The Engagement Is Broken Off

"Second Miss, Madam asks you to come over."

"All right, I'm coming."

After answering, Hua Meng turned back to look at herself in the mirror.

I'm back. How wonderful.

But now, a major matter still awaited her.

At the thought, Hua Meng raised a hand and touched up her rouge before rising and walking toward the door.

When the maid Ling Cui saw her mistress come out, she hurriedly looked at her with concern. "Miss, Madam Zhang has gone too far. I doubt this is what Young Master Zhang wants."

Hua Meng kept walking, but a cold smile curled her lips. "Whether he wants it or not doesn't matter. Since his mother could come to break off the engagement a month before the wedding, there's no way he didn't know." Besides, this was exactly what Zhang Jinghong wanted.

Thinking of everything she had seen in her previous life, when she had hanged herself in despair after the engagement was broken and her soul had drifted through the world for twenty years, Hua Meng could no longer believe that Zhang Jinghong hadn't known about it.

At Hua Meng's words, Ling Cui's heart turned cold as well.

She had never imagined that Young Master Zhang, who had grown up with her miss as childhood sweethearts, would turn out to be such a person.

Hua Meng did not know what Ling Cui was thinking. If she had known, she would only have given a cold laugh and told her that nothing was impossible. That man was far too good at putting on an act; he had deceived not only her, but the Elder Princess's entire family as well.

When Hua Meng arrived at the main courtyard with Ling Cui, Madam Hua, Lu Shi, was toying with the dowry pig-slaughtering knife that had not seen the light of day for years.

Madam Zhang, seated below her, had been so frightened she didn't know what to do ever since Lu Shi brought out the knife.

Even so, she insisted on remaining seated, declaring that she would break off her youngest son's engagement to Hua Meng today.

"Madam Hua, it's because the Elder Princess was impressed by my Jinghong's studies. I know breaking off the engagement now will affect Mengmeng's reputation, but that is the imperial family, after all..."

"We can break off the engagement, but I have conditions."

Before Madam Zhang could finish, Hua Meng, who had just reached the doorway, cut her off.

Hearing Hua Meng speak, Lu Shi, who had been silent in the room for a long time, immediately rose in distress. Looking at the approaching figure, she said, "My Mengmeng, you've really been wronged."

Hua Meng entered the room and paid her respects to Lu Shi in one smooth, flowing motion. Only then did she turn to Madam Zhang at the side and continue, "I agree to break off the engagement, but I have conditions. Does your Zhang family dare agree to them?"

Madam Zhang had been stunned ever since Hua Meng cut her off.

She had thought that Hua Meng, who was wholeheartedly in love with her youngest son, would cry so hard upon hearing that his family wanted to break off the engagement that she would be unable to leave her room. Who could have expected that not only would she come, but she would also show no trace of grief?

Unable to guess why Hua Meng was acting this way, much less fathom what she intended to do, Madam Zhang said nothing for the moment.

Seeing that Madam Zhang was silent, Liu Shi, Hua Meng's eldest sister-in-law, who had been sitting to one side all along, looked at her and said disdainfully, "Your Zhang family is about to be joined by marriage to the Princess Royal's Residence. Surely you're not afraid of my sister's conditions?"

Once Liu Shi had spoken, Madam Zhang naturally could not remain silent.

She looked up at Lu Shi, who had sat back down in the seat of honor and was still casually toying with the pig-slaughtering knife. Suppressing the panic in her heart, she ventured, "What are your demands, Mengmeng?"

As she spoke, Madam Zhang turned her gaze to Hua Meng as well.

Not only Madam Zhang, but Lu Shi and Hua Meng's three sisters-in-law also turned their gazes to Hua Meng, who stood in the middle of the hall.

Hua Meng was not the least bit afraid of having so many people staring at her. She smiled faintly, but what she said nearly made Madam Zhang jump.

"We can break off the engagement, but your Zhang family must post notices all over the capital explaining that the Elder Princess took a fancy to your Zhang Jinghong and intends to give her daughter to him in marriage, and that you therefore took the initiative to break off your engagement with my Hua Family."

Don't think you can use your connection to the Elder Princess to rise in rank and prosper, then suppress my Hua Family, forcing my father to retire and return to his hometown at the age of forty-five.

And her brothers and sister had all been forced to leave the capital with their families because the Zhang family had turned around and bitten them, abandoning the hopes each had held since childhood.

She was going to ruin the Zhang family's reputation!