Chapter 490: The Future Deputy Minister of Education (I)

She was ignorant of how she’d triggered Shangguan Wan, but this child hugged her waist and buried her head there, crying out loudly.

Jiang Pengji was stunned, immediately sensing something amiss.

Shangguan Wan was indeed active and had a warm personality, but it didn’t mean that she didn’t practice the etiquette of the noble families.

Thus, even if this lady was so broken that she would cry pitifully, it was impossible that she’d give no regard to her image.

Shuangguan Wan was aware of her gender, but others weren’t.

If word got out that she had hugged a man outside of her family in public and cried her lungs out, she would be mocked for being shameless.

Moreover, she had come in with the troops from Hejian county to the Xiangyang district. That alone was very intriguing.

Even if Shuangguan Wan was mischievous, it was impossible for her to run away from home.

Her face was somber. Jiang Nongqin stepped forward to pay her respects with a reverential disposition.

“Your subordinate, Jiang Nongqin, greets you, Lord.”

“Please rise.” Jiang Pengjj knitted her brows and asked Jiang Nongqin, “Did Wan’er leave Hejian county with you?”

“Yes,” Jiang Nongqin replied. Afterward, her cold expression revealed an additional layer of anger. As a woman who was once in danger, she despised those kinds of tragedies the most. “My Lord, what happened to Lady Wan is a long story. She didn’t leave home on her own accord, but out of desperation. If she doesn’t leave Hejian county, I am afraid the Lord will only see Lady Wan’s tombstone in the future.”

Her heart sank. With one hand, she comforted the crying Shuangguan Wan. She said, “Let’s enter the city, this is not a good place to talk.”

Seeing that Shuangguan Wan was so broken, Jiang Pengji stopped consoling her and waited for her to calm herself down.

After a while, Jiang Pengji felt a slight tug at her clothes.

She bent her head and asked, “You’ve stopped crying?”

Shangguan Wan raised her hands to wipe away the tears from her eyes. The front of Jiang Pengji’s garments was also wet from her tears.

“I’ll, I’ll stop crying… since when does Wan’er like crying?”

Even when she was bullied by the Zhangs she had stubbornly held back her tears. But now that she had met Jiang Pengji, her tears were unleashed and flowed freely.

She felt there were countless eyes fixated on her from all directions. She stopped crying immediately and her face reddened with embarrassment.

“Then stop hugging me. You can’t be expecting me to carry you into the city, right?”

She laughed, then lifted her hands to touch Shuangguan Wan’s head and discovered something amiss. Frowning, a wild guess flashed through her mind. She purposely maintained her calm composure and asked, “Why have you cut your hair?”

Our bodies are given by our parents. According to rules, other than in a few exceptions, the hair can only be trimmed, not cut.

Shuangguan Wan’s face turned pale white. She bit her lower lip and said, “My husband is dead. To prove my chastity and demonstrate my sincere convictions, I cut my hair…”

Hearing this, Jiang Pengji’s face looked downcast.

This statement made her link Shuangguan Wan’ s attitude with her arrival in the Xiangyang district. She vaguely guessed at some details.

“Let’s enter the city first!”

Her voice became somewhat more solemn.

Jiang Nongqin wore her military clothing. She followed Jiang Pengji and entered the district manor.

Some time passed.

Clap—Ka cha—

The sound of a table shattering in the back hall caused Qiguan Rang to knit his brows.

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Afterward, the sound of the lord controlling her fury also came from the back hall.

Qiguan Rang was momentarily in shock. Which clueless person had provoked the lord?

Seeing that Jiang Pengji was infuriated, she felt bad and softly said. “Sister Lanting, Wan’er is alright.”

“Call me ‘Brother,’” Jiang Pengji emphasized.

Hanging her head slightly, Shuangguan Wan replied, “Oh… Brother Lanting… Wan’er is really alright.”

She threw the divorce letter at the Zhangs. Then she gave up the attire of a married woman and changed into her youthful clothes.

