It wasn't until the banquet was almost over that Qingjiang Junzhu, as the host, hurried back to her seat. Nanxiang Junzhu saw this and found it strange: "Why did my cousin take so long?"

  Also noticed that the big maid beside her had changed, "Where's Zhen Li?"

  "Something's come up on Ping'an's side, so I've been delayed." Qingjiang Junzhu was in a bad mood now, but she didn't want others to know the inside story and couldn't lose her composure in front of everyone, so she still replied to her cousin with a smile, "I'm afraid there's no one available on his side, so I asked Zhenli to stay and take care of things."

  "Nanxiang County Master asked with concern: 'Is Ping'an okay?'"

  "It's fine." Qingjiang Junzhu pursed her lips and perfunctorily replied with a sentence, then asked, "What was it like at the banquet just now?"

  "I saw you didn't return for a long time, and there was a commotion for a while, but it soon subsided." The Countess of Nanzheng smiled and said, "After all, this is your place, who dares to be presumptuous?"

  These words sound like they are flattering the Qingjiang County Master, but having just dealt with Cui Jianlian's framing case and also learning that the King of Hengshan had set him up, the Qingjiang County Master hearing such words again was like being slapped in the face. Upon hearing this, his expression turned gloomy!

  However, after a brief loss of composure due to her age and experience, Qingjiang Junzhu regained her usual demeanor and began attending to official business - selecting the most outstanding ladies-in-waiting and ordering them to come forward and respond to questions.

  After the banquet, on the way back to the imperial capital, the young ladies who had been asked questions by Qingjiang County's mistress at the table were naturally delighted. Those who hadn't been asked questions also held onto a glimmer of hope - of course, the three people who had left their seats for half a moment before returning, Cui Jianliang, Jiang Muxian and Song Yixiao, couldn't escape the eyes of those with intentions either.

  As soon as they left the Chun Guan Inn, someone stopped their horse carriage and asked about the reason.

  Before the banquet started, Cui Jianlian accidentally broke my things, and then we went to deal with it... Why did Yixiao go too? Xueying asked me to take care of her, so as a trustworthy person like me, I would bring her wherever I go! Why did we stay for so long? Cui Jianlian accidentally fell, and as kind-hearted people, could we just leave her alone to drink? Of course not, we accompanied her until she was able to return... Why did Yixiao arrive last? She went to change clothes, isn't that right?

  Jiang Muxun's face fell as he slammed down the car curtain. "Don't believe? Don't believe you're still asking me?"

  If she says so, it's certain that people haven't returned to the Imperial Capital yet, but all sorts of rumors have spread first.

  But Cui Jianlian was forced to swallow her pride and acknowledge the veiled sarcasm, and with Wei Yinlian's timely intervention, the crowd's doubts were dispelled.

  Despite this, Jiang Muxun and Wei Yinlian personally escorted Song Yixiao to the Hengshan Wangfu before returning to their respective homes.

  Hengshan Wang Taifei heard the report and said that Song Yixiao returned with these two people, and her heart was "thud". When Lu Ke'er and Lu Jie'er arrived in front of her, she asked: "How did Song Yixiao go with the girls from the Jiang and Wei families? Didn't you tell them to always bring her along?"

  The two granddaughters were full of grievances and immediately poured out their complaints: "Grandmother, you still told us to bring her along! You don't know how much she stole the show in front of Di Xiaojie today! Others who saw it thought she was the legitimate daughter of the Wang family's main branch, while we two are just outsiders living off them!"

  "Is that so?" The Empress Dowager's heart was put at ease by more than half, and her tone also became more relaxed. "Then what about her being sent back just now by those two? Was it the Princess of Qingjiang who entrusted them to do so?"

  It suddenly dawned on him here, furrowed his brow, "Even if the young lady likes her and doesn't trust her to return alone, what's wrong with entrusting you guys?!"

  Lu Ke'er was already upset because she had been cold-shouldered by the young mistress of Qingjiang County today, and she had a belly full of anger. After returning home, even her own grandmother couldn't get a word out of her that wasn't about Song Yixiao. For half a day, there was no warm conversation, and the more she thought about it, the more heartbroken she felt. She couldn't help but blurt out: "How would I know?! My cousin dragged me to talk about embroidery, completely forgetting about myself! It was only when my cousin's maid saw our awkwardness that she sent someone to take us to see flowers, saving a bit of face for us - after losing so much face, why should we go find Song Yixiao now?!"

