Wei Nanxun heard the commotion and quickly followed her out. She saw several burly and unfamiliar guards standing outside the courtyard gate. They were not the servants of the West Garden.
“Who are you? Why are you here?”
“Recently, the capital is not peaceful. We are here to protect the safety of the Seventh Miss under the orders of the Madam.”
“I don’t need any protection. Get out of the way, I want to see my aunt.”
Wei Nanxun walked straight out, but was blocked by two arms, “Please go back, Seventh Miss. Without the Madam’s order, no one is allowed to go out.”
This was really ridiculous. People couldn’t even get out, couldn’t even see their faces, so how could they change the so-called orders? This was not protecting her at all, it was clearly confining her.
“Are you unreasonable? This is our young lady, hurry up and get out of the way…”
Zhixia still wanted to reason with them, but the leader directly detained her, “Those who disobey orders and cause trouble will be punished with twenty strokes of the cane.”
Saying that, they actually wanted to drag Zhixia down to beat her. Even a young man would lose half his life after being beaten twenty times, let alone a thin little girl.
This was not a cane punishment at all, but using Zhixia’s life to threaten her, to persuade her to be sensible.
Even though Wei Nanxun knew this was their trick, she had to grit her teeth and compromise.
“Wait, let Zhixia go, I don’t want to go out that much anymore.”
Sure enough, as soon as she said she wasn’t going out, those people stopped making things difficult for them and directly released her. The two masters and servants had no choice but to retreat back into the house.
“Miss, it’s all this servant’s fault, dragging you down. Otherwise, you should escape by yourself, don’t worry about this servant.”
Seeing that she had some abrasions on her body, her face was pale with fright, and her eyes were red with self-blame, Wei Nanxun quickly pulled her down to sit with heartache, “Silly girl, what’s the use of me going out alone? Without you with me, I can’t move an inch.”
Only then did Zhixia sniff, “Then, then what should we do? The news can’t be sent to the Second Master and the Young Master, and the people in the courtyard are useless. Otherwise, should this servant climb the wall? Or there’s a dog hole in the backyard that can be drilled into the next courtyard.”
But she just shook her head with a wry smile, “Even if we drill out, we can’t get out of the Wei family’s gate.”
If she was still suspicious just now, then now she could be sure that this must be Pei Yuyan’s doing.
Zhixia didn’t believe in evil. After applying the medicine and resting for a while, she went to find a way to send a message out, but not to mention going out, someone would block her as soon as she got close to the courtyard gate. There were even more unfamiliar maids in the courtyard, knocking on the door every one or two hours to confirm that she was still in the house.
For three days in a row, Wei Nanxun couldn’t see any outsiders at all. Even Steward Qiu was detained by the guards outside when he wanted to see her. She was sitting on pins and needles, unable to eat or sleep well, and her whole person visibly withered away.
Was Pei Yuyan crazy? His paranoia had completely exceeded her imagination.
She didn’t dare to think about what kind of state Pei Yuyan would torture her into if she really entered the palace. If it really came to that point, she would rather die.
Could it be that she had worked so hard for so long, planned so much, and still couldn’t escape this dead end.
As soon as she thought of this possibility, she felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave, and her heart was as dead as ashes.
No, she wouldn’t accept her fate. She could live again, so she would never give up so easily.
Wei Nanxun looked at the food in front of her without moving. Her fingers kept twisting, and her brain was turning faster than ever before, “Zhixia, tell me again in detail about what happened on the day of the betrothal, who all attended. Also, not limited to that day, you can tell me about any novel things that happened in the mansion before.”
She had really been too complacent this month, only caring about how to make money, with no sense of crisis at all, and now she could only make up for it temporarily.
“That day in the front, I remember the Old Madam, the Madam, and the Third House’s Madam were all there. Except for you and our Young Master, all the other young ladies were there… Oh no, the Eldest Miss wasn’t there.”
“Wei Mingzhao? Why wasn’t she there?”
“This servant doesn’t know, maybe the Grand Master was really angry and didn’t lift the Eldest Miss’s confinement.”
Wei Nanxun was a little surprised. According to Wei Mingzhao and Madam Wang’s personalities, how could they let her be absent from such an opportunity to show off because of confinement?
