Facing her mother who looked the same, Xiaocao was stunned for a moment. She thought that she might have had a romantic encounter these days. Before she left, King Dingbei "confessed" to her. After she left, her romantic encounter returned. Today, two families came to propose marriage. This was a romantic encounter. However, let alone Xiaocao's intention to marry her "ex-husband" again, she would not have accepted it even if this had not happened. "Which two families are they? They have such good taste." Xiaocao said jokingly, a little narcissistic.
In fact, Xiaocao took over the conversation so that what she was about to say would not be too abrupt. After all, it was all about marriage. However, although Xiaocao was determined and determined to get married to Tingyu, she knew that her family would not object if she insisted. However, facing Han, she could not help but feel guilty about getting engaged to someone secretly.
Han couldn't help laughing, "They have good taste in choosing our fourth daughter." But the smile didn't last long, and soon faded away, "This one is Cheng Wenzheng, the third place winner of this year's imperial examination. You also met him when you first returned home."
Xiaocao was really surprised by this person.
"After returning home in glory, Cheng Wenzheng returned to the imperial city and took his mother with him. This was his only direct blood relative. The other uncles and aunts were basically three mourning periods away. It was reasonable for him to take his widowed mother to live with him. In addition, he was not young anymore and the marriage could not be delayed any longer. I originally thought that with his conditions, there should be many families who would like him before he returned home. Even if the woman's family background was not so good, there should be some who were more suitable for him. However, he directly rejected them all.
When he returned to the imperial city, he sent some local gifts from his hometown to our family. Speaking of which, his home is close to the Wenren family's ancestral home, and we exchange annual festival gifts with our ancestral home every year. We are not short of these things, but what is important is the thought behind it.
These days, the family has been settled and his mother has adapted a little. When I visited her two days ago, her mother privately mentioned to me the idea of marrying you as her daughter-in-law. She is a very energetic person and she really wants to marry you.
Later, I asked Cheng Wenzheng about his intention. It was indeed his intention to marry you. It was not that he wanted to get close to our family, but he also knew your situation. Xuan'er was naturally perfect in our eyes, but she grew up outside, was not married at her age, and studied medicine, which made people from high-class families criticize her. Therefore, it was difficult to find a marriage for you in a high-class family or even a lower-class family. Even if you married for other reasons, you would be easily looked down upon, which was not what he wanted to see.
He promised that if he could marry you, no matter whether you could become rich in the future, he would respect you, love you, trust you, and never change his mind, just as you had asked Jianshu to swear. In addition, he would not stop you from practicing medicine, and would always put you first in everything.
Not only did he express this clearly, her mother also said the same thing implicitly. Even if I told them clearly that you were married before, their attitude did not change at all. "Han said this with a complicated mood. No matter whether she could really do it in the future, she could say such words at this time, essentially for her daughter. From the perspective of a woman herself, it was indeed quite enviable, and her mother was no exception. However, in Han's eyes, her daughter was worth this.
"Did mother also like this Mr. Cheng at first?"
Han didn't deny it either. "Mother wanted him to be your husband in the beginning. But since you didn't want to get married, I didn't tell you. I didn't expect it to develop like this. To me, they don't want to marry you as a daughter-in-law, they clearly want to marry you as an ancestor to worship."
"In the final analysis, it's because I saved his mother when I was a child."
Han nodded, "That's right. Speaking of which, both mother and son value friendship and loyalty. So, Xuan'er, would you like to consider it? What they mean is that if you have a better candidate, they will not force you and will express their best wishes. Once you make a decision, we can reply to them as soon as possible. If you are willing, everyone will be happy. If you are not willing, they can also find another buyer."
Xiao Cao shook her head. "It's really unnecessary. It just happened to happen. I don't even remember it. There's no need for them to remember it for the rest of their lives."
"He will eventually get married. Whether he does it for special reasons or not, it doesn't make much difference. But for you, the nature of the matter is a little different." Therefore, Han was really optimistic about this marriage.
