Chapter 6, Chapter 6, The Bestowal of Marriage.
Ji Wanyuan's drowsiness was scared away.
"What...what did you say?!"
Jade repeated itself.
Upon hearing this, Ji Wanyuan sat on the bed in a daze, her sleepy eyes widening in disbelief.
A marriage arranged by imperial decree?
An arranged marriage?!
Are you kidding me?
What kind of marriage was this? Why would the Emperor suddenly bestow a marriage upon her and Wen Qiyan?
You see, a long time ago, she really liked Wen Qiyan so much that she even had the idea of asking her father to ask the emperor to grant them a marriage.
But her father said no, the Wen family was no ordinary family. Even if she asked the emperor, he would have to ask the Wen family's opinion first. Only if they agreed would His Majesty grant the marriage.
Wen Qiyan avoided her like the plague, so how could she possibly agree? Therefore, she reluctantly suppressed her feelings at the time and was depressed about it for a while.
And now, the engagement was just called off yesterday, and today they're bestowing a marriage upon us?! What on earth is going on?
Even if it's fast, it can't be that fast, right? Who's behind this? Are they hoping she'll die?
"Miss, are you...?"
Jade asked her to say something, but because of her pregnancy, she dared not shake her violently to bring her back to her senses.
"I..." Ji Wanyuan took a while to recover. Before she could finish speaking, she hurriedly got out of bed and rushed out.
Jade quickly pulled her back, "Miss, you haven't dressed up yet. How can you go out like this?"
"What kind of decorum is this!" Ji Wanyuan was almost in tears, no longer caring about decorum.
He grabbed a cloak from the side, put it on, covered his head, and ran outside, only to bump into Madam Ji, who was carrying an imperial edict, at the door.
Ji Wanyuan first saw the bright yellow imperial edict in her mother's hand, and then she looked hesitant to speak.
"Yuan'er, your marriage to the eldest son of the Wen family is definitely settled. You—"
Upon hearing this, Ji Wanyuan's vision went black, and she fell backward, startling Madam Ji who cried out, "Yuan'er!"
The jade, which was almost hit by her, was luckily caught by her. "Miss!"
Madam Ji was extremely anxious and shouted to the maids following behind her, "Quickly go and call the doctor and the imperial physician!"
Not long after the eunuch left, the Ji family was thrown into chaos.
When Ji Wanyuan woke up, it was already late at night. When she opened her eyes, she saw a swaying figure, as if she were seeing that dream of a difficult childbirth.
She was in excruciating pain at that time, tears and sweat streaming down her face, her vision blurred, she couldn't see people clearly, she could only see a throng of figures, and she couldn't tell who was who.
"Yuan'er, you're finally awake! You scared your mother and father to death! How are you feeling?" Madam Ji rushed forward to comfort her as soon as she saw her open her eyes.
Ji Wanyuan rolled her eyes, looking at the worried expressions on Madam Ji and Prime Minister Ji's faces. Thinking of what had happened before she fainted, and the dream she had just had, she pouted and started to cry.
Seeing this, Madam Ji hurriedly sighed and called her "ancestor" to coax her.
Upon hearing the word "ancestor," she truly felt as if she were ascending to heaven. With the imperial decree, her life was hopeless; she was doomed to die anyway.
Since dying sooner or later is inevitable, it's better to die now. At least it won't be such a gruesome death. No one will give her a grand funeral. She'll just be wrapped in a straw mat and placed in a thin coffin. Everything will be kept simple and hastily.
She can still be comforted and loved when she cries at home. If she were to go to the Wen family, who knows what would happen to her.
Prime Minister Ji was given a headache by her wailing as soon as she woke up.
She's the daughter I've raised with love, so I can't bear to be harsh with her.
Prime Minister Ji sat down and patiently told her to stop crying and to talk things out. He said she had to stop crying as soon as she woke up, and her eyes were swollen like walnuts.
Knowing that Ji Wanyuan loved beauty, he scared her by saying that crying too much would make her ugly.
Upon hearing this, Ji Wanyuan indeed lowered her voice a bit, but she still kept nestled in Madam Ji's arms, sniffling with her bright red nose.
“Your father is right, it’s not nice to cry anymore.”