  The empress dowager's face quickly turned gloomy, and Lu Dian'er, being a concubine-born daughter, was much more timid and didn't dare speak like Lu Xiang'er. She hastily said: "Grandmother, it's like this - when we were returning from viewing the flowers, Jiang Muxiu was walking with Song Yixiao. It's said that Jiang Muxiu has a good relationship with Eldest Sister Yuan, perhaps she introduced them to each other?"

  "So you just went ahead and had a drink, without taking care of them?" The Empress Dowager angrily said, "What did I instruct you when you left? Take good care of Song Yixiao, take her to see the Princess of Qingjiang more often——why don't you listen?!

  Lu Kui'er almost cried out: "Grandmother, you don't usually like Song Yi Xiao that much, how come she's suddenly become your precious treasure?! Today, from start to finish, Diu sister didn't pay attention to us at all, and with so many ladies watching, we were about to lose face! You're not even sympathetic, asking only about Song Yi Xiao, who is the real flesh and blood of the Lu family?!"

  "What do you know?!" The empress dowager was so angry that she almost fell over, and with a glance, she made everyone around her retreat. She scolded, "Have you all forgotten the only son of the Duke of Qingjiang?! I had already agreed with the people around the duke to recommend Song Yixiao as his daughter-in-law! Today, when the Duke of Qingjiang met Song Yixiao, how could he not be enthusiastic? Do you want this kind of enthusiasm?!"

  Lu Ke'er and Lu Jie'er were shocked: "Zhuo Ping'an?! Duan Taijie's stupid son?!"

  The only child of the Qingjiang County Master was not as unknown and nameless among the nobles in the imperial capital as Song Yixiao had previously thought. At that time, the Qingjiang County Master and the county horse were deeply in love, and soon after their marriage, they became pregnant. Just when everything was going smoothly, who would have expected that there would be unexpected twists and turns of fate? The county horse suddenly passed away, and the seven-months-pregnant Qingjiang County Master gave birth prematurely due to grief, not to mention it was a difficult labor!

  Although the palace immediately sent a royal physician to the scene, the situation was already extremely critical. However, Consort Qingjiang thought of her son as an only child and refused to abandon him for his mother's sake, insisting on giving birth to the child to continue the family line.

  However, she had a deep affection for the county horse, and the empress dowager and the princess of Jin state valued her life even more. As a result, they were at an impasse until later, although both mother and son managed to survive by luck. However, the fetus stayed in the womb for too long and was brain-damaged! The Qingjiang county princess also suffered physical harm from this and could no longer give birth afterwards!

  This child named "Ping An" was not only born foolish, but also had a violent temper. What's more, he had extraordinary strength when hitting people, to the point where he had crippled his young maid by the age of four or five. Although there were whispers among the people before, after Qingjiang County Master cried and complained in front of Emperor Xianjia, Emperor Xianjia flew into a rage and dismissed over a dozen officials to appease his niece, and from then on, no one dared to mention it again.

  As time passed, the younger generation in the imperial capital hardly knew anything about Zhuo Ping'an's affairs. Even Lu Ke'er and her sisters only knew some inside information because they were daughters of a noble family.

  Hengshan Wang Taifei carefully planned to recommend Song Yixiao as a daughter-in-law to Qingjiang Junzhu, not only eliminating one of Wei Mengying's helpers, but also venting her anger and gaining the favor of Qingjiang Junzhu. It was a clever move that achieved three goals with one arrow. However, poor Taifei still didn't know about Jian Yubai's affair with Xie Pei, and not only did her plan fall through, but Qingjiang Junzhu now hated her even more, gritting her teeth in anger.

  She explained the situation to her two granddaughters, and after carefully inquiring about what had happened, she felt that there was no problem. She smiled and said: "Alright, let's just wait and see how things develop. You two go down now, and pretend you don't know anything, got it?"

  Lu Ke'er swept away the jealousy from just now, laughing warmly: "Grandma, rest assured! Song Yi Xiao wants to marry Zhuo Ping An, that's my niece-in-law, how can I still bully her?"

  "I am too!" But Lu Chai'er was not as happy as she was, although she was very jealous that Song Yi laughed and relied on her birth mother's favor. As an outsider, in the Hengshan Wangfu, she lived better than this concubine-born daughter. It was unbearable to think that this girl of the same age would marry a fool, not to mention a fool who often beat people around him!

