Chapter 149: Chapter 135, Rest Husband Notes_1

Because the audience near the stage had increased, Zhou Chengye asked his servant to fetch the script for selecting plays, ready to choose a new one.

There weren’t many adults present, just a few, and the rest were young masters and ladies from various families.

Zhou Chengye first went to ask the adults if they had any requests. After they all indicated they didn’t wish to select any plays, he directly took the booklet to Xiao Yeyang.

“Little Prince, please choose a play.”

Xiao Yeyang glanced at the booklet and, seeing Daohua craning her neck to look over, smiled and handed it over, “You choose!”

Daohua didn’t stand on ceremony, taking the booklet directly and began looking through it with Zhou Jingwan beside her.

The two girls chattered excitedly as they discussed their options, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Below them, Qian Bilan, who had been paying attention, nudged Yan Yihuan and glanced at Yan Yile and Yan Yishuang beside her, whispering, “The booklet is in the hands of Elder Sister Yan now, if there’s any play you wish to hear, you can go and ask her to select it.”

Yan Yihuan glanced at Qian Bilan and shook her head, “We don’t have any particular play in mind, whatever Elder Sister and Miss Zhou choose, we will listen to.”

Hearing this, Qian Bilan forced a smile and looked at the young masters seated around Yan Yiyi. They were all sons of high-ranking officials from Zhongzhou Province.

Unfortunately, with her father’s lower official rank, she didn’t even have the opportunity to get acquainted with them.

Yan Yishuang and Yan Yile, however, seemed somewhat interested.

All the distinguished individuals were seated around Elder Sister, and they too wanted to make their acquaintance. If only they had known, they should have followed Elder Sister when she accompanied their grandmother out earlier.

By now, as lunchtime approached, Zhou Jingwan was called away. Daohua, who knew nothing about ancient operas, returned the booklet to Xiao Yeyang.

“How come you didn’t select a single play?”

Daohua moved her lips and finally uttered two words, “Don’t know!”

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yeyang immediately laughed, “How can you not know how to choose even one play?”

Daohua huffed, “So what if I don’t know how to choose a play? I grew up in the countryside and naturally never had the chance to watch plays.” After speaking, she averted her gaze from him.

Xiao Yeyang stopped laughing, observed Daohua’s expression, and seeing she was ignoring him, felt somewhat disappointed. He tossed the booklet to Zhou Chengye, telling him to pick.

By the time Zhou Chengye had chosen a new play, Xiao Yeyang noticed Daohua was still ignoring him and became restless.

Defu couldn’t help but look heavenward again.

His lord was beyond hope!

“Alright, I shouldn’t have made fun of you. It was just a jest, is it worth getting mad about?” After hesitating for a while, Xiao Yeyang finally managed to say this.

Daohua wasn’t actually angry but seeing Xiao Yeyang’s smug look, she deliberately wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. Hearing his concession, she turned her head to look at him, deciding it was time to let it go.

“That’s right, if I haven’t been exposed to something, naturally I wouldn’t understand. Like the time we had to beg for food while fleeing, you didn’t know how to do it either, did I laugh at you? Didn’t I teach you bit by bit…”

“I was wrong!” Xiao Yeyang, hearing Daohua bring up their past begging, immediately interrupted her and looked around to see if others were paying attention to them. Relieved that no one was, he breathed easier.

If others knew he had begged for food, he would have been too ashamed to show his face.

Behind him, Defu’s eyes widened. He knew his Little Prince had endured tough times after being kidnapped, but he hadn’t realized it was to the extent of begging for food!

Daohua, quite considerate, didn’t continue and instead happily turned her attention back to the performers on stage.

Seeing this, Xiao Yeyang rubbed his slightly aching forehead and glanced back at Defu, shooting him a warning look.

At that moment, Defu was feeling sympathetic towards his lord. Receiving the signal, he made a swear-to-keep-silent gesture.

