HCB Chapter 205
Chapter 205
Qiushuang took a sip of tea and swallowed the chestnut pastry in her mouth.Through Qiushuang's unremitting efforts, her relationship with Chen Xiang had taken a step forward, and they had decided to get married.
Neither of them had family, so they wanted to ask Ye Yunniang and Jiang Mingzhe to officiate their wedding.
"Alright," Ye Yunniang agreed readily. "You should start embroidering your wedding dress."
At the mention of the wedding dress, Qiushuang scratched her head.
Her hands were incredibly swift and decisive when wielding a sword or a blade.
But holding a needle was just too awkward for her.
After all ten of her fingers were swollen from being pricked, Qiushuang decided to spare herself and just go buy a wedding dress.
Qiushuang found out that there was a shop in the capital called Qianjin Pavilion that specialized in wedding dresses.
It had all kinds of wedding dresses, and Qiushuang had gone to pick one out on her last day off.
She was dazzled by the choices.
Qiushuang felt that every dress suited her, yet at the same time, every dress seemed to be missing something.
"Madam, what should I do?" Qiushuang worried. She really didn't know what kind of wedding dress to choose.
"Tomorrow, we will go to Qianjin Pavilion." Ye Yunniang figured she had nothing else to do tomorrow, so she would help Qiushuang pick one.
"You are so good to me, Madam," Qiushuang said, leaning affectionately on Ye Yunniang's shoulder.
Not far away, Hongling watched Ye Yunniang and her servant chatting, sighing inwardly at how well Ye Yunniang treated her subordinates.
After eating three plates of pastries and drinking two pots of tea, Ye Yunniang's legs had gone numb from sitting so long.
The door opened, and Zhong Zhaoli stormed out, throwing down a sentence.
"Tong Mo, I will never like you again."
Inside the room, Tong Mo gave no response.
Zhong Zhaoli ignored Ye Yunniang and strode away.
Ye Yunniang held onto Qiushuang's arm to stand up and walked into the room.
Tong Mo sat dejectedly in the room.
"Have you figured out who you like?"
Tong Mo looked at Ye Yunniang in surprise. "You saw through it long ago."
The first time Zhong Zhaoli talked about what was going on between her and Tong Mo, Ye Yunniang felt something was off.
In Jiangcheng, Ye Yunniang had seen how Tong Mo dealt with the girls who liked him.
He would reject them cleanly and decisively; if the girl didn't back down, he would go to her parents.
If the parents were stubborn, he would threaten them.
His methods were bizarre and ruthless, and the girls were quickly frightened into not daring to like Tong Mo anymore.
Some couldn't even bear to hear the name "Tong Mo."
Faced with Zhong Zhaoli's affection, Tong Mo claimed to hate it and verbally rejected her, but in reality, he took no action against her.
Instead, he allowed Zhong Zhaoli to get close to his family.
Later, Ye Yunniang asked Tong Mo about how he and Zhong Zhaoli met and got to know each other.
Although Tong Mo gritted his teeth when he spoke about it, Ye Yunniang could feel that he had feelings for Zhong Zhaoli.
It was just that Tong Mo refused to admit it himself.
On the day of the one-month-old banquet, Ye Yunniang chatted with Tong Tiemei and talked about Tong Mo's childhood.
Based on what she knew, Ye Yunniang had a bold speculation.
The person Tong Mo truly liked was Zhong Zhaoli.
Tong Mo's affection for her was merely an illusion born out of his own family situation.
Tong Mo had witnessed his parents' unhappy marriage and broken family. He also saw that after his parents separated and remarried, they both lived very happily.
He had a vague subconscious idea that he himself wasn't even aware of.
When marrying a wife, one should marry someone with a good personality who is gentle with children.
He shouldn't marry a girl with a bad temper and a particularly dominant personality like his own, as that would lead to unhappiness.
When he met Zhong Zhaoli, Tong Mo was clearly moved, but subconsciously denied his feelings.
Seeing Ye Yunniang's gentleness towards children and her calm way of handling things, Tong Mo subconsciously hinted to himself that he should like a woman like her. That was the foundation of a stable marriage.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Have you forgotten how much trouble your 'liking' me brought me?" Ye Yunniang complained to Tong Mo.
