Chapter 234 Another Setback

Chapter 234 Another Setback

Even when he stubbornly went to the capital to ask the couple for a definitive answer, they refused to acknowledge Jiang Yuan.

Now they're suddenly putting on a show of being loving parents, trying to fool Jiang Yuan with fake kinship and persuade him to acknowledge his ancestors, all for the sake of the huge benefits Jiang Yuan might bring them.

But why? Why can they just throw him away or accept him as they please? Do they think Jiang Yuan is some object without his own thoughts or feelings?

Hao Yu was just a cousin, but he willingly spent more than ten years on Jiang Yuan, and one can imagine the feelings he had for Jiang Yuan.

Now that Jiang Yuan's biological parents want to use and exploit him, it's no wonder Hao Yu would disagree.

He waved to the people in the Earl's mansion, "Go, and never come back here again. The person you're looking for isn't here."

After saying this, he turned to Xie Wanniang and gave her a meaningful warning, "Now that A Yuan is a fifth-rank garrison commander and has the young master's trust, there are countless spies trying to use him to spy on military secrets. Although you are young, you must be extremely vigilant. No matter how well those with ulterior motives act, you cannot be fooled by them."

Xie Wanniang nodded, "Don't worry, if any suspicious people come to the door again, I will immediately have the guards notify the authorities and ask the officers to come and arrest the spies."

Everyone in the Earl's Mansion: ...So Jiang Yuan's merchant wife is even more difficult to deal with than his unrelated village woman sister.

Jiang Shun's face turned ashen. The breakthrough he had painstakingly come up with had now been forcefully blocked by the very person who had "found" it, and their mission had once again ended in failure.

Although it's not impossible for him to directly contact Jiang Yuan, the problem is that just by looking at the attitude of the people around him, it's not hard to guess that Jiang Yuan must harbor a great deal of resentment towards his biological parents who abandoned him several times.

Without someone close to Jiang Yuan who could mediate and persuade them, the chances of them messing up their job again were extremely high.

Jiang Shun, who was always so difficult to deal with, was reluctantly called Hao Yu "Uncle" again amidst the chatter of the onlookers. "Think about it again. You really are our lady's cousin."

He knew, of course, that Hao Yu was pretending to be confused, but even if he told her, Hao Yu would deny it to the death, so what could he do?

Hao Yu ignored her completely this time, waved to Xie Wanniang, and slowly walked away.

Jiang Shun and the others were both angry and anxious, but they couldn't do anything in public.

These onlookers, who had been deliberately lured in with the expectation of a happy ending, suddenly changed their tune and started cursing Jiang Yuan's biological parents after Hao Yu revealed that Jiang Yuan had been deliberately abandoned by his biological parents.

Stared at intently by their large and small eyes, Jiang Shun and the others dared not do anything out of line.

He knew that these people did not actually believe Hao Yu's words completely, and that the people of the Earl's Mansion had indeed come to the wrong person. A large number of them had probably already smelled more exciting gossip in the conversation between the people of the Earl's Mansion and Hao Yu and Xie Wanniang.

Even if they had guessed it, because of their contempt for Jiang Yuan's biological parents, they would only continue to pretend to be ignorant.

As Jiang Shun had predicted, a large portion of the onlookers had now deduced that Jiang Tong and Madam Han were very likely Jiang Yuan's biological parents who had abandoned him.

No one knew why they hadn't acknowledged Jiang Yuan before, but now everyone knew why they were shamelessly pretending to be loving parents, trying to reclaim their biological son.

Although they still had a question in their minds—what exactly did Jiang Yuan, a fifth-rank garrison commander, possess, or what use was he, that made the noble Marquis of Anping, Jiang Tong, willing to contradict himself to acknowledge him?

Only Chang Yao's parents, a small group of soldiers at Zijing Pass, and those in the capital who were qualified to attend court knew that Jiang Yuan had captured the Tatar princess alive.

Most people living in this area, especially those who have the leisure to sit here and watch the drama unfold, have virtually no way of quickly obtaining such important news.

Only after the news was passed around by word of mouth and gradually became less confidential could they get scoops on the court and the military from their master or relatives and friends, even though the stories had become somewhat distorted.

Therefore, those who were still unaware that Jiang Yuan had gained the emperor's favor by capturing the Tatar princess quickly began to think about all sorts of other random things.

In their bold assumptions, the true purpose of Jiang Tong's search for his relatives is increasingly sinister and terrifying.

Xie Wanniang and Hao Yu didn't hear the group's strange remarks. Jiang Shun and the others, who were forced to travel with them for a while, were so angry by the group's baseless speculations that they almost drew their knives to kill people several times.

Fortunately, the soldiers who passed by them from time to time used their clothing, weapons, and warhorses to force Jiang Shun and his men to calm down time and time again.

They chose a nice inn to stay in, some distance from Xie Wan's family home. Jiang Shun frowned as he sat down in the hall with the others.

They needed to discuss the follow-up matters. Although they had been thwarted by Wang Xiaozhi, they could still continue the charade by pretending to investigate everywhere. Now, however, they needed Xie Wanniang or Hao Yu to help persuade them, so they couldn't continue using the old methods.

If they are unable to continue to "rely on their own efforts" and are unable to persuade Hao Yu or Xie Wanniang, then they will have no choice but to look for other targets.

Jiang Shun recalled the intelligence that Jiang Tong had shown him before, "Besides Hao Yu and the Xie family, Jiang Yuan only had dealings with the garrison commanders of Zijing Pass. Among them, the one he was on relatively good terms with was Chang Yao, the heir of the Marquis of Dingbei, and those who had served as Chang Yao's bodyguards."

One of them looked up at him and asked, "Can we persuade the heir of the Marquis of Dingbei? Or rather, how do we get a chance to see him?"

Although both the Marquis's Mansion and the Earl's Mansion seem to belong to the noble class, the Marquis of Dingbei's Mansion is quite different from other dukes, marquises, and earls' mansions.

Other nobles who rose to power through military merit fought in the wars of the past, but the Marquis of Dingbei's family fought against the foreign tribes in the north.