Chapter 194 Extra (17)

Guan Suyi hugged the little sister all day and refused to let go, patiently fed her porridge and water spoon by spoon, and nursed for half a month until she finally got better. The second great uncle’s house knew that the child was missing but didn’t send someone to look for her, so it could be seen that he didn’t care about her life and death. In this way, Zhong shi was more determined to keep the child by her side.

The old master was not a fool, and before the mother and daughter thought of an excuse, he already noticed the abnormality and took the initiative to ask. Guan Suyi concealed some of the truth, and slowly explained the whole story clearly. She thought that her grandfather would get sick from anger again, but he unexpectedly smiled open-mindedly and sighed, “It’s good to reconcile.”

Guan Suyi didn’t say anything for a while, lying on her grandfather’s knee and crying silently. In today’s world, it was difficult for reconciled women to live. If their parents refused to accept them, the only way out was to lose their hair and become nuns. She was probably the luckiest woman in Wei Kingdom, because her loved one only wished her a peaceful life and never cared about what the outside world thought.

But the Guan clan attached great importance to this, and the next day they sent someone to ask for the reason. When they entered the door, they were very aggressive, even holding sticks and ropes, as if sure Guan Suyi had violated the female precept and wanted to arrest her to sink her in the pond. Later when Zhong shi explained the reason, only then their face eased, but there was a gloating light in their eyes. They never mentioned asking for justice for Guan Suyi, only pretended to comfort her with a few words before leaving one after another. Some even suggested that Zhong shi send her daughter to the nunnery to cultivate, so as not to become a gossip fodder for others.

Reconciled daughters and widows, they were the easiest to provoke dispute.

Zhong shi was so angry that her liver hurt, but it was not good to flare up, so she just said a few perfunctory words. A few days later, Qi Yu sent a letter saying that his wife was seriously ill and had been sent to her hometown to recuperate. At the same time, Ye yiniang of Marquis Mansion also contracted an acute disease due to postpartum weakness and died suddenly in the middle of the night, and was buried in a hurry early the next morning.

Although these news were spread for a while, they did not have the novelty of Marquis Zhenbei’s ex-wife returning from the dead. Walking on the street, almost everyone were talking about this matter, some lamenting that Madam Ye escaped from the calamity, some regretting that Madam Guan did not have the same luck. Seeing that she had just received the first-rank title, but was thrown out of the house in a blink of an eye, it was also a bitter fate.

When Ye Jieyu heard that her sister had returned safely, she immediately summoned her to the palace to meet her, and begged the emperor to move the first-rank title to her head. The emperor was furious for this, bluntly said that the wife one married when one was poor should not be discarded in one’s affluence, and that Madam Guan did not do anything wrong, but she was divorced for no reason, which really chilled people’s heart. Therefore, an edict was issued, ordering Marquis Zhenbei to never ask to seal a title for his wife. Madam Guan’s official title was personally sealed by his imperial brush, but in a blink of an eye she was thrown away by Marquis Zhenbei. This was a contempt for the imperial power.

As soon as his decree was sent, the empress also issued a decree to rebuke Ye Jieyu and Ye Zhen, saying that the Ye family was bullying others, their morals were corrupted, and they needed to reflect behind closed doors.

Ye Zhen originally thought that she would have several peaceful days when she returned to Marquis Zhenbei Mansion, but unexpectedly the blows from the palace hit her over and over again, and it had a tendency to make her unable to turn things around for the rest of her life. Seeing “Ye Jieyu” who looked exactly like herself sitting in the main seat, her mind was completely blank, and she began to doubt whether she really existed.

After being reprimanded by both the emperor and the empress one after another, whether it was Ye Jieyu or Madam Ye, their reputations were completely ruined, so they had to lock themselves at home to avoid the embarrassment. Before this was over, people with ulterior motives realize that Ye Jieyu seemed to have fallen out of favor, and they began to impeach Ye Quanyong for various crimes. The emperor ordered Jinyiwei to conduct a thorough investigation, and actually turned out many crimes of treason, so he dispatched the troops to destroy the Ye mansion and confiscated his family wealth. Upon learning this, Ye Jieyu went completely insane, and used a white silk to take her own life, after death she was not conferred with a posthumous title.

The Ye family, a newly-prosperous bigwig, fell apart just like that, and in the end got nothing but a sigh from others.

Only then did Ye Zhen realize that the emperor letting her go home did not mean that the punishment was over, on the contrary, it was just the beginning. Without her status, without the support of her maiden family, without the favor of her husband, one could imagine how difficult her life was. Her mother-in-law hated her, the concubines despised her, although her son was obedient to her but he couldn’t be a great use, and after finding out that she had become a drag, even her daughter began to complain.

Her life was getting worse day by day, even if she was still Marquis Zhenbei Madam, but she was also a descendant of a criminal, and she would be pointed out wherever she go. She had no face to mixed around in Yanjing, so she could only hide in the back house and endured the torture from Zhao Luli and the old madam. When the other concubines saw her losing power, they often came to throw sarcasm and ridicule, and said every kind of scolding, wishing to drown her with their spits.

She also didn’t know when such a life would end. The so-called “the mountain and water are exhausted, there’s no more road” was more or less like this.

—-

Guan Suyi heard the matter about Ye Jieyu and Madam Ye, and extremely curious how these people existed at the same time, so she carefully checked the gossip and gradually formed some guesses. At first, she was still worried that the emperor would use his strong authority to force her. One month passed, two months passed, but the situation was still calm, so she relaxed her heart.

