The Marchioness pointed at her, too angry to speak.
“You’ve forgotten your mother now that you have a wife! Forgotten your mother!”
The Marchioness was heartbroken, but there were things Chi Wan had to say.
The Marquis of Huai’an stepped forward, pointing a trembling finger at her. “You scoundrel! An absolute scoundrel! Is that any way to speak to your mother?”
“Besides, that land originally belonged to the House of Huai’an. We were just having them return it. How is that annexing commoners’ land? Of all the officials in the court, do you think our family is the only one doing this?”
Chi Wan remained calm, her gaze firm. “Father, you sold that land; it wasn’t stolen from you. And I don’t care what others do, but you cannot do it in the name of the Princess’s Residence. I hope this matter of annexing commoners’ land will not happen again.”
“If Father does not send the responsible parties to the local authorities tomorrow, I will go before the Emperor to plead guilty—to plead guilty on behalf of the House of Huai’an!”
At that point, the new official posts of the Marquis of Huai’an and his heir would be gone.
The Marquis of Huai’an was so enraged he was about to strike her. As a dignified marquis, how could he admit to selling ancestral lands and then trying to snatch them back the moment he gained some power? To have his own daughter point out such a shameful matter, he had no face left to show.
“You were the one who sent those people out. They are all your people, the Fuma’s people. Even if you go before the Emperor, what does it have to do with the House of Huai’an?”
Chi Wan’s slightly relaxed posture immediately straightened. “But the land is now under my elder brother’s name, and the men are from the Marquis’s Residence. They did not follow me to the Princess’s Residence. Moreover, with me, their own daughter, as a witness, would His Majesty insist on placing the blame on Her Highness the Princess?”
The Emperor was no fool. When someone was willing to take the blame, he wouldn’t force it onto his own daughter. Even if it wasn’t for Yu Jiuzhou’s sake, he wouldn’t do it for the sake of the imperial family’s dignity.
Hearing this, the Grand Madam hurried forward and took her hand, speaking earnestly. “Ah Wan, what are you doing? It’s just a bit of land; we’ll simply return it. Is it worth you and your father arguing like this over a few servants?”
“Since Grandmother has spoken, I will return to the Princess’s Residence and await news. Grandmother, Father, Mother, you know that I am now the Fuma. The Princess is my sovereign, and I am her subject. I cannot return to the Marquis’s Residence often.”
Chi Wan lowered her eyes, feigning a somber and wronged expression. “Speaking of which, I have essentially married into her family. Like my elder sister, I have been married off. The Marquis’s Residence gave me no dowry, and I bear no resentment. But if anyone from the Marquis’s Residence uses my name to commit misdeeds in the future, I will uphold justice, even against my own kin.”
Her words were blunt but reasonable. To outsiders, she had indeed married into the Princess’s Residence. Otherwise, why wasn’t the Princess accompanying her back to the Marquis’s Residence? Of course, if she could inherit the marquisate, there might be room to argue the point, but she could not.
Chi Wan’s words today were tantamount to severing ties with the Marquis’s Residence. After all, short of the extermination of nine generations of a clan, there was no precedent for punishing a married-out daughter for her family’s crimes. Even though she was a Qian Yuan, she was married to the Princess.
According to the customs of this world, she had married into the Princess’s Residence.
“Insolence! Utter insolence!” Chi Mingwu moved to strike her.
Chi Wan dodged him directly. “Father, I am the Fuma. While I may not be a sovereign, I belong to the Princess.”
“You!”
It was natural for a father to discipline his daughter, but the Marquis of Huai’an was not such a resolute man.
Chi Wan bowed. “I take my leave.”
She had come to the Marquis’s Residence for this very matter. Her words today would spread, and everyone would know that she considered herself married into the Princess’s Residence and no longer connected to the House of Huai’an. Even if the Marquis’s heir were to die in the future, she would not be the successor.
According to the rules of Great Zhou, the heir was chosen based on legitimacy and then age, with legitimacy taking precedence. Only when there were no legitimate children would illegitimate ones be considered. Without the heir, Chi Wan would be the first in line to inherit, but she herself had renounced it.
Chi Wan couldn’t care less about the marquisate. She couldn’t very well wish for Chi Xu’s death, and even if he did die, she wouldn’t want to inherit the title. The House of Huai’an was rotten to the core, crawling with bloodsuckers—the clan, the powerful servants, and those people back in their ancestral home. They were all bleeding the Marquis’s Residence dry. In this world, such ties were inescapable. Sooner or later, it would end up like the Jia family in Dream of the Red Chamber.
Marrying into the Princess’s Residence was her path to survival. Unfortunately, her predecessor had been too foolish to see this. To the outside world, she only ever spoke of the Princess marrying down to her, never of her marrying in. If you have such pride, then don’t live in the Princess’s Residence, and don’t commit misdeeds in its name!
