The Concubine's Daughter Travels Through Time and Space and Takes the Road of Confrontation

Lu Jijiu was speechless and could hardly believe his ears, "You - you, are simply outrageous!" Lu Tongzheng was in a panic now. The matter was not yet clear, and their family had already broken off the engagement. It was really an insult to the character of a scholar. How could he hold his head up among his colleagues in the future?

Lu Rong's expression remained unchanged. "My younger brother has already become a juren at the age of eighteen. He has a promising future and can even become an official. If anything happens to the eldest sister of the Lu family while she's been missing, teach him how to cope. I raised my younger brother personally since he was a child. I will never agree to such a thing. Please ask father to cancel the engagement!"

Lü Jijiu was furious. "It's not your place as a married woman to manage the affairs of our Lü family. Go back immediately. I will pretend that what happened today never happened."

Luzon had been standing outside listening. He had been hearing all the talk his classmates had been saying about him, both overtly and covertly, for the past month. They were all talking about the disappearance of the eldest daughter of the Lu family, which made him extremely annoyed.

Seeing his sister's disappointed face, he stepped forward and bowed, "Sister, why don't you have dinner before leaving? I specially asked someone to buy the food you liked to eat when you were still at home."

Lu Rong held his brother's hand with a distressed look on his face. "You've suffered so much! Is Hong Niang in your house dead? I made you do all these rough jobs. Now that you're out of my control, you're getting even crazier. Come on, I'm going to punish her with a few strokes of the cane today!"

Luzon hurriedly explained, "Don't be angry, sister. It's usually Hong Niang who does it. Today, I specially ordered it because I thought you hadn't been home for a long time."

Upon hearing this, Lu Rong's anger subsided a little. He pulled his brother into the room and saw Hong Niang kneeling beside him. He looked her up and down several times until she sat on the kang. He slowly drank a cup of tea before asking her to get up.

Putting the teacup heavily on the table, Lu Rong snorted coldly, "Don't think that you are not under the supervision of the mistress at home and you are going crazy day by day. If I find out, you will be in trouble!"

Everyone in the room murmured in response.

Luzon's face showed a sad expression. "Sister, everything is fine at home, but I'm really tired of listening to the rumors in the cell. I can't even concentrate on reading these days."

This matter concerned his brother's studies, so Lu Rong was very nervous. "What's going on? Tell me quickly."

"It's nothing more than the eldest daughter of the Lu family. Originally, everyone envied me for marrying the daughter of a third-rank official. The first- and second-rank officials said a lot of sour words, but I could tolerate it. But now that this has happened, they all started to laugh at me." Lu Song frowned. "Sister, do I have to go to this supervisory school? I can study hard at home."

"How can this be possible?" Lu Rong refused flatly, her narrow eyes slightly narrowed. "You've already passed the imperial examination and will take the exam in the spring after the New Year. How can you drop out of school at this critical moment?" After saying this, she gently held her brother's hand, tears in her eyes and a choked voice. "I didn't even know you were going through so much hardship in school. Why didn't you tell me earlier? It seems you are not on the same page with me."

Luzon comforted her softly, "Sister, I just don't want to make you sad. Besides—" He lowered his eyes, his expression gloomy, "Miss Lu's father is a third-rank official in the court. Even if something happens, my brother has no choice but to accept this marriage."

"Nonsense!" Lu Rong scolded immediately. She seemed to realize she had overreacted, and she managed to soften her expression. "Don't worry about these things. The most urgent thing is to prepare for next year's Spring Examination. Even if the Lu family is a third-rank official, it doesn't matter. Our father is still a second-rank Imperial College Priest."

Luzon agreed obediently.

Lu Rong returned to the Hanlin Mansion with a grim expression. She felt even more unhappy when she saw that her elder sister-in-law had not left yet. What was the meaning of a woman running to her parents' home after her husband's marriage? She had to take care of her mother more because her mother died early and there was no one in her family. Once her younger brother got married, she would definitely abandon him.

