Chapter 453
Chapter 453
When Jiang Yuanrang woke up again, he found himself surprisingly inside a horse-drawn carriage.
"Oh, you're awake?" Seeing Jiang Yuanrang open his eyes, Qingsong breathed a sigh of relief. Otherwise, he would have worried that he had struck him too hard.
It would be difficult to explain to the future Princess Consort when he returned.
"Hiss!" Jiang Yuanrang felt a dull ache in his head.
He clearly remembered that last night, the father and two sons of the second branch had all been severely burned in the fire. Upon learning that they wouldn't die, he had returned to his room to rest.
Early the next morning, a servant boy told him that someone wanted to see him.
After going outside, he saw a servant standing next to a carriage.
Seeing him come out alone, the servant had looked displeased. But how come he had absolutely no memory of what happened after that?
"Young Master Jiang, are you alright?" Qingsong quickly asked, thinking to himself that he really hadn't hit him that hard.
Why did this Young Master Jiang look as if he were seriously injured?
"Where... are you taking me?" Jiang Yuanrang frowned. A fire had just broken out in the manor last night; if he left today, wouldn't that give the second branch the perfect excuse to pin the blame on him?
Thinking of this, Jiang Yuanrang also calculated in his mind: whose subordinate was this man?
Could this be the second branch's next move? Or was the person who had the accident last night not actually his second uncle?
"To the capital," Qingsong did not hide it and answered directly. The Prince had already ridden ahead at full speed.
He had stayed behind to take care of the young master before him, driving the carriage back to the capital.
"The capital?"
Now it was Jiang Yuanrang's turn to be dumbfounded. He remembered the words of that Prince.
He had never agreed to go to the capital!
"I didn't agree to go to the capital!" Jiang Yuanrang replied with a dark expression.
"This matter is not up to your agreement," Qingsong said, paying no mind to Jiang Yuanrang's words.
After all, if this man didn't have a face that looked seventy percent like Master Li, he didn't think his master would even bother with him.
However, since it was his master's order, he would definitely get it done.
"Hmph! Don't think that just because you're taking me back to the capital, I'll acknowledge her!" Jiang Yuanrang felt a heavy tightness in his chest.
"What?" Qingsong was taken aback.
He thought for a moment, assuming Jiang Yuanrang was talking about Li Zhiwei.
Qingsong recalled that when a young lady married, she was usually carried out by her older brother. Perhaps this was the reason the Prince wanted this Young Master Jiang to return.
However, Qingsong was still somewhat curious about why Jiang Yuanrang was a young master of the Jiang family.
Logically speaking, it wasn't as if the Li family couldn't afford to raise a child.
Why would they let a child of their family go to the Jiang family?
Looking at the face that strongly resembled Li Tianyou, Qingsong wondered, could this be a child Li Tianyou had with someone else?
Did Li Tianyou give the child away because he was afraid Lady Yao would be displeased?
Thinking of this, Qingsong felt it was entirely possible.
However, this was not something he could interfere with.
Right now, he only hoped to return to the capital as soon as possible, so as not to delay the day of the Prince's grand wedding.
"Hmph! You had better take me back!" Jiang Yuanrang said, looking at Qingsong.
In his mind, he was already calculating the most convenient time to escape.
"Young Master Jiang, don't even think about going back. Once the matter is settled, the Prince will naturally have someone escort you back." Qingsong obviously saw through Jiang Yuanrang's desire to leave.
"No, I am merely a merchant. Why won't your Prince let me go?" Jiang Yuanrang asked in complete bewilderment.
He believed he had no special talents and couldn't understand why the Prince insisted he go to the capital.
Besides, what kind of place was the capital?
If a brick fell there, it could likely hit the family member of a second-rank official. Jiang Yuanrang truly did not want to go there.
"If you have any questions, you can ask the Prince once we reach the capital," Qingsong finally advised after Jiang Yuanrang asked several times.
"I don't want to go." The moment Jiang Yuanrang thought about seeing the woman who had abandoned him since childhood, a bitter taste filled his heart.
"Have you ever met your birth mother?" Seeing that Qingsong was completely unresponsive to his protests, Jiang Yuanrang found another topic and asked.
"No." Qingsong was taken aback for a moment. He was an orphan; he didn't even know if his parents were dead or alive, so how could he have met them?
It was the Prince's estate that had given him the chance to live.
"Ah! Don't you want to see them?" Jiang Yuanrang paused, then asked with some curiosity.
"No!" Qingsong replied without a second thought.
"I don't want to either!" Jiang Yuanrang said, slumping dejectedly beside Qingsong.
"They never looked for me before. Now that I'm grown up, why do they insist on seeing me?" Jiang Yuanrang muttered to himself, treating Qingsong as a confidant.
Qingsong didn't understand Jiang Yuanrang's thoughts either. However, Master Li and his wife were both very gentle people.
"Don't you want to go to the capital to find out why you ended up in the Jiang family?" Qingsong thought for a moment before asking.
"It's nothing more than them despising me, or having no money and being unable to afford to raise me!" Jiang Yuanrang said in distress.
"Perhaps there is another reason. You should at least go and ask." After Qingsong finished speaking, he sped up the carriage. This young master of the Li family seemed to harbor a lot of resentment.
He needed to hurry to the capital and let them clear the air, otherwise, wouldn't it delay the Prince's wedding?
"Cough! Cough! You... are you asking for death!" Jiang Yuanrang was completely unprepared. As the carriage suddenly accelerated, he tumbled straight back inside.
The Capital
"Come, Third Prince, let's fill our cups!" Wen Zhaonan urged the woman beside him to quickly pour wine for Shangguan Mu.
"No more... no more drinking!" Shangguan Mu felt extremely dizzy.
This damned Wen Zhaonan kept making him drink; he was simply too sinister.
Yet, he wanted to refuse but couldn't.
It was bad enough that Wen Zhaonan had invited him to drink, but they were entirely surrounded by young women.
He was the Third Prince! It wasn't as if just any kind of woman would do for him, alright?
"Third Prince, you're drunk. Shall I escort you back?" Wen Zhaonan said smugly, looking at Shangguan Mu, who could barely sit upright.
"I am not drunk. I can still drink!" Shangguan Mu paused for a moment before declaring with a look of dissatisfaction.
However, the moment the words left his mouth, he collapsed onto the table, unconscious.
"Young Master, what should we do now?" a guard nearby quickly stepped forward and asked.
"Since the Third Prince is a guest from afar, we naturally must entertain him well. I heard that the royal family members of the Qinling Kingdom love hunting the most. Let us quickly take the Third Prince to experience the hunting of our Lannuo Kingdom." A malicious smile curled the corners of Wen Zhaonan's mouth.
The Li Family
After Li Zhiwei saw Shangguan Yun off, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Pretty sister, don't be afraid. Once I go back, I will ask my father to come and guard you. That bad person will absolutely not dare to come back." Even though Xu Qingshi was scared himself, he quickly comforted Li Zhiwei.
"Qingshi, thank you. However, you should stay safely inside the Prince's estate lately and not come out, understand?" Li Zhiwei said hastily.
After all, she was genuinely afraid that something might happen to Xu Qingshi, which would make it hard for her to explain later.