It was rare for Old Madam Song not to feel happy when her granddaughter was coquetting. Unexpectedly, she felt sadness welling up. But she was silent for a long time, and finally made up words to comfort Wei Changying. At that time, Shuangli came in to report, "The fifth young master has come."
"Oh! It must be that my grandfather has made things clear and asked Changfeng to tell you." Hearing this, Wei Changying"s eyes lighted up. She immediately struck the long table in front of her and couldn"t wait to say, "Shuangli, go and ask him to come in!"
"..." She was so heartless and got happy again. Old Madam Song felt that the atmosphere was not suitable for her to have a deep talk with her. She sighed helplessly and said to Shuangli who looked at her, "Let Changfeng come in!"
In the urging voice of his elder sister, Wei Changfeng gave his grandma a salute meticulously and then bowed his hands to Wei Changying. Before he could say anything, a pine nut was thrown to his head, "Say it quickly! What"s happening in the north of the province?"
Wei Changfeng was about to say, "It"s not what a young lady should do." He saw that Wei Changying had picked up another walnut in her hand, and then he swallowed his words. "My grandfather"s guess was right. It was Song Han and his son who took credit for others."
Wei Changying was filled with righteous indignation and struck the table, "Sure enough, the father and the son are not good people. That Song Duan was not able to marry the fourth sister with his pedigree and capacity, but he dared to take credit for others and propose marriage. But for grandfather"s wisdom, he would have made trouble for the fourth younger sister for life!" As soon as she raised her chin, she said to Old Madam Song, "Grandma, these two pushed the Wei Family too far! They must not be forgiven!"
Old Madam Song nodded, "Of course, did our girls suffer such grievances? How dare they propose marriage by cheating? Song Han and Song Duan are seeking death!" These two were no different from the dead in the eyes of Old Madam Song. The old lady was concerned about the cause and effect, so she sent the little maids away and only let the trusted maids stay to serve. Then she asked her grandson, "How did they take the credit for others?"
... In fact, Song Han and his son had bad luck. Because the man they took credit for was not only a commoner as Wei Huan guessed, but all his family members also died in Liao City. Although he once served as a government runner in Liao City and had several good friends with similar status, they were all common people.
As such a common person, he didn"t expect to get around Song Han and Song Duan and get the truth unveiled in front of Wei Huan, for his whole life. It was so difficult for him to disclose the truth before Wei Gaochan and Song Duan"s marriage was settled. You know, trying to achieve their goal, Song Han and his son had roped in a lot of collateral branches of the Wei Family to get supporting evidences and prepared to conceal from Wei Huan for at least three or five years.
Normally speaking, Wei Changying would get married next year. Although Wei Gaochan was her younger cousin, she was only two months younger than Wei Changying. If she got engaged now, she would get married before the end of next year. For families like the Wei family, once the engagement was arranged by the parents, they would not deny the marriage.
In three or five years, Wei Gaochan would have had children.
By then, what could happen? No matter how ruthless Wei Huan was, could he let his granddaughter be a widow and his great-grandchildren lose their father?
However, on the day when the Liao City was broken, the common people named Mo Binwei, one of the young and strong people who were ordered to escort other people by Lv Zifang, saved Lv Xing, the only grandson for four generations of Lv Zifang, under the arrow of the northern Rong tribe.
If Lu Xing was still alive, although Lv Zifang was grateful to Mo Binwei, he would not dare to take the risk to pa.s.s on the iron tablet of the northern Rong tribe for him.
But Lv Xing, who was only five years old, was shocked when the city was broken. Later, he had a high fever and couldn"t get medical treatment during his escape. When they finally came to other towns, it was too late for Lv Zifang to get medicine for him.
Lu"s only son died in the war when the northern Rong tribe broke the city. For this reason, Wei Xu, the county magistrate, specially arranged Lv Zifang to evacuate the people, but he and the a.s.sistant of county magistrate themselves stayed to bring up the rear.
In this way, Lv Zifang"s offspring was all dead. He was alone without any burden. He also felt grateful for that Mo Binwei had saved his only grandson, so he simply returned his life to Mo Binwei as a favor.
Hearing this, Old Madam Song said, "Mo Binwei is a lucky guy. But how much credit was he taken for?"
