Lu Xinrou, who had been going on at length about Bai Zhao’s marriage contract, was startled by Bai Zhao’s sudden exclamation!
Lu Xinrou pinched Bai Zhao’s face in displeasure and replied, “That’s right, you’re the only seedling of our Prince of Zhenbei’s estate. Is it so strange to have a marriage contract, Zhao’er? What’s that expression on your face?”
After speaking, she gave her son a dissatisfied glare.
Bai Zhao’s expression at that moment could be described as utterly dumbfounded.
His peach blossom eyes, normally somewhat narrow and long, were now wide open, his mouth gaping enough to hold a duck egg, and his sword brows were raised to the heavens.
“Wait, Mother, hold on! Which estate’s young lady is it? How come I don’t know about this?”
Bai Zhao asked, completely bewildered.
Lu Xinrou pulled Bai Zhao’s arm and led him inside the main hall, with Qiulan and Chuntao following behind, holding back their laughter.
“The heir’s expression just now was hilarious, hehe.” Chuntao whispered quietly in Qiulan’s ear.
Qiulan gave Chuntao a cool sideways glance, then tapped the girl’s forehead with her slender index finger.
Chuntao stuck out her tongue and entered the hall with Qiulan, taking their positions behind Lu Xinrou.
After Bai Zhao sat down, Lu Xinrou raised her hand and poured him a cup of tea before replying leisurely.
“Of course you don’t know… it was decided when you were one year old!”
“Back when I gave birth to you, I tell you, countless families wanted to form a marriage alliance with our Bai family!”
“You were so adorable as a child; the threshold of our house was nearly worn down by visitors. Even His Majesty said you could pick either of his two daughters!”
“But your father and I thought that if you married a princess, you would definitely be neither free nor happy later.”
“His Majesty and those families eager to form ties were pressing hard, so your father and I chose one for you… the daughter of my old friend from my maiden days.”
“She is the only daughter of the Duke of Luguo, Chen family… Chen Shuyi! Her father, Chen Wei, is the current Minister of Works.”
“Besides, her mother, Liu Xiuhe, and I were close friends back in Jiangnan.”
“I saw that girl a while ago. She’s incredibly beautiful, no doubt about it. Her personality is wonderful… elegant and refined, well-educated and sensible. She’s a perfect match for my son!”
Bai Zhao drank his tea as he listened to his mother’s endless chatter. The more he heard, the more uncomfortable he felt, as if ants were crawling all over him. He couldn’t help but speak up.
“Wait, Mother, hold on a second! You and Father arranged a marriage contract for me and didn’t even tell me? I suddenly have a fiancée out of nowhere? How presumptuous of you!”
Lu Xinrou’s face darkened. “You were only one year old then! What did you know? What was there to discuss with you?”
“Parents’ command, matchmaker’s word! That’s how it has been since ancient times… heaven’s law! Don’t come at me with that talk about freedom of love like you did when you were little. I don’t care about that!”
Hearing his mother’s domineering declaration, Bai Zhao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
So I can’t even choose my own wife?
And besides, I don’t want to get married so early! What does being one year old have to do with it? Don’t children have rights?
I knew Father had some scheme, but I never imagined it would be this kind of “scheme”! I have to run!
Bai Zhao grumbled silently in his heart, scheming and plotting how to escape.
Lu Xinrou saw the shifting expressions on her son’s face and immediately saw through Bai Zhao’s little scheme!
“Bai Zhao! If you dare run, I’ll break your legs! Have you gotten too big for your britches now?”
Seeing his mother’s face, the master of changing expressions, Bai Zhao had no choice but to lower his head gloomily and grit his teeth. “I understand, Mother… Don’t be angry. I won’t run! I’ll behave!”
Ah well, that’s more like it. Sure enough, Mother can’t be gentle with me for more than an hour. It’s been like this since I was little.
Her being so gentle with me just now felt a bit off. This is more like it! So does motherly love just disappear?
Bai Zhao silently wept inside.
Chuntao and Qiulan both looked at their heir with sympathy.
