ALL NOVEL Chapter 54 - Uncle's Teachings (1)
Chapter 54: Uncle’s Teachings (1)
Translator: Night Fury
“Welcome, Your Highnesses.”
As soon as Ye Li and Mo Xiu Yao walked out of the separate room accompanied by the shopkeeper, they heard what the doorman said with respect. The shopkeeper was stupefied for a second, hurriedly apologized to them and went to the front door. The two people by the door who just got in saw them as well. Princess Royal Zhaoyang was stunned and burst out with a loud cry: “Xiu Yao?” Mo Xiu Yao who was walking in a fast pace stopped a few steps away from them. Princess Royal Zhaoyang said softly: “Xiu Yao, are you out shopping with Miss Ye?” Mo Xiu Yao’s eyes shifted slightly. He nodded and said: “Yes. I haven’t seen you for years, Princess Royal.” There was a trace of sorrow on Princess Royal Zhaoyang’s face. She nodded and said: “That’s right. Now you… I’m happy to see that you are alright. After you two get married, Miss Ye could stop by my Manor when you are free, to keep an Old Lady like me company.”
Ye Li nodded slightly with a faint smile: “Thank you for your kindness, Princess Royal. I will certainly visit you after our wedding.”
Princess Royal Zhaoyang sighed slightly and took Ye Li’s hand and said: “Though this is only the second time we meet, back when I was young, I had a quite friendly relation with your mother. Miss Ye, see what else you want and take it as a gift from me. Ye Li didn’t have a choice. When she was about to refuse, Mo Xiu Yao started speaking one step ahead of her: “Aunt Zhaoyang, you’re scaring her. We have something else to attend to and we will leave first. Aren’t Princesses Zhaoren with you? We wouldn’t want to spoil her day.
The luxuriously dressed beautiful woman who was left out in the cold was precisely Princesses Zhaoren that they met at Mo Jing Li’s wedding sometime ago. Having heard what Mo Xiu Yao said, she gave a light snort. Princess Royal Zhaoyang frowned and sighed: “Alright then. Miss Ye if you have any need just send someone right to my Manor.” Ye Li thanked her in a soft voice then went out of Fenghua Building with Mo Xiu Yao.
When they got in the carriage, Ye Li sensed that Mo Xiu Yao was clearly disturbed. She didn’t say anything, grabbed a book that was in the carriage and started to read. Just that recalling Princess Royal Zhaoyang’s words and expressions gave her a indescribable strange feeling. She felt that Princess Royal’s attitude was similar to that of Han Ming Yue. It seemed that she wanted to get closer to him but out of some reason unknown to Ye Li, she had to keep her distance. There were an indistinct guilt as well as an intention to make up for Mo Xiu Yao on her look. But it was obvious that Mo Xiu Yao wasn’t willing to accept that kind of compensation, therefore they turned to her on their own wistful thinking, for instance the notes from Han Ming Yue and Princess Royal Zhaoyang’s attitude. So what on earth did those two do to Mo Xiu Yao?
“Sorry, Ah Li.” In the carriage, Mo Xiu Yao said softly, a little apologetically. Ye Li raised her eyebrows in wonder. Mo Xiu Yao had no choice but to laugh: “I was going to bring you out and to raise your spirits…” Only by then did Ye Li realize that this man was apologizing to her for his bad mood? But one couldn’t help with their spirits when they had bumped into somebody they didn’t like. Or was she acting like a spoiled little girl that he thought he needed to apologize?
“It’s nothing, really. Let’s head back since you are not in a good mood. We can do this when you feel better.” To be honest, she didn’t have the mood to go around with a man in low spirits. She was not the type of person who was good at comforting others. Given the time, she would rather do something else. After what happened yesterday, she found that she had a lot to do actually.
Mo Xiu Yao was silent for a moment. He nodded and said: “I’ll take you back.”
Ye Li nodded and told Ah Jin, who was driving the carriage outside. Then the carriage headed towards Minister’s Manor. Seeing that Ye Li was calm and relaxed, Mo Xiu Yao also eased up. He couldn’t help laughing: “Ah Li, it seems that you aren’t worry at all.” Ye Li shrugged her shoulders and said: “There’s nothing to worry about. But I guess Old Lady was worried to death.” If her engagement with Prince Ding was broken off, she was afraid that Old Lady would send her to be a nun in a nunnery. That would not only ruin the reputation of Ye Family, but also cost them a large amount of betrothal gift from Prince Ding’s Manor, which would make Old Lady and Wang-shi distressed for quite some time.
“Nothing bad will happen. Give it one or two days and all this will pass.”
Ye Li nodded and didn’t say anything. What if something really happened to her last night? She didn’t ask him that kind of question and Mo Xiu Yao didn’t bring that up either. They had a tacit understanding on this one. If something did happen to her, maybe Mo Xiu Yao would still cover that up and marry her. Maybe he would kill Han Ming Yue. Maybe she would kill Han Ming Yue herself, but she wouldn’t marry Mo Xiu Yao any more. Who on earth was behind all that? Mo Xiu Yao wasn’t going to tell her and she wasn’t going to ask him. They were going to spend the rest of their life together but they didn’t intend to consider each other as their dearest other half. Just like Ye Li would never put Mo Xiu Yao before her relatives. There must have been someone else that was more important to Mo Xiu Yao as well.
