Chapter 161: Forced marriage at home
Gu Xuetao wanted to quickly facilitate Ye Ningshuang's marriage so that he could get away and return to the capital. There was nothing in this rural area, and people were almost bored. But Zhan Xiao didn't care about this child marriage at all. Zhan Xiao didn't accept it, so he had to think of a way to make him accept this marriage.
Meanwhile, Ye Mingyuan had noticed that his daughter kept getting close to Master Gu, and he felt a little dissatisfied. Master Gu had neither an official position nor any talent, and could be said to be a fool, so he was not worthy of his precious child. Master Gu knew that Minister Gu had arranged for his daughter to be a couple with Zhan Xiao, but he still kept getting close to him. How could he explain this to the Minister?
Ye Ningshuang approached his father, Ye Mingyuan, and said, "Dad, is there something you want me to do?"
Ye Mingyuan looked at his daughter lovingly and said, "Shuang'er, that Master Gu is not a good match. He has no official position and his talent is not as good as General Gu. I heard that he has many concubines in his room. You should stay away from him in the future, or you will be deceived by him."
Ye Ningshuang knew that her father was doing this for her own good, so she said, "Dad, Zhan Xiao publicly claimed that the girl from the Shen family was his fiancée, and he also said that if he wanted him to admit the engagement, he had to produce evidence of the engagement, but we don't have anything."
Ye Mingyuan said: "Who said no? Dad will come to your house tomorrow with evidence to force you to get married."
The next morning, Ye Mingyuan led his daughter and a group of servants to Zhan Xiao's villa from the street. The curious people also followed behind to watch the fun.
"Have you heard? County Magistrate Ye took the engagement token to General Zhan to force him to marry."
"Come on, let's go take a look."
More and more people followed the Ye family father and daughter. When they arrived outside Zhan Xiao's courtyard, the crowd was already three layers deep.
Ye Mingyuan's servant knocked on the gate of the other courtyard. The gatekeeper was also shocked when he opened the door and quickly sent someone to inform General Zhan. Not long after, Zhan Xiao came out with the housekeeper.
"What does County Magistrate Ye mean by this?" Zhan Xiao asked, pretending to be ignorant.
Ye Mingyuan took out a jade pendant from his sleeve and said, "This jade pendant is the engagement token that the Zhan family gave to my daughter. Now my daughter is sixteen years old and has reached the age of marriage. It is time for the Zhan family to fulfill the marriage contract."
"Jade pendant? Such an ordinary jade pendant, how do you know it was given by my Zhan family?"
Ye Mingyuan smiled slyly, "Xiao'er, don't brag. This jade pendant was given to you by the emperor himself when General Zhan won the battle of Hongqugou in Yuanzhou. General Zhan was grateful to me for risking his life to save Xiao'er, so he used this jade pendant as a token of his love and made a marriage contract between our two families."
"What about the engagement? Since the marriage is decided, there should be an engagement as well." Zhan Xiao asked.
Ye Mingyuan coughed dryly and said, "This happened a long time ago. The engagement must have been lost during the move."
"Okay, as long as you can prove that this item is the Auspicious Cloud Pendant bestowed by the emperor, I will agree to this marriage. Zhan Liu, ride quickly and take Eunuch Cao over, and let him verify the authenticity of this item bestowed by the emperor." Following Zhan Xiao's order, Zhan Liu immediately set off for Baiyun Villa.
Ye Mingyuan was a little panicked. "Xiao'er, there's no need to mobilize so many people. We can just solve the problems between our two families. Why bother Kilometer's father-in-law?"
Zhan Xiao glanced at him and stopped talking to him.
Not long after, Zhan Liu returned with Eunuch Cao. Eunuch Cao was shaken on the horse's back and cried out in pain, holding his old waist.
Upon seeing this, Zhan Xiao immediately stepped forward and personally helped Eunuch Cao down.
"Eunuch Cao, today I have specially asked you to come over and help identify this auspicious cloud jade pendant. It is the one that the emperor gave to my father when he won the Battle of Hongqugou." Zhan Xiao said.
Eunuch Cao had also heard Shen Zhi talk about the Ye family father and daughter these past two days, and he understood everything. He took the Xiangyun pendant from Ye Mingyuan, but Ye Mingyuan still held on tightly and refused to let go. In the end, it was only when Eunuch Cao shot him a cold knife that he was scared and let go.
Eunuch Cao picked up the jade pendant and examined it carefully. He said, "The items bestowed by the emperor all come from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and are specially marked. Yours is obviously not one of them. It is just an ordinary piece of Hetian jade."
Zhan Xiao looked at Ye Mingyuan with a half-smile and said, "County Magistrate Ye is so bold that he actually used a fake thing to pretend it was a gift from the emperor."
Ye Mingyuan turned pale with fear, beads of sweat dripping down his face. He quickly replied, "I dare not. This item was given to me by General Zhan. I really didn't know it was fake."
"Oh, you still want to link yourself to General Zhan. General Zhan dedicated his entire life on the battlefield and worked to stabilize the country for our Great Xiao Dynasty. How can a villain like you slander him?" Ke Meng also rushed over from the photo studio at this moment. After hearing Ye Mingyuan's sophistry, he was immediately furious.
Zhan Xiao sneered, "You are so stubborn, it seems that I have to convince you. Come here, please invite Zhen Yanshou, the former magistrate of Suyang County."
Ye Mingyuan was panicking. How could he have disturbed the county magistrate? It was over. Everything was over. Ye Mingyuan was disheartened.
Zhen Yanshou walked out of the villa, followed by a group of yamen runners carrying files.
"Sir Zhen, please clarify the whole story of the kidnapping case and the disappearance of Xiangyunpei." Zhan Xiao raised his hand and greeted Zhen Yanshou, who has now been appointed as the prefect of Suyang.
"Ye Mingyuan, you kidnapped the young master of the Zhan family, now General Zhan, because you owed a gambling debt, and pretended to be his savior to deceive him into getting an engagement. Once the incident happened, General Zhan learned the truth and cancelled the engagement. You only returned the engagement letter and the engagement, but lied that the engagement token had been lost and refused to return it. You are suspected of kidnapping, and the government wanted to arrest you, but you fled with your family overnight. Now that you have appeared, you should surrender to the law as soon as possible. All the files from that time are well preserved and can be consulted at any time. I will give them to the current county magistrate for safekeeping." Zhen Yanshou said loudly.
Ye Mingyuan was shaking like a sieve, and he knelt down and begged for mercy, "I know I was wrong, please be lenient with me, sir."
Zhan Xiao snorted coldly, "Leniency? You pawned the gift from the emperor at will, which is a great disrespect to His Majesty. This is the pawn contract you signed in the Suyang Pawn Shop, with your signature and handprint on it. You lied that the jade pendant was lost but turned around and pawned it. You are really bold."
Zhen Yanshou's eyes twitched when he heard this. This Ye Mingyuan is really stupid, and he immediately ordered: "Lock Ye Mingyuan into the prison and seal off the Ye Mansion."
The crowd of onlookers pointed at Ye Mingyuan.
"I was wondering how could there be such an outrageous engagement, it turns out it was a fraud."
"That's right. Look at how ugly Ye Ningshuang is. Only her father treats her like a treasure."
Ye Ningshuang was very angry after hearing this, and turned to look at Zhan Xiao with tears in her eyes.