Because Marquis Boling--Yuan Xuepei was carried back to the imperial capital.

After receiving the news, Yuan Xue'e returned back to Marquis Boling's mansion by riding without changing her clothes. When she arrived at Marquis Boling's mansion, Jian Xubai had asked the Commissioner of the Imperial Academy of Medicine to treat Yuan Xuepei. But the result was a bolt from the blue for Yuan Xue'e, "His knees were broken at all, and I have no way to save his knees!"

That was to say, Yuan Xuepei, who was only 20 years old and had not yet married or appointed an official, couldn't stand up in his whole life!

After confirming the result from the Commissioner repeatedly, Yuan Xue'e was shocked!

It's not until Jian Xubai sent the Commissioner and the elders of the Yuan Family who came to gloat over away that Yuan Xue'e came back from the trance, and then she asked the reason with tears, "Didn't you say that Wuhuan dare not beat you? How could my brother turn into this?"

Jian Xubai, who had a cold expression, was about to say something, but he was interrupted by Yuan Xuepei lightly, "This injury was not caused by Wuhuan. When we were rescued by Wuhuan, we were trapped in a fighting. I fell down from the horse and my knees were crushed by the horse's hoof."

Hearing this, Yuan Xue'e cried sadly, and she was so sad that she even stopped her breath for several times. So naturally, she didn't find that her brother looked at Jian Xubai with imploring eyes as he said. It's in this way that Jian Xubai kept silence against his heart.

He stretched out his hands which were full of scars, and stroked his sister's hair for a while, and then he comforted her tenderly, "At that time, I thought I was going to die! I didn't expect that the heaven had mercy on me, and finally we could see each other again--Although I won the battle in a big way, there were more than one or two people who buried their bones in other places. Since I'm alive, all of us should be happy!"

How could Yuan Xue'e be happy?

Even if Yuan Xuepei enlightened and comforted Yuan Xue'e repeatedly, she was still in tears for several days, and she could not control her feeling.

Even as her brother, Yuan Xuepei's heart aches for her, and he was unwilling to say something bad about her. However, Jian Xubai, who came to visit Yuan Xuepei everyday, could not stand it.

He called Yuan Xue'e to the cloister and scolded her severely when Yuan Xuepei was not noticing, "Your brother has suffered such a big trouble. In order that you are not so worried, he talked with you with an open-minded att.i.tude! But you lost yourself in a bad mood. Do you want him worry about more? Good-for-nothing b.u.m! What else could you do except cry? You are really a burden!"

After being scolded by Jian Xubai, Yuan Xue'e finally stopped crying. But she looked more haggard than before. Within a few days, she was terribly emaciated. Yuan Xuepei was extremely worried, and he even complained that Jian Xubai put his finger in other people's pie, "Xue'e is young and she is a girl. It's normal that she will be fl.u.s.tered when difficult things happen. We just need to coax her with patience. You shouldn't scold her for this. Now she even can't eat any more. Doesn't that worry me more?"

Jian Xubai felt helpless when met this kind of good brother. He signed when he reminded the truth of Yuan Xuepei's disability, and then he said, "Do I need to apologize to her?"

"She didn't blame you. She was sad for me!" Yuan Xuepei said annoyingly, "She didn't eat anything for two days. Her body is weak. What can I do?"

Jian Xubai pinched his eyebrow and gave several ideas, but all the ideas were rejected. He felt that his heart was burning. Then servants walked out and said, "Why don't we ask Miss Song to come here to comfort the young lady?"

"Miss Song?" Although Song Yixiao was led by Yuan Xue'e to send them off when they were on the expedition, now six years were pa.s.sed, the little girls who had made several connections in the past had long been forgotten.

At the moment, Jian Xubai and Yuan Xuepei looked at each other and then asked, "Who is Miss Song?"

The servant reminded, "The daughter of Princess Consort Wei and her ex-husband. Miss Song lived in Prince of Hengshan's mansion. In recent years, she had a good relations.h.i.+p with the young lady, and they were good sisters. The maid of the young lady once said that the young lady listened to Miss Song. Now the young lady had lost all the appet.i.te, maybe Miss Song has some ways to handle this."

