Fu Ruoxi’s wife, Lady Luo, was truly grieving over her mother-in-law’s passing.

But she didn’t know how to be as strong as her mother-in-law had been, to support this family. Her heart was filled with sorrow.

At this moment, Lady Luo could only kneel in the mourning hall because she was forcing herself to persevere for the sake of her two children.

Bai Qingyan wondered if Old Madam Fu’s spirit in heaven could see this scene, how heartbroken she would be.

She was also grateful that after the Bai family’s troubles, the entire household had united as one, which allowed them to weather the great disaster together.

Song Shi had received her husband, Dong Qingping’s, instructions that she must invite Bai Qingyan to the Dong mansion today. So right after leaving the Fu family, Song Shi invited Second Madam Liu Shi, Bai Qingyan, and Seventh Miss Bai Jinse to visit the Dong mansion.

Liu Shi, considering that Bai Qingyan hadn’t seen her uncle for too long, agreed and said with a smile that they would impose upon their hospitality.

Song Shi took Bai Qingyan into a carriage with her, telling Bai Qingyan that Dong Qingping wanted her to come to the mansion because he had important matters to discuss with her. She then asked about Dong Changlan’s funeral, the great battle at Dengzhou, and Old Madam Dong’s health. Finally, she asked whether her own biological daughter Dong Tingzhen, who was in Shaoyang, had caused Bai Qingyan any trouble.

“Aunt, please rest assured. Tingzhen has always been sensible, and with Tingzhen’s company, my mother is in good spirits every day. So I wanted to ask uncle and aunt again if Tingzhen could stay a little longer,” Bai Qingyan said with a smile.

“Good! All good! With Tingzhen by your mother’s side, I’m very reassured! As long as she doesn’t cause you trouble…” Song Shi gently stroked Bai Qingyan’s jade-like, slender hand, feeling the thick calluses on Bai Qingyan’s palm, and couldn’t help but feel heartache.

But Song Shi knew that the Bai family now depended on Bai Qingyan for support. Comforting but useless words like telling Bai Qingyan to rest, she didn’t say out loud. She only gently patted the back of Bai Qingyan’s hand.

“Aunt, regarding Tingfang’s matter… is there some misunderstanding?” Bai Qingyan asked tentatively.

“Everyone says the Dong family’s concubine-born daughter is deeply scheming. Though Tingfang didn’t grow up at my knee, she is indeed thoughtful, but she would never dare do such a thing. Madam Fu’s maternal niece has always been close to Tingfang. She was unwilling to marry the Fu family main branch’s legitimate son, which led to this situation!” Song Shi felt uncomfortable just thinking about this matter. “Now it’s turned out that our family’s girl is the one without shame! A few days ago, Tingfang went to a chrysanthemum banquet and was mocked and ridiculed. Even Tinglan was treated coldly because of it. Fortunately, Tinglan is still young—she cried when she came home that day, but forgot about it the next day…”

Dong Tingfang wasn’t born from Song Shi’s womb, but as the legitimate mother, Song Shi was quite kind and had never used any underhanded methods to torment the concubine-born daughter.

What truly made Song Shi angry and heartbroken was that her legitimate daughters, Dong Tingzhen and Dong Tinglan, would both be implicated by this matter. When arranging marriages in the future, people would certainly bring up this incident, which made Song Shi so angry she didn’t know how many handkerchiefs she had torn. But with Dong Tingfang threatening suicide, she couldn’t punish her severely.

“Aunt, has Tingfang always been unwilling to marry, or did she only become unwilling after the Fu family’s troubles?” Bai Qingyan asked.

Bai Qingyan was pondering whether Dong Tingfang and the Fu family main branch’s legitimate son had been set up, or if Dong Tingfang had gone along with the flow…

She needed to understand what Dong Tingfang truly thought in her heart before knowing how to handle this matter appropriately.

Now that the Dengzhou Dong family, from grandmother down to Changlan and Changmao, were all planning for the future overall situation, Bai Qingyan was also willing to do everything in her power… to solve the Dong family’s troubles.

