Chapter 137.1: The Truth

Sun Yi Lin entered the palace. Some things needed to be reported to the Empress. Letting his mother shoulder this matter wasn't really a wise decision.

"Yi Lin, you have to know, this way, the effect on your reputation is very big." The Empress furrowed her brows.

"Having this subject's mother come shoulder it, the effect is similarly very big. It's impossible for this subject to escape cleanly, and might even get pinned a label of being 'unfilial' by others. This outcome would instead be even worse. The best way is to just prove that, that child isn't this subject's." Actually, reputation and whatnot, Sun Yi Lin simply didn't care about right now. He was unable to marry the girl he liked, so he didn't need to worry about his own reputation affecting her. In addition to learning the Empress's ambition, and how her high regards towards him completely stem from wanting to make use of him, it was actually better to lessens his influence among scholars.

With someone like Jin Qinwang hiding in the dark, who will become the final winner, it really wasn't easy to say. In reality, Sun Yi Lin, in his subconscious mind, was already partial towards Jin Qinwang. Some things were still okay when not known about, but once known, one will just discover, Jin Qinwang's abilities were much stronger than the other princes. And moreover, one can just tell from his usual conduct, he wasn't one that was willing to bend himself below others. Furthermore, he has long severed any path of retreat for himself, so that position, he won't yield to anyone. And if he can't obtain it legitimately, then he will undoubtedly use extreme measures. Since he doesn't care about reputation, and doesn't care about people's evaluation of him, then naturally, he further won't care about what kind of mark he will leave behind in the history books.

Under this kind of situation, for people that don't belong in the same camp as him, lowering one's presence was the most sensible. Unfortunately, Sun Yi Lin won't know, this kind of method, for him, actually won't have any effect. From the moment he fell for Jing Wan, he already became the thorn in Li Hong Yuan's eye. Regardless how low-key, it was all meaningless.

"This sort of thing is the most difficult to explain clearly, how will you prove it?"

"Just need to find the child's actual father." Sun Yi Lin indifferently stated.

The Empress looked to Sun Yi Lin. Recently the changes in him were increasingly big, especially this temperament. She also wasn't very clear as to why either. "Are you able to be a hundred percent certain that the child isn't yours?"

Sun Yi Lin creased his brows. Although that Shen family girl kept saying the child was his, but, "The specifics of the matter, this subject still haven't investigated yet, but this subject is more than eighty percent certain that it's not. However, the remaining twenty percent, even if it is, still need to let it become a 'no'." And by doing this, what kind of aftermath will be brought about for the Shen family girl completely wasn't within the scope of his consideration. He was never a saint. It was true that the one responsible for ruining his marriage fate was his mother, but the Shen family girl was the igniting flame.

According to his mother's attitude towards Jing Wan, even if there weren't this matter, most likely will still cause some other disturbances. Perhaps, from the start, this marriage was destined to fail. Sun Yi Lin refused to think of it further.

Thinking to the end, Sun Yi Lin mockingly laughed at himself. Actually this matter, he perhaps also was at fault. It was he that underestimated his mother's degree of 'care' towards Jing Wan. If from the start, he'd been sufficiently prepared, or perhaps knew about his mother's attitude earlier and properly talked with her, then perhaps things wouldn't end up like this now.

After calming down, Sun Yi Lin actually discovered some doubtful points. For instance, how did that Shen family girl get in touch with his mother? If she really had discovered that she was pregnant, shouldn't she have gone to her own family first? For what reason would she assume looking for his mother would instead be even more beneficial to her? Sun Yi Lin kept feeling there were still oddities within this matter. Although he didn't want to face his mother, the specifics of the matter still needed to to be asked clearly.

The Empress agreed to Sun Yi Lin's request, but since that sister-in-law of hers didn't have her words taken to heart, repeatedly doing foolish things, looks like she needed to give her a bit of a lesson in the realistic sense, letting her learn from her mistakes.

Thus, the Ding Duchess, who held great power in the Ding Duke Manor, was stripped of all her authority, splitting it among her daughter-in-laws as well as her sister-in-laws. This blow for the Ding Duchess was by no means small. In the inner manor, not having the authority to manage the domestic affairs meant that you might have to struggle for a living under someone else's hand. Although her position still remained, and wouldn't really need to go that far, from once having the final say in everything, to possibly having not that many people willing to listen to her orders anymore, the disparity was truly too big.

Seeing his mother's irritable state, Sun Yi Lin felt somewhat glad. After she was seized of her authority, he went to find her to have the matter asked clearly.