"Just now, my grandfather "invited" Song Duan to come to his study and asked about it. Mo Binwei was responsible for ambushing the northern Rong tribe and killing the enemies." It might be for this reason that those Wei family"s collateral branches members helped Song Han to hide the truth. Mo Binwei did everything. Although they made a futile trip and avoided the danger of dying in the battle with the northern Rong tribe, they didn"t have much credit. Maybe Song Han also saw this, so he thought he would be lucky! Wei Changfeng said angrily, "Originally Mo Binwei, as a government runner in Liao City, offered his services to Wei Xu, the county magistrate, to stop the northern Rong tribe. It is said that although he is just a government runner, he is somehow educated and knows how to evacuate the people. This was why Wei Xu asked him to help Lv Zifang."
Wei Changying said surprisingly, "Song Han and Song Duan didn"t know about this? How could Lv Zifang have been included in messengers this time?"
"Song Duan said that he knew that Mo Binwei and Lv Zifang had escorted people in Liao City to escape, but he didn"t know that he had saved Lv Zifang"s grandson. The battle was going on with all its stresses and strains. When Song Han arrived in the north of the province, the leader of the enemy had been beheaded." Wei Changfeng said with a sneer, "Although Lv Zifang is only a secretary, this old official has a deep mind. When Song Han asked him to come for the first time and asked about the process of what happened in Liao City, he saw the clue. He didn"t say a word for Mo Binwei from the beginning to the end but flattered Song Han a lot. Naturally, Song Han thought that he knew how to behave. And because he had the highest status among the surviving officials in Liao City, in order to prove the merits of Song Duan, he also needed his cooperation and promised him some benefits. As for common people, how could Song Han spend too much time on them?"
It was normal for the aristocratic family to look down upon the common people, let alone the six families. Although Song Han was just in the collateral branch of the Song Family, he was still a son of the Song Family in Jiangnan. Wei Changfeng himself also had such a view, but now he was just commenting on Song Han. He despised Song Han for claiming the credit for himself and even resented Song Han"s purpose of cheating his cousin into marrying him. In his words, he somehow sneered at song Han for being ridiculed by a common people.
But it was Old Madam Song who reminded subtly, "The common people are also humans! Although their status is not as good as ours, their thinking is not necessarily worse than ours, so you don"t need to look up to them, but you can"t ignore them! Otherwise, you"ll be entrapped by them when you are careless. Song Han and song Duan are examples!"
The brother and the sister hurriedly stood up to receive the lesson.
Old Madam Song asked them to sit down and continued talking. They sat down again. Wei Changfeng went on to say, "Song Duan just cried and repented in front of grandfather. Speaking of this, this man still has some conscience. He insisted that he didn"t know the immensity of heaven and earth and wanted to marry a n.o.ble girl. His father Song Han, out of loving his son, tried to persuade him but failed, and made the plan for him. But according to my grandfather"s judgment, Song Duan has no opinions, so the ideas must be from Song Han. Song Duan just followed to his father"s arrangement."
Wei Changying curled her lips and said, "Maybe he thought that he couldn"t deny, so he said so to try to impress grandpa." She hated the bad intentions of the father and the son. Because she often coaxed the elders when she was a child, she thought it was suspicious for Song Duan to act as a filial son at this time.
"Where is Mo Binwei now?" Old Madam Song was not interested in what kind of people Song Han and Song Duan were. Anyway, Wei Huan wouldn"t deal with them immediately. After all, they were the people of the Song Family. He would probably tell Jiangnan Hall. Unless something unexpected happened, the father and the son would be determined to have no way to live. How powerful Wei Huan was! How dare they arrange the marriage of her granddaughter by cheating? Even Song Xinping, the cousin of Old Madam Song and the Family Head of the Song Family in Jiangnan, would think that Song Han and Song Duan were seeking death.
However, Mo Binwei, a humble but hardworking man with good luck, made Old Madam Song more interested. When this kind of common people, who were born in a humble family and suffered a great change, met a bad boss, he would be the easiest one to be bought and won over. The point was that when almost all the soldiers in Liao City were dead, Mo Binwei, a government runner, was able to ambush the northern Rong tribe and killed the enemy"s head before the arrival of the relief troops led by Song Han. It could be said that Song Han did nothing but took credit for others upon his arrival in the north of the province!
Such a person might have the commander-in-chief"s talent which could only appear in decades according to the records of ancient times! This man was still in Fengzhou. Old Madam Song thought it would be a pity if she didn"t win him over for Wei Changfeng.
