It's just that the difference in status between the two of them is too big. Although Huai Ting is an old friend, my father is reluctant to marry his daughter to him.
Huaiting wanted to have a good future for Tong Niang, so he moved away from the Wang family and concentrated on taking the exam.
At that time, the second prince, the late emperor Yuan Hao, took a fancy to his talent and wanted to accept him as his disciple, but he refused.
When Yuan Hao saw that he had contact with Prince Chen, he secretly tampered with him, causing him to break his hand and be unable to take the exam, thus missing the opportunity to take the exam.
And by this mistake, he missed Tong Niang's life. The Wang family could not let Tong Niang wait for him for three years, so they agreed to the Mu family's proposal of marriage.
I remember that day, it was snowing heavily, and Huaiting knelt in front of the Wang family's house, asking my father to give him another chance.
It was the words I passed on to him that day, and it was the words Tong Niang asked me to bring to him.
She said that he regarded Huai Ting as his elder brother and mentor, and she had never had any romantic feelings for him, and she asked him not to ruin her good marriage.
After hearing this, Huai Ting left. He never returned to the capital, and I never saw him again until..."
Wang Shouzhi's words made everyone in the room feel excited.
Mu Yun'an asked: "Until what?"
Wang Shouzhi said: "On the first memorial day after your mother's death, I went to see her, but I saw a man in front of her grave. A man wearing a cassock and a shaved head."
Mu Yun'an covered her mouth in shock: "He...he became a monk?"
Wang Shouzhi said: "I couldn't believe it at the time, but when I asked him why, he said it was the best choice.
I know he did it because of Tong Niang, and ultimately it was our Wang family that felt sorry for him.
So before leaving the capital, I made a decision, which was to take Tong Niang away."
Mu Yun'an was shocked: "My mother was not buried in the Mu family's ancestral grave?"
Wang Shouzhi said: "Originally, she was buried there. After I saw Huai Ting, I took her away. Now your mother is buried in Qingyun Mountain, thirty miles outside Changzhou City."
Mu Yun'an asked him: "Does my father know?"
Wang Shouzhi snorted: "When I took away your mother's body, I wrote him a letter of divorce, so of course he knew about it."
Mu Yun'an had never heard her father mention this matter. Every year on the festival day, she would go to the Mu family's ancestral grave to pay homage, but it turned out that her mother was no longer there.
She asked with some sadness in her heart: "Is Shen Huaiting in Qingyun Mountain?"
Wang Shouzhi nodded: "There is a Qingyun Temple in Qingyun Mountain. Huaiting practices there. I often visit him when I have free time, but I will be turned away eight times out of ten."
He looked at Mu Yun'an and said, "I was weak and incompetent back then and watched my sister marry a man she didn't love.
Therefore, I don’t want you to be like your mother, burdened with too many things. My uncle hopes that you can be happy with the person you like and live a happy life."
Mu Yun'an's eyes turned red: "Uncle, don't worry, I'm very happy."
Wang Shouzhi nodded, looked at Xiao Chengyi and said, "If you make my Yan Yan suffer, I don't care who you are? Do you hear me?"
Xiao Chengyi straightened his expression, nodded heavily and said: "I will never let Yan Yan down in this life."
Wang Shouzhi relaxed his eyebrows and said to Mu Yun'an with a very pleased look in his eyes: "I believe your mother will be happy for you if she is alive in heaven."
Mu Yun'an smiled slightly: "As for me, my mother is definitely relieved, but uncle, you are not necessarily sure."