Chapter 222 - Beautiful Eyes, Bright Smile and Pretty Eyebrows

Gu Shao burst out laughing and said to Song Yuan next to him, stroking his beards, “What do you think? I’ve told you that this daughter of yours is smart. Am I right?”

Song Yuan didn’t like his elder daughter, but Gu Shao always regarded him as a nephew. Now he must give a reply, “You always have a good eye.”

“Since you think that I have a good eye, you should keep what I told you just now in mind!” Gu Shao fetched the tea from Song Yuan and took a sip of it. After putting the tea back on the table, he stood up, “I’ll go out for a walk first.”

Apparently, he intended to leave Song Yuan and his daughter alone.

Song Yixiao was slightly displeased, for she immediately recalled that she was deceived into going to the side yard of the Song Family back then. Gu Shao noticed the instant change of her facial expression and thought that she disliked her father so much that she wouldn’t feel like meeting her father in private. When he walked to the entrance, he stopped and said gently, “Kid, it is better to get rid of an enmity than keep it alive. Moreover, the blood relation between a father and his daughter can’t be severed. Do you agree?”

“Yes, Granduncle!” Song Yixiao gazed at his sincere eyes but she found it quite ironical. One of the men proclaimed himself as her granduncle and the other one was her birth father. On the surface, could she say no?

In her heart, she felt very unhappy. Hence, after Gu Shao left, she just stood on the spot with her hands placed by her thighs, saying nothing.

The room remained silent for a while. After all, Song Yuan cared about what Gu Shao said more so he spoke first, “Do you have a style name?”

“Father, before I got married, Mother named me as Shanyao,” Song Yixiao answered with a sneer. Her father didn’t even know about his own daughter’s style name. She didn’t understand whether Song Yuan wanted to make peace with her or to remind her of her being neglected by asking the question.

“The girl is gazing with loving eyes and a beautiful smile. Her gracefully slender figure is much admired (which denotes Shan Yao Tiao in Chinese),” Song Yuan slightly frowned and spoke, “Your style name is too straightforward. The point is that it is not serious enough, which is not a decent name that a noble lady should have! Wei Mengying has an inkling of verse anyway. How can she make such a mistake?”

Song Yixiao said with a poker face, “Father, you used to be a champion of the imperial examination. Surely, you are a man of great talent! Although Mother has an inkling of verse, how can she be compared with you? Besides, Mother was pregnant back then, who was very feckless and still didn’t forget to give me a style name. I’ve already felt rather bad about that. In addition, a girl’s style name is rarely known by others. It is not that important.”

Song Yuan stayed quiet for a moment and said, “Your name was not Yixiao before.”

As he saw his daughter puckered her lips and said nothing, he hedged and then continued, “As a poem says, people drink wine on the south of the river in February; the day lilies (Yinan) and orchids are blooming delightfully (according to the superstition, pregnant women with Yinan on her are prone to give birth to boys). You were born in February. And your grandmother was so eager to have a grandson. When she knew that it was a baby girl, she wanted to name you as Yinan. However, Wei Mengying was dissatisfied with that and wouldn’t approve it no matter how. I tried to mediate between them, and it took me more than half a year to rename you as Yixiao.”

His voice was a bit hoarse, “Yixiao as in the poem that Hu Mu Yi Xiao, E Mei Man Zhi, which means the girl has beautiful eyes, bright smile and pretty eyebrows. Back then, Wei Mengying said that when it was time that you should get married, your style name should be changed to Huji or Mochou. However…”

Song Yixiao could feel his restrained love and hatred when he referred to his ex-wife coldly as Wei Mengying, but she only wanted to sneer instead of sympathizing with him or pitying him. Since he couldn’t hold sheer hatred towards Wei Mengying by now, why didn’t he show any concern or care for the daughter who had the blood of them two?

She couldn’t be bothered to hear more of Song Yuan’s recollection. Hence, she said drily, “Who can remember things that happened such a long time ago? After all, Mother is a respected princess consort now and my half siblings are still young. She is so busy now!”

“I know that you want to stay away from the Song Family forever.” Song Yuan stared at her for a moment before looking away. Instantly, his eyes became as indifferent as usual, “Actually, I don’t want to see you either. In terms of appearance and disposition, you resemble Wei Mengying too much, for which I really dislike you! However, Uncle Gu has done a lot for our family. Since he hopes that we two can make peace, I don’t want to disappoint him. That’s why I asked you to come here.”

Song Yixiao pondered to herself, “Why didn’t you come straight to the point?”

She flipped her hair and said with a smile, “Father, what you said really hurt my feelings. I’ve always been respectful to you and never dare to treat you lightly. Why do we bother to make peace then?”

“The Song Family is in a much worse condition than before, but there are still some assets passed down from the ancestors.” Song Yuan knew that the grudge between them was too deep and that Song Yixiao was not a naive and innocent girl. Thus, he stopped saying something flamboyant and cut to the chase, “Back then, the dowries that the Wei Family took from us for you were as many as the legitimate daughter of the Song Family should have when she gets married. If you are willing to keep in touch with the Song Family frequently, I can divide the current family assets into four parts, and you will get one of them!”

By four parts, it meant that Song Yixiao, Song Yibao and the newly born twins would each have one share?

However, Song Yixiao had received the dowries when she got married. In this case, as the eldest legitimate daughter, the assets she got would be the most. Nevertheless, according to Song Yuan, if she didn’t agree, she wouldn’t get the share of the assets and all the assets would be her half-siblings’!