Tong Mo recalled everything he had done to Ye Yunniang.
"I'm sorry."
"You saved me multiple times, so let's consider it even," Ye Yunniang waved her hand, calling it square.
"Now that you know who you really like, go chase Miss Zhong back."
"But," Tong Mo hesitated.
"Tong Mo, remember what I said. You are not your father, and Miss Zhong is not your mother. You have to believe in yourself, that you can be a good husband and a good father," Ye Yunniang comforted Tong Mo, urging him not to back down.
"Can I really?"
"I believe you can, Tong Mo," Ye Yunniang answered affirmatively.
"Thank you," Tong Mo thanked her earnestly and went to chase after Zhong Zhaoli.
Watching Tong Mo's retreating figure, Ye Yunniang sighed; she finally had some peace and quiet.
She waited until the afternoon when the gates of the Imperial College opened, and Li Pan walked out from inside.
Li Pan strode towards Ye Yunniang, who was standing in a prominent spot.
"Mother, I got accepted."
"I knew it, my son is amazing." Ye Yunniang joyfully hugged Li Pan, happy for him.
Being hugged by Ye Yunniang, Li Pan felt a little shy but couldn't bear to push her away.
He hadn't felt his mother's embrace in a long time.
Ye Yunniang hugged him for a while, then pulled Li Pan onto the carriage. "Let's go home."
As soon as the carriage reached the entrance of the alley, the crackling sound of firecrackers rang out at the door.
Li Pan curiously lifted the carriage curtain.
Li An and Li Ping stood at the door, holding up a banner.
The banner read, "Congratulations to our brother for getting into the Imperial College."
Cai Shuyi stood in front of the banner, wearing a lion dance costume and jumping around.
Li Pan awkwardly dropped the curtain.
"Mother, when did you guys prepare this?"
"When the carriage left this morning, An'an and the others started preparing," Ye Yunniang said as she lifted the curtain and got off the carriage.
Afraid of hurting his brothers' and his little aunt's feelings, Li Pan kept a straight face as he got out.
Cai Shuyi immediately hopped over to Li Pan.
"Panpan, did you get in?"
"He definitely got in. Didn't you see the red cloth strips hung on Mother's carriage?" An'an pointed to the red cloth strips tied where the lanterns hung on the carriage.
Li Pan saw them and felt very helpless. "Mother~"
"Pan'er getting into the Imperial College is a great joy. Our family must celebrate."
Holding Li Pan with one hand and Cai Shuyi with the other, Ye Yunniang walked into the courtyard.
Cai Damei personally cooked a table full of Jiangcheng delicacies, all of which were Li Pan's favorites.
Jiang Mingzhe was the first to present a gift, which was the annotations on the Four Books and Five Classics by the previous top scholar, exactly what Li Pan needed very much.
The others also brought out their carefully prepared gifts.
Li Pan was moved to tears.
The uneasiness in his heart completely disappeared.
Ye Yunniang told Jiang Mingzhe about Tong Mo and Zhong Zhaoli.
After hearing it, Jiang Mingzhe commented that Tong Mo was stupid for not even being able to see his own heart clearly.
"I just hope Zhong Zhaoli doesn't come looking for me anymore." Ye Yunniang really didn't want to be involved with them; it was too annoying.
"She won't come looking for you anymore." Jiang Mingzhe hadn't been acting as the princes' teacher all this time for nothing.
Taking advantage of his teaching opportunities, he had gotten to know many important court officials.
Among them was Duke Zhong.
After meeting a few times, they became familiar with each other.
Jiang Mingzhe tactfully mentioned to Duke Zhong that he should manage his daughter and keep her from pestering his wife.
"Jiang Mingzhe, you all have things to do. I want to find something to do too." Ye Yunniang didn't want to be trapped in the backyard every day.
"My lady, do whatever you want to do." Jiang Mingzhe fully supported her.
"I haven't figured it out yet." Ye Yunniang didn't know what she could do.
In Jiangcheng, the Baise Embroidery Shop that Ye Yunniang managed was entrusted to her by Baise.
Ye Yunniang wasn't really interested in running it.
"Take your time to think, there's no rush."
Ye Yunniang gave a hum of agreement. "How was teaching today?"