Golden Age Legitimate Fei Chapter 55: Uncle's Teachings (2)

“What brings uncles here today? Do you have something important to tell me?” Ye Li invited Xu Hong Yu to sit down and asked him while she was pouring the tea.

Xu Hong Yu looked her up and down and laughed: “You look good. So you are not affected by the rumor, I suppose.”

Ye Li served him a cup of tea with respect. Then she sat down and laughed a little awkwardly: “I still need to carry on with my life even though there’s a rumor out there. Besides, the current situation is way better than what I expected.”

Xu Hong Yu looked at her sternly and said: “Then, what will you do if it is worse than what you expected? It was indeed very lucky for you to escape unscathed last night. But if something bad did happen… Li-er, have you ever thought about that?”

Ye Li looked at the clear tea in silence, nodded and said: “Uncle, I feel sorry that I worried you so much. But… whatever happens, I will keep on with my life. That doesn’t mean I am afraid of death, but I will definitely carry on with my life if only there’s hope. At least, I will never die for a sheer rumor.” Speaking of that, Ye Li couldn’t help biting her lips. Though Great Chu was relatively liberal-minded, the chast.i.ty of women was way more important than their lives. Ye Li didn’t know if her uncle could accept what she said, but that was her sincere words. She, Ye Li, would never in a million years give up her life for someone else’s mistake.

“Good. That sounds more like a daughter of Xu Family.” After a while, Xu Hong Yu put down the tea cup and said coolly.

Ye Li was stunned for a moment and raised her head in an instant to look at her first uncle. There were a few traces of sorrow in the way that Xu Hong Yu looked at Ye Li, “Though the sons of our family always follow the way of scholars and minister, but they have always been tough enough. No matter what difficulty is ahead of us wouldn’t be enough for us to give up what belongs to us. Though… the daughters of our family are more intelligent, they tend to be more vulnerable than average women. Like your mother… If she had half of what you have now, things wouldn’t go down to what they are.”

“Uncle…” Every time he mentions mother, he would always be in so much grief. Ye Li recalled her beautiful yet frail mother, and she couldn’t help sighing. Her mother was too well protected by Xu Family when she was young so she couldn’t accept the reality after her wedding, thus she could only wither day by day in the confinement of Ye Manor.

Xu Hong Yu waved his hands, “Prince Ding is a great man, that’s what I think even now. But he wouldn’t be a good choice as a husband from any aspect. Li-er, do you know why Xu Family didn’t object to this marriage?”

Looking at first uncle’s gentle yet solemn looks, Ye Li hesitated, then said: “That we could only obey the Emperor’s orders, right?”

“That was one of the reasons.” Xu Hong Yu said, “But if Xu Family really didn’t want that, there’s always a way out. Your grandpa still has his influences. If he comes to the capital and begs His Majesty to cancel the marriage, His Majesty wouldn’t refuse him.”

Ye Li was shocked and said hastily: “We mustn’t do that! Grandpa is advanced in years and it takes him great difficulty to get away from the turmoil of the capital. I couldn’t let him get back in the turmoil just for me.” Everything else aside, this year Grandpa is already over seventy. I couldn’t let him travel a long journey all the way to the capital.

A trace of relief pa.s.sed Xu Hong Yu’s face. He reached out his hand and patted Ye Li, “Grandpa knows you are a good filial kid.”

Ye Li lowered her head and frowned with confusion: “I couldn’t come up with another reason. Please tell me, uncle.”

Xu Hong Yu sighed and said: “It’s because who you are. If your surname is Xu, Xu Family could properly refuse the marriage sanctioned by His Majesty for you. We can even find you a normal family of scholars in Bingzhou, since we don’t need any more wealth or rank. However, your surname is Ye. Besides the Imperial Family, Ye Family also have a say in your marriage. What’s more, you also have a sanctioned marriage by the late Emperor. Though His Majesty already cancelled the marriage between Prince Li and you, he sanctioned the marriage between Ye Ying and Prince Li. On the surface, Ye Ying is considered the legitimate daughter of Ye Family, however, she’s just a daughter born of a concubine. Since His Majesty is going to put your father in an important position, dote on Lady of Bright Deportment and let the public be happy about it, then you couldn’t be married to a lesser person. That means… If you are not marrying Prince Ding, you will still be marrying another prince, even entering the palace as a consort. But that’s not an option for us. We have considered all of the unmarried princes and there’s only one choice for us, which is Prince Ding.”

Ye Li nodded in agreement. “To be honest, Prince Ding is actually better than what I expected. Though now I find that… there might be a little more trouble than I thought. But that doesn’t mean this marriage is going to be unbearable, right? You said as well that Prince Ding is a good man.”

Xu Hong Yu glanced at Ye Li in wonder and said: “Li-er, what did think Prince Ding would be like at first?”

Ye Li smiled a little awkwardly and said: “There was rumor that Prince Ding was… disabled and had a disfigured face, also that he was plagued by serious illness.” Everybody could have imagined what people as miserable as that would look like, so the Mo Xiu Yao at the moment was good beyond all expectations.

Obviously, Xu Hong Yu could picture that as well. He glared at Ye Li and said: “If he is really like that, we’d better find a way to poison him to death. It’s better that you remain unmarried than marrying a man that’s good-for-nothing.”

Ye Li didn’t mind if she was going to marry a man that was good-for-nothing. Besides, considering the background of Prince Ding’s Manor, there was no way that she would have to look after Mo Xiu Yao herself. It was just two people accompanying each other and managing to live their lives. Now that Mo Xiu Yao wasn’t much of a good-for-nothing, there was more trouble than she thought. That first uncle was so worried and came to told her all these things showed that her life after the marriage wouldn’t be as happy as she expected.

