Chapter 17 Courting Death (3) (Revised) “You don’t dare.”…
But soon, he comforted himself again. Was he really so greedy that he wanted to go to his ex-daughter-in-law's place to have a meal? Of course not. He was doing it for his disappointing son.
However, Xue Ruyue was also there, and this scene made Yang Shiduo feel a little awkward for a moment. If he left at this time, it would not be a good idea, after all, he had been invited to this meal. But if he did not leave, he would find it difficult to withstand his son's sharp gaze.
Chai Heng looked in the direction of the voice and saw Yang Yan. This was the first time she had seen him since the divorce. In just a few days, Xue Ruyue was by his side. It was understandable that he was quite impatient about her divorce.
"Old Marquis..." Chai Heng wanted to say that since Yang Yan came to see him, he might as well go back and have dinner. After all, he had servants in his house, so he wouldn't go without a meal.
But before she could say this, Lu Shichu smiled and spoke again: "Since you are here, why not have a meal together. Guests are our guests, and we have no right to chase them away." As he spoke, he warmly invited everyone in.
Yang Yan doesn't like Lu Shichu.
In his previous life, he would never have eaten at the same table with Lu Shichu, so Chai Heng didn't think he would come. But to her surprise, he was so rude and walked in with Xue Ruyue. There were only two sets of bowls and chopsticks in the house. Fortunately, when Lu Shichu helped her tidy up the house a few days ago, he brought a few sets from his own place to prepare for future guests. Otherwise, these extra people would have to eat with their hands.
The meal was tasteless.
Throughout the entire banquet, apart from Yang Shiduo and Lu Shichu chatting and laughing, the other three people remained silent.
The main reason was that Chai Heng didn’t know what to say to Yang Yan and Xue Ruyue.
Stand up and wish them a happy marriage? She would say this when she was angry with Yang Yan, but if these two people were really in front of her, she really couldn't do it.
For over a decade, Xue Ruyue had been a thorn in her heart, a thorn so deep it made her question the meaning of her existence, constantly wondering if she had done something wrong and Yang Yan and her mother would abandon her because of Xue Ruyue. After the divorce, she thought she had completely removed the thorn, but in reality, it had only sunk in, so deep that there was no end in sight. And now, with these two people walking around in front of her as a couple, the thorn surfaced a little more.
Chai Heng was in a daze after taking a bite of fish. She couldn't eat anymore, and Xue Ruyue couldn't eat either. She wanted to come with Yang Yan to see Yang Shiduo today, not to come to Chai Heng's place to eat for free.
After thinking it over, Xue Ruyue suddenly put down her chopsticks:
"Ah Heng."
"Um?"
"I have something to tell you. Let's go outside the yard to talk?" Xue Ruyue suddenly wanted to take the initiative to talk to Chai Heng about her brother.
Chai Heng realized it later: "Why not just say it here?"
"Let's go outside. The old marquis hasn't finished eating yet. Let's chat outside." Xue Ruyue said.
Chai Heng took a look at Yang Shiduo's wolfing down of his food, and for a moment he was overwhelmed with emotions. How could a man who had lived half his life act like he had never eaten a meal?
She sighed in her heart. Although she didn't want to face Xue Ruyue, she still walked out as she was told.
"Is there anything wrong?" Chai Heng asked Xue Ruyue after walking out of the main room.
Xue Ruyue first mentioned Madam Chai's birthday. "Aunt Chai's birthday is in ten days. You haven't visited her since you returned from Xirong. She's been missing you terribly lately, but she never says it. Think about going back before your birthday to see her? She's always been kind and friendly, and you're her own daughter. Why let some trivial matter ruin our relationship?"
Chai Heng thought, she is indeed friendly to you, but not to me.
Furthermore, what are trivial matters? Those partialities accumulate to become a big deal.
"If she really misses me, I'm still in the capital. She can find me and come to see me anyway."
"But she didn't. She was just waiting, waiting for me to admit my mistakes to her like before. She would just be happy to have you as her daughter and wouldn't have to worry about me."
Chai Heng actually resented Xue Ruyue's condescending advice from a victorious perspective, but there was nothing she could do. In this life, the Xue family hadn't done anything to Furong Mountain yet, and if she just rushed and swept Xue Ruyue out with a broom, it would seem like she had a problem. So she could only suppress her urge to roll her eyes at her and try to be as pleasant as possible.
