Chapter 88: Proposing Marriage (4)

  Mrs. Ren looked at Mrs. Tao carefully and suddenly showed a smile, "Don't worry, Mrs. Tao, think about it slowly before speaking." She then stood up to bid farewell.

  The old lady was going to see Madame Wang out of the door and back to her residence, when the woman who had been waiting at Madame Wang's door came forward smiling, and followed Madame Wang into the house.

  The old lady's face turned iron-green, but the woman pretended not to see it. The most important thing that Gu Ying had entrusted her with was this matter. If she could accomplish it, the silver that Gu Ying promised to give her would be enough to buy several acres of good land. Although she was a little timid in her heart, silver was a good thing to boost her courage, especially after seeing the wealth and luxury of the Tao family's mansion. She secretly made up her mind that for the sake of wealth and status, there was no reason not to take risks.

  The woman stepped forward and curtsied, "I've come to congratulate the mistress. I happened to overhear in the courtyard that the eighth young lady of the manor is going to marry into the Hou Manor." Fortunately, she had overheard this, otherwise she wouldn't have known how to bring it up. If the Tao family said that the Hou Manor was seeking the second young lady, then this trip would be for nothing. She smiled obsequiously and continued, "Once you become the wife of the Hou Duke, you will surely receive a noble title in the future. This is a wealth and honor that will last a lifetime! You don't know that the Gu family has also produced a titled lady."

  The woman's voice grew softer and she gradually approached the lady, but she was just a peasant woman who didn't understand those rules, and when she spoke, her words were even more garrulous and annoying. The lady turned her head away, but the woman followed closely behind. She didn't know that this woman was originally a famous smooth talker in the village, skilled at mediating between people, and what she excelled at was the word "entanglement".

  The lady was already furious, and now being ground down like this, she suddenly burst out, "Who told you that the Hou Mansion came to ask for Miss Eighth? How can you not understand the rules at all?"

  The woman didn't get angry either, "We country folks don't have so many rules, if I may say so, madam can't look at me, she should look at our Gu Xiang." As the conversation reached this point, seeing Madame's gaze, the woman still shivered with a chill.

  Although she was a rough woman, her face didn't look so precious, and she was startled to retreat for a moment. She turned around and continued, "I still have some good news. If the madam can agree, it would be a double happiness." The madam frowned, not wanting to hear her mention this, and waved her hand to turn around and leave.

  The woman stuck to it and insisted on wrapping herself around the lady into the courtyard, saying these words.

  Two people walked in front, and those behind chased after them, causing everyone in the courtyard to turn their heads to look.

  "Wei Yu wants to ask for the hand of the second young lady of the mansion in marriage."

  The lady only felt that the voice was unstoppable and inescapable, the fire in her heart burning more fiercely by the minute, she walked out of the courtyard without stopping.

  Chun Yao and others saw that the situation was not right, so they hurriedly went forward to stop the woman, said a lot of good words, and finally calmed her down and sent her out of the mansion. Then, they dispatched someone to go to the yamen to find Tao Zheng'an and bring him back to the mansion.

  Tao Zheng'an rushed back to the mansion, and as soon as he entered the door, someone pounced on him, startling him. The person glared at him with urgent eyes, lacking their usual elegance, and their voice was extremely sharp. "Master," they said, their mouth falling, but their gaze intensified, making people feel a chill all over. "No matter what method is used, get rid of Gu Xing, give him some crime, and exile him to a faraway place, isn't that enough?" As they spoke, they tightly grasped Tao Zheng'an's collar.

  Tao Zheng'an felt a surge of frustration, and with a swift motion, he pushed away the old lady's hands. "If this is how it's going to be, do I still need to be afraid? Only a few people know about my filial piety towards Su Xiuyue, but he knows everything clearly, including the dates and numbers, not missing a single detail...". Gu Ying brought up the Westerner's apprentice, which was not an empty threat. After the Westerner's death, he had tried every means to find that person, but to no avail. The troubles of several years ago would be resolved once and for all, and he would have no more worries. Moreover, he didn't really want to marry Gu Ying, it was just a ploy to send out a daughter as a temporary measure, then catch Gu Ying and the people behind him off guard, and uproot them completely.

  The lady didn't know about Tao Zheng'an's thoughts and said, "Then let's just kill him."

  "It doesn't matter if he's dead, but who knows where that evidence will end up."

  "What can be done?" The old lady tore at Tao Zheng'an's collar again, "I don't care, you have to get rid of him."

  Tao Zheng'an furrowed his brow, "I'm thinking of a way. These few days are just to stabilize him."

  The lady was relentless, "No way, we're settling this now. You're so capable, aren't you? Just kill everyone involved in this matter."

  Tao Zheng'an was a good-tempered person, and seeing his half-crazy wife, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "What's the commotion about..." He stretched out his hand to push Madame away.

  The old lady was pushed and stumbled, her whole body stunned, turned around to the inner room to take out a small box that could be held in the palm of her hand.

  Tao Zheng'an's face changed drastically as soon as he saw the box, and he grabbed the old lady, "What are you doing?"

  The lady wanted to shake off Tao Zheng'an's hand, but she couldn't do it after several tugs. Tao Zheng'an had been tormented by Gu Ying for the past few days and his mind was not at peace. With the lady making a scene like this, he suddenly lost control of his temper, raised his hand and slapped her in the face. "You're such a shrew."

