Sun Yaowen was taken aback upon hearing this: "The Great Prince?!"
Although the Sun Family used to be one of the largest households in Lian’an Town, it was still a remote area far from the Emperor. The highest-ranking official they had ever met was probably just the governor. They had never even thought about meeting a royal prince from the imperial family.
So, Sun Yaowen was naturally dumbfounded for a moment.
On the side, Ji Xiulan sneered and said sarcastically, "Sister Yun is really good at making jokes. Since you failed, just admit your mistake and acknowledge that you are not capable enough. Now, in order to exonerate yourself, you can even come up with such absurd excuses. Do you think the master is easy to fool, so you dare to make up any nonsense?"
Now that the Sun Family had been divided, Sun Yaowen had already established his own household, and he naturally became the master.
Upon hearing this, Sun Yaowen’s face changed drastically, and he angrily glared at Yi Ling and scolded, "How dare you! You really have some guts! Why on earth would the Great Prince come to Lian’an Town? And to intervene for a mere courtesan? This is nothing but nonsense!"
Sun Yaowen was already annoyed that Yi Ling had not accomplished her task, and now that he found out she had dared to deceive him, his anger intensified. He raised his hand and was about to slap her again.
Yi Ling hurriedly tried to dodge, but at this moment, a little maid rushed in: "Master, we might be late for Madame’s birthday celebrations."
Sun Yaowen then slammed his sleeve heavily, glared at Yi Ling again, and said, "I’ll deal with you another day!"
Yi Ling clenched her hand inside her sleeve, her face was already pale, looking pitiful, but the cold flash that passed through her eyes was fierce and ruthless.
Sun Yaowen scolded, "What are you still staring at? Get yourself cleaned and prepare to go to Madame’s birthday celebration!"
Although they had divided the family now, when Sun Yaowen separated from the family last year, he didn’t take much of the family’s industries, only about one-tenth of the Sun Family’s assets, after all, he was just a collateral grandson. The one who got most of the assets was naturally the eldest grandson from the main family, Sun Rui, and Madam Sun lived with the main family, as well.
Outsiders may not know, but people from the Sun family could understand some of it. This division of the family sounds nice, with the eldest grandson Sun Rui getting the largest share, almost half of the Sun Family’s assets were taken by him.
However, in reality, Madam Sun had a strong desire for control. These assets were all managed by her under Grandpa Sun as well, so even after the family was divided, she did not intend to hand over the power to Sun Rui, still holding these assets firmly in her own hands.
Sun Yaowen was unwilling to live with his meager assets and endure a bitter life. Naturally, he became covetous of the other assets in Madam Sun’s hands. Not only did Sun Yaowen think so, but almost everyone in the Sun family did.
After all, such a significant amount of assets were so tempting!
Madam Sun did exactly what she wanted - hooking their interest with these tempting assets, making them dare not despise her, and becoming more and more respectful towards her.
For example, Madam Sun’s birthday celebration this time. In the past, only whole-number birthdays would be celebrated grandly since Grandpa Sun did not like extravagance, and Madam Sun had to comply.
However, this time, even though it was just her sixty-second birthday, it was still celebrated grandly. No one in the Sun family objected to this after Grandpa Sun died. Instead, everyone was supportive of the event.
So, Sun Yaowen did not dare to slack off. A month ago, he began collecting everything that Madam Sun liked, and had made elaborate preparations for her birthday gift, unaware of how much trouble it had caused.
The reason why Sun Yaowen decided to deal with Yi Ling after the autumn was not just because of the urgency of time and not wanting to miss Madame Sun’s birthday banquet, but more importantly, Yi Ling seemed to be more favored by Madame Sun.
Perhaps it was because she had a resourceful and cunning mind, and knew how to please Madam Sun appropriately, which earned her some level of satisfaction. At least in Sun Yaowen’s household, although she was not the most favored, she was the only one who entered Madam Sun’s good graces.
When Sun Yaowen went to celebrate Madam Sun’s birthday, it was only natural to bring Yi Ling along, at least to please Madam Sun, right?
Yi Ling knew what Sun Yaowen was thinking but merely sneered in her heart. This incompetent man relied on her for everything, yet he still always acted arrogant in front of her. She felt disgusted just looking at this incompetent and self-righteous man!
Yi Ling shrank her body, her face full of grievance, got up from the ground, and bowed to Sun Yaowen: "Then, I’ll go and wash up and change my clothes."
Sun Yaowen impatiently waved his hand, "Go! Are you expecting Madame to wait for you?"
Yi Ling bowed and exited, while Ji Xiulan looked smug, coquettishly holding Sun Yaowen’s arm and saying, "Master, please don’t be angry anymore. Let me accompany you to the birthday banquet, so that Sister Yun won’t be waiting on you at the banquet, making you look annoyed."
Sun Yaowen looked at Ji Xiulan, his brows furrowing slightly. Madam Sun held a lot of contempt towards Ji Xiulan nowadays, since she had served Grandpa Sun before and was now in Sun Yaowen’s room. Madam Sun was very dissatisfied with her.
But at this moment, seeing Ji Xiulan pleading like this and thinking about how she had suffered a miscarriage for him, his heart softened, so he said, "If you go, stay away from Madam Sun. Don’t let her see you."
Ji Xiulan was dissatisfied in her heart, but she still smiled on her face and said, "I will naturally listen to my husband’s words. When have I ever been disobedient?"
If it comes to being cunning, Yi Ling really can’t compare to Ji Xiulan. Because she had a trace of pride in her bones, she couldn’t truly submit to a man like Sun Yaowen from the bottom of her heart.
——
Mu Mansion.
Although Xin He went to bed late last night, she still got up early this morning. Perhaps it was because of the tense situation and the disturbance at Hua Manlou last night that involved the Great Prince. She could not sleep soundly without knowing who was behind the whole chaos.
Fortunately, early in the morning, the small servant Xin He had sent out to investigate the culprit behind yesterday’s disturbance returned with an update.
"I had someone follow those who deliberately stirred up trouble yesterday, and found that one of them, a man with a suspicious appearance, went into a tea house after a few twists and turns. One of our men spotted the man meet a woman there. The woman was well-dressed and had a decent appearance, but her face was covered, so we couldn’t see it clearly."
Xin He raised an eyebrow: "A woman?"
"Yes, we wanted to continue the investigation, but it seemed that the woman was very alert. She found our presence and managed to evade us."
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