Reborn to Be A Noble Wife - Chapter 98

Chapter 98 The Mysterious Person Behind Qu Zhizhen

People all knew that Princess Ji’s face became red and swollen because Fourth Lady Qu wiped her tears with her sleeve. As for Fourth Lady Qu, she was probably the most miserable one among all the people. She was still in a coma, lying in bed. People didn’t even know if she could survive this time.

All the rumors pointed at Yu as things about Qu Qiuyan were deliberately covered. People only knew that Qu Qiuyan was a part of the scheme, as malicious as her mother.

Soon, another piece of news spread out, saying that Yue Wenhan, the vice minister of the Dali Temple, stopped the Qus’ carriages with his men after knowing Yu had framed his cousin. He started an argument with Qu Zhizhen on the spot, during which Qu Zhizhen fell off his horse and broke his leg.

The news immediately confirmed the rumors before. If the words were not valid, the vice minister of the Dali Temple, a brilliant and competent young man, would never start such a big fight with Qu Zhizhen.

Since then, people’s attention had been drawn toward the history between Yu and Qu Zhizhen and some dirty things covered in the past. It was said that Yu hooked up with Qu Zhizhen long ago, and there might be some other reason for Yue, Qu Zhizhen’s ex-wife’s death. According to Yu’s personality, it seemed even possible that she was the one who killed Yue.

She couldn’t even tolerate Yue’s daughter, let alone Yue…

In Qu Zhizhen’s study, a doctor had treated Qu Zhizhen already. He actually didn’t break his leg but just twisted his ankle. When the argument started, his horse had stopped moving already. However, Yue Wenhan was a young man stronger than Qu Zhizhen and pulled him on the ground directly in anger. For the next few days, he couldn’t go to work until he could walk again.

“What should we do now?” after the Old Lady asked everyone to leave, including Yu and Luo, she asked her two sons.

Qu Zhilin stayed silent. Everyone respected his younger brother more than him. Moreover, it was about his younger brother’s wife and children, so it was not his place to show his opinions. But he was not surprised by what happened since he never had a good impression of Yu. Thinking of Yue, Qu Zhilin had to admit no matter how brilliant his younger brother was as a politician, he truly didn’t have a sharp eye for women.

As he expected, Yu was indeed a vicious woman.

Qu Zhizhen didn’t talk as well, sitting behind the desk with a sullen face.

“Let’s talk about Yan first. Although her misbehavior in the Crown Princess’s altar room has been covered, it did happen. The Crown Prince knows, Lord Jing knows, even Princess Changyu and Princess Ji know.” The Old Lady let out a deep sigh. She had calmed herself down already. Right now, the Qu Family’s priority should be overcoming the trouble caused by Qu Qiuyan.

“Mother, just let Yan meet Lord Jing and explain herself to him,” Qu Zhizhen said coldly.

“Let her explain it? She’s still an unmarried lady! How can she explain it?” The Old Lady hit the table in anger.

“Mother, what other choice do we have? Yan likes Lord Jing, and he seems interested in her as well. I think it was just a misunderstanding. Yan wouldn’t do such a foolish thing. It won’t be a big deal after she explains it to Lord Jing,” Qu Zhizhen said impatiently.

“No big deal? If people know that the Crown Prince and Lord Jing…” The Old Lady trembled in rage. She couldn’t believe her son didn’t realize the severity of the situation and allowed his daughter to meet Lord Jing in private merely for playing up to Lord Jing.

Even the Old Lady was not sure if something really happened between Qu Qiuyan and the Crown Prince. Yu and her daughter fixated on Lord Jing so much before due to his status and power. The Old Lady wouldn’t find it strange if they changed their target to the Crown Prince, who had just lost his first wife.

But she couldn’t speak ill of Qu Qiuyan in front of Qu Zhizhen. After all, Qu Qiuyan was still his daughter.

“Mother, just leave it to me. I will handle this. As for Lord Jing, I will invite him over. If Lord Jing doesn’t believe the rumors, who will dare to spread them?” Qu Zhizhen interrupted his mother carelessly.

“Okay. Okay. I don’t want to deal with it anyway. Do whatever you want.” The Old Lady couldn’t stop trembling, feeling more and more irritated by her son. Since long ago, she had told him that Yue was a good wife for him, and he should respect her and treat her well. But instead of listening to her, her son brought Yu home and pampered her. He even sent Yue, who was still pregnant at that time, to a nunnery for Yu.

If Yu didn’t say her premature delivery was because of Yue, he wouldn’t force Yue to leave.

Recalling the past, the Old Lady stood up in frustrated anger and wanted to leave the room.

“Mother, don’t be so angry. I have no other choice. If Lord Jing can forgive Yan, her trouble will no longer be trouble. But if he doesn’t want to forgive her, I will just betroth her to someone else.” Qu Zhizhen rubbed his forehead as his pale face looked reluctant. “But after all, I’m her father. I can’t watch her life being ruined like this!”

Seeing her son’s painful face, she sat back down as her anger was softened. For a moment, the study fell into silence, and everyone in the room pulled a long face.

“Mother, let’s just do as Zhizhen said!” Qu Zhilin had to say something to save everyone from the annoyance.

“Okay, let’s do it like this. But what about Yu? I’ve asked around already. Yu did send the clothes to Ying and let her pick the ones she liked. After those servants left Ying’s yard, the manager of the embroidery workshop fell over on the way and stained the clothes. When the clothes were presented to me, she had already replaced the dirty ones with some clean ones.”

