Chapter 232
"Lord Huo's love is as firm as gold, so firm that you had your sister scheme to have her meet with beggars?" Xu Heming said sarcastically, looking at Huo Yunxuan.
"What?" Upon hearing this, Li Tianyou stood up agitatedly. He knew it, the Huo family were no good people.
How dare he set a trap for his daughter?
"A family like yours dares to covet my daughter?" Li Tianyou angrily pointed at Huo Yunxuan's nose and cursed.
He felt extremely grateful that he had not agreed to marry his daughter into the Huo family back then.
Even though his daughter didn't marry into the Huo family, they still wanted to use such despicable methods against her.
Li Tianyou felt a surge of anger choking him.
Damn the Huo family.
"Lord Li, you must not listen to one-sided accounts. Isn't Miss Li fine? My sister merely intended to play a joke on Zhiwei," Huo Yunxuan frowned as he looked at Li Tianyou.
In his heart, he thought, the one who came to harm was his second sister, not Li Zhiwei. What right did Li Zhiwei have to be angry about this matter?
"That's because Zhiwei was vigilant. Otherwise, would you still be standing here making irresponsible remarks?" Xu Heming felt deep regret. He should never have shown this person any mercy back then.
If he hadn't, today's incident wouldn't have happened.
"Prince An, do you have evidence for what you say?" Huo Yunxuan, however, did not care much for Xu Heming's words. After all, Xu Heming had no proof that his second sister had met with misfortune.
On the contrary, his second sister had originally gone to meet Prince An, but ended up doing unspeakable things with those filthy men.
This was clearly Prince An's retaliation.
The Li Residence
Lady Yao pulled Li Zhiwei into a room.
"Mother, do you have something to say to me?" Li Zhiwei asked, puzzled.
She had heard the rumors circulating outside just now. Although somewhat angered, she didn't take them too much to heart, as they were just baseless rumors after all.
Once she made an appearance, the rumors would naturally collapse of their own accord. There was no need to ruin her own health over fabricated matters.
The urgent task now was to first reassure Lady Yao.
Li Zhiwei was truly worried that Lady Yao would become upset upon hearing such talk.
"My child, what do you think of those rumors?" Lady Yao sighed, looking at her daughter.
Although she knew the capital couldn't be as peaceful as Li'an County, she hadn't expected her daughter to face such a storm of rumors so soon after their arrival.
This did not leave her with a favorable impression of the capital.
"Mother, we needn't pay attention to such talk. We just need to focus on ourselves," Li Zhiwei quickly grasped Lady Yao's hand to comfort her.
"My child, will people saying such things affect your marriage arrangement with Prince An?" Lady Yao looked at her daughter with concern.
"Mother, if Xu Heming doesn't have even that much trust in me, then I needn't marry him," Li Zhiwei said without hesitation.
She didn't believe Xu Heming would give credence to such absurd rumors.
After all, if she had really returned to Li'an County to marry someone, Xu Heming would have discovered it when he went to Li'an County.
Why would she go through the trouble of following him back to the capital?
She could have just stayed in the capital with her husband's family.
"You're right," Lady Yao sighed again.
She then took out three boxes she had prepared earlier.
"Mother, what are these?" Li Zhiwei looked at the boxes, puzzled. One of them looked familiar.
It was almost identical to the box her uncle had given her. Could this also be from her uncle?
"This... these are things your maternal grandmother left for me when she passed away," Lady Yao gently stroked the box, her eyes filled with longing for her mother.
It was a pity she could never see her mother again.
"Now, I am giving these to you. In the future, you shall pass them on to your daughter. Consider them our family heirlooms, passed down through the female line, not the male. They aren't particularly valuable items, just keepsakes for remembrance," Lady Yao pushed the boxes towards Li Zhiwei, speaking with a hint of reluctance.
"Mother, since these are things Grandmother left for you, you should keep them safe yourself," Li Zhiwei quickly pushed the boxes back. She could see her mother's reluctance to part with them; how could she take her mother's beloved possessions?
"Since I'm giving them to you, accept them," Lady Yao said, no longer looking at the boxes, as if by giving them to Li Zhiwei, she had resolved never to look at them again with the same attachment.
Seeing Lady Yao's expression, Li Zhiwei didn't dare insist further.
However, she still didn't quite agree with her mother's action.
"Back when you married into the capital, it was done in great haste. Although your father and I wished to prepare a dowry for you, time was ultimately too short. We could only hastily bring what we had prepared earlier to the capital," Lady Yao said, still feeling some regret when she recalled this.
After all, those things, while not famed for their luxury, were items she and Li Tianyou had carefully prepared over sixteen years.
Now, those things could never be retrieved.
Last night, the master had also discussed with her that for their daughter's remarriage, the dowry likely couldn't be as extravagant as before, lest it invite gossip.
"Mother, what you prepared for me back then was already immensely precious," Li Zhiwei didn't fully understand why Lady Yao suddenly mentioned this, but she truly had no complaints about that dowry.
No one in the capital could boast such a lavish dowry.
"Those things couldn't be called luxurious. They were just things your father and I put our hearts into, originally hoping they would bring you smoother days ahead. Little did we expect they would also bring you quite a bit of trouble." Thinking of the Lin family's mistreatment of her daughter and Li Tianyou's current status and position...
The grand, lavish wedding procession they had once hoped for was probably no longer possible to prepare.
"At the time, your father and I originally thought that once you were firmly settled in the capital, we would send the remainder of your dowry. We never expected to receive news that you hadn't married into the Lin family. These... these were originally the additional dowry items your father and I intended to supplement for you." After saying this, Lady Yao pushed the two boxes in front of her towards Li Zhiwei.
Upon hearing this, Li Zhiwei's eyes widened in disbelief.
So, besides those 1,360 trunks of dowry, her parents had prepared another set for her?
Thinking this, Li Zhiwei looked curiously at these boxes.
She wondered what could be inside.
However, the boxes weren't large. Li Zhiwei thought their contents probably wouldn't surpass the value of that previous dowry.
"Mother, I'm sorry!"
Li Zhiwei thought of how she had privately donated the dowry her parents had painstakingly prepared for her to the court. Her parents must have been very saddened, right?
After all, those items represented their affection for her.
Yet she had donated them without a second thought.
Her parents must have been deeply hurt when they found out.
However, she thought that even if given another chance, she would make the same decision. Compared to marrying into the Lin family, she would rather use those possessions to fight for a way out.
