Chapter 7 Rumors Backfire
Chapter 7
Back at Xiaofeng Courtyard, Lu Songli was curious about the rumors outside and how they had driven Zhao Yutan to commit suicide. Then he asked Mo Bing to send someone out to investigate.
In Chang'an City, just as Lu Songli had expected, everyone was discussing what happened last night.
"Have you heard? Two noble ladies fell into the lake during the flower viewing banquet at Prince Gong's Mansion."
"Who are they?"
"The eldest daughter of Lord Zhao, the Minister of the Imperial Household, and the youngest daughter of Doctor Lu, the Imperial Censor."
"Is that person okay?"
"He's fine, he was rescued."
"That's good, that's good."
"But you would never imagine that the one who saved them was each other's fiancé."
"ah?"
"I know about this, too. I heard that in the water, the two ladies hugged the man who came to rescue them tightly, and their bodies were wrapped around him tightly." The man's tone became more ambiguous as he spoke.
"Ah? What should I do then?"
"You can't blame them for this, right? After all, they can't swim. When their lives are at stake, they subconsciously don't care about so many things."
"Yeah, I don't think they can be blamed. Their fiancés didn't recognize the person when they jumped into the water to save her. They were the ones who saved the wrong person."
"That being said, if you were their fiancé, every time you saw the other person, you'd think of your fiancée being hugged and nuzzled by him. Wouldn't you feel uncomfortable? Take you, Li Si, for example. Before you got married, your wife was hugged and nuzzled by Zhang San. After you got married, you often see Zhang San hanging around you. What would you think?"
"But we can't cancel the engagement just because of this, right? It's not that serious."
Someone smacked his lips and said obscenely, "Hey, why didn't I encounter such a good thing? If I were there, I would definitely jump into the water to save people."
The people around him glanced at him with contempt, as if to say, you are dreaming.
Someone lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "I'm afraid the bride and groom will have to be swapped for these two marriages."
"That's one way."
"If this decision is really made, the young lady of the Lu family will be in big trouble. She'll fall into the water and lose her good fiancé."
"I've heard that there's something fishy going on here. It seems Miss Zhao must have done something wrong, and the two of them fell into the water and were rescued by mistake. And when she was rescued, she even pretended to be unconscious."
"Ah, is this the truth? What does Miss Zhao want?"
"What are you after? You're after someone's fiancé."
The events of that night spread quickly among the common people of Chang'an, with all sorts of speculations circulating. Such risqué gossip was always a favorite topic, especially since the protagonists were all noblemen and ladies of Chang'an. With someone secretly fanning the flames, the story grew increasingly outrageous and unbearable. There were stories of two noblewomen revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin in the water, and of the gentlemen reacting with unsteady breaths when the ladies clung to them. There were stories of them hugging, using the lake's cover to conceal them.
Upon hearing the news, Lu Songli knew that someone was indeed behind the rumors in Chang'an. There was no doubt that the person behind it was the Zhao family. She also felt that Lord Lu must have been involved. She could tell by the dirty water in the rumors, which were mostly thrown at Zhao Yutan. Lord Lu was indeed a censor, a master of public opinion, and he was very sensitive to this aspect. Tsk tsk, Zhao Yutan was truly miserable, injuring 800 enemies while suffering 1,200 of his own losses. She was afraid that she would faint in the toilet crying.
Lu Songli's guess was correct. Zhao Yutan was now weeping breathlessly, a scar on her neck covered with a handkerchief. The boudoir was in a mess, the maids had been sent outside, leaving only Zhao Yutan and her mother, Luo Shi, inside.
Luo: "Don't cry, you'll hurt your body if you cry."
Zhao Yutan still buried her head in the quilt, "Mom, how could this happen?" She was so angry. She just wanted to use the incident of saving the wrong person from the drowning to gain publicity to marry Zhan Lang quickly. She didn't expect the rumors to make her look so unbearable.
"Alas, I miscalculated. Your father said that he discovered that another group of people were taking advantage of the situation to cause trouble, which is why the rumors were all directed at you..." Mrs. Luo was shocked and angry, and extremely worried when her daughter was slandered to this extent.
Zhao Yutan raised his head, tears streaming down his eyelashes and his eyes were red and swollen. "Is it the Lu family?"
