Chapter 17
At least she had married Xie Yao, not some old pervert.
Mother Song didn’t feel awkward and continued, “A woman has to marry well to live like a human being.” She tried to smile, but it was full of bitterness.
Seeing her like this, Yuli put away her cold face and hummed faintly in agreement.
Mother Song then asked, “Is Young Master Xie good to you?”
Compared to the original book, or the fate she would have had being born into such a family, of course it was good. And to be honest, besides his strong desire for control, he hadn’t made her suffer in the slightest.
Yuli nodded. “He is very good to me.”
A strange look flashed in the eyes of Mother Song and Song Zhu.
Yuli didn’t know what they were up to and decided to wait and see. When they made their request, she would strike back.
Having dealt with clients for years, Yuli was very familiar with how to negotiate. As long as it wasn’t a domineering client like Xie Yao, she could always bargain.
When it was time for the meal, Yuli had someone set the table.
At the dining table, the elders should have sat in the main seat according to seniority. But it was unclear if Jingyu had done it intentionally, but there was no stool at the main seat. Song Zhu sat in the second seat, and Yuli was opposite him.
“Is Young Master Xie always not at home?” Mother Song asked halfway through the meal.
“Mm, he only comes back at night,” Yuli said.
After the meal, the maids served tea and a fruit platter.
They were all rare fruits. Her brother was busy stuffing himself. The two elders had something on their minds. After a few bites, they stopped.
“Yuli, Mother has something to say to you,” Mother Song said, signaling for the maids in the room to leave.
Yuli became even more curious. How greedy could they be? What could they possibly want?
Yuli had Jingyu take the others out.
Song Zhu began to speak. “Back then, this Xie fellow begged me to marry my daughter to him. Now look, he’s making you a young widow. There’s no life in this residence at all. I think he’s probably a fraud, tricking my daughter into being his mistress.”
Yuli was surprised that he would say such a thing. Wasn’t it he who had been insatiably greedy, wanting to marry her off to Xie Yao for wealth and glory, regardless of whether she lived or died?
How did the son-in-law he had spoken of so fondly become “this Xie fellow”?
“Yes, I don’t think this Young Master Xie is good to you. My girl is so wronged. Come home with your parents,” Mother Song also said.
Yuli was astonished, but she was very clear-headed. “He is very good to me. I will not go home. Isn’t everything you have now what I got in exchange for marrying him? Are you willing to return the gold and silver he gave you?”
“What are you talking about? How can a bride price that has been given be taken back? You’ve already shared a bed with him. He’s the one who has profited,” Song Zhu said.
Although she was used to Song Zhu’s attitude of not treating her as a person, such shameless words still made Yuli angry. “You were the one who forced me to marry, and now you are the one who wants me to break the engagement. Could it be that you have found a better match than my husband and want me to remarry?”
As if Yuli had hit the nail on the head, Mother Song looked a little pained, but Song Zhu smiled shamelessly.
Brother Yaozu said impatiently, “Oh, Father, what’s with all this beating around the bush? Just tell her directly. Tie her up and take her back, and marry her off again like before.”
They really wanted her to break the engagement and remarry. Yuli was so angry she almost laughed. She was helpless, but she was married. Did they really think her husband was dead?
Song Zhu: “This is not up to you. And you’re not losing out. You were already involved with him before. Now that he’s successful, he’s still willing to marry you.”
“Who is it?” Yuli suddenly had an ominous premonition.
Seeing that she seemed to be wavering, Mother Song smiled. “It’s Mei Qing. He’s the new Zhuangyuan. The first thing he did when he returned to the county was to look for you. So many distinguished people wanted to have him as their son-in-law, but he refused them all. He will marry no one but you…”
Yuli felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
Song Zhu: “He knows you’re married, but he doesn’t mind. As long as you divorce him, he will still marry you as his legal wife with a grand procession.”
Yuli looked at the couple singing in harmony and seemed to see the dead faces of many people.
On a June day, she felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar, her whole body cold, unable to say a word.
Brother Yaozu shouted, “Are you annoying or what? Didn’t you say before that you wanted to marry him? Now that you’ve been married once, what’s wrong with remarrying him? He’s the new Zhuangyuan. No matter how rich the Xie family is, they are still lowly merchants. If you marry a Zhuangyuan, you will be an official’s wife, and I will be an official’s brother-in-law. What’s a little money? The entire Xihe County will be mine to roam.”
Her brother Yaozu was daydreaming, but Yuli was alert. “When did I ever say I was willing to marry him?”
