Chapter 399
"Big brother, are those your true words?" Hearing this, Shangguan Chen was overjoyed, believing that the First Prince truly had no interest in the throne and genuinely wanted to assist him in ascending to it.
As for Shangguan Mu, who was heading to the Lannuo Kingdom, Shangguan Chen did not take him seriously at all.
After all, the Lannuo Kingdom had been paying tribute to their Qinling Kingdom for a hundred years. According to their original agreent, they could now stop paying tribute.
Renewing this treaty certainly would not be easy. Moreover, the Lannuo Kingdom was just a small, impoverished country. Paying a massive amount of silver as tribute every year was already incredibly difficult for them, let alone renewing it for another century.
If a re prince showed up at their door with a treaty, demanding they sign such a humiliating and sovereignty-forfeiting agreent, even a saint would lose their temper.
There was absolutely no way they would agree to it.
After Shangguan Heng finished speaking, he bid farewell to Shangguan Lie and left.
Inside the carriage.
Shangguan Mu looked at his sister's breathtakingly beautiful face and thought to himself that the people of the Lannuo Kingdom were truly getting a bargain.
However, recalling his sister's temperant, Shangguan Mu looked at Shangguan Yun and warned, "When the ti cos to choose your husband, rember to follow my orders."
"What, I cannot even pick soone I like?" Shangguan Yun said with a face full of dissatisfaction. It should be known that she was the most favored Ninth Princess of the Qinling Kingdom. Now, she was being wronged by being sent to the Lannuo Kingdom—a small country inferior to the Qinling Kingdom in every way—for a political marriage.
Shangguan Yun felt she had swallowed enough of this frustration.
Now, before they had even left the borders of the Qinling Kingdom, her own blood brother was saying such things to her.
It was clearly ant to make her unhappy.
Shangguan Yun had no intention of listening to Shangguan Mu.
She was already condescending to go to the Lannuo Kingdom. If she could not even choose a prince consort she fancied, it would be far too great an injustice to herself!
"Imperial Father said that you are to follow my instructions in everything!" Shangguan Mu frowned, not expecting his sister to put on such airs!
Did she not realize that from now on, she could only remain in the Lannuo Kingdom?
"Imperial Mother also said that I should follow my own heart!" Shangguan Yun rolled her eyes, feeling that her third brother must be a fool.
They were originally the closest of siblings, yet now he was using the sa tactics on her that he used against their other siblings. What good would that do him?
"Third Brother, do not tell the idea to send to the Lannuo Kingdom for a political marriage was yours?" Shangguan Yun asked, staring fixedly at Shangguan Mu!
Otherwise, she really could not understand why their Imperial Father would suddenly think of sending her to that desolate, godforsaken Lannuo Kingdom for a marriage alliance.
"This was Imperial Father's intention! Since you have enjoyed the privileges of a princess of the Qinling Kingdom, you should make the corresponding contributions!" Shangguan Mu did not treat Shangguan Yun like his own biological sister at all!
In Shangguan Mu's eyes, Shangguan Yun was rely a bargaining chip—a chip that could win him benefits.
Shangguan Yun said no more, but her eyes were filled with disappointnt as she looked at her brother!
When Wen Xiu ca out of the Li family residence, she saw Zhang Yanchu looking around at the entrance of her own ho.
Frightened, Wen Xiu quickly retreated back into the Li residence.
With a deep frown, she could not understand why Zhang Yanchu was haunting her like a lingering ghost.
"Miss Wen, what is wrong?" a nearby servant boy looked at Wen Xiu in confusion.
Wen Xiu looked at the servant boy a bit awkwardly, not knowing what to say for a mont.
But she really did not want to deal with that annoying Zhang Yanchu anymore. She did not understand what he was always trying to do lingering at her doorstep.
Faced with the servant boy's questioning look, Wen Xiu could only shake her head awkwardly.
"I suddenly rembered that I left sothing in your young lady's courtyard. I am going to go get it!" Wen Xiu found an excuse and walked back inside.
The servant boy scratched his head, feeling puzzled. Why did Miss Wen look as if sothing was chasing her just now?
Thinking of this, the servant boy poked his head out to take a look.
He then saw Zhang Yanchu, who was looking around at the entrance of the Wen family residence.
The gatekeeper servant boy recognized Zhang Yanchu. Was he not the so-called third-place scholar from next door?
What was he doing there?
The servant boy was a bit confused.
However, Miss Wen's actions just now were clearly ant to avoid Young Master Zhang.
Thinking of this, the servant boy grabbed a broom and pretended to sweep the floor at the doorway.
"Excuse , make way!" the servant boy shouted as he deliberately swept the broom right at Zhang Yanchu's feet.
"What are you doing!" Zhang Yanchu, who was waiting for Wen Xiu to co out, suddenly felt sothing at his feet. Looking down, he saw the servant boy's broom and scolded him with a face full of displeasure.
"Oh my, is this not Scholar Zhang from next door? Why are you here? Did you go to the wrong place? This is the Wen residence, not your Zhang residence!" The servant boy smiled, tilting his face up and looking at Zhang Yanchu with feigned confusion.
Zhang Yanchu's face turned red then black, black then red. For a mont, he did not know how to answer the servant boy.
He could not possibly tell this servant boy that he was waiting for Wen Xiu, could he?
After all, his seeking out Wen Xiu was neither justified nor proper.
If people did not know better, they would think he harbored malicious intentions toward her with this behavior!
Although he did indeed want to marry Wen Xiu. After all, Wen Xiu's older brother was the General of the West!
As long as he married Wen Xiu, that General of the West, his future brother-in-law, would definitely promote him well.
Then he would not have to worry about his career path being hindered in the officialdom.
Furthermore, that General of the West would marry a wife sooner or later, and when that ti ca, he would not have to live at the rcy of the General's moods.
After thinking it over, Wen Xiu was the most suitable candidate to be his wife.
It was just that he had co to the Wen residence several tis and had not bumped into Wen Xiu herself.
He did not expect that before he could wait for Wen Xiu, he would end up waiting for a servant boy from the Li family.
Thinking of this, Zhang Yanchu frowned at the servant boy in front of him and asked unhappily, "Are you not a servant of the Li family? What are you doing here?"
Zhang Yanchu looked at the obvious entrance to the Wen family residence in front of him. What did this servant boy an by taking a broom and sweeping at his feet here?
Was he deliberately driving him away?
"Young Master Zhang, what you are saying is not right. Although this is the entrance to the Wen residence, is it not also the entrance to the Li residence? There is nothing wrong with coming here to clean up a bit, is there?" The servant boy would never admit that he was deliberately trying to shoo Zhang Yanchu away.
Besides, this was the boundary between the Wen and Li residences, and it had nothing to do with the Zhang family.
The servant boy looked at Zhang Yanchu with a strange expression, as if to say, what are you doing here?
aning, your house is clearly in the other direction.
Although Zhang Yanchu wanted to stake out Wen Xiu, he still cared about his dignity after all, as he prided himself on being a cultured scholar.
At this mont, the servant boy's strange look made Zhang Yanchu feel extrely uncomfortable.
"I went to the wrong place!" Zhang Yanchu said, then quickly flicked his sleeves and left.
The servant boy was not in a hurry to go back inside, so he just stood at the door.
He could not let that Young Master Zhang co out and harass Miss Wen again.
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