贵女撩夫攻略

Chapter 070

Chapter 70 – Past Incidents

After the New Year, the imperial edict was promulgated as scheduled and upheaval immediately turned the three provinces of Jiangnan into a complete mess. Merchants who had existing stock demanded exorbitant prices while the crooked bandits on the canals specifically robbed the salt and iron ships whereas hardened thieves ran amok in the city. The market and the city defense were frequently in chaos that the bottom rung civilians could only live miserably behind closed doors with their belts tightened while secretly pouring out endless grievances.

This however, was to be expected.

The royal court had not been at peace too these past few days. Once it reached the hour of chenshi (7am-9am), there would be bustling squabbles where the poor family faction quarreled with the prominent family while the royalists argued with the reform parties and the subordinates of the Wang family would bicker with the Xie's. Chu Jinglan did not participate much in this matter. He would occasionally add some apt words to clinch the points that set off even bigger storms which provoked incessant indignation from Chu Sanghuai. The momentum only quelled after he dismissed several ministers who were in line with Chu Jinglan's arguments.

In this way, the situation of all the parties locking in the seesaw struggles become more and more obvious with only few clear streams in the royal court. The contradictions and conflicts between them are enough for Chu Jinglan to exploit then thoroughly subvert the development of the chess game.

[T/N: Clear Streams (清流 -Qīngliú) – refers to the name of a uncontaminated political faction within the ruling class. It is also a metaphor for political clarity]

Nevertheless, compared to the turbulent royal court, King Lan mansion is peaceful without the least bit of storm. Meng Xuan had returned to Northern Land not long after Chu Jinglan rejected the marriage while Meng Chen did not follow him nor did she stir up any trouble. There's also no action from Ye Huaiyang as she has been occupied with the gold mine all day long and has no chance to meet her face-to-face.

The only one who was fractious was Lu Heng.

"She came looking for you? When was that?"

Staring at the jade pendant on the table, Lu Heng's eyes were full of wariness with imperceptible hints of resentment as if it was a key that unlock the past memories, causing him to see his father spitting blood then dying in front of Xie family's main hall as well as an arrow piercing through his elder brother's chest when he came back to report the news and himself kept running for his life on the horseback before blood-red finally oozing out amidst the lustre glistening green surface as if it was forged with flesh and blood.

He moved his line of sight abruptly, unable to linger for even a second longer.

"She wasn't looking for me, it's Yang'er." Chu Jinglan's voice rang out faintly.

"That would make sense." Lu Heng smiled coldly. His expression became bitter, "When we returned to Wangdu, you and I had a consensus that the four prominent families are all enemies but what about now? Not only have you married Ye Huaiyang, you even condone her dealing with Xie Yun. Are you lambasting that you're not dying fast enough?"

Chu Jinglan seemingly used to him pricking everyone like a hedgehog whenever the Xie family was mentioned. Without any changes in his expression, he merely stated indifferently, "Yang'er did not reveal anything to her rather wanted to find out if she is actually credible and in the course, solving the mystery perhaps would be a great help."

"What mystery?"

"Yang'er secretly investigated what happened back then. Saying that when the Great Teacher died, he voiced out some very odd words asking Xie Yuan to let Xie Yun go. Do you have any impression about this?"