On the other side, Xue Zhao pushed the wheelchair into the room, and Xue Huaiyuan also appeared sowhat unable to snap back to reality. Seeing him like this, Xue Zhao imdiately knew that Xue Huaiyuan had also been inford of the matter. He closed the door, pushed the wheelchair to Xue Huaiyuan, and asked tentatively, "Father?"
Xue Huaiyuan’s gaze slowly shifted to him.
"Do you know about the arranged marriage for sister?" Xue Zhao asked.
Xue Huaiyuan remained silent. His reaction wasn’t as shocked as Ye Mingyu’s, but this did not an his heart was undisturbed. After a while, he said, "After knowing that Ah Li had beco the daughter of the Jiang family, there has been one thing I’ve constantly been worried about. I feared that after, the decisions regarding her marriage would neither be in my control nor hers, ultimately leading her to an unworthy match. But I also had it figured out: if that day really ca, I would take you siblings and leave Yanjing. The world is vast; there would always be a place to hide, and if worst ca to worst, we could live incognito for a lifeti in comfort."
Xue Zhao quietly listened as Xue Huaiyuan continued speaking.
"But I did not expect that in this matter, I would be even more helpless than I imagined. Your sister is commanded by imperial edict, and under the vast heavens, all land belongs to the king. Should it co to that, even if we fled to the ends of the earth, it would be of no use. Ah Zhao," Xue Huaiyuan asked, "what can be done now?"
This elderly man, who just a year ago was a decisive and just middle-aged man, had never been seen by Xue Zhao in such a state of vulnerability, but after so many events and experiencing the great tribulations of the world, although he still managed a smile, he was at his limit.
He cherished his daughter and didn’t want her to suffer, and yet, there was no other solution. Could there be anything more helpless than this in the world?
"Father, you’re overthinking it," Xue Zhao’s own heart couldn’t help but sour as he said, "You’ve forgotten what kind of person sister is. If she does not want to marry soone, she will not marry them no matter what. Moreover, after the incident with Shen Yurong, she will be even more cautious in this regard."
Xue Huaiyuan furrowed his brows. "What do you an by that?"
"Father, do you know who sister is getting married to?"
"It’s Duke Su. I’ve heard the rumors about him, but when I left Yanjing City, he wasn’t yet ntioned. Jinwu General indeed was a rare hero; what a pity. They say Jih Heng is capricious and ruthless, acting solely based on his preferences. How could I dare to entrust Ah Li to him?" Xue Huaiyuan sighed deeply.
"Father, we all thought highly of Shen Yurong back in the day. Even I believed he was incapable of violent actions and could do no wrong. But what happened in the end? How did that man treat sister and our Xue Family? People who are what they seem to be have indeed beco very rare these days, Father."
Xue Huaiyuan was no fool. With Xue Zhao hinting at this, he imdiately realized sothing and looked at Xue Zhao, "What? Do you know sothing about Jih Heng?"
"Do you rember sister’s ’friend’? The one who saved from the private prison of Princess Yongning’s Mansion, that’s Duke Su, Jih Heng."
Xue Huaiyuan was greatly surprised and said, "How can this be?"
"Not only that, as far as I know, Jih Heng also helped out when sister was handling Feng Yutang’s case on her return to Tongxiang of Xiangyang. It was Jih Heng who had Doctor Situ co to treat your illness. When Prince Cheng previously kidnapped sister to Huangzhou, it was Jih Heng who saved her. Most importantly, how did I co to recognize my sister? It was because one day she went to the Duke Residence, and it was there in the Duke Residence that she saw , enabling us to recognize each other. But, Father, think about it, why would sister go to the Duke Residence? This shows that she is at least no re acquaintance of Duke Su and has quite a good relationship with him."
It was the first ti Xue Huaiyuan heard these things, and he looked shocked. Xue Zhao had hinted before that Jiang Li had a ’friend’, and although Xue Huaiyuan had felt it strange, since Jiang Li did not wish to elaborate, he hadn’t pressed for more details. Now it appeared that this ’friend’ with a significant relationship to Jiang Li was none other than Duke Su, Jih Heng.
"Why... Why would he do these things?" Xue Huaiyuan asked.
"Father, regardless of his intentions, after helping us so much, we can’t be ungrateful and turn around to curse him as a demon. Others may say he is heartless, but in my eyes, he is a lifesaver," said Xue Zhao.
Xue Huaiyuan fell silent; he had never t Jih Heng, so he couldn’t tell if what Xue Zhao said was the truth.
"That day, when I saw sister at the Duke Residence, she recognized without avoiding Duke Su." Xue Zhao said, "This also proves that sister trusts Jih Heng enough to confide her identity to him. I thought that after the incident with Shen Yurong, sister wouldn’t easily trust anyone, so Jih Heng must have been tested and found to be trustworthy by sister."
"Did Ah Li really not avoid Jih Heng?"
"It’s true. So I think, while this arranged marriage might not seem like a good thing in the eyes of the world, for sister, it might not be a bad thing. Even considering Duke Su, the person who others claim is ruthless and rciless, he didn’t hesitate to go out of his way to do many things for sister. Perhaps there’s affection involved. Who knows..." Xue Zhao paused, then continued, "It’s possible that sister was aware of this arranged marriage when Duke Su asked for it."
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