Xue Ruyue said: "I also want to be Aunt Chai's daughter, but since you are here, I can't take your place. I can't do things like stealing people's things." As she said this, she glanced meaningfully at Yang Yan who was drinking tea in the main room.
"I'm delighted that you can return Xingzhi to me. Thank you very much, but Ah Heng, you shouldn't have attacked my brother."
She changed the subject so quickly that Chai Heng didn't react for a moment.
"Who am I attacking?"
"My brother." Xue Ruyue still looked gentle and dignified, but when she talked about this, there was a hint of mockery in her words, "You were the one who arrested my brother Xue Congli, you don't have to deny it. I went to the Ministry of Justice jail to see him this afternoon, and he cried to me that he never sold illegal salt. He said that yesterday a grain truck loaded with illegal salt stopped in front of Xu's soy sauce shop for half an hour because of a broken wheel. He went there to drink a glass of wine, and when he came back, he saw you staring at the grain truck nearby, and there were a few little beggars around you." She was hinting at something.
Chai Heng waited for her to continue: "So?"
"So if you wanted to check my brother's grain truck, why didn't you check it then? Why did you wait for another two hours? Why were you staring at my brother's grain truck in front of the soy sauce shop then? And what were those little beggars doing?" Xue Ruyue pointed the finger at her calmly.
When she said that, Chai Heng found it ridiculous.
The Xue family's door of the Xu family's soy sauce shop is not the only place where people can walk. She happened to pass by there at that time, and several little beggars surrounded her and asked her for money. After she gave them some silver, the little beggars wanted to use it to buy food and cakes, so they stared at the grain truck for a while. She followed the gaze of the little beggars and looked in that direction. What's wrong with that?
Chai Heng, determined not to get too close to Xue Ruyue, believing it would bring bad luck, had no intention of explaining to her. He simply said, "Capturing your brother was my duty, and I have no personal intentions. If you feel I'm being vindictive, you can confront my superior, Lord Cui."
After saying this, Chai Heng turned around and was about to leave. She was going to tell Yang Yan to take Xue Ruyue away and not bring his old love with him to disgust her even after the divorce.
But before he could take a step, Xue Ruyue called him back.
"What happened between you and me isn't serious enough to be brought to Lord Cui. But Chai Heng, if you deliberately framed my brother, you should have confessed to Lord Cui earlier and released him. If you had explained this to Cui Rushi earlier, then we, the Xue family, wouldn't have held you accountable for arresting the wrong person."
"But if I find out that my brother is innocent by myself, and your Jingwei Division arrests people indiscriminately, this matter will definitely not end well." Xue Ruyue spoke coldly behind her.
Chai Heng stopped in his tracks, trying to appear patient. "I'm not afraid of you investigating. I know very well whether I've taken revenge on him out of personal favoritism. You can do whatever you want."
Her nonchalant attitude irritated Xue Ruyue, who asked, "Chai Heng, are you so confident that you're completely fine? With Xingzhi helping me, are you so sure you didn't catch the wrong person?"
Chai Heng certainly knew that Yang Yan would help Xue Ruyue, but no matter how much he helped, he couldn't confuse right and wrong, right?
Chai Heng was too lazy to talk to her and turned back to the house. When they returned, Yang Shiduo had almost finished eating. Xiao Qingping was holding a roasted chicken leg and burping with oil dripping from her mouth, while Yang Yan was staring at the wooden sculpture on Lu Shichu's waist with ulterior motives.
Seeing that Chai Heng came back with a bad look on her face, Lu Shichu raised his hand and gently patted her shoulder to comfort her.
This action just happened to fall into Yang Yan's eyes. When Xue Ruyue came back, she put her hand directly on his arm and hugged him, and he did not refuse.
Damn the suffocation scene.
When Yang Shiduo was eating, he didn't want to find a crack in the ground to crawl into, but now he really wanted to find a crack.
"Since the Marquis has finished his meal, and it's getting late, my junior sister and I won't keep you any longer. Let's just go our separate ways today." Lu Shichu stood up to see the guests off for Chai Heng.
Yang Yan had no intention of leaving yet. He just turned to Chai Heng and said, "When we divorced, I left something with you. I want to take it away today."
Chai Heng was a little surprised: "You have never been to my courtyard, how could anything be left here?"
"My mother's relic, a Qingyun Pendant." He said lightly.
Chai Heng had a rough idea of the things Yang Yan had given her; it was a relic, so how could she not have any recollection of it? But after searching her mind for a long time, she couldn't figure out why he had given her such a thing.
