Angry, ashamed, and furious, they hid in their homes, not daring to go out, especially those that were in the middle of discussing marriage. Their marriage arrangements, nine times out of ten, will fall through. Don’t know how many times they’ve hid in their rooms and cried. And this main culprit naturally was the most unlucky, incurring troubles one after another. All the various humiliating curses made her practically crumble. Perhaps because they temporarily still needed the bastard in her stomach, the Right Commander-in-Chief’s madam appropriately blocked in time, but she also only just blocked them from getting physical. However, the main culprit’s Qin Yiniang suffered a calamity. The other yiniangs, because their own daughters were implicated, had all their anger vented out on her.

It was obvious, this kind of overwhelming situation that’s very unfavorable towards the Shen family, the people of Rui Qinwang’s faction didn’t foresee. After having the entire situation clearly understood, Shen Shu Han immediately went to inform Rui Qinwang. The entire Rui Qinwang faction all devoted their efforts to having the Shen family pushed onto the position of the victim. But, this kind of thing, once it occurs, the impact towards the girl was all especially big. Sometimes, despite the girl clearly having been forced, she would still be said to be shameless, lowly, and all kinds of insults. The matter this time was inherently somewhat different. After all, Sun Yi Lin’s reputation in the past was too good, not having any stains. Suddenly getting stained, reasonably speaking, would be particularly novel, and in addition to deliberate guidance, it would be all too easy to have other people’s line of sight drawn onto him, and thereby weakening the impact on the Shen family.

But obviously this initial goal wasn’t reached.

Memorandums of accusing Shen Shu Han of misconduct for not being strict in raising his daughter also piled onto Le Cheng Emperor’s imperial desk like snow.

What did this mean? This can only mean that the other party was too skilled. In the past, having fought countless of times back and forth, they mutually had a win or loss, just this time, it seems they’ve lost a little too miserably.

Rui Qinwang was violently furious like thunder, while Kang Qinwang was naturally full of joy.

However, there were still a few that felt there was something wrong, one of them including Sun Yi Lin. After he finished taking care of the engagement, he noticed the direction of the remarks outside. The people of the Kang Qinwang faction’s ability to control the public opinion weren’t that strong. There’s undoubtedly a third side pushing this matter along, but who? Gong Qinwang? Or……..Jin Qinwang?

In Sun Yi Lin’s eyes, the possibility of it being the latter was much higher, but what was his goal in doing this? In this matter, he simply doesn’t have any need to interfere at all. Even if he were to interfere, shouldn’t both sides be treated equally, having the entire state of affairs stirred up even more? This should be more in line with his interest.

Wait, only he knew a portion of Jin Qinwang’s actual situation, others all don’t know. If the state of affairs is stirred up too much, exceeding any one side’s control, it will definitely arouse the suspicion of many old foxes. Only by having this one-sided situation will it make Rui Qinwang’s faction firmly believe that it’s Kang Qinwang’s faction that’s ‘stirring up trouble’. But, why was he ‘helping’ him, and not the Shen family? Reasonably speaking, even if seeing on Noble Consort Su’s behalf, he should still ‘help’ the Shen family.

When Luo Pei Shan mentioned this matter to his old wife, he once again couldn’t help but sigh.

“What are you sighing for?” Luo Old Madam didn’t understand.

“I’m worried that our family’s third girl in the future will become a country-ruining demoness. The Shen family’s shu daughter stepped on third girl’s face, so Jin Qinwang just had the entire Shen family all thrown in. From how I see it, this matter afraid will only get worse and worse. Perhaps, even the married Shen family daughters will all be implicated as well. With Jin Qinwang’s selfish desires being this heavy, in the future, so long as third girl has a bit of preference, won’t it all be turned into a major incident?”

Luo Old Madam directly rolled her eyes at him, “What kind of temperament Wan Wan has, you still don’t know? Even at this age she’s all able to preserve her original heart, so in the future, could she possibly be blinded by love and lose her propriety? If she really encounters something inappropriate, Wan Wan naturally will advise against. Since that Shen family girl dared to kneel before our Luo family gates, letting the matter become known to everyone, then she should’ve thought of possibly having such an outcome. I rather don’t feel Jin Qinwang has done anything wrong.”

Sir Luo chose to shut up. He can be said to have finally understood at last, anything that involves third girl, his old wife and Jin Qinwang’s way of thinking, that was ‘agreeing without consulting’. Fine, this engagement has already been cancelled and even announced publicly. Everyone’s attention were all on the other side, and there temporarily won’t be anyone having ideas about third girl either. It was best for him to take this time to properly get familiar with the matters of the Ministry of Appointments.

