Not long after Lei Ting visited the Prince of Xian’s mansion, Ren Yaoqi received news about Ningxia again. Regarding Lei Ting’s punishment of Zeng Kui, Ren Yaoqi had learned about it from the Prince of Yanbei’s mansion on the day Ren Yaohua returned, and it was precisely because of this incident that Ren Yaoqi gained a new understanding of Lei Ting as a person.

Shortly after Lei Ting left with Ren Yaohua, the Zeng family found Zeng Kui, who had already fallen into a coma due to excessive blood loss.

The people Zeng Pu had sent to find Zeng Kui were extremely angry upon seeing Zeng Kui’s miserable condition. They immediately began secretly searching for those who had harmed Zeng Kui based on the descriptions of the few people who had been with Zeng Kui at the time. Eventually, the group of “bandits” was found by the Zeng family in a nearby farmhouse, where several had been left to care for the wounded. Two who were said to be the leaders were severely injured and were ultimately hacked to death on the spot by the Zeng family members.

However, the woman who had been abducted by the other bandits had jumped from the cart and escaped halfway, and happened to encounter General Min who was returning to Yunyang City. General Min had someone secretly escort her back to Yunyang City. The Zeng family had sent limited people to find Zeng Kui this time and didn’t dare confront Min Wenqing, so they could only take Zeng Kui, who had received some medical treatment, back to Ningxia first.

When Zeng Pu saw his only son being carried back as a cripple who could no longer continue the Zeng family line, he nearly collapsed from anger and distress. In the end, none of the attendants who had accompanied Zeng Kui met a good fate.

When Zeng Kui woke up, the first thing he said to his father was: “Father, I want that bitch Wu Yiyu to die a horrible death!”

Zeng Pu also hated Wu Yiyu so much that he wished he could cut her into a thousand pieces, especially after he later discovered that the person who had kidnapped Ren Yaohua to lure Zeng Kui to Yanbei was indeed Wu Yiyu. Naturally, Zeng Pu wouldn’t easily believe his subordinates’ words, so he sent people to investigate. The result was that Wu Yiyu had indeed bribed many people from the martial world during this period and had even declared that she would castrate Zeng Kui so that this toad couldn’t eat swan meat.

Zeng Pu said fiercely, “Rest assured, I will avenge this!”

On the second day after Zeng Kui returned to Ningxia, the news that he had been castrated by Miss Wu spread throughout Ningxia. Many people who heard it just treated it as a joke and didn’t take it seriously, because such rumors had appeared many times before. However, some busybodies still asked Wu Yiyu about it. Wu Yiyu, unaware that a great disaster was approaching, mockingly said, “I did spend a large sum of money, just waiting to see the Zeng family’s line end.”

This statement immediately made those families who had originally planned to marry Wu Yiyu take over the Wu family’s power completely. This was exactly Wu Yiyu’s purpose in causing such a scene. She didn’t want to marry Zeng Kui, nor did she want to marry any prominent young master in Ningxia. In her eyes, they couldn’t even compare to one finger of Yun Wenting – they were all toads.

The Zeng family thought the news was deliberately spread by Wu Yiyu to scare away those who wanted to form marriage alliances with the Wu family.

Quite a few people in Ningxia knew about Miss Wu’s infatuation with Young Master Yun, because Wu Yiyu had once publicly berated a man who had tried to get close to her and was said to be Ningxia’s most handsome and talented young man, saying he wasn’t even worthy of carrying Yun Wenting’s shoes. Therefore, the Zeng family’s hatred for Wu Yiyu was even greater.

People thought that with things having reached this point, there would probably be changes to the marriage between the Zeng and Wu families. Even Xiao Wei secretly sent people to find out whether Zeng Kui had been injured.

But unexpectedly, not only did the Zeng family not cancel the engagement, they also asked the Wu family to move up the wedding date. Previously, to appease Wu Yiyu, although Xiao Wei had arranged her engagement to Zeng Kui, the wedding date had been set for two years later. But now, Zeng Pu proposed to Xiao Wei that he wanted to hold the wedding in early August, and even Zeng Kui, who had always been at odds with Wu Yiyu, didn’t object.

Xiao Wei began to hesitate now. She suspected that the rumors about Zeng Pu being injured in a certain place were true. Although she loved power and status, she didn’t want her only daughter to remain a widow for life, so her attitude became somewhat evasive.

However, the Zeng family offered conditions: as long as Wu Yiyu agreed to marry, they would petition for Wu Yiyu to be granted the title of Princess, allowing Wu Yiyu to inherit Wu Xiaohe’s original power as both a Princess and the legitimate daughter of the Wu family. Zeng Pu would help Xiao Wei and Wu Yiyu, mother and daughter, secure their positions and drive the Di family out of Ningxia.

If these conditions weren’t enough to make Xiao Wei sacrifice her daughter’s marriage, then the Zeng family’s subsequent offering of the military commander’s seal and the five thousand troops that Zeng Pu had worked so hard to gather as betrothal gifts for marrying Wu Yiyu made Xiao Wei waver. Casually giving her five thousand troops also demonstrated the Zeng family’s current strength and Zeng Pu’s capabilities from the side.

Xiao Wei personally went to the Zeng family, bringing a physician along, saying she wanted the physician to examine her prospective son-in-law to ensure he was well before the wedding, lest it be inauspicious if he was still ill during the ceremony. No one knew what tricks the Zeng family played, but anyway, after the physician examined Zeng Kui, he said Zeng Kui was in good health and could marry in early August.

