Chapter 100: Blinded by Beauty

Chapter 100: Blinded by Beauty

At that moment, Liang's wife felt a profound sense of fear and helplessness. She and Tang Shuyi, being of similar age, had always been rivals. They competed in looks, clothes, jewelry, and accomplishments in arts and literature. Whatever could be contested, she vied with Tang Shuyi, yet it seemed she was always outmatched.

Later, her affections turned to Xiao Huai, but his heart belonged to Tang Shuyi. She had once witnessed a young Xiao Huai, braving heights on a tree to pluck the most beautiful flower for Tang Shuyi, nearly falling in the process. Yet, he persisted and presented the bloom to Tang Shuyi with a foolish grin.

Despite being bested repeatedly over the years, she never bore Tang Shuyi any resentment until that moment, when her hatred was kindled by the sight of Xiao Huai's undivided love for Tang Shuyi.

After their marriage, rumor had it that Xiao Huai's chamber was graced solely by Tang Shuyi, without even a concubine for company. Each whisper of their blissful union stoked her envy.

Eventually, she wed Liang Jian'an, but he brought home one concubine after another. Her protests were futile, and she even faced reprimand from the Imperial Consort in the palace, scolded for lacking the grace befitting a lady of her station.

"Ha-ha!"

Later on, she stopped caring how many concubines Liang Jian'an took; however, she began to speak ill of Xiao Huai in front of him, criticizing the faults of the Duke of Tang's household and inciting hostility between the Liang family and the Marquis of Yongning. At that time, she thought that with the imperial concubine backing the Liang family, Xiao Huai was nothing to fear.

But what she hadn't anticipated was that, time and again, the Second Prince clashed with Xiao Huai and never once came out victorious; Tang Shuyi remained the distinguished and respected Marchioness.

Later, when Xiao Huai died in battle, she thought she would be pleased, but in reality, she felt nothing of the sort; in fact, she even returned to her maiden home to weep bitterly. In the Liang household, she wouldn’t dare shed tears over Xiao Huai's death.

Although she wasn’t particularly glad about Xiao Huai's death, she was quite delighted that Tang Shuyi became a widow. Especially upon hearing that Xiao Huai's two concubines were sent back from the northwest, she reveled in joy for many days. She believed that from then on, she could mock Tang Shuyi and stand high above her.

However, their first conflict after Xiao Huai's death ended with her apologizing to Tang Shuyi. In this instance, her defeat was utterly complete.

Tang Shuyi was her nemesis.

Halting her steps to settle the score with Tang Shuyi, Madam Liang looked back at the white-haired Meng Hansheng and said, “Grandfather, what should we do? How should we proceed?”

Struggling, Meng Hansheng rose from the ground; the Second Prince’s kick had almost cost him his life.

Madam Liang stepped forward to help him sit down and said again, “Grandfather, please think of a solution.”

Liang Jian'an also looked at Meng Hansheng with hopeful eyes; now, he was the only one who could offer advice.

Meng Hansheng furrowed his brows and pondered for a moment before saying, “Even if this incident originated from the Marquis of Yongning's household, let's not direct our spearheads at them for now. The current key players are the Crown Prince and the Grand Tutor. We can deal with the Marquis of Yongning later.”

Both Liang Jian'an and Madam Liang clenched their teeth and nodded in agreement. Despite their reluctance, they understood the priorities at hand.

“I will go back immediately to gather dirt on the Grand Tutor and the Crown Prince, to see if I can coerce them,” Meng Hansheng said as he stood up and hurried home. Saving Liang Jian'an and the Second Prince was akin to saving himself; he had to fight tooth and nail.

Of course, when he left, he also took with him Meng Chengtian, who was almost reduced to a puddle on the ground.

“Did you provoke the Marquis of Yongning's household again? Otherwise, why would they suddenly target us?” After Meng Hansheng left, Madam Liang pointed at Liang Jian'an and questioned.

Liang Jian'an, whose anger had subsided considerably because of Meng Hansheng, felt his temper flare up again at her attitude.

He lifted his hand and, with a slap, pushed away Madam Liang's hand, saying, “Blaming me? Why don't you talk about how stupid your brother is, like a pig falling for such a simple trap?”

“How is my brother stupid? He has never seen Liu Biqin; how could he know she is Liu Yushan's daughter?” retorted Madam Liang.

Indeed, Meng Chentian was five or six years older than Liu Biqin, and since their families weren't close, he naturally had no chance to meet her before and therefore didn't recognize her.

"And then Xiao Yuming inexplicably challenged him to a fox hunting contest. It was clearly a trap, and yet he believed it," Liang Jianan said with disdain. "Also, the Yongning Marquis has a villa in the Western Hills. It's likely that Liu Biqin had been hidden there before. Didn't your pig-headed brother inquire about the owner of the villa before bringing her back to the capital?"

Madam Liang had nothing to say, only feeling resentful that her brother truly was a fool.

In fact, Meng Chentian did make some inquiries at the time. He was somewhat dubious about the sudden appearance of a beautiful woman in the desolate wilderness. However, distracted by the beauty, he didn't investigate thoroughly and only heard that the owner of the villa had the surname Guan. After considering his enemies and finding none with that surname, he let his guard down.

It can only be said that he was blinded by beauty.

"Let's not talk about my brother for now, what did you do to provoke the Yongning Marquis?" Madam Liang redirected the question.

This time, Liang Jianan didn't retort and began to frown, pondering over what he had recently done to the Yongning Marquis. Truth be told, he thought about how to deal with the Yongning Marquis almost every day and had cast many lines, but he really didn't know which one had taken effect.

After thinking for a while, he hesitantly said, "Could it be because I had Kong Wenzhe mention in front of Princess Changping the idea of making Xiao Yuxin her chamberlain?"

He had started planning this after learning that Xiao Yuxin and the second Miss Wu had broken off their engagement. But later, Princess Changping was reprimanded and confined by the emperor for wanting to make Qi Liangsheng her consort. Kong Wenzhe even told him that the princess now preferred mature and steady men, and didn't like the likes of Xiao Yuxin, thus she rejected the idea. He thought the matter had ended there.

Could it really be because of this?

If not, other plans hadn't even started yet. Only this one had begun, but it had ended in failure.

If it was because of this, how did the people from the Yongning Marquis know? After all, Princess Changping had rejected the proposal, hadn't she?

Liang Jianan was baffled.

Hearing him mention Kong Wenzhe, Madam Liang asked, "Kong Wenzhe? The cousin of your beloved Auntie Kong?"

Liang Jianan didn't answer, but Madam Liang took his silence as an affirmation and stood up to rush towards Auntie Kong's courtyard. Liang Jianan chased after her, "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing? Her cousin is about to get you killed, and you're still protecting her," Madam Liang said.

"What does she have to do with this?"

"I'm going to beat her to death today."

………

The couple began to argue again…

…………