The Tang Family’s Seven Os - Chapter 177

“Isn’t Yan Feng already married?” Sheng Cen’s eyes were deep, the corners of his mouth strained into a straight line, and he looked at Empress Xia across from him and asked in a deep voice.

“I heard that they got divorced six months ago.” Empress Xia said in a light voice.

She picked up her glass and took a sip of red wine before continuing: “After Yan Feng got married, he had a lover outside. Some time ago, he was caught in bed by his wife. In the end, instead of repenting, he beat his wife up. His wife couldn’t stand him anymore, so she divorced him directly, and it was a big deal at that time, many people knew about it.”

“He asked my Ge marry such a person?” Sheng Cen’s expression was completely cold and sullen as he listened, his voice was almost squeezed out word by word from between his teeth.

“He wanted to please Elder Yan.” Empress Xia rubbed her brow and said with a somewhat tired expression: “Now that there is such a scandal with Yan Feng, the Yan family now needs a person of honourable status to marry Yan Feng, to save the Yan family’s face.”

Sheng Cen stood up directly from his seat and said in a cold voice with a sullen face: “I’ll go and talk to him.”

“It’s useless.” Sheng Xi looked up at Sheng Cen and said in a soft voice: “Cen Cen, calm down.”

Tang Qi Yuan took Sheng Cen’s hand and pulled him back to his seat, whispering: “Listen to Auntie and Da Ge first.”

Sheng Cen glanced at Tang Qi Yuan, barely suppressing his anger, and sat down.

Empress Xia said: “Almost everyone knows about the marriage contract between Xi Xi and the grandson of the Yan family since they were young. When the marriage contract was terminated, only Elder Yan and Xiao Fei were present from the Yan family. At that time, His Majesty disliked this matter for being disgraceful, so he didn’t announce it to the public. It has been announced that if the Yan family does not admit that the marriage contract has been dissolved, and His Majesty is helping them, we have no way to clarify, and there is no way to prove that the marriage contract has been dissolved, after all, the two families have not exchanged any tokens.”

Sheng Cen coldly snorted: “My Ge just refuses to get married, can he still tie my Ge up to the Yan family?”

Sheng Xi looked at Sheng Cen and smiled, speaking in a rough voice, “Cen Cen……I am willing to fulfil this marriage, you don’t have to worry about me, I have already told Imperial Father that I agree.”

“……Ge!” Sheng Cen shouted incredulously, the corners of his eyes slightly red.

Sheng Xi smiled, “My leg is like this……there is nothing wrong with being able to become mates with the son of the Yan family, since the Yan family does not dislike me, I have no reason to refuse.”

Sheng Xi bowed his head, his fingers unconsciously fiddled with the Buddhist beads he wore on his wrist, the string of Buddhist beads that Empress Xia had personally gone to pray for him after she knew that he would not recover from his leg injury, a wish for him to live the rest of his life without any disasters and in peace.

Sheng Cen stared at Sheng Xi with red eyes for a long time before suddenly turning around and walking out.

“I’ll go and see him.” Tang Qi Yuan spoke to Sheng Xi and Empress Xia and hurriedly followed out.

After Sheng Cen walked out of the house, he walked faster and faster until he reached the tree in the courtyard before stopping in his tracks, Tang Qi Yuan kept quietly following behind him, not opening his mouth to disturb him.

Sheng Cen looked at the tree and suddenly punched it, saying in a deep voice: “My Ge is doing this for me……”

Tang Qi Yuan looked at his hand, his gaze shrinking in heartache, he pursed his lips, his heart also felt a million things.

If Sheng Xi didn’t want this marriage, he could have just walked away, the reason he was willing to listen to His Majesty now is because if he didn’t marry Yan Feng, he would offend the Yan family, but Sheng Cen couldn’t be enemies of the Yan family.

Elder Yan is in a high and powerful position, and if Sheng Cen did not have his support and even made an enemy of Elder Yan, it would be even harder for Sheng Cen to defeat Sheng Lian.