"Well, the Lu family reacted too quickly. I'm afraid they were prepared." Mentioning this, Luo wanted to sigh. Lu Desheng was indeed a veteran in this field, and his response was very sophisticated. In fact, it wasn't just the Lu family. Their old rivals, the Zhao family, had also taken action.
Zhao Yutan was extremely sad. From the moment she decided to drag Lu Songli into the water, she thought things would go smoothly, everything would be resolved quickly, and she would be able to marry Xie Zhan smoothly.
She was still very confident about this plan.
First, she had two prophetic dreams. In the first dream, after she married into the Qin family, the Qin family would soon be convicted and exiled. In the second prophetic dream, she really married Xie Lang, but in the dream, they were quite old.
In her dream, she didn't know why the Qin family and she were able to return to Chang'an. But she felt that it was probably because of the emperor's grace that the Qin family was pardoned.
These two prophetic dreams were the reason she decided to take action. Knowing the road ahead would be difficult, she didn't want to endure unnecessary hardship. Furthermore, through the second prophetic dream, she was certain that she was the one and only for Xie Zhan and Xie Lang.
She was so confident in her plan because she had learned from a dream that Lü Songli had a cold constitution, which was not conducive to having children. Lü Songli had always been in poor health, and the Lü family had only claimed that she had a mild heart condition, concealing the fact that she was extremely cold. In fact, her constitution made it difficult for her to conceive, a fact that the Xie family was well aware of.
She didn't think the Xie family would be satisfied with such a daughter-in-law. All they needed was a legitimate reason to cancel the engagement. It wasn't enough to just tarnish Lu Songli's reputation; they also needed to be able to dissolve the engagement without any stain on it. If there was such an opportunity, she believed the Xie family would agree.
In her dream, Zhan Lang was thirty years old, yet he still had no children. Could you imagine that? The powerful head of the Xie family, without even a single child. She felt sorry for this man.
What she did was to create such an opportunity for the Xie family.
Through the incident that night when they both fell into the water but were rescued by each other's fiancés, they manipulated public opinion to tarnish her and Lu Songli's reputation. She used some self-torture to make the Xie family take responsibility, and everything would come to fruition as she wished.
The temporary tarnish of her reputation is easy to solve, and she has Lu Songli with her, so she is not afraid.
But she never expected the Lu family to be prepared, and instead of throwing the mud at both of them, they threw most of it at her. Now her reputation is much worse than Lu Songli's. How will the Xie family view her?
Also, why didn't Lu Songli faint last night? If she had, without the things she did and said later, the public wouldn't have been able to paint her in such a harsh light. Furthermore, she immediately cast suspicion on her last night. It seems she didn't even consider her a sister, a bestie, or a close friend! She had been deceived!
"Dear, don't cry. We'll all help you. Believe that all these difficulties are only temporary, and the outcome will surely be wonderful." Mrs. Luo patted her daughter's head and comforted her. Her husband had recently consulted Master Nan Yin, who said that her daughter was blessed by heaven and destined for great fortune. With this prediction, she was confident that her daughter would be able to turn misfortune into good fortune and turn adversity into blessing.
Zhao Yutan sniffed and forced a smile. She knew that her family would definitely help her with all their strength.
She had already told her father about her adventure a few days ago. When she had her first prophetic dream, it was only three or four months before her wedding. She was panicking, unable to think of a way out. She wanted to break off her engagement with the Qin family and marry Xie Zhan, but neither was easy.
Time is short and the task is heavy. In order to achieve her wish, she must get help from her family! Her father, Zhao Wenkuan, is the Minister of the Honglu Temple and the current patriarch of the entire Zhao family, with great influence.
In order to gain her father's support, Zhao Yutan told her father about her first prophetic dream. Her father was skeptical at first. If he believed it, it would seem a bit absurd, but if he didn't, he was afraid that if it was true, the Zhao family would be implicated by the Qin family.
To gain her father's trust, she finally revealed two secrets from the Xie and Qin families. These two secrets, both within the Qin and Xie families, were extremely important, known only to the core family members and hidden from outsiders. The Zhao family was currently investigating these two secrets. When she decided to execute the drowning plan, they were unaware of it. In fact, this plan was a spur-of-the-moment idea, catching everyone off guard. Her father also thought it was a good plan, but it was too hasty.
Zhao Yutan bit his lip and made a decision in his heart, "Mom, I want to go see A Li."
"Okay, Mom will arrange it."
"ASAP."
"good."
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