Chapter 87: What Now?
The palace hall turned silent like the deep waters.
Su Changqing looked down and wisely chose to remain silent.
Emperor Zhou frowned. The corners of his eyes twitched, but no one knew what he was thinking.
Yan Luoying"s words were beyond their expectations.
This was especially so for Emperor Zhou. He didn"t understand why Yan Luoying, who hated Su Wen and didn"t want to get married, had changed in just a few days.
Was she interested in the Su family"s power?
Or did Su Changqing do something here?
However, he would never have thought that this was how things were sometimes. For matters of the heart, a man and a woman could change their relations.h.i.+p through one sentence of one event.
After thinking for a while, Emperor Zhou stared at Yan Luoying and said slowly, "What if I say that I have decided to annul this marriage?"
Yan Luoying knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the ground. She said, "Although Yan Luoying is not from a scholarly family, she knows shame. Her heart now already belongs to Su Wen, and she will not tolerate anyone else. If Your Majesty wants to change my engagement partner, I would rather die!"
She raised her head and looked at Emperor Zhou with determination.
Anyone could tell she wasn"t just speaking empty words.
"You… alright, step down. This marriage will continue like this for now. If you want to change your marriage… you can come and find me anytime!" Emperor Zhou was naturally unwilling to force Yan Luoying to die.
That was all he could say.
Yan Luoying immediately left.
After she left, Emperor Zhou yelled at Su Changqing, "Tell me! Did you do something to make Yan Luoying change her mind?"
Su Changqing immediately replied in a wronged tone, "I didn"t, I really didn"t do anything this time!"
The old eunuch also opened his mouth to persuade, "Your Majesty, according to this old servant, Yan Luoying didn"t seem to be faking it just now. It seems like she really is in love with Young Master Su!"
With a third party persuading him. Emperor Zhou finally calmed down a little. He recalled Yan Luoying"s expression and grudgingly agreed with the old eunuch.
But he was still very angry! This feeling of things being out of his control was not a nice feeling!
Yan Luoying was too stubborn!
But he knew he needed someone like that.
He looked at Su Changqing from the corner of his eyes and said angrily, "You old brat, you allowed Su Wen to fool around with women too much. How many days has it only been? He"s certainly not idling around. On one hand he"s going after Miss Yiyi, and on the other he managed to seduce Yan Luoying to the point that she is h.e.l.l-bent on having him. His ability to fool around with women is impressive!"
Su Changqing knew that he was unhappy and needed an outlet to vent his anger. He did not defend himself and immediately knelt on the ground, shouting, "This subject is guilty! This subject has failed to teach my son properly and caused trouble for Your Majesty!"
Emperor Zhou gritted his teeth and said, "Let"s do this first. Young people want something fresh every day. Perhaps after seeing so many young heroes in the capital, she will eventually change her mind!"
Su Changqing stole a glance at him and said in a low voice, "Then Your Majesty… about Her Highness Seventh Princess… what should we do?"
Emperor Zhou"s eyes were lifeless as he muttered, "That"s right, there"s also my daughter… Seventh Princess… What should I do… how would I know what to do? Get lost, get lost quickly! I"ll order you to go back and give Su Wen ten slaps! Let him know how powerful he is!"
The barest hint of amus.e.m.e.nt could be seen in Su Changqing"s eyes as he bowed. "Yes! I will go back and discipline my dog son now!"
As Su Changqing retreated, Emperor Zhou closed his eyes.
Yan Luoying suddenly changing her mind was as good as disrupting his entire plan.
"What do you think we should do?" Emperor Zhou asked the old eunuch.
The old eunuch wryly smiled. Who knew what to do about this matter?
Yan Luoying was determined to die if forced to marry someone else, so they definitely could not force their way through with the current plan. However, the Seventh Princess was, after all, a member of the royal family. Under the control of the emperor these few days, she was very close to Su Wen. Seeing that they had already developed feelings for each other, although the royal family was heartless, they were still humans after all. It was not like they did not possess any familial ties.