Sun Yi Lin wanted to drag out the engagement, but the Luo family didn't want this. The reason they gave him was also exceptionally reasonable. If he doesn't want to have his mother exposed, then prior to having this matter investigated through, it's best to have this engagement taken care of.

But in this way, Jing Wan will really end up bearing a 'jealous and unable to tolerate others' bad reputation.

Sun Yi Lin very much cared, but Luo Pei Shan and Luo Old Madam didn't mind, because Jing Wan already has a way out, so it doesn't matter if her reputation is slightly bad. Moreover, for the imperial family, being easily jealous and whatnot, this simply won't be taken seriously. As long as the Emperor is willing, he can give his sons, as well as the imperial relatives, as many women as he wanted.

Sun Yi Lin felt very ashamed. He felt the Luo family, for the sake of shielding his mother's reputation, was sacrificing Jing Wan's reputation, making him even more ashamed and unable to show his face in the Luo Manor. In reality, he also thought of waiting until after this matter is investigated clearly, that way, at least on the surface, the Luo family will no longer have an excuse to withdraw from the engagement. The Luo family's attitude made him extremely ashamed. He really was unable to do something like forcibly tying Jing Wan to him.

This truly was a beautiful misunderstanding.

Actually, one should know just by thinking about it, for the Ding Duchess to step on Jing Wan's face in such a way, would the Luo family still 'reciprocate malice with goodwill' and consider for her? How stupid and how naive would one have to be to believe this? Was Sun Yi Lin stupid? Unable to think of this bit? Not suspect why the Luo family want to urgently withdraw the engagement at this time? They probably really hated his mother bitterly, and worried that he would cling on and not let go. Aside from this, Sun Yi Lin was unable to think of another reason.

He already distinctively sensed his mother's extremity and stubbornness. Hoping for her to be able to properly accept Jing Wan, this daughter-in-law, perhaps daydreams were more realistic than this.

Sun Yi Lin opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't say anything to save the engagement, "Actually, can wait until this matter settles, then cancel the engagement with the excuse of the eight characters not matching. Cancelling the engagement now won't benefit third miss at all."

"Since we've already decided to cancel the engagement, then naturally it's better to be clean. Our Luo family is unable to do something like letting someone that has nothing to do with us block in front." This kind of involvement really wasn't needed. Luo Pei Shan was really considering for Sun Yi Lin too. Otherwise, he really was afraid Li Hong Yuan will do something to sort him out. Once that living Enma gets involved, he can make this small disturbance turn into a big disturbance.

"I don't mind."

"Don't say these foolish things."

This was Sun Yi Lin's second time hearing these words from Luo Pei Shan's mouth, carrying an elder's care as well as conciliation.

After they finished discussing, the process to cancel the engagement was very quick. Sun Yi Lin originally wanted to meet Jing Wan, but naturally was unable to. However, he did meet with Sun Yi Jia. Despite clearly knowing what her fifth brother wanted to know, Sun Yi Jia still didn't reveal a single word. Not just because telling him Jing Wan's actual attitude will make him even more sad, but also because having her sister-in-law's matter revealed to an outside male truly wasn't a sensible act. Sun Yi Jia just roughly explained her own situation. She was quite well in the Luo family, regardless whether it was the elders or Luo Jing Bo, their attitude towards her all didn't change.

"With Luo third miss present, I rather don't have anything to worry about for you, just fifth brother hopes in this lifetime, you can always be happy and carefree, along with fifth brother's share......"

"Fifth brother........." Sun Yi Jia looked to Sun Yi Lin who'd obviously become thin, very much heartbroken. This truly was 'unable to marry little sister Wan, thus all the good in the world was buried altogether'?

"No need to worry about me, I'm fine. The Ding Duke Manor, if you don't want to return, then just not go back as much as possible."

Because Sun Yi Lin was taking care of things on this side, the other side naturally didn't get involved. Matters related to Jing Wan naturally was more important than the other side, even if it was just cancelling an engagement. Because he, this main 'culprit', didn't appear, the fight between the Shen family and the Ding Duke Manor became increasingly intense, and further because there was someone secretly adding fuel to the fire, the matter of the Shen family's daughter getting pregnant before marriage seemingly became known to everyone.

That's right, just 'the Shen family's daughter', and not specifically referring to which one. Thus, the young misses of the Shen family, especially those of marriageable age, were all affected, each and every one all not daring to go out. Because as soon as they go out, they seemingly would all get stared at in the lower abdomen, with some even brazenly asking them directly.