“When Father wanted you to marry Official Zhang, you said it yourself.”
Mother Song: “Yes, didn’t you say that you wanted to marry Mei Qing and no one else?”
Song Zhu: “Whether you’re willing or not, you are marrying this Zhuangyuan. If you don’t tell that Xie fellow, I will.”
Yuli exclaimed, “Are you crazy!”
The hall fell silent for a moment.
“What nonsense is this dead girl spouting!” Song Zhu was the first to come to his senses and scolded.
Yuli stared at him without a word.
Song Zhu snorted. “You ate my food, lived in my house. I raised you to be this big. Without me, would you be where you are today? Now pack your bags and leave with me. We’ll explain things to that Xie fellow another day.”
Yuli sneered and retorted, “I paid off all the money for my food and lodging before I got married. You took those fifty taels and still forced me to marry. Even if fifty taels were not enough, what my husband gave was enough to buy me.”
Yuli would not be morally blackmailed by such a petty person. Even if she had married into an ordinary family, from the moment they had tied her up and put her in the bridal sedan, she had had nothing to do with them. She would never let them control her.
Seeing that he couldn’t persuade her, Song Zhu really wanted to use force. Yuli spun around to dodge and grabbed a porcelain vase.
“You dare to try.”
Her face was fierce, a completely different person from the one who had swallowed her anger before she got married.
They had also seen when they arrived that there were many guards in this residence. If Yuli was unwilling to go with them, they couldn’t take her away.
Song Zhu glared at her and cursed, “Ungrateful wretch.”
Yuli said coldly, “Keep your mouth clean. You’ve already sold your daughter. My name is not Song Yi; it’s Song Yuli. I have nothing to do with your Song family anymore.”
Outside the hall, Jingyu led people in quickly and heard Yuli say this, still holding a vase, confronting the three people opposite her.
Seeing that people had arrived, Yuli put down the vase and said calmly, “Show the guests out.”
A tall guard stepped forward, a head taller than the father and son. Coupled with their intimidating aura, the two of them didn’t dare to make another sound.
“Drive them away. Don’t let them in so easily in the future,” Yuli said.
This family would never change. They were so delusional as to want to force her to marry again. They didn’t even know how they would die.
The three of them were driven out by Yuli without any regard for decorum. No matter how thick-skinned they were, they felt they had lost all face and walked out, flinging their hands.
Yuli said coldly to their backs, “Don’t come back in the future. Just consider me dead.”
After the three of them were long gone, Yuli put down the vase and took a deep breath.
Only if they considered her dead could they live.
If they really dared to go to Xie Yao, Yuli didn’t even dare to imagine the consequences.
But she was annoyed that she hadn’t been able to get back Xiyun’s indenture contract. But in that situation, if she had brought it up, they would have thought they could control her, or even if they had agreed, they would probably have demanded an exorbitant price.
She couldn’t imagine that there were such greedy people in the world.
After her anger, Yuli suddenly paused. Mei Ziyu had appeared.
She first remembered that a few days ago, Xie Yao had seemingly unintentionally mentioned that the new Zhuangyuan was from her hometown. It seemed that after that, his desire for control had become abnormally strong.
She had not always mentioned Mei Ziyu like in the original novel. Would he know of Mei Ziyu’s existence?
And what she had said about wanting to marry Mei Qing, that was before she had saved Xie Yao. At that time, Song Zhu had wanted her to marry an old rich man as his second wife. She was only fifteen at the time, which was no different from being sold to an old man to bear children.
In comparison, Mei Qing was handsome, had a gentle personality, and was interested in her. It was normal for her to think of him first as someone to use to oppose such a marriage.
In fact, in that situation, Mei Qing could have been replaced by any young man in the county.
Yuli felt a little lost. Behind this matter, was it the Song family’s wishful thinking, or was it truly Mei Qing’s wish?
She sat in the hall, her head bowed, deep in thought.
In the midst of her confused thoughts, a pair of black-tipped boots and a light-colored hem appeared in her field of vision.
Yuli looked up, and Xie Yao filled her sight.
He was dressed in a jade-colored scholar’s robe with a cyan jade headband, holding a folding fan, looking like a gentle and noble young master. But his expression was inscrutable, his eyes like two bottomless pools.
“Your father-in-law and mother-in-law were here just now and were driven away by you. What happened?” Xie Yao’s red lips parted slightly, and he spoke very slowly. His tone was emotionless, but Yuli inexplicably felt a chill all over.
It was as if he knew about Mei Qing, and yet as if he knew nothing at all.