"It's fine to rely on favors to maintain a relationship if nothing goes wrong, but once something goes wrong, it's like Master Cheng meets a girl he really likes in the future. Then this favor will be like a rope that binds him, and its nature will completely change. The result will only be worse. So mother should refuse it as soon as possible, and don't delay Master Cheng. Those who have been optimistic about him before, he should not be stupid enough to refuse to die, so let him choose someone who suits his heart. Besides..."
Han sighed. Some things were indeed true, but... "Everything goes well? There are not so many things that go well in the world." She looked at Xiaocao with pity. After all, Xuan'er was still attached to her and felt a little resentful towards her short-lived son-in-law, who had been dead for three years and was still dragging her daughter along.
Therefore, Prince Wei was an innocent victim. One can imagine how he would be treated in front of his mother-in-law when the time came to talk about marriage.
Xiaocao knew what her mother meant, but there was nothing she could do. "What about the other one? Which family is it?" Xiaocao was at the end of her rope, so she was not so decisive when she asked. However, she was indeed curious when she asked this question.
When Xiaocao asked this, Han's face became a little gloomy, and it seemed that she was not just dissatisfied. "It's just self-righteousness, Xuan'er, don't pay attention to it."
However, after she said that, Xiaocao became curious. "Which family is it? It doesn't hurt for you to tell me. I have to have a general idea in my mind. Otherwise, if I meet them in the future and they mention it in a 'euphemistic' way and make some ambiguous remarks, I won't even know what they mean."
"Pingyang Marquis Mansion..."
The expression on Xiaocao's face was as if it was frozen. What is this called, "telepathy" or "someone brings you a pillow when you feel sleepy"
"Don't you see who you are? Do you think you are so great because you are from the Marquis' Mansion? You hold some real power because of my relationship with you, and you think you are so arrogant. What do you mean the prince of their Marquis' Mansion is just a good-for-nothing who won't live for many days, and he is also gloomy and weird. They marry my son as if it is a great blessing from heaven. My daughter grew up outside and was born a female doctor, so what? I don't know how much better she is than their bunch.
Who doesn't know their dirty thoughts? They found a woman with a flawed background so that they can control her and ridicule and suppress the short-lived and useless prince. This is their own business, but they can't use my son as a scapegoat.
Not only did they come to our Wen family without telling us privately, but they actually sent matchmakers to come directly to our house and made a big fuss. People who didn't know would think that the marriage between our two families had been settled. Do you really think that our Wen family is easy to bully?" After hearing this, Han was furious and her face was gloomy. She wanted to tear Pingyang Hou apart and tear some people to pieces.
The expression on Xiaocao's face was a little unsettled, it was not "we are in sync" or "someone brings a pillow when I feel sleepy", but a pit, a huge pit!
"Mom, when did it happen? What was the final outcome?" Xiaocao asked unconsciously with some caution.
"Yesterday, I had them kicked out. Don't let me see anyone from Pingyang Marquis's Mansion again." Han was furious, her eyes were really about to spit fire.
Xiaocao couldn't help but close his eyes. If he had known this would happen, he should have come back a day earlier.
If this hadn't happened, her marriage to Ting Yu wouldn't have been a big problem even if there were some twists and turns. But now, it's not just the people in Pingyang Marquis' Mansion who have completely angered her family. Moreover, it has come to this. If the marriage goes through in the end, it would be a slap in the face to the Wen family. Who knows how bad the words from the outside world will be.
Originally, she didn't want to talk about the past between her and Ting Yu, because she was worried that something bad would happen in Pingyang Marquis' Mansion. As a result, even if she didn't know, such a thing still happened.
Xiao Cao had no good impression of the people in Pingyang Marquis Mansion, except Wei Tingyu and the mother-in-law she had never met. Now that her plan was disrupted and there were twists and turns, her impression of them plummeted to a huge negative number. Not to mention that Han wanted to tear them apart alive, even Xiao Cao wanted to dissect them.
"Mom..." There was even a hint of sadness in Xiaocao's voice.
Seeing this, Han immediately came back to her senses and didn't care about being angry anymore, "What's wrong with Xuan'er?"
