…
When Meng Ruan and the others hurried to the mansion gate, they knelt in panic to beg forgiveness, trembling all over with fear.
The Crown Prince swept a sidelong glance at them.
Oh, is that all they’re capable of?
Cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong!
Meanwhile, Meng Yu Tang stared fixedly at Meng Yunwan’s smooth, flawless face and abruptly asked, “Did the Empress not punish you?”
“The Empress’s grace extends to all six palaces—why would she punish me?” Meng Yunwan replied calmly.
Meng Yu Tang dug her nails into her palms.
Her round, almond-shaped eyes flashed with subtle malice and bitter envy.
She also felt a vague sense that something was off.
No… no…
Both of them had delivered dumplings—why was she punished while Meng Yunwan remained unscathed? Moreover, that narrow-minded old pious woman, the Empress, spent every day convinced that all women in the world wanted to seduce her foolish son. How could she possibly allow the Crown Prince to accompany Meng Yunwan home?
What trick had Meng Yunwan played?
Lost in her thoughts, Meng Yu Tang watched as Meng Ruan and his two brothers, with much fanfare, ushered the group inside. Suppressing the resentment in her eyes, she followed closely behind.
As they ascended the steps, she deliberately slowed her pace by half a step.
Seizing the moment when no one was paying attention, she suddenly grabbed Meng Yunwan’s sleeve and demanded, “Have you also been reborn?”
Meng Yunwan frowned. “What nonsense are you talking about? Have you been reading too many storybooks?”
Meng Yu Tang gritted her teeth. “Don’t play dumb with me. Tell me, how exactly did you win the Empress’s favor!?”
And how did she make the arrogant and domineering Crown Prince treat her like a sister!
Something she had failed to achieve in three years in her previous life—yet Meng Yunwan had managed it in just one month since entering the palace!
Brushing off Meng Yu Tang’s hand, Meng Yunwan smiled lightly. “I don’t know. As soon as I entered the palace, the Empress Dowager rewarded me with a gold bracelet, the Empress permitted me to study in the Shangshufang, and the Crown Prince has been my protector. I, too, am puzzled. With such wonderful family and such fortunate opportunities, why on earth did you, dear sister, think of giving them up to me?”
With that, she drifted away gracefully.
Behind her, Meng Yu Tang’s expression gradually twisted with rage.
Meng Yunwan made her way to the inner courtyard, where servants were bustling in and out, tidying up several chests of miscellaneous items piled in the yard.
Noticing Meng Yunwan’s slightly dazed expression, Meng Ruan smiled faintly. “Yun Guan, since you don’t live at home anymore, your bedroom chamber was going to waste, so we converted it into Yu Tang’s music room. You don’t mind, do you?”
Meng Yunwan said softly, “I don’t mind.”
She knelt down and sifted through the piles of belongings. These were all the possessions she had accumulated over so many years in the Meng household.
Now, the Meng family wouldn’t even grant these few mementos a place to stay.
Suppressing the surging anger in her heart, Meng Yu Tang put on a smile and asked, “Sister, would you like to visit my music room? It’s quite grand and spacious. Oh, and don’t be sad. Even though your bedroom chamber is gone, you can stay with me when you come home in the future.”
She smiled sweetly and obediently, like a well-behaved younger sister.
But Meng Yunwan said, “No need.”
She would not return.
The young girl’s eyelashes fluttered like a lost butterfly, a sight that pained the Crown Prince deeply.
For the first time, disregarding his royal dignity, he kicked a table.
“Even married daughters are given a room in their parents’ home. My sister has lived in your household for over a decade, and in the end, you won’t even grant her a place to stay!”
“Yun Guan, let’s go! This wretched place is not worth our visit!”
The Crown Prince dragged Meng Yunwan away, completely disregarding the alternating pale and livid expressions on the faces of the Meng siblings behind them.
Ling Shuo’s footsteps, however, slowed unusually, pausing intermittently as he surveyed the marquis’s mansion, his gaze gradually deepening.
Early that morning, Meng Yunwan had heard from the servants that Prince Yi had caught a chill after returning from the marquis’s mansion that day. Several imperial physicians had been summoned, yet his condition showed no sign of improvement.
She was somewhat surprised. “He caught a chill?”
Qianbi nodded. “According to those around Prince Yi, he waited too long outside the marquis’s mansion that day, which led to him catching cold.”
News of Ling Shuo’s illness and confinement to bed soon reached the previous court.
Upon returning to the mansion after court that day, the Marquis of Huainan’s face was as cold as ice.
“Where are Meng Ruan, Meng Fan, Meng Nan, and Meng Yu Tang?”
“Summon these rebellious sons and daughters to me at once!”
Meng Ruan and the others were accompanying Meng Yu Tang as she toured the new Music Room.
Seeing the spacious and clean Music Room, which had been converted from a bedroom chamber, and her three promising older brothers bustling around her, Meng Yu Tang felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction.
But when she spoke, she said, “Forget it, let’s convert the Music Room back. Otherwise, if my sister returns and has nowhere to stay, she’ll get angry with my brothers again.”
Meng Fan immediately grew displeased. “Let her be angry! Who’s afraid of her anger?”
Meng Yu Tang still appeared deeply uneasy.
Meng Ruan reassured her, “It’s fine. When Yun Guan was at home, she spent half her days in the sleeping quarters and the other half being punished in the storage room for firewood. To her, there’s no difference. When she returns, we’ll just tidy up the storage room and let it serve as her new sleeping quarters. After all these years, she’s grown accustomed to it.”
Only then did Meng Yu Tang feel at ease, smiling sweetly as she said, “That works perfectly. I get a new Music Room, and my sister gets new sleeping quarters. It’s a win-win.”
As the siblings were enjoying their harmonious moment, a torrent of furious scolding suddenly erupted. “A bunch of ignorant fools who don’t know their place!”
The Marquis of Huainan stormed in angrily.
Three sharp slaps landed on Meng Ruan and the others.
Meng Yu Tang, who had always been doted on by her father, was instantly frightened to the point of tears. “Father, what are you doing? You’ve scared me…”
The Marquis of Huainan sneered, his gaze darkening as it swept over Meng Ruan and his brothers.
Ever since his younger brother died in battle, he had treated these nephews as his own. And how had they repaid him? Like this!
“Do you know that today, twenty ministers jointly submitted a memorial against the marquis’s mansion?” he said coldly, his eyes scanning everyone in the room.
“The censorial officials accused me of disrespecting my superiors, defying imperial authority, and failing to welcome a prince to the mansion, causing the Second Prince to catch a severe chill!”
“His Majesty has severely punished the marquis’s mansion and publicly reprimanded me in front of my colleagues, humiliating me completely!”
“Today, no one will stop me. I must teach you ignorant fools a proper lesson! Guards, enforce the family discipline—”
With each word of the Marquis of Huainan’s furious rebuke, the faces of Meng Ruan and his three siblings turned deathly pale.
How could this have happened!
Just as a thick wooden rod was about to strike Meng Ruan, Meng Yu Tang rushed forward in tears. “Father, it wasn’t like that! My brothers did this for my sake. If you must punish someone, punish me!”
“It was my sister who provoked them first. My brothers were merely standing up for justice. Since this started because of me, let it end with me!”
“I am willing to take the punishment in place of my brothers!”
The ashamed and remorseful expressions on Meng Ruan and the others’ faces instantly turned to overwhelming gratitude upon hearing these words.
With Yu Tang’s words, it was all worth it!