Many who marry into their spouse’s family possess a strange sort of pride, blaming their resentment on their in-laws and their wife. Why don’t they consider that no one can force you to marry in? This was true even for marrying a princess. It wasn’t like the Kun Ze of this world, who had almost no say in their own marriages.
A princess’s potential spouse was always chosen from a large pool of candidates, with only a few selected in the end. But all these candidates had volunteered; no one was forced. Her predecessor had even schemed to get the position, yet she still resented Yu Jiuzhou so much.
If Prince Zhongshan hadn’t been pulling strings behind the scenes, a person like that could never have successfully used public opinion to pressure the Emperor. Prince Zhongshan had arranged for many people in the court to impeach and debate the matter. The Emperor had even fainted from anger once, which led to his dislike of her predecessor.
Otherwise, how could a dignified Fuma not even hold a substantive official post?
Her predecessor’s ability to marry into the Princess’s Residence was the result of various factions exerting a bit of influence behind the scenes. It was hard to say that the other candidates for the throne hadn’t also been involved.
Chi Wan turned and left without a backward glance. In the end, only Chi Qing chased after her.
Of those left in the room, the Marquis of Huai’an’s face was ashen. The heir, Chi Xu, stepped forward. “Father, what’s wrong with Second Sister?”
“What’s wrong? She must have been slighted at the Princess’s Residence and came back here to throw her weight around.”
The Marquis of Huai’an glared at his wife, Liu Wan. “It’s all your fault for spoiling her.”
Liu Wan felt wronged. “If our child is mistreated outside, where else can she come to vent? Besides, wasn’t this whole affair trouble caused by Ah Xu?”
If not for her own family’s lack of influence, coupled with her lack of say in the Marquis’s Residence and being constantly suppressed by the Grand Madam, Liu Wan would never have been content to let Chi Xu sit so securely in his position as heir.
“What do you know?” The Marquis of Huai’an had long been displeased with his mother’s and wife’s doting on Chi Wan. Now look what happened—she even dared to talk back to her own father.
Liu Wan was about to speak again, but Chi Xu interrupted. “Father, I think Second Sister was just unhappy and came back to make a scene. She doesn’t really expect us to do as she says. Besides, she is a daughter of the Marquis’s Residence. Our fortunes are tied together. Why would she go to His Majesty and report us?”
As they were talking in the Grand Madam’s quarters, Chi Qing was speaking to Chi Wan outside. “Ah Wan, do you think Father and the others will follow your instructions?”
Chi Wan didn’t think their greed would allow them to spit out the meat they had already swallowed. That was why she had returned. If they made no move by tomorrow, she would truly go and file an imperial complaint.
“Then let them gamble on whether I will go to His Majesty.”
Chi Wan took two large strides forward, then suddenly remembered something and turned back. “Elder Sister, if you need anything in the future, you can come find me at the Princess’s Residence.”
Chi Qing had reminded her of so much, which was a clear gesture of goodwill. Although Chi Wan had married into the Princess’s Residence, if the Marquis’s Residence truly intended to cause trouble, she still needed someone to inform her. She couldn’t afford to be caught off guard.
“Alright.”
Chi Qing watched her younger sister’s retreating back and shook her head. “She’s married now, and all grown up. I thought she would refuse me.”
Although Chi Wan was merely the choice she had made when she had no other.
Inside the Princess’s Residence, Yu Jiuzhou listened to Chun Gui’s report, feeling deeply perplexed.
Chi Wan could actually speak to her family with such backbone? And what was all that about being one with her, following her in life and death? What strange words!
Chun Gui secretly glanced at her princess’s expression. She was shocked that the Fuma could say such things and truly feared the Princess might lose her temper and cut her down with a sword.
Everyone knew the Fuma was a useless beauty, a straw bag. To think she would threaten to file an imperial complaint—it truly made one see her in a new light.
First her medical skills, and now this outburst at the Marquis of Huai’an’s Residence. Chun Gui sighed. “Your Highness, the Fuma seems to have changed.”
But Yu Jiuzhou believed these were likely just things Chi Wan was forced to do to change her own fate—to change herself, to break with the Marquis’s Residence. In reality, a person’s fundamental nature is hard to change.
One thing was certain: Chi Wan, like her, must know the future course of the world. But Chi Wan’s medical skills and her various other behaviors made her feel that this Chi Wan might not be the original Chi Wan.
Even if reborn, a fool would still be a fool. One couldn’t suddenly master skills they never knew. Chi Wan’s transformation was too great, making her hesitate. Could it really be possession by a wandering soul?
In any case, she couldn’t kill Chi Wan for the time being. She would just have to observe her a while longer.
Yu Jiuzhou had more important things to do. She, too, had been reborn. And she didn’t just want to change her own destiny. In that moment between life and death, she had thought: if others could sit on the throne, so could she, Yu Jiuzhou. She would not hesitate to raise the butcher’s knife against anyone who stood in her way, anyone who tried to destroy her.
