Chapter 105
Chapter 105: Yao’er Seems to Like Pei Yu
Before Yun Wan Yao could think further, Madam Yun’s voice suddenly sounded in her ear.
Madam Yun looked at her with suspicion, her expression full of puzzlement.
Yun Wan Yao quickly returned to her senses and said softly, “Mother, please don’t be angry. I didn’t go to find him on purpose, I just had something important that I had to speak with him about.”
“Oh.”
Hearing this, Madam Yun withdrew her gaze and didn’t press further. She simply said gently, “Yao’er is grown now and understands the boundaries between men and women. As long as you know what you’re doing, I won’t meddle too much.”
“Thank you for understanding me, Mother.”
Yun Wan Yao hurried over to hug Madam Yun from the side in a coquettish manner, her mind recalling the moment she went to find Mo Yuan Hao.
She had deliberately displayed the ornate gold armlet on her arm before him.
“My lord, do you think this bracelet is beautiful?”
“Hmm, not bad. But it doesn’t look like something forged in Great Wu.”
“Oh? You noticed? This isn’t from Great Wu at all. Brother Pei found it when he captured a city in Xuan Kingdom. It came from the manor of a Xuan Kingdom commandery prince, and he especially brought it to me as a gift.”
“Pei Yu?”
“Yes, that’s him. What is it, my lord?”
“Nothing. Yao’er seems to like Pei Yu quite a lot?”
“Of course. Brother Pei has always treated me well. Since I was little, he has given me many gifts, each one something I loved. And he cares deeply about my marriage. Just yesterday, he asked if I truly wanted to marry you. If I didn’t, he said he would think of a way for me.”
She clearly saw his gaze turn colder the moment she spoke those words, a flicker of killing intent flashing through his eyes.
Yet his voice remained calm and gentle: “Is that so? Then what did Yao’er say? Surely you don’t truly wish to break off our engagement?”
“Does my lord still wish to marry me?”
“Marry? I have wanted to marry Yao’er for a very, very long time.”
At the end, he sighed and said, “Yao’er, that man Pei is not a good person. In the future, keep your distance from him.”
Hearing this, she feigned anger and looked at him indignantly: “How can you say that about Brother Pei? He’s clearly a good man. I won’t allow you to speak ill of him.”
His eyes darkened, a dangerous light in them as he stared at her: “In Yao’er’s heart, that man is better than I am, isn’t he?”
Though he seemed dangerous, for some reason she felt no fear. In fact, her mind was filled with clear thoughts:
He’s angry. He’s finally angry.
Good. Today, she would either stir his killing intent toward Pei Yu so the two would fight, or she would make him so disappointed in her that he would willingly consider breaking off the engagement.
“My lord and Brother Pei are different. You’re both very good. But you mustn’t speak ill of Brother Pei.”
“Heh.”
He gave a sudden laugh, likely from anger.
“Yun Wan Yao, do you know why Pei treats you so well? He harbors improper designs on you.”
“I don’t believe that. What could Brother Pei possibly plot against me? And my lord, Brother Pei has a name. He’s Pei Yu, not ‘that man Pei’!”
After that, the two quarreled even more fiercely over Pei Yu. She, however, was fearless and confident, forcing the argument to end only when he admitted fault.
Although he conceded with his words, Yun Wan Yao could see clearly in her heart: he had developed a desire to kill Pei Yu.
Her goal achieved, she returned home content.
From here on, she only needed to keep Pei Yu hooked and use his usual method of sowing discord to incite his dissatisfaction toward Mo Yuan Hao, escalating the conflict between them.
She wanted to see what would happen when Pei Yu’s venomous tricks clashed with Mo Yuan Hao.
The next day—
Under Yun Wan Ye’s secret orchestration, rumors spread like wildfire about Pei Yu and the Grand Commandant’s daughter, Su Qian Xue, being caught in the Heaven Room of the Xiangming Tea House in a scandalous embrace by a waiter, drawing a crowd of onlookers.
