Chapter 98
Sun Mingyue was a bit worried, “Why didn’t you even tell him about the heir? If he knew, would he be angry?”
“I don’t care about him.” Rong Xiangmei said gamely and added, “Don’t tell anyone, especially Empress Hui.”
Sun Mingyue raised an eyebrow, “You still don’t trust me?” Then she came close to her and said quietly, “It’s been three years since Wu’s sister married into the Li family, and she still doesn’t have an heir. The Li family is planning to raise a concubine. The two families are at loggerheads over this?”
“Ah?” Hearing the gossip suddenly, Rong Xiangmian was refreshed from his drunkenness.
Sun Mingyue broke his fingers and said, “The Wu family’s meaning is that the dowry maid, the maids in the house, or bought from outside can be, only that woman can not.”
“Why?” Rong Xiangmian was curious.
“That woman, is the Li family’s eldest son outside the family relatives, two people since childhood, friendship is quite deep. Only because that cousin’s family is depopulated, talent is not good, so when talking about marriage, the Li family elders do not see on, instead went to the Wu family to propose marriage. Now that Sister Wu can’t give birth to a child, the Li family’s son has moved to take this cousin into his home as a concubine!”
Rong Xiangshi realized: “This concubine is not an ordinary aunt, with childhood love, if the future has a long son, perhaps the Li family son, let her as a flat wife. At that time, I’m afraid that Sister Wu will have no place in the house.”
“Yes, that’s why the Wu family refused to do anything, and said that if they took that woman in, they would have to divorce her.”
“Divorce?” Rong Xiangshi has only heard of divorce, this is the first time that a woman he knows wants to divorce, he wondered in his heart, “The Wu family loves this daughter in the end, if it were someone else’s family, they would most likely advise their daughter to be patient, and wouldn’t care about her future life or death.”
“Yes! Sister Wu has now been taken home. This is the benefit of having a good mother’s family. That Li family is only a civil official, unlike us, who married into the royal family and entered the royal household. In the future, if there is something like this in the royal family, I don’t know if my father and brother will have the vigor to protect me.”
“Your father and brother are both red men in front of the Emperor, if it really comes to that time, I’m sure they won’t let you suffer.”
“That’s not certain!” Sun Mingyue touched her face, “If they are valued again, can they compare to the Emperor’s regard for his own son? They all envy us for marrying well, in fact, the royal family is the most difficult to get along with the in-laws, we have never been the only part of the concession, who let the other imperial son and grandson? Since ancient times, I haven’t heard of any woman being able to leave the royal family!”
“Divorce from the royal family?” Rong Xiangshi laughed lightly, “Then my mother’s enjoinment will definitely be canceled, and the tablets will all be thrown out from the ancestral hall.”
“Yes, only by sitting firmly in this position will those who worship high and tread low honor you and those you care about. Which one of us can live all for ourselves?”
Rong Xiangmian didn’t have the time to think about this, she suddenly remembered an urgent matter, “The Wu family and the Li family are making peace, my seat will have to be rearranged!”
“What seats?” Mingyue wondered.
Rong Xiangmian hurriedly told the little girl to bring the list, “It’s the seating order of the guests on the day of the feast at Jing Yi Yuan. I originally thought that the Li family and the Wu family were in-laws, so I had them sit together. Who knew that something like this had happened, fortunately I met you today, it’s better to transfer them quickly!”
Seeing her at the dinner table, impatiently rearranging the seats, Sun Mingyue joked from the side, “Why do you have to come? Your Highness is drinking and enjoying himself with my family, but you are here to help him with his affairs?”
“The matter of receiving the emperor is his face as well as my own, how can I be sloppy? Since I have to do it, I will do it well.” Rong Xiangmei rearranged the seating positions of the two families and gave Sun Mingyue a look, she immediately pointed out a few more shortcomings, “My father said that these two families have old old grudges, it’s better not to line them up together.”