If Dong Tingfang truly would marry no one but the Fu family main branch’s legitimate son, Bai Qingyan was also willing to speak up before the Crown Prince to protect the Fu family main branch, giving them enough face so that Dong Tingfang would have more confidence when she married over. If the daughter lived well… uncle could be more at ease.

When Bai Qingyan said this, Song Shi understood her meaning. She squeezed Bai Qingyan’s hand and shook her head: “If Tingfang is to marry over, she cannot have been unwilling to marry from beginning to end! If the Dong family wants to avoid being talked about behind their backs, Tingfang cannot want to marry!”

Bai Qingyan nodded. So, Aunt understood everything in her heart, but… wanting to find ways to preserve the Dong family’s dignity, she was even convincing herself to believe that Dong Tingfang had been set up.

So now, with the Fu family in trouble… Dong Tingfang probably didn’t want to marry into the Fu family’s main branch anymore.

“Since uncle and aunt have a plan in mind, I won’t say more,” Bai Qingyan smiled at Song Shi.

Song Shi nodded: “Your uncle’s meaning is that since we’ve already become engaged to the Fu family main branch, we cannot break the engagement when the Fu family is in trouble. Only this way can we restore the reputation of the Dong family daughters, so that your sisters Tingzhen and Tinglan won’t be affected when arranging their marriages in the future. Naturally… if the Fu family main branch is also implicated this time, as long as the person lives… the engagement remains. If the person doesn’t survive, ending the engagement won’t give others a reason to criticize the Dong family. It all depends on the Fu family’s main branch’s fate!”

Song Shi was essentially laying her cards on the table with Bai Qingyan. Dong Qingping and Song Shi already had their response ready, and were also hinting to Bai Qingyan that she needn’t truly plead with the Crown Prince for the Dong family’s sake.

Dong Tingfang had chosen her path and would have to walk it herself, just like Dong Tingzhen before… If she truly wanted to be with Prince Liang, the Dong family would treat her as if they had never had such a daughter. Even legitimate daughters were treated this way, let alone concubine-born daughters.

Regarding the Dengzhou matter, since uncle Dong Qingyue and grandmother Old Madam Dong hadn’t explicitly told eldest uncle Dong Qingping in their letters that Changlan wasn’t dead, Bai Qingyan didn’t mention it either.

·

Upon arriving at the Dong mansion, Dong Qingping had someone invite Bai Qingyan to the study to accompany him in playing chess and asked about the Dengzhou situation.

Because of his nephew Dong Changlan’s sudden death, Dong Qingping had gained some silver threads at his temples. After placing a chess piece, he said: “When we received news that Changlan had an accident, your grandmother instructed us in her letter not to return, saying she feared Changyuan would find out and it would affect his spring examinations next year.”

After the Dengzhou battle report arrived, Dong Qingping had confined Dong Changyuan at home and forbade him from going out, making him study hard… He had also ordered all the servants to keep their mouths shut and no one was allowed to tell Dong Changyuan about the Dengzhou affair, so Dong Changyuan was still kept in the dark.

“Uncle, Changlan’s wife, Sister Rong, is already pregnant. Uncle needn’t grieve too much,” Bai Qingyan said as she lowered her eyes and placed a piece.

Dong Qingping’s gaze fell on his personal attendant outside the door, instructing him to go change the hot tea.

After the person left, Dong Qingping lowered his voice and said to Bai Qingyan: “I heard from the Minister of Personnel that before the Emperor fell from his horse and lost consciousness, he had secretly discussed with him his intention to use Left Chancellor Li Mao’s alleged conspiracy with the Second Prince as an excuse to abolish the positions of Left and Right Chancellor, promote Chancellor Lu to Crown Prince’s Grand Tutor, and follow Wei’s example by establishing a cabinet to strengthen centralized and imperial power. Later, Li Mao’s letter was proven to be forged, but… the Emperor never allowed Li Mao to return to court. Later… the Emperor’s fall from his horse occurred.”

Bai Qingyan raised an eyebrow, not having expected that the Emperor, who was obsessed with elixirs and women, would still have the mind to attend to serious business.