The pair’s notoriety was so great that to draw attention, countless people who had merely heard the story lied, claiming they had seen it with their own eyes.
The story soon evolved into dozens of different versions.
“Hey, have you heard about Young General Pei and Miss Su? I was there in person! That Miss Su is something fierce—she had Young General Pei pinned to the floor, and he couldn’t resist at all…”
“No kidding. I heard the two had been involved for a while. That’s why, as soon as Young General Pei returned from the border, he couldn’t wait to meet her at the tea house. They chose the tea house instead of an inn to be discreet, but who would have thought a waiter would catch them and a crowd would gather?
“When everyone rushed to the door to watch, they were still clinging to each other with their clothes half-off, in the thick of things. Heh, the lady was on top, if you know what I mean. Her fragrant shoulders were bare, her snow-white curves trembling—just thinking of it makes me nosebleed~”
“What? Seriously? That wild?”
“Of course it’s true. Young General Pei’s neck and body were covered in kiss marks, and the floor of Room Six was littered with his things—you know what I mean.”
“Wait, but didn’t Miss Su just have her engagement broken off? How could they have been involved for so long? Young General Pei is supposed to be friends with Heir Apparent Yun… never thought he’d be that kind of man. People say you shouldn’t covet a friend’s wife, but here he is doing exactly that. What a disgrace. He’s not fit to be a general.”
“Exactly. And he’s still engaged to someone else. He’s betrayed Heir Apparent Yun and his own fiancée. That’s both disloyal and dishonorable—he’s nothing but a petty man.”
“As they say, good deeds rarely spread, but bad news travels fast. Now the whole capital knows. I wonder how the Pei and Su families will react.
“If you ask me, Grand Commandant Su can’t even manage his own daughter—how can he manage the empire’s military affairs?”
“Right? He’s the top military officer, in command of all the realm’s armies, yet he can’t control his own family. What a joke. If this reached enemy ears, they’d laugh at our Great Wu. I say he’s unfit to be Grand Commandant.”
“I agree. If he can’t set a good example for civil and military officials, how can he hold the position?”
At first, people only gossiped about the affair between Su Qian Xue and Pei Yu, but soon the topic drifted to Su Jian’s post as Grand Commandant.
Once the idea spread, it struck a chord—people began to believe that if Su Jian couldn’t raise his daughter properly, he couldn’t manage military affairs either, and thus didn’t deserve his position.
Soon, talk of Su Jian’s unworthiness overshadowed the scandal itself, and the matter reached the ears of officials in their private courtyards.
After court, Chancellor Han quickly gathered his allies, eager to use the opportunity to bring Su Jian down.
Su Jian’s own faction, alarmed, hurried to the Su manor to discuss countermeasures—only to find Su Jian unconscious and Madam Su also stricken by an accident. In the entire Su manor, aside from the culprit Su Qian Xue, only a six-year-old adopted son, Su Qian Zhe, remained.
The allies left in disappointment to think of their own ways to handle the matter.
“Have all those lords left?”
Su Qian Xue finished writing the last character, set down her brush, and asked lightly.
“Yes, miss.”
The maid lowered her head and answered softly.
Chun Lan, who had been knocked out at the Xiangming Tea House and caused Su Qian Xue’s loss of chastity, had been severely punished by the steward upon waking and sold off.
This new maid had just been assigned.
Hearing the reply, Su Qian Xue’s brows finally relaxed, and a smile appeared on her face.
That bunch only knew how to glare at her, scolding and blaming her whenever they saw her. They couldn’t even handle a small matter like this, yet they came running to her unconscious father for help. She had no idea how they’d even entered the imperial court.
“Xiao Xiang, have someone slip out the back and deliver this to Prince Qi.”
Su Qian Xue wrapped two books and handed them to the maid.
Now, with the Yun family watching her closely, she could no longer act personally.
There were many servants in the estate, coming and going daily. The Yun family couldn’t possibly guard every single one.
Thus, a servant had a much greater chance of succeeding.
“Yes, miss.”
