Don"t Try to Reason With Him (3)
This connection naturally was tied in Li Hong Yuan"s past life. After all, in his current life, Jing Wan and Princess Min Xiang still haven"t met yet.
And for Jing Wan to have such a tragic fate in his past life, Princess Min Xiang also played a part. Because in his past life, Princess Min Xiang, with her honorable status as a princess, stole Jing Wan"s fiancee——-Chen Zheng Min.
(T/N: I just noticed the ‘Min" in their names were the same character.)
If not for losing Chen Zheng Min, this fiancee, then Li Ru Yu wouldn"t have viewed Jing Wan, who was knowledgable in plants and flowers, as a threat for possibly winning Sun Yi Lin"s favor, and thereby schemed against her.
In the final court examination[1], Chen Zheng Min although didn"t enter the top three, he still ranked third in the second cla.s.s (6th place). Even though compared to the flower s.n.a.t.c.her (third place candidate) of the first cla.s.s, no one would remember him, he was still just sixteen years old after all and could even be said to be a youth of outstanding talent. And just prior to that, Princess Min Xiang had coincidentally by chance met Chen Zheng Min once before. It wasn"t necessary that this one meeting made Princess Min Xiang secretly fall for him, but relatively speaking, Chen Zheng Min was indeed a very suitable husband candidate.
Princess Min Xiang was already at the age of choosing a husband, and marrying a princess meant cutting off one"s future prospects. Anyone with the slightest ambitions actually all didn"t like marrying a princess. As a result, the husbands the princesses all married in the end were usually not to their liking. However, with great difficulty, she finally encountered one that was suitable and also pleasing to the eyes and heart, in addition he didn"t have much of a background either. Thus, even if knowing that Chen Zheng Min already had an engagement, she still repeatedly begged n.o.ble Consort Su. Le Cheng Emperor although highly regarded Chen Zheng Min"s potential, Chen Zheng Min still didn"t have any contributions after all, and there were plenty of outstanding talents. To have him wouldn"t be much, and to not have him wouldn"t be any less either. Thus, after learning that Chen Zheng Min hadn"t married and didn"t have an engagement either, he naturally just clapped his hands and agreed.
In actuality, it was nothing more than n.o.ble Consort Su letting someone pressure and force the Luo family and Chen family to break off the engagement in the dark before Le Cheng Emperor found out.
If it was in any other family, just letting one of the descendants marry a princess, even if it"s the most outstanding one, they wouldn"t necessarily be unable to accept it. After all, it was only one person"s future prospects getting cut, it could still benefit the other brothers at least. But Chen Zheng Min"s family was different. His father was his grandfather"s only son. He was the eldest di grandson. Although below him there were also two younger brothers, but they were both shu-born, and moreover, both were still very young, not even ten years old yet. Who knows what the future will be like. Him marrying a princess, for his family, was definitely a very heavy blow, especially for his mother. She only had this one son. She had all her hopes all placed on him, but then suddenly, all her hopes were gone. One can well imagine just how much she hated inside. But her daughter-in-law was a princess, not only was she unable put on airs of a mother-in-law, she even had to serve the other party like an ancestor, and her son also had to live in the princess manor. She might not even be able to see him once every ten days to half a month.
Everyone all thought Chen Zheng Min was a docile sheep, but in his heart actually lived a wolf. He"d lost the younger cousin he admired, forfeited his bright future, and his mother cheerlessly bathed her face in tears all day. There was the saying, ‘if one does not erupt in silence, then it is to die in silence", and Chen Zheng Min just happens to be the former, turning into a seemingly taciturn, but actually, vicious and merciless wolf. Princess Min Xiang got sorted out by him very miserably, but unexpectedly didn"t dare say anything. In the several years after their marriage, she never got pregnant and got cursed as a hen that can"t lay eggs. But in reality, it was because Chen Zheng Min never consummated the marriage with her. Despite having reached such a point, she never once revealed a single word to n.o.ble Consort Su. When people learned of this matter after the fact, they truly viewed Chen Zheng Min in ‘a whole new light".
For Li Hong Yuan to have been able to succeed in the very end, Chen Zheng Min"s contributions couldn"t be overlooked.
He although didn"t have Sun Yi Lin"s ability to govern, he was still considered a backbone minister under Li Hong Yuan"s administration.