"You love to compete with the Lin family, but if you become ugly, you won't be able to surpass her."
When Madam Ji saw that she had stopped talking, she took the handkerchief that the maid had wrung out and wiped her face.
Ji Wanyuan said irritably, "Mother, can you please stop bringing up things that are hard to talk about?"
Lin Nianxi entered the Wen family the year after her death. Mentioning this person's name made her teeth itch again, and she wished she could bite and suck blood to vent her anger.
"Okay, okay, let's not talk about it anymore, and don't cry." The handkerchief he had wrung out was soaked with her tears.
Madam Ji remarked that she never knew her daughter could cry so intensely.
"Father...didn't you say before that His Majesty wouldn't bestow a marriage upon us?"
"What exactly happened today? Was what you said yesterday about successfully breaking off the engagement a lie to our daughter?" she asked in a sweet, coquettish voice.
Madam Ji explained that the engagement had indeed been successfully called off, but as for the arranged marriage...
Before he could finish speaking, Prime Minister Ji interrupted, asking, "Yuan'er, what exactly is going on between you and Wen Qiyan?"
Before Ji Wanyuan could answer, Prime Minister Ji threw out two more chilling questions.
"You were determined to marry him back then, but now that you're eligible, you're vehemently resisting. Why is that?"
"Also, your mother said that you previously said you would die if the child wasn't aborted, and that you would die a horrible death, and that the entire Ji family would be in trouble, with no one able to escape. What does that mean? What exactly happened?"
Ji Wanyuan's heart skipped a beat, and she instantly tensed up, her expression becoming evasive.
Seeing this, Prime Minister Ji comforted her, saying, "Don't be afraid. Your parents are here for you. No matter what happens, your father and mother will support you. So tell your father what happened."
Ji Wanyuan stammered; was she trying to say something?
Tell her father that they are actually characters from a storybook, and that the Ji family will soon be destroyed.
Can her father believe her? Will things get better if he tells her?
But now that the imperial decree has been issued, even if his father knows about it, is he supposed to disobey it? Disobeying an imperial decree is a capital offense! Their family is already being watched.
These past few days she's tried to stir things up, getting her parents to break off the engagement, but no matter what she does, it seems she always ends up back on the "right path."
Things will unfold exactly as she learned, according to the events described in that storybook.
From her pregnancy to her marriage, what's next? It's Wen Qiyan's close manipulation of her; she's being used as a pawn to destroy the Ji family.
Thinking of this, Ji Wanyuan was suddenly filled with grief and anger. She felt that she was really too stupid, so stupid that she was blinded by love, used and manipulated by a man who never liked her, and ultimately caused the Ji family to suffer and her parents to die.
Why couldn't this precognitive dream have come sooner? If she had known these things earlier, she wouldn't have drugged Wen Qiyan.
As long as she wasn't drugged, none of this would have happened; she wouldn't have had a child with Wen Qiyan and wouldn't have been forced into marriage.
The more I think about it, the more I wish I were dead. If she died at this critical moment, would everything be alright?
But she didn't want to die. She was scared and cried. She admitted that she was a coward when it came to life and death.
She made excuses for herself again—even if she were to die with a heavy heart, there was no guarantee that things wouldn't take a turn for the better, "..."
"Yuan'er, what are you thinking about?"
Prime Minister Ji waited for a while, but seeing her ever-changing expression, he couldn't glean any useful information from her face.
He sent people to investigate today, but it will take some time, so he came to ask Ji Wanyuan first, since she is acting very strangely.
"I……"
After thinking it over, Ji Wanyuan made up her mind not to say anything.
She carefully selected her words before explaining why she didn't want to marry Wen Qiyan: she was indeed afraid of his revenge.
"Revenge?" Madam Ji and Prime Minister Ji asked in confusion.
“…Mm.” Ji Wanyuan nodded.
Her mind raced, and her heart pounded with anxiety. She quickly recounted how she had arranged to meet Wen Qiyan, and how, before the meeting, she had someone put the strongest aphrodisiac powder, the kind used on livestock, into his tea, and then…
"Then those things happened..." She wasn't exactly lying, so she felt flustered but not guilty.
Prime Minister Ji's face darkened, "..."
