Chapter 383 – I Wish to Marry Her (1)
At early dawn, Mo Rongzhan sent someone to invite Huangfu Chen into the palace. So, after the morning court, he immediately went back to the imperial study and waited for his guest to arrive.
When he arrived, Huangfu Chen looked at his friend who was a few years younger than him, and said helplessly, “Ah Zhan, you have just become the emperor, you can’t be too willful. I still have to take cla.s.ses in the academy, so what on earth prompted you to call me to the palace today?”
“I have something to ask you,” Mo Rongzhan said with a clear and meaningful tone. And somehow, his face did not look embarra.s.sed in the slightest as he invited Huangfu Chen to sit beside the small side table, prepared exclusively for guests.
“What do you wish to ask me?” Huangfu Chen raised his eyebrow as he continued. “Do you not believe in divination?”
Mo Rongzhan’s deep eyes were fixed heavily on the other and said, “You also know Ye Yiqing. Then, you must have known how many daughters he has.”
Slightly stunned by the sudden topic, Huangfu Chen questioned, “Why do you ask?”
“I heard that when Ye Yiqing’s daughters were born, he had someone calculate their fortunes. However, he found out that his daughters were born to mutually reinforce and neutralize each other. Are you the one who made that divination?”
For the past few days, Mo Rongzhan had incessantly been wondering about this. How could someone like Ye Yiqing believe in such baseless talk? He thought long and hard, and came to the conclusion that only Huangfu Chen could have convinced him. In that case, Huangfu Chen must know how many daughters Ye Yiqing had.
Huangfu Chen shook his head with a smile and began to explain. “To begin with, it was Old Madam Ye who found a Taoist priest to divine Ye Zhen and her sister’s fortune. However, Ye Yiqing didn’t believe it. I had only met him by chance since he was the one to translate a book that my great grandfather left me. When he learned that I could do divination, he asked me to calculate his daughters’ fate. At that time, Ye Zhen was very ill, and because her age had yet to reach a full moon, the imperial physician at that time did not dare to prescribe her medicine. Anyway, the result of my divination was that the two sisters could not live together, otherwise, they would fight each other. And although Ye Zhen had great luck in her life, she wouldn’t live long. Therefore, Ye Yiqing left the seriously ill Ye Zhen be and sent Lu Yaoyao away. As for where he sent Lu Yaoyao to at the time, I didn’t know. It’s only recently that I came to know that Lu Yaoyao is Ye Zhen’s sister.”
“You know full well that she is Ye Zhen’s sister, and you still persuaded Empress Dowager to confer her as a princess?” Mo Rongzhan snorted with a cold and gloomy complexion.
“I was afraid that you’ll kill her when you know her ident.i.ty. If she has the ident.i.ty of a princess, then it might just be the only thing that can protect her. This can also be considered as my last regard for Ye Yiqing,” Huangfu Chen said with a smile, not taking in Mo Rongzhan’s anger to his eyes at all.
Mo Rongzhan said with a cold voice, “Zhen is not a tyrannical monarch. Why would zhen kill an innocent little girl?”
“Sounds like you have got a lot more pity to spare for Yaoyao than I had initially antic.i.p.ated.” Huangfu Chen picked up the teacup and took a sip. He was initially worried that Mo Rongzhan would be wary when he discovered Yaoyao’s ident.i.ty, but now it seemed that he had worried in vain.
“Zhen wants to marry her,” Mo Rongzhan said earnestly, firm in his words.
“Cough, cough—” Huangfu Chen coughed, nearly making a mistake of spurting out the tea in his mouth, looking up at Mo Rongzhan in shock and surprise. “What did you just say?!”
Mo Rongzhan’s handsome face flushed as he spoke, his tone full of displeasure. “Zhen wants to marry Yaoyao.”
Huangfu Chen looked at him with a solemn expression. “Ah Zhan, you know that this matter shouldn’t be casually spoken like this. You already know Yaoyao’s ident.i.ty, she also knows her own ident.i.ty. Between you two… Aish, although she was separated from Ye Zhen and Ye Family for so long… even if she grew up in the Lu Family and did not have a deep relations.h.i.+p with Ye Yiqing… still, blood is blood. Have you ever thought that she might not want to marry you?”
“She will,” Mo Rongzhan said, his thin lips tightly pursed together. However, in his heart, he was unsure of his claim. In the end, Ye Zhen and Ye Family’s fall was the biggest knot in Yaoyao’s heart, and he didn’t know how to untie that tangled mess.