Chapter 283: Story Behind Crown Prince’s Wedding
Chapter 283: Story Behind Crown Prince’s Wedding
"Xiang’er must know the story behind this. Not only she’s close with Lady Su, but she also went to the Capital where she must have heard about their wedding." Zuan Hu immediately looked at Xiang Ling with expectation filled eyes as soon as Chao Xing put forward the question.
Xiang Ling let out a small sigh as she took in the expectation-filled eyes of her brothers and their wives. The four of them were looking forward to find out the mystery behind Wu Tian and Su LiangLin’s marriage. When her gaze shifted toward her husbands, she noticed that three among the six of them were also curious to know her answer.
Letting another sigh, she spoke, "Stop it. We shouldn’t be gossiping about someone’s private life."
"Come on, Xiang’er!"
"Don’t be like that!"
"Tell us what happened."
Xiang Ling wasn’t comfortable with talking about the mess of someone else’s life, but it seemed like she had no other option at the moment. For the third time within two minutes, she let out a long and deep sigh before she finally told everyone about what happened back in the Capital City during Crown Prince and Su LiangLin’s wedding.
When she finished, everyone was looking at her with their mouth hanging open in shock. The only people in the hall, other than her, who weren’t surprised were - Xin Cheng, Wei Guang, and Zhang Xuan, as they already know the entire story from their visit to the Capital.
"What a ridiculous story! Looking at Lady Su, I couldn’t have imagined even in my wildest dreams that she’s capable of doing something like this. She’s so brave to go against her father and marry the man she loves." Chen Ming praised the bravery of Su LiangLin.
"What brave? She’s actually foolish!" Chao Xing was quick to counter-attack her husband’s wrong judgement. "By doing so, she has pushed herself in the worst situation possible for a woman. Since she married the Crown Prince, her father and Su family will no longer support her, and since she’s the daughter of Prime Minister Su, it’s obvious that the Crown Prince will not favor her either. Now tell me, what is so great or brave about her current situation?"
Listening to Chao Xing’s conclusion of the entire mess, everyone nodded their heads in agreement. It seemed like Lady Su was indeed in a bad situation because of her decision of marrying the Crown Prince. This marriage neither made Prime Minister Su happy, nor the Crown Prince who was the groom.
"What a mess indeed. The rivalry between two powerful men and our family is the one suffering." Zuan Hu complained with a little shake of her head before her gaze shifted to Xiang Ling and she added, "Your timing of visiting the Capital couldn’t have been worse, Xiang’er."
"Stop worrying too much, First sister-in-law. We didn’t have to worry about anything. Since he wants to investigate our family, just let him do so. From now on, forget about his other identity and treat him and Su LiangLin as our new neighbors who are trying to make friends with us. Treat them just like you would have treated someone else in their positions. Answer all their questions and let them do whatever they want. Once he will realize that we have nothing to do with the Su family, he will end his investigation and return to the Capital. There’s nothing for us to worry about."
Listening to Xiang Ling’s words, everyone’s mood changed for the better as they all came to same conclusion - since Chen family had no connection with the Su family and nothing to hide, they didn’t need to fear the Crown Prince and his investigation.
Nodding his head in approval, Hao Ran spoke, "Xiang’er is right. We don’t have to worry too much."
The tense and heavy atmosphere of the dining hall finally shifted into a light one as everyone let out a sigh of relief. It was indeed a good thing that Xiang Ling spied on the Crown Prince and found out about his motives. Otherwise, the entire Chen family would have been walking on eggshells around the Crown Prince and his Consort.
Ending their talk and bidding each other good nights, everyone made their ways to their respective courtyards. While Xiang Ling headed to her own courtyard with her husbands, she wondered whether the Crown Prince’s presence in the city would affect the County Magistrate Chen or not. His current image among the citizens was deteriorating and if the words reached Wu Tian’s ears, then things could turn out bad. It seemed like she had to help the County Magistrate.
Making plans to finish her on-going business quickly to make up with Chen Xiang Ling’s parents, she entered her courtyard only to find Xu Wei waiting for her on the platform under the Peach Blossom tree.
"Xu Wei?"
"Master." The Young man greeted Xiang Ling as she made her way toward him. He then turned toward the six Young Masters who were right behind Xiang Ling and greeted them politely as well. "Young Masters."
He didn’t wait to see whether the men accepted his greeting or not as he immediately shifted his attention toward his master and took out a couple of papers from his sleeve and handed it to her.
"You found the house?" Xiang Ling asked before she took a look at the papers and realized that they were the house deed.
"Yes, Master. It’s located at a ten minute walking distance from our manor. I wanted you to have a look at it first before we could have finalized the deal, but when I came home this noon, you were at the Inn. So, I went to find Official Zhu and showed him the house. I only finalized the deal because he said the house is perfect for the beggars. I paid the owner a total of seven thousand silver taels which is far cheaper than the prices of other houses in the area. But this house is a little bit old and needs some renovations."