After swallowing my anger and taking the blame, I became the lucky little queen

"What happened? Is Miss Li really dead? That's impossible. Although it's a bit shameful for the eldest daughter to marry someone as a concubine, her reputation is so bad that no gentleman would be willing to marry her. It's her blessing to be accepted into the mansion by Mr. Xiao."

"Who says it's not true? With Miss Li's style, Young Master Xiao still wants her. She should be very happy. Why would she be so desperate that she hangs herself the night before the wedding?"

"Don't you know that she likes to pretend to be noble? She is a person whose life is as fragile as paper and whose heart is as high as the sky. How can she be willing to accept such a situation? She can't think straight for a moment..."

"Alas...poor girl from the Wang family, on her wedding day, which only happens once in a lifetime, something like this happened. Her husband even abandoned her to find someone...who is dead...it would be so embarrassing if the news got out."

Xiao Helin's face turned pale when he heard these words, but since all the people present were distinguished guests, he couldn't show any expression and could only force a smile.

"Everyone, please be patient. There may be some misunderstandings about this matter. It is a serious matter. Before we can ascertain the truth, we should not spread rumors."

Although this speech calmed everyone down, everyone had different thoughts. No one could really stop wondering what happened in the Li Mansion last night? Was Li Yaoyuan really dead? Why did she die? Was it really because she was dissatisfied with marrying Xiao Jianting as a concubine, as everyone speculated?

Once a thought arises, all kinds of speculations and images flood into the mind like a tide.

Everyone lost interest in drinking and having fun, and each of them drank the wine in front of them in silence.

Nian Qiaoyue and Qin Zehai looked at each other from a distance, and both of them had deep meanings in their eyes.

Li House.

When Xiao Jianting rushed into Qinxiangju, he saw only ruins and the air was filled with the smell of incompletely burned charcoal.

A section of the west side of the house had collapsed, the door frame was still standing, but inside there was only a pile of black charcoal, no longer as magnificent as before.

Xiao Jianting's hands began to tremble, and he couldn't believe what he saw.

He didn't believe it. He didn't believe that Li Yaoyuan would value his own life.

He gritted his teeth and became ruthless, looking for someone everywhere in Li's house like a madman.

The people in Li Mansion did not dare to stop him. After what happened last night, they were exhausted. They wanted to stop him but were powerless. They just watched Xiao Jianting wandering around Li Mansion in his wedding dress, sometimes shouting, sometimes laughing, with messy hair and a hideous face, which scared the maids into hiding.

Finally, Xiao Jianting stopped in the middle hall.

Li Zhiyi's face was exhausted, his eyes were dull, but his back was still very straight.

His hair turned white overnight and he seemed to have aged by ten years.

He looked at Xiao Jianting calmly, his mouth twitching a few times, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Why are you here now, Mr. Xiao? Shouldn't you be celebrating your wedding in the Xiao Mansion at this time?"

Xiao Jianting suppressed his emotions and did not answer his question. Instead, he asked, "Where is Li Yaoyuan? Where is she? Did you hide her?"

He clenched his fists, his voice trembling, and almost begged: "Master Li, I will not force her to marry me, please let her come out, I... I don't want anything, no no... She doesn't have to do anything, if she doesn't want to marry me, then don't marry, Master Li, can you let her come to see me?"

Xiao Jianting took a few steps forward cautiously, smiling, "Is she angry with me? Did she let someone deceive me on purpose? Lord Li, you are her father, she would not lie to you, right? She is actually hiding and waiting for me to find her, right?"

When Li Zhiyi saw that he was talking incoherently, he knew that he was no longer in his right mind.

"Master Xiao, Yao Yuan is not a member of the Xiao family until she is married. You have no right to take her away. Please go back."

He turned his back, not wanting to get entangled with Xiao Jianting anymore.

Xiao Jianting was unwilling to face the fact that Li Yaoyuan was dead, and he was even more unwilling.

His daughter died, and he had no time to be sad. Instead, he had to think about how to clean up this mess.

He was over fifty years old and exhausted, and he couldn't hold on any longer.

Xiao Jianting still refused to believe him and knelt down with a plop. His bones made a heavy sound when they collided with the bluestone slabs, but he seemed to have lost his sense of pain and did not react at all.

"Master Li..."

Li Zhiyi turned around angrily, shaking his sleeves and shouting: "Yao Yuan is dead! She is dead, do you understand? No matter how much you deceive yourself, she will not come back to life!"

All of Xiao Jianting's emotions were frozen on his face.

"She went last night, dressed in her gorgeous wedding attire and wearing a beautiful golden crown, and was hanged from the beam of the house."

"He burned Qinxiangju to ashes, not even leaving me a complete corpse. How much hatred must she have felt when she left!"

Not sure if he was speaking to Xiao Jianting or to himself, Li Zhiyi actually shed two lines of tears.

The kneeling man lowered his head, his back rose and fell, and sobbing sounds were heard.

When Li Zhiyi was about to leave, Xiao Jianting suddenly covered his face and burst into tears, "Lord Li, please let me see her... for the last time..."

Li Zhiyi paused, struggled with his thoughts for a long time, and finally closed his eyes. He called a guard and asked him to take Xiao Jianting to see Li Yaoyuan's body.

Li Yaoyuan's body was temporarily placed in the South Yard, which was the yard where her mother used to live. Few people came here usually. No one cleaned up the fallen leaves accumulated in the yard last year. They were buried by the new snow this year and saw the light of day again after the snow melted. Some of them were buried in the mud, and some were blown away by the wind.

There was a corpse covered with a white cloth in the yard, which contrasted somewhat with the desolate scene.

The guard brought Xiao Jianting to the gate and glanced inside, not daring to go in. "Master Xiao, the young lady's body is inside."

Xiao Jianting had a hollow look in his eyes, and the stubble on his chin and messy hair made him look very decadent. The only thing that was eye-catching was his bright red wedding dress embroidered with gold patterns.

Xiao Jianting nodded and entered the yard, and the guards fled quickly.

He stepped closer, feeling increasingly depressed.

Stopping beside it, he squatted down, his fingers touching the white cloth several times, but he still didn't have the courage to lift it up.

I smelled the smell of burnt meat and charcoal ash at the tip of my nose, and my stomach began to churn. It was not a feeling of nausea, but rather extreme sadness, a stress response in my body.

He hesitated for a long time, and then made up his mind to lift the white cloth.

What came into view was a charred corpse that was burnt beyond recognition. The face could not be seen at all, and the exposed skin was almost burnt black. Some parts of the body were burnt and stuck to the clothes, and vaguely could be seen to be silk fabrics.

Xiao Jianting covered his chest and vomited a few mouthfuls of acid. Even though he had seen so many dead bodies on the battlefield, it was not as shocking as this scene. Perhaps it was because the person in front of him was his sweetheart.

He fell to the ground without caring about his image and avoided her gaze several times. He didn't dare to look or think.

He stretched out his hand tremblingly, wanting to touch her face, but when he saw the jade hairpin on the corpse's head, his hand paused and moved towards the hairpin.