After Being Betrothed to a Powerful Minister, I Found Him Mourning Me - Chapter 8
Chapter 8
The moment the floor tiles were pried up, Father finally lost his composure.
“Shen Zhaoning, have you lost your mind? This is the Shen Family Ancestral Hall!”
I looked at him.
“What is Father so anxious about? If our ancestors are innocent, they will naturally protect the Shen Family.”
Pei Yanzhi’s men moved quickly.
A few minutes later, an iron box was pulled from beneath the floor.
When the box was opened, inside were the Pass and Defense Documents, along with an old letter.
The letter had been written by my birth mother.
The handwriting was delicate and elegant, but there was no name signed at the end.
My hands trembled slightly as I unfolded it.
The letter said that in the early years, the Shen Family and the Empress’s Maternal Clan had smuggled ironware together. My birth mother had discovered the account books by accident and tried to take me away from the capital, only to be placed under house arrest by my father.
Later, during the autumn hunt, the Crown Prince met privately with the Xiling Envoy, and fourteen-year-old me stumbled upon half of an account book by sheer accident.
To save me, Liu Fuchun put on my cloak to draw away the pursuers and died on North Mountain.
And the reason I was able to return to the Shen Family alive was because someone had carried me on their back through the rain for an entire night.
The final line of the letter was very short.
If Zhaoning is still alive, I beg the one who finds this letter: do not let her enter the Shen Family again.
I stared at that line as my vision blurred little by little.
Ever since I was young, I had thought my birth mother was sickly and simply did not care about me.
So it turned out that, even until her death, she had been trying to find me a way out.
My stepmother suddenly lunged forward to snatch the letter.
Pei Yanzhi caught her wrist in one hand.
He did not use much force, yet pain twisted my stepmother’s entire face.
“Madam Shen.”
His voice was very calm.
“Touch her again, and I will make sure you have no further use for this hand.”
Father shouted in fury, “Pei Yanzhi! Don’t forget, this is Shen Manor!”
Pei Yanzhi lifted his eyes.
“When a manor is searched and seized, one usually enters through the front gates as well.”
The ancestral hall fell instantly silent.
All of a sudden, I felt that this man’s poisonous tongue was terribly useful.
Just then, someone outside announced loudly, “His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived!”
As if he had grasped a life-saving straw, Father immediately knelt to welcome him.
When the Crown Prince, Xiao Chengxuan, walked in, he looked at me first.
It was a light glance, but it chilled my back.
“Minister Pei, you are newly wed and should be enjoying your marriage. How did you end up causing a scene in your wife’s ancestral hall?”
Pei Yanzhi closed the documents.
“This subject accompanied my wife on her first visit home after the wedding and happened to dig up a few old things along the way.”
The Crown Prince smiled faintly.
“Old things only stir up sorrow. Why not hand them over to me for disposal?”
I could not help but speak. “Does Your Highness intend to dispose of the old things, or the old people?”
The Crown Prince looked at me.
“Third Miss Shen, you have quite some nerve.”
Pei Yanzhi took half a step forward, just enough to block me behind him.
“My wife has always had quite some nerve.”
It sounded like he was protecting me.
But I knew he was reminding the Crown Prince.
I was no longer that little girl from three years ago, someone who could be erased with a casual flick of the hand.
I was the wife of the Chief Grand Secretary.
The Crown Prince’s smile faded.
“Pei Yanzhi, are you truly going to overturn a case from three years ago for the sake of a woman?”
Pei Yanzhi said, “Not for anyone else.”
My heart gave a small, heavy drop.
In the next instant, he took hold of my wrist.
“For my wife.”
