Chapter 369 – The Betrothal Gift, Those Hairpins
Although it had happened a long time ago, the past events had slowly appeared in the Madam Dowager’s memory because of these materials in front of her.
The engagement between the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang and Grand Preceptor Tu Mansion was something that was beneficial to both mansions, so she requested on behalf of her eldest son to marry the Second Young Lady, who was Grand Preceptor Tu’s biological daughter.
The Tu Family’s daughter was famous all over the world. The outstanding ladies from the other branches of the Tu Family would also be included in the main branch. However, Second Miss Tu was Grand Preceptor Tu’s biological daughter, which made her special from other daughters. Marrying her was equivalent to obtaining Grand Preceptor Tu’s support.
Since this daughter was different from the other Tu Family’s daughters, marrying her would naturally require more effort. The Madam Dowager also racked her brains for this, fearing that this Tu Family’s Second Young Lady, who allegedly was said to be proud and lofty, would despise Wei Luowen.
After all, there was such a ferocious scar on Wei Luowen’s face. Many timid women did not even dare to look at his face.
Unexpectedly, the marriage proposal went very smoothly. Grand Preceptor Tu Mansion immediately agreed to the proposal because Wei Luowen had once rescued Second Miss Tu when she encountered danger. Therefore, when she heard that the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang came up to ask for her hand, she immediately agreed.
This matter went very smoothly, and it eventually came to the step of exchanging birth horoscopes, and the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang had sent over the official written marriage proposal. At that time, the Madam Dowager even deliberately delivered a few bright pieces of fabric. Those pieces of fabric did not seem to belong to Central Plains. They were obtained by Wei Luowen by chance, and they looked different from the local fabrics.
Among all kinds of exquisite flowers, there were also some small red flowers embroidered on the fabrics. The flowers were bright and different, and they made the fabrics even more outstanding. Therefore, the Madam Dowager sent them to Grand Preceptor Tu Mansion along with the official written marriage proposal.
In return, Grand Preceptor Tu Mansion sent Second Miss Tu’s birth horoscope and betrothal letter over. There was also a pair of hairpins. One was big and the other was small. They were not ordinary gold hairpins, but they were very rare wood carving products. However, the degree of delicateness and elegance was far beyond that of gold and diamond hairpins.
The Madam Dowager remembered that she had sighed in awe at that time. Grand Preceptor Tu Mansion was really awesomely powerful. Otherwise, how could he have obtained such exquisite hairpins?
Originally, after the two families finished this process, they were going to go through the process of exchanging betrothal gifts in an official manner. It was exactly at this moment that Qin Xinrui entered the capital, and Wei Luowen fell in love with her, so much so that he wanted to break off the engagement with Second Miss Tu.
Because of this, the marriage between the two families was delayed. After hearing that there was a change in the marriage, Second Miss Tu was rumored to go to meet Wei Luowen in the middle of the night. Then, it was said that they had an awful argument, and consequently, the engagement was called off.
In order to protect his daughter, Grand Preceptor Tu ranked a sick woman into the main branch, making her Second Miss Tu. As a result, the original Second Miss Tu became Third Miss Tu, who later participated in the nationwide selection and entered the Palace. Later, she was selected to be a Princess Consort, and eventually became Empress.
The Madam Dowager felt guilty toward Grand Preceptor Tu, so she tacitly agreed with Grand Preceptor Tu’s way of doing things and even executed some of her own most trusted servants. The two families had not completely publicized the marriage, so not many people in the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang knew about the truth. Only a few of the Madam Dowager’s most trusted servants knew that the bride was supposed to be Second Miss Tu.
Later, the alleged Second Miss Tu was very weak, and she died a silent death without marrying anyone in the end.
In this case, the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang owed Grand Preceptor Tu Mansion a life. This was also the reason why there were some things that the Madam Dowager could not say when Ninth Miss Tu came to the mansion that day.
Although the cancelation of the engagement was secretly carried out by the two families, both families kept their mouths shut in order to protect Empress Tu’s reputation. In the end, they didn’t even return the betrothal gifts to each other.
Everyone silently agreed that this matter was over and should let the dust settle.
Therefore, the two hairpins were left at the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang. When they prepared the betrothal gifts to Qin Xinrui, the Madam Dowager specially asked someone to send the bigger hairpin to the Qin Mansion as a part of the betrothal gifts, and she gave the smaller one to Wei Luowen. This was how the Madam Dowager expressed her dissatisfaction with this marriage.
A daughter of a small aristocratic family from a small place was no match to the daughter of the renowned Tu Family, not to mention the biological daughter of Grand Preceptor Tu, whose identity was noble beyond description!
And now, the Madam Dowager saw such color and pattern again…
“Grandmother, I don’t know why the Empress is so angry when she saw the clothes with such patterns. Oh yes, and there is also the hairpin that Concubine Dong gave me before. Fourth Elder Sister borrowed it from me and wore it, and the Empress reprimanded her too!” Wei Yuewu looked at the Madam Dowager in puzzlement.
“Hairpin? What hairpin?” The Madam Dowager asked coldly.
“Grandmother… I-It’s not necessary about the hairpin, right?” Wei Qiufu stammered, feeling that Wei Yuewu was trying to imply something in her words, but she had no way to refute her.
“Take it out!” The Madam Dowager shouted.
“Grandmother, I have given it to the Third Princess. It’s a gorgeous and unique wooden hairpin. I heard that it was a betrothal gift from my father to my mother. I don’t know why it fell into Concubine Dong’s hands. After Concubine Dong returned to the mansion, she gave it to me. I heard that Third Elder Sister has a smaller one,” Wei Yuewu cut in and answered softly.
