Chapter 3 shows him watching from across the lake as he was surrounded...
Looking across the lake at the shore where a crowd had gathered, and hearing the excited shouts of several servants that they had been rescued, Xiao Quexian's eyes, besides churning with turmoil, also held a deep sense of resentment and worry.
She had been meticulously planning this for over a month, believing she had considered every detail. Everything was going according to plan, but why did things go completely astray despite the correct start and process?
Although Xiao Yan Hui was not personally sent into this waterside pavilion, she did watch as she was brought in. Why did she fall into the water on the lake shore when she was already unconscious?
"Someone did something?" Xiao Quexian's gaze immediately fell on the person lying drunk on the soft couch.
"Could it be him?" The doubt had just surfaced in Xiao Quexian's mind when she dismissed it: "It can't be that good-for-nothing, all show and no substance. He doesn't have that kind of ability."
"Chun'er, go and tell the kitchen to prepare some hangover soup. Zhou Mama, you stay here and serve them." Although Zhao was also momentarily stunned, her mind quickly cleared. She swiftly arranged for someone to attend to the guests at the waterside pavilion, then smiled apologetically at Madam Qin: "I'm truly sorry for neglecting you today, you see..."
"Second Madam, hurry to the shore and check on Third Miss. First Madam is panicked. I'm afraid Second Madam will have to go and be the pillar of support." Madam Qin quickly waved her hand to indicate that there was no need for formalities, as Third Miss, who had fallen into the water, was of great importance.
"Excuse me." The second wife pulled the somewhat dazed Xiao Quexian out.
"It was we who were impolite." Mrs. Qin got up and saw the second wife to the entrance of the waterside pavilion. As she spoke, she glanced at the east side room again, clearly implying that her words had two meanings.
“We should have gone with them to see the Third Sister, but now that she has been rescued, it might be inconvenient for us to go over there.”
......
In the east room, which was temporarily looked after by only two maids, the person who should have been unconscious from drunkenness was now facing the window with his eyelids half-closed, but his gaze toward the lake shore was perfectly clear.
"The Xiao family... is quite interesting."
......
"This is... Xiao Yan Hui's room. It seems I've been unconscious for quite a while." In the middle of the night, Xiao Yan Hui, who had just woken up from her coma, rubbed her still somewhat tight and throbbing head and recognized, by the dim candlelight in the corner, that she was now sleeping in the original owner's boudoir.
During the day, although she pretended to fall into the water while picking lotus to break the deadlock, swimming from the waterside pavilion to the lake shore was still a great challenge to her physical strength.
Exhausted after being rescued, she simply didn't have the energy to deal with the chaotic situation and let herself fall into a coma. When she woke up again, it was already midnight.
However, this sleep finally allowed her to organize all of the original owner's memories and integrate them into her mind.
"What a complicated feudal family!" Xiao Yan sighed heavily, covering her face with her hands.
In terms of population, the direct descendants of the Xiao family are not mixed, but the relationships among them are complicated.
The Xiao family has two branches, the main branch and the second branch, but both branches have only one male head. That's right, the original owner's father, Xiao Fuyan, was the sole heir to both branches.
Xiao Fuyan was the eldest son, and he had a younger brother, Xiao Fumin, who was his own flesh and blood.
However, Xiao Fumin died in an accident when he fell from his horse at the age of nineteen, only three days before his wedding.
Xiao Yan Hui, a junior, could not possibly know how the three families of Xiao, Zhang, and Zhao negotiated back then, or whether there were any shady dealings involved. But in the end, Xiao Fu Yan, who had already married Zhang, took on the responsibility of marrying into the family as the second son and welcomed Zhao into the family on behalf of his younger brother.
Now, more than a decade has passed, and both families have had children. The eldest wife lives in the east courtyard and has one son and two daughters. Her eldest daughter, Xiao Luanmiao, is already married, her eldest son, Xiao Heyou, is studying away from home, and her second daughter is the original owner of the body, Xiao Yanhui.
The second wife lived in the west courtyard and had only one daughter, Xiao Quexian.
Xiao Fuyan originally intended to have two wives to ensure his younger brother had a legitimate lineage. Of course, one daughter was not enough. After Zhao gave birth to Xiao Quexian, there was no further news for three years, so Xiao Fuyan took two more concubines.
Aunt Wan had a daughter, Xiao Yingxun. Aunt Xiu was the last to enter the family, but she gave birth to a son nine years ago, Xiao Fuyan's youngest son, Xiao Pengdu, and her status became somewhat different afterward.
"Isn't it awkward for this family to get along?" Xiao Yan thought to herself.
Whether it was awkward or not is unknown, but the struggle was blatant. Just like today's incident, Xiao Yan's last memory was that she felt very sleepy while resting in the waterside pavilion, and then she fell asleep without realizing it.
