Chapter 72
When an engagement was canceled, normally either the woman or the man was the condemned party, whereas in this case, the one who was criticized was a third party, Wei Yan.
Since Mo Huating was willing to accept this marriage, and Wei Yuewu generously expressed her wish to save Wei Yan’s life even at the expense of relinquishing the engagement that was widely praised in the capital, their engagement was truly annulled. Empress Tu called over the Third Lady, Lady Zhang, and asked her to report to the Madam Dowager when she returned.
The empress’s order was to annul the engagement between Wei Yuewu and Mo Huating, let Wei Yan take the place of the would-be bride and the two families re-exchange marriage contracts.
This could be considered a bizarre case of annulment. Both parties to it, the male and the female, received sympathy from people. However, Wei Yan became the most despised for a number of factors: breaching a lady’s etiquette, competing with her sister for her fiancee, and coercing her saviour into marrying her.
In all those aspects, Wei Yan could be considered shameless and indecent, and was despised by all the ladies and young ladies.
After such a thing happened, Wei Yan naturally couldn’t attend the banquet anymore. As for the matter between her and the imperial doctor who was burned to death, the true story could never be found. That imperial doctor was burned alive in the chamber. What exactly had happened between him and Wei Yan? Had he been tricked to go there?
Why was the chamber on fire all of a sudden?…
Everyone lost the motive to pursue those questions!
It might be Wei Yan’s maid, Wei Yan herself, or even the person who wanted to hurt the Sixth Miss Wei. Anyway, only the Second Miss Wei and her maid survived. The maid, of course, listened to her mistress. Yet no one trusted the Second Miss Wei. Whatever she said, everyone only felt suspicious of her.
Although Wei Yan could no longer attend the banquet, she had to change her clothes. The Empress had someone take her to another place. Shuiyue, who survived the calamity, was already waiting there. She had changed her clothes and was wearing a palace-maid suit. As she was a maid, it was impossible for her to bring with a spare set of clothes.
“Miss.” Seeing Wei Yan coming over, Shuiyue called timidly.
As there were people outside, Wei Yan could not scold her maid. She turned around and signaled for Shuiyue to come in.
Hardly had Wei Yan entered the room and Shuiyue closed the door than Wei Yan raised her hand and slapped Shuiyue fiercely on the face. The maid immediately fell to the side.
“Bitch, you told me to go inside without seeing it clearly.” Wei Yan gritted her teeth and scolded in a low voice. After all, this was the Empress’ place. She was not bold enough to be presumptuous in such a place.
“Miss, I didn’t know. I really thought that Sixth Young Lady was in that room, but… why she wasn’t…” Shuiyue lay on the ground covering her face with her hand and uttered those words with tears of grievance.
Shuiyue really had no idea how things turned out like this. She had followed Wei Yan into the room and as soon as she entered, she found her mistress falling down. She hurriedly reached out to support her, but then the scene before her eyes turned dark. When she woke up, there were flames all around.
Fortunately, the window beside her was burnt down to reveal a big hole. She then hurriedly crawled out of it.
“It must be plotted by Wei Yuewu, the little bitch.” Wei Yan slammed heavily on the table and uttered those words with a ferocious expression.
Whereas other people blamed Wei Yan for this accident, Wei Yan, though unable to figure out what exactly had happened, blamed Wei Yuewu for this.
The moment she thought of the bitch Wei Yuewu was perfectly fine while she made such a big fool of herself, her pretty face was filled with hatred and viciousness.
She would not let Wei Yuewu off the hook no matter what. She had no time to criticize Wei Yuewu in front of the Empress. At this moment she wished she could tear Wei Yuewu into pieces.
“I… I think that it might have to do with Sixth Young Lady. Miss, you went to find Sixth Young Lady, but she was not in the room.” At this time, as long as Wei Yan didn’t blame her, Shuiyue would echo whatever her mistress said.
Moreover, Shuiyue would not believe that it had nothing to do with the Sixth Young Lady in that situation.
If it hadn’t been for the blood stained sleeve of the Sixth Young Lady, the Second Young Lady and she wouldn’t have directly entered the room, and the following incident wouldn’t have happened.
Fortunately, the Second Young Lady could at least marry Marquis Jing Yuan. Otherwise, if something happened to the Second Young Lady, Shuiyue would really have no choice but to die after she returned.
“Bitch, bitch.” Wei Yan slammed the table hatefully and kicked over the brocade-covered stool in the room. She understood that although she managed to obtain the engagement with Mo Huating, her reputation was completely ruined. She could never hold up her head in front of people. This was all because of Wei Yuewu, the little bitch. She would never let that little bitch have her way.
“Shuiyue, go to that little bitch right now. Send my words to her that I am now in a very bad state and want her to come over to see me.” Wei Yan sat down on the bed with a sullen expression on her face. Her eyes were filled with madness. She would never let Wei Yuewu feel comfortable if she herself couldn’t…
All guests were disturbed by Wei Yan’s incident. Even though the young ladies and madams were very much cultured, they couldn’t help gossiping about it in small groups. What happened this time made them deeply disdainful of Wei Yan and sympathetic towards the Sixth Young Lady and Marquis Jing Yuan.
