Chapter 032
Chapter 32: Where Does That Confidence Come From?
Xia Meng Yan yanked her arm free and stepped back until there was real space between them, then said: “Lin Ye Lan, do you still think I’m playing hard to get? The separation letter has the emperor’s jade seal on it. We have nothing to do with each other. If Huo Ying Zi hadn’t dragged me here today, I wouldn’t have bothered to see you.”
When he heard the words “jade seal,” Lin Ye Lan’s hatred for Duan Yi Chen cut to the bone. He had asked around afterward and learned that on that day at the Marquis Manor gate, it was Duan Yi Chen who took the separation letter, then went into the palace to have the emperor stamp it. If Duan Yi Chen hadn’t meddled, how would he have lost his wife and child?
He raised his chin and said with pride: “His Majesty was fooled by Heir Apparent Duan, so I will enter the palace and explain. You liked me for so many years; now that it’s easy for the family to be together again, can you really give that up?”
His certainty was like a blade pushed into Xia Meng Yan’s chest. [Yes. If not for the pain of losing my son in my last life, how could I bear to let go?] She had chased Lin Ye Lan for three years, bold and bright; even when people in the Capital laughed at her, she never backed down. [So what? In that last life, did I deserve to be ignored and trampled?]
She steadied her voice and said: “No need for the marquis to worry. I will stay far away from you and won’t disturb either of you.”
As she spoke, the steward arrived with two maids. The two maids curtsied to the Marquis of Ping An and said: “Greetings, marquis.”
Lin Ye Lan didn’t believe Xia Meng Yan at all, but since the people were here, he could ask and slap her face with the truth. He turned to the maids and asked: “When Old Madam’s courtyard caught fire, did the eldest master come?”
The two maids looked at each other, then nodded together.
“Did the eldest master carry Old Madam away to safety?” he asked, staring at Xia Meng Yan with a look that said he had already won. He knew his older brother: lazy most days, but very filial. All these years while he was away, it was the elder brother who had served their mother.
The two maids hesitated. No one answered. After waiting a long time, Lin Ye Lan’s voice went cold as he ordered: “Speak.”
The maids dropped to their knees and blurted out: “Marquis, if we tell, the eldest master will kill us.”
Seeing their stammering, a bad feeling hit Lin Ye Lan. He lowered his tone to a threat and said: “If you don’t speak now, I will kill you.”
Terrified, the maids knocked their heads to the floor and confessed: “We will tell, please spare us. The eldest master said Old Madam was too heavy, so he threw her under a tree and went to the backyard. After the fire was put out, he told us to carry Old Madam to a safe place. Later he feared Old Madam would be angry if she found out, so he made us keep our mouths shut.”
Lin Ye Lan couldn’t believe it. These two had to be Xia Meng Yan’s people. They were lying. He lifted his eyes to the steward. The steward was from the Lin Family and couldn’t be bought. The steward hesitated, then finally nodded.
Fire burned across Lin Ye Lan’s face. He snapped: “Get out. All of you, get out.”
Watching his anger, Xia Meng Yan gave a cold laugh in her heart. In her last life, when Lin Ye Lan was posted at the Frontier Garrison and they weren’t yet married, she often went to the Lin Family. As for what Lin Hong was really like, even Lin Ye Lan—and maybe not even Grand Madam Lin—knew the truth. This was only a part of it. When all the dirty things Lin Hong did in secret came out, that would be the time when Lin Ye Lan truly went mad.
Huo Ying Zi stepped close, anger on her face as she said: “Making Brother Ye Lan lose face brings you what good? If it’s because of me, I can apologize to you. Brother Ye Lan treats you with a true heart, but you keep making trouble for him. Are you doing this to cut ties with him so you can marry Heir Apparent Duan? I advise you to give up. The Eldest Princess will never allow a twice-married woman who brings a child to be her daughter-in-law.”
Lin Ye Lan’s face flashed with disgust as he barked: “So you had such a filthy thought. No wonder Heir Apparent Duan helps you. Are you two already having a secret affair behind my back?”
Back at Northern Fortress Pass he had already thought it strange that Xia Meng Yan had suddenly changed. Thinking of everything that had happened lately, maybe they had been sneaking around for a long time.
