When Wen Yuanbai returned to the manor, he kept thinking about the entanglements between Su Youran, Yun Tianbai, and Shi Wenxia. He recalled the nightmare she had when she was seriously ill at the beginning of the year, and it seemed that he understood something.
He felt even more sorry for his junior sister. It turned out that in his dream, she had been locked in a cellar for a whole year in pitch-black darkness, and had to suffer humiliation at the hands of beggars...
I wonder in which year this happened in my previous life, and whether I will be able to wait for that beggar in that dilapidated temple.
Yun Tianbai deserved it. He must have been used to his junior sister's wealth in his previous life, so he deserved to experience the pain of being broke in this life.
In his previous life, he was able to indulge his concubines and neglect his wife with ease, all because his wife brought a generous dowry that ensured they had no worries about food and clothing.
As a result, all sorts of rare and exotic items were sent to the Yun residence as if they were free over the next month.
One moment it's in Wen Yuanbai's name, and the next it's in the Crown Prince's name.
Heaven have mercy, he just wanted to make his junior sister happy.
Little did Su know that this action stirred up different thoughts in her mind.
At the same time, in order to make Yun Tianbai even more disgusted, he also had someone secretly send Yun Tianbai a private message, revealing the affair between Wu Xinxin and that guard.
Yun Tianbai was already in a state of shock. On one hand, he learned the truth about his mother's wrongful death and was distressed because the murderer was dead and there was no way to get revenge. On the other hand, he regretted that his relationship with his father had become very strained over the years because of his mother's death and the Su family's entry into the family.
Then he thought of how Wu Xinxin had been affected by the curse because of him. He felt guilty and was also afraid that if Marquis Ningyuan found out that Wu Xinxin was harmed by the Qianjin Pill that he had personally fed her, the path he had painstakingly built to reconnect with the Third Prince would be cut off.
Amidst these complex emotions, the discovery of Wu Xinxin's premarital loss of virginity brought him to the brink of vomiting blood.
He didn't understand why, even though he had been reborn and could have made some preparations in advance, he had made a complete mess of things.
The only person he can hold onto now is the Third Prince.
After all, the Third Prince is the future emperor!
...
Although the details of Zhou Qingqian's case were kept secret, the results had to be made public; otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why the Zhou family suddenly lost a girl.
The Dali Temple quickly reviewed and approved the case, and her news was posted on a notice along with the results of a group of other cases.
The legitimate daughter of a respectable and upright family had committed a crime and been exiled, so naturally people went around asking about the gossip.
With Su Youran's tacit approval, Zhou Qingqian's crime and Shi Wenxia's hiding of his younger brother were quickly gossiped about.
Although they appear to be just speculations on the surface, some people with ulterior motives have already spread these stories with great detail and conviction.
As a result, rumors such as Yun Tianbai using his cousin's affair to murder his wife and silence her, killing his brother-in-law to cover up his deceiving the emperor, allowing his cousin to put a poison in Qianjin Pill and feeding it to her personally to get rid of his promiscuous wife, and deliberately using an empty coffin for his cousin's funeral to cover up the truth about his cousin's murder, and so on, immediately spread throughout the capital.
The memorials impeaching him by the censors flew to Emperor Shunqing's desk like snowflakes.
Some people also learned that his brothers in the Northern Army camp had gotten into a drunken brawl with Shi Wenxia because of her identity as the daughter of a traitor, and this was reported to the court, further confirming his motive to harm Shi Wenxia.
Yun Tianbai was utterly speechless.
In his previous life, he was truly devoted to Shi Wenxia. He never even touched his legal wife for her sake, and after Jiang Youran's death, he kept the position of the Crown Prince's wife vacant for her, spending his entire life by his side.
But he couldn't use any of these as evidence.
Even Pei'er, the maid who disappeared from Shi Wenxia's courtyard, was suspected by some to have been murdered by him to silence her.
Moreover, the coffin carried out of the Yun residence on the day of the funeral was indeed empty. If he hadn't known beforehand that his wife had been murdered in the cellar, how could he have felt at ease carrying an empty coffin for the funeral?
Only the explanation that he was aware of the situation and knew that his wife had been defiled by a beggar and was not worthy of being buried in the Yun family cemetery makes sense.
Even though the rumors were quite detailed and the accounts from all sides corroborated each other and were logically sound, there was absolutely no evidence pointing to Yun Tianbai.
Meanwhile, Marquis Anyuan also invited a famous doctor to examine Wu Xinxin based on rumors, and surprisingly found that Wu Xinxin was indeed under the influence of a Gu poison.
In a fit of anger, Marquis Anyuan wrote a divorce agreement and brought Wu Xinxin back to his manor.
This severed the last bridge between him and the Third Prince.
Yun Tianbai was even more ashamed to face anyone, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and resign from his position as deputy commander of the Five Cities Military Command, and slunk back to the Northern Border Army Camp.
On the day she left, Old Madam Yun was so angry that she refused to come out to see her off.
As was customary, Su simply had someone pack their belongings and escort them to the second gate before stopping.
The other siblings only gave a token gift.
Yun Tianbai felt bitter, but his eyes lit up when he saw Su Youran appear by the door.
Su Youran, with red eyes and a handkerchief in her hand, reluctantly stepped out of the door, followed by Su Yue, who was holding a box.
Yun Tianbai's heart skipped a beat. He recalled how Su Youran had generously donated 100,000 taels of silver to the disaster victims in the northern border when his father and fourth uncle left the capital. He was secretly delighted.
Su Youran dabbed at the corner of her eye with a handkerchief before speaking softly and weakly, “Brother, we didn’t know there were other hidden reasons for Aunt’s death before. I can understand why you blamed my mother for taking your mother’s place and why you have been disrespectful and disobedient to her all these years. But now that the truth has come out, you haven’t even offered an apology. I am truly heartbroken for Mother.”
Yun Tianbai: ? ? ? ...
The onlookers immediately erupted in uproar, "No wonder he stayed in the North for six years and never brought back any gifts for his stepmother. It turns out he had been harboring resentment all along!"
Su Youran said with tears welling up in her eyes, "I gave my elder brother some money to do some business before, thinking that if I treated you better, you would be able to accept your mother from the bottom of your heart. But not only did you go out and spend all the money, but you also owe tens of thousands of taels of debt, causing your grandmother to worry as well. It was really my fault."
"My God, so he was spending his sister's money all along!" The people felt they had stumbled upon another juicy juicy story.
"Not only does he spend his sister's money, but he also asks his grandmother for money when he's in debt! What an unfilial son!"
"Didn't you say you resented the Duchess and her daughter? You have a grudge against them, yet you spend your stepsister's money as if it's perfectly justified. How hypocritical!"
Yun Tianbai: ...
Su Youran pressed her eyelids again, gesturing for Su Yue to bring the box up.
The people asked, "What's in there? It's not just more banknotes, is it?"
Su Youran sighed, "Brother, as you know, all of Youran's savings were given to you before. This is the account book that Grandmother asked me to give you. Although Grandmother has told me several times to return all these sums of money to me, how could I accept your money? Take these with you on your journey as a memento. I hope that in the future, you will remember this and not hold any more resentment towards my mother."
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