T/N: I'm changing up Fu Wu Tian's pronoun starting with this chapter. Before he used 本王 ben wang to address himself, which meant "this prince," and I translated it as "I" for simplicity, but here he actually uses 我 wo to refer to himself, which is the neutral "I" to hide his status in front of the concubines.
Chapter 49.2 - Homecoming Crisis
An Zi Ran took note of their expressions. "Why did she run away from marriage? You can ask her that yourself if you have the opportunity to see her in the future. But there is something that I must announce, An Yu Zhi is no longer the Third Miss of An. Even if she returns in the future, no one is allowed to let her in the door without my permission."
That serious?
Several people were stunned. An Yu Zhi was his blood related sister after all. To drive her from the family just because she ran away from marriage, An Zi Ran couldn't possibly be that heartless. To not care about blood ties, did something big happen during the time that they were in Jun Zi City?
"But, since Yu Zhi escaped from the marriage, how come this gentleman says he is the An family's son-in-law?"
The shrewd Wang Qing Lan immediately remembered Fu Wu Tian's words. Since the two did not get married how could he still be considered a son-in-law? An Qiao E and An Ke Xin didn't have any marriage prospects yet so it couldn't be them either.
An Zi Ran's expression darkened.
He shouldn't have let Fu Wu Tian speak just then.
Fu Wu Tian said faintly, "Who said that I am the husband of the Third Miss? The An family has more than one child after all."
When realization struck the women could not help but look at one another. Could it be what they were thinking? Due to An Yu Zhi fleeing the marriage, this man now wants to choose another young miss from the An family as a replacement? If that was so…
An Qiao E and An Ke Xin were so excited that their faces became red.
They could tell with one look that this man was no simple person, and he even came from Jun Zi City. After marrying him, one could move to Jun Zi City and network with even more people. Maybe even meet the influential officials there. That would be like hitting the jackpot.
Fang Jun Ping and Zheng Bi were not as optimistic as them. Instead they were wondering what caused An Yu Zhi to run away from the marriage.
No matter how you looked at this man he was impeccable. If not for some special reason, how could a sheltered girl like An Yu Zhi have the courage to flee?
In the future, their daughters would be their meal tickets, so they must give this matter careful consideration.
"I wonder what kind of business does this gentleman do in Jun Zi City?" Zheng Bi asked anxiously. This way of asking was very abrupt and rude. But she didn't want her daughter to marry and then end up having regrets. Just because one lived in Jun Zi City it did not automatically meant they had a high status. So she must be shameless and ask. However, her wording was still quite skillful. At the very least, she knew that she could not directly ask people what status they had.
The two young misses immediately perked up their ears.
This was related to their future, they could not be careless!
Ge Qian An, who was standing to the side, swept his cold gaze across them. In a frost-covered tone he said, "Our master does business, as for what kind of business, that is not something that you married women can know."
Like a basin of cold water being dumped over their heads, all of their schemes and ambitions were doused.
An Qiao E and An Ke Xin could not help feeling disappointed, so much so that they could not keep the emotion from creeping onto their faces. Da Ya placed importance on agriculture and looked down on business and commerce. In general, the status of a businessman was not high. Although they won’t lack for clothes or food, they'd much rather marry some bigwig or official, and become a noble woman. This was the future that they felt that they should have.
The expressions on their faces were very obvious. They did not know how to conceal their emotions.
The atmosphere in the great hall grew cold.
Fang Jun Ping and Zheng Bi took note, and could not help feeling anxious for their daughters. Even if they looked down on businessmen they still shouldn't be so obvious about it. They promptly gave their daughters covert glares. Feeling the sting of their mothers' gazes the two young girls withdrew the looks of distaste on their faces.
"You want to marry our master, but you don't even know your own value. For daughters of concubines, you're not even worthy of being our master's concubines. Furthermore, our master has already married the young master of An." Shao Fei, who was in a bad mood from listening to them prattle, couldn't help but speak out. He sneered at the women until their expressions turned black. They had yet to think of a proper rebuke when those words practically shocked their souls from their bodies.
"What are you talking about?!" Wang Qing Lan's sharp voice suddenly screeched.
The other four were shocked into silence. The young master of An was married* to someone? What a joke!
[*T/N: English just uses the word "marry," but in Chinese there are two ways of saying "marry" that connotes gender. 嫁给 jia gei implies a woman giving herself to a man in marriage, and 娶亲 qu qin implies a man taking a wife. The text here uses the former.]
[In the case of two men I guess we can say the former is the shou/uke and the latter is the gong/seme. XD]
Shao Fei saw that his master and wang fei were not stopping him. He was not stupid. He knew that someday they would have to let these women know (about the marriage). It must be too embarrassing for the wang fei to say it himself, so it was necessary to have someone else come out and say it. His courage became bolstered. "I'm not speaking nonsense. The young master of An married our master two days ago. Today is the day he returns to his parental home."
Fang Jun Ping and them felt like they were struck by lightning. Shock split their faces.
How could An Zi Ran be married to someone!
Thank you to Ren for the coffee and your sweet comment. \(^-^)/