Chapter 47 : The Union

Despite the turbulence and panic in the imperial court, and the constant stream of news from the dungeon that was hard to distinguish from the truth, it did not affect the Tantai family's joyous event in the slightest - Tantai Yuan of the second house marrying Zheng Ge, an experience of the Department of General Affairs.

After Lady Yuexi's careful arrangements, the mansion was a joyous red - big red happy characters were pasted on the doors, big red lanterns and gauze tents were hung under the veranda, and the courtyard was filled with red flowers that were in full bloom.

On the surface, the Tantai family seemed to be in the midst of a joyous celebration, with a large crowd gathered at the entrance waiting for the groom, and children chasing and playing with each other, clamouring for candied pastries from the adults. However, in the courtyard where Tantai Yuan lived, there was no joyful atmosphere at all, instead it was rather tense and cold.

Sitting in front of the dressing mirror, the bride was dressed in a gorgeous flaming red gown embroidered with delicate flowers, the precious stones in her hair bun emitted a bright light, and three maids of honour surrounded her, carefully doing the final touches.

It should have been the most important celebratory moment in her life, but the bride's beautiful face did not have the slightest smile on it, her eyes were covered with horrible blood, the powder could not hide the greenish-black colour of her eyes, her hands on her thighs were tightly clenched into fists, and her finely manicured fingernails were broken in her palms, and a bit of blood seeped out from between her fingers.

Tantai Yuan turned her head to look at herself in the bronze mirror, her white teeth biting her lips, her body trembling.

Her relatives were all locked up in the prison, but she was staying here, at the mercy of the matriarch, married to a lowly official, how could she not be angry and hateful!

A silhouette shifted in the bronze mirror, and Tantai Yuan saw the last person she wanted to see at this moment. She didn't turn around and said nonchalantly, ''Why don't you lock me up as well! Could it be that I'm not from the second house?"

The visitor smiled gently, "You are indeed not a member of the second house. Before your aunt's crimes were revealed, you were already betrothed to Lord Zheng and are considered a member of the Zheng family."

"Hmph, ridiculous!" Tantai Yuan said angrily, "How dare you ask me to marry some General Secretary's experience! Are you trying to humiliate me? Really good at retaliating! Also, secretly plotting against my father and still pretending to be innocent, what an evil heart!"

Pei Si Yan walked behind Tantai Yuan in a good mood and waved her hand to signal the maids to go down, only after she heard the sound of the door closing did she speak, "Don't forget, your father did commit a felony, fortunately he died under the bandits and not in the Da Lisi's prison, and it was only because I bribed Lord Li to set aside his relationship with your father, that he was able to have a clean and decent burial! I helped you guys, but you turn around and say that I killed someone, so it's true that my good intentions were treated like a donkey's liver and lungs! If I had known that, I would have done nothing and let your father be thrown into a mass grave!"

The bride's face turned grey, "I, I ... have long heard of her father's sins from her mother, and it was also her mother who told her that "your father was killed by Tantai Yan", but there has been no conclusive evidence to prove it. The fact is, he had some doubts in his heart, and was even glad that his father's crime had not been revealed.

Now that Tantai Yan wants to betroth her to a small sesame official, she is furious and can't help but blame Tantai Yan for her father's murder.

Tantai Yan spoke truly and her eyes did not flicker, could it really be a misunderstanding on her mother's part?

"The second house is a side branch of the Tantai family, and your father is the son of a concubine of an uncle, and has done things that are detrimental to the family, and it is already good enough for a person of your status to be able to marry Lord Zheng. I advise you, don't think that just because your surname is Tantai, you can be superior, please look at your own identity before you speak!" Pei Si Yan said slowly, happily admiring her "sister's" face, it looks like she is convinced of her words ... and can make good use of her in the future.

Tantai Yuan lowered her head, silent.

Pei Siyan slightly bent down, whispered in her ear: "Now the second house in addition to you, waiting for them either to die, or banished to the frontier barren land, never to return to the imperial capital. And you ... by virtue of your status as a concubine originally was absolutely impossible to sit on the second house of the head of the house, but now, the second house only left you, you or your children will be the future of this head of the house. I have helped you, Hope."

Tantai Yuan's body trembled slightly and remained silent.

"If you are willing to get along well with Lord Zheng, I can keep your mother safe," Pei Si Yan straightened up, carelessly arranging the beaded hairpin in Tantai Yuan's hair, "Think about it, ah, a thousand miles of exile, will her old man be able to cope with it?"

Tantai Yuan's red lips slightly opened, trembled twice, and said with some hesitation, "Can I ... really, really become the head of the second house, and my mother can come back safely?"

