Chapter 028
Chapter 28: Do You Truly Wish to End This Marriage?
Overnight, the capital buzzed with whispers about her bold escapade: disguised as a man, drugged in a pleasure house.
“Ai, Grand Commandant Su is famed for righteousness and noble conduct, yet his daughter behaves like this: how unfortunate,” people sighed.
“Exactly, poor Duke Ning’s manor too, they betrothed their heir so early to such a woman. She smeared Duke Ning’s eldest daughter all over the city and flirted with Prince Qi. Now she even goes to such places. Marrying her would curse a family for eight generations,” others scoffed.
“I heard she was drugged and carried to a clinic by a man. Do you think he took advantage before they arrived, hehe,” someone snickered.
“Where do you find a man so pure hearted? That Su girl is pretty. Under a drug, if she threw herself at him, who could resist? Could you,” another teased.
“Of course not, hahaha,” came the crude reply.
The tea houses swelled with laughter and filth.
In an upstairs corner, a gentle looking man in white drew his gaze from the rail and smiled faintly at the handsome, frivolous looking man across from him: “My dear son, tell me, did you actually do anything?”
Among their circle, this face charmed most easily. Why the clan patriarch had assigned him this task was hard to grasp. Was he not afraid this rogue would ensnare their little aunt instead?
Lu Wu was used to such teasing. He sighed, raised his teacup, and answered lazily: “Do you take me for that sort of man?”
On the way to the clinic, the Su young miss had indeed clung to him. She had kissed his face and neck and slid her hands beneath his collar. He had been so annoyed he had tapped her unconscious. She was, after all, the heir apparent’s fiancée. Even if their lady wished to end the match, he would not offend the heir for a stray woman.
Ming Zhan chuckled and said lightly: “If I did not know Emerald Leaning House’s Cui Ning was yours, I might believe you.”
At that name, heat curved Lu Wu’s lips. He touched his mouth, eyes warm with memory: “It has been too long. Tonight I must visit. Without me, she must be desperate.”
Ming Zhan: “…”
Grand Commandant Manor.
Yun Zheng arrived uninvited.
Facing this iron backed man, Madam Su and Su Jian recalled last night at once. Guilt pricked.
“Your Grace, what brings you here unannounced,” Su Jian asked stiffly. Shame kept him from showing open contempt, but his face soured. In court he touted upright virtue and scorned Yun Zheng’s sharp maneuvers.
“Oh, nothing much,” Yun Zheng replied, his tone cold as steel. “I came to ask if you have heard the gossip flooding the city.”
The couple’s faces fell. So he had come for this.
Su Jian flushed and pressed his lips tight. Madam Su flared.
“What gossip? You are a duke, yet rush here over vulgar rumors? Did you come to sneer at us,” she snapped.
“Petty rumors,” Yun Zheng laughed coldly. “They say your daughter lost her purity. Grand Commandant Su’s lifelong honor is stained, and my Yun family is the city’s joke. In Madam Su’s eyes, this is petty?”
Madam Su lifted her chin and glared: “What do you want? Vulgar commoners sling baseless filth. My daughter is innocent, yet you, her future father in law, do not punish rumor mongers or uphold justice. You came to shame us instead. Explain yourself.”
Just thinking of the vile talk made her tremble with rage. Her innocent daughter was smeared from head to toe. Whoever leaked last night would pay dearly.
“Unreasonable woman,” Yun Zheng said with scathing contempt. “Was it I who told your daughter to visit such places? Why should I defend her? A noble girl of Grand Commandant Manor enters those doors on her own, such fine teaching indeed. Outsiders might even think she admires the courtesans and yearns to join them.”
He himself had set the rumors rolling, all to free Chen’er. How could he now play their guardian.
“You, you,” Madam Su sputtered, eyes bulging. She almost clawed his face.
“My daughter is young and ignorant. People err. You are an elder, yet instead of forgiving, you mock her. Mind your tongue, Duke,” Su Jian said, fists clenched tight.
Yun Zheng snorted. With a dark look he tossed a red card and an embroidered sachet on the table.
“I have no time to argue. Here are your daughter’s birth chart and the engagement token. Fetch Chen’er’s matching items. This marriage ends today. From now on, whatever rumors drown your house have nothing to do with us. I will not visit again for idle talk.”
Boom.
The words struck like thunder. The Su couple went blank.
Madam Su shot to her feet and slammed the table: “Yun Zheng, you dare break the engagement?”
She had long despised the crippled heir and wished to dissolve the match, yet she had never thought Duke Ning would strike first. With a scandal on their heads, if Duke Ning stood by them and proved her daughter’s innocence, the talk would fade with time. But breaking the betrothal at this moment stamped the rumor with the duke’s seal.
Su Qian Xue’s name would never be washed clean.
If the marriage ended now, who in Great Wu would dare marry her disgraced child.
