After finishing the meal, Ye Su didn’t rush back to her own courtyard but stayed in the main courtyard with her mother to wait for her father’s return.
Before the palace gates were locked for the night, Marquis Anle finally returned to the residence. His face was dark and grim, and even seeing his wife and daughter did nothing to ease his expression.
“How did it go?” Marchioness Anle stepped forward to greet him, with Ye Su following behind and calling out, “Father.”
Waving his hand dismissively, he walked over to the grand armchair and sat down. He first asked Ye Su, “It’s so late—why haven’t you returned to your own courtyard to rest?”
Ye Su could tell her father was trying to send her away, not wanting her to know about these unpleasant matters. She pretended not to understand: “I waited specifically for you to return, Father. What did His Majesty say?”
Seeing that his daughter already knew everything, Marquis Anle realized there was no use in sending her away. He could only reply, “What else could he say? Fortunately, he merely told me and my elder brother to spend more time disciplining them in the future, and then let us bring them back.”
Marchioness Anle’s expression turned somewhat unnatural at this. She knew that although His Majesty had spoken to the Marquis on the surface, his words were actually directed at her and her sister-in-law.
Disciplining daughters was inherently the responsibility of the legitimate mother. Although Ye Wei was the one who had caused trouble today, Ye Mo and Ye Fu’s behavior hadn’t been good either.
Sisters showing discord outside the home was nothing but a laughingstock for others.
“His Majesty has likely already sensed the Empress Dowager’s and our Ye family’s intentions. But after the scene Ye Wei and the others made today, no one should harbor any hopes anymore—His Majesty won’t set his sights on them.” Marquis Anle said, picking up the tea beside him and drinking it in one gulp.
Even now, recalling His Majesty’s indifferent expression made him nervous.
Though there had been no reprimand, no punishment, that look of seeing through everything had made Marquis Jiayuan and Marquis Anle instinctively lower their heads and avert their eyes.
His Majesty had said: “I and my two uncles are all family. Ye Wei and the others are also my own cousins. I welcome my aunts bringing the young ladies into the palace anytime to keep the Empress Dowager company in conversation. But I hope that something like today will never happen again.”
What else could Marquis Jiayuan and Marquis Anle say? Naturally, they agreed wholeheartedly, promising never to cause His Majesty trouble again.
“So that’s it, then?” Marchioness Anle didn’t know how she should feel about this matter.
As the Emperor’s maternal clan, they had originally held an advantage. But the Ye family’s daughters were simply not up to par—forcing them into the palace would be a wasted effort.
“Let it be.” What else could be done?
As he pondered, Marquis Anle’s gaze suddenly fell upon Ye Su, tinged with a hint of regret.
Ye Su was puzzled: “Father, why are you looking at me like that?”
Marquis Anle sighed: “When it comes to closeness with His Majesty, who can compare to you, who grew up alongside him? If your age were more suitable for His Majesty’s, we wouldn’t need to worry at all.”
Hearing this, Ye Su shuddered with revulsion and waved her hands: “Father, don’t say such things. Who has a good relationship with him? There’s no such thing as harmony when I meet His Majesty on ordinary days. Besides, I absolutely refuse to enter the palace.”
If she truly entered the palace, she could already imagine the scene of the two of them sitting across from each other in the palace hall, neither looking at the other with any goodwill.
Seeing his daughter’s look of utter resistance, Marquis Anle said no more. It was indeed an unsuitable matter to begin with.
“Ye Mo’s marriage should be settled as soon as possible—no more delays.” He turned to his wife and said.
He had never considered sending this concubine-born daughter of his into the palace. She had only been included to make up the numbers this time, and even so, she had managed to embarrass him. Marquis Anle no longer wished to keep her in the residence.
Ye Su could understand Ye Mo’s psychology. Since she had the chance to enter the palace together with the two girls from the eastern branch, she naturally wanted to fight for her own opportunity—if she succeeded, it would be a meteoric rise.
But now her performance had been lacking, and she had been dragged down by Ye Wei’s troubles as well.
“Well then, what about the fifth young lady? What do my elder brother and sister-in-law plan to do?” Marchioness Anle asked.
For what she had done, fortunately His Majesty did not hold it against them. But they could not simply pretend nothing had happened.
Marquis Anle said: “My elder brother said that for the next year, he’ll send a governess to properly discipline her, making sure she reflects on her actions. She won’t be allowed to attend banquets outside either.”
Ye Su thought to herself—isn’t that just house arrest?