“Good,” Rong Xiangmian changed once again, Sun Mingyue looked and suddenly exclaimed, “You actually invited Marquis Yongan?”
“He invited it. He speculated on His Majesty’s meaning, this time it is to severely punish Zhang Pan, but at the same time to appease the Marquis of Yong An, giving him extra honor and decency.” As Rong Xiangxian spoke softly, Sun Mingyue was thoughtful and said with a playful smile, “You two, your eyes are more poisonous than one another. Today, Wen Zhongqing is still whining about how His Majesty didn’t even blame his father for Zhang Pan being so arrogant.”
Rong Xiangmei laughed, “Since Wen’s brother grew up as honorable as a prince, there is nothing he can’t do, and he probably hasn’t experienced this kind of wanting to gain, but having to give up.”
When the rearranging was finished, dinner was almost over.
Meng Zhenru came over with a hardcover booklet, saying that it was a zither score sent by a boy from the Jin Wang Mansion.
Rong Xiangxian briefly flipped through it, and sure enough, it was the new score for Easy Travel.
Sun Mingyue hummed softly from the sidelines, “This Jianyun is well-behaved and didn’t dare to let the people from Descending Clouds Xuan come directly to the royal residence to deliver something.”
Seeing that she knew she didn’t like Fibercloud, Rong Xiangxian said, “This is also considered to be looking out for me.” He also asked Zhenru, “Has the person left yet?”
“Still waiting outside for your instructions.”
Rong Xiangmian said, “Have Feixue go fetch a jar of peach blossom wine and have that boy bring it to Jianyun as a token of appreciation, and then take five hundred dollars to the boy.”
“Ah? You sent her Peach Blossom Brew, you didn’t even send me!” Sun Mingyue jealousy up, e brows knit tightly, waiting for Rong Xiangshi coaxing. Rong Xiangshi laughed: “I have prepared a good wine for you that His Highness brought back from West Qin, it is a good flavor that you can’t find in the capital, so you’ll like it.”
“That’s more like it!” Sun Mingyue loved to drink, and King Yun also loved to drink, this gift was sent to his heart.
Not long after Meng Zhenru left, she led another mother from General Qi’s residence, saying that she was the General’s wife’s companion and had something to convey to the Princess.
The mom stood at the bottom of the stairs and bowed, saying, “Your Highness, Queen Consort Yuh is well, Your Highness, Queen Consort Yun is well. Today, His Highness Yul Wang drank wine with General and had a good time, so he was already drunk and slept over. General, please don’t worry, we’ve already arranged someone to take care of it at a glance. When His Highness wakes up, we will send him back tomorrow morning.”
Sun Mingyue muttered, “What kind of rule is this? Since you’re drunk, you should immediately send a carriage to send the Fourth Highness back. You’re not even drunk yet, but he’s gone to drown his sorrows in alcohol? What’s the point of leaving you alone at home?”
Rong Xiangmian was puzzled in his heart, before the carriage today, she said she didn’t want to see him, did he take it seriously? Or was he afraid to come back if he got drunk and said something he didn’t want her to hear?
She said to qifu’s mom: “I trouble you to go back to inform the general, say trouble, take good care of my highness, some day will come to the door to thank.”
That mom busy said: “Yes, slave girl remember. If Your Highness has no other orders, the slave girl will go now.”
Rong Xiangmian nodded and said to Meng Zhenru, “Go to Feixue’s place, fetch a dangling sum of money for mama’s teeth and send her out.”
Meng Zhenru answered and led her mom out. Sun Mingyue saw that Rong Xiangshi wasn’t angry in the slightest and laughed, “You have a really good temper.”
Rong Xiangshi shook his head, “Didn’t you just advise me not to take men too seriously? The man is already drunk there, let him be, let’s enjoy ourselves.” Said, poured another cup of wine for Sun Mingyue.
