Chapter 129: Half-Truth

"Who is that man? Why is he carrying a child on his shoulder? Isn't that something only servants do?"

"Judging by his attire, he is no servant!"

"If he were a servant, it wouldn't be so strange. He is clearly a most distinguished gentleman!"

In the outer courtyard, several guests sat in the main hall, pointing and whispering at the gentleman who was playing with a child in the yard.

The head of the fifth branch of the Xue family was the Seventh Young Master, who was entertaining male guests in the outer courtyard on behalf of Xue Qiu. Hearing their remarks, Seventh Young Master said with a sense of reflected glory, "That is our eldest brother-in-law! The eldest brother-in-law loves children, and the one he is playing with is our little young master!"

So he was a relative. If he was a relative, it was somewhat understandable. Yet, for a dignified gentleman to let a five-year-old toddler ride on his neck—wasn't that a bit too effeminate?

Qin Jianyu felt a stir in his heart upon hearing this and asked, "Seventh Uncle, is that the Thirteenth Young Master of the Wang family?"

Wang Jingzhi was the most prominent relative of the Xue family. Xue Qilang nodded with pride, "Indeed, it is the Thirteenth Young Master!"

It really was the Thirteenth Young Master of the Wang family!

Seeing how Thirteenth Young Master played with the Xue children, it was clear he had a very close relationship with the family. And he was a member of the Wang family! Officials were everywhere among them, and any one of them picked at random would be a court noble—not comparable to ordinary aristocratic families. He had a very good relationship with the Xue family.

Qin Jianyu began to hesitate about calling off the marriage. If he called it off, he would lose any reason to approach the Thirteenth Young Master, feeling as though he would be losing a valuable connection.

Yet, if he didn't call it off, was he expected to marry that fat pig?

Qin Jianyu had a flash of inspiration. Why not actively befriend the Thirteenth Young Master? If he established a connection now, it wouldn't necessarily vanish even if the marriage was broken off. Who said that breaking off an engagement meant all established interpersonal relationships had to disappear?

Affection and bonds depended on human cultivation!

Thinking thus, Qin Jianyu stood up and walked toward the Thirteenth Young Master...

In another guest room, Xiao Yi looked out the window at the two grown men coaxing the child, the corners of his lips curling into a comfortable smile.

As expected, the Thirteenth Young Master was still as fond of children as ever, though unfortunately Xue Yingniang did not want to ruin her figure and had persistently refused to bear children. As for that Qin Jianyu, he was still as eager to curry favor as ever. Everything remained unchanged, exactly as it had been in his past life.

Xiao Yi suddenly walked over and asked, "My Lord, what are you smiling at?"

Xiao Yi turned back and said, "I am smiling at something amusing. I don't usually smile—why is it worth your while to question it?"

"Firstly, you do not usually smile. Secondly, your subordinate also finds this Wang Shisan quite amusing. I hear he is extremely fond of children, yet after three years of marriage, he has not fathered any, and still refuses to take concubines!" Xiao Yi said with absolute disdain.

***

Xiao Yi raised an eyebrow. "What? Do you find the Thirteenth Young Master amusing?"

"Doesn't Your Lordship find him amusing as well?"

"I said it was amusing—amusing as in funny, not amusing as in ridiculous!" Xiao Yi looked at Xiao Yi with a look that seemed to say, *Do you understand?*

Xiao Yi frowned and said, "Leaders just love playing with word games!"

Xiao Yi: "..."

Xiao Yi looked back out the window and said with utmost sincerity, "I have never once thought the Thirteenth Young Master was ridiculous. I admire him!"

"Admire?!"

Xiao Yi nodded. "Indeed, I admire him!"

He countered, "If you were extremely fond of children, and your wife refused to bear them for you, yet you loved her and refused to accept other women, blindly coaxing the one you love while waiting for her to bear you a child—wouldn't you know to feel respect?"

"That is utter nonsense. Isn't that disloyal and unfilial?" Xiao Yi said with a sneer. "Such a man makes people admire him? If he were in my family, my father would have beaten him until even his six wives didn't recognize him, and told him to quickly take concubines and have children!"