“See? If you’d agreed earlier, you wouldn’t have needed Madam to scold you just to make the heir comfortable. How pitiful the heir is~”
Bai Zhao temporarily suppressed the idea of running away. Because once Lu Xinrou called him by his full name, it meant she was serious! Don’t challenge a mother’s bottom line!
For now, he could only try to make contact first. What if the girl disliked this heir’s bad reputation and looked down on him? Then the two of them could work together, and wouldn’t this marriage contract fall apart?
“Madam, when the heir entered the city earlier, he got into a conflict with the young master of Duke Dingguo’s estate, Wang Li, and beat him up.”
Chuntao, seeing that her heir and madam had finished discussing the marriage contract, spoke up to report.
Lu Xinrou furrowed her delicate brows and looked at Chuntao with a majestic gaze. “Give me the details.”
Chuntao recounted everything from the little girl to Bai Zhao’s orders for Old Mo to deal with those people, sparing no detail.
When Chuntao finished, Bai Zhao frowned and asked, “Mother, it shouldn’t be a big deal, right? That little brat deserved a beating!”
Lu Xinrou’s brows relaxed. Instead of answering Bai Zhao’s question, she asked with concern about something else.
“Zhao’er, Chuntao said you saved that little girl and knocked down that Wang Li’s horse with one punch? How is your body?”
Because of the “Red Lotus Burning Heart,” Bai Zhao had been using true qi to refine the poison since he was eight. Although it didn’t affect his ability to use his own strength when striking, knocking down a galloping horse with one punch clearly required true qi!
Hearing his mother’s words of concern, Bai Zhao felt a warm current flow through his heart.
This was his mother. Though she was strict with him, whenever there was a conflict with outsiders, her first thought was whether her son was all right! Regardless of right or wrong.
This kind of parental love was like a ray of light! It guided him step by step out of the cold abyss of suffering from the painful memories of his past life, following that light!
“It’s fine, Mother. Your son has already reached the Greater Circulation realm. Besides maintaining the true qi to refine the poison, I can spare about ten percent for self-defense. That’s more than enough for everyday use.”
Bai Zhao said softly to reassure his mother.
Throughout the martial world, there were nine ranks and four realms.
Ranks seven to nine were considered third-rate in the martial world, ranks four to six were second-rate, and ranks one to three were first-rate!
Above first-rate were masters!
The Lesser and Greater Circulation realms were the domain of masters. Above Greater and Lesser Circulation were the Greater and Lesser Freedom realms, which the martial world called Grandmasters!
A master in the martial world could already establish a sect and be revered as an ancestor. A Grandmaster was even rarer, like a dragon that shows its head but not its tail!
If the martial world knew that Bai Zhao, poisoned by “Red Lotus Burning Heart,” had already entered the Lesser Circulation realm at the age of twelve, with his true qi forming an internal cycle within his body, countless jaws would drop!
This was an unprecedented talent that only appeared once in ten thousand years. Of course, the specifics of his realm were Bai Zhao’s secret.
Besides his parents, only his two personal maids, Chuntao and Qiulan, and his mysterious master knew…
Hearing that Bai Zhao had already reached the Greater Circulation realm, Lu Xinrou smiled and praised, “As expected of my son! Who in this world could match your martial talent?”
Then she sighed lightly and said with heartache and hatred, “How hateful that the person who harmed my son made him suffer the pain of the burning heart for so many years!”
“Pity my son… peerless martial talent and a divine literary talent to match. But just to avoid suspicion, just to grow up safely, you had to pretend to be a wastrel for so many years!”
“Zhao’er, you’ve suffered. Now that you’re grown, we won’t play the wastrel anymore. We’ll just be the normal heir of the Bai family! You can live a stable life with Miss Chen!”
“Even though your father isn’t in the capital now, if anyone dares to provoke us, I’ll annihilate them!”
Saying this, Lu Xinrou waved her hand domineeringly.
Bai Zhao looked at his mother’s protective stance and a warm smile curled at the corner of his mouth. It felt good to have a mother shielding him!
Besides, he was tired of playing the wastrel anyway. It was fine to be a heir with power and a normal mind.
