Chapter 146 Remarry

“I know ‘Lesson for Women’. It seems to be a book that teaches women how to abide by their duties. It’s very popular among the Han noble ladies.” Qin Lingyun didn’t understand how a book could have such a big relationship with his sister-in-law. He somewhat understood Guan Suyi’s character, she would never talk nonsense without a certain degree of certainty.

“Not only is it popular with Han noble ladies, but it is also highly respected by pedantic-minded and rigid Confucian scholars. Now, in this Yanjing city, almost every Confucian scholar will transcribe a copy of the “Lesson for Women” and order the women in the family to study it. Although your sister-in-law has no immediate relatives, the entire clan has moved to the capital to settle down because of your care. The clan leader is a stubborn old Confucian, who after reading the book, deeply hated the women for not being chaste. It doesn’t matter if she reconciled, or remarry, or has a private communication with a man, or privately set a marriage, she will be sunk in the pond. Looking at your ruddy face and your mouth has become sharp, the happy occasion with your sister-in-law must be near, right? You have to keep an eye on her, lest there be too many dreams at night*it means if the situation drags on, something unfavourable may happen and happy events turn into disasters.”

“What you said is true?” Qin Lingyun asked, but in fact he had already believed it by eight to nine points. For some reason, after listening to Guan Suyi’s narration, he was furious and almost desperate, as if he had experienced the pain of losing his sister-in-law, and wished he could put on a pair of wings and fly back to her immediately.

“Whether it’s true, you can find out if you send someone to investigate.” Guan Suyi felt a pain in her fingertips, and inhaled, “What are you doing all of a sudden, let go.”

Only then did Emperor Sheng Yuan return to his senses, and he quickly let go of Madam’s fingertips and said solemnly, “The Confucian family member are not allowed to reconcile, or remarry, or have a private communication with a man, or privately set the marriage? Madam, it seems that you and I have already committed all the sins?”

Guan Suyi laughed angrily, “I may have reconciled and have a private communication, but who said that you and I have privately agreed to remarry? Besides, what does it mean to commit all the sins, just based on someone lifting her wrist and dropping the tip of the brush, then all women in the world are shackled and chained. Who does she think she is? The mighty Buddha? When I go back, I will tear off a layer of her face and tell her to shut up forever!”

Emperor Sheng Yuan patted her on the shoulder and comforted, “Madam, don’t be angry, I will ban this booklet when I go back, so that you can remarry with piece of mind.”

Guan Suyi glared at him dumbfoundedly, “Defending people’s mouth is more important than defending the river*the danger of keeping people from speaking outweighs the danger of clogging up the river, why are you banning it for no reason? It will only make it more wildly circulated in secret. Naturally I have a way to make the writer lose face, no need to bother others.” At the end, she looked at Qin Lingyun and said, “Return to your sense! We’re now on the road, it’s useless to think too much. This matter, I will resolve it myself, if it’s leave to you, when something goes wrong you will only ask the victim repeatedly, but the murderer was left alone. You can’t find any clues, so I’ll do it myself. Do you have a brush and paper? Prepare it for me.”

Qin Lingyun could no longer doubt her, so he took out the four treasures of the study from his luggage and laid them out neatly one by one. Emperor Sheng Yuan picked up the water bag, poured some water into the inkstone, and slowly grinded it evenly.

“First of all, this person must know about my entanglement with Hunnar.” Guan Suyi picked up the brush and wrote the words “insider” on the paper.

“I do have a suspect in mind.” Emperor Sheng Yuan briefly explained the Little Brother’s blabber mouth, and gritted his teeth, “If I find any evidence, no matter whether she’s former subordinate of imperial sister or the noble daughter of the Pan family, she will definitely pay the consequences!”