She dared to talk back to the Song father and son because she knew that although they were insatiably greedy, they were just law-abiding commoners. But the Xie Yao before her was the regent in power, who held the power of life and death in his hands.
Regardless of whether this matter was instigated by Mei Qing, there was no need for her to specifically mention him to Xie Yao. He had no reason to kill someone she didn’t care about at all and had never mentioned.
Yuli said, “They came to ask if I was doing well. I said I was doing very well, but my father and brother are insatiably greedy and wanted to get something from me. I refused, and I don’t want to have anything to do with them in the future, so I simply drove them away.”
“So that’s how it is,” Xie Yao said calmly, pausing for a long time, looking at Yuli, and then asked, “What did they want from you?”
Yuli was silent for a moment, then looked away. “Nothing but gold and silver.”
“Isn’t that easy to handle?”
“You already gave a lot before we got married. They are insatiably greedy. You work from dawn to dusk, and everything you earn is not easy. I don’t want to give them a single penny,” Yuli said.
Xie Yao’s eyelashes trembled, and he reached out his hand to Yuli.
He wanted her to hold his hand. Yuli was relieved and took his hands with both of hers, smiling.
The matter seemed to be over. They didn’t mention it again when they reached Mingyue Residence. According to her usual routine, it was time for Yuli’s afternoon nap.
Xie Yao had never come so early before. Yuli was a little uncomfortable.
“It’s time for your afternoon nap. Go and sleep,” Xie Yao said.
Yuli didn’t go into the room immediately, but asked him, “What about you?”
Yuli was still holding his hand, looking up at him slightly.
“If you want to sleep…” Yuli secretly gritted her teeth and made up her mind, looking towards the inner chamber.
“I’m not sleeping,” Xie Yao said.
Yuli couldn’t tell if she was relieved or disappointed. She smiled at him and went into the room to sleep by herself.
Not long after she lay down, Xie Yao even helped her close the door. She fell asleep peacefully.
There was no one else in Mingyue Residence. Xie Yao stood in front of the screen for a while, then walked out.
When he reached the hanging flower gate, Jingyu came to greet him. “Does Master want to eat?”
“No need. Remember, I arrived at the residence in the afternoon.”
Jingyu agreed.
After Xie Yao was long gone, Jingyu took out a handkerchief and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and the back of her neck.
*
After Yuli woke up from her afternoon nap, Xiyun came in quickly.
Yuli first apologized to her for not being able to get back her indenture contract.
In the morning, Yuli had not let Xiyun show her face. She had gone to the kitchen. Not long after, she was called away to choose fabric for Yuli’s new clothes and only returned much later.
Regarding the indenture contract, Xiyun smiled and said, “From the day I was sold by my parents, I never thought I would have a day of freedom. I have always been very lucky. Now, following the Mistress, there is no other servant who is happier than me.”
Seeing that Xiyun was sincere, Yuli let the matter drop for now.
In the evening, Xie Yao came over from the guest courtyard to have dinner with Yuli. He ate with serious concentration, but Yuli was a little absent-minded.
Today’s events had sounded a warning bell for her. She couldn’t delay any longer.
After the meal, she mustered up her courage and took his hand. “Husband, teach me to write.”
Xie Yao paused and only hummed calmly in agreement.
The events of the last time they had practiced calligraphy were still vivid in her mind, but this time, Yuli was mentally prepared. She decided that no matter what Xie Yao did, she would not push him away.
In the study, she looked around the courtyard. There was no one, and no cat. Still feeling uneasy, she closed the door.
When she turned back, she saw Xie Yao meticulously grinding ink. She stood for a while. He looked over, but his gaze was not as fervent as before.
Yuli thought he was letting her take more initiative.
Yuli walked over and took his hand, placing it on her own.
Xie Yao held her hand and wrote a few strokes steadily.
It was the same situation as last time, but he was very cold.
It wasn’t until Yuli hugged him like last time that he stiffened for a moment.
“Husband. I’m ready,” Yuli said, her voice trembling.
She closed her eyes, preparing to endure Xie Yao’s wanton kisses.
Xie Yao didn’t move, but Yuli could feel the rise and fall of his chest intensify.
“I gave you so much time. Why did you suddenly come to your senses today?” he asked.
Yuli thought for a moment and replied, “Today, I saw my family. In comparison, I realized how good Husband is to me. I want to live a good life with you, to be of one heart and mind, and grow old together.”
Xie Yao’s breathing grew heavier, as if he were suppressing something.
After a long moment, she heard him speak. “Tomorrow, I will take you to see someone. I hope you will still remember what you said now.”