The Gusu Mistake - Chapter 4

 “Esteemed Father-in-law, please accept this bow from your son-in-law!” To avoid being recognized as a woman, Yuan Ruo lowered her voice. With a straight back and a confident stride, she approached Jiang Zhen, who was already waiting for her. She clasped her hands together, bowed, then knelt to bow again.

“Hahaha, get up, get up!” Jiang Zhen, overjoyed, helped Yuan Ruo to her feet. “I never expected my son-in-law to be such a fine young man. What a pleasant surprise!”

“You flatter me, Father-in-law!” Yuan Ruo smiled and said, “Your son-in-law is here today to fetch your daughter. Please be so kind as to have her come out.”

“Very well!” Jiang Zhen gestured with a wave. “Go, bring the young lady out!”

“The bride is ready to leave her chambers!” The matron of honor called out. She and several maids went to fetch the bride, Jiang Yi Lan. Yuan Ruo waited by the entrance, her eyes subtly scanning everyone present.

“Are you truly the eldest son of the Han family, Han Ming?” a young man suddenly asked Yuan Ruo.

Yuan Ruo’s eyelashes trembled slightly. She countered, “Why do you ask, sir? If I am not Han Ming, then who could I be?”

“You…” The man hesitated, his words trailing off.

“Hm?” Yuan Ruo’s eyes pressed him to speak, but he remained silent.

“Yuan’er!” Jiang Zhen broke the silence at just the right moment. “Today is your cousin Yi Lan’s wedding day. Don’t spoil the mood!”

The Yuan’er in question was Jiang Yi Lan’s cousin, from the same branch of the family tree as her grandfather. It was only after hearing Jiang Zhen’s words that Jiang Yuan spoke again: “Uncle, I only asked because the eldest son of the Han family looks so young. He doesn’t seem to be in his early thirties, and it piqued my curiosity.”

“Brother Yuan, you speak too highly of me!” Yuan Ruo laughed. “Although I may look a bit young, I’m certainly not so young as to be suspected of lying about my age!”

Yuan Ruo deliberately misinterpreted Jiang Yuan’s meaning, twisting his words into a compliment to leave him with nothing more to say. Just then, the bride, Jiang Yi Lan, dressed in her wedding gown and wearing a red veil, was led out.

“The bride is getting into the palanquin!” The matron of honor called out again. The bearers lowered the palanquin, and the bride was helped inside.

“I bid you farewell, Father-in-law!” After bowing to Jiang Zhen, Yuan Ruo turned, her gaze lingering on Jiang Yuan for a moment. She gave him a meaningful clasp of the hands before mounting her horse. “Let’s go!”

“Stop the palanquin!” The moment they left the city of Quzhou, the bride inside, Jiang Yi Lan, called for a halt. Without waiting for anyone to ask, she lifted her own veil and stepped out, stretching her arms with a big yawn. “I’m suffocating in here!”

Yuan Ruo said nothing, simply watching her.

“What are you looking at?” Jiang Yi Lan noticed Yuan Ruo’s gaze and raised an eyebrow. “Do you think I’m ugly and not worthy of you?”

Yuan Ruo deliberately lowered her voice. “Miss Jiang is as beautiful as a celestial fairy. I am the one who is marrying up.”

“Oh!” Jiang Yi Lan instinctively went to sweep her bangs, but her hand hit her phoenix crown, reminding her that such a gesture was inappropriate for her attire. She lowered her hand. “You’re quite the smooth-talker with girls!”

Yuan Ruo scrutinized Jiang Yi Lan. She had imagined many possibilities for her, but never this. “Miss Jiang is certainly unconstrained by small details.”

“If they’re small details, why bother with them?” Jiang Yi Lan flapped her sleeves to fan herself. “Besides, if you want to bother with them, that’s your business. I won’t interfere!”

Yuan Ruo dismounted her horse and walked over to Jiang Yi Lan, looking directly into her eyes. “Then I will ask you, Miss Jiang, are you satisfied with me? And are you truly willing to marry me?”

“Well, you…” Jiang Yi Lan looked Yuan Ruo up and down. “You’re quite fair and clean-looking. My dad said you’re thirty-two, but you don’t look it.”

Yuan Ruo asked, “How old do you think I look?”