If the Bai family side was all harmony and motherly kindness, then the Wang family was wailing and chaos!
“My son! How did you get beaten like this in just one day? Wuwu, Husband, that little bastard of the Bai family has gone too far! Beating our son like this!”
“You have to stand up for us, wuwu~ My son! Does it hurt? Don’t be afraid, son. Mother will avenge you for sure!”
In the main courtyard of Duke Dingguo’s estate… the Wang family’s main branch, or the courtyard of Wang Qianshan, the head of the Wang family.
A woman around thirty years old, like a candle flickering in the wind, was lying on top of Wang Li, whose legs were wrapped like a dumpling and splinted, wailing heart-wrenchingly.
Beside her stood a middle-aged man of about forty. He wore a crimson official robe embroidered with a golden pheasant. On his head was a three-beam crown, and at his waist hung a fish-shaped pouch.
He was six feet tall, broad-shouldered and long-legged, with thick, pitch-black hair meticulously bound up in a crown.
He carried an air of authority and dignity mixed with a hint of severity.
His face bore a gloomy anger, thunder brewing between his brows. Only a pair of slightly narrow black eyes and eyebrows added a touch of femininity.
This man was the legitimate son of Duke Dingguo, the current Minister of Rites, and the head of the Wang family, Wang Qianshan!
Seeing the wailing woman before him, a flash of impatience passed through Wang Qianshan’s eyes!
This woman was his third concubine, Caidie, originally a qingguanren (a courtesan who only sang and performed) from the First Celestial Pavilion, the top brothel in Chang’an. He had bought her freedom and taken her as a concubine.
Because he only had two sons… his eldest son Wang Xiao and the younger Wang Li before him… he had indulged this woman somewhat.
And because Wang Li was born of a concubine, though of the main branch, his second uncle’s sons, Wang Teng and Wang Lin, always bullied him secretly.
The Wang family’s affections were thin, and his eldest son Wang Xiao also looked down on this younger brother.
This caused Wang Li to become violent-tempered and arrogant toward outsiders from a young age.
In other words, he was used to being bullied at home and spoiled by his mother, so he had no brains.
“Enough! Shut up! What’s all this howling for? Aren’t you embarrassed? Openly talking about revenge! That’s the heir of the Prince of Zhenbei! Can you compare him to this useless piece of trash?”
“Now we don’t even have the upper hand. He got into a conflict with someone over a lowly servant and was beaten like this and sent back to the estate! What a disgrace to the Wang family! Foolish!”
“You brainless fool, can’t you grow a bit of a brain? You’re fourteen, not a child! If you want a woman, do you have to take her by force? Can’t you have her secretly tied up and brought back?”
Hearing Wang Qianshan’s harsh reprimand, Wang Li lowered his head and didn’t dare make a sound, but his eyes were filled with hatred and resentment toward his father!
“Calls me trash again, you old dog! Beaten and scolded since I was little! Those bastards from the second branch bully me every day! That bastard Wang Xiao, as my big brother, looks down on me and never helps!”
“And that bitch Caidie, why are you a whore from a brothel! Why did you become this old dog’s concubine! And why did you give birth to me! You all deserve to die, die!!!”
Wang Li furiously cursed his family in his heart.
Caidie saw that her husband was angry and dared not wail anymore. She silently wiped her tears by the bed.
Wang Qianshan rubbed his brow, his expression dark and cold, and said in a low voice, “This matter can’t just end like this! At tomorrow’s morning court, I will report this face to face! I’ll ask His Majesty to give an explanation!”
“The Bai family holds great power. Hmph, there are plenty in the court who look askance at the Bai family! A cripple who barely survived back then, just returned from the Northern Border, and he chooses to throw his weight around with our Wang family!”
“This time, I’ll make sure that little brat Bai Zhao sheds a layer of skin!”
Hearing this, Wang Li suddenly lifted his head: “Father, I want him dead! And that bitch! I’ll catch her and torture her to death!”
Caidie also looked up at Wang Qianshan: “Husband, you must crush that kid tomorrow!”