In the past, Elder Yan knew that he owed Sheng Xi in the matter of Yan Feng, so he took care of Empress Xia, the mother and sons. Now, at this critical time when Xia Cheng Lang had returned to China, His Majesty suddenly proposed this marriage, because he expected that with Sheng Cen’s character, he would definitely not agree to this marriage, and then Sheng Cen would definitely turn against Elder Yan, then Elder Yan would turn to support Sheng Lian, and they would just need to wait to reap the benefits.

“What do you plan to do?” Tang Qi Yuan asked after a moment of silence, knowing that Sheng Cen would not let Sheng Xi make such a sacrifice even if he knew full well what His Majesty intended to do.

“I will send my Ge out of the country.” Sheng Cen reached up and wiped his face, having already made up his mind.

He wanted that throne because he wanted to protect the people he valued, so he couldn’t put the cart before the horse and sacrifice the people precious to him for that throne.

Tang Qi Yuan nodded, he respected all of Sheng Cen’s decisions, even if that decision might lead to a thorny road later.

“Wait.” Yan Fei suddenly walked over, he came close and looked at Sheng Cen: “Cen Ge, even if you send Xi Ge away, will His Majesty let him go? Even if he manages to escape this time, as long as you don’t become emperor, then he or you will all just be fish on Sheng Lian’s chopping block, and when Sheng Lian becomes emperor, the situation will only get worse at that time.”

Tang Qi Yuan looked up at Yan Fei, whose face had eased up a lot, the impatience and collapse of a moment ago gone from his expression, and he looked like he should have calmed down or had a countermeasure in mind.

“How do you know I’ll definitely lose if I don’t try?” Sheng Cen’s gaze sank, the Yan family was certainly formidable, but he was not entirely without a chance of winning.

“But you can’t take the risk, if you lose, there will be a whole group of people who will follow you in losing and when that happens, all those people behind you who support you will suffer along with you.”

Sheng Cen looked at him with a sullen gaze and suddenly asked: “What is your countermeasure?”

Yan Fei pursed his lips, stepped forward and looked at Sheng Cen with a solemn expression: “Cen Ge, I would like to ask you to hand Xi Ge over to me.”

Anger surfaced between Sheng Cen’s expressions, “How to hand over? Do you think your grandfather would agree to let an Omega who was once engaged to your Ge to marry you?”

Sheng Cen sneered, this was the reason why he had always disapproved of Yan Fei approaching Sheng Xi, because even if the Yan family did not bring up the marriage contract again this time, even the mere fact that Sheng Xi and Yan Feng had once been engaged was enough for the Yan family to oppose them being together.

“If they don’t agree, I’ll find a way to force them to agree.” Yan Fei spoke in a deep voice as if he had made up his mind somehow, a haze of determination flashed across his eyes, no longer the innocent and harmless look he had when he was in front of Sheng Xi.

Sheng Cen looked at him, silent for a moment, and asked: “What do you want to do?”

“Cen Ge, I hope you can get Xi Ge to pretend to agree to the marriage first, then find a way to have the press release announcing the marriage to only mention that it’s the Yan family’s son and Xi Ge getting married, and on the day of the wedding, I’ll find a way to make it impossible for my Da Ge to show up, and at that time we’ll convince them together that I’ll marry Xi Ge instead of my Ge.”

Sheng Cen frowned slightly, “No, you or your Ge, it’s all the same to my Ge, it’s a marriage without love, my Ge’s marriage partner should be decided by him.”

Yan Fei’s voice couldn’t help but rise with urgency, “Cen Ge, you should know that marrying Xi Ge to me now is the best option, I’ve loved him since I was a child, the biggest difference between me and my Ge is that I won’t harm Xi Ge, if you risk sending Xi Ge abroad, the end result could be worse, it’s better to risk everything now and leave him to me.”

“You like my Ge, but you should also know that my Ge has no heart for you in that regard, he only sees you as a younger brother.” Sheng Cen looked at him without beating around the bush, but said directly.

“I know……” Yan Fei’s voice dropped, and the sharpness in his eyes just now was gone.

His gaze dropped with some loss, and he was silent for a moment before continuing: “It is because I know that I am willing to respect Xi Ge, and I can promise you that I will not touch Xi Ge one bit during this period of the marriage, and if after it is over, Xi Ge still does not want to be with me, then at that time I will…… divorce Xi Ge.”