Xiao Yi shook his head. "So crude!"

Continuing to watch the Thirteenth Young Master, he murmured, "Such lofty character!"

Xiao Yi let out a hum of derision. "Leaders are truly incomprehensible!"

Xiao Yi: "..."

Someday he really ought to give this subordinate a thorough thrashing; otherwise, there was nothing he wouldn't dare to say.

He admitted sincerely, "All jokes aside, I truly admire the Thirteenth Young Master, and even envy him!"

Hearing that Xiao Yi was serious, Xiao Yi was greatly astonished. "Your Highness, do you really think such unfilial and disloyal behavior from the Thirteenth Young Master is worthy of admiration?"

He truly felt that way. That was not disloyalty or lack of filial piety; it was being loyal to oneself, loyal to love!

Why did he admire it? Because he himself could not do it.

In his past life, his situation and the Thirteenth Young Master's were quite similar. The only difference was that Xue Wanying could have children but chose not to, whereas Xue Fanzhi wanted children but could not have them.

***

It seemed like a vast difference, but in truth, it was the same, because when Xue Wanying reached her early twenties, truly driven to her wit's end by her mother-in-law's pressures, she finally bore a single child—a son—and never bore children again.

From seventeen to twenty-five, eight whole years—Wang Jingzhi had waited just like that, without changing his mind in the slightest along the way, and later spoiled his wife and child to the heavens.

And look at himself by comparison: knowing that Xue Fanzhi could not bear children, before he even ascended the throne, he took Wen Xian and others into his residence. After ascending the throne, urged on by his ministers, he selected two more batches of palace maidens...

Of course, he could comfort himself by saying that because he was the emperor and had an empire to inherit, even if he were willing to wait, those ministers would oppose it, and so on. In short, a person could find plenty of reasons for themselves. Ultimately, he simply couldn't wait to have children with other women, and that was why he broke Xue Fanzhi's heart.

Yet with his own mouth, he had sworn oaths that he loved Xue Fanzhi the most.

Unable to protect the one he loved most, dragging other women down to waste their youth—that was who he had been in his past life.

By comparison, how admirable was Wang Jingzhi? Therefore, even though Xue Wanying was not a good person, whenever he thought of Wang Jingzhi's suffering, he felt it with empathy, and so he had spared Xue Wanying.

Enough of this. Whenever he thought of it, he felt that his past self was absolute scum.

Xiao Yi turned back and asked, "By the way, what did you come here for?"

Xiao Yi was a guest, but Xiao Yi was not. He was a spy, mingled among the guests.

Xiao Yi immediately reported, "Your subordinate went to monitor Xue Yang and discovered that a strange middle-aged woman had gone to Xue Yang's courtyard, along with a young woman, plus the two Xue Jingren brothers. The two Xue Jingren brothers even quarreled over that elderly woman. Xue Yang insisted that the two brothers go pay their respects; Xue Jingren refused, while Xue Jingxiao felt that as the older brother, he was being rude... What your subordinate wants to say most is that the Eighth Young Lady has sent people to investigate this woman!"

Lady He!

Xiao Yi had never met Lady He, but her notorious reputation was thunderous to his ears, for anyone who married into the Xue family could never bypass Lady He.

Lady He was Xue Yang's first wife, cast aside because she could no longer bear children. Yet she was unlike ordinary cast-aside wives; she had turned the Xue household upside down, and particularly tormented Xue Fanzhi with exceptional cruelty.

Because Xue Xueyue was not born of Lady Jin at all—Xue Xueyue was connected to Lady He. It had been a plot orchestrated by Xue Yang: while Lady Jin was unconscious from childbirth, they carried Xue Xueyue back and stubbornly claimed she was born of Lady Jin, a twin to Xue Fanzhi.

Comparisons would inevitably be drawn between "twins," and Xue Fanzhi had suffered immeasurable hardships. If not for Xue Xueyue, he believed Xue Fanzhi would have lived just like Xue Jingren and the others. Although Xue Yang had not cared for her particularly, at least he wouldn't have looked upon her with cold indifference.

Lady He—all of this was a conspiracy plotted by Lady He.