Chapter 226 A Foolish Woman Obsessed with Love
Inside the prison, Li Jin narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Zhao Can?" He was slightly surprised as he looked at Yang Defa's face.
The arrogant and overbearing fellow who was just half an incense stick ago now looked as if he had lost half his life, his face pale and his lips white.
It doesn't sound like a lie.
But Li Jin was really not convinced. Although he was not familiar with Zhao Can, he had seen him more than once or twice during the New Year's Eve banquet for the families of court officials.
Although he was not academically gifted and was not sent to the three upper provinces, he still managed to hold a stable position as a vice minister in the Ministry of Revenue thanks to his eloquence and ability to speak to people in a way that suited them.
Is it possible that he would kill someone with his own hands?
Seeing that Li Jin remained silent, Yang Defa pursed his lips and quickly said, "Miss Xu deeply loves Zhao Can and is willing to be his concubine." He lowered his eyes, "...but Zhao Can is just playing around."
As he spoke these words, it was as if a box filled with pain had been gently opened in his heart, and his eyes flickered with dark and ambiguous emotions.
“Miss Xu is indeed my lawfully wedded wife,” he said. “But I married her to help Zhao Can conceal her and her child.”
On one side is Zhao Can, the eldest son of the current prime minister and one of the crown prince's confidants, who grew up under the influence of power and money.
On one side was the daughter of an unknown local gentry, powerless and without influence, possessing only a hundred acres of fertile land, less than a minor official in the capital.
From the very beginning, Zhao Can never intended to reciprocate Miss Xu's love.
His only response from beginning to end was to praise Miss Xu's pure and beautiful appearance.
“I’ve been Zhao Can’s study companion for over ten years, and no one knows him better than me.” Yang Defa sighed deeply. “He’s a smooth talker, and there are plenty of women, from courtesans to respectable women, who are willing to give everything for him.”
“Ha, none of them ended up well,” he said. “Initially, when they first met, Zhao Can just wanted to have some fun. Once he got bored, he would just give them some money and be done with it.”
Yang Defa actually despised Zhao Can: "He never felt that he needed to be responsible for women. He said that men are the ones who set power, so why should they be responsible for those who serve them?" A look of disgust appeared on his face. "He's a piece of scum."
However, Yang Defa knew these things, but Miss Xu did not.
Miss Xu, who was visiting the capital for the first time, had never seen such a talkative and dashing young man as Zhao Can.
Zhao Can meticulously arranged everything for her, from food and clothing to shelter and transportation, and took her to enjoy the flowers and scenery in the capital. When others asked about it, she would blush with embarrassment.
The naive young girl, unable to resist the poisonous allure of his sweet words, fell into his feigned tenderness.
During that time, Zhao Can's study companion, Yang Defa, was also there for them.
Zhao Can had too many women around him, and he was afraid of being bumped into in the street and ending up in a chaotic scene.
Thus, Yang Defa became his shield.
"This girl is Yang Defa's lover, don't talk nonsense." Zhao Can said with a smile while glancing at Yang Defa, who was standing not far behind Miss Xu.
Only Yang Defa knew that Zhao Can would not take responsibility for Miss Xu.
“I tried to advise her, saying that she was a pure girl, and that she was worlds apart from Mr. Zhao. I told her she should give up her hopes as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary sorrow.” Yang Defa shook his head. “But she wouldn’t listen, she wouldn’t believe me. She believed that Zhao Can was a good man, someone who would bring her happiness, someone who would love and protect her.”
At this point, Yang Defa took a deep breath.
He glanced at Li Jin, gave a weak, feeble smile, turned around, leaned against a prison pillar, and slowly sat down.
"She was so foolish that she thought she could win Zhao Can's true love by giving everything she had."
That May, the evening breeze was slightly cool.
Perhaps it was the chirping of insects that sounded like music, or perhaps it was the intoxicating fragrance of flowers, but with a pot of "Immortal's Intoxication," Miss Xu and Zhao Can crossed the line they shouldn't have crossed.
“It’s easy to get over it.” Yang Defa said this with great difficulty, emphasizing each word.
He seemed unwilling to recall the incident, and each syllable he uttered appeared to require eight-tenths of his strength.
"Once you step over it, it becomes Ms. Xu's hell."
Yang Defa tilted his head back, resting it on a pillar, and laughed self-deprecatingly, "After Zhao Can got her, he found food tasteless and started avoiding her."
"After being turned away several times, Miss Xu wrote a letter to the Prime Minister's residence, but Zhao Can would not read it at all and would just tear it up and throw it away."
He closed his eyes, leaned back, and paused for a long time before saying, "Until she found out she was pregnant."
Perhaps it was the strength that comes with motherhood, for the usually gentle Miss Xu knelt on the stone steps in front of the Prime Minister's residence for two whole days and nights. Her affair with Zhao Can finally reached the Prime Minister's ears.
"She was invited into the Prime Minister's residence, thinking that her suffering was finally over." Yang Defa sneered, "That was just because that father and son were worried that things would escalate and they would lose face."
That day, the entire Prime Minister's residence was in an uproar.
Zhao Can usually manages to escape unscathed when he goes out for a stroll.
He would disappear without a trace while hiring people to intimidate him, and then settle things directly with money.
Unexpectedly, this time she encountered a stubborn Miss Xu. She searched high and low for Xu who had vanished without a trace, showed no fear of threats, and refused to accept a single penny.
"She just wants to stay by Zhao Can's side, have a child, and give the child a father. She's willing to do anything else." Yang Defa took a deep breath.
The damp, musty air in the prison was like a sobering medicine.
It could awaken Yang Defa's tangled thoughts, but it couldn't awaken the foolish woman in his memory who was infatuated with love.
"Her commotion reached the Prime Minister's ears." He chuckled. "Zhao Can wants me to testify that the child in that girl's belly is mine."
Yang Defa pursed his lips, lowered his head, and shook his head after a long while: "But... I can't have children, the Prime Minister knows this very well. That's one of the reasons why I can stay in the Prime Minister's residence."
“That day, Zhao Can only admitted that he had a one-night stand with Miss Xu, but denied that the child in her womb was his,” he said. “But no one knows a son better than his father, how could the Prime Minister not know what kind of person his son is?”
"In order to keep Miss Xu calm, he proposed a solution."
At this point, Yang Defa took a deep breath.
He looked up at the only window in the prison, and at the light shining through it onto the floor, just like the light that had shone on Miss Xu back then.
She thought she had found the only way out of the darkness, the only hope.
"He said that I should marry Miss Xu properly, and then Miss Xu could stay in Zhao Can's courtyard as a concubine."
Prime Minister Zhao Wencheng, taking advantage of the power imbalance between himself and the Xu family, used the most clumsy means to trample on Miss Xu's dignity, hoping that she would back down.
"But to my surprise, she agreed."
Yang Defa laughed as if he had lost his mind: "She actually agreed."
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