Chapter 668: Heartless (2)

“Get out of here! Miss Yuan, go back to your room and prepare for your marriage. If you dare to plot anything else, I’ll destroy you myself!”

Chu Yuan collapsed onto the chaise, her eyes bloodshot from her own rage, “Father, I’ll never marry that idiot! Even if I have to die!”

“Hmph! That’s not up to you! Servants! Send your young miss back to her room! If anything happens to Eighth Miss, all of you had better prepare for death!” Chu Qizheng was especially ferocious today. Even Second Madam had been scared into trembling, let alone the servants at the side.

Miss Yuan screamed and struggled, to no avail. Two strong menial servants stuffed a handkerchief in her mouth and tied up her limbs, and she was quickly carted away.

It wasn’t until Chu Yuan’s muffled shouts could no longer be heard that Second Madam seemed to rouse herself, as if awakening from a dream. She was helped off the floor by a maidservant.

She walked over to Chu Qizheng and stared up at him, “Chu Qizheng! Yuan’er is our only daughter! How could you treat her this way?! Is your official position more important than your own flesh and blood?”

Chu Qizheng let out a mocking snort. He threw the letter in his hands onto Second Madam’s face. “Position? Is this the official position you’re talking about?!”

Second Madam didn’t understand. She bore with the humiliation and picked up the letter from the ground. She opened it and read it, only to be hit by a bolt from the blue!

It wasn’t just a letter. It was an official document of dismissal.

The second branch had lost everything today!

Second Madam had already reached her limits today. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she slipped into a dead faint.

Luckily, the maidservant next to her reacted fast enough to catch her, otherwise she would have hit her head on the floor.

Thus, when Second Madam woke up again, she never said a word about rejecting her daughter’s engagement.

All that the impoverished second branch could count on was Chu Yuan’s marriage now.

Sometimes, when faced with a cruel reality, one just had to make some ‘sacrifices’.

Right now, it had become time for Miss Yuan to make the sacrifice.

Chu Qizheng still didn’t understand why he had suddenly been fired out of the blue. The couple of the second branch sat on two sides of the chaise with gloomy faces.

Chu Qizheng suddenly asked, “How much is left of Madam Ye’s money?”

Second Madam was startled by his abrupt question. She waved her trusted handmaid over and told her to retrieve the account books. After reading them over, she said, “Excluding storefronts and farms, there’s still five thousand taels in cash.”

“Give it all to me.”

Second Madam gaped in surprise, “All of it?”

That was five thousand taels they were talking about! It wasn’t a small sum.

Chu Qizheng’s heavy gaze swept over Second Madam.

She quickly sprang up and went to retrieve an exquisite peach wood chest. She took out two silver keys from her purse and opened the chest, before pulling out a whole stack of banknotes from within and passing it to Chu Qizheng.

Second Madam kept staring at the thick stack of notes with heartache.

Chu Qizheng sneered, “What are you looking at? These never belonged to you in the first place.”

Second Madam stiffened up from his words and shifted her gaze away, hands clenched into fists on her lap.

“Stay here and make sure you keep a watch on Miss Yuan. If I don’t succeed on my mission, then Miss Yuan’s only fate is to become a Royal Princess. Otherwise, we’ll end just like my Fifth Brother.”

House Ying had many legitimate children, and even more illegitimate ones.

Although Chu Qizheng’s fifth brother was a legitimate son, his personality had been more naive. He hadn’t been much in favour with his parents, and he had married a wife with an unassuming background, so the other branches of the family had stabbed him in the back one day.

When Second Madam heard her husband mention Fifth Brother, her hands shook and she agreed.

Chu Qizheng gripped the stack of banknotes in his hand tightly and chuckled grimly in his heart.

At least that Ye Xun was still of use even now.

Actually, the reason the second branch had been able to live so well hadn’t been due to Old Duchess Ying’s care. Instead, it was all thanks to the riches that Ye Xun had left behind.

Back then, Ye Xun had left this inheritance to someone she trusted, thinking to pass it down for Chu Lian.

Unfortunately, Chu Qizheng had found out about the inheritance. He had schemed to pick off all of Ye Xun’s trusted subordinates and taken the treasure for himself. If not for fear of someone in the shadows still looking over Chu Lian, he would likely have offed Chu Lian together with them as well.

Chu Yuan was being watched over in her room. By now, her tears had already dried up, leaving behind only a deep hatred.

The corners of her mouth curved up into a self-deprecating smile.

Heh, didn’t everyone in the estate want her to marry that royal prince and become a royal princess? Well, she wasn’t going to let them have their way!

If they didn’t care whether she lived or not, then why should she care about their survival? action

Chu Lian quickly found out about the engagement that the emperor had bestowed upon Miss Yuan.

This action made her even more befuddled.

Was court getting boring lately? Was the emperor too free? Why did he have the time to think about bestowing a marriage upon a lady of House Ying?

While she couldn’t say that there were more than ten ladies of marriageable age in House Ying, there had to be at least five or sixt of them.

Even if the emperor felt like bestowing a marriage, he could have gone by seniority instead. There was still Miss Su looking for a partner before Miss Yuan!

Furthermore, he had betrothed Miss Yuan to Royal Prince Shou...

Chu Lian was close to Princess Wei, so she knew a little more about the imperial family. Royal Prince Shou had been born with cerebral palsy, so his thoughts were about the same level as a three-year-old child. Furthermore, he had a violent temper. Quite a few of the maidservants in his courtyard had already passed away...

If Miss Yuan were really to marry him, her own safety couldn’t be guaranteed.

Was this really the emperor showing favour to House Ying, and not trying to send her half-sister to death?

Well, since the emperor had bestowed this marriage, as her older sister, she had to send a gift of some sort to the Ying Estate.