  The big wife was beaten into a daze, and for a long time she didn't come to her senses. Her eyes rolled back, and she fell straight down.

  Tao Zheng'an hastily shouted for someone to fetch the doctor, saying as he lowered his head to look at Madame Wang on the ground. He saw that her face was a purplish color and she seemed to have stopped breathing altogether. Tao Zheng'an quickly stretched out his hand to press Madame Wang's acupuncture point, just then the maidservants and servant women also entered the room, while Chen Mama hurriedly went to fetch the life-saving medicine.

  Tao Zheng'an carried Madame onto the bed, Chen Mama brought over the medicine and crushed it, Tao Zheng'an then pinched open Madame's mouth and poured the medicine in. After a long time, Madame finally caught her breath, and seeing Tao Zheng'an, she couldn't care about anything else, opening her mouth to say: "Someone from the Hou Mansion came to propose marriage... they're seeking... Eighth Miss Rong Hua."

  Tao Zheng's heart skipped a beat as he suddenly stood up and knocked over the medicine bowl in Chen Mama's hand.

  Tao Zheng'an sent all the maids in the house away and carefully asked Madame, "What's going on?"

  Madam said: "Mrs. Ren has arrived, she was sent by Mrs. Xue of the Hou Mansion," Madam took a deep breath, Chen Mom brought over tea, Madam shook her head, Chen Mom wanted to have Tao Zheng'an bring it over to Madam, but Tao Zheng'an was still fuming and didn't bother with these things.

  The old lady let out a sigh and said: "I don't know what's going on either. It seems to be about Ba Jie Rong Hua."

  Thinking back to the previous days, Mrs. Tao had said that there wouldn't be any problems, but now she's come to cry to him about this result. Tao Zheng'an coldly smiled and said, "You ask who? The one who took Yaohua and Ronghua to the Hou estate was you."

  She originally thought Tao Zheng'an would comfort her with some words, but unexpectedly he coldly blamed her instead.

  The old lady suddenly choked and started coughing nonstop.

  Madam Chen hastily stepped forward and attended to him, "Sir, why don't you let the madam rest for a while first, and talk later?"

  Tao Zheng'an's face sank and he turned around to leave.

  The lady called Tao Zheng'an back and looked at Chen's mother with a tired expression: "You go down first, I'll talk to the old master for a while."

  Mrs. Chen wanted to persuade the madam to calm down and talk again, but the madam's eyes were resolute, so Mrs. Chen could only swallow her words and slowly back out.

  The old lady tried to get up again but couldn't exert any strength, and looking at Tao Zheng'an's appearance, she was even more short of breath. This matter couldn't be resolved, "Old master... we have to discuss it."

  Tao Zheng An glanced at the lady with a slanted gaze but didn't say anything.

  "We need to think of a way to make up for it."

  "We'll find someone to go and tell the Hou Mansion, following the order of seniority, Second Sister is in front, how can it be Ronghua's turn? Besides, Ronghua is a concubine-born daughter, it's not suitable for her to marry Master Hou either."

  "If all else fails, we can just say that Ronghua is ill...... Anyway, I've already spoken to Madame Ren, and Ronghua hasn't been feeling well these past few days..."

  Tao Zheng'an, who had been silent all along, suddenly raised his head and asked, "What do you mean?"

  The old lady grasped Tao Zheng'an's arm, propped herself up and said in a low voice: "If Yao Hua can marry him, she will have someone to rely on in the future... As for Rong Hua, Master also dislikes her temperament, it's uncertain whether she can help Master in the future."

  Tao Zheng'an said: "Is this for my sake?"

  "Of course I am... which thing is not for the old master to think ahead..." The big wife was about to continue speaking, but her hands suddenly went empty, and she fell forward onto the bed, still not understanding what had happened. She already heard Tao Zheng'an gritting his teeth and saying: "I think you've gone mad from a broken heart, to the point of being utterly ruthless. You're like this yourself, but you also want to drag me down with you."

  The lady stood there in a daze, and Chen's mother came into the house to help her up. After shouting for half a day, the lady finally opened her eyes and numbly muttered: "He actually said I had lost my mind, he actually said I..." She repeated this several times before bursting into tears. "All these years, who have I been living for? Who have I been doing it all for?"

  ……

  Xiang Zhuang investigated the whole thing from start to finish and came back to tell Yao Hua about it in detail.

  Yao Hua's face turned increasingly ugly, her legs went soft and she fell onto a chair.

  Xiang Zhu hastily stepped forward to massage Yao Hua's chest, "Miss, don't worry, there's still Old Madam, she won't let you marry someone like that, she'll definitely come out and speak up for you. Old Madam cares about you the most."

  Fei Cui stepped forward and said: "I really don't understand, why did you take a liking to Eighth Miss? What does Eighth Miss have that our Eldest Miss doesn't?"

  Rong Hua, it's actually Rong Hua. She quietly and stealthily reached the end, leaving people unprepared. Such a person is terrifying, fortunately she was thought to be simple-minded in the past, so no one was on guard against her.

  When she heard the eighth sister call out that name, she should have known that Rong Hua was destined to be at odds with her. Yao Hua only felt a surge of hot blood accumulating in her chest, burning her so much that it hurt. She stood up, her throat sweet and coughing several times, finally stopping the coughing fit, calling out to Xiang Zhu, "Let's go, let's go see Old Lady."

  There will be an update tonight.

  Uncertain time, the sooner the better.

  Pink 60 votes additional update ING.