Sheng Cen thought about it for a moment and asked, “……can you guarantee that?”

It is not so easy to give up after obtaining, just like someone returning to the dark after seeing the light, the pain will only multiply.

“If you need, I can swear.” Yan Fei’s gaze was firm and sincere as he looked at Sheng Cen, not flinching in the slightest, nor was he timid. For him, there was nothing more painful than watching Sheng Xi marry his incompetent brother.

Sheng Cen frowned, his eyes sizing him up, not saying anything for half a day, his expression still seemingly hesitant.

Yan Fei did not waver, his gaze impartially looking at Sheng Cen, his expression tense and expectant, wordlessly expressing his determination.

Tang Qi Yuan stood aside and looked up at Yan Fei. He could feel the eagerness and desperate determination in Yan Fei’s heart.

After thinking about it, Tang Qi Yuan looked up and said to Sheng Cen: “I believe that Xiao Fei will not lie to anyone, let alone to Da Ge.”

He had seen how good Yan Fei had been to Sheng Xi over the years, and he believed that Yan Fei really liked Sheng Xi and cherished him.

Sheng Cen lowered his eyes to look at him, the doubt in his eyes lessened, his little table mate had always been accurate in reading people, just as his little table mate had not been wrong in reading him even back then.

He was silent for a moment before he finally nodded and looked at Yan Fei and said: “Yan Fei, I hope you won’t let me down, your Yan family has already hurt my Ge enough, I don’t want you to be like them.”

After all, he had watched Yan Fei grow up watching, he had never transferred his anger towards Yan Feng to Yan Fei, that is, he did not treat Yan Fei as an outsider and believed that Yan Fei was not like them.

Hearing his words, Yan Fei let out a soft sigh of relief and nodded hastily, saying gratefully: “Thank you, Xiao Qi Ge and Cen Ge, don’t worry, I will do what I say and never go back on my word.”

After a moment’s thought, he added: “Cen Ge, Xiao Qi Ge, can you not tell Xi Ge about this matter first? If Xi Ge finds out, he definitely won’t let me do this.”

Sheng Xi had always been proper, he was like Empress Xia in that he would always think about others, and if he knew what they were planning to do, he would definitely not let Yan Fei sacrifice his marriage for him.

At this particular time, even if Yan Fei said that he liked him and confessed his love for him, he probably wouldn’t believe it and would only think that Yan Fei was sacrificing for him, and would even less agree to be with him.

Sheng Cen and Tang Qi Yuan thought for a moment, nodded together and agreed.

“Great, then I’ll go back and get ready before it’s too late to stop Grandpa from putting the news out.” Nodding to them, Yan Fei turned and left at a fast pace.

Tang Qi Yuan looked at his back and asked Sheng Cen, “Can Xiao Fei have a way to persuade his grandfather and still make sure his Ge can’t show up that day?”

When the time came, if just one link went wrong, then this whole plan would fail.

“Don’t worry, this kid is smarter than we all thought, his Ge is no match for him, and the one in charge of the next generation of the Yan family will definitely be him.” Sheng Cen said with almost certainty as he looked at Yan Fei’s back.

He had always known that Yan Fei was a smart man and not as naive as he appeared to be, but that didn’t matter, as long as Yan Fei was really good to his brother and wouldn’t hurt him, that was enough.

Although Tang Qi Yuan was a little curious as to why Sheng Cen was so sure, he believed him when he said so.

He nodded and asked: “Then we can just wait for news from Xiao Fei now?”

“En.” Sheng Cen nodded, “Let’s wait for his news first.”

He took out his phone and looked at the recording that Tang Wu Yuan had asked Tang Qi Yuan to pass on to him earlier, smiling coldly as he curled his lips and said: “We’ll send another gift to Imperial Father and his good son in the meantime, they made my mother and my Ge unhappy, so naturally we can’t let them be happy either, right?”

Tang Qi Yuan looked at Sheng Cen and nodded vigorously, “Right!”

In this world, how could there be good people who were unhappy but bad people who were happy? Tang Qi Yuan felt that whatever his table mate did was right.

melon: for those who were excited about an AA side pair, I’m sorry to burst your bubble but Sheng Xi is an O.