"Prince Wei, it's Ting Yu..."
Han didn't react for a moment, but she seemed to be half aware, so she hesitated as if she didn't understand, "W-what? What does Xuan'er mean?"
"The prince of Pingyang Marquis's Mansion, Wei Tingyu, is your son-in-law Xue Tingyu." He explained more clearly next time.
Han seemed to be unable to digest this sentence for a long time. Her face was blank. After an unknown amount of time, she closed her eyes tightly and said, "Xuan'er, what is going on?"
Xiao Cao lowered her head slightly and told the whole story from beginning to end, "… I went back these few days to meet him and confirm further. According to his original intention, he should have wanted to continue to conceal it, but something happened. I didn't see his face, so I confirmed his identity."
In the end, Xiaocao slowly calmed down. Things had come to this point, and it was useless to be angry or anything else. The problem had to be solved.
"What is this? What is this?" Han couldn't even sit still anymore. She stood up and paced back and forth. "Xuan'er, I thought you brothers and sisters only saved him that time when you went out. You actually had contact with him at other times. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Mom, I'm sorry. It was night time and it took some time. Plus, Tingyu was working behind the scenes at Kaiping Guards. I was afraid you would worry, so..."
Naturally, Han couldn't bear to blame her daughter. She rubbed her throbbing temples. Wei Tingyu was her son-in-law, ah, her son-in-law!
Apart from the fact that he chose not to drag her daughter into the quagmire of Pingyang Marquis' Mansion, there was nothing that made her satisfied. At this moment, Han really thought, why doesn't he just die!
However, he couldn't say this in front of his daughter. She knew very well how much his daughter cared about him. If you think about it carefully, these relatives may not be as important as him in Xuan'er's heart.
This realization made Han even more unhappy. Originally, she thought he was dead, so she naturally didn't care about anything. But now he is still alive, and looking at her daughter's intention, that is... "Do you still want to marry him with your current status?"
"Mom, Tingyu's health is not good. It's very bad. He needs to spend a long time on treatment every day. Maybe he can barely stabilize his condition and prevent it from getting worse. Mom, I can't just abandon him."
The meaning couldn't be more obvious.
Han's eyes went dark for a while. He covered his forehead and closed his eyes. It took him a long time to calm down.
Xiao Cao looked at Han guiltily, "Mom, I'm sorry."
Han went forward and hugged her, resting her chin on the top of her head, "My son did nothing wrong, you don't have to apologize to your mother." After all, it was her fault. If she hadn't lost her daughter in the first place, she wouldn't have to suffer all this.
Han now had a lot of anger accumulated in her heart with nowhere to vent, and she hated the person who had plotted against her. However, the woman had been killed long ago, and her bones had turned to dust. After all, the only object of her hatred was the Pingyang Marquis' Mansion!
Han let go of Xiaocao after a while, "Xuan'er, now that things have gotten so bad with Pingyang Marquis's Mansion, what are you going to do?" Obviously, even if this mother was extremely reluctant, she still had no intention of forcibly separating her daughter and "son-in-law". "If I had known earlier, I should have controlled my emotions, otherwise it wouldn't have gotten so bad, with almost no room for maneuver."
Seeing that her mother seemed to feel guilty, whether it was because of her that she kicked the people out of Pingyang Marquis Mansion or now felt that she shouldn't have done that, Xiaocao felt distressed, "Mom, I don't blame you, I don't blame you. If it really doesn't work, just tell her that Tingyu and I were originally husband and wife."
"No, you know his situation in Pingyang Marquis's Mansion. Not to mention that young woman and his half-brother, even his own father spared no effort to suppress him. According to what you said, he now has the absolute upper hand in Pingyang Marquis's Mansion. Others are frustrated and have no idea where to start. They are holding on to this matter. His previous identity was problematic. If Pingyang Marquis's Mansion refused to recognize your marriage, and you have lived with him for so many years, they might shamelessly suppress your identity to a concubine. How can such a thing be allowed to happen!"