"After all, most of the things are uncle ancestor and Lady Yue Luo this faction made, you orphans and widows they simply will not put in the eyes, think nothing has been accounted for you have done it?" Pei Si Yan gently patted her shoulder a few times, "Don't worry, I will definitely do what I say."

Tantai Yuan's hand that had been tightly clenched slowly loosened and unfolded, the broken nails fell to the ground, the blood on her palm had already dried.

"In fact, there is no need for you to worry about Lady Yue Luo and the others at all, think about how they treat you on a regular basis?" Pei Si Yan said while pulling out a silk handkerchief from her sleeve, gently wiping off the blood on Tantai Yuan's hand, "Today is your big day, Lord Zheng is now a little-known official, but he is solid and diligent, with good abilities, and he will be able to do great things in the future. The future is bright, you should be happy."

"A great deed ...," Tantai Yuan muttered.

"Yes," Pei Si Yan responded, "One should look to the future instead of dwelling on the present. Be sure to get along well with Lord Zheng and remember to come home to visit from time to time."

Tantai Yuan's head hung even lower as she struggled to skim her lips, finally forcing a smile.

Pei Si Yan tilted her head, seeing her finally smile, and breathed a sigh of relief - indeed, the benefits that one can obtain are the most important. Sometimes, in front of power, what are loved ones worth?

Pei Si Yan stroked Tantai Yuan's shoulder, "In a little while, Lord Zheng's palanquin will arrive, so let's see if there are any areas that are still lacking, marriage is a major event in life, it's only good if it's done meticulously and without any mistakes. I'll leave first." She nodded to the bride and went out.

All the way back to Shide Xuan, leaving aside the sound of congratulations, Pei Si Yan saw a blue regiment of brocade knots hanging on the closed study door, her eyes lit up, vigilantly scanning her surroundings, the maidservants and household servants had gone to the doorway to watch the fun, the large courtyard was cold and quiet, she was the only one.

Pei Si Yan to determine the surrounding no one, immediately went forward to push open the door of the room, two steps across the inside, and then gently closed the door.

The demonic purple clothed man who was admiring an ink painting on the wall heard the ringing, turned his head and smiled slightly at the woman at the door, fluttering like an immortal, overwhelmingly beautiful, causing one's heart to flutter, feeling that even the dimly lit room had brightened up quite a bit.

"You're here, Lanxuan." Pei Si Yan called out His Highness King Hui's name with ease, after a few months of getting along, she was able to call him by his first name without scruples and smoothly. In this way, the relationship between the two inadvertently got a little closer.

"Well," Lan Xuan walked closer to Pei Si Yan, "Congratulations Miss Yan."

Pei Si Yan giggled, "Honestly, it's not like I'm the one marrying someone, it feels awkward to hear people saying congratulations to me everywhere today."

"Then why don't we ... consider it congratulations to Miss Yeon for wiping out the second house with a bad heart." Lanxuan pulled out a jug of fine wine from behind him as if in a juggling act and waved it in front of Pei Si Yan, "At the same time, congratulations to you for successfully bringing down the Feng Taishi and his clique to prison! In the past few days, it's been really hard on you."

Pei Si Yan smiled and brought two teacups from the table next to her, "Working with the king to plan for the world, this is my duty, and thanks to you lending me the manpower to investigate the evidence of Feng's clique, or else I'm really afraid that I won't be able to keep myself busy."

The teacups were filled with clear and mellow wine, and the two of them each took a cup.

"May you obtain the world soon." Pei Si Yan toasted.

Lanxuan smiled more and more movingly, "Many thanks to Miss Yeon for her support all along, if not for your Wuban clan, how can I personally seek the throne."

Smiling at each other, the two of them dried their wine together.

Pei Siyan also said with a straight face: "Lord Wu Ruyi has always held a grudge against the second prince for murdering his nephew, and will definitely do everything possible to make Feng Taishi and the others confess to the crime, in this way, even though the second prince is the first son, the emperor will definitely not set him up as the Crown Prince. The Fourth Prince is your half-brother. The Sixth Prince has an indifferent nature and has no intention of taking the throne, but we must prevent him from making secret moves. The Ninth Prince has the support of the veteran of the three dynasties, Tai Fu Zeng, but Tai Fu Zeng has retired to his hometown for many years, and his power is not as strong as it used to be. And the tenth and eleventh emperors are young, the emperor will never make them the crown prince."

Lanxuan took over the words, "So now I'm afraid that the Emperor will only be afraid to set up the fourth brother and the ninth brother ..." his eyes had a short period of bleakness, "for the time being and can't move them, can only... ." he looked meaningfully at Pei Si Yan.

Pei Si Yan naturally heard the meaning in Lan Xuan's words and secretly clenched her fists. She really didn't want to do that thing until she had to, for someone like her who had lived a mediocre and monotonous life for more than twenty years, it was just unthinkable.