The latter two could originally be considered a perfect match. However, now, they had to be torn apart because of Wei Yan.
When in Empress Tu’s palace, both of them had shown their full consideration to each other, which was truly lamentable.
Anyway, today’s matter happened in the Imperial Palace, and with the presence of the Empress, it was settled in the end. The ladies and young ladies went to the resting place in twos and threes to dress themselves up again. After all, they were going to attend the banquet later on. Compared to the state affair of the offering of captives by the heir-apparent of the Duke of Yan State,
Wei Yan’s incident wasn’t a big deal.
The resting place was of course changed. Although not much of that courtyard was burnt, it was not appropriate anymore to let the guests rest there.
Wei Yuewu was stopped at an artificial hill by Mo Huating who suddenly jumped out.
“Sixth Miss Wei, what a good maneuver!” Mo Huating looked at Wei Yuewu with a cold expression on his handsome face.
Speaking of which, this Marquis Jing Yuan indeed had all that were needed to attract the admiration from maidens. He was handsome and owned the title of Marquis Jing Yuan. He held a position in the Imperial Guards and was valued by the Emperor. And the mansion of Marquis Jing Yuan was a clean place, with no concubines. As his mother was dead, one could directly become the mistress of the mansion once she married into the mansion.
She didn’t even need to face the harsh trial of her mother-in-law.
With so many good conditions, it was no wonder that Wei Yan would dive in and plan for Mo Huating wholeheartedly.
Wei Yuewu pulled Jin Ling back, who was on the alert, and signaled for her not to move. Then, she held her sleeves and deeply curtsied to Mo Huating. “Congratulations, Marquis Jing Yuan. You are going to have a beautiful wife.”
Mo Huating’s face froze. His eyes fell on Wei Yuewu’s seemingly childish but placid face. A trace of coldness swept across his eyes.
She looked such a thin and weak girl. Her face still carried a sense of childishness, yet her eyes were clear and calm, as if this so-called farce had no effect on her at all. However, Mo Huating didn’t believe that she really didn’t know anything about this matter; neither did he believe that she was as innocent as she had appeared.
She must know that it was her, not Wei Yan, who almost fell into the trap. Didn’t she feel afraid after the incident?
Nevertheless, Mo Huating only saw a pale weakness on her face due to the loss of blood. There was no trace of panic. He had battled with Wei Yuewu before. Of course, he did not believe that Wei Yuewu was ignorant of this incident; neither did he believe that her clear eyes were really as pure as they seemed.
However, this young girl with an inexperienced air was precisely a myth to him.
He couldn’t even figure out whether she really hadn’t discovered her own crisis or she had just taken it for granted that she wanted to cancel their engagement.
Ever since the assassination incident, she had been strongly opposed to this engagement. And because of his own misjudgment of her, he had failed to control the situation every time. He had gone through many things, but now, when facing such a young girl, he felt a sense of helplessness despite all the advantages he had.
This was enough for Mo Huating to take this Sixth Miss Wei in front of him seriously, who had been completely ignored by him.
He was a man of the hour in the capital at present. There were many girls who admired him, including noble young ladies, beautiful young ladies, talented young ladies and even talented and beautiful young ladies… However, this was the first time that he met someone like Wei Yuewu.
She was such a girl, who was on the one hand above worldly affairs like an orchid and on the other hand mixed in the world like a peony.
She was both charming and mysterious.
If he had known that he was going to marry such a girl, would he have been reluctant to make a move against her?…
This thought flashed through Mo Huating’s mind, but it was instantly dismissed. He looked at Wei Yuewu and smiled coldly. “Sixth Miss Wei, isn’t this what you wanted?”
“Marquis Jing Yuan, I don’t understand what you mean. I only know that you and Second Elder Sister love each other so much that you must marry her and she must marry you. Now aren’t you and Second Elder Sister satisfied?” Wei Yuewu smiled faintly and responded calmly to Mo Huating’s accusation.
Mo Huating was choked by those words. There were some things unproven due to lack of evidence, but that didn’t mean they were unknown.
This was especially true to him and Wei Yuewu, who were most closely concerned in those issues. The scene of the assassination must be imprinted in Wei Yuewu’s mind!
“Sixth Miss Wei, if you still want to marry me, it’s not impossible.” Those words curiously came out of Mo Huating’s mouth. He himself was stunned for a moment when he finished speaking, but then he felt relieved.
“Thank you for your kindness, Marquis Jing Yuan. However, the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang didn’t have to curry favor with the mansion of Marquis Jing Yuan by doing this.” Wei Yuewu smiled coldly and refused without hesitation. Under her long eyelashes, her eyes revealed a hint of mockery. “Marquis Jing Yuan, now you’ve fulfilled your wish, why bother with the bygones?”