Luo Old Madam fell into her thoughts. According to reason, the Ding Duchess should be the real main culprit, so Jin Qinwang choosing to act against the Shen family and not the Ding Duke Manor seemingly was somewhat illogical.

Li Hong Yuan previously did push this matter along in the dark, but he didn’t want to let them bring this matter to the surface. If the Shen family was getting stabbed on the surface, then the Ding Duke Manor was getting stabbed in the dark instead, and even specifically directed at the Ding Duchess. What she cared about the most is what he’ll make her lose. The higher one sat, the deeper into the mud one will fall.

These last two days, the friends and relatives of the Ding Duke Manor didn’t come ‘visit’ the Ding Duchess any less, with all kinds of obvious mocking and ridicule, and even throwing all kinds of curses at Sun Yi Lin. The Ding Duchess trembled all over in anger, but no matter how much the Ding Duchess threatened, no one paid her any attention. In fact, there were even those daring ones that directly fought back.

After numerous times of ‘anger attacking the heart’, she ultimately fell gravely ill, unable to get back up again. Wearing down the body, if able to properly recuperate, then perhaps there was still hope of recovering one day, but the various criticism and various humiliation, made the burden she shouldered too heavy. Never mind being tranquil and at peace, and further forget about reflecting on herself. She instead became increasingly obstinate, unwilling to properly take her medicine, often smashing her things, and even insisted on having Sun Yi Lin personally serve her. Sun Yi Lin needed to enter the palace to fulfill his official duties, and was also busy with investigating who exactly the child in that Shen family girl’s stomach belong to. In addition, he still hasn’t recovered from getting his engagement with Jing Wan cancelled either, yet his mother continued to raise havoc with all her might. Sun Yi Lin can be said to be both mentally and physically exhausted.

Originally she was just drinking the medicine, but the Ding Duchess suddenly overturned the medicine bowl. “You unfilial son, are you also wishing for me to just die right now, then you can marry that Luo family vixen?”

Afterwards, she began miserably crying again, “Yi Lin, mother will set another engagement for you immediately, so you can get married right away, alright?” She probably really was afraid that Sun Yi Lin will never marry in this lifetime.

Unable to receive an answer, she began throwing a tantrum again.

Sun Yi Lin fell silent, and then got up to leave, ignoring his older brothers, sister-in-laws, and younger shu sisters in the room and outside. Towards Sun Yi Bin’s provocation, he also didn’t spare a single glance. As for behind him———-‘Sun Yi Lin, let me tell you, I won’t die that easily, don’t even think about having that Luo family vixen married back…….’, he also treated as the wind by his ear.

Sun Yi Lin sometimes was also very puzzled, how did his mother end up like this? In the past, she also had bearing, had cultivation, dignified and virtuous. Although she was strict, she was also gentle, yet now……………

The Shen family, having been burned badly in the head, naturally clung onto Sun Yi Lin, unwilling to let go.

Once Sun Yi Lin began hardening up, he similarly can have people stabbed till they were cut and bruised all over. Without a trace of vulgarness in his words, he had the Shen family’s daughter diminished to less than the prostitutes from the brothels. Moreover, he’d previously learned from the Luo family’s manor doctor roughly how old that child was. It was about three months old, and the other party insisted that it was his. He for the most part can confirm the time and place of the incident. That was some time prior to Jing Wan entering the capital. Kang Qinwang had invited him to the imperial villa outside the city.

In reality, if one really wanted to investigate, it wasn’t that hard either. However, that time, he indeed drank a lot.

Just when he was preparing to think through the matter one by one, someone voluntarily stood out, and it wasn’t anyone else, but precisely Kang Qinwang.

Sun Yi Lin wasn’t sure if it really was his, or just the Empress letting him stand out. However, since there was someone to carry the pot, Sun Yi Lin naturally just threw it to him. And he wasn’t interested in continuing to investigate either.

Facing the Shen family, Kang Qinwang was also very blunt. He’d drank too much and dazedly went to look for his younger cousin, preparing to chat by the candlelight through the night, but in the end, fell asleep, taking over his younger cousin’s room, while his younger cousin was moved to another room. In any case, according to Miss Shen’s initial statement, she was the one that crawl onto the bed on her own. “You all should’ve just said it was that time, else this prince would’ve long admitted to it. Why insist on blaming Yi Lin just because you picked up his jade pendent? You want an explanation, right? Fine, later, this prince will just let someone have the person lifted into the Kang Qinwang Manor.”

