Chapter 480

“I don’t want it!” Jiang Yuanrang refused outright upon hearing Li Zhiwei’s words. After all, Jiang Yuanrang still didn’t want to acknowledge that he was a child of the Li family. Even if he were to return to the Li family someday, he wouldn’t need their estate.

“Give everything from the Li family to my little sister,” Jiang Yuanrang said, thinking that since his sister was about to marry into the Prince’s Mansion of An, she needed the family’s backing even more than he did.

When Li Tianyou and Lady Yao heard this, they exchanged a knowing smile.

Their children, even though they had not grown up together, were now already thinking of one another.

Li Tianyou looked at his two children with great satisfaction and laughed as he added, “There’s no need to argue. All the Li family’s assets, regardless of gender, belong to both of you.”

“I told you, I don’t want it. Give all those things to my sister!” Jiang Yuanrang glared discontentedly at Li Tianyou.

In his mind, his sister was marrying a prince. Without some form of support, how could she manage?

“I don’t want them either. Give everything to my brother!” Li Zhiwei shot back, just as stubbornly.

After Xu Heming returned to the Prince’s Mansion of An, he felt restless.

The memory of Li Zhiwei pulling Jiang Yuanrang toward Ruiyun Pavilion gnawed at him with jealousy.

Whenever he thought of the possibility that Jiang Yuanrang might do something to harm Li Zhiwei, his unease only deepened.

He still didn’t trust Jiang Yuanrang.

“Father, why do you look so unhappy?” Xu Qingshi asked curiously when he came back and found Xu Heming’s face dark.

“Where have you been gallivanting again?” Xu Heming frowned and sighed as he looked at his son.

It was Jiang Yuanrang who despised him solely because he had married a prior wife and had a child. If he had been given a choice, Xu Heming thought, he would have wished to meet Li Zhiwei earlier.

But he hadn’t been given any choice in the matter, had he?

“Father, aren’t you about to marry and bring me a stepmother? Why aren’t you happy yet? Could it be that you’re thinking of my mother and regretting it?” Xu Qingshi asked curiously, recalling the conversations at the Xie household.

After all, his mother had been there first. It was possible that his father still pined for her.

Otherwise, why would his father’s face be so grim?

“What nonsense are you spouting?” Xu Heming felt a pang of guilt. True, Madam Zhou had given him a child, but their marriage had been arranged by their parents and matchmaker. Besides, Madam Zhou had passed away many years ago. Aside from a vestige of guilt in the beginning, if Xu Heming said he was still deeply attached, it would be a lie.

But now, he certainly couldn’t say to his son that he had forgotten what the boy’s mother even looked like, could he?

“Then are you worried that once my stepmother comes, she’ll bully me?” Xu Qingshi wondered. Li Zhiwei didn’t seem like the type to cause him trouble, did she?

He recalled Zhao Donglai’s stories about stepmothers who beat and scolded him mercilessly.

So far, Li Zhiwei had not even spoken a harsh word to him.

Surely she wouldn’t resort to violence.

“Father, don’t worry! If my stepmother ever tries to hit me, I’ll run away faster than a rabbit and won’t let her hurt me. Since you like her, just hurry up and marry her!” Xu Qingshi said, thinking of Zhao Donglai’s advice: if your stepmother hits you, just run.

Xu Qingshi was confident. He could run as fast as Zhao Donglai, if not faster.

If that pretty older sister ever really tried to hit him, he would give it his all and flee.

That way, his father wouldn’t have to worry and wouldn’t punish him either.

“Where did you learn such crooked reasoning?” Xu Heming’s mouth twitched. He couldn’t fathom where Xu Qingshi had picked up such twisted logic.

Besides, Li Zhiwei wasn’t the kind of person to hit a child. If she ever did, it would only be because Xu Qingshi truly deserved it.

At that point, Xu Heming thought, Li Zhiwei wouldn’t even need to lift a hand—he would do it himself.

“Don’t listen to what those people say. She’s not like that!” Xu Heming knew that once Li Zhiwei married him, people would inevitably gossip in Xu Qingshi’s ear.

But Li Zhiwei had a gentle nature. She wouldn’t hit someone for no reason.

“Father, just in case—strictly in case—what if she and I get into a fight? Whose side will you take?” Xu Qingshi inwardly doubted Zhao Donglai’s claim that “with a stepmother comes a stepfather.”

Still, he believed that even if his father married a new princess, he himself should always come first.

Thinking this, Xu Qingshi eagerly pressed his father for an answer.

Xu Heming watched his son standing with hands on his hips, demanding an answer, and thought the boy looked ridiculous.

Especially his troublesome son. Hmph, take whose side?

If the boy didn’t stir up trouble and break Li Zhiwei’s heart, Xu Heming figured, he should consider himself lucky.

“Don’t worry, I definitely won’t take your side!” Xu Heming said, looking at Xu Qingshi with absolute certainty.

“You… you wicked father!” Xu Qingshi hadn’t expected his father to say this, and instantly felt crushed.

“That’s enough. Behave yourself. Go back and practice your calligraphy properly,” Xu Heming ordered, finding his son too exasperating to look at.

“Little cabbage, yellowing in the field, with a stepmother, you get a stepfather too!” Xu Qingshi mimicked Zhao Donglai’s tune, his face full of exaggerated sorrow as he sang the folk rhyme.

Zhao Donglai had told him that whenever he sang that song, his father would soften his heart and not punish him anymore.

Surely his own royal father would listen too, right?

Xu Heming twitched the corner of his mouth when he heard that.

What could he do?

Right now, he just wanted to hit him!

If Xu Qingshi ended up unable to get out of bed on the day of his wedding, no one would say anything, would they?

With that in mind, Xu Heming was considering giving him a beating when a servant rushed over anxiously, reporting, “Your Highness, there’s trouble at the royal hunting grounds—the Pacifying General and the Third Prince of Qinling Country have been in an incident.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Heming abandoned his thoughts of Xu Qingshi and hurried out the door.

“Hmph, bad father!” Xu Qingshi muttered lightly as he watched Xu Heming leave like that.

Before long, news that Li Tianyou had gained a son spread through every street and alley.

“Have you heard? The Li family—suddenly they have a son now?”

“Really? I thought they only had a daughter?”

“That’s right! And that daughter is supposed to marry Prince An soon. Now that a son has popped up, who knows how much dowry the Li family will be willing to give their daughter!”

“If you ask me, why give the dowry to a daughter? Naturally, it should be kept for the son!”

“Without all of Li’s wealth and assets, would Prince An still want to marry Miss Li? Remember, the Li family was originally just an ordinary merchant family!”

“Who knows? Isn’t the wedding only three days away? Have any of you been to Prince An’s mansion to take a look?”

Everyone ​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​‌‍was gossiping ceaselessly, debating whether Li Zhiwei would still smoothly marry into Prince An’s household.

With the Li family’s wealth gone, would Prince An still want Li Zhiwei as his principal wife?

“In my opinion, there are plenty of worthy noble ladies in the capital. Prince An definitely won’t marry Miss Li!”