As her eyes fell on her second son again, the Old Lady said, “Yu did intend to frame Ying. What do you think about this? The Yue Family has been in the South, but Yue Wenhan lives in the capital now. Imperial Censors will definitely report this to the emperor.”

“That’s inevitable.” As an Imperial Censor, Qu Zhilin knew his colleagues wouldn’t go easy on his younger brother this time. He rubbed his forehead, looking tired, “They can say Zhizhen has mismanaged his own family. Or Yu is a malicious woman who climbed up to the position of a wife as a concubine. Or they can say Zhizhen hooked up with Yu long ago, which severely broke the etiquette. Yue Wenhan can even say that Yu is the real culprit behind Yue’s death. It is Zhizhen’s fault that he pampered his concubine and gave her the reason to kill Yue.”

The Imperial Censors could talk about so many things to complain about Qu Zhizhen. If the emperor was really convinced, Qu Zhizhen’s career would probably end here.

The Yue Family was a famous scholar family in the South. Not many of them worked as officials, but the Yues had a high reputation among the scholars for their talent in literature.

“Then what can we do?” The Old Lady started to feel flustered. No matter how she disagreed with her son, she was not willing to see her son’s career end in such a miserable way. “You’d better just divorce Yu.”

“I can’t divorce her,” Qu Zhizhen clenched his teeth.

“Why? You still want to let that vicious woman stay with our family?” The Old Lady was so angry at her son, who still couldn’t see the true colors of his wife, that she stamped her foot hard.

“Mother, Mingcheng is my only son now. If I divorce Yu, Mingcheng would be a concubine’s son again,” Qu Zhizhen explained in a low voice.

Hearing his words, the Old Lady fell into silence. She had never seen eye to eye with Yu and her daughter, but she always regarded her only grandson as a promising young man. Qu Mingcheng spent most of his time in the East Mansion and seemed not close to his mother at all. The Old Lady couldn’t stand seeing his life affected by his mother’s scandals.

“Mother, you can go back first. Give me some time to think about it,” Qu Zhizhen waved his hand at them. Both his mother and his older brother couldn’t help him right now. He had to come up with a solution by himself.

“How about letting her stay in the family temple to cleanse her mind,” the Old Lady stood up and suggested reluctantly.

After a second thought, Qu Zhizhen felt it seemed to be the only solution right now. “Let’s just say that she becomes ill after coming back and can’t get off the bed. Then she moves to the family temple to cleanse her own mind. It’s just that all the work she did before will fall on you and my sister-in-law, Mother,” said Qu Zhizhen while frowning.

After the trouble caused by Yu, she had to be too sick to leave her bed or be divorced by Qu Zhizhen. On the way back, Yue Wenhan threatened that he wouldn’t go easy on Qu Zhizhen if he didn’t make Yu pay for her sins.

However, Qu Zhizhen had his reason for not divorcing Yu.

“Okay, I will ask Luo to help Mother with the affairs in the West Mansion,” Qu Zhilin agreed immediately.

The discussion was finally over, and the Old Lady and Qu Zhilin left. The family temple mentioned was actually an empty yard at the back of the Qu’s Mansion near the back door. The Old Lady liked that place for its quietness, so she asked people to build a small family temple there and often went to worship the Buddha and read scriptures.

After the two left, the study fell into silence. Sitting in the shadow behind the desk, Qu Zhizhen’s face looked even more sullen.

A young servant’s voice came from outside, “Second Master, some…someone sent you a letter.”

“Give it to me,” Qu Zhizhen said coldly.

The young servant rushed inside and passed the letter to him. Seeing the familiar mark on the envelope, Qu Zhizhen waved his hand at the servant, “You can leave now!”

“Yes, Second Master!” The young servant hurriedly left and stood outside of the door.

Qu Zhizhen opened the letter and read it rapidly. Then he folded it and stared at the air with a hesitant look on his face. After a while, the expression on his face became determined again. He quickly took a brush pen and a piece of paper and started to write. Soon, he finished a letter.

He waited for some time to dry the ink. Then he put the letter into an envelope, sealed it carefully, and called the young servant, “Come in!”

The young servant hurriedly ran inside and bowed to him politely, “Second Master!”

“Be careful. Don’t let anyone see it,” Qu Zhizhen said to him in a low voice while pointing at the letter on the desk.

“Yes, I understand,” the young servant didn’t even dare to raise his head. Cautiously, he picked up the letter and put it in his chest pocket. After he slowly stepped back to the door, he started to rush toward the mansion’s back door.

After he walked out of the back door, he hopped on a carriage that had been waiting there. The carriage circled around on the nearby streets and then stopped at a small pawnshop. Only a few people passed by the shop, and none of them paid attention to the carriage that just stopped.

The young servant jumped off the carriage, took out a jade pendant from his chest pocket, and walked into the pawnshop naturally as if he had done this many times. There were not many people in the shop either. Some just cast a glance at him when he walked in and immediately went back into their own business. People were used to seeing a servant like him show up here. Rich people cared about their so-called name even though they became broken. They always sent a servant over to help them sell stuff instead of coming here by themselves.

The young servant came to a window and said to a person inside, “Mister, I have something to sell!”

“No problem!”