  Lu Chai'er really couldn't bear it in her heart, but she didn't dare to tell Song Yixiao about it either. After all, this was something her birth grandmother had done, and she didn't even dare offend her older sister, let alone her birth grandmother?

  "Turn back and collect some things for Song Yixiao's dowry!" Lu Jia'er thought, "It's also considered as doing one's best."

  Song Yi Xiao didn't know about Zhuo Ping An's matter, although she had some perception when the main lady of Qing Jiang mentioned her "Ping An Er", but her mind was all on guessing Jian Yu Bai's true purpose, how could she have thought of other things?

  Following the instructions of Qingjiang County's mistress, she returned to Hengshan Wangfu and only told Zhao Mama about Qiu Kui Huang Yupei's matter, not even telling Wei Mengying - after all, in her eyes, the wet nurse was more reliable than her own mother.

  Madam Zhao was overjoyed upon hearing the news: "It's truly a blessing from heaven! I've been hoping for years that Miss would marry into a good family, but I never expected it to be the Duke!"

  She was satisfied with Jian Yu Bai as her son-in-law, not entirely because of his noble status, but also because "Jian Gong Ye was raised by the Empress Dowager and was the son of the Princess of Jin State! The Empress Dowager lived deep in the palace, and the Princess had her own residence, neither of them would live with Jian Gong Ye together! After you get married, there won't be a mother-in-law keeping an eye on you, it will be much more relaxing!"

  At this point, Zhao's mother couldn't help but recall the past. "Actually, Princess Wang got along well with Old Master Song initially. If it weren't for Old Madam Pang looking down on Princess Wang, she might not have remarried! So, as a daughter-in-law, what you fear most is not getting along with your mother-in-law. It's like Miss, who doesn't live with her mother-in-law and only visits occasionally to pay respects. No matter how incompatible they are, at most, she can just tolerate it for the time being and then go back home to be her own mistress, avoiding a lot of trouble!"

  “……Don't mention this for now!” Song Yi smiled as she saw her, full of enthusiasm, talking about how to get along with her mother-in-law after marriage. With a heart full of bitterness, she didn't know how to express herself, and after a while, she handed over the jade pendant, "Mother, please keep this jade pendant for me, so that Jin Xun won't find out when serving me.”

  "It can't be told to her, this little hoof's mouth is always unstoppable!" Zhao's mother carefully put away the jade pendant. "However, why didn't Miss tell the Wang consort? Now that the mansion wants to establish a heir, the Empress Dowager and the Wang consort are at odds with each other. If they find out that Miss got Jian Gongye's jade pendant, the Empress Dowager will definitely make trouble. It's better for the Wang consort to know early on, so you can make plans ahead of time."

  "Mom, you don't know how many noble ladies were at the banquet today." Song Yi smiled and hesitated for a moment, thinking that it was better not to tell Zhao's mother about what she saw in the Bo Ling Hou Fu Liang Ting - just in case Jian Yu Bai really pursued this matter, those who knew might all be doomed to die, and she had already failed to protect Zhi Qin, why drag Zhao's mother into the water as well?

  Don't tell Wei Mengying, firstly because I don't quite trust this girl, also afraid of implicating her.

  So she said, "This jade pendant was given to me by Master Jian Gong himself in private. However, when it comes to marriage, parents have the final say. Who knows whether his elders will approve of me or not? If something goes wrong and only we know about it, we can secretly return the pendant and that's that. But if word gets out, won't it be embarrassing? It would also make Mother happy for nothing."

  Mrs. Zhao was also moved by these words, and she felt that before the Jian family formally proposed marriage, this matter couldn't be taken for granted, so she immediately became anxious and secretly prayed: "Although Miss is a bit of an orphan, in terms of talent and appearance, how can she compare to those noble ladies? This marriage must come true!"

  But little did they know that Song Yishiao was secretly hoping for a noble to intervene and put an end to this matter - after several days of praying with different intentions, the outcome of the Shangsi banquet finally came out!

  It's all from top to bottom, so the first thing that gets out is that the Princess of Nanzheng has become the queen of Wei!

  Song Yi Xiao heard the news and was shocked, knocking over her tea cup: "How could this be?!"

  Although Cui Jian saw that she was deliberately slandering Jiang Muqin, how could Jiang Muqin be replaced by the lord of Nan Zhen?!