Only the long hair she’d cut off could not regrow immediately, even if she hid it well. Once Jiang Pengji had touched it, she’d identified the problem.

“I really don’t know where your everyday intelligence went, but when your stepmother forced you, you should have thought of a way to secretly escape from the manner. You could have used the signet I gave you to ask for help at Liu’s manor.” Jiang Pengji hated that she had missed the opportunity. She poked her in the head. “If your mother hadn’t stopped you, would you have killed yourself? There’s always a place for you elsewhere, even if those people didn’t accept you! People can always find ways to survive.”

Jiang Pengji thought that committing suicide was a cowardly act and had always despised it.

A surge of warmth rose in her heart as she smacked her head lightly. “…That time… I didn’t think of it…”

Speaking of which, she was too self-confident.

Having been favored for years, Shuangguan Wan had never seen her stepmother as her rival.

She believed her family would stand by her side and protect her from being attacked by her stepmother. Moreover, she was already engaged by then. Once the mourning period was over, she could marry into her fiancé’s family. She wouldn’t have to see her stepmother’s hypocritical face anymore.

She hadn’t expected that, with just one mistake, she would lose everything.

Having a stepmother meant that she had a stepfather.

Her stepmother was cunning, gentle, careful, and carried herself in a rather humble manner. Her disposition was utterly lowly, so despicable that Shuangguan Wan looked down on her.

She really wondered how her stepmother had been born into an aristocratic family and not a brothel.

Unfortunately, her grandmother and father had a liking for such a personality type. Gradually, her stepmother had turned her two most important people against her. Moreover, she had sowed the seeds of discord between her future mother-in-law and Shangguan Wan, forcing her to reject the marriage. A daughter from an aristocratic family like Shuangguan Wan had become a laughingstock to everyone.

Come to think of it, her stepmother was very smart. She was a black widow spider who had spun a poisonous web, then silently waited for her prey to fall into the trap. She’d waited until her prey was on its final breaths, then launched a surprise attack to finish it off and swallow it into her stomach.

Whenever she thought of this, she trembled uncontrollably.

Jiang Pengji sighed and said, “Forget it. What’s most important is that you’re safe and sound now.”

Shangguan Wan responded with a small sound. She smiled and bashfully said, “Wan’er is now homeless. Is Brother Lanting willing to take in a free-loader?”

“I am unwilling,” Jiang Pengji directly replied. Without waiting for Shuangguan Wan to be disappointed, she added, “The good Wan’er can come and help me though, how about that?”

Upon hearing these words, she looked dazed.

The bullet screen in the live streaming room was rapidly being updated as they judged Jiang the Exploiter.

Tumi Dalao: “Rubbish, Streamer, can you save some face? Don’t disgrace yourself! Don’t disgrace yourself!”

Xingxing Dalao: “Hello everyone, I am the streamer’s face; she doesn’t want me anymore. I feel so sad, Ying, Ying, Ying.”

Fengzi Dalao: “Young lolita Shangguan, you just escaped the lion’s den, yet you’re walking into a wolves’ den.”

The viewers in the live streaming room felt sorry for Shuangguan Wan’s tragedy, but because of the distance between them, they can only look on her as an innocent rabbit who had jumped into the trap Jiang Pengji had dug. They could imagine how, after the little lady fell into the trap, Jiang Pengji would rejoice as she buried her within.

Shuangguan Wan blinked. She didn’t understand what Jiang Pengji had said. “How can I help brother Lanting?”

Jiang Pengji ignored the comments on the bullet screen. “I intend to set up a school to take in children who have come of age and provide them with an education. By the end, they will not be required to become professors, but I at least want them to know how to read and calculate… Wan’er, how about helping me by being their teacher for a while?”

Elite talents are to be met and not begged for. Men at the basic level can develop by themselves. They can apply what they learn after studying for two to three years.

Jiang Pengji aspired to achieve her great ambitions. Every step she took must be calculated cautiously.