Chapter 475
Chapter 475
“Brother, you must be tired from the journey. Did the servants say something improper and displease you?” Xu Heming asked, startled at first, then assuming that Qingsong must have said something he shouldn't have on the way back.
“Brother? I, Jiang, am unaware that in the capital, there is a custom of a stepfather calling his stepson ‘brother’?” Jiang Yuanrang retorted with dissatisfaction upon hearing the address.
Li Zhiwei: ???
Xu Heming: ???
The two looked puzzled. Xu Heming was about to marry Li Zhiwei soon.
Wasn’t the term ‘brother’ correct?
How did it get linked to the term ‘stepfather’?
“What stepfather, what stepson?” Li Tianyou walked in from outside, equally confused.
As soon as Li Tianyou entered, he saw Jiang Yuanrang sitting to the side.
He was immediately struck speechless.
This man—wasn’t he the one from the portrait Li Zhiwei had shown him?
His son, Li Tingzhou!
Seeing his son, whom he thought he had lost forever, even as a tough man, Li Tianyou couldn’t hold back his tears as he walked over to Jiang Yuanrang.
“Zhou’er!” Li Tianyou’s eyes were full of tears.
His eldest son—at only five years old, he had fallen into the water and vanished. Heaven knew, at the time, they had searched for three days and three nights.
The body they eventually found—they had wanted to deny it, but they had no choice but to accept the painful truth.
Li Tianyou couldn’t understand how his son had come back to life.
But a living child was better than a dead one.
Trembling, Li Tianyou approached Jiang Yuanrang.
The emotion in his eyes didn’t seem fake.
Jiang Yuanrang, looking at this man who bore a striking resemblance to himself, also felt a little uneasy.
“Father, you’re finally back. Come, look at big brother!” Li Zhiwei quickly went to Li Tianyou’s side and said cheerfully.
Jiang Yuanrang now looked at this man—presumably his biological father.
Then he glanced at Lady Yao, who was sobbing uncontrollably.
A thought crossed his mind: Could it be that he had truly misunderstood something?
His parents didn’t strike him as the type to divorce.
Jiang Yuanrang turned to look at Xu Heming.
At first glance, he could tell this man was much older than his sister.
If the man intended to marry the weeping Lady Yao, he would have thought this prince was simply infatuated.
Otherwise, how could a prince want to marry a woman old enough to be his mother?
Jiang Yuanrang then looked at Li Zhiwei.
If he remembered correctly, his sister had just said her wedding was in three days.
So, the one marrying this old man was actually his sister?
“Is it him you’re marrying?” Jiang Yuanrang pointed at Xu Heming with displeasure and asked.
Li Zhiwei was stunned for a moment, then confused as to why Jiang Yuanrang seemed so averse to Xu Heming.
“Zhou’er, your sister’s marriage to the Prince of An was bestowed by the emperor. Their wedding day is in three days,” Li Tianyou quickly explained.
“Was this marriage your idea?” Jiang Yuanrang recalled what Qingsong had told him on the way back—that Xu Heming not only had a princess consort but also a child.
This man had allowed his own daughter to marry someone like that?
“No, it wasn’t!” Li Tianyou, not knowing why, faced his son’s imposing manner and instinctively shook his head to deny it.
“Then did you agree to it?” Jiang Yuanrang turned his angry gaze to Lady Yao, who was still wiping her tears, and asked.
“I... I did not!” Lady Yao momentarily forgot how to cry.
But regarding her daughter’s marriage, she truly had not pushed for it.
At this point, even Xu Heming, slow as he might be, realized that his future brother-in-law was clearly dissatisfied with him.
Xu Heming sighed inwardly.
He had already had a difficult father-in-law to deal with; now, he had gained a brother-in-law who was deeply unhappy with him.
And ironically, this man was the very one he had helped find!
Xu Heming suddenly felt like he had shot himself in the foot.
“Brother, this marriage was my decision. It has nothing to do with our parents,” Li Zhiwei stepped forward hesitantly and said quietly, seeing Jiang Yuanrang’s fury.
She thought to herself, this big brother looks quite intimidating.
“Your decision?” Jiang Yuanrang glared even more angrily at Li Tianyou and Lady Yao.
The two of them shrank back uncomfortably, both at a loss.
“I made the decision,” Li Zhiwei repeated, feeling a little nervous under her brother’s disapproving stare. Had she said something wrong?
Otherwise, why was Jiang Yuanrang looking at her like that?
“Brother-in-law, did Qingsong treat you poorly on the journey?” Xu Heming racked his brain and concluded that the problem must have stemmed from Qingsong. He decided twenty lashes had been too light.
“Prince, I still have family matters to attend to and am not at leisure to entertain you,” Jiang Yuanrang said, looking at Xu Heming with dissatisfaction.
“Brother-in-law, Weiwei will soon be my princess consort. I am not an outsider,” Xu Heming naturally knew Jiang Yuanrang disliked him.
But his marriage to Li Zhiwei was an imperial decree, and the wedding was only three days away.
He really didn’t want any more complications.
Jiang Yuanrang was furious.
But technically, having just returned, he shouldn’t meddle in the Li family’s affairs.
Yet he simply couldn’t bear to see his little sister wronged.
“Then break off the engagement with him. Whatever compensation is needed, I’ll pay it!” Seeing that Xu Heming wouldn’t leave, Jiang Yuanrang cut straight to the chase, addressing him directly.
“Brother-in-law, you can’t just burn the bridge after crossing it. Besides, Weiwei agreed to marry me before the Emperor issued the decree. You do know what ‘the sovereign’s word is law’ means, don’t you?” Xu Heming raised an eyebrow. Honestly, he had brought this trouble upon himself—why did he ever think to summon this brat back?
Jiang Yuanrang was fuming.
“You’ve already had a princess consort!” Jiang Yuanrang said bitterly.
“Big brother, I almost had to marry into the Ru’an Marquis Manor myself!” Li Zhiwei was genuinely afraid the two would come to blows.
Especially since Jiang Yuanrang looked so frail—Li Zhiwei worried he might come out worse for wear.
“Men are talking—what business is it of yours?” Jiang Yuanrang shot his sister a look of exasperation.
If it weren’t for her, why would he even stay here?
“Big brother, I—” Li Zhiwei didn’t know what to feel. Her brother’s care for her was different from her parents’.
She knew he cared, but this marriage was already set in stone.
There was no need to sour their relations over it.
“He’s been married before and has a child. What do you see in him? That he’s older?” Jiang Yuanrang spared no mercy as he spoke to Li Zhiwei.
Li Zhiwei lowered her head, feeling a pang of grievance. At the time, the situation hadn’t given her any room to refuse.
It was true that Xu Heming had married before, but his former princess consort was no longer alive.
“Think carefully. Even if you marry him, when he’s buried in the future, the one resting beside him won’t be you.” Jiang Yuanrang glared at Li Zhiwei in dissatisfaction.
Xu Heming opened his mouth but found no retort.
“Does big brother not want me to marry the Prince of An? Or would you rather I be sent to the Qinling Kingdom for a political marriage?” Li Zhiwei asked, looking at Jiang Yuanrang with aggrieved eyes just as Xu Heming was about to speak.
At this moment, Li Zhiwei’s heart was a tangled knot.