Things really got out of hand when Miss Guo's aunt, Mrs. Meng, once again interrogated Miss Guo's personal maids. It turned out that Miss Guo asked the two sisters of the Jiang family to go boating on the lake at the warming party not just to get some cool breeze or to have a quarrel.
By chance, the eldest daughter of the Guo family learned a secret of the eighth daughter of the Jiang family. She called her out to confront her.
A few years ago, the Sixth Miss Jiang didn't attend the Qianjin Banquet because she was not used to the local climate, but because the Eighth Miss Jiang poisoned her cousin, causing a rash on her face and forcing her to stay in the villa in Yunyang City.
No one knows how the eldest daughter of the Guo family knew about this matter and obtained evidence. At that time, she just wanted to make the sisters of the Jiang family turn against each other or force the Jiang family to cancel the engagement, but in the end, the secret was revealed by Mrs. Meng.
Everyone was shocked.
Although minor quarrels between young girls are not considered a big deal, framing siblings for the sake of a marriage is a taboo. Naturally, no good family would be willing to let such a vicious and mean girl in.
So when Second Young Master Yun found out, he was the first to quit.
The Yun family was naturally not easily swayed by rumors, so Old Madam Yun and Madam Yun sent people to investigate what happened three years ago. They indeed found evidence that Jiang Yuanniang had harmed Jiang Qianniang.
Three years ago, Old Lady Yun had suspected Jiang Qianniang was ill and had even sent someone to investigate. However, the suspicion that had been covered up three years earlier had finally come to light three years later. Jiang Qianniang couldn't deny it even if she wanted to.
Old Mrs. Yun and Mrs. Yun were also very angry.
The second young master Yun proposed to cancel the engagement, and the elders of the Yun family didn't know what to say, so they could only send someone to invite the Jiang family to negotiate.
The Jiang family was also experiencing a big storm at this time.
Jiang Yuanniang and Jiang Qianniang's great-grandfather, Jiang Zhenwen, was old. He had been bedridden for most of the past year and had been inactive. Just a few days ago, Jiang Zhenwen suddenly opened the ancestral hall and announced in front of several elders that he would give the position of clan leader to his eldest grandson, Jiang Yan.
Jiang Zhenwen had two legitimate sons. The eldest, Jiang Shi, died young, and for many years, the second, Jiang Huai, had been the master of most Jiang family affairs. Although Jiang Huai held the title of patriarch, he was the de facto leader. The deceased Jiang Shi had a son, Jiang Yan, who was also Jiang Qianniang's father. As a scholar, Jiang Zhenwen attached great importance to the etiquette of distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate children and respecting seniority. Therefore, his preferred candidate for patriarch was not his second son, but his eldest, legitimate grandson.
Jiang Huai had been the head of the Jiang family for so many years, so naturally he was unwilling to give up his position to his nephew. So three years ago, Jiang Yuanniang tried her best to win the Yun family as an ally for her family.
No one expected that the first wife, who had been following the second wife in a timid manner for so many years, would make a comeback. The engagement between the second wife of the Jiang family and the Yun family also happened to run into problems at this critical juncture.
The condition of Jiang Zhenwen, the old man of the Jiang family, worsened a few days after he returned from the ancestral hall. Sisters Jiang Yuanniang and Jiang Qianniang also had to go back to Shunzhou to visit him. It was very likely that old man Jiang would not survive this winter.
The story of Jiang Yuanniang poisoning her sisters has become a hot topic. If it had happened three years ago, she and her mother might have been able to cover it up or find someone to blame. Unfortunately, the incident was exposed three years later, at a time when tensions between the Jiang family's first and second branches were high. Jiang Yuanniang is unable to defend herself. This also shows the caution and forbearance of those behind the plot.
The day before the Jiang sisters left Yunyang City, Yun Wen saw the maidservant who served Jiang Qianniang in a side room of a restaurant again.
The maid lowered her head to express her master's gratitude to Yun Wenfang.
Yun Wenfang didn't even glance at the maid. "We each took what we needed. Besides agreeing to marry Jiang Yuanniang three years ago, I haven't done anything, so don't put the blame on me."
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