“By the way, speaking of the Eldest Miss, this servant ran into Xiao Cui from the front yard when I went to the kitchen to pick up food. She said that the Eldest Miss seemed to be sick, unable to eat anything, and vomited after eating…”
What kind of illness makes you vomit after eating?
Wei Nanxun’s originally dim eyes lit up instantly, and she tightly grasped Zhixia’s hand, “My good Zhixia, you really saved me!”
Zhixia looked confused, did she say something amazing?
Pei Yuyan walked with a sullen face, his footsteps unceasing, all the way to the main courtyard. The sound of lively firecrackers and the noise in his ears made his already restless heart even more irritable.
What he hated most was having his plans disrupted. This time, he had been tricked by Consort Xian, not only having that kind of thing with Wei Mingzhao, but also being punished by his father.
He remembered every moment of his father’s memorial that was smashed on his face, “A Yan, you are my son, the crown prince of Great Yan, how can you do such a thing that insults your status? Are you trying to anger me to death!”
“If it weren’t for this incident, I wouldn’t have known that you actually wanted to break off the engagement. Did you think that after sleeping with her, she wouldn’t become your crown princess, so you could marry someone else?”
“I’m telling you, there’s no room for discussion on this matter. You must quickly finalize the marriage for me, go to present the betrothal gifts next month, and the wedding date will be no later than the month after next.”
He looked like a glamorous crown prince in front of people, but in reality, he had no real power. When discussing politics, he stood in the imperial study room like a civil official in charge of copying. His father would only ask him if he had written it down? Had he learned it? Praising him for writing well.
He would never ask him what he thought about this matter, let alone let him associate with important officials.
However, he had to rush to the imperial study room before dawn every day, or he would be punished.
In the past, his father would still take his face into consideration and only scold him in private, but this time he scolded him in front of several ministers.
This crown prince was really interesting.
“Man Xinghe? Wasn’t he looking for me…”
Before he could finish his words, a piece of green leaf fell into his hair. There was a rustling sound from the tree, and then a nimble figure jumped down from the tree.
“Cousin, I’m here.”
As soon as he landed, he put his arm on Pei Yuyan’s shoulder, holding a peach that he didn’t know where it came from in his hand, eating it with great relish.
The Crown Prince was twenty years old this year. This person looked younger than him, wearing a scarlet robe, with his hair tied up and crowned. His eyebrows and eyes were like swords, and the whole person looked energetic. He was the Young Master of the Northwest King, Man Xinghe.
Pei Yuyan glanced at the hand on his shoulder, frowning tightly, “You have no posture when you stand. Is this how your aunt usually manages you?”
“Tsk, cousin, why are you more than my father? I’m here to find you to play, who told you to talk about rules.”
“Besides, didn’t you also sneak out to see my future cousin-in-law? I was the one who blocked it for you, why are you crossing the river and tearing down the bridge? By the way, how does my cousin-in-law look? I heard she’s extremely beautiful, is she as pretty as the girls in our Northwest?”
Pei Yuyan thought of Wei Nanxun’s disordered breathing and out-of-control expression when she heard him, and then thought that it was this kid in front of him who had 污了 her innocence.
Now he was still talking nonsense, hadn’t he seen how beautiful she was? Thinking of this, he felt a tightness in his throat, and a burst of unutterable anger swelled in his chest.
He stared coldly at Man Xinghe, the look in his eyes making the latter feel cold, and he stiffly put away his nonchalant appearance, threw away the peach in his hand, and stood up straight.
“Alright, alright, I’ll take it back, it was my fault. Knowing that you and cousin-in-law have a good relationship, I won’t make jokes like this in the future.”
“It’s good that you know. It’s fine if there are no rules between you and me, but in the future, you must not be presumptuous in front of your sister-in-law.”
Man Xinghe exaggeratedly winked, “Yo, did I hear that right? Cousin is feeling sorry for cousin-in-law, I thought you were a Buddha reincarnated, with six senses purified, I didn’t expect you to have a caring side too.”
No one dared to tease Pei Yuyan like this, but he couldn’t do anything about this little tyrant from the Northwest.
“What exactly is the matter that you had someone look for me?”
“This Wei family is really boring, everyone has a fake smile plastered on their faces, it’s annoying to look at, cousin, take me out to play?”
“Just for this matter?”
“What else?”
Pei Yuyan glanced at Man Xinghe with a look as if he were an idiot, and a thought suddenly flashed in his mind, “If you’re bored, I do have something fun…”