So when her young granddaughter and grandson were still talking about the hatefulness of Song Han and his son, however, Old Madam Song had already figured out seven or eight ways to make Mo Binwei loyal to Wei Changfeng. Compared with increasing the power of her only grandson and cultivating trusted followers for him, Song Han, Song Duan, and Wei Gaochan were all nothing to her!
She even thought that it was lucky that this time, Wei Gaochan was not cheated by Song Duan to marry him. It seemed that Mo Binwei was also young. If he didn"t get married and was such talented in his generation, it would not be impossible for him to marry Wei Gaochan. Nowadays, the world was in disorder. Although scholars and commoners couldn"t marry each other, it was not impossible for them to let it happen with flexibility when notable families met truly talented people.
For example, if a hero saved a beauty or something and a lady of a n.o.ble family was accidentally touched by the common people, they would just marry for the sake of reputation and integrity. Anyway, she was just a granddaughter born of a concubine. It would not be useless to bring her up, if she attracted a really capable person to the lineal grandchildren.
However, Wei Gaochan was in the third branch. Although Wei Shengnian was honest and cowardly, he didn"t have any opinions. After she died, who knew whether Wei Shengnian would be coaxed or frightened by the second branch? In this way, if Mo Binwei was really an outstanding person, he might not be able to be bound in the eldest branch.
It was a pity that the eldest branch only had a lineal granddaughter Wei Changying, let alone she was engaged with the Shen Family of Western Liang. Even if she wasn"t, she was definitely not a commoner could think about.
Wei Changfeng didn"t know that the fact that her cousin was almost cheated on marriage was not worth mentioning for her grandmother. Old Madam Song was more concerned about finding a talent who could help her grandson. Wei Changfeng said, "I don"t know yet."
"You don"t know?" Old Madam Song was about to instruct her grandson to lower his figure, take advantage of the current situation and take others to redress for Mo Binwei in person, so as to get the grat.i.tude of him. Old Madam Song even thought out the words of soliciting Mo Binwei, but she did not expect to get such an answer. She was surprised, "How can you not know?"
Wei Changfeng said, "Lv Zifang said that although he managed to gain Song Han"s trust and become one of the messengers, he was not sure to see my grandfather or third uncle. Even if he did, he might not have the chance to avoid Song Duan and hand over the iron tablet of northern Rong tribe, or to let my grandfather or third uncle believe that Mo Binwei was the hero of the north of the province! It was more likely that Song Han knew that his grandson Lu Xing was saved by Mo Binwei and became suspicious of him! In this way, if he knew where Mo Binwei went, being tortured or being cheated, it was difficult to guarantee that he would not say it, so he let Mo Binwei escape by himself without telling him where he went. So now he doesn"t know where Mo Binwei is, let alone whether he is alive or dead!"
Old Madam Song"s face immediately turned dark and said, "What a Song Han! What a Song Duan! They"ve done the scandal of cheating on marriage. They not only have lost the decency of my Song Family in Jiangnan, but also is ruthless to the real hero! If Mo Binwei is safe this time, they will be lucky. If Mo Binwei is dead, their lives must not be spared!"
Whether the right hand she just found for her grandson was alive or not made Old Madam Song angry.
After cursing Song Han and Song Duan for a while, she calmed down under the comfort of her grandson and granddaughter. Old Madam Song asked Wei Changfeng, "Did your grandfather send someone to find Mo Binwei? How about Song Han?"
"Grandpa has sent Biwu to do it," said the Wei Changfeng.
Biwu was the elite of the private army of the Wei Family. The Wei Family was in the Fengzhou and the clan t.i.tle of the main branch was Ruiyu. Because Phoenix (also known as Feng) only stayed on the sycamore tree (Wu Tong), it was named Biwu, meaning that it supported the Wei Family.
The Su Family in Qingzhou had "Daifeng" and the Song Family in Jiangnan had "Suifeng". Both of them were so important to these families in their turbulent times. So when Old Madam Song heard that Wei Huan even sent "Biwu", she nodded slightly and knew that Wei Huan also realized the value of Mo Binwei.
However, Zhongyi was so old. Would he have a future? It was almost the same for this old guy whether he had such a capable a.s.sistant or not. It was not reliable to have such a rare talent loyal to the whole Wei family for so many years. It was still necessary to make him loyal only to Changfeng. So even if she died, as long as Mo Binwei was loyal enough, the second branch wouldn"t make trouble for him!
With such a plan, Old Madam Song secretly decided that if Wei Huan wanted to attract Mo Binwei in the name of the whole Wei family, she would have to step in and get this person for her baby grandson!