When she thought she could live in such a safe and secure way all her life, the court suddenly started a party dispute. The reason was that Qi Yu impeached Xu Guangzhi’s son, Xu Tao, for disregarding human lives, dereliction of duty, and greed. The cause of this was because his action of wantonly excavated the river channel, causing the flooding of the river, drowning millions of people downstream. This was the big crime that could execute the nine clans, how could Xu Guangzhi admit it, so he in turn impeached Qi Yu for corruption, bribery, and formed a clique for personal gain. In recent years, Qi Yu had indeed been close to officials who were studying Legalism. When something happened to him, these people were also involved one after another, and the situation became more and more turbulent, which shook the imperial court and the ordinary people for a while.

Even though Guan Father was a small official in the ministry of justice, he was placed there by Qi Yu. In order to please Xu Guangzhi, some people tried their best to suppress him, and put nine charges on his head, all of which were capital offenses. He was put on death row on the same day, and no one was allowed to visit.

Hearing the news, the old master immediately spit out a mouthful of blood and shouted in a hoarse voice, “Wronged! How can the son that I, Guan Qiguang, raised, is such a treacherous person? The so-called nine capital crimes are all false accusation! My son is wronged!” After he said those words, he suddenly lay down, had difficulty breathing.

Zhong shi clutched her chest and fell down, in the whole room only Guan Suyi was the one standing upright. It’s not that she was not afraid or panicked, but what’s the use of being afraid and panicked? The more critical the moment, the more she should keep a clear head, so that she could find a way out as soon as possible.

She immediately ordered someone to ask Imperial Physician Cao, who finally saved her grandfather, and gave her mother a soothing medicine. In the end, she handed over her little sister Guan Miao to Minglan’s care, while she went out to inquire about the situation. On the way, she suddenly thought that this might be the emperor’s method to force her to submit, but she quickly denied it.

The other person was the dignified emperor, where’s the need to personally deal with a small official? This was entirely caused by the bipartisan struggle between Confucianism and Legalism. As the saying goes, when the immortals fight and the imps suffers. As long as the person above opened their mouths, the person below would fight to the death. Whoever had the weakest strength and the shallowest background would die the fastest.

The emperor didn’t make a move, but he certainly watched from the sideline. He might be waiting for her to come and beg him.

After thinking about it, Guan Suyi covered her eyes and smiled bitterly. People without authority and power have a really hard life. No matter how talented and arrogant you are, you will be trampled into mud with one foot. However, even so, she still wanted to struggle, in the end she still could not accept it!

She hurriedly came to the Qi Mansion to ask to see her senior brother, but learned that he had just been taken away by the officials. He could not even protect himself, so how could he protect her father? Out of desperation, she ran to find Zhou Lekang, her grandfather’s senior disciple, who just nodded and didn’t give a precise word. His ambiguous attitude made her even more flustered.

After visiting many senior brothers, only a few met her, and the rest all closed their doors to decline the visitors, unexpectedly so cold and indifferent to this point. Her eyes were all red, completely at her wit’s end, so she had no choice but to shamelessly go to Marquis Zhenxi Mansion. Li shi was very enthusiastic, but she was a woman and couldn’t help, and Marquis Zhenxi was currently leading troops to suppress the bandits, would only return to the capital in a few months, and distant water cannot put out the near fire.

Guan Suyi bid farewell to Li shi, and walked on the street with a blank expression. The sun shining brightly above her head, and the people around were noisy, but she seemed to be walking on a dark and desolate road with no end in sight. She passed by the rusted Dengwen drum and was really stunned for a while. It was said that in the time of the Zhou Dynasty, people who had grievances could beat drums and complain about their grievances. Why wasn’t she born in the Zhou Dynasty, but had to live in this troubled world? To whom should she complain her grievances? Could it be she had to watch her father die in vain?

Her straight back slowly hunched down, and then straightened up little by little. What is dignity? What is reputation? As long as she could save her father and protect this one family, she would do anything. After thinking about it, she rushed home and took the mandarin duck jade pendant to the gate of the palace.

“This sir, this humble woman asked to see the emperor.” She walked over and asked tentatively.

The guard raised his halberd and scolded, “What is this mad woman doing, actually wants to see the emperor when she opens her mouth. Is the emperor someone you can see once you run over and shout? Hurry up and get out of the way, so as to avoid this sword that has no eyes.” The rest of the guards laugh, their eyes full of contempt.

“This is a token, can you please notify first?” Guan Suyi held up the jade pendant.

The guard was already impatient, and was about to stab her with the halberd, but saw the commander of Jinyiwei who was standing at the tower running down in person, and berating him, “Don’t be rude! This is a noble person!” At the end he respectfully took the pendant, hurriedly ran in to make a report.

Several guards were horrified, and their arrogant attitude instantly turned into sincere fear.

Guan Suyi didn’t feel anything at all, she just stood there and waited, her heart beating fast, but her blood slowly became cold. The only thing she could rely on now was Emperor Sheng Yuan. At the beginning, she hoped that this person could forget this fondness and let her go. But now she only wished that his feelings for her have not fade, and he was willing to lend her a hand.

The so-called chastity and aloofness were all joke now, for people who couldn’t even survive, what qualifications to talk about these things? At the moment, let alone let her be a loose woman, even if she was made to be an evil who brought a calamity to the country, as long as her father could come back alive, she was willing.

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