she be lonely?
After a period of luxurious days of eating, drinking and having fun, she received an invitation from Lu from Luoyang, inviting her to Luoyang to attend her youngest son's wedding and to stay in Luoyang for a while.
Zhang was now very free, so she immediately accepted the invitation, went to the East Palace to say goodbye to Tao Ti, and then went to Luoyang to relax.
Seeing that Zhang was living such a good life, some were happy, some were dissatisfied, and some were encouraged and wanted to divorce their dead husbands and live a carefree life on their own.
Before we knew it, it was already September.
The heat about Mrs. Hou’s divorce gradually faded, and was replaced by another thing - the Gu family, who had been exiled to the northwest for many years, returned.