Two people drink to the dark, Sun Mingyue is not yet fun, loaded several jars of various kinds of wine back to Yunwang Mansion to go.
Rong Xiang see washed up, feel the body wine some heat, leaning in the courtyard rocking chair fan cool.
Raise your eyes to a round of white moon in the sky, illuminating the ground as a layer of silver light. The east wall suddenly a black shadow, with turquoise eyes, as expected.
“Extra meal!” Xiao Nan purposely left two fish and carried them upside down in his hands. The wild cat that rejected people in a thousand miles couldn’t resist the temptation of food, and took the initiative to approach Xiao Nan, first sniffing, and then eating with her hand.
Flying snow at the side of the cupped face to see, from time to time to reach out to jerk the cat, surprisingly did not be bitten and scratched. When the fish was finished eating, the cat was still well-behaved and supple, and Ren Xiaonan picked him up.
“This little thing, it turns out it only takes one fish to corral it.”
Rong Xiangmian watched them tease the cat for a while, listening to the crickets in the corner and the cicadas chirping in the trees, and thought to himself that if Xian Yang were here, he would be able to see that the cat, which had been fed for so long, had finally been corralled.
When he returned to his senses, he felt quite uninterested again. He went back to the house and practiced the “Loose Travel” for a while according to Flying Cloud’s zither sheet music.
It was hard to wait until Feiyun came back from Linlang’s house. Linlang’s father is dying, the matter of life and death can not be resisted, can only let Linlang do some filial piety to go.
Feiyun and Feixue both ran around all day today, Rong Xiangmei told them to rest well tonight, and let Zhenru take the night watch.
Meng Zhenru knew that and was overjoyed. For the first time, she was allowed to serve near the princess, which was undoubtedly a big step forward.
The summer heat had not subsided, coupled with the heat of the wine, until the third day, Rong Xiangmian had not yet fallen asleep, thinking: he is sleeping soundly.
In a daze, outside the house came a sound from a cat’s throat, different from a cat’s cry, it was a warning when the cat was threatened.
Rong Xiangmian’s body was cold and completely awake. She was busy sitting up, feeling for the short sword above her, pulling it out and caging it in her sleeve.
Zhenru was outside, she didn’t know anything, she couldn’t let anything happen to her.
Rong Xiangshi gently got off the ground and walked over to the window, listening for movement outside. Sure enough, there was the sound of extremely light footsteps, and a dark shadow, illuminated by the moonlight, drifted past the window.
Rong Xiangmian’s heart was in his throat, when suddenly he only heard a muffled grunt, followed by the sound of falling and struggling.
“What’s wrong!” Rong Xiangmian saw Xiao Nan’s figure and didn’t dare to go out rashly for fear of spoiling her.
“Your Highness, it’s fine. We were already very careful, but we didn’t expect to wake you up anyway. You sleep peacefully.” Xiao Nan was outside, saying somewhat apologetically.
Only then did Rong Xiangmian hold a dagger in his hand and opened the bedroom door, where Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei were pressing a black-clothed man to the ground.
Xiao Bei pinched the black-clothed man’s face to death and dug in his mouth, “Want to die? Not even the door!” As he spoke, Xiao Nan’s whip had already tied the man’s hands and feet together.
Outside the courtyard, a dozen torches were suddenly raised high. Wu Feng led the men and said, “My humble servant has failed in his duty, the princess has been frightened.”
Rong Xiangmian glanced at the man on the ground, “What’s in his mouth?”
Xiao Bei said, “It’s poison for quick death. When we were in Jiangzhou, we caught assassins. Before they could be interrogated, they took the poison and killed themselves. So this time, His Highness instructed us to keep them alive.”
“What?” Rong Xiangshi was shocked, “His Highness was assassinated in Jiangzhou?”
Only then did Xiao Bei realize that she had said the wrong thing, and busily said, “Your Highness just pretend that you didn’t hear anything, or else master will surely scold me!”