Chapter 39: The Trump Card
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Jian Aozhu held her tongue, too afraid to speak, and turned her eyes aside rather than meet Mei Xianghan’s gaze.
Mei Xianghan was exceedingly perceptive and soon understood the reason.
“I see. You’re worried that my father and mother won’t agree!” Mei Xianghan said blankly.
Mei Songtao and Madam Jin had placed all the blame on Jian Aozhu, while insisting that their own son was entirely faultless.
With the two families now as hostile as fire and water, how could the Minister’s Residence possibly accept Jian Aozhu again?
Silence lingered in the room for a long while.
Jian Aozhu hurriedly called out to the system. “System, stop pretending to be dead. Is there any good solution?”
Jian Aozhu had no intention of indulging this useless system. The two of them were bound together; if she could not enjoy a good life, the system would go hungry as well. After all, the system needed to periodically steal fortune points from its host, or else it would vanish completely.
Soon, the system’s voice answered:
[Rest assured, Host. I have a solution. Have you forgotten the Grand Princess? She is a powerful ally. Now that you are in trouble, you can ask her for help.]
Jian Aozhu suddenly saw the light.
“That’s right—the Grand Princess. How could I have forgotten my greatest backer?”
Several years ago, when the Jian family had just moved to Shengjing, they happened to encounter the Grand Princess, who had secretly slipped out to amuse herself.
Through the system’s guidance, Jian Aozhu learned that she was a princess of the Southern Chu Kingdom. She then used an item called a Bond of Friendship Talisman, and soon established an exceptionally close friendship with the Grand Princess. The two had even sworn sisterhood.
Just as Mei Xianghan was at a complete loss, Jian Aozhu’s beautiful eyes flickered.
“My lord, it is not as though there is no solution.”
“What solution?”
Jian Aozhu took a token from her bosom. It was round and lustrous, made of jade that shimmered with flowing radiance. At a glance, it was clearly no object of ordinary people.
“This is a token the Grand Princess gave me. I can go to the palace and ask her to petition the Empress Dowager to grant us a marriage decree.”
A marriage decree from the Empress Dowager?
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Mei Xianghan’s eyes trembled.
He knew that Jian Aozhu had a private friendship with the Grand Princess, but he had not known that she also possessed a token allowing her to enter and leave the imperial palace freely.
Even her mother, a Lady of the Third Rank, had to submit prior notice before entering the palace. She could not come and go with such freedom.
Jian Aozhu had always kept this trump card hidden. Even her parents had no idea that she possessed the Grand Princess’s token.
“Aozhu, if you can truly persuade the Empress Dowager to grant us a marriage decree, my parents will have no reason to refuse.”
A marriage decree from the Empress Dowager represented boundless imperial grace and was little different from a decree issued by the Emperor himself.
Apart from members of the imperial clan and newly crowned scholars, few could receive such an honor.
Even though the Mei family had already risen to the highest reaches of officialdom, Mei Xianghan still felt that such favor was an unattainable dream.
If this matter succeeded, his parents would not only stop looking down on the Jian family for its poverty—they might even regard Jian Aozhu with newfound respect.
Mei Xianghan suddenly felt as though his entire body had stopped hurting.
Jian Aozhu tightened her grip on the token, her gaze turning solemn.
Since she had decided to act, she had to strike a fatal blow and leave no hidden danger behind.
After leaving the Minister’s Residence, she headed straight for the imperial palace.
Obtaining the marriage decree was only one purpose of this visit.
She also intended to shake off Zhang Yan, that tenacious nuisance, once and for all.
She was quite capable of ruining her fiancé beyond all hope.
The Zhiluo Palace.
The residence of Grand Princess Mo Li.
Jian Aozhu appeared perfectly composed, merely bringing up her marriage from time to time in an apparently casual manner.
Mo Li said that she had secretly slipped out of the palace to play again some time ago and had recently been confined to the palace by her imperial father, leaving her poorly informed about what was happening outside.
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Still, she remembered that Jian Aozhu’s wedding date was approaching, and sure enough, she began asking questions.
“By the way, Aozhu, your wedding to that Zhang Yan is coming up soon, isn’t it? I should begin preparing your wedding gift.”
“Princess… about that matter…”
Jian Aozhu seized the opportunity to reveal Zhang Yan’s violent deeds.
In that instant, Mo Li gained an entirely new understanding of Zhang Yan.
It turned out that Zhang Yan and Jian Aozhu had known each other since childhood. He had repeatedly acted on impulse and caused trouble, and even had a history of beating people so severely that they were left crippled.
His father had originally planned to arrange for him to enter the palace as one of the Emperor’s golden-blade guards.
The path was difficult, but his father had served in the army for many years and still possessed certain connections. With enough silver spent cultivating those relationships, it should have been possible.
Unfortunately, during the selection process, the other candidate enraged Zhang Yan by attacking him with a concealed weapon. Zhang Yan struck with excessive force and crippled him.
The victim was the nephew of the Vice Minister of Personnel, and Zhang Yan was severely punished.
Only after two years lying low did his father dare send him to the Imperial Saber Guards of the Eastern Depot.
Who could have imagined that he would once again seriously injure someone?
And this time, his victim was the son of the Minister of Works.
Mo Li sent a maid to investigate at the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Justice, and everything soon became clear.
Jian Aozhu had not exaggerated. The Ministry of Justice still retained records of Zhang Yan’s assaults.
Mo Li was furious when she heard the whole story.
“How outrageous! That Zhang Yan is utterly lawless.”
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