“If it wasn’t for what your first brother said last night, I wouldn’t have noticed how absolutely disgraceful Ye Family has been acting all these years! And you, after all the time you have stayed in the capital, didn’t know the people and things around you!” Xu Hong Yu shot Ye Li an angry stare. Ye Li knew that she did wrong and lowered her head at once to show that she was reflecting on herself. Not only did her father fear first uncle, she did too. In fact, she hadn’t seen anyone apart from her first brother that didn’t fear first uncle. Hm… Maybe Mo Xiu Yao doesn’t fear first uncle as well.

What first uncle said was right. For years she never went out. Indeed, she was intentionally separating herself from the surroundings. w.a.n.g-shi’s contribution to Ye Li’s seclusion couldn’t go unnoticed but Ye Li herself took most of the responsibility. Though she had accepted life as it was a long time ago, but probably deep down, she still felt that the life of her previous incarnation was real while this life was more like a game or a dream. Surely, what happened last night gave her more of a sense of reality.

“What did you know about what Hong Yan had given you before?” Xu Hong Yu asked her directly.

Ye Li knew that first uncle meant the important doc.u.ment about the past relations between n.o.bles and information about important people in the capital that second uncle gave her. She answered immediately: “I’ve memorized them all.” Xu Hong Yu shook his head: “It’s no use memorizing them. To understand the relations between them is more important. You know all the people from Duke Hua’s Manor as well as n.o.ble Consort Liu. Tell me what do you think about the relation between Her Majesty and n.o.ble Consort Liu as well as the relation between Duke Hua’s Manor and Liu Manor?”

Ye Li was astonished. In her mind, they had nothing to do with each other. But she still thought about it carefully following what Xu Hong Yu said. Then she said: “I’ve never seen Her Majesty the Empress, but I’m quite familiar with the people from Hua Manor and had seen Princess Chang Le once. Her Majesty is the legitimate wife of His Majesty. Though she doesn’t have much love from His Majesty, I think she must be a tolerant and kind woman. As for n.o.ble Consort Liu, she’s a bit proud and cold. But she enjoys great favor from His Majesty and she gave birth to two sons and a daughter. So, I think the two of them… may not be the best of friends. However, I’ve never heard that anything was off between Hua Family and Liu Family.” While Chief Minister Liu and Minister Ye didn’t see exactly eye to eye in the court. At the moment, the two families were evenly matched. But in the palace, n.o.ble Consort Liu was obviously in a better situation.

Xu Hong Yu nodded and reminded her: “You are right. But people change easily, especially in the palace, where it’s harder to guess what everyone has on their mind. You have to put more of your mind on that. So Hong Yu has just given you the doc.u.ment of the current situation. I’m afraid he thought you knew about what happened in the early years.”

Ye Li was a bit ashamed. A few years ago, especially during the period that Mo Xiu Yao had his accident, was when her memory was in the most confused state and her health in the weakest condition. After she recovered, she paid little to no attention to what happened out there. She truly didn’t know what happened many years ago. Second uncle couldn’t had thought that she didn’t even know all those dramatic events back then.

“Li-er, how much do you know about Prince Ding’s Manor?”

Ye Li finally realized that first uncle was here to teach her the basic knowledge. “The first master of Prince Ding’s Manor was Mo Lan Yun, the younger brother of the founding emperor of Great Chu by birth. When the founding emperor first established the dynasty, he t.i.tled Mo Lan Yun Prince Ding with the same rank as himself. The t.i.tle was pa.s.sed on to Mo Lan Yun’s descendants. After three generations, during the reign of the late emperor, powerful ministers degraded the young emperor. The Prince Ding of that period, Mo Liu Fang came back to the capital from the border, killed those ministers and a.s.sisted the young emperor. He was t.i.tled Prince Regent. When the late emperor reached 16, Mo Liu Fang returned the power to the emperor. At the 29th year of the reign of the late emperor, Mo Liu Fang died of illness and Mo Xiu Wen, his eldest son inherited the t.i.tle. One year after that, the late emperor pa.s.sed away. At the 3rd year of the reign of His Majesty, Mo Xiu Wen received the order and went to the border to conquer the barbarians. He died of illness on the road and left no son behind him. Mo Xiu Yao, who was only 18 at that time inherited the t.i.tle and led troops to conquer the barbarians. He fell into an ambush. His army suffered heavy casualties and Mo Xiu Yao nearly died on the battlefield. Afterwards, he came up with a genius strategy and turned defeat into victory, but that cost him dearly. Three months later, Mo Xiu Yao’s fiancée died of disease. After that, Prince Ding’s Manor disappeared from the capital scene.”

“What else?”

Ye Li frowned and kept on: “In Prince Ding’s Manor, every generation, there are many people of talent coming forth. Besides, they have both cultural and military achievements. While the imperial family, coming from the same bloodline, pale in comparison. The most outstanding one among them was the first Prince Ding, Mo Lan Yun. It’s said that if he hadn’t married a Princess from the previous dynasty, he was more likely to claim the throne than the founding emperor. Then it was Mo Liu Fang. With his military ability, he could defend a country. With his cultural ability, he could rule a country. And Mo Xiu Yao was once praised as a rare talent of his time, with abilities that could be compared to his ancestors. If he wasn’t just 13 when Mo Liu Fang died, he could have inherited the throne from the start.”