Now, calmly analyzing the situation, from the maid's guidance to the person falling into a coma, and then moving them from the lakeside pavilion to the Heart-Protecting Pavilion, there must have been more than one person involved. If the Xiao family's inner quarters were solely managed by the First Madam, how could the original owner have been schemed against to this extent?
However, because Xiao Fuyan was a dual heir, both of his wives were essentially his principal wives, which resulted in a situation where the household was in a very difficult position.
The first wife was the elder sister-in-law and had a slight advantage in terms of status, but the second wife, Zhao, was more favored by Xiao Fuyan, the head of the household, and the old lady above also favored her more. On the surface, the inner quarters could barely maintain a balance and harmony, but in reality, there was constant infighting.
According to the original owner's memories, the most serious incident in recent years was over the marriage with the Qin family.
As their cooperation grew closer, the Xiao and Qin families planned to arrange a marriage between their children within two years to achieve a deeper and more binding partnership.
Although Qin Ji, the eldest son of the Qin family, was born out of wedlock, his aunt died early and he was raised by his stepmother from a young age. His stepmother, Madam Wen, had no sons but only two daughters. From the moment Qin Ji was introduced to the world by the Qin family patriarch, he was treated as the heir. He himself was of superior ability, temperament and appearance, and Madam Wen was also a well-known kind person. This marriage between Qin Ji and his stepmother was both prestigious and practical, and it couldn't be better.
At that time, Xiao Quexian and Xiao Yanhui were both thirteen years old, which was the perfect age for marriage proposals.
The Xiao family is divided into two branches, with Xiao Quexian being the second eldest. Although Xiao Yanhui is the third eldest, she is, in fact, the legitimate eldest daughter of the first branch, making her a more suitable candidate in terms of status.
The first wife and the second wife were locked in a struggle for more than half a year, and almost had a public falling out.
In the end, it was because the old lady privately remarked, "After all, Xian'er is the older sister, and our Yan Hui'er is beautiful; she will probably have a better future," that the marriage fell to Xiao Quexian.
This is also what Xiao Yan Hui can't understand now. She worked so hard to win the marriage, and now she's painstakingly plotting to make Qin Dalang and her cause this scandal. What is the purpose of the second wife and her daughter?
If she hadn't obtained all of the original owner's memories, making her absolutely certain that the First Madam wouldn't use such dirty methods, and if she hadn't deduced that the beneficiary was the suspect, Xiao Yan Hui would have almost suspected that the First Madam had orchestrated this whole thing.
......
"You wretched woman! The Qin family and my family are a perfect match, and the eldest son of the Qin family is such a handsome young man. Why are you so determined to break off this engagement?" Zhao, who had been awakened from her sleep, pushed her sleeping daughter a few times, which also woke Xiao Quexian up.
She couldn't sleep a wink all night because of what happened today, and seeing that wretched child acting like nothing had happened made her feel even more suffocated.
"Mother! What are you doing in the middle of the night! Can't you talk about it tomorrow morning?" Xiao Quexian said with great dissatisfaction as she was woken up from her sleep.
"Sleep, sleep, sleep, you still have the mind to sleep?" Zhao Shi poked Xiao Quexian's forehead repeatedly, gritting her teeth and lowering her voice, "You'd better explain yourself clearly tonight, don't try to get away with it."
She had deliberately come to sleep with her daughter under the pretext of being afraid of frightening her, and was determined to get to the bottom of things, but who knew that she would be led astray by her daughter again.
Waking up in the middle of the night, I felt incredibly clear-headed; I knew I couldn't let her fool me again this time.
"Mother, didn't I already tell you? The Bodhisattva said my ideal match isn't from the Xiao family." Xiao Quexian pulled the blanket over her head, trying to continue sleeping.
"Stop using the Bodhisattva as an excuse. You can't just claim you received a Bodhisattva's guidance from a random dream. Does the Bodhisattva expect you to send your sister to your fiancé's bed?" Zhao Shi forcefully pulled off Xiao Quexian's blanket and slapped her shoulder hard.
"Hiss." A sharp pain shot through her shoulder, and Xiao Quexian, now fully awake, revealed a hint of malice on her face, speaking with impatience: "Mother, what are you doing in the middle of the night instead of sleeping! Besides, she longed for that marriage back then but couldn't have it, and now that I'm giving it to her, she'll be grateful beyond words."
Today's plan failed, and Xiao Quexian was already depressed. When she returned to the courtyard, she had to face her mother's repeated questioning, which she barely managed to get through. She didn't expect to be woken up by her mother in the middle of the night for questioning again. Even if she had the best temper, she would inevitably get angry, not to mention that she had a bad temper to begin with.
