“The Li family you mentioned, are they related to Minister Wang’s wife?” Qi Zhenzhen asked.
Ruining nodded. “Sister Zhenzhen, how did you know? There are so many families with the surname Li in the capital, how did you guess it was them?”
“And I’m guessing the Li family daughter engaged to Song Chi is Ruyi?”
Ruining exclaimed, “Sister Zhenzhen, did you get news from somewhere else?”
Qi Zhenzhen shook her head. “Not at all. As you said, the Song family and the Li family haven’t been making a fuss. Besides, I’ve been at Taihe Temple during this time. I just had a feeling it was them. It’s just that, as far as I know, the person Ruyi was previously engaged to wasn’t from the Song family.”
When Qi Zhenzhen asked about this, Ruining sighed. “The one Ruyi’s sister was engaged to passed away.”
Meaning, the person had only been gone for a few months. Normally, Li Ruyi shouldn’t have gotten engaged so soon for the sake of her reputation. The Song family would also consider if Li Ruyi had a reputation for being a jinx to her husband.
But now, it seemed none of that had happened.
Ruining cleared up Qi Zhenzhen’s doubts. “That person died at Baihua Tower. Several girls, it’s said they used aphrodisiacs and went too far, dying with foam at their mouths.”
Did he die from sudden death during intimacy? At the time, it was said he was a person of decent character, how could he be so disgusting?
“Normally, after their son passed away, they should have canceled the engagement. Especially since their son died so disgracefully!” Ruining said indignantly. “But they were shameless. At first, they kept the news quiet, only saying that an elder in the family was not feeling well and was eager for their grandson to get married. They discussed with Sister Ruyi’s family to have Sister Ruyi marry earlier.”
Qi Zhenzhen’s mouth dropped open in surprise. That family was truly shameless.
“This matter was kept very secret, and basically, no one knew about it. Later, that family exposed themselves. One of their concubine-born sons accidentally let it slip. The person who heard it happened to be a friend of Song Chi, and he told Song Chi about it as a joke. Song Chi immediately went to the Li family to talk about it. The Li family was a bit disbelieving, after all, Song Chi’s reputation wasn’t very good,” Ruining continued. “None of you would have imagined what Song Chi did.”
Qi Zhenzhen and the others cooperated, asking Ruining what Song Chi did.
“Song Chi hired some musicians to play and make noise at the entrance of that family’s house, saying that as acquaintances, even though his departure wasn’t dignified, he still came to see him off and send him on his way with fanfare. It attracted many onlookers, and everyone didn’t know the person had died. After all, their family was busy preparing to marry a wife. So, many people gathered around asking why.
Song Chi pretended not to know and said it was impossible, why would this family be marrying a wife? Their son had just died, and the funeral hadn’t even been held yet, how could they hold a wedding? Someone asked which son had died, and Song Chi told them. The person who asked said, ‘That’s not right, they are marrying a wife to this son.’ Song Chi argued with them, and later called people from Baihua Tower. Although these people from Baihua Tower had been bribed by this family before, they didn’t dare to offend Song Chi, otherwise, Song Chi could really shut down Baihua Tower. So, they stammered out which year, month, and where, and who died for what reason.
When everyone heard this, they realized it was the son of this family who was supposed to get married! The person was dead, and they still wanted to get married, was this a ghost marriage? Ghost marriages were for when both parties were deceased. They actually wanted to marry a living person to a ghost, that was too wicked! Bad news travels fast. Soon, the entire neighborhood knew the detailed events. They angrily and fearfully took the betrothal gifts sent by that family and returned them, breaking off the engagement.”
Ruining spoke vividly, making it feel as if one was there.
“What happened next?” Jin Rong asked.