At the age when marriage negotiations were underway, not allowing her to go out would undoubtedly reduce her opportunities to present herself before the ladies of other families. She might very well miss out on many excellent matches.
For an unmarried young woman, this was undoubtedly a heavy blow. Still, Ye Su didn’t feel sorry for her.
Marchioness Anle, meanwhile, was thinking about her husband’s earlier words—resolving Ye Mo’s marriage prospects.
Finding a family for Ye Mo wasn’t difficult. She and the Marquis had long reached a consensus: Ye Mo’s future husband would be chosen from among the sons of fifth-rank officials in the capital.
The reason they hadn’t considered noble families was mainly because Ye Mo was a concubine-born daughter, her birth mother held no influence, and her dowry would consist only of the standard portion from the family coffers—nothing substantial.
When two families formed a marriage alliance, besides status and bloodline, what mattered most was the bride’s dowry.
Though the latter was never spoken aloud, the reality was that women with generous dowries were valued more highly by their husband’s families.
Marchioness Anle knew that many noble families in the capital, aside from their aristocratic titles, were already hollow inside—nothing but a facade of glory.
A woman with a meager dowry who married into such a family might have to fill the husband’s family’s debts and still be looked down upon.
Truly powerful ducal and marquis families, on the other hand, would look down on Ye Mo as a concubine-born daughter. The best choice was a proper official family.
In ordinary official families, most would be more than willing to marry a daughter of a marquis’s household, and even without the noble title, their actual circumstances were not too bad.
If the husband were also diligent and ambitious, with a smooth path of official advancement, there was no saying that she wouldn’t one day see better days.
Ye Mo’s marriage could be settled at any time, but as the elder sister, Ye Su had to settle hers first.
With both daughters’ marriages pressing urgently, the Marchioness Anle suddenly found herself quite busy.
A couple of days later, she sent Mama Huang to Fanxiang Court to summon Ye Su, and Ye Su went.
Taking the portrait handed over by her mother, Ye Su had a premonition, and sure enough, she heard her mother say, “The man in this portrait is called Meng Zixu, the eldest legitimate son of the Marquis of Ningguo’s younger brother. He’s only twenty-nine this year, but he has already risen to the position of Prefect of Shenzhou through his own ability.”
Although a prefect was only a fourth-rank official, for Meng Zixu to reach such a position at such a young age—even if the Marquis of Ningguo’s household had certainly lent support behind the scenes—was enough to prove that the man himself was quite capable. Otherwise, if an incompetent person were put in that position, no amount of pulling strings could lift them up.
“To reach the fourth rank at such a young age, his future prospects are surely boundless.” Afraid her daughter might look down on him, the Marchioness Anle carefully observed Ye Su’s reaction.
When discussing the first marriage prospect back then, Ye Su had been aiming for the position of future Duchess of the State. Now the candidate being proposed was merely a fourth-rank official, and not even a capital official at that—she worried Ye Su might not be pleased.
Ye Su did not answer her mother immediately, but instead studied the person in the portrait.
He was painted to look young, with a square face, regular features, and a solemn expression, appearing to be a very proper and serious person in daily life.
“Twenty-nine already, and his first wife is dead?” Ye Su asked.
“No, that’s not the case. I heard he once had a fiancée—the daughter of his esteemed teacher—who passed away before they could marry, and he has remained unmarried ever since.”
“Oh, quite the devoted romantic, is he?” Ye Su teased, earning a glare from the Marchioness Anle.
“What’s all this about devotion or not—when a woman marries, it’s about getting on with life.” The Marchioness Anle felt this man was quite loyal and righteous. Even if her daughter didn’t marry him for passionate love, at least they could treat each other with mutual respect.
She knew her own daughter too well. Ye Su was not the type of woman who dreamed day and night of marrying a perfect husband and living in romantic bliss.
So when choosing a son-in-law, she valued the man’s character and integrity above all; appearance and talent only needed to be passable. This Meng Zixu, in her view, was quite good.
“Well? Are you satisfied?” Having said all this, the Marchioness Anle felt her daughter would probably not refuse.
Sure enough, Ye Su wore an expression of leaving everything to her mother’s decision, casually setting down the portrait: “Since Mother says he’s a good man, then him it is.”
To be honest, as long as the man’s family background and abilities were decent, she wouldn’t have to suffer grievances or hardship after marrying him, wouldn’t have to use her own dowry to subsidize his family, and he wasn’t so ugly that she couldn’t bear to look at him during meals—she could accept that.