Feng Guang knew very well that the so-called affair between her father and the empress was just the emperor looking for an excuse to depose the empress. What she didn't understand was that the original story did not include the plot of dragging the Xie family down with her, and the empress was deposed because of the witchcraft scandal, which had nothing to do with the Xie family.
If this is called the butterfly effect, then the effect is far too great.
“Fengguang…” Zhao Wan suddenly looked at Fengguang and said, “No matter what, Mother will keep you safe.”
"Mother?" Feng Guang was puzzled. Her mother looked much more haggard, and Huan'er, who was sleeping in her mother's arms, had also lost a lot of weight. They were used to being pampered and spoiled, and they were already clearly not feeling well after being locked up in prison for only one day.
Zhao Wan stopped looking at Feng Guang and instead looked at Xie Xun in the opposite cell. Xie Xun also turned his gaze towards her. The couple had already reached a tacit understanding.
Tan Rou suddenly said, "Feng Guang will be fine."
All eyes fell on her.
Tan Rou's expression was no longer as unreasonable and carefree as before. She looked at the old lady and said in a deep voice, "Grandma, do you think my intuition is correct?"
The old lady closed her eyes and didn't say anything.
Feng Guang sensed something was increasingly wrong. She stood up and asked, "Second Aunt, what do you mean by that?"
“What did I mean? That’s right, you’re just a young girl who’s just come of age, you don’t understand anything.” Tan Rou glanced at the white jade hairpin in Feng Guang’s hair. “This hairpin, was it a gift from Xie Zhan?”
The other men who were imprisoned had all their valuables confiscated by the officers, but no one dared to touch the hairpin in Feng Guang's hair.
Seeing Feng Guang's bewildered expression, Tan Rou paused for a moment. Over the past few years, no matter what was wrong with the Xie family, it had all been kept from the eldest son's family. Perhaps Zhao Wan and Xie Xun could sense something, but Feng Guang was the best protected. Even the old lady never thought of letting Feng Guang know about the Xie family's secrets.
Everyone says that Tan Rou is shrewd and calculating, but no one knows that she is also soft-hearted. Otherwise, when Xie Zhao brought back that pregnant courtesan, she would have had a hundred ways to kill them, but she ultimately endured it.
She had no choice but to endure it.
Because the Xie family members cannot do anything that would harm the harmony of the Xie family. This was what Xie Zhan told Tan Rou one night more than ten years ago.
"Second Sister-in-law, I'm a perfectionist, whether it's things, people, or a family composed of things and people." Xie Zhan said with a smile, "I've meticulously built the Xie family into what others call a perfect family. Tell me, if you and Second Brother were to divorce, would this Xie family still be considered perfect?"
Xie Zhan said softly, "Imperfect things have no reason to exist, don't you think, Second Sister-in-law?"
That was the first time Tan Rou realized that a smiling person could be terrifying, and she also understood the meaning behind his words: imperfect things have no reason to exist, so he would destroy the entire Xie family. And in the Xie family, there was someone Tan Rou cared about, and that was Xie Jie.
Therefore, the strong-willed Tan Rou tolerated Xie Zhao bringing back a concubine from outside. She was still the wife of the second branch of the Xie family, but she had become a second wife who only cared about profit.
The only person who could truly understand Tan Rou's inner turmoil was the old lady.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com