"What did I do? When I was cleaning up your mess, why didn't you ask me why? You acted rashly and now you say it was for my sake. What good did this do me? Not to mention the fear and anxiety I've endured today, I don't know how I'll explain myself tomorrow."
"The one in the east didn't cause a scene today because her daughter is still unconscious. Do you think she'll be just as quiet tomorrow? Do you think I'll save you then? Is there a secret you're hiding that you can't even tell your mother? How can I help you if you don't tell me!" Zhao threatened, raising her eyebrows, before softening her tone and coaxing him gently.
Seeing Zhao pretending to be ignorant and shifting blame onto herself to manipulate the situation, Xiao Quexian wanted to give her a good talking-to, but she swallowed her words back before she could say them.
She is her mother's only child. No matter what she says or what she's thinking, she's always there to help her when something really happens. There's no need to argue with her like this and hurt her mother's feelings.
Thinking of this, a deeply suppressed gloomy memory resurfaced in her mind. In her past life... it was she who had dragged her mother down with her.
Thinking of her past life, in which she was tormented by that madwoman every day, spent alone in an empty room, and finally died a miserable and unjust death, Xiao Quexian clenched her fist tightly under the covers and secretly vowed in her heart: "Since I have a chance to start over, I must not repeat the same mistakes. In this life, I will be rich and noble."
"It's a pity that it didn't work out today. It seems that we still need to find a reason to bring up the matter of annulling the engagement openly." Xiao Quexian pondered to herself.
The Qin family is not a poor family, and the two families will certainly not back down in order to cooperate on the marriage. However, it is not difficult to find an excuse to properly discuss changing the marriage partner from the second daughter to the third daughter.
However, if the second wife proposes a marriage exchange, then the second wife is in the wrong. This marriage was fought for back then, and now, no matter what reason she uses to tell her father that she wants to exchange partners, it will ruin her and her mother's image in her father's eyes. In addition, she will inevitably have to compensate the first wife with some benefits.
Thinking of this, Xiao Quexian felt extremely regretful for missing such a great opportunity today. Otherwise, if she had confirmed Xiao Yan's crime of climbing into her future brother-in-law's bed and stealing the bride, she could not only have made the eldest branch of the family bleed heavily to compensate herself, but also damage the reputation of the eldest branch. She did not believe that after such a scandal, the eldest wife would still have the face to manage the household affairs.
What a pity...
But more than losing these benefits, what worries Xiao Quexian the most now is why Xiao Yanhui did not appear at the waterside pavilion today, but instead fell into the lake and drowned.
The unknowns filled Xiao Quexian, who had been reborn and always had a knack for predicting things, with an unspeakable sense of dread.
"What are you spacing out for again?" Zhao sat up and nudged Xiao Quexian, urging her to tell the truth.
Seeing her mother already sitting up and waiting for her answer, she finally took a deep breath and suppressed her anger. Today's plan had failed, and she would need her mother's cooperation to do anything else in the future, so she still had to reveal a little more to her.
"Didn't I say that grain prices would rise this month? Didn't I say that Prefect Chen would be imprisoned for a crime? Didn't I say that the successor prefect's surname is Liang and that he was transferred from the capital? Didn't the government office also issue an official document a few days ago? Mother, believe me, Liang Erlang is my perfect match. If the marriage with the Qin family is called off, my daughter will be destined to be an official's wife."
Xiao Quexian spoke with absolute certainty.
Recalling Liang Erlang's affectionate words to her in her past life, lamenting that they hadn't met before she was married, and then recalling Qin Ji's heartless indifference, Xiao Quexian felt a mixture of burning love and overwhelming hatred.
Overwhelmed by emotions, she couldn't help but shed tears, and even her words were tinged with sorrow: "Mother, Qin Ji is a complete hypocrite. In fact, he is the most cold and selfish person. Mother, can you really bear to see your daughter, who clearly has a great marriage prospect, fall into a pit of fire because of this marriage contract?"
Seeing the hesitation still in her mother's eyes, Xiao Quexian dropped another bombshell: "Mother, I've had someone investigate. Qin Ji is not only of low character, but he's also impotent."
"What? No way?" Zhao's eyes widened; she was genuinely shocked.
"What you said... is... is..." Zhao asked again, slightly stuttering. She was afraid that she had misunderstood her daughter, a young lady from a respectable family, would say such a thing.
“That’s right, Mother, it’s the one you’re thinking of. He’s not a real man. I found out when I had someone investigate him. It’s true, I’m not lying.”
Actually, she only discovered this after marrying him in her previous life. But even if she were her mother, Xiao Quexian would never tell her that she had a complete memory of her entire life. At present, she was just using the Bodhisattva's blessing as an excuse to make a prophetic dream and reveal some things in order to get her mother's help.
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