Tong Mo turned around to see his stepfather—the current Prince Jing, Zhou Bowen.
Zhou Bowen was also regretting his decision to come check on the matchmaking situation out of concern for his stepson.
Thinking of Tong Tiemei's care for the younger brother-in-law she raised and her son, Zhou Bowen sighed again.
"Father, Mother. You two can't just abandon me." Tong Mo now dropped the 'uncle' and 'aunt' titles.
"How can we help?" Jin Huilan retorted.
"Yes, how can we help?" Zhou Bowen felt this matter was even harder than persuading his imperial brother to agree to his marriage with Tong Tiemei back in the day.
"Pretend you didn't hear what I said." Tong Mo grabbed both their hands. "Support me with a bit of silver."
"You want silver to curry favor with the widow?"
"You really fancy that widow?"
"Stop calling her 'the widow, the widow'. She has a name. Her surname is Ye, Ye Yunniang. She's wonderful."
"Where is she wonderful? She hasn't even married you yet, and she's already having you spend loads of silver to support her whole family." Jin Huilan had a very poor impression of Ye Yunniang.
"That's not it, she didn't agree." Tong Mo's voice grew small towards the end.
"She doesn't fancy you!" Zhou Bowen and Jin Huilan exclaimed in unison.
"What's wrong with you? She can't see your worth?"
"This Ye Yunniang has no taste at all."
"Forget her. Find another one. Aunt Lan will introduce you to someone better."
"Right, I'll also introduce you to someone better." Zhou Bowen thought of the suitable young ladies he knew.
"No matter how good the people you introduce are, if they're not Ye Yunniang, I don't want them. I've said it, I'll spend my whole life wearing down Ye Yunniang." Tong Mo's attitude was firm.
"Is Ye Yunniang really that good, worth you grinding away your whole life for?" Zhou Bowen didn't understand.
"Uncle Wen, what was so good about my mother that you insisted on marrying no one but her?" Tong Mo's one sentence left Zhou Bowen speechless in opposition. He looked at Jin Huilan, signaling with his eyes, "You say something."
Before Jin Huilan could open her mouth, Tong Mo interrupted, "Aunt Lan, back when my father insisted on divorcing to marry you. Little Uncle asked him, what's so good about you? Why insist on marrying a woman so much older than him.
My father said, 'Because she is Jin Huilan, the person I will hold in my heart for a lifetime.'"
Tong Mo thought of Ye Yunniang as he said this.
"To be honest, when I first met Ye Yunniang, I was a bit annoyed by this woman.
I thought she had no mind of her own. She only listened to her mother-in-law. She was involved with Jiang Mingzhe and even carried his child.
Jiang Mingzhe ran off, and she stubbornly insisted on having the child. She even adopted the son of the murderess Jin Huifang just because she had once nursed him.
I genuinely thought Ye Yunniang was a fool." Tong Mo recounted his first impression of Ye Yunniang.
"Wait a moment." Jin Huilan interrupted Tong Mo. "You just said, the murderess Jin Huifang?"
"Yes, Aunt Lan, do you know her?" Tong Mo thought their names were somewhat similar.
"I have a cousin named Jin Huifang. I heard from my family she married well, into the wealthy Jiang family in Jiangcheng." These were her mother's words.
"That was three years ago. After the Jiang family was raided, her husband eloped with his second sister-in-law. Her natal family wouldn't take her back, her marital family didn't want her. She was harmed by her former maid. In the end, she killed the maid and committed suicide." Tong Mo told of Jin Huifang's story.
"How could that be?" Jin Huilan couldn't believe that the little girl who used to sweetly call her "sister" was just gone like that.
"That case was handled by my little uncle, it caused quite a stir at the time. Her son had his surname changed with my little uncle's help, he's now Ye Yunniang's second son, Li An." Tong Mo also explained the situation of Jin Huifang's son.
"How is Li An now?"
"Let's put aside the matters of Jin Huifang and Li An for now. Little Mo, continue about Ye Yunniang." Zhou Bowen interrupted the two.
Jin Huilan also realized now wasn't the time for this. She sat up straight and let Tong Mo continue.
Tong Mo thought about where he had left off.
"My feelings for Ye Yunniang, at first I truly didn't like her. Through contact with Little Uncle and Little Aunt. Oh, I forgot to say, the woman Little Uncle fancied is Ye Yunniang's mother-in-law.
As my visits to the Li household increased, I had more contact with Ye Yunniang. I don't know when it started. I just put Ye Yunniang in my heart.
After I realized I had developed feelings for Ye Yunniang, I had a hard time accepting it. I avoided it for a while. But it was useless, I was already stuck on Ye Yunniang." Tong Mo wore a look of surrender by the end.
"What are Ye Yunniang's feelings towards you?"
"She clearly rejected me. She doesn't fancy me. Her heart belongs to someone else." Tong Mo felt very dejected saying this; his rare moment of falling in love was met with no affection in return.
"You should just give up." Jin Huilan advised.
"I can't give up. In this lifetime, I will marry no one but her." Tong Mo's words were absolute.
"You will marry no one but whom?" Tong Tiemei's voice made the three speakers instinctively tense up.
"Brat, who did you say you'd marry no one but?" Tong Mo's biological father, Bao Shao, also walked over from another direction.
Tong Mo and the other two: ...This is bad.
After hearing Tong Mo's story, Tong Tiemei and Bao Shao's faces couldn't have been darker.
"Tong Mo, I'd rather you stay a bachelor your whole life than allow you to marry Ye Yunniang." Bao Shao stated his position. A woman who got involved with another man and had a child less than a year after her husband's death—how could such a woman enter the Bao family?
Tong Tiemei was also dissatisfied with Ye Yunniang, but she disliked Bao Shao's words even more.
"My son can marry whoever he wants? It's none of your business."
"He's my son, so I have to manage this."
"He bears the Tong surname, it has nothing to do with your Bao surname, cut the crap."
"Tong Tiemei, mind your status. So vulgar, learn a thing or two from Lan."
"Learn my foot, this old lady says what she wants." Tong Tiemei slammed the stone table hard.
Crack—the stone table shattered under Tong Tiemei's hand.
Jin Huilan silently pulled Tong Mo in front of herself while glaring at Bao Shao. How many times had she told him? Don't compare her to Tong Tiemei, isn't that just asking for a beating?
Zhou Bowen stepped forward and took Tong Tiemei's hand, examining it carefully, "Sister Mei, does your hand hurt?"
Bao Shao just felt a toothache; how could this woman made of iron possibly feel pain?
"I'm fine." Tong Tiemei said indifferently, then turned to look at Tong Mo, "That Ye Yunniang, I also disapprove. You'd better nip this in the bud, don't force me to take action."
"Mother~" Tong Mo was unhappy with his mother's words. "I,"
Jin Huilan tugged on Tong Mo's sleeve, warning him not to argue with his mother.
Tong Tiemei continued, "As for Little Min, the child is about to be born. The two families should settle the matter quickly, no delays." She looked at Bao Shao. "Will you go or shall I?"
"I'll go."
"I'll go too." Jin Huilan wanted to clarify her cousin's situation.
After receiving Tong Mo's pleading look, Zhou Bowen suggested, "How about we go too."
"Fine, let's all go together." Tong Tiemei made the final decision.
