Ten Months On

Chapter 26: Confusion

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Sun Rui came home to find his residence missing all his concubines and tongfangs.

Initially he had been raging, but the ephemereal Su Li had wept so much sadness, that he felt his heart soften greatly as it used to before his dreams.

Su Li had cried in his arms at how he had rejected her and ignored since she had married in and how she should not have married him if she had known he would had a change of heart. She lamented on the accounts of the household and how they were in debt, of which all these he had not known about, and blamed mismanagement under Su Chen and Steward Mo.

He had always left the household matters to his stewards and concubines to handle. When Su Chen took over, he rarely even more had to bother about such trivial things. He knew that things seemed better and seemed to have vaguely improved under Su Chen's care, but wasn't things always fine even before she came? That was what Su Li had convinced him.

Now, he was surprised at how his home was in shambles. Su Chen had taken Steward Mo with her, which he didn't care about at that time as Su Li, his love was finally able to be married into his home. From the very start, he could not care less about the petty matters of his residence. He was born to be a king, not a steward.

But who has ever heard of a penniless Prince? He panicked a little at the thought.

After comforting Su Li for a bit, he hurried over to the Imperial Palace to visit his Mother.

***

"Hah! Now you know what a treasure that girl was. You were the one who drove her away to her death and now, you should be the one to deal with your own issues. Didn't you say your new Wang Fei was so capable and so wonderful? Let her deal with it. If she can change your misfortunes the way Su Chen did or even better, bengong will acknowledge her."

Empress Xiao sneered as she stared at the forlorn firstborn.

She knew this would happen. Without a strong Wang Fei, the First and Fourth Prince would take the chance to throw stones at her eldest. She had tried to warn him but he refused to see reason.

Now this had happened.

Sun Rui looked at his Mother's expressionless face.

Yes, he was so confident that Su Li would be a better Wang Fei than that cowardly girl. All that girl did was cower before him or tried to scheme for his attention with underhanded means. With Steward Mo's help, of course she handled his household well.

So why was Su Li having such a hard time in the same role? Steward Hung was another longtime experienced servant of his and also had ties with Minister Sun, so he was not totally unfamiliar to Su Li. He should have been the ideal steward to help Su Li.

Was it his fault then? Did his enemies made things difficult for her?

But he had a terrible reputation previously too which he did not care about. And Su Chen managed to earn him the right to be Crown Prince.

Su Li was as learned as Su Chen. She had doting parents, beauty and was well-liked by everyone unlike his mousy ex-Wang Fei.

Why was Su Li having so much trouble to do the same thing?

At the thought of Su Chen, sudden pangs of pain hit him. As he blanked out, he could only hear his Mother screaming for the Imperial Physician to come.