Guan Suyi thought for a while, then shook her head, “No, she wouldn’t be the one who did it. According to what you said, she was originally a female general. She was very powerful on the battlefield, but she was very low-key when she came off the battlefield. She was a brave and resourceful type, and will never use such a clumsy method to deal with me. Besides, in case you will be doubting her, even if she really wants to get rid of me, she will never do it herself. So…”

Guan Suyi wrote the words “borrowing a knife to kill people” after “insider”, and continued, “I think there are two people behind this matter, one pushing and one implementing it, and between those two, one seems to exploit the other. Of course, it is also possible that there is only one person who simply thinks that I am too threatening and wants to get rid of me. Confucius said: ‘In the beginning I see people, listening to his words and believed his actions.*from The Analect: Gongye Chang, there’s actually another sentence after this, Now I see people, listening to his words and watch his action. Overall it means, in the beginning I believe in people’s action after hearing what they said, now I also observe people’s actions after listening to what they say‘ He also said: Look at what a person did, examine his motives for doing things, understand what he is comfortable with. Then how can this person heart’s be covered up?*Confucius’s law of knowing people, this is more the interpretation rather than the actual words’”

She slowly wrote these two sentences on the paper and whispered, “It can be seen that in order to recognize a person, you don’t have to look at their face or listen to their words, just look at how they act. Everything this person did to me behind the scenes has completely exposed themselves, and I can now list all the details and screen them out of thousands of people.”

Qin Lingyun and Emperor Sheng Yuan were both interested and looked over with burning eyes.

Guan Suyi picked up the brush and wrote a strong character “One”, and said slowly, “First of all, they can raise the dead soldier, which is the privilege of the Jiuli noble family, so they must be one of the ten noble surnames.” After writing down the word “Two”, she continued, “Secondly, one of the two dead soldier was very familiar with Hunnar’s appearance, which showed that he had seen His Majesty many times. That is to say his master also had many contacts with Hunnar, and is one of the top ten noble surnames who has close contact with the imperial power. Such contacts may be before or after ascending the throne, or both. In other words, this person is either from a family that controlled the army; or closely related to the imperial family, and have the privilege to enter and leave the palace at will; or even more, the other person is both in charge of the army and close relative to the imperial family, therefore noble person among noble person.

Only from two dead soldier she actually able to uncover so many clues, Qin Lingyun was simply amazed.

Emperor Sheng Yuan wanted to applaud Madam for her extraordinary intelligence, but because Mu Mu was still sleeping, he had to hold back. He nodded to the rice paper and whispered, “What about other clues?”

Guan Suyi wrote down the word “Three” and said firmly, “If it was a man who did it, he surely would kill me neatly, instead of tossing around with many twists and turns. Using all kinds of ruthless and vicious methods, this person wants me to feel death is better than alive, and also wants me to be completely ruined, there should be no doubt that it is a woman!” She wrote another “Four” character and her tone became colder, “It is said that things are like its masters*it refers to the items that a person uses and the pets they keep have similar qualities to their owner, from the arrogant attitude of the female kidnapper, she should be very capable in front of her master, and to some extent her temperament must be influenced by her master. She looked down on Han women, and her master must be the same; she doesn’t care about a human life, and her master must be the same; she is proficient in martial arts, and her master must be the same; she is arrogance, conceited, and thinks that she is extremely smart, saying that she disdains playing tricks with Han women, and her master must be the same. So…”

With her brush strokes, she outlined the image of the mastermind behind the scenes one by one, “The real culprit is a noble woman of the Jiuli clan, at the marriageable age, between fifteen and eighteen; She is arrogant and domineering, and has practiced martial arts since childhood, claiming to be superior to others, and do not regard servants or Han people who are inferior to herself as human beings; She has a very strong sense of jealousy, and should have killed many people. Her favorite expression is either ‘lowly slave’ or ‘Han dog’; When walking to places would be very ostentatious, with no less than ten followers at a time, very grandiose, shouting orders loudly, and very high-profile; She can freely enter and leave the palace, face the emperor many times, and due to her personality, get along badly with women of the same generation, and will not make good friends with the concubines in the palace, so she probably the relative of the empress dowager or the prince consort.”

When she put down the brush, Qin Lingyun was in awe, and the exact image of the culprit appeared in Emperor Sheng Yuan’s mind.

