Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Let us divorce, and then you can...
Everyone in the room was laughing, except Fang Ying—the ginger juice was too spicy! She'd cried all year, and her eyes still hadn't recovered!
Mrs. Li didn't know what was going on. Seeing her crying so hard that her eyes and nose were red, she thought she was really expressing her feelings. She felt very sorry for her and raised her hand and said, "Ying'er, come here."
Yue Qing'e was originally standing in front of Fang Ying. Seeing that the topic was finally brought up, she stepped aside two steps, took Fang Ying's arm, and pushed her to her mother-in-law's side.
Mrs. Li held Fang Ying's left hand and looked at her youngest son: "Sixth son, come here too."
In fact, after Ji Yanlang met the third prince in Jiaozhi, he heard that his family had married him to a wife while he was missing, but the third prince did not know whose daughter she married, and he did not bother to discuss the details at that time.
So it was not until he came out of the palace and went home with his brothers that Ji Yanlang heard from his second brother that he was marrying the daughter of the former Yangzhou prefect Guan Chengxun, Fang Ying, who had disliked him since childhood.
He looked at the woman standing next to his mother before slowly walking forward.
"Do you still remember Ying'er?" Li asked without waiting for his answer, and continued, "She lived with us when she was little. When your fifth brother got married that year, Ying'er came with her parents to congratulate him. I heard that you two met."
Ji Yanlang was very indifferent: "Really? I don't remember."
Mrs. Li had expected this attitude, and her smile remained unchanged. "It's okay if you don't remember. You two can recall it slowly later."
As she spoke, she took her son's hand and placed Fang Ying's hand, which she was holding in her other hand, into her son's palm. "In the past two or three years when you were away from home, Ying'er has been filial to you and helped your sister-in-law with the housework. She has worked so hard. Now that you have finally returned triumphantly, you must thank her sincerely."
Ji Yanlang saw Fang Ying was like a wooden man the whole time, with her head down and no words. Her hand felt cold in his palm. He seemed to understand something and nodded perfunctorily, "I understand." He immediately withdrew his hand and changed the subject, "Why didn't Mom ask me what I've been doing for the past three years? Why didn't I contact my family?"
"What's the hurry?" Li gave her son a sidelong glance, then left him and spoke softly to Fang Ying, whose face was red with tears. "Liu Lang's clothes are old. Haven't you made him several new ones these days? Bring them to him and let him try them on."
Fang Ying breathed a sigh of relief—she could finally go back and wash her face—and quickly agreed, bowing and taking her leave.
Seeing that it was getting late, Yue Qing'e also excused herself and left the main hall with Fang Ying. She took her hand and walked out, whispering to Fang Ying, "It's good that you didn't cause a scene in the hall. Go back and wash your face and put on makeup again before coming back."
Fang Ying didn't take Ji Yanlang's attitude to heart, but Yue Qing'e meant well, so she thanked him anyway, said goodbye to him, and hurried back to her own yard.
Lichun, her personal maid, asked someone to get some warm water. Fang Ying took advantage of the fact that they were the only two in the room and stuffed the silk handkerchief with ginger juice into her hand, whispering, "Wash it yourself." Lichun was her maid who came with her dowry, and also the person she trusted most in the Ji Mansion.
Lichun responded in a low voice, put away the silk handkerchief, waited for the basin of water to be brought, and helped Fang Ying wash her face and hands. Seeing that her master's eyes were still red, she asked the little girl to boil two eggs in the tea stove.
While waiting for the eggs to cook, Fang Ying asked the maids to bring the robes she had made for Ji Yanlang. She picked out two sets that were large enough and asked them to pack them.
"Madam, my husband's luggage has just been delivered to us." The little girl at the door reported.
Fang Ying thought for a moment and then ordered, "Put it in the east wing first. I'll ask my husband first."
The little maid agreed to pass on the message. Xingniang, another personal maid who stayed in the room, looked at her master's face. Just as she was about to open her mouth, the little maid brought in a boiled egg. She had to swallow it back and stepped forward to peel the boiled egg.
Fang Ying saw it but pretended not to see it - she knew what the people around her wanted to ask, which was nothing more than where Ji Liulang would stay tonight, and a deeper question was whether they would consummate their marriage tonight - this was quite annoying, and what was even more annoying was that this was probably what everyone in the mansion was most concerned about today.
She was too lazy to say anything more, so she closed her eyes and let Lichun apply hot eggs to her eyes. Then she asked her to hold the bag of clothes and go back to the main hall with her.
It was already the afternoon, the sun was setting in the west, and the autumn wind was blowing. Fang Ying walked forward with her hands folded behind her back, talking to Lichun in a low voice.
"You said he went through a great hardship, but why don't you see any improvement?"
Lichun's voice became even lower: "From my perspective, you have made progress..."
"Are you like my sister-in-law, thinking he's improved because he didn't throw a tantrum?" Fang Ying shook her head. "Although he's been spoiled, he's not that naive. I said he hasn't improved because his response just now was actually to save Madam's face, which made him seem unfilial."
In Li's room, the same words were being spoken at this moment.
"No matter what, I was the one who decided to marry you Ying'er. No matter how unhappy you are, you shouldn't speak like that in front of your brother and sister-in-law. If someone doesn't know, they might think you're unhappy with me as your mother. Think about it, is that reasonable?"
His mother rebuked him seriously, and Ji Yanlang didn't dare to play tricks anymore. He knelt down and admitted his fault, saying, "It's my son who is unfilial. Don't be angry, mother. I apologize to you."
"Get up, the ground is cold."