The maid took the bundle and quietly left the room.
[Host, are you sure this will spark the male lead’s interest in you?]
“I’m not sure, but it’s worth trying. If he does take an interest, all the better.”
The two books were collections of excerpts from classics like The Art of War, Taibai Yin Jing, New Book of Effective Discipline, Records of Training, the Yongle Encyclopedia, and The Exploitation of the Works of Nature.
They even contained an introduction to the Qin repeating crossbow, two-thirds of its manufacturing details, and ideas on increasing grain yields.
Though they were only excerpts, in the hands of anyone with strategic vision and ambition, they would certainly arouse interest in her.
Whether Mo Yuan Hao was such a man, however, remained to be seen.
[Host, if you hadn’t been involved in that… incident with the supporting male lead, I’d say this was a good plan. But now, with public opinion against you, he may be forced to marry you out of pressure. As a prince, he’ll surely keep his distance.]
“What’s the point of saying that now?
“That Pei fellow wants to marry me? Not a chance. The rumors may be wild, but as long as I refuse to admit it, they can’t pin it on me.
“At the tea house, no one saw my face. I think they recognized me because the Yun family set it up. They probably paid people to shout my name, pretending I’d been recognized.”
“And besides, I have no intention of marrying Prince Qi. Even if I slept with Pei, so what? The task is only to raise his favorability toward me—it doesn’t require marriage.
“I’ll get close to him, touch him a few times ‘by accident’ to seduce him. If he’s unmoved, I’ll just drug him.
“I don’t need him to take responsibility, so I’m not afraid of such tricks.”
Being drugged and ending up with Pei Yu had actually given Su Qian Xue inspiration.
If Mo Yuan Hao was sensible, fine. If not, she would drug him and take him by force, then give him books he’d like as ‘compensation.’
He was a man—he wouldn’t suffer any loss. Afterward, she doubted he’d make trouble for her.
In short, she wouldn’t refresh the task lightly. Doing so would risk lightning punishment and waste the time limit.
She’d drag things out while working on the goal, and only refresh if all else failed.
As for Pei Yu—
His situation was different.
With the Su couple both incapacitated, Su Qian Xue ruled the manor. Even if rumors reached them, no one dared challenge her.
But Pei Yu wasn’t so lucky.
The moment he returned to the Pei manor, he was berated before the ancestors by Lord Pei and severely beaten. Still unsatisfied, Lord Pei made him take a token and gifts to personally apologize to the Song family.
Pei Yu had no affection for Miss Song and refused, earning another beating so severe he was knocked unconscious.
When the Song family saw no apology forthcoming, they took the token and came themselves to the Pei clan to break off the engagement.
Lord Pei, feeling guilty toward Miss Song and fearing Su Jian might later force a marriage to Su Qian Xue, didn’t try to stop them. Thus, the betrothal was formally annulled.
The news reached the Yun family quickly.
Yun Wan Ye vividly recounted it to his relatives, while Yun Wan Ning lay in Yun Wan Chen’s arms, feet kicking happily as she listened.
[Well, well—Miss Song has broken off her engagement to Pei Yu.]
[Good, good. Second Brother has unknowingly saved Miss Song’s life, and her whole family’s.]
[In the original plot, Miss Song was pitiful—just for criticizing Pei Yu’s misdeeds for Su Qian Xue’s sake, she also scolded Su Qian Xue a few times, and Pei Yu retaliated by having her whole family convicted and exiled.]
[On the road to exile, the Songs suffered terribly, dying one by one. By the time they reached their destination, only the second young master remained.]
[In the end, even he was abused to death. Truly pitiful.]
[Now that the engagement is broken early, perhaps they can avoid that fate entirely.]
Thinking of the Song family’s tragic end, Yun Wan Ning felt uneasy.
The Yun family’s downfall could be blamed on her sister being a malicious supporting role and Seventh Uncle being a villain, but the Song family was innocent from beginning to end—pure cannon fodder.
“By the way, after all this, has the Su manor shown any movement in the past two days?”