“You look like…” Jiang Yi Lan stopped in the middle of her sentence. Her gaze suddenly fell on Yuan Ruo’s neck, and her expression instantly changed. “You are not Han Ming!”

Yuan Ruo instinctively lowered her chin. “Miss, don’t joke. If I am not Han Ming, then who could I be?”

Jiang Yi Lan tilted her head and continued staring at Yuan Ruo’s neck, saying meaningfully, “The people around you, are they all your own?”

Yuan Ruo’s eyes flickered. “What do you wish to ask, Miss?”

“I think that’s a question I should be asking you!” Jiang Yi Lan met Yuan Ruo’s gaze. “What happened? Why are you dressed as a man and pretending to be Han Ming to get married?”

Jiang Yi Lan’s single question blocked every possible lie Yuan Ruo could have made up. With no false words left, she could only tell the truth. “You are right. I am not Han Ming. I am his sister, Han Yan.”

Jiang Yi Lan looked away, narrowing her eyes. “What happened to your brother?”

Yuan Ruo pursed her lips. “He is dead, murdered on the road to get married.”

Jiang Yi Lan’s expression froze, then she gave a cold laugh. “Are you suspicious that I, or the Jiang family, killed him?”

“My brother was thirty-two!” Yuan Ruo said. “You are only twenty-one. It’s only human nature for you not to want this marriage.”

“I truly did not want this,” Jiang Yi Lan admitted honestly. “But I wouldn’t go so far as to kill him.”

Yuan Ruo asked, “I heard you were a candidate to inherit the position of Jiang family leader. Why did you suddenly get married to my brother?”

“Because I am a woman!” Jiang Yi Lan sneered. “When the Jiang family was in trouble, they used me and promised me the position of clan leader. But once they no longer needed me, they found ways to get me out of the family, and this marriage to your brother was the best way to do that.”

“You could have refused,” Yuan Ruo said, looking at Jiang Yi Lan. “You don’t seem like the type to just take things lying down.”

Jiang Yi Lan raised a finger and wagged it. “I was too lazy to fight them. I’m not even sure I want the clan leader position if they gave it to me. But they wouldn’t believe me when I said that, and they only feel secure once I’m married off.”

Yuan Ruo frowned. “So you were planning to use my brother.”

“I admit that,” Jiang Yi Lan said bluntly. “My original plan was to use your brother’s marriage to leave the Jiang family. From then on, I would be a married woman and have nothing to do with them.”

“What about my brother?” Yuan Ruo said, her voice filled with outrage. “Is that fair to him?”

“We’re all people of the martial world. Your brother wouldn’t be short of a woman like me, would he?” Jiang Yi Lan, seeing that all was out in the open, removed the phoenix crown from her head. “We never even met. My plan was to make things clear today, and I’d be in his debt, but I never expected…”

“So you’re saying you and the Jiang family didn’t kill my brother?” Yuan Ruo asked, her voice low.

“I didn’t,” Jiang Yi Lan said, tossing the phoenix crown into the palanquin. “But whether anyone else in the Jiang family did, I don’t know.”

Yuan Ruo asked, “What do you mean?”

“The Jiang family has a lot of people, and their intentions are complex,” Jiang Yi Lan said. “It’s entirely possible someone killed your brother to drag my father down with the consequences.”

“At that point, to not implicate the rest of the family, my father would have to step down from the clan leader position!”

“Wouldn’t that give others the opportunity they were waiting for?”

“So,” Yuan Ruo concluded, “a member of the Jiang family killed my brother!”

“Whoa, that’s a bit too hasty!” Jiang Yi Lan shook her head. “Without solid evidence, you can’t just jump to conclusions.”

“My brother is dead!” Yuan Ruo exclaimed. “What evidence could there possibly be?”

“There will be,” Jiang Yi Lan said, patting Yuan Ruo’s shoulder. “My dearest husband, we must go and look for it first.”

Yuan Ruo stared at the hand on her shoulder. Although she had just met Jiang Yi Lan and had even suspected her of being her brother’s killer, she felt an inexplicable trust in her. “You have an idea?”

Jiang Yi Lan asked, “Is your brother’s body still intact?”

Yuan Ruo replied, “Yes.”

Jiang Yi Lan asked again, “What was the cause of his death?”

Yuan Ruo said, “Bitten by ten thousand insects.”

Jiang Yi Lan thought for a moment. “Ten-thousand-insect Gu?”

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