When they reached Ye Manor, seeing Ye Li walk into the gate, Mo Xiu Yao then lowered the curtain and said to Ah Jin: “Let’s go.”
Ah Jin saw the gate slowly closing up in silence, hesitated and asked in a low voice: “Your Highness, why didn’t you tell Miss Ye…”
“Ah Jin, Let’s go.”
“…Yes, Your Highness.”
–That was not a misunderstanding. That was an dividing line, which was worse than misunderstanding. Ah Yao, you are in trouble. –
As soon as Ye Li passed the gate, Qing Xia and Qing Shuang, who was already waiting there for quite some time, came up to her and reported that her uncles were here and were waiting to see her. Ye Li was puzzled, “First uncle or second uncle?” She just got back from Xu Manor this morning. There was no way that something bad happened again.
Qing Shuang said: “Both of them are here. They are talking with Old Lady at Rongle Hall.”
Ye Li saw her clothes and sighed: “Well, let’s go right there.”
Getting into Rongle Hall, she saw her two uncles sitting there drinking tea, as expected. Old Lady, Minister Ye as well as Wang-shi was sitting there with them and they looked somewhat strange. Seeing Ye Li get in, Old Lady Ye finally had a sigh of relief and smiled at Ye Li: “Li-er, your uncles are here to see you. Why did you go out? Come here and greet them.” Ye Li did as she bid and went up to greet her uncles. Xu Hong Yu waved his hand and said: “It’s ok. Li-er just got back from Xu Manor. There’s no reason for us to see her specially.” Xu Hong Yan nodded and said, his face dark: “That’s right. At first, we took Li-er to our Manor since we had something to tell her. We never expected what happened last night would have happened. Come to think about it, it was quite thoughtless for us to do that.”
Old Lady Ye and Minister Ye looked face to face awkwardly. Though Xu Hong Yan was talking about what Xu Family did wrong, there was no way for Old Lady Ye and Minister Ye to ignore their accusation towards Ye Family. After the rumor went around, Ye Family did nothing, not even sending someone to Xu Family and asking about it. That did disappoint Xu Family bitterly. However, seeing the tall and graceful girl that stood before her, Old Lady Ye still couldn’t make up her mind. She was not sure whether Ye Li really went to Xu Manor or was kidnapped by bandits as the rumor claimed. If something bad really happened, then…
Xu Hong Yan looked at Old Lady Ye and Minister Ye, and snorted in contempt. Xu Hong Yu, who was sitting beside him gave him a look and turned to Ye Li: “I heard that Li-er went out with Miss Hua and Miss Qin, didn’t you? But when I was on my way here, I heard that the daughter of General Murong was asking those two girls to cause trouble for the second son of Leng Family. Did you go with them and make trouble as well?” Ye Li didn’t thought that Murong Ting was causing a scene and shook her head hastily: “I went to Fenghua Building with Prince Ding and ran into Princess Royal Zhaoyang as well as Princess Zhaoren. After that, I went straight back home. It’s my fault to keep uncles waiting.”
“Well? You went to Fenghua Building with Prince Ding, then. It doesn’t matter. It’s good for you young people to go around.” Xu Hong Yu was clearly satisfied with Ye Li’s answer. Xu Hong Yan nodded as well, then he complained: “Your aunt often reminds Qing Ze to take Miss Qin around the capital. However, he’s a total stump of elm, as if one more word from his mouth would kill him!” Ye Li recalled the cold face of Xu Qing Ze and couldn’t help smiling. Zheng-er was definitely the most gentle and pleasant girl among them, only that she had a fiancé with a cold and reserved disposition. Zheng-er had been in the capital for quite some time now. However, the two of them hadn’t officially met each other except that one time that second aunt send Qing Ze to give Qin Family presents.
Not caring the quietly changing looks on the faces of Old Lady Ye and Minister Ye, Xu Hong Yu turned to Minister Ye and said: “I had something to tell Li-er in private. I wonder…”Minister Ye always feared this brother-in-law, he couldn’t refuse him since he asked. Minister Ye said hurriedly: “Then, Li-er, you take first brother and second brother to your yard and have a chat. Later, I will prepare a banquet. I hope two brothers will do me the honor and join the banquet.” Xu Hong Yan stood up and said coolly: “First brother had a previous appointment with Mr. Su to play several rounds of go. Excuse us from the banquet.” Seeing the cool looks of Xu Hong Yu, Minister Ye had no choice but to give it up and let Ye Li and her two uncles to speak in private. Old Lady Ye gave Minister Ye a discontented glare seeing that he was so useless. However, since the current leader of Xu Family had a large amount of power and influence, she couldn’t do anything else.
When they were back in Qingyi Pavilion, Xu Hong Yan looked the interior and exterior design of the pavilion up and down, nodded in satisfaction, went outside and left to let his brother and niece talk.