Logically speaking, if not for Princess Min Xiang interfering, Jing Wan in the end would have married Chen Zheng Min, and her life probably would"ve gone smoothly. And Li Hong Yuan wouldn"t have had the chance to learn that there was such a girl called Jing Wan in this world. Thus, speaking from this perspective, all the people that had pushed Jing Wan into that tragic fate should all be considered Li Hong Yuan"s ‘benefactors". But unfortunately, one matter was not the other. What he saw was just everything Jing Wan had suffered. Everything else, sorry, he didn"t see, don"t even think of trying to reason with him.
And after a few days, at Grand Elder Princess"s birthday celebration, it"s precisely when Princess Min Xiang will meet Chen Zheng Min. As for exactly how they met, Li Hong Yuan didn"t know. The only surefire way was to just have Princess Min Xiang locked in the imperial palace, and Chen Zheng Min can"t possibly enter the palace, thus having the two of them completely separated. Then, before the court examination, have Cheng Zheng Min"s marriage taken care of, so that when the time comes, even if Princess Min Xiang takes a fancy to him, there won"t be that previous fated meeting as the foundation. In addition, the ‘new opponent" won"t be easy to get rid of, thus she can only just leave the matter unsettled.
If he were to let nature take its course and let Chen Zheng Min marry the princess as before, then for Li Hong Yuan, it was practically the most satisfying way to get rid of a ‘love rival", given that he can"t kill the other party. However, considering certain aspects, Li Hong Yuan actually didn"t want to cut off Chen Zheng Min"s future prospects. Princess Min Xiang"s method of stealing the person can be used as reference however. Just, the person needs to be changed.
Many years ago, Li Hong Yuan had already made Princess Min Xiang be unable to see ‘blood". Rather, it wasn"t that he was preparing that early for today. At that time, it was also just a coincidence, and he temporarily devised a plan, just so happening to first help his Wan Wan avenge an old grievance. Even though, as the involved person, Jing Wan herself didn"t even know she had such a big enemy. As for the remaining, he can just set aside as backup for later use.
Li Hong Yuan thought back to a few years ago. The method used on Min Xiang seemingly was a bit ‘cruel". Fundamentally speaking, Min Xiang"s heart wasn"t necessarily bad, but because she"s always been held in the palm, she was spoiled rotten. The things she wanted, she will always get her hands on. She would never think about other people"s wishes. Not just her, this can be said to be a common disease among people like them.
At the time, because he was trapped in the imperial palace, he completely didn"t know Jing Wan"s situation, despite clearly knowing that Jing Wan most likely will grow up safe and sound in Qi An Fu. But because he was unable to see her, he was very irritable, frequently in a h.e.l.lish state so terrifying that even ghosts would be scared if they saw him, always needing to find a bit of something to relieve the gloomy and violent feeling inside. One day, a cat that Princess Min Xiang raised coincidentally fell into his hands, and in a rather good mood, he chose a pretty good place, leading Min Xiang to come looking by herself. And in front of Min Xiang"s face, he killed that cat, even deliberately making the place reek of blood. Min Xiang"s eyes were completely blinded by red, her ears were filled completely with the cat"s screams, continuing for quite some time. Afterwards, he even had Min Xiang confined, covered her eyes, placed the cat"s corpse into her hands, and then took off the black cloth covering her eyes. That b.l.o.o.d.y corpse directly penetrated into her mind in the most violent way. Min Xiang fainted from the sight and fell seriously ill. However, after she woke up, she didn"t remember anything, only leaving behind a condition of being unable to look at red color liquids.
And just in case, from start to finish, Li Hong Yuan never allowed her to catch sight of him, yet still have her be vaguely aware of his presence the whole time.
To want to trigger Min Xiang"s symptoms to act up, there was nothing more effective than him personally doing it.
[1] Court Examination – The highest grade imperial exam
T/N: Feel bad for Min Xiang while you still can, just wait until when you learn the things she will do. (Also please don"t post spoilers in the comment section.) Also if something like this chapter makes you feel uncomfortable or triggered, I personally don"t think you should be reading this novel, trust me it only gets worst. There"s a mature tag on this novel for a reason and it"s not because of s.m.u.t, there"s actually no s.m.u.t, depending on your definition of s.m.u.t, at least compared to s.m.u.t I"ve translated in past, this one is very tame——-this novel is still mostly politics.