Chapter 204 – The Old Madam is From a Scholarly Family (part 18)

At the same time, in the Li family, Li Su and Yingniang were preparing for Li Ru’s marriage. Li Ru’s marriage was finalised after Li Yu passed the provincial exam. The candidates were personally selected by Li Yuan. Li Yu had seen them one by one, and after he inspected them, only one was selected. Li Su also personally inspected the other party’s family, especially the temperament of the mother-in-law and sister-in-laws. After all the aspects had been inspected and confirmed, the decision was made.

The other party was Li Yuan’s classmate, Wan Hong, who was 2 years older than Li Ru. He had a good personality and came from a wealthy family. His father was a scholar who opened a private school in his hometown. His parents were kind and had a good reputation among their neighbours. There were three brothers in the family and Wan Hong was the third. There was also a younger sister. The brothers and sister-in-law were honest people, and the sister-in-law was only 8 this year.

The Wan family was also very satisfied with the Li family. The two families had secretly exchanged the contracts. They were just waiting for the news of Li Yu’s promotion before they were to be officially married.

Liu Yingniang didn’t understand why her mother-in-law and husband chose a marriage for Ru’er at this time. But, since her mother-in-law and husband both agreed, she naturally would not object. It just so happened that Wet Nurse Yan had suffered from a cold a few days ago and moved out to recuperate.

In addition, the matter of Li Ru’s marriage was not widely publicised. In the entire Li family, only Li Ru’s mother and Li Yuan knew about it.

Wet Nurse Yan was moved to the back room to recuperate and Li Su also sent a little girl to serve her. It was just that Wet Nurse Yan had been ill for more than a month and had never recovered.

After a long time, Wet Nurse Yan also began to wonder if she was being plotted against. The reason why she didn’t think of this before was because she was too conceited and felt that no one would have the ability to plot against her. So, she secretly contacted the person hidden in Li family’s house to take out the dregs of her medicine and find a doctor to take a look at them. Those dregs turned out to be fine.

Wet Nurse Yan was relieved and began to worry. Since no one was targeting her, why was it that she couldn’t recover for a long time even though it was just a little cold?

On this day, Wet Nurse Yan excused herself to rest. She found a random reason to send that stupid little girl out.

After a while, she heard footsteps. “Wet Nurse, the medicine is here. Drink it while it’s hot.”

Little Hong was the servant of the Li family who was responsible for cleaning the yard. Because of the huge red birthmark on her face, she was afraid of being seen.

Wet Nurse Yan drank the medicine under Little Hong’s gaze, and sighed again. “You come to me frequently these days. You won’t be found out, right?”

“Don’t worry, Wet Nurse. I’m careful. No one has found out,” Little Hong said.

“Is everything okay in the family? What is the young miss doing?” Wet Nurse Yan asked again.

“Everything is fine. The young miss accompanied the old lady to the temple to give incense a few days ago, and the young miss is reading books at home these days. The eldest young master brought back a lot of books and notes,” Little Hong said one by one.

Wet nurse Yan nodded. “Is there any news from the capital?”

Little Hong shook her head. The capital seldom sent news to them. If it wasn’t for Wet Nurse Yan’s determination, she would have doubted whether the prince had forgotten them.

“But Wet Nurse, I heard them say a few days ago… Oh, I overheard the old lady and the uncle talking. They said that the Queen of Xiluo is dead.” Little Hong thought for a while, then said.

Wet Nurse Yan frowned. Wasn’t Queen Xiluo the elder sister of the eldest prince’s wife? The only direct descendants of Xiluo in this generation were the Queen and the eldest prince’s wife. The queen had no heirs. Once the queen died, only the eldest prince’s wife could inherit the throne. But, the eldest prince’s wife was already married to the eldest prince. Was it possible for her to leave the eldest prince and go back to inherit the throne?

Probably not!

In fact, except for Wet Nurse Yan, many people thought so.

She didn’t expect for Xiluo to ask Daqi to allow Princess Jinlin to return to inherit the throne. On that day, Princess Jinlin suddenly appeared in the courtroom dressed in the mourning clothing of Xiluo and begged His Majesty to allow her to divorce Zhao Zongqing. She wanted to return to her country to inherit the throne and lead the people of the country of Xiluo to rebuild their homes.

After much consideration, His Majesty the Emperor agreed to Princess Jinlin’s request.

Zhao Zongqing couldn’t believe his ears and eyes. As Prince Kang’s heir, he naturally had his place in the court. But, at this moment, he was standing there as others pitied him. He appeared stupid.

He never thought that Jinlin would want to leave him! Although he no longer doted on Jinlin as much as before, Jinlin was his wife. He would love and respect her for the rest of his life. Even if he took in a few concubines, they would not be able to have children. It wouldn’t affect Jinlin’s status. Ru’er was the only one who could give birth to his own children. She had also been taught the rules of being a side concubine since childhood, so she would never be disrespectful to Jinlin.

It was okay to go on like this.

But Jinlin actually wanted to go divorce him, and uncle emperor agreed!

Zhao Zongqing didn’t know how he left the court and how he returned to Prince Kang’s mansion.

He only knew that after he recovered, Jinlin had already moved out of the Prince Kang’s Mansion with the divorce document given by uncle emperor. She had moved to the inn, and lived with the envoy of Xiluo.

