Chapter 12.1: Jiang Family

Recently, many things happened in the capital city of Yanjing. The storytellers at side street restaurants had increased by quite a bit.

The most popular story was still, “At night, the charming Buddhist nun was in the middle of her practice, when a curly-tailed monkey caused alarm and unexpectedly ran into a romantic scene”.

A few days ago, the nobility returned after offering incense at He Lin Temple. With their return, they brought a piece of shocking news.

In He Lin Temple at Mount Qingcheng, Wu Jing, the most cherished disciple of Tong Ming, the one in charge, was actually a frivolous monk. He had defiled many married women. He didn’t even let the Head Nun of the neighboring nunnery off.

It had to be known that He Lin Temple was a famous temple. Previously, many madams and young ladies went there to burn incense and pray for blessings. Frightened by this scandal, all the womenfolk who had gone up to offer incense chose to keep their mouths shut and did not mention anything. Fearing that they would somehow get involved and with others’ opinions, their morality and conduct might get ruined. Soon, somebody presented this matter to the emperor and after seeing it, Emperor Hong Xiaowas furious. He severely punished all the related people. Afterwards, he even went as far as shutting down the hundred years old He Lin Temple.

At that time, many people accidentally witnessed the lovers’ tryst with their own eyes. The womenfolk did not mention a word, yet the men vividly and colorfully retold how young and beautiful Head Nun Jing An was, treating it as a passionate love affair.

However, this love affair, aside from gaining the emperor’s wrath, it also implicated an unexpected person. It was precisely the Chief Assistant, Jiang Yuan Bai’s di daughter, Jiang Lî.

Eight years ago, Jiang family’s second miss, Jiang Lî, pushed her stepmother and caused her to miscarry. Jiang Yuan Bai punished her to go to the family’s temple to cultivate her moral character. From then on, she disappeared from everyone’s sight. After the scandal was found, it was also discovered that Jiang second miss had surprisingly stayed at that Mistress Jing An nunnery.

With how malicious and domineering the Jiang second miss was, it was fine to send her to a temple. Even if she really cut her hair and became a Buddhist nun, it was still a positive thing. However, to send her to the hand of this kind of bewitching Buddhist nun, Jiang Yuan Bai’s way of doing things was also not sincere enough.

Chengde official, Liu Yuan Feng’s wife went to He Lin Temple to burn incense. When she was at Head Nun Jing An’s nunnery, she met this Jiang second young miss. At that time, it was already very late into the night, yet the evil Buddhist nun made things difficult for her. Asking her to kneel at the main hall where the roof was leaking. Liu Yuan Feng’s memorial was extremely well planned. Jiang Yuan Bai’s connections were numerous, and he was deeply entrenched. It wasn’t good to offend him. In Liu Yuan Feng’s memorial, he did not mention Jiang Yuan Bai’s fault the slightest. On the contrary, he said that although Jiang Lî originally made mistakes, but her age was still small. Moreover, the child was not yet taught, how could a parent want his own di daughter to be handed over to a place where the morality and conduct was corrupted. No matter what, one’s own morality and conduct was also questioned. As Jiang Yuan Bai’s ruler in the backhouse, Ji Shuran, her behavior as a mother was indeed too harsh.

To look at Ji Shuran, that was the same as looking at Ji family and hit Ji Yan Lin’s face. The memorial seemed clear, yet it secretly signified that it was the personal grudge of Jin Shuran, that she had deliberately sent Jiang Lî to Head Nun Jing An without any good intention and use the Head Nun’s hand to torment her.

In fact, this memorial was initially a trivial matter. However, the current monarch, Emperor Hong Xiao, wasn’t the birth son of the empress. His birth mother passed away after giving birth to him and he was raised by the empress. The empress herself actually had a crown prince and absolutely loathed him. Since young, he had been put through numerous obstacles and Emperor Hong Xiao endured all the sufferings in silence. He fought the path to vie over power until he finally arrived at the current position.

Therefore, the sealed memorial from Liu Yuan Feng made Emperor Hong Xiao recall his own experiences. The early death of the birth mother, a harsh stepmother, which generated a feeling of hate towards Ji Shuran, just like when he was with the empress. So his heart couldn’t help being partial towards the similar-experienced Jiang second young miss. He called Jiang Yuan Bai to the imperial study room to chat and at the same time said a few words about it.

After Jiang Yuan Bai left the imperial study room and exited the palace, he returned to his residence and the first matter was precisely sending someone to immediately bring Jiang Lî back to Yanjing.

Ji Shuran received this news and hurriedly rushed into the house: “Master, why suddenly want to get the second miss …….”

Jiang Yuan Bai “ba,” all of a sudden slammed the memorial on his hand onto the table. Ji Shuran immediately closed her mouth. She hardly saw Jiang Yuan Bai be angry like this.

Jiang Yuan Bai turned his head.

To speak of it, he had already been a father of a few children. A few years had undoubtedly passed along with his work as the imperial Chief Assistant and the emperor’s respected teacher. Although Jiang Yuan Bai was not as handsome and free as when he was younger, he now carried the appearance of a talented, attractive and mature man. Moreover, to say, nowadays, he got along well with other court officials and wasn’t caught in any crossfire. He was even more settled so he loosened, became considerably gentle and refined.

However, the gentle look he had on weekdays completely disappeared at the moment, replaced with a concealed anger.

“Today, the emperor summoned me to the imperial study room. Although the Chengde official, Liu Yuan Feng, didn’t specifically mention my name in his memorial, I have also gotten involved in it.” Jiang Yuan Bai continued: “To welcome Lî’er back home, this is the meaning of the emperor!”