"Now that the imperial decree has been delivered, I will return home. Your Highness, Your Highness's Wife, please wait." The eunuch waved his sleeve and made his departure.
Inside the room, after receiving the imperial edict, Zhang's vision went black and she fainted.
"Quickly, call a doctor! The lady has fainted!"
Ye Chaoxi pushed through the crowd, bent down to show her, and casually concluded, "No need to call her, she's faking it."
Zhang, “…” This slut!
“Mrs. Zhang is fine. We can have the maid pack her things and send her back to the Zhang family now. We don’t need to call her Madam Hou anymore.”
"From now on, all matters, big and small, of the Marquis's residence shall be reported to Tinglan Garden. The accounts of the inflow and outflow of funds shall also be compiled and sent to Tinglan Garden."
Madam Zhang wanted to jump up and point her finger at Ye Chaoxi, yelling, "Are you in such a hurry to drive her away because you want to take over the Marquis's mansion completely after she leaves?!"
Thinking that she was fainting, if she actually jumped up, wouldn't that confirm Ye Chaoxi's claim that she was faking it? So Zhang almost squeezed her palms until they bled, but she stubbornly refused to open her eyes.
As everyone watched the Lady of the Heir Apparent arrange everything in an orderly manner, and the Heir Apparent stood behind her tacitly accepting her arrangements, they knew in their hearts that the Marquis's mansion was about to undergo a major change.
The elders of the clan had no objections. Before Zhang was divorced, the Xie family could send her to a nunnery to repent, and then send her back to the Zhang family after the Marquis of Yongyi wrote the letter of divorce. Now, with the Emperor's decree, they could skip the nunnery and send her directly back to the Zhang family.
Zhang's maidservant dawdled as she packed the luggage, and the group was then thrown onto a carriage and sent back to the Zhang family.
As they boarded the carriage, Zhang finally couldn't keep up the act any longer. Crying, she pointed at Xie Qinglan and cursed, "Xie Qinglan, you motherless brat! Why didn't you die with your short-lived mother! You think... mmm... mmm!"
Zhuo Qing stuffed a piece of cloth into her mouth and ordered the carriage to set off.
Xie Changyu, who was throwing a tantrum and refusing to come to the ancestral hall, had no idea that Zhang Shi would be sent back to the Zhang family after he had been absent for just one morning. When the servant ran back to tell him, Xie Changyu hurriedly limped to the gate, but Zhang Shi's carriage was already far away.
He turned around and shouted at Clan Chief Xie and Xie Qinglan, who were standing at the door, "Clan Chief, Elder Brother! Even if my mother is wrong, you can't kick her out! She is my mother!"
Along the way, the servant beside him told him everything that had happened at the ancestral hall.
He vaguely knew that his mother had been secretly harming Xie Qinglan all these years. He didn't stop her because he felt that his mother was not wrong. Who wouldn't want the position of heir apparent? He was clearly also the legitimate son, so why couldn't it be given to him?
He was very dissatisfied with the clan chief's handling of the matter.
“If you’re reluctant to leave, you can go to the Zhang family with her. I’m sure your mother will miss you too.” Xie Qinglan walked past him and led Ye Chaoxi back to Tinglan Garden.
Xie Changyu muttered, "My surname is Xie, not Zhang. What would it mean if I went to live in the Zhang family's house? When Father comes back, he will definitely plead with the Emperor to bring Mother back."
He dared not provoke Xie Qinglan, fearing that Xie Qinglan would also kick him out. Now that Zhang Shi was gone, he had to keep a low profile even more, and whispering a few words of rebuttal behind her back was the most daring thing he could muster.
The Zhang family lived in the capital. Zhang was married into a higher social class; the Zhang family's background and status were inferior to the Marquis's family, not to mention the imperial decree that held them back. They dared not keep Zhang any longer and sent her to a nunnery to eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures the next day.
Ye Chaoxi thought that Zhang would spend the rest of her life in the nunnery, but unexpectedly, half a month later, news came from the nunnery that Zhang had tried to escape in the middle of the night and accidentally fell off a cliff. Fortunately, the cliff was not high and she survived.
Unfortunately, she was unlucky; when she fell, her eyes were pierced by dead tree branches at the bottom of the cliff, and she couldn't save them. Half of her body also lost sensation, and she would have to spend the rest of her life lying in bed.
Upon hearing this news, Ye Chaoxi let out a long sigh of relief. "That's what you call getting what you deserve!"
"I did this," Xie Qinglan suddenly spoke, her eyes, veiled by a white gauze, staring directly at her. "Does Madam think I'm too cruel?"
His tone was cautious, as if he would immediately deny what he had just said if Ye Chaoxi said yes.
The silence between them was so profound that they could hear each other's breathing, and Xie Qinglan's heart began to pound with unease as she remained silent.
He wanted to be honest and let his closest people know his worst and most authentic side, but if she couldn't accept him as he was, he was willing to pretend to be a virtuous and upright gentleman for the rest of his life.
He couldn't see Ye Chaoxi's expression and could only wait for her response.
Just as Xie Qinglan's patience was about to run out and he couldn't help but deny what he had just said, Ye Chaoxi gently kissed the corner of his lips, making her stance clear with just a light kiss.
“I have said that I will support you no matter what you want to do, my husband.”
“I not only know that you sent people to make Zhang fall off the cliff, but I also know that you had Xie Changyu’s leg beaten.”
"But there's nothing I can do. Who made me marry such a husband and fall in love with such a husband?"
Xie Qinglan smiled. It was as if a ray of sunlight had shone into the dark corners of her heart that had been there for so many years, completely illuminating every inch of desolation.
The news of the Marquis's family divorcing his wife by imperial decree did not circulate in the capital for long, because the results of the triennial imperial examination were finally released.
There were approximately three thousand people in the entire Dayuan who participated in the provincial examination, but only about two hundred were able to pass and participate in the palace examination. Regardless of their ranking, those who participated in the palace examination were granted the status of a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination).
Ye Muling checked the list right when it was released, her eyes searching up and down among the more than two hundred names. She looked several times, but still couldn't find Meng Wenjin's name.
She couldn't believe it at first, so she asked the people next to her to help her look.
Still not on the list.
Ye Muling walked home as if she had lost her soul.
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