His eldest sister said these things in a hurry, and Zhao Zongqing didn’t feel the worried eyes of the father and mother. Suddenly, he hurried out of the palace, got on his horse, and rushed towards the inn.

“Eldest Prince Kang, please stay. The princess is discussing state affairs with the lords and she has no time to meet His Highness. Please go back!” The guards of Xiluo stopped him faithfully, and the officials of Honglu Temple also watched, worried. However, although Xiluo’s national strength had greatly suffered, Daqi now needed Xiluo to block the barbarians for Daqi. They said they were too ruthless. Wasn’t that what Xiluo was like now?

“Go and tell the princess that I’m here and that I want to see her!” Zhao Zongqing took a few deep breaths and calmed down.

At this moment, the door suddenly opened. A maid came out and bowed to Zhao Zongqing. “His Royal Highness, the princess said that she and you have divorced and will not see each other again in the future. There is nothing to say. Your Highness, please go back.”

Zhao Zongqing stared over there. “She is so cruel? She won’t even let me see her face again?”

“Why does Your Highness make such an affectionate appearance? Although us servants came to Daqi for the first time, we also heard that His Highness had accepted three or four concubines. Even without our princess, His Highness will not be short of beauties. Ah! If His Royal Highness thinks that it is not enough, then we will send some beauties to serve His Highness,” the maid said coldly. She then turned around and left and closed the door along the way.

Zhao Zongqing’s face was ashen! He did not expect Jinlin to be so ruthless when it came to them being husband and wife.

Zhao Zongqing wanted to break in, but the guards of Prince Kang’s mansion came and tied him to the carriage.

“Eldest sister, what are you doing? Why are you stopping me?! I want to ask her why she is so ruthless!” Zhao Zongqing said angrily when he saw Zhao Shuning in the carriage.

“This is the end of the matter. There is nothing more to say. I said that the people around her must be cleaned up. You were too lenient. As a result, they really had a secret way of contacting, resulting in the humiliation of Prince Kang’s Mansion today!” Zhao Shuning said through gritted teeth.

“Eldest sister, what are you going to do?” Zhao Zongqing asked quickly when he saw that her expression was wrong.

Zhao Shuning sneered. “She is now Queen Xiluo. What can I do? It’s already reached this point and you still miss her! Zhao Zongqing, do you still have any backbone?! Divorce! Since the founding of Daqi, there has not been any divorce in the imperial family. This is the first time! Thank you for being able to bear it!”

Zhao Zongqing’s face was ashen. In his last life, he was ridiculed behind his back for a lifetime because he had no children. He endured it, but now he was divorced! He was angry because he didn’t believe that Jinlin would treat him like this! He understood that Jinlin wanted to go back to Xiluo, but why did she not discuss it with him and then they could plan? Did Jinlin really have no feelings for him at all?

Seeing his ashen face, Zhao Shuning slowed down. “Younger bro, this is the end of the story. It’s useless to talk about it. There are plenty more fish in the sea! Does she think it is a good thing to be queen? Sooner or later, she will regret it! Don’t take this matter to heart. Tomorrow, I will go to the palace and find imperial grandmother to choose a better marriage for you! When you and your wife are in love, your children and grandchildren are prosperous, and she will regret it more!” Zhao Shuning said.

Zhao Zongqing shook his head. “Eldest sister, I don’t want to marry for the time being. I want to go to Shazhou!”

Zhao Shuning’s eyes widened. “What nonsense are you talking about! You don’t even have a son, let alone a daughter so far. Why do you want to go to Shazhou?!” This was all because of that bitch Jinlin. Otherwise, how would her younger bro think of joining the army?! This bitch. If she didn’t show her a little bit of strength, then she would think there was nobody in Daqi!

Jinlin brought such humiliation to Prince Kang’s Mansion. She would end the bloodline of Xiluo!

A trace of ruthlessness flashed in Zhao Shuning’s eyes.

“Eldest sister, listen to me. Now that I can’t stay in the capital anymore, it is better to go out to avoid the limelight instead of being ridiculed in the capital. If I can make some achievements in Shazhou, I can come back splendidly! As for children, I am still young, so I am not worried,” Zhao Zongqing knew that if his eldest sister agreed, his road to the army would probably be much smoother.

Zhao Shuning thought about it carefully. “Alright, but you have to promise me one thing. You must take one of your concubines with you!”

“Okay!” Zhao Zongqing agreed quickly before he could think about it.

With the help of Zhao Shuning, the empress dowager, Prince Kang, and Princess Kang agreed to Zhao Zongqing’s request. Out of guilt for his nephew, His Majesty wanted to appoint his nephew as a third-grade Zhenbei General. After being rejected by Zhao Zongqing, His Majesty was satisfied with his behaviour, but was also more distressed.

Zhao Zongqing smiled bitterly. The general who was in charge of guarding Shazhou was of the third rank. Zhao Zongqing also spent several years fighting in the military camp in his previous life. He knew that military achievements in the army were what mattered.

What he could do in his previous life, he could do in this life.

It was just about the selection of a concubine. As soon as the news spread, several of Zhao Zongqing’s concubines fell ill. In the end, Zhao Zongqing only brought two followers and left alone.

Zhao Zongqing knew that this meant that they did not want to go to Shazhou with him. He didn’t care either. He didn’t have any expectations for those women either.

But Zhao Shuning and Princess Kang were so angry when they sent Zhao Zongqing away. The mother and daughter turned around and began to discuss how to deal with those women.