This was clearly one of the two hairpins from back then, the one that she had sent people to deliver as a betrothal gift to the Qin Mansion. For a moment, the Madam Dowager was exasperating. She propped herself up with her hand and shouted sternly, “Maid, bring Concubine Dong here at once!”
“Yes!” Seeing that the Madam Dowager was so angry, a maid immediately responded and rushed out.
The Madam Dowager took two deep breaths in fury. With Nanny Hong’s support, she sat down again and snapped angrily, “Why did the young ladies say that you two were at odds with each other and that Qiufu destroyed Yuewu’s clothes?”
The series of unpleasant events drove the Madam Dowager up the wall. For many years, she consciously felt that she had everything under control as she took control of the management of the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang. Unexpectedly, someone dared to exploit this past incident under her eyes.
If this matter was blown up, the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang would definitely be dragged into this mess!
Grand Preceptor Tu, on the other hand, had already had a perfect way to deal with this matter due to the death of the so-called Second Miss Tu. Others would even blame the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang for being heartless and irresponsible and subsequently causing a weak woman to die in despair.
“Grandmother, I didn’t destroy Sixth Younger Sister’s clothes!” Wei Qiufu was so angry that she wanted to vomit blood. All she did was send those two clothes to her, and she was totally unaware of the matter of the ruined clothes. If Wei Yuewu brought up the matter of the two clothes, she would have an answer for them. It would be hard to verify the authenticity of their answers since there were only four of them present at that time.
She could just deny it and insist that she didn’t know anything about it!
However, she didn’t expect that Wei Yuewu didn’t mention anything about the two clothes, and the worst part was that those clothes were found in her room. Because of this, she couldn’t say that she had given the clothes to Wei Yuewu before.
Wei Qiufu felt that she had become a scapegoat of some kind. Fortunately, the Third Princess vouched for her, and she could claim that she was a victim of someone’s scheme.
However, eventually, she was to be blamed for Wei Yuewu’s ruined clothes. Wei Qiufu had never been wronged like this before, and it made her blood boil.
“Grandmother, the clothes had always been in the room. The place where Fourth Elder Sister and I live was quite a distance from the other young ladies, so they had almost never come to our place. The only person who came was Miss Zhao, but she came to talk about the clothes. When she left, all of my clothes were well and intact.”
Wei Yuewu recounted without haste.
It meant that no one but Wei Qiufu came to Wei Yuewu’s room. Moreover, others might not know about the relationship between Wei Qiufu and Wei Yuewu, but the Madam Dowager knew. She had already heard that Wei Qiufu had framed Wei Yuewu during the Plum Blossom Nunnery incident, but she chose to turn a blind eye to her since the Crown Prince took a fancy to her.
However, the Madam Dowager did not expect that Wei Qiufu would do something like this again in the Palace. The Madam Dowager was so angry that her eyes were red, and she felt more and more disappointed when she looked at Wei Qiufu.
It was normal for two sisters of aristocratic families to have some quarrels and were jealous of each other, but it was unforgivable that they created such a big mess because of their personal feud. The Empress was saving the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang’s reputation by not specifying any conviction or punishment to the girls.
However, the Madam Dowager was convinced that Wei Qiufu had secretly harmed Wei Yuewu. Compared with Wei Yuewu who had just entered the capital and did not know anything, Wei Qiufu knew too much.
“Grandmother, I did not!” Judging from the Madam Dowager’s furious glare, Wei Qiufu knew that the table had turned, so she quickly explained, “I didn’t! I… Oh right! There was a fire in our place. Maybe someone took advantage of the fire to enter Sixth Younger Sister’s room and destroyed her clothes.”
At this time, she was anxious. She suddenly remembered the fire and immediately pointed it out.
“Was there a fire in the Palace?” The Madam Dowager frowned and asked.
“Yes, there was! For some reason, there were a lot of withered branches and leaves in my patio, and they suddenly caught fire. At that time, Sixth Younger Sister and I were both out of the house.” At this time, Wei Qiufu seemed to clutch the straw and shrieked in a hurry.
The Madam Dowager looked hesitant.
“Fourth Elder Sister, do you really think someone could pick out the specific clothes from the pile of clothes to stain and cut them in such a short time?” Wei Yuewu sighed softly, and her face showed a faint sneer.
The remark rendered Wei Qiufu speechless, and her expression immediately stiffened.
Time. Yes, time! She did not consider the time. In such a short period of time, she only cared about taking out the package.
“After that… Zhaoyi Tu called the two of us over…” Wei Qiufu was unconvinced. “At that time, there was no one in our rooms.”
“What do you want to say, Fourth Elder Sister?” Wei Yuewu asked in astonishment. “Are you implying that Zhaoyi Tu wants to sow discord between us sisters?”
“Shut up!” At this time, the Madam Dowager had a rough understanding. Seeing that the two of them were talking more and more outrageously, she couldn’t help but angrily shout with a gloomy face, “Go back to your room at once! I’ll see what I’ll do to you after I investigate this matter thoroughly!”
After saying that, she waved her hand helplessly, indicating for them to leave.
The Madam Dowager gave the order for them to leave, and the two of them didn’t dare to stay any longer. They respectfully bid farewell to the Madam Dowager and left with their maids.
When they reached the entrance of the courtyard, Wei Qiufu stopped and wanted to say something, but Wei Yuewu had already brushed past her and walked away, ignoring her blatantly.
Wei Qiufu could not hide the hatred in her eyes. She gritted her teeth and forced out a gentle smile on her face. With a somewhat stiff expression, she turned and walked towards her own courtyard.
When she gained the upper hand in the future, she would definitely not spare this little bitch!
Wei Yuewu was not in the mood to speak to Wei Qiufu, but at this moment, she bumped into Concubine Dong on the way…
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