Xia Meng Yan didn’t get angry. She pointed at her belly and said with mockery: “Marquis, do you want to say the child in my belly is of doubtful origin? Think it through. Once you make that charge stick, then this child will have nothing to do with the Marquis Manor. I will give him the surname Xia.”
“You dare,” he growled.
She gave a cold smile. He had dragged Duan Yi Chen into it again and again, as if she didn’t have a mouth of her own. She turned to Huo Ying Zi and said with open scorn: “By Miss Huo’s logic, if a woman stands a little close to a man, then she must have bad intentions. You spend your days in a crowd of men, so you must have lost your purity a long time ago. You say you want to clear the marquis’s name, but you keep stirring up trouble and driving a wedge between people. Should I take it that you are in a hurry to marry into the Marquis Manor?”
“I didn’t,” Huo Ying Zi cried as tears fell. She turned to Lin Ye Lan and said: “Brother Ye Lan, she’s slandering me. You know me. I am clean with the soldiers.”
Her eyes slid to the guards cleaning nearby. If this kind of talk spread, how could she ever marry into a noble house?
Lin Ye Lan had never seen Huo Ying Zi so hurt, and he lost his temper at once as he shouted at Xia Meng Yan: “You don’t behave like a proper woman and try to drag others down with you. Xia Meng Yan, how did you become like this?”
“No matter what I’ve become, it’s still better than someone who loves to make a fuss while standing among men,” she said with ice. “If you dare attack my child again, don’t blame me for spreading what happened at Northern Fortress Pass. We can both go down in flames.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Xia Meng Yan noticed the guards who had been cleaning all withdraw toward the same place. So all her guesses were right. [The emperor wants to swallow the two hundred thousand taels for himself.] She slowly closed her eyes and thought: [Duan Yi Chen, what on earth happened?] Her purpose met, she didn’t want to stay here one more moment.
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“Don’t go,” Nanny Cheng said as she blocked her, pointing at the tearful Huo Ying Zi and demanding: “You must make this clear. My miss is clean. If you throw dirty water on her, how will she marry in the future?”
She had disliked Xia Meng Yan for a long time. In her eyes, Xia was just a merchant’s daughter. With the miss’s help she didn’t even know to be grateful—how dare she be this arrogant.
Xia Meng Yan, already impatient, slapped her. The crisp sound stunned everyone.
“Which sentence did I say wrong,” she asked coldly, “did Miss Huo not stay in the barracks? Are there not men around her? Did her merits not come through her subordinates?”
“You—” Nanny Cheng had served the Huo Family for years and had been at Huo Ying Zi’s side a long time. She had never suffered such treatment. She raised her hand to strike back, but Huo Ying Zi stopped her.
“Brother Ye Lan,” Huo Ying Zi said, looking weak as she leaned on him, “there are so many people here. This must be cleared up, or I will die right here.”
Catching her meaning, Nanny Cheng lifted her voice and began to wail: “The Huo Family has risked life and limb for the court for generations, and now someone says my miss is not decent. There is no justice. If this spreads, her reputation is a small matter. Who will dare serve the court in the future?”
Master and servant clung to each other and cried as if they had suffered the worst wrong in the world. The guards nearby put down their work and looked over.
Sensing the crowd turn sour, Lin Ye Lan grabbed Xia Meng Yan’s arm and said: “Xia Meng Yan, apologize to Ying Zi. She meant well. Don’t be ungrateful.”
Xia Meng Yan stared at the hand gripping her and said with a chill: “Marquis, men and women should not touch. That soldiers’ ‘brothers-in-arms’ talk doesn’t apply to us.” She said “brothers-in-arms” very slowly.
Veins stood out on Lin Ye Lan’s forehead as he snapped: “Stop being snide. What’s between you and me shouldn’t involve others. Ying Zi still needs to marry. You slandered her in public. How can she live in the Capital after this?”
Chun Yue, who had held back since entering, couldn’t help it anymore. She stepped up, pried open his hand, and said: “The marquis is really two-faced. When Miss Huo slandered Heir Apparent Duan and my lady, you believed her. Now you tell my lady to apologize. That makes no sense. If anyone needs to apologize, Miss Huo should apologize to my lady first.” [Scummy man and woman. They wear the cover of ‘brothers-in-arms’ while doing dirty things. Ugh.]