Thus, the wedding date for Wu Yiyu and Zeng Kui was set.

When Wu Yiyu learned of this, she caused a great commotion. Xiao Wei felt somewhat sorry for her daughter and made another request to the Zeng family: if Wu Yiyu wanted to return to her maternal home after marriage, the Zeng family couldn’t obstruct her.

Zeng Pu sneered inwardly but agreed readily on the surface.

Just at this time, someone secretly approached Wu Yiyu.

This person claimed to be the brother of one of the martial world figures Wu Yiyu had previously hired to go to Yanbei, and had come to ask Wu Yiyu for money. They had heard from their brother, who had already met his doom at the Zeng family’s hands, when he was drunk, that Miss Wu wanted to hire someone to castrate Zeng Kui. They had done it during Zeng Kui’s secret trip to Yanbei, and Wu Yiyu needed to pay them ten thousand taels of silver as rumored.

This person spoke with conviction, even bringing what he claimed was Zeng Kui’s severed member to Wu Yiyu, and pointed out that Zeng Kui had a large mole near his leg root.

Because the Zeng family had suppressed the news, and neither the Lei family nor the Prince of Yanbei’s mansion had publicly confirmed Zeng Kui’s incident, the matter of Zeng Kui becoming a eunuch had remained merely a rumor that few people truly believed. The person who came to Wu Yiyu explained that their brothers had either died or fled and were still being hunted by the Zeng family, not daring to come to Ningxia. Even his visit to see Wu Yiyu was extremely difficult, so outsiders didn’t know the truth of the matter.

Wu Yiyu felt sick looking at the bloody, mangled object that the man had preserved in an ice box, claiming it was Zeng Kui’s male organ. However, she also began to suspect that something had indeed happened to Zeng Kui.

In the end, however, Wu Yiyu chose to bide her time for now. To completely deter those who had designs on her, she came up with a very malicious idea under the deliberate instigation of certain people.

Thus, Xiao Wei discovered that Wu Yiyu, who had originally been causing trouble over the marriage, suddenly calmed down and even stopped resisting her marriage to Zeng Kui.

Xiao Wei thought her daughter had grown up and come to her senses, feeling very gratified. She even relaxed her surveillance of Wu Yiyu somewhat. Fortunately, Wu Yiyu didn’t cause any trouble right up until the wedding date approached.

Not long after Ren Yaoqi received all this news from Ningxia bit by bit, Lei Ting made his move again. This time, he found a matchmaker and went directly to the Ren family to propose marriage.

Besides the two elders of the Ren family in Baihe Town, Third Master Ren and Li Shi in Yunyang City also received the news at the same time. Naturally, Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua also learned of it.

Li Shi was surprised, delighted, and somewhat troubled. She was surprised that the Lei family head would suddenly propose to Ren Yaohua, delighted that Lei Ting was handsome and capable and completely matched the conditions of Ren Yaohua’s “destined person,” and troubled naturally because Ren Yaohua would be marrying as a second wife.

Third Master Ren had met Lei Ting several times. Lei Ting, who came from a prominent family background, was both literary and martial, with refined speech. Third Master Ren had no ill feelings toward him, so his attitude toward him becoming his eldest son-in-law was neither supportive nor opposed.

As for Old Master Ren and Old Madam Ren, they were completely delighted and surprised.

After having the two people’s birth dates matched, Old Madam Ren was even more pleased because when their birth charts were combined, it showed a perfect marriage, a match made in heaven.

Therefore, the Ren family quickly agreed to the Lei family’s proposal.

Ren Yaohua, one of the parties involved, was bewildered by the succession of news.

When she first learned that the Lei family had gone to the Ren family to propose marriage, Ren Yaohua was as surprised as everyone else. She wondered why Lei Ting would want to marry her when none of her encounters with him had left a good impression.

Later, Ren Yaohua inevitably thought about how Lei Ting had held her while riding, carried her into the farmhouse, and bandaged her wounds last time. She wondered if Lei Ting was marrying her because of this incident. He was an upright and gentlemanly man, so it must be for this reason, right?

Somehow, Ren Yaohua suddenly became unhappy again.

Later, when Li Shi learned that Old Madam Ren wanted to match Ren Yaohua and Lei Ting’s birth dates, Ren Yaohua became nervous again after finding out. She had already suffered several setbacks in marriage matters. Originally, she felt she could accept whatever fate decreed, but at this moment, she unconsciously began to care.

When the results came out, even Li Shi was overjoyed, and her last bit of concern disappeared. Compared to her daughter’s safety and happiness, whether it was a second marriage or not wasn’t so important.

And Ren Yaohua herself secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

During this period, Ren Yaoqi had been watching Ren Yaohua closely. She thought that if Ren Yaohua showed even the slightest unwillingness to marry Lei Ting, she might try to sabotage the match. Ren Yaohua’s tragic marriage in her previous life had always been a major knot in Ren Yaoqi’s heart, so she hoped more than anyone that Ren Yaohua could marry a good man and be happy.

However, although Ren Yaohua seemed somewhat awkward and conflicted these past few days, she showed no trace of aversion to Lei Ting or this marriage. Ren Yaoqi even felt that Ren Yaohua’s awkwardness and conflict stemmed from caring about this marriage.

After the marriage was finally settled, Li Shi began preparing Ren Yaohua’s dowry.

Old Madam Ren also sent someone to Yunyang City to bring Ren Yaohua back to Baihe Town, saying there were matters to discuss.