Chapter One Hundred and Eighty
"This matter has nothing to do with her. If you have any grievances, direct them at me!" Huo Yunxuan said upon hearing this, looking at Xu Heming in terror.
He feared Xu Heming would target Huo Yunyao.
"Giving you the fake wine was my doing alone; it has nothing to do with my family," Huo Yunxuan added.
"Now you know fear?" Xu Heming walked up to Huo Yunxuan, pinched his chin, and said with a sneer, "It's too late!"
“Go, fill a flask with wine from outside and take it to the Second Miss Huo. Let her savor the ‘fine’ wine I personally prepared for Young Master Huo!” Xu Heming deliberately emphasized the words “fine wine,” fearing that Huo Yunxuan wouldn’t realize that the wine in the half-man-high vat he had prepared was all spiked, just like the flask Huo Yunxuan had given him back then.
"Prince An, please spare my sister. She is merely a woman with no ill will towards you. I will drink all this wine myself!" Huo Yunxuan glanced at the half-man-high vat and said through gritted teeth.
"How could you drinking alone be enough? I heard Young Master Huo has two other sisters. The one just now was the second miss, right? Attendants, go and invite the eldest and third miss for me. I want Young Master Huo to personally watch them drink this 'fine' wine!"
As soon as Xu Heming finished speaking, a guard walked out.
Clearly, they had already investigated the current whereabouts of the several masters of the Huo family.
"Prince An, I'll drink it. I'll drink all this wine. Please don't involve my sisters. This matter has nothing to do with them. It was my fault for being jealous of you, my fault for still harboring improper thoughts towards Miss Li!" Huo Yunxuan hurriedly said.
He knew full well that the dose he had put in the wine he originally prepared for Li Tianyou was very strong.
His sisters were delicate women; how could they endure such suffering?
Since this disaster originated from him,
there was no reason to let his sisters suffer as well.
Hearing this, Xu Heming's tone was filled with displeasure. How dare he covet his consort?
"Do you think I would believe that? You harbor improper thoughts towards Miss Li, so you make her father suffer? It seems to me you had a grudge against Lord Li," Xu Heming felt Huo Yunxuan's explanation was contradictory.
After all, Huo Yunxuan clearly knew the wine he bought was meant for Li Tianyou, yet he enthusiastically recommended fake wine to him.
It was obvious his target was Li Tianyou from the start.
He had merely become the wielder of the knife in Huo Yunxuan's plan.
"A year ago, I sought Lord Li's permission to marry Miss Li. But Lord Li refused, saying Miss Li was to stay in the Li family to take in a son-in-law. As the only male heir of the Huo family, how could I possibly become a live-in son-in-law for the Li family? At that time, I had no choice but to give up," Huo Yunxuan recounted slowly.
"Hah, if everyone in the world who failed in a marriage proposal acted like you, resorting to murderous schemes, probably no family would dare discuss marriages anymore? Besides, you merely proposed; why should they agree to you?" Xu Heming added in his mind, thankfully, my father-in-law was wise and didn't agree.
"I wasn't angry that he rejected me. The Li family only has Miss Li as their child. The Li family has a vast fortune; it's understandable that Lord Li wanted his daughter to stay and take in a son-in-law. But, he actually deceived me!" Thinking of this, Huo Yunxuan became very angry.
Xu Heming frowned. Deceived you about what?
Perhaps, back then, Li Tianyou simply didn't take a liking to him?
"Deceived you about what? The Li family neither accepted your betrothal gifts nor agreed to a marriage between you and Miss Li. They merely rejected you," Xu Heming said mockingly.
"Hah, but then he immediately agreed to let his daughter marry off to the capital. What about the promised son-in-law? It was just an excuse to brush me off! He simply looked down on me!" Thinking of this, Huo Yunxuan felt furious.
He considered himself an outstanding young man in Li'an County. How was he unworthy of Li Zhiwei?
Both the Huo and Li families were merchant households; what right did he have to look down on him?
"You do have some self-awareness. Someone like you—it would be abnormal for my father-in-law to take a liking to you." Xu Heming looked at Huo Yunxuan, who was now somewhat hysterical, with utter contempt.
However, he felt extremely grateful that Li Tianyou hadn't agreed to him back then!
Li Tianyou: He is my sworn rival. How could I dare marry my daughter to him?
"So, you used my hand to make me harm my own father-in-law?" The thought that he had become Huo Yunxuan's wielder of the knife made Xu Heming's anger impossible to suppress.
To think he, a prince of noble status, could be fooled by a mere merchant.
"Haha, that's because you're foolish. I casually said it was wine Li Tianyou loved to drink, and you believed it. I said Li Tianyou and I were good friends, and you believed that too. Haha, Li Tianyou didn't fancy me, but he didn't pick such a great son-in-law for his daughter either, did he?" The thought that he had tricked Xu Heming into spending three thousand taels on the spot to buy a flask of fake wine for Li Tianyou filled Huo Yunxuan with great satisfaction.
What if Xu Heming is a prince?
Wasn't he still played like a fool by me?
Outside the room
"Second Miss Huo, this is wine that Young Master Huo asked me to bring for you to drink." Qingsong stood before Huo Yunyao, holding a flask of wine.
"Who are you?" Huo Yunyao looked at Qingsong warily.
She had never seen this person before.
"Second Miss Huo, please!" Qingsong ignored Huo Yunyao's question and instead smiled as he poured the wine, urging her.
"I won't drink it. I want to see my fourth brother!" Huo Yunyao said with a stern face. This person's identity was unclear; she couldn't possibly drink something he offered.
"If she won't drink, force it down!"
Xu Heming's merciless words made Huo Yunxuan tremble.
He wanted to say something, but his mouth was covered.
"Is that His Highness the Prince?" Hearing Xu Heming's voice, Huo Yunyao felt a surge of delight in her heart.
"I didn't expect Second Miss Huo to remember me." Xu Heming walked out of the study and looked at Huo Yunyao, who was blushing shyly. He felt disdain; he had seen many women like her in the capital.
Remembering what he heard today—that it was this woman who tried to frame Li Zhiwei, causing him to mistake the person being drowned in the pond for Li Zhiwei and dive in to save her—Xu Heming examined Huo Yunyao, thinking the Huo family members were all equally malicious.
"Your Highness is exceptionally handsome and extraordinary; of course Yunyao remembers." Huo Yunyao naturally sensed Xu Heming's scrutiny and immediately, thinking shyly that Xu Heming had finally noticed her existence, felt secretly pleased.
"Is that so? Then how about I invite Second Miss Huo for a drink?" Xu Heming thought of how this woman had originally intended to drug Li Zhiwei and then find a beggar for her. He thought merely giving her this wine was letting her off too easily.
He should repay her in her own coin.
There were many ways to make her suffer, and a painful death was the lightest punishment for such a vicious woman.
Didn't she like beggars?
How could he not arrange that thoroughly for her?
Anyone who dares to touch what is mine should be prepared to pay the price.
