“Mother, how can you say that?” Already at this time, yet this mother-in-law still spoke with mockery. Wasn’t that her most beloved grandson? The Ding Duchess was both anxious and angry, her eyes reddening, “Bearing the name of a pampered male beauty, how will Yi Lin still be able to marry and have children? Even if his future prospects aren’t damaged, others would still say he seduced his way…….up.”
“There’s plenty of people that want to seek connections with the Ding Duke Manor, how will he not be able to marry and have children? His future prospects won’t be damaged, and he’ll have benefits, isn’t that enough? Isn’t benefits the most important for you all, for the sake of benefits, you can sell your son, sell your daughter? With the current state of affairs, perhaps it’ll perfectly satisfy our Duke, and especially that eldest son of yours, perhaps he’ll even jump up in joy. And you, cover your heart and ask yourself, are you protecting Jia’er or yourself?”
“Mother, it’s not like that…..” As if some secret was being exposed, Ding Duchess weakly wanted to explain.
“If not for you all being greedy and never satisfied, would things become like this today? If you really were considering for Jia’er’s sake, as long as you all give out enough ‘sincerity’, believe his Majesty would also take back his decree. In fact, if you yourself were to take out that thing kept in the bottom of the trunk, then this marriage would also be able to be dissolved, but you all have never thought that way before.”
The Ding Duchess looked to Sun Old Madam in disbelief, “Mother, how, how do you know about that, that….”
Sun Old Madam coldly sneered, “How does this old woman know about that thing? ——If you all are not going to do anything, then don’t block Lin’er from doing a bit of something for his younger sister.” With that said, without even needing the servant girl to support her, she turned and left. It was obvious, towards Ding Duchess’s question, she wasn’t interested in answering.
Sun Yi Lin’s courtyard was very big, and moreover, what entered the eyes were all various kinds of valuable and rare flowers. However, because the arrangement was orderly, it didn’t feel tiresome to the eyes from having too many good things placed together. In any case, at every step was a scenery, a feast for the eyes.
Li Hong Yuan conveniently picked a flower. The tiny thorns on the spray penetrated his finger. He threw the flower away. Lifting his hand, a drop of dark red blood seeped from his fingertip. Wiping it with his thumb, the blood pearl was smeared.
Sun Yi Lin stood to the side in silence.
Li Hong Yuan plucked the flowers as he walked along, doing the same thing as when he was in the palace previously, crushing flowers with bare hands.
After strolling around full circle, Li Hong Yuan didn’t see Sun Yi Lin’s collection of the four great peony breeds. Then, he saw the greenhouse in this courtyard. “Stored away quite tightly.” He turned his head and glanced at Sun Yi Lin, “What, not inviting this prince for a look?”
Sun Yi Lin naturally knew his meaning, “It has yet to bloom, suppose wangye isn’t interested either.”
“It doesn’t matter if it hasn’t bloomed yet. This prince can still let someone carry it back and slowly wait for them to bloom.”
(T/N: Steal love rival’s flowers for wifey lmaooo)
“Wangye is joking.”
“You think this prince is joking?” Seeing Sun Yi Lin’s face finally change slightly, Li Hong Yuan finally neither quickly nor slowly spoke, “This prince was indeed joking. However, those few pots of peonies of yours, it’s best you raise yourself. If this prince were to find out that you’ve given them away to someone else, then don’t blame this prince for throwing them into the fire as firewood.”
Sun Yi Lin was rather surprised. This wasn’t at all like Jin Qinwang’s style. Insisting he leave them in his hands to raise, what did this mean?
Would Li Hong Yuan tell him that he just couldn’t stand seeing him use flowers to seduce his future wife? And Sun Yi Lin, aside from sending a strain of purple wei to Jing Wan, was never seen gifting to anyone else before, so naturally he needed to put an end to this sort of thing from happening again. The best way of course was to cut the grass at the roots and burn it. Unfortunately, his wife already knew about these flowers. If he were to ruin them, after marrying, she’ll inevitably want to settle the score with him. Even if he had that scandalous reputation on him, it was all false after all, so settling the score on that, he could still treat as amusement. But according to Jing Wan’s care towards plants and flowers, even if they weren’t hers, she would still get angry for real if he were to ruin them. As for ‘borrowing the knife to cut flowers’[1], aside from him, in the entire capital city, others even if they dared, still wouldn’t do it, and those remaining that didn’t dared to further didn’t need to be mentioned.
