He was filled with rage, but there was nothing he could do.
They had known each other for ten years and been married for nine. He always felt that his wife was beautiful, gentle, and exceptionally talented. She was capable in both social and domestic settings. Even when he plotted to ruin her reputation and force her to leave, she saw through his scheme. She simply wrote a divorce agreement without crying, making a scene, or holding a grudge.
But he never expected that such a delicate flower would be so hard and decisive when she began to fight back.
The Earl's family's reputation, wealth, and face were all shattered by her, one by one...
Right now, my elder brother's future... is also starting to become precarious.
He was in a daze, and perhaps because he hadn't slept well for over a month, his whole body felt weak and limp. When he went downstairs, he lost his balance and fell down.
"Oh dear!" A waiter was the first to be startled by the commotion.
A crowd gathered around, asking, "How did you fall?"
“I saw it just now. There was no one else on the stairs. He fell down by himself.”
"Yes, yes, I saw it too."
"Hmm, why does this person look so familiar?"
Jiang Mingyi was initially in pain and wanted to open his eyes for help, but after hearing this, he was afraid of being recognized, so he had to pretend to be unconscious.
But waves of pain gradually came from his legs, becoming more and more intense. In just a few breaths, he actually fainted from the pain.
On the verge of excruciating pain, he seemed to hear people around him talking, "Is it the one from the Jiang family who became the prince consort?"
"Waiter, go outside and call out, is there a driver for Jiang Duwei?"
"Yes." The waiter hurriedly ran outside.
The people inside were still discussing, "It's like they're just saying things that come true! Could it be that he thinks the Earl's Mansion hasn't been making enough noise lately? Did he come specifically to hear how the Golden Jade Troupe is planning this play? Hahaha!"
“Look at him, his eyes are all dark and swollen. Did he do something heinous and can’t sleep at night?”
"Oh dear! What did I just say? The misfortunes of this Earl's mansion just keep piling up! And look, there's another one!"
"Hahaha—what bad luck!"
As they were talking, a coachman ran in. Sure enough, it was his master. He quickly picked him up and ran outside.
This left everyone sighing in dismay.
When Xiao Youran and her mother went downstairs, they heard people in the lobby talking amongst themselves.
Only then did they realize that Jiang Mingyi had fallen down the stairs.
The mother and daughter felt nothing but schadenfreude.
Su's casual probing remark just now basically confirmed that she must be hiding some secret that concerns the entire Earl's Mansion.
Recalling that after Marquis Yun was falsely accused of treason and exiled to Ningguta, the military power of the Dingzhou border army fell into the hands of the third son of the Jiang family, she suddenly had a guess that Marquis Yun's affairs might be related to these unusual actions of the Yong'an Earl's Mansion.
Back at the manor, she shared her guess with Xiao Youran.
I didn't expect my daughter to offer any insights, but to my surprise, she said, "Mother, I've already had someone keep an eye on that scumbag father and Jiang Qianshi. If you can contact your maternal uncle in Ningguta, you might as well ask him."
As for how Yunhou was able to achieve great merit and be reinstated three years later, she had been taking care of her sick mother for those three years in her previous life and had no idea of the reasons behind it.
Later, she married into the Yun family and rarely heard the Yun family mention it, so she said she couldn't give away any spoilers.
We'll just have to let my cousins figure it out themselves.
Since Mother has doubts, it would be good for her to remind her eldest cousin as soon as possible so that he can make his presence known.
Who knows, there might be another surprise?
...
In Ningguta, Liaozhou, Northeast China, a dim oil lamp burns quietly in a small, dark room.
Yun Yue, the former Marquis of Pingyuan and General of Pingyuan, held a letter in his hand, his hand trembling slightly.
The letter was written in familiar, delicate handwriting, handwriting I hadn't seen in over ten years.
Or rather, even if he had seen it, it wasn't written to him by the person whose handwriting it was.
The envelope of this letter clearly reads "To my dear cousin Yun Yue".
The letter was written by Madam Su. In it, she only said that she suspected the Yong'an Marquis's family of being involved in framing her cousin for treason. The most suspicious person was Jiang Laosan, and she gave him the opportunity to have the soldiers investigate him in detail.
Nothing else was mentioned.
But Yun Yue knew that she and Jiang Lao Er had divorced, and Jiang Lao Er had married Princess Qingping.
He also knew that his mother, wife, children, siblings, nieces, and nephews had all been implicated by him and returned to their ancestral home. During the most difficult time when they lacked food and clothing, it was this cousin who brought her children to his family and provided them with the gentlest companionship, teaching them how to get through the lowest point in their lives.
He knew his mother's temperament; she was always proud and wouldn't tolerate charity. He also knew a little about his mother's relationship with the Su family and knew she would never accept a single penny of their help. Unexpectedly, his cousin and her two children became their family's saviors.
Remembering what his wife, Zhou, had told him in her letter, he longed to go back and see what his nephew and niece, whom he hadn't seen for years, looked like now. How had they transformed from spendthrift sons into such adorable little treasures?
"Father." A slightly childish voice came from outside the door, and then a boy of twelve or thirteen years old walked in.
"Tianbai," Yun Yue tucked the letter back into his sleeve and asked with a smile, "Have you finished your homework with Tianbai today?"
Yun Tianbai nodded. “It’s done. A few days ago, I received the cloth that my mother sent. These past two days, my second brother and I have been strolling around the city and found that the brocade here is extremely expensive if sold to the Northern Di people. I was just about to discuss it with my father when I learned that my mother happens to own a cloth shop. If she could send twenty or thirty bolts of brocade over every month, we could resell them and make a good profit.”
"The Northern Barbarians?" Perhaps it was because he had been guarding the border for too long, but Yun Yue couldn't shake his inherent sensitivity.
Yun Tianbai nodded, "Of course, it's not just cloth. We can also make a lot of money selling our tea and porcelain to the Northern Di people. It's just a pity that we don't have a source of these goods. Although my mother's place is a bit far away, the cloth shop at home is a very stable source of goods."
"Nothing else on your mind?" Yun Yue asked.
Yun Tianbai laughed and said, "Father, now that we're in Ningguta, we have neither a battle to fight nor soldiers to lead, what else can we be thinking about? We just want to earn more money so that you and your uncles can have an easier life. If we have any surplus, we can send it back to Grandmother and the others so that they don't have to worry. Now that we have our own way of making money, we don't need to accept their charity anymore, don't you think?"
Yun Yue nodded, "In that case, send back all the silver notes your mother has sent over the past few days, along with some we've saved, as payment for the first batch of goods."
"Yes." Yun Tianbai happily bowed in thanks and went out excitedly.
As soon as he stepped out of the room, Yun Tianbai's expression immediately changed.
He finally took the first step, doing business with the Northern Di people, and then slowly building relationships and gathering information.
He knew that his current situation wouldn't last much longer, and all he could do was wait patiently.
He will wait for the opportune moment next year to unfold, so that he can, like in his previous life, achieve great merit alongside his father, then head west to reclaim Wangsha City, which has been occupied by the Western barbarians, thereby finding the true traitorous deputy general, clearing his name, and restoring his father to his original position.
He left full of confidence.
Inside the room, Yun Yue pondered for a long time before finally putting pen to paper.
...
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