“You’re watching so intently. Do you understand what you hear?”

Xiao Yeyang, unable to stand Daohua’s light-hearted manner, couldn’t resist taking a jab.

Daohua turned her head to look at him, her eyes narrowing slightly in a “you have provoked me” manner.

Xiao Yeyang’s temple throbbed, “What I mean is, if you don’t understand, I will explain it to you.”

Defu: …Speechless, he looked to the heavens!

Daohua smiled, “Alright, the people on stage are singing in such a yiyi yaya way, I can’t make out the words. Hurry and explain it to me.”

Xiao Yeyang suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion, as if facing Daohua, he was always destined to be defeated. Resigned, he turned to watch the opera stage and began to explain in a low voice.

“This opera on stage is a famous one…”

Daohua listened as if it were a story, following the beauty’s performance with great interest, nodding from time to time, or asking about a line or two.

Meanwhile, Zhou Chengye and Yan Wenxiu paid close attention to Xiao Yeyang and Daohua. At this moment, seeing one excitedly explain the play and the other engrossed in listening, they both secretly felt relieved.

The first few operas all centered on joy, but midway through, there came a rather tumultuous play.

“What play is this?”

Daohua’s gaze was fixed on the stage, and she didn’t notice that Xiao Yeyang’s expression had suddenly darkened.

“The name of this play is ‘The Tale of Divorcing the Husband!’ It tells the story of a head madam who divorces her husband and abandons her young son after the husband becomes successful and famous,” he said.

Daohua looked surprised, “Why would she do that?”

Xiao Yeyang frowned slightly, “…all because the husband brought back a concubine and a bastard child who was even older than the young son.”

Upon hearing this, Daohua clapped her hands together, “Well done on the divorce!”

Xiao Yeyang was stunned again, looking at Daohua with some surprise, “Don’t you think the head madam is very heartless?”

Daohua shook her head, “Not at all! I think she’s incredible. Although I haven’t heard the whole story, based on my years of experience reading scripts, I think the head madam did the right thing. ‘If a place doesn’t welcome you, there will be another that does.’ The world is so vast, who can’t live without whom!”

Xiao Yeyang’s heart raced, and he asked with some difficulty, “Why? She abandoned her own husband and son, why do you think she did the right thing?”

Daohua said, “Look, the husband brought back a concubine and a bastard child, and that child is even older than the legitimate son, what does that tell you? It shows that before their marriage, the husband was already disloyal to his wife!”

“During the husband’s absence, the head madam raised the young son by herself, maintaining the family’s status. The hardship and sorrow she endured are probably known only to her.”

“When the husband returned, he brought a bastard child older than the legitimate son. Isn’t that a severe slap in the face of his lawful wife? If the husband favors the concubine even more, then wouldn’t all that the head madam had done before become a joke?”

“What’s left in that kind of home to be cherished?”

“I greatly admire that madam. She was able to leave when her husband had achieved fame and success, which shows she is not a person who craves vanity.”

“In this era, for her to dare to divorce her husband, she must possess exceptional courage that ordinary people lack. Her decisive nature reveals a pride within her, preferring to be a shattered jewel rather than an intact tile.”

Xiao Yeyang watched Daohua in a daze, hearing such an interpretation for the first time.

According to the teachings he received from childhood, within a family, the wife should always honor her husband above all else, and a wife divorcing her husband was an unheard-of defiance.

“But she also abandoned her own child.”

Upon hearing this, Daohua fell silent, “Alas, the child is indeed somewhat innocent. The one who suffers the most from a broken family is the child. But the fault does not lie with the madam, it lies with that scoundrel father.”

Xiao Yeyang was somewhat stunned, staring straight at Daohua.

The fault does not lie with the madam, but with the husband!

Is that so?

Behind him, Defu was already so frightened that his legs were trembling.

Dammit, why did Young Master Zhou choose this play about divorcing the husband?