He wondered how the two of them could suddenly develop feelings for each other, and sure enough, it was not a strange thing.
"Yuan'er, you!" Madam Ji clicked her tongue. "What can I say about you?"
"Daughter knows she was wrong..." Ji Wanyuan lowered her head and quickly admitted her mistake, "I will never dare to do it again next time."
She had said those words many times that day to the cold-faced man who had trapped her beneath him and bullied her mercilessly.
"My daughter has already learned her lesson," Ji Wanyuan muttered softly, sniffing.
"What kind of hardship?" Prime Minister Ji asked, puzzled.
Madam Ji suddenly remembered the reasons why she had cried and explained that she did not want to marry Wen Qiyan.
They said he was using too much force.
How can I possibly explain this?!
Madam Ji interrupted, "It must have been that Wen family brat who intimidated our Yuan'er."
Prime Minister Ji asked her if that was true.
Ji Wanyuan nodded her head like a rattle-drum, "Yes..." She began to lie, "He said that day that he would not let his daughter go and would kill her."
"Did I say he wanted to go against the Ji family? I even cursed him, saying what is the Wen family anyway?"
"He sneered that the Wen family was nothing, but the Ji family would soon cease to exist, and that he would make me die a very ugly death, and that none of the Ji family members who were protecting me would escape."
Wen Qiyan had never said any of these things. After the matter was over that day, he withdrew and looked down at her, who was disheveled and pitiful.
It's like seeing something dirty, feeling disgusted, turning around and leaving, never to return...
"That Wen family brat, how dare he be so presumptuous!" Prime Minister Ji was furious.
"That's why my daughter didn't want to marry him... but now the imperial decree has arrived..."
"Why didn't you tell your mother and father sooner?" Madam Ji wanted to scold her.
Ji Wanyuan clutched the quilt, "Daughter was just... afraid of being scolded by you, who knew she would get pregnant later."
"Sigh..." Madam Ji sighed.
There's no point in saying more.
"Father, Mother... I'm sorry."
Ji Wanyuan suddenly lowered her head and said, "I shouldn't have been so willful as to provoke Wen Qiyan. Now I really regret it to the core."
That was the truth. As she spoke, the tears she had held back began to fall like tiny pearls.
Seeing her crying pitifully and weakly, Prime Minister Ji did not scold her. Instead, he comforted her, "Alright, I'm not blaming you. Let me handle this matter."
What should be done? Should we disobey orders?
"Father, I've thought about it, and I'll marry him then. After all, it's difficult to disobey the imperial decree..."
"Yuan'er, you—" Madam Ji hadn't finished speaking.
Ji Wanyuan said, "After all, I'm still your daughter even after I get married. If anything happens to me, Father... Mother... you must protect me."
What else could she do but get married?
Let's just take it one step at a time and see what happens.
At worst, I'll just die.
Hearing her cries, Prime Minister Ji and his wife felt a pang of sadness.
Because the marriage was bestowed by the emperor, Prime Minister Ji went to see the emperor the next day, but was unable to persuade the emperor to rescind his decision.
Firstly, the Emperor said that the Emperor's word is law and cannot be changed; secondly, Ji Wanyuan is already pregnant with the Wen family's offspring, and the Wen family specifically came to request the decree; thirdly, the Emperor said that he had learned from Imperial Physician Fu that Ji Wanyuan's pregnancy must not be terminated, otherwise she would never be able to become a mother again.
Therefore, marriage between the two families is the best outcome.
On that day, Prime Minister Ji returned empty-handed.
The imperial court acted swiftly, and the Ministry of Rites set the wedding date for the nearest auspicious day.
All matters related to the marriage were handled by the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Revenue, and were completed very quickly.
Before they knew it, the day arrived for the Ji family to marry off their daughter and for the Wen family to hold their wedding.
On May 24th, the sky was clear and the bridal sedan chair of the Wen family arrived at their door.
Ji Wanyuan sat upright in front of the dressing table, looking at herself in the mirror, wearing a phoenix coronet and wedding robes, with black hair and red lips.
She's about to marry the person she once loved most, but she just can't be happy...
A note from the author:
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I'm here! It's a bit laggy though. [rainbow emoji][rainbow emoji]
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