“If I didn’t know that you don’t like to socialize and know very few noble ladies, I would have thought that you were accusing someone for being black.” Qin Lingyun pointed to the lines of writing and said, “You should have guessed it, right? There is indeed such a noble woman in the capital, and this person is Bian Min’er, the niece of the Empress Dowager. The princes asked the emperor to establish the empress, and she was the top of the list.”

“Bian Min’er?” Guan Suyi wrote these three words on the paper and smiled, “I’ll remember.”

Because the matter related to establishing the empress, and it almost harm Madam, Emperor Sheng Yuan was both guilty and angry. No matter whether there was evidence or not, he had already recognized Bian Min’er as the culprit. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Madam, you just wait. Zhen will surely skin her alive and let her pay for your grievance.”

The word “Zhen” that had not been said for a long time came out, it was obvious that he was very angry. Guan Suyi glanced at him and sneered, “If I just sit and wait for your protection, I’m afraid the grass on my grave will already be waist-high. As the old saying goes, it’s better to rely on yourself than anyone else.”

Emperor Sheng Yuan looked at Madam with pleading eyes. He was afraid that because of this accident, Madam would drift away from him. Madam was such a brave and fierce woman, how could she be happy when she was involved in this kind of killing game for no reason? While she hated the real culprit behind the scenes, she probably hated him, the source of the calamity, too.

“Madam, please don’t take your anger out on me, this kind of thing will never happen again in the future.” He held Madame’s slender wrist tightly, no matter how hard she struggled, he would not let go.

Qin Lingyun didn’t dare to look at his master’s humiliating appearance, he hurriedly opened the curtain of the carriage and ran away, for fear that he might hear some deadly words if he took a step too slow.

Guan Suyi slowly but firmly brushed away Emperor Sheng Yuan, and said word by word, “I originally not without feeling for you, but I just refused to admit it. For a few moments, I did think about it, why don’t I just simply be together with you, you treated me so sincerely.”

The word “Originally” made Emperor Sheng Yuan’s mood slump to the bottom, and a pair of crimson eyes looked at her with fear and anxiety, unwilling for her to continue, but had to let her finish speaking. He felt like a prisoner waiting to be executed, and could only wait helplessly for the guillotine to fall.

Guan Suyi lowered her eyes, and the conversation turned sharply, “However, overnight, many people have set their sights on the empress position, and they are willing to live and die for you, distorting their own nature for you, and I am very disdainful of this. Not only am I a scoundrel and very competitive, but I’m also very aloof, the thing that many people are fighting for, I don’t want it anymore.”

“Is Zhen just something that you can casually throw away? Guan Suyi, do you have a heart?” Emperor Sheng Yuan quickly broke free from the panic and became unyielding. He would not accept Madam’s refusal, even if he had to press hard to make her nod, he would inevitably force her to remarry. In the past she still ate soft food and refuse hard food*amiable to coaxing but not coercion, and he might be able to impress her slowly, but now she didn’t eat soft and hard food*unmoved by force or persuasion, so there was only one way left to force her, the imperial power.

He didn’t want to go this far, no matter who forced him and Madam to this point, they would have to pay a painful price!

Guan Suyi gave him a fixed look, and said cautiously, “I do have a heart, so I changed my mind. I want to marry you, but only as the empress. Huo Shengzhe, listen carefully, if you don’t propose marriage in the name the main wife, you should never step into the Emperor Teacher Mansion.”

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TN: So here we are people, she said yes! Well to be fair this is the kind of novel where the FL and ML will end up together, so it’s inevitable that she will marry him. The deciding point whether it’s good story or not, at least for me, is the length. From the moment she reconcile to finally agree to marry, it shouldn’t be too short that it feels like she’s a weak women, but it shouldn’t be too long that the story drags on. I personally think it’s a great length, there are a lot going on in between, the story didn’t always revolve around the two main characters, and the most important thing is she has a reason to finally agree to remarry. So yeah I actually satisfied with how it unfolded.