"When did you give it to me?"
"Think for yourself."
Chai Heng’s first reaction was that he was lying, so she turned her gaze to her former father-in-law, wanting to ask if such a thing really existed?
Yang Shiduo lowered his head, not knowing where to put his old face. The only relics left by Yang Yan's mother were him and a pile of land and houses. How could there be a jade pendant?
You can't bully your ex-wife like this.
But due to the tyranny of his son, he didn't dare to say it.
"If you can't remember, come with me and look for it." Yang Yan said calmly. He had been emotionless since he came in today. He couldn't find it even if he went in.
Chai Heng looked puzzled, but still followed him into the inner room.
Chai Heng had just moved in not long ago, and the bedroom was filled with only two large mahogany boxes that had not yet been sorted out, a dressing table, two cabinets, a square painting table and a bed.
There was only a small soft pillow and two simple quilts on the bed. It was still winter, and there was no fire in the house, not even a floor heater. There was only an empty charcoal basin with nothing in it.
"After leaving the Marquis' Mansion, you can't even afford a pot of charcoal?" Yang Yan kicked the brazier.
"Didn't you ask Zhou Jiu to secretly slip me some silver notes? How could I not be able to afford a pot of charcoal?" Chai Heng used to catch colds easily in winter and would fall ill at least twice a year.
But the weather in the capital was warm this year. After Lu Shichu brought her the charcoal brazier, she was not without money to buy it, but she felt that she could not stay here for long and there was no need, so she never went to the market.
"Lu Shichu often comes to you?" Yang Yan asked suddenly. The jade pendant and everything else were fake, and that was the point.
Chai Heng stopped searching and asked, "What does it have to do with you whether my senior brother comes or not?"
A bad premonition arose in Chai Heng's heart. Her intuition told her that he simply disliked her senior brother and wanted to cause trouble for him.
"What do you want to do?"
Chai Heng frowned and looked at him warily. Her expression made Yang Yan's heart seem to be disturbed. In her previous life, she had been more restrained. Knowing that he didn't like Lu Shichu, she never mentioned him at all and never dared to show the slightest defense of Lu Shichu in front of him. But in this life, she didn't pretend at all, and acted like a mother hen protecting her chicks.
"A sixth-rank official in the Ministry of Justice has so little time to spare. Naturally, I'll have Liang Yuanjing find him something to do. Lingnan needs a scribe, and I've already told Liang Yuanjing that Lu Shichu is perfect for the position. He'll be leaving tomorrow and will be on his way to Lingnan for the next two weeks. If you miss him, you'd better cherish this last day you're together."
Yang Yan said coldly, using all the methods he had used in the past to deal with his political opponents.
Chai Heng's face suddenly turned pale. "How many mountain roads does it take to get from Beijing to Lingnan? He's a Beijing official, and you're sending him to Lingnan. Are you trying to end his career or take his life? Does he have a deep hatred for you?"
Seeing her lose her composure, Yang Yan felt a pang of pain in his heart, and he wondered, how could they not have a deep hatred? In his previous life, the man surnamed Lu had deceived her, not only harming the entire Furong Mountain for his own selfish interests, but also using her to stab him in the back, even attempting to disrupt the entire court. In this life, he coveted her. After being promoted to Minister of War, his first act was to have his good friend, now Vice Minister of Justice Liang Yuanjing, transfer him away, which was already an extraordinary favor.
What's more, Lu Shichu's identity meant that even if he didn't take action against Lu Shichu today, one day in the future, when the saint discovered him, Lu Shichu would not be able to escape death.
Yang Yan didn't know how to explain these things to Chai Heng in detail, because he felt uncomfortable when he saw her resentful look.
So, with a hint of anger, he said calmly, "I didn't send him to death because of your kindness. If you ask me something that makes me unhappy again, he will probably die on the way to Lingnan."
Then he added, "But if you behave a little better and listen to me for the next few days, I can make his journey to Lingnan a little easier."
What does it mean to be nice and obedient?
What does he take her for?
"What do you mean?"
"When I need you, you have to continue living in the Marquis' Mansion. Once I get used to life without you as my ex-wife, I will let you go."
Chai Heng was stunned for a moment: "Aren't you afraid that I will continue to provoke Xue Ruyue?"
Yang Yan was also stunned. He opened his mouth to explain something, but the words turned into a sentence: "You dare not."
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