The trouble started from the second marriage proposal. The two Cao sisters, one the same age as Wei Xuan and the other a year younger, were at the age when young hearts first begin to flutter with budding affection. Both found themselves drawn to Wei Su, who was not only accomplished in both literary and martial arts but also exuded a spirited charm.
Cao Lan'er, the eldest daughter, leveraging her status as as the eldest daughter to force the engagement to be changed to herself. However, just as the marriage was being discussed, news came from the palace that the late Empress intended for a daughter of the Cao family to be the crown princess.
Cao Lan'er was set to be engaged to Wei Su, which naturally left Cao Jing'er as the candidate for the position of Crown Princess. However, Cao Lan'er was unwilling to accept this. From a young age, she had been competitive, always striving to outshine both Cao Jing'er and Wei Xuan. Thus, on the day of the wedding, Cao Lan'er knocked Cao Jing'er unconscious, took her place in the bridal sedan, and married into the Eastern Palace as the Crown Princess.
Fortunately, the imperial decree hadn't specified which daughter of the Cao family was to be chosen, so this couldn't be considered a crime of deceiving the emperor. However, Cao Lan'er marrying someone else while negotiations with Wei Su were still ongoing was undeniably a scandal. Fearing repercussions, the Cao family had no choice but to suppress the matter forcefully.
Once again, the Cao family owed the Wei family a debt, and they intended to follow through on their earlier promise by arranging a marriage between Cao Jing'er and Wei Su. This time, however, the Wei family refused. Lady Wei, Wei Su's grandmother, even threatened to take her own life to prevent Wei Su from marrying any daughter of the Cao family.
Although the marriage plan was abandoned, the matter didn't end there. Cao Lan'er, who had desired the status of Crown Princess, convinced herself that her true affection still lay with Wei Su. She demanded that Wei Su secretly maintain a relationship with her while remaining unmarried, a request that was not only absurd but also deeply humiliating for Wei Su. Naturally, Wei Su refused.
Not only did he reject Cao Lan'er's proposal and sever all ties with her, but he also soon became engaged to a daughter of the Dong family, who was now his wife. Over time, the Cao and Wei families grew increasingly distant and eventually no longer had any contact with each other.
Unable to obtain what she desired and frustrated by Wei Su's refusal to comply with her wishes, Cao Lan'er harbored a lingering resentment toward him. This bitterness only intensified as Wei Su went on to achieve remarkable military successes, earning high praise from the late emperor. To Cao Lan'er, Wei Su's accomplishments were a constant source of irritation and a reminder of her own unfulfilled ambitions.
When the then Crown Prince, later known as Emperor Changde, ascended the throne, Cao Lan'er gave birth to a prince. She once again approached Wei Su, demanding that he persuade Wei Yunzhao's grandfather to submit a memorial recommending her son as the new Crown Prince. Wei Su refused her request, and as a result, the position of Crown Prince nearly went to the Second Prince instead. This incident planted a seed of hatred in Cao Lan'er's heart toward Wei Su.
Fortunately, Wei Su spent most of his years away from the capital and the Wei family had made great military achievements, so she didn't dare to do anything.
As the Crown Prince grew older and the various princes began to consolidate their own factions, Cao Lan'er approached Wei Su once again. This time, she insisted that he must support the Crown Prince. "Just before my father led the troops to the battle for the last time, she threatened my father, saying that if he didn't comply, she would utterly destroy the Wei family."
Wei Yunzhao's voice grew increasingly somber. "Perhaps my father had a premonition that something was amiss. He told me all about those past events, and not long after, while leading troops with General Su to repel the enemy, he fell into an ambush, the entire army was wiped out."
Jiang Lin reached out and gently patted Wei Yunzhao's chest, as if to soothe his pain. "I truly had no idea that your father and the Empress shared such a history."
This was completely the routine of TV drama with a female lead as the main character. The only difference was that in TV drama, the female lead was often forced into marriage out of helplessness, while the male supporting character willingly became her spare tire, devotedly guarding her. But it was a different story for the Empress. She actively and eagerly took on the role of Crown Princess, then forcefully demanded that the male supporting character became her spare tire. But the male supporting character refused, and in the blink of an eye, he married, had children, and moved on with someone else.
[备胎 (bèi tāi): lit. spare tire; fig. a backup or fallback option, often used to describe someone kept in reserve in a romantic context]
[套路 (tào lù): lit. routine; fig. a predictable or overused plot template, often in storytelling]
The similarity in the ending was that no matter whether the spare tire was willing or not, he couldn't escape death, and this death was inseparable from the female lead.
"Outsiders only know that my aunt was once engaged to Lord Cao, but since my aunt passed away many years ago, time has passed, and many have likely forgotten. I’ve never heard anyone mention it. As for my father’s marriage discussions with Cao Lan'er back then, those were private negotiations between the two families and never formally settled, so outsiders had no way of knowing. Even Cao Jing'er, the youngest daughter of the Cao family, was married off to a distant place because of this."
From the way Cao Lan'er was determined to outshine her younger sister, it was clear that the relationship between the two sisters was far from harmonious. Cao Jing'er had her marriage prospects snatched away twice by Cao Lan'er, and yet, after seizing them, Cao Lan'er discarded them without a second thought. When Cao Jing'er finally had a chance to marry Wei Su, he had been deeply hurt by Cao Lan'er's actions and refused to marry any woman from the Cao family.
As a result, Cao Jing'er harbored deep resentment toward both Cao Lan'er and the Cao family. After being married off to a distant region, Cao Jing'er never set foot in Shengjing again, not even once over the years. This absence was so pronounced that many people came to believe the Cao family had only one daughter—the Empress herself.
Cao Lan'er, who forcefully cast herself as the "big female lead," was truly ruthless and venomous, surpassing even the most vicious snakes and scorpions.
[蛇蝎 (shé xiē): snakes and scorpions, a metaphor for someone extremely vicious or treacherous]
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