"It's her!" Yuan Xuepei was suddenly enlightened and then he nodded. He asked the servant to prepare a gift and a horse for him. He immediately went to Prince of Hengshan's mansion to invite Song Yixiao, "As long as she could persuade Xue'e to eat something, she would have her own advantages!"

Jian Xubai also vaguely remembered some scenes of that year. But now he was at the age of 17, he had already lost the innocence and carefree of the age of 11, so this memory was like a flash of light, pa.s.sing in a flash without any disturbance.

What he worried now was his best friend's body.

Seeing that Yuan Xuepei found someone to persuade Yuan Xue'e, Jian Xubai signed, "If people of Prince of Hengshan's mansion don't allowed this, you could tell me and I would send somebody to persuade!"

But it's not so hard to invite Song Yixiao as he thought. When Yuan Xuepei visited the prince's mansion and told the reason to them, Wei Mengying agreed readily, "Miss Yuan hurried back that day, and Yixiao worried about her! But we heard something happened in your house, so we didn't come to visit in case of disturbing her. Since you thought Yixiao would not disturb all of you, I'll send her there tomorrow!"

When this thing spread to the Hanxia Villa, Ms. Zhao felt that there was something wrong, "Although the elder lady of the Yuan Family is still alive, it's Marquis Yuan who asked young lady to go to Marquis Boling's mansion at this time! It would be OK in the past few years, because the young lady is still young. But now the young lady is at the age of marring, and Marquis Yuan is young. He has never been married. In this way, other people may talk about this behind! How could Her Highness allow this?"

After Zhiqin was injured, Jinxun became the personal maid of Song Yixiao. Jinxun had a loose tongue, and she said without thinking, "Does Her Highness want your ladys.h.i.+p to marry Marquis Yuan? Even if Marquis Yuan is disabled, he is still marquis in all his life!"

Before Jinxun finished all her words, she was slapped by Ms. Zhao, "Nonsense! How could our young lady marry a disabled man?"

"Sister Yuan and I are good sisters. Now that her brother has suffered an accident, and she is too sad. If I don't allow it, when this thing spreads to the outside, other people will say that I never treated Yuan Xue'e as sister!" Song Yixiao smiled and waved to stop Ms. Zhao from teaching Jinxun a lesson. And then she said casually, "In a word, I could not avoid this. It's better for all of us to pack up quickly!"

After sending her foster nurse and the maid away, Song Yixiao held a strand of hair beside her check with her fingertips. She was very puzzled, "In the past six years, mother had given birth to a son and a daughter, which was considered that she had completely settled the position of Princess Consort of Hengshan, and even Dowager Consort has stopped the action. It's no wonder that I've fallen in her mind. But just as Ms. Zhao said, Yuan Xuepei had lost his legs. Even if he had the rank of marquis, it was doomed that he could not be an official! If he can't be an official, he will have no real power, and he will only have the rank of marquis. It's not in line with expectation that mother put on me."

This doubt was not explained until she was called to Wei Mengying after noon, "Dowager Consort mentioned that she was old a few days ago, and she wanted to see that the family determined who would succeed to the throne. Although His Highness didn't agree, he also began to think about this according to the observation of me."

Song Yixiao knew all the things when she heard the words.

As expected, Wei Mengying sighed, "The reason that Dowager Consort urged this thing was that she wanted His Highness to determine Lu Guanlun as inheritor. Although it's said that His Highness likes your brother best now, he may be hindered by filial piety, and he may not win Dowager Consort!"

So, "Although Yuan Xuepei returned with a poor body, he still has a good relations.h.i.+p with Duke of Yan! In these days, Duke of Yan goes to Marquis Boling's mansion everyday! Empress Dowager listened to his words, and the Emperor is a dutiful son... Now you are going to Marquis Boling's mansion, so you must take good advantage of this opportunity!"