Since Kang Qinwang already said this, there was nothing more they could do. He was a qinwang, the son of the Emperor, frivolously fooling around one night, so what if it’s a daughter of a high official? For him to not disdain her and willing to accept her into the manor was already not bad.

Thus, this matter could only be settled like this with nothing definite.

All say, this kind of thing was the most difficult to explain clearly, with empty words and baseless remarks. You can shamelessly cling on and not let go, but the other party can also clench their teeth and not admit. In the end, looking at it from the surface, the ones that suffered the greatest loss was probably the Shen family. Not only did they not fish up any benefits from the Ding Duke Manor, they even ruined their reputation. Never mind the married daughters from their family suffering in their in-law’s family, the most miserable were the young misses of marriageable age. Those that were engaged had their engagement cancelled, for those in the middle of discussing marriage, talks all fell through, and those in waiting………..In any case, all won’t have good marriage fate. Probably only those that were only a few years old didn’t get affected too much.

At the same time, the matter of Sun Yi Lin and Jing Wan cancelling their engagement also slowly became known to people. And another remark that was very unfavorable towards Jing Wan also began spreading.

T/N: I sorta laugh a little at LHY schemes because most of the times he’s just the middle man pushing someone else’s scheme along, but they always end up going beyond his expectations. Like wait no I didn’t say do /that/…..should say, even he underestimated some of these people lol.

The solution for this whole incident is the best way to resolve it, but there are still a lot of points that don’t add up, and I don’t think it’s the whole truth. Personally, given the information that’s been presented so far, and assuming that what is stated is mostly true, my deduction is that it’s very likely to actually be Sun Yi Lin’s, however as I’ve said before, the truth doesn’t really matter, because even if the child really is his, Sun Yi Lin would never acknowledge the child.

There are few reasons why I think this, first one is how adamant that Miss Shen was about that child being Sun Yi Lin’s and even reaching out to tell the Ding Duchess on her own first. Since the Ding Duchess believed her, we can assume that the Ding Duchess wasn’t the one to tell her about the red mole on Sun Yi Lin’s inner thigh. Then how did Miss Shen know about that red mole? If Sun Yi Lin’s servants were the ones that leaked this to her, then when Sun Yi Lin was investigating, he would’ve found out and easily claim that she never slept with him.

Secondly, even Sun Yi Lin wasn’t sure if Kang Qinwang stepping out was just to take the blame or really telling the truth. If what Kang Qinwang said was true about switching beds with Sun Yi Lin, wouldn’t Sun Yi Lin have memory of this? All he had to do was recall that he didn’t wake up in his own bed that day, then it would’ve been clear that it really was Kang Qinwang’s, but since he didn’t have memory of this, then perhaps this didn’t happen.

And lastly, that Miss Shen must have schemed to get near Sun Yi Lin, because she’s aware that he doesn’t like her, so with Kang Qinwang and Sun Yi Lin both dead ass drunk, would she as the sober one sneaking in not be aware who she’s sleeping with, it’s not like Kang Qinwang and Sun Yi Lin have the same build. Moreover, it should be harder to approach a qinwang, than Sun Yi Lin. After all, if Kang Qinwang really was that sloppy, he would’ve been assassinated long ago by his brothers.

Anyways this matter is just left open-ended like this so any guess could be right. As for why the author didn’t give a concrete answer, it really isn’t important. And for Sun Yi Lin, he’d rather pretend this is the truth, than try to find the real truth. Although I was slightly surprised how many people betted on it being someone else in the Sun family. Personally, I think if this possibility was considered the author would’ve foreshadowed it or left a broken trail of clues to it, which is why I doubt Kang Qinwang is the real father either. It’s definitely possible for the Empress to let her son stand out so as to save Sun Yi Lin’s reputation, because she really needs his influence among scholars.

Another thing to note is that I’m very certain that Miss Shen’s scheme to climb into SYL’s bed really had nothing to do with LHY. However, he was probably aware of it and used it to his advantage. The incident took place a month before Jing Wan entered the capital. LHY never could’ve predicted that SYL would fall in love with her, because in his past life, SYL and JW had no connections and didn’t even meet. So it’s too unnecessary and excessive on his part to ‘help’ in this scheme, let alone plan it. It still kinda amuses me that a lot of people auto assume everything is schemed by LHY, when majority of the schemes so far, none of them are fully schemed by him. Almost for every single one, he just pushes along someone else’s scheme or take advantage of the situation, but he always gets blamed by everyone ??????

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com