"This old slave does not know…"
The eunuch chose to keep his mouth shut. After all, it didn"t matter how he dealt with the situation. Someone would end up being hurt.
Emperor Zhou opened his eyes and asked, "Is Wanrou in the palace today?"
"She went out early…"
"Where did she go?"
"I believe she should be at Su Wen"s residence. Princess Wanrou is only familiar with very few people outside the palace…."
When he heard this news, Emperor Zhou wished he could slap himself. Why did he have to let the Seventh Princess come into contact with Su Wen first?
But that was not what he was more concerned about.
He calmed himself down and narrowed his eyes. "Let Wanrou continue to interact with Su Wen first. I will think of a way to get some young heroes from the capital to get acquainted with Yan Luoying. I don"t believe that Su Wen and Yan Luoying have a stronger relations.h.i.+p than gold."
The old eunuch replied. "Perhaps Young Master Su doesn"t want to marry Miss Yan. If he were to cancel the marriage…"
Emperor Zhou sneered and said, "From the looks of it now, that brat is just a little lecher. With Yan Luoying"s looks, would a lecher not want to marry her? Knowing him, he"ll probably choose to marry her so he can use her whenever he feels like it.
Taking a step back, even if this brat really doesn"t want to marry Yan Luoying, from the looks of Yan Luoying"s att.i.tude today, if Su Wen were to mention breaking off the engagement, she would still choose to kill herself. Even if she doesn"t die and the marriage is annulled, she might still hate me in her heart. How can I be at ease letting her lead troops into battle in the future?"
"Using people also means using their hearts. If you can"t subdue their hearts, how can you use them as you wish? I didn"t force Su Wen to marry her back then because I had such considerations. Now, I can"t forcefully break them up! I have to use a gentler method!"
Emperor Zhou sighed.
While he was racking his brains, Su Wen was also busy at home.
Zhao Wanrou was currently at his residence, but so was Wu Muyu!
The two of them entered the courtyard one after another. They were both rather surprised to see each other there.
After all, the two knew each other.
Zhao Wanrou was the older one, thus she took the initiative and smiled, "Little Sister Muyu, why are you here?"
Wu Muyu smiled. "Brother Su has been working very hard recently. In addition, Sister Yan is busy with work and has no time to take care of Brother Su, so I made some lotus seed porridge and made some pastries for him to try."
Zhao Wanrou wasn"t stupid. What kind of women had she not seen in the palace?
The moment the latter explained herself, she knew that this lady had already taken a liking to Su Wen.
Zhao Wanrou frowned slightly. She did not care how many concubines Su Wen had, but the problem was that Su Wen was not the emperor!
Wu Muyu and Yan Luoying were both daughters of the n.o.bility, while she was a princess from the royal family. Within the three of them, only one was able to openly wed Su Wen and have the t.i.tle as his official wife!
Especially since she was a princess of the royal family. If Su Wen chose to marry someone else, the chances of her marrying him would be extremely low!
Moreover, Emperor Zhou had been creating opportunities for her and Su Wen to be alone recently.
How could Zhao Wanrou not guess Emperor Zhou"s intentions? He wanted her to date Su Wen.
She had to fight even if she didn"t want to! Most importantly, Zhao Wanrou quite liked Su Wen too.
"I remember that Su Wen likes to eat meat! I"m afraid your lotus seed porridge and pastries are not to his liking." Zhao Wanrou smiled and casually replied. However, the meaning behind her words was that Wu Muyu did not understand Su Wen.
Wu Muyu wasn"t angry. Instead, she smiled, "He can eat some to fill his stomach first. If I were to prepare meat and bring it over, it"ll turn cold and give off a fishy smell. Aren"t we at the residence now? I"ll make some meat for Brother Su later. I have to fill up his belly, my mother said that as a woman, she should be able to serve her husband well. What she makes is naturally different from what the servants make!"