Song Yixiao laughed out of extreme anger, “Father, you’ve thought of me as too short-sighted a person! First of all, the dowries that the Song Family gave me before are enough to support me for the rest of my life. Now that I am a duke’s wife and my husband is the grand princess’s beloved son, who treats me as the apple of his eye, how can I be short of money?”

Song Yuan didn’t expect to win her over with money, so he just replied casually, “You know, the Crown Prince treats Uncle Gu with much decorum now. Your husband is always a supporter of the Crown Prince. Now here is such a chance to please Uncle Gu for you. If you let go of it, I wonder whether your husband will continue treating you as the apple of his eye or blame you for failing to see the larger issues.”

“It seems that you still regard me as a child.” Song Yixiao laughed, “Now it is that Granduncle asks you to resume coming into contact with me but not that my husband begs him to take me as his grandniece! What you said sounds like my husband and I can’t live if we don’t lean on him. Please allow me to remind you of one thing. That is, I am 15 years old, not 5 years old!”

Song Yuan stayed silent for a moment and swallowed back the words on the tip of his tongue. Then he asked directly, “What do you want then?”

“What do I want?” Song Yixiao asked in amazement, “I have been one of the Jian Family. I should ask my husband for anything if I want. How can I count on the Song Family?”

Then she snorted sarcastically, “Moreover, what is it that the Jian Family can’t give me and the Song Family can?”

Song Yuan felt that the conversation couldn’t go on anymore and then waved his hand, “You wait here!”

Then he just left with a flick of his sleeves. Undoubtedly, he went to find Gu Shao.

“Lord Gu is so famous but he is really innocent this time!” Song Yixiao stared at his back and snorted in secret, “How can he think that my father and I can bury the hatchet only by asking my father to tell me some past stories in private? Does he believe that I am so benign and openhearted or that I am a stupid push-over?”

However, compared with the reason why Gu Shao tried to mediate between Song Yuan and her, Song Yixiao was more curious about how Gu Shao was going to mediate.

He couldn’t just buy her over with money, could he?

After a while, Gu Shao returned alone as expected. He didn’t seem surprised about Song Yuan’s failure. At least he implied that everything was within his expectation, “As a saying goes, Rome is not built in one day. The grudge between you and your father can’t be ended within one day or two. I persuade your father to have a private talk with you only to let you know that although the Song Family have treated you unfairly since your mother remarried, your father really liked you when you were born.”

Otherwise, Song Yuan, who was always filial, wouldn’t have managed to change her name from Yinan to Yixiao against Madam Pang’s will.

Based on the style names like Huji, Mochou, suggested by Wei Mengying back then, they wished their daughter to be a beauty and meanwhile hoped that she could smile all the time and live a carefree life.

“So what?” Song Yixiao listened to him calmly and thought, “Even my mother forgets the two proposed style names, do I need to keep them in mind?”

He noticed that she paid no heed to what he said, but he was not angry. He only continued, “You may not know about this. The clansmen of the Jiangnan Hall are always inclined to be obsessed in love matters since ancient times but they basically don’t end well. Generally, they may get themselves and others into trouble. Even their children are implicated! At that time, I was in Jiangnan. When I heard that your mother was remarried to Prince of Hengshan, I knew that something was wrong!”

“I’m not trying to defend your father and ask you to show understanding for him,” Gu Shao raised the tea bowl and took a sip of the tea, saying in a gentle voice, “In fact, I’m not in favor of his doing so. You know, a gentleman doesn’t need to be afraid of having no wife. Moreover, leaving your previous stepmother, Madam Liu aside, Madam Lu, to be honest, is a more suitable woman than your mother to be your father’s wife!”

He emphasized, “If your father fell for Madam Lu at the very beginning, your family wouldn’t be so messed up now.”

Song Yixiao couldn’t argue about that. Just by one glance, Madam Lu looked like a virtuous woman who was really obedient and tender. If she couldn’t give birth to a son and Madam Pang proposed letting her son have a concubine, she would cry and then preside over the ceremony of concubine-taking. On the contrary, Song Yixiao’s birth mother, Wei Mengying never agreed on that even though she couldn’t give birth to a son after being married to Song Yuan for ten years.

However, on what ground did everything have to go as Madam Pang and her son expected?

“By telling you that, I only hope that you won’t follow your father’s example!” Song Yixiao was still pondering when she suddenly heard Gu Shao’s words in astonishment, “I follow my father’s example?”

How was it possible? Even Song Yuan asserted that she resembled Wei Mengying in terms of appearance and disposition!

In what aspect did she resemble her father?

At least she could never transfer her anger about her husband on her child!

However, Gu Shao answered lightly, “He knows the consequence but he is still swayed by emotions!”

Song Yixiao instantly narrowed her eyes and after a while, she smiled, “Granduncle, you have such sharp eyes. Do you think that I’m such a narrow-minded person? Due to some hard feelings, my father and I can’t be as intimate as an ordinary father and his daughter should be, but I won’t transfer the anger on you and refuse to accept your kindness just because you always take care of my father!”

She reminded, “My husband, Duke of Yan Jian Xubai, was one of those who went out of the imperial capital with Commandery Prince Zhongling to receive you two days ago.”

Gu Shao said that Song Yuan knew the consequence but he was still swayed by emotions, which seemed to imply that Song Yuan transferred the anger on his daughter and treated her harshly just because of his obsession with the love and hatred for Wei Mengying though he knew that his daughter was innocent. In fact, instead of giving her advice with the saying, he was reminding Song Yixiao not to decline the olive branch held out by him for personal feelings!

Hence, Song Yixiao felt so confused. She was not happy that Gu Shao intervened too much, but she didn’t intend to turn against him at all.