"Yuan Xuepei hurt his legs, not his brain! He had not solved the troubles of Marquis Boling's mansion. Now he is a disabled man, and I'm afraid he's too busy in taking good care of himself! How could he have the mind to engage in determining who would succeed to the throne in the prince's mansion?" Song Yixiao kept silence, but she sneered in her heart, "Even at the very least, even he had such energy, why should he help Lu Guanyun?"

Lu Guanyun was her half-brother. He was the seventh young master of the prince's mansion. He was four years old. He was cute and smart. It's true that he was very adorable, but he had not been adorable enough to make other people help him fight for the inheritor at the first sight!

Song Yixiao frowned, "Mother, I'm just going to comfort Sister Yuan. If Marquis Yuan appreciate me, it's OK that he may send me some clothes and jewelry. But if we want him to say something good about determining my brother as the inheritor in front of Duke Jian, I think this is impossible."

"How could you just think about your clothes and jewelry? If your brother becomes the inheritor of the prince's mansion, this big mansion will be ours. At that time, you could dress yourself in any way, am I right?" Wei Mengying scolded Song Yixiao seriously, and then said, "Yuan Xue'e is soft spot of Yuan Xuepei. You have been a sister of Yuan Xue'e for six years, don't you know the personality of her? If you could catch her, are you afraid that Yuan Xuepei won't help you?"

Then Wei Mengying lowered her voice, "If this is not useful, you can coax Yuan Xuepei by yourself, am I right? Now he is in his prime, but he lost his legs. He must in a bad mood. It's in the time that he needs someone to accompany him..."

"Mother, who do you think I am?" Song Yixiao said after hearing her mother's words, "Anyway, Marquis Yuan is a marquis, would he lack of woman? If I'm so close with him, let alone he accepts me or not, how could I live in the future?"

"If you want me to do this, I can only go back and kill myself by hanging myself!" She cried out.

Wei Mengying didn't expect that her daughter's reaction was so fierce. Her face was green and red for a long time. Then she said angrily, "If you don't want to go there, then don't go. I didn't force you with a knife. I just talk with you. But why are you doing in this way?"

Song Yixiao just kept sobbing and crying, and it seemed that she had been insulted by the heaven. Wei Mengying scolded her for a long time, but she didn't stop. Wei Mengying was angry and disappointed, but she dared not to make the thing bigger, because she's afraid that she could not end it well. So finally, she said, "OK! You could go back now! You could regard as that I said nothing!"

Seeing that her own eldest daughter went back with crying, Wei Mengying felt headache, and she was pinching her eyebrows. Then there was a loud cry came from the inner room. Then Ms. Bo walked out with her little daughter--Lu Zhuo'er, who was only one year old, in the arm, and then Ms. Bo said, "The eighth commandery princess seems to be hungry!"

Seeing that Wei Mengying was not in a good mood, Ms. Bo stopped. She took Lu Zhuo'er out of the door and handed her over to the foster nurse. Then she returned back alone, and then she comforted, "Your Highness, Why should you do this? Although His Highness wants to determine the inheritor, he still hasn't said it! Even if Miss Song promised that she will beg Marquis Yuan to say this to Duke of Yan, if His Highness didn't consider this thing in a short time, even Empress Dowager could not ask His Highness to determine the seventh young master as the inheritor. Isn't it a waste of effort?"

"But you look at the behavior of her!" Wei Mengying said in a bad mood, "She never prepared to help Guanyun at all! Does she forget that why she lives a good life in the prince's mansion these years? Now, I just need her to exert some strength, but she even threatens me by hanging herself! She is really an unfilial daughter! I'm so angry!"

Ms. Bo smiled, "Miss Song is now at the age of marring. She is young and she is yearning for a wonderful husband. Marquis Yuan is good in every aspect, but he lost his legs. It's no wonder that Miss Song doesn't want to be close with him..."

Ms. Bo stopped at here deliberately. She had been the maid of Wei Mengying for many years, thus Wei Mengying got Ms. Bo's meaning immediately. Then she said to herself with a squint, "Does she think Yuan Xuepei is not good? I'd like to see that if everyone who wants to propose to her is not as good as Yuan Xuepei, would she still dislike Yuan Xuepei?"