No. It could not end. Not until they cleared the stain.
“At a time like this, how can you break it? Can you not wait until it settles,” she pressed, tone suddenly soft. She needed to soothe him. His willingness to withdraw was a gift from heaven, only the timing was wrong.
“That is right. This marriage cannot be broken now,” Su Jian said with a face as dark as a pot bottom. “Yun Zheng, you and I have crossed blades for years, but must you strike us while we are down?”
“Hmph,” Yun Zheng sneered. “Call it what you like. This marriage ends today. You cannot change my mind. If you refuse, then I will return home and announce that Duke Ning Manor has already annulled the betrothal. If you wish to cling, cling. I would like to see who loses face in the end.”
Lightness loosened his chest as he turned to go. Madam Su thought he did not know her contempt for Chen’er. If not for her daughter’s disgrace, she would have cheered at his request. She looked down on Chen’er, but how could Duke Ning’s house not look down on a girl who had ruined her own name.
“Uncle Yun,” a clear voice came from the door.
Yun Zheng turned. A slender, delicate girl in pale green walked slowly inside, her face ashen with illness, yet a stubborn light hid beneath.
“What is it. Do you have something to say,” Yun Zheng asked, gaze keen and heavy.
She was a fragile looking thing. If not for Little Fourth’s heart voice proving it again and again, he would never believe such a girl could bring ruin to his house.
“Why are you out of bed,” Madam Su cried as she hurried to support her.
Su Qian Xue ignored her mother and stared at the towering man before her.
[Is this truly the female lead’s birth father, Duke Ning.]
[How handsome.]
The novel had praised the Yun family’s looks, but she had never imagined Yun Zheng would be this striking. She had pictured a half old codger, yet reality and thought were worlds apart. He stood tall and broad, features cut like stone. Though thirty six or thirty seven, he shone with life, poised like an elder brother more than a father. His bearing and face were both beyond reproach.
“If you have nothing to say, stand aside and do not block this duke’s path,” Yun Zheng said, eyes narrowing, chill rolling out.
He had expected clever words from her mouth, enough to make him regret, but it seemed he had given her too much credit.
“What are you so fierce for. You will frighten my Xue’er,” Madam Su protested and drew her child behind her. Su Qian Xue stepped out again and said calmly: “Mother, do not interrupt. I have words for Uncle Yun.”
Madam Su shut her mouth, disappointment heavy.
“Uncle Yun, are you truly set on breaking this engagement. Have you thought it through,” Su Qian Xue asked.
“Yes,” Yun Zheng answered without a ripple. “This duke has decided.”
“…”
She tightened her fists inside her sleeves. Humiliation burned. She had never dreamed the Yun family would take the initiative. In the original story, the previous Su Qian Xue courted disaster, seduced Prince Qi in the open, and even then the Yun family still never gave up the marriage. In the end, the original had refused to marry and pushed her mother to send a concubine born sister in her place on the wedding day. Only when the veil lifted did the heir learn the swap. Before all the guests, the Yun could do nothing but swallow it.
When her maid had whispered this morning that Duke Ning had come to annul, she had not believed it. Now the truth stood before her.
Was yesterday’s butterfly enough to tear the script?
“Fine. Then annul it. I will fulfill Duke Ning’s wish,” she said.
“Xue’er, what nonsense,” the Su couple cried in panic. If the match broke now, how could their house lift its head.
Su Qian Xue smiled faintly and said: “Mother, since they have come to end it, will you cling forever. A forced melon is not sweet. Heir Yun and I are not fated.”
“Besides, I do not care that much. It is only marriage. Must I marry into the Yun house. Even if I never marry, what of it,” she added, lifting her chin. “I hope Uncle Yun does not regret this later.”
She turned and called: “Chun Lan, go to my room, bring Heir Yun’s birth chart and the betrothal token, and return them to the duke.”
Her voice was clear and firm. It carried pride. The Su couple’s hearts ached, yet a thin pride rose with it. They could only accept.
“Forget it. I, Su Jian, can still support my daughter,” Su Jian muttered.
Even Yun Zheng felt a flicker of surprise. She truly was a foreign soul. Her words and deeds did not match the girls of Great Wu. Perhaps this was how such a fragile figure could one day topple a house.
Thankfully, Little Fourth had come. Heaven had seen their injustice and sent them a savior.
Soon, the servant brought Yun Wan Chen’s birth chart and the token. Yun Zheng took the token and left in long strides.
The Su couple, bitter to the bone, did not see him out.
Su Qian Xue lifted the red gold card and let her eyes narrow with a cool smile.
She was a woman of the twenty first century. Did they expect her, like an ancient girl, to cry, despair, or seek death over a broken betrothal.
She would not despair. She would thrive.
Petty tongues could not kill her.
But today’s humiliation from the Yun, she would return with interest.
[She would make the Yun regret.]