When Ji Yanlang heard that his mother still felt sorry for him, he immediately stood up with a smile. Unexpectedly, his mother then said, "Come and kneel on the kang."
“…”
Mrs. Li sat on the kang and pointed to the kang table. "What are you standing there for? Just kneel there."
Ji Yanlang had no choice but to brush off the dust on his knees, take off his shoes, get on the kang, and kneel down obediently.
"Do you know how I've been through these past three years since your accident?" Li tilted her head and pointed at her temples. "See? They're all gray from the first year. I couldn't eat or sleep. Whenever there was a little noise outside, I thought it was you back..."
Ji Yanlang felt his nose sore and his throat choked when he heard this, and he softly called out "Mom".
Li felt sad when she thought about those days. She sighed, picked up the Buddhist beads on the table, and patted the Buddhist scriptures beside them. "I don't know how many times I prayed to the gods and Buddhas, how many times I recited the scriptures, but not only did I not get any news of you, but you were not even among the captives sent back from Jiaozhi."
Ji Yanlang didn't want his mother to be saddened by the past, so he deliberately interrupted her, saying, "Those useless people can't catch my son!"
Li glanced at him and said calmly, "We don't know that. If we hadn't found Master Lu and calculated that you weren't destined to die, your clothes and hats would still be buried..."
She was still a little hesitant, and after starting to say something harsh, she couldn't continue, so she had to turn back. "It wasn't until Ying'er got married and kept me company every day that I was able to sleep well."
He knew that this conversation would eventually come back to Fang Ying. "Mom, who chose Fang Ying? Was it Master Lu Tianshi?"
"Do you think Master Lu is a matchmaker? He even chose someone for you? He only told you what kind of horoscopes would be suitable!"
"Then you searched according to the horoscope and found Fang Ying. But you should have found more than one person with a suitable horoscope, right? But other families were unwilling to give up their daughters? Only Fang Ying, with her stepmother in charge and her father relying on our family for support in his official career, had no choice, right?"
Mrs. Li didn't understand her youngest son's intention at first, so she didn't interrupt him. After listening to him finish, she vaguely understood and said deliberately, "Now that the matter is done, why bother asking such questions? Just love Ying'er more from now on."
"No, no, no," Ji Yanlang waved his hands repeatedly, moving his knees forward, leaning forward, and said to his mother, "How can it be done? My son just came home, there is a lot of room for reversal..."
Mrs. Li picked up the handwritten Buddhist scripture on the table and slapped her son's shiny forehead. "I knew you had no good intentions! You still have a lot of room to turn around. How do you turn around? Divorce me?"
Ji Yanlang covered his head and shrank back, whispering, "Divorce? Did you actually sign a marriage certificate back then?"
"What nonsense! How can you marry without a marriage certificate? I'm telling you, give up on this idea as soon as possible. This marriage has not only been completed with the three letters and six ceremonials, but they've also specially invited King Qi to be the matchmaker. There's no room for evasion!"
"..." Prince Qi is the fourth brother of the current emperor. Ji Yanlang did not expect that his family would treat a marriage that was almost meant to bring good luck so seriously. But if he just accepted it like that, that would not be his style.
"Don't be angry, mother. Come, have some tea." Ji Yanlang smiled apologetically, picked up the teacup, and handed it to his mother. After watching her take a sip, he began to explain, "Actually, I don't really care about this marriage. I'm turning around because it's for Fang Ying's own good."
Mrs. Li raised her eyelids and stared at her son over the teacup.
"Really." Ji Yanlang said sincerely, "She was reluctant to marry into the family in the first place, but was forced to do so by her parents..."
"Who told you that Ying'er was unwilling to marry in?"
"Need I say this? Two years ago, apart from my family, who would have believed I was still alive? Only a fool would gamble his entire life on a single word from Master Lu Tian!"
Li put down the teacup and looked her youngest son up and down.
Ji Yanlang was puzzled and was about to ask when the maid suddenly reported, "Madam, Liu Niang is here."
He quickly finished what he was about to say: "Mother, I think that if you really like her and care about her, we should divorce each other, and you can adopt her as your adopted daughter and find her a husband that suits her. It would be better than her marrying me unwillingly now and becoming a resentful couple with me in the future, and causing you trouble."
Li smiled and said, "Don't kneel, sit down properly."
Ji Yanlang thought he had convinced his mother. His eyes lit up, and he turned sideways, stretched his legs, and sat up straight. But then he heard his mother continue, "You have some truth in what you said, but if Ying'er hadn't been reluctant, she would have fallen in love with you a long time ago."
"Impossible!" Ji Yanlang denied it flatly.
"I'm talking about 'if'. What if she truly loves you and is willing to marry you? So what?"
"What... what do you mean by deeply in love?" Ji Yanlang shuddered. "Who? Fang Ying? To me?"
"Impossible!" he said again flatly.
Li's face was filled with smiles. "How about this? Ying'er comes in later and you ask her. We'll do what she chooses. How about that?"
Ji Yanlang hesitated a little: "Does she dare to tell the truth in front of you?"
"Then I'll find an excuse to avoid you. Tell Xinmei to hide behind the screen and listen for me."
Ji Yanlang glanced at Xinmei who was standing beside him and said, "Okay, it's a deal, no regrets!"
Li smiled and stretched out her right hand: "I won't regret it. Let's high-five and swear it."
The author has something to say:
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Ji Yanlang: Fang Ying is in love with me? Is there anyone who believes such nonsense?
Everyone in the Ji family: We all believe it!
Ji Yanlang: ...
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