Marriage of the Di Daughter

After the hustle and bustle of the palace feast, the Empress Dowager proposed going outside Yu Ming Palace Hall to appreciate the lotus pond. 

The palace’s pond was created by an artisan, imitating the Yongning river of Yanjing city; thus the vastness. When it’s summertime, a spread of green jade color of ten miles of lotus pond, the bright moon up in the sky, starlight dotting the sky; it was extremely beautiful.

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The sultry heat from the last several days was swept away, making people relaxed and full of vitality.

Appreciating flowers after a feast ended was perhaps something that the nobles always liked. 

Jiang Li followed the Jiang family members and arrived at the area surrounding the lotus pond with Ji Shuran and Jiang You Yao following her closely. Jiang Li was fully aware that this naturally wasn’t for Ji Shuran to show the intimacy between her and this stepdaughter. But she didn’t care much about this. 

The madams and young ladies sat down conveniently on the promenade and fruit and light refreshments were arranged well on tables. Jiang Li was about to head there when she felt something was suddenly stuffed in her palm. When she turned around, she saw an unfamiliar palace maid brushing past her.  

She pinched the thing in her palm tightly, vaguely noticing that it was a slip of paper. She couldn’t help glancing at Ji Shuran and Jiang You Yao, thinking that it was the arrangement made by Ji Shuran. However, she saw that Ji Shuran didn’t seem to be abnormal, as if she didn’t take notice of it in the slightest and for a time, Jiang Li felt puzzled. 

When she finally walked into the pavilion in the middle of the lake, Jiang Li deliberately fell behind. Taking the opportunity when Ji Shuran and Jiang You Yao weren’t around, she opened her palm and as expected, it was a brief note. Borrowing the faint ray from the lantern light, a line of small characters was visible.  

See you at the East gate of the garden behind Yu Xiu Pavilion. The name written was:  Zhou Yan Bang.

Jiang Li was stumped. Ji Shuran was already calling her, so she immediately crumpled the note into a ball and was about to throw it into the pond. Recalling something, she once again concealed the note and tucked it in her sleeve. 

As she arrived by Ji Shuran’s side, Ji Shuran smiled and said: “Li-er walked a bit slow.”

Jiang Li put on a proper smile, on the contrary she was furious at the note given by Zhou Yan Bang. Zhou Yan Bang should not be the person Ji Shuran arranged. Since he was someone Jiang You Yao cared about, she absolutely would not let anything, no matter how small, to involve Zhou Yan Bang. This should be Zhou Yan Bang’s own idea.  

Jiang Li truly didn’t expect Zhou Yan Bang to also stick his foot in. She didn’t know how this Ningyuan Marquis’s heir had so much confidence that she would comply with the note to have a rendezvous. Maybe Zhou Yan Bang believed that Jiang second miss has lingering feelings for him? But Jiang Li carefully thought back, since she returned to Yanjing, she had only met Zhou Yan Bang face to face a handful of times and in all those times, she didn’t show even a tiny bit of interest in Zhou Yan Bang. 

Generally speaking, passionate people, no matter how cold they were treated, could find proof that the other party admired them. 

Jiang Li calculated in her heart, today she and Ye Shijie would not end up as Ji Shuran wishes. But just ending like that seems too cheap for Ji Shuran. 

Ever since arriving in the Jiang residence, Jiang Li had looked at each member of the Jiang family as an outsider. She sympathized with the real Jiang second miss, but before her family’s vengeance was repaid, she did not wish to be overly involved in the Jiang family’s disputes to prevent many mishaps from occurring. 

Thus, holding to the idea that “as long as people don’t offend me, I will not offend people”, when Ji Shuran harmed her and Jiang immediately struck back, she didn’t think that it was a big deal. But this time, Ji Shuran had really provoked Jiang Li’s anger. 

Ji Shuran’s means were too disgusting, making her recall her former self, the previous scene recurring. At this time, the new hatred and old hatred made Jiang Li very much wished to retaliate. 

People said, a genuine revenge would be to take away a person’s most cherished item and humiliate them, tearing them to shreds. Ji Shuran loved Jiang You Yao and Jiang Bing Ji the most. Jiang Bing Ji was too small and had nothing to lose. But Jiang You Yao was different.  

The one thing Jiang You Yao was most obsessed with at the moment was nothing else but the heir of Ningyuan Marquis, Zhou Yan Bang. Ji Shuran mother and daughter exhausted their brain to think of a method to snatch the marriage from Jiang second miss and constantly guarded this marriage so it wouldn’t be robbed back. Now, because of Zhou Yan Bang, Jiang You Yao hated Jiang Li even more. Zhou Yan Bang was precisely Jiang You Yao’s weak point. 

Jiang Li rubbed the slip of paper tucked in her sleeve and smiled suddenly.

Since Zhou Yan Bang himself wanted to wade into this muddy water, then she couldn’t be blamed as the source of calamity. Jiang You Yao was vigilant of her all the time, but she didn’t know that Zhou Yan Bang was Yanjing’s beautiful male and the females who wanted to marry him weren’t just her alone. For example, her former sister in law Shen Ruyun, another example, the Jiang family’s third branch’s daughter, Jiang Yu’e.

Supposed that Jiang Yu’e had the chance to marry into Ningyuan Marquis’s family, how would Jiang Yu’e choose? On one hand it was the sister who she warmly called out on weekdays and had a friendly relationship with. On the other hand, it was a good family that she might not encounter anymore in the future. Jiang Yu’e’s choice, Jiang Li completely looked forward to it.   

From time to time, Ji Shuran lifted her eyes to look at Jiang Li. Time slowly passed, Jiang Li reached her hand out to touch her forehead and said softly: “Mother, I feel a bit dizzy…….”