“Slap!” Wang Qianshan swung his hand and hit Wang Li’s face, already swollen like a pig’s head, causing Wang Li to let out a miserable shriek.
“Husband, what are you doing? Li’er is already injured!”
Caidie immediately rushed over and grabbed Wang Qianshan’s hand, stopping him from hitting her son again.
Wang Qianshan looked coldly at Wang Li.
“You stupid pig! Wanting him dead isn’t something you just say with your mouth! You’re still thinking about women in this state! What a pile of mud!”
“More doing, less talking! If you think something in your heart, don’t say it with your mouth… do it! I’ve taught you, and you still can’t learn! It’s hopeless.”
“How did I sire such a stupid son? Compared to your big brother, you’re far behind!”
“Stay put until your leg heals! You’re not going anywhere! It’s a good time for you to calm down and use that stupid brain of yours to think about how to take revenge!”
“And don’t touch that lowly slave girl around Bai Zhao for now. Wait until the dust settles! Otherwise, it’ll be easy to point suspicion at you! Take care of yourself, hmph!”
Having said this, Wang Qianshan slammed the door and left. Only Caidie remained, holding Wang Li and crying silently on the bed.
Wang Li gritted his teeth tightly, his fingernails digging deep into his palms, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Wang Qianshan.
“Hehe, haha. You’re right. More doing, less talking!
“Wait till I kill every one of you, one by one. Before your corpse, I’ll thank you for your lessons, my Father!!!”
“You won’t let me touch that bitch? Then I’ll do it all the more!
“Suspicion fall on me? Then I’ll frame Wang Xiao! My dear big brother, you’ll definitely take the blame for me, won’t you? Hehehe, hahaha?”
Wang Li roared and laughed madly inside.
…
Meanwhile, Bai Zhao had just bathed in his own room and changed into a gold-threaded black cloud brocade robe.
There was no choice… his mother said his previous clothes lacked the noble air befitting the heir of the Prince of Zhenbei.
After dressing, he was about to follow Chuntao and Qiulan to the main hall for a meal.
As soon as he reached the door of the main hall, he saw an old eunuch in black robes and a high hat, his face deathly pale.
Seeing her son in his brocade robe, Lu Xinrou’s eyes lit up.
“Oh my, my son truly is… with this change of clothes, he’s handsome and refined, exuding an air of nobility. Isn’t that right, Grand Seal Eunuch Yu?”
The old eunuch’s eyes were as dark and stagnant as a pool of dead water. He turned to look at Bai Zhao.
Using his chicken-claw-like fingers to form an orchid gesture, he pointed at Bai Zhao and spoke in a shrill voice:
“Madam Bai speaks very truly! This slave sees that this young Heir is truly imposing and exceptionally heroic.”
“I daresay there aren’t many men in this world like the young heir, descending like a banished immortal~”
“Eek!” Bai Zhao shuddered slightly, breaking out in goosebumps. Although he had seen many eunuchs in the palace when he was young, he still wasn’t used to that voice.
“Hehehe,” Lu Xinrou covered her lips and chuckled.
“Zhao’er, this Grand Seal Eunuch Yu, Eunuch Yu, is His Majesty’s close companion and the Grand Seal Eunuch. He served the previous emperor. You’ve seen him before when you were little. Do you remember?”
“Of course I do! Back when I studied under Bai Songtao, I once made the Third Princess cry, and this old thing nearly beat me up!”
Bai Zhao grumbled inwardly but put on a smile and bowed with clasped hands.
“So it’s Grand Seal Eunuch Yu. I wonder what business Eunuch Yu has at my Bai family estate at this hour?”
“Oh, this slave dare not accept the heir’s salute. This slave has come today bearing His Majesty’s oral edict, summoning the heir of the Prince of Zhenbei to an audience at the palace.
“Your Highness, the Heir, shall we go now? We must not keep His Majesty waiting.”
Eunuch Yu’s old face wrinkled into a smile like a chrysanthemum as he spoke in his shrill, thin voice.
Bai Zhao: ???
Wait, how does His Majesty know I’ve returned to the capital? And calling me at this late hour, what for? I haven’t even eaten yet!