Because she wasn't willing to live out her life in a mediocre and ordinary way, she wanted to have a fulfilling career, and didn't want to die early and unjustly in someone else's hands, so she took one step at a time to get to this point.

After counting again and again, countless people died because of her ...

Pei Si Yan pursed her lips, generating these hesitant and cowardly thoughts again herself - since she chose this path, she must walk to the end with her head held high, sparing no effort and leaving no regrets!

Even if it were Tantai Yan in her place, she would surely do the same thing today, wouldn't she?

"Don't worry," Pei Si Yan composed herself and slowly said, "The moment there is an abnormality on the Emperor's side, Eunuch Qian will come and inform us. General Chen and Xu Shangshu have both been taken to the prison, military power has fallen by the wayside, and the people who are temporarily acting in their place are from our side, which means that the imperial capital's defence is already in our hands. If we really want to do that thing, the soldiers and horses that need to go into the palace have also long been prepared ... In fact, maybe the Emperor really intends to set you up as the Crown Prince?"

Hearing the second half of Pei Si Yan's words, Lan Xuan's deep emotion was a bit melancholy and despondent, he looked at the far-reaching ink painting again and murmured, "After so many years, he has treated me so well, how could he change so easily. Although he didn't teach me anything, but I at least learnt from him that being in the royal family, if you don't climb up to that position, the end is only death."

Pei Si Yan's heart was inexplicably startled, she always felt that Lan Xuan's words seemed to have another layer of deeper meaning, but she just couldn't tell what the meaning was as her head was drowsy from the pile of affairs.

Just then, Yun Qi's voice sounded outside: "Miss, are you there? Lord Zheng has come to fetch the bride."

"Tantai Yuan sitting in the position of the second house's head is truly gathering the hearts of the lower officials." Pei Si Yan decided to think about those questions later and smiled at Lan Xuan, "I'm going to the front gate there. Please be careful as you go."

"Good."

The door opened a foe, Pei Si Yan flashed her hand out, tucking the regimental brocade knot into her sleeve in the process, before walking towards the maid who greeted her.

Tantai residence main gate, gongs and drums shook the sky, a long fiery red procession filled the main street, the house guards lit firecrackers and firecrackers, "crackling" explosions added a lot of festive colours, attracting a lot of people to watch. It was a rare occasion for the Tantai family to hold a wedding, and people from all the houses flocked to the front door to see the event, which was very lively.

Lord Zheng proudly jumped down from his horse and thanked the people who came to congratulate him. When he saw Lord Wuban personally come out to greet him, he was more than happy and touched - the high and mighty Lord Wuban really does value and take care of them, the lower officials, and it's a wise choice to be loyal to her.

Pei Si Yan and Lord Zheng exchanged a few words of courtesy, handed Tantai Yuan over to him as the matriarch of the clan, and after saying a few auspicious words, they were told to hurry back and not to delay the auspicious time.

The bride was assisted by the bridesmaid to the big red sedan chair, Lord Zheng repeatedly to Pei Si Yan feelings, and then mounted on a tall steed, led the welcoming team back to Zheng House.

Pei Si Yan looked at the gradually moving away from the team, guffawed and smiled, was about to go back to the mansion to work on the important matters at hand, suddenly some small murmurings drifted into her ears along with the wind.

"Look, that's Lord Wu Pan, right? I heard that she was the first one to express her intention to impeach Lord Feng."

"Tsk tsk, looking quite a dignified and beautiful girl, but her heart is really vicious! Lord Feng has done so many good things for the country and the people, but in the end, he is being cited by these so-called auxiliary ministers!"

"Keep your voice down, you'll be finished if someone hears you and denounces you!"

"What are you afraid to say, am I not telling the truth? How is it possible for Lord Feng to murder other officials? Eighty per cent is these people colluding, a group of/traitors!"

The corners of Pei Si Yan's mouth twitched a few times, looking at the sky speechless.

For the first time, she was called a "traitorous official"...

She was actually a traitor? It was really ridiculous!

Yun Qi also heard those people's discussion, uneasily persuaded: "Miss, they don't know the truth, by Lord Feng's clean indication deceived, please don't take it to heart."

Pei Si Yan shook her head, pretending to talk to Yun Qi and continued to listen.

"That's right, it's the traitor!" Someone chimed in.

"I hope that Imperial Master Feng will be safe, let's go to the temple to burn incense and pray to Buddha."

"Good, go!"

Pei Si Yan raised her eyebrows, it didn't matter.

If she could accomplish great things, what was the harm in being called a "traitor" now? There would always be a day when the truth would come out! At that time, those people would know who the real traitor was!