Li Hong Yuan reached out and plucked another flower, and then hooked the corner of his mouth, extending his hand and sticking the flower on top Sun Yi Lin’s ear.
This action of his, in the nearby servants’ eyes, was practically indescribably charming and gentle.
Li Hong Yuan was the number one male beauty in the entire capital, or even in all of Qi Yuan. His level of handsome naturally was needless to say, and Sun Yi Lin’s appearance absolutely wasn’t bad either. Seventeen years of age, he was still a young man whose appearance still hasn’t completely grown out. By sticking on a flower, it added a bit of prettiness[2].
Sun Yi Lin was half a head shorter than Li Hong Yuan. Having the two stand together strangely made one feel they were well matched.
——–This was Jing Wan’s first thought when she saw the two standing together. Afterwards, her two eyes got covered by an outstretched hand coming from her side.
“Jin Qinwang, fifth brother……….” Sun Yi Jia was covered by a veil; her expression somewhat stiff as she opened her mouth.
Hearing this, the two simultaneously turned their heads, and then, both their expressions sunk.
Li Hong Yuan, purely because he was bored, had done it for those that were afraid he would do something to Sun Yi Lin to see. Just, it seems he overreached himself. Yet, why was it coincidentally seen by Wan Wan of all people, what if she misunderstands? Although what one sees may not necessarily be the truth, but many times, misunderstandings were precisely brought about like this. Getting caught in the act, even someone as thick-skinned as him would also be a bit embarrassed and guilty, alright? And the problem was that he can’t explain it either.
(T/N: ML’s struggles of maintaining a fake bad reputation lmaooo; while Jen struggles with other sites stealing my translations.)
Compared to Li Hong Yuan, Sun Yi Lin wasn’t any better either. Regardless of the reason why Jin Qinwang did something like that, he all could face with a calm look as always. Besides, although Jin Qinwang was smiling, but in reality, he carried a bit of tease and a bit of boredom. In any case, there wasn’t the least bit of romantic feelings. In fact, his fingers didn’t even touch his hair. However, if he got seen by the girl he admired, then it was a completely different matter. After all, he wasn’t Li Hong Yuan, that shameless man. In this regard, he was more or less like a blank sheet of paper. His face uncontrollably flushed red……
Exactly at that moment, Jing Wan had Sun Yi Jia’s hand pulled down, seeing Sun Yi Lin’s blushing face. Eh, could it be that this renowned Gentleman Lin actually wasn’t being coerced, but rather had mutual feelings with Jin Qinwang, just for the sake of reputation, they didn’t openly come together?
Li Hong Yuan saw Jing Wan’s slight change in her eyes and just knew her thoughts went askew. His expression couldn’t help but darken some.
And afterwards, in Jing Wan’s eyes, it was precisely because they were interrupted, thus unhappy.
If the two were to know what Jing Wan was thinking, then afraid they’d probably even have the wish to die.
Li Hong Yuan casted a glance at Sun Yi Lin. As expected, he’d thought too much. What steady, wise, and scholarly Head of the Cabinet Ministers? This skin was far too inferior. Even if one really were to do something shameful, one would still need to be bold and confident, face neither blushing, heart neither beating.
T/N: This is actually the second novel I’ve read where the MC thinks the ML and second ML are gay for each other lmaooo. Though the other one I read, I really ended up hating that novel by the end. Jen’s heart couldn’t take all the angst at the end.
[1] This is an alteration of the idiom ‘to kill with a borrowed knife’. I’m working on making a page for idioms, I need a reference for myself since a lot are reused.
[2] The term for this is rather special, in a way it’s specifically used to describe males. There’s a famous line from ‘Strategies of the Warring States’, which is a chronicle of the warring states period, where this term was used to describe Zou Ji’s appearance. Zou Ji was a prime minister under Qi Wei King. It’s said that he promoted his political ideas to the King by playing the qin, basically he seduced the king with his good looks.