Despite what she was thinking, she adjusted her expression and smiled as she went up to greet him. "My aunt is free today, why don't you have dinner before leaving?"

Xu Shiyun smiled gently. "I had planned to leave in the afternoon, but when I saw my sister-in-law had returned to her parents' home, I shamelessly stayed there for a while longer."

"How can you compare with your sister-in-law? She used to be the head of the family. It's okay for her to go back every few days after getting married, but my son, your family has a lot of things to do. It's a rare visit, so why not stay for one night?"

Mrs. Si loves her daughter dearly. If she hadn't insisted on being a concubine today and a royal concubine tomorrow, there wouldn't have been so many dirty things.

Thinking of her mother-in-law, Mrs. Si felt a headache. Is it possible that the girls of the Cui family can't get married or what? They are brought home one after another. If it weren't for Shiyun's proper precautions, I'm afraid that her son-in-law would have another delicate concubine in his harem. It's simply a huge joke!

"Sister-in-law, I heard that my brother is going to get engaged to the eldest daughter of the second branch of the Marquis of Ping'an's Mansion?" Xu Shiyun looked at Lu Rong with a smile.

Looking at his sister-in-law's smiling face, Lu Rong felt it was particularly irritating and immediately said, "No, it's just that Madam Zhang and Lord Zhang were very enthusiastic and asked others to say it several times. Father couldn't let go of his pride and took Song Ge'er to go through the motions. How could these words be spread?"

Seeing that her smile was forced, Xu Shiyun did not expose her and just smiled and continued, "If that's the case, I have a marriage proposal here. I wonder if my sister-in-law is willing?"

Lu Rong's smile became more sincere when she heard that. "It's hard for my aunt to think that the Dingyuan Marquis's Mansion is a wealthy and noble family, and we are afraid that we can't afford it." Even she knew that the Zhao family was very powerful in Kyoto. The Marquis's Mansion was already a first-class one, and it also had a noble concubine and a prince's wife. Even the emperor had to show courtesy to them when they met.

"I wonder if you have heard of the Cui family of Boling?" Xu Shiyun spoke slowly.

I have heard of it, but as for the Cui family, Lu Rong looked embarrassed and said, "My sister-in-law is ignorant and has never heard of any promising children from their family in recent years." Her father was a chief academic officer after all, and her brother was a juren. If they were just a poor family in the countryside, there would be no need to mention it.

Mrs. Si already knew what her daughter was thinking and thought her daughter's idea was a good one. She was young and might not be as good at matchmaking as herself, so she took over her daughter's words.

"Don't worry, the poem is talking about Cui Liangdi's cousin. She is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and she is as beautiful as a flower. Moreover, the elder brother of this young lady of the Cui family passed the imperial examination at the age of 25 and is now working in the Ministry of Personnel. His family has no shortage of money and houses, and he has a bright future in the future." Mrs. Si was extremely good at exaggeration.

As expected, Lu Rong's eyes lit up, and he was very pleased and quickly agreed. "Then I'll trouble you, Auntie. If this can be accomplished, I will give you a large matchmaking fee."

Xu Shiyun went back home only after having dinner at her parents' house.

Cui was talking to her niece when she heard the servants announce that the eldest grandmother had arrived. She looked unhappy. She had been married for seven or eight years and now she had a son. She had repeatedly urged her, both openly and covertly, to take a concubine for Mingyuan to have more children, but she had always played deaf and dumb. She couldn't win the argument.

"Tell her that I fell asleep." Cui was too lazy to see her daughter-in-law.

Xu Shiyun glanced at the brightly lit upper room and turned back to the courtyard. Although the owner of the courtyard had changed, every blade of grass, every tree, and every piece of furniture in it remained in the same state as it had been eight years ago, as if time had stopped in the courtyard.

When the servants saw the eldest lady coming back, they all bowed. Xu Shiyun suddenly felt it was absurd and ridiculous. She tried her best to maintain the demeanor of the eldest lady of her uncle's mansion, smiled gently, signaled them not to be polite, and slowly walked into the upper room.