Chapter 109

Chapter 109 Rejecting the Emperor’s Suggestion

The emperor had never met Guardian General Liu Xiangshan’s daughter before, but he heard she was a peerless lady. He didn’t understand why Pei Yuanjun didn’t want to marry her.

As for her eye problem, it was just a minor issue since she could still see things. What’s more, Pei Yuanjun seemed to have something to do with it, which made their engagement more reasonable. If Pei Yuanjun was not satisfied with a lady with an eye problem, the emperor could just let him marry some other second wives.

Liu Xiangshan’s daughter had equal status with the Crown Princess, Ji Hanyue, since they were both ladies from aristocratic families. Liu Xiangshan was Pei Yuanjun’s deputy when he was at the border, which should create many chances for Pei Yuanjun and Lady Liu to meet each other. Facing such a well-educated and stunning young woman, the emperor didn’t believe that Pei Yuanjun had no feelings for her.

The emperor looked at Pei Yuanjun, expecting him to show some hesitance.

“Your Majesty, I’m really not in a rush on my marriage. Moreover, I have no interest in Lady Liu at all,” Pei Yuanjun said in a lazy tone, not taking the emperor’s words seriously.

“Haven’t you grown up together at the border? You even brought her to the capital this time. I thought you intended to let me grant a marriage for you!” The emperor was a bit displeased. He actually meant it when he jokingly pushed Pei Yuanjun to get married since Pei Yuanjun was no longer at a very young age.

When the emperor was at the same age, Empress Yuan and he had been married for years. Thinking about his deceased empress, the emperor felt a sting from his heart. He then took a deep breath to suppress all his thoughts.

“I brought her here because I want to help her choose a decent husband. We didn’t actually grow up together. I’m several years older than her, and we rarely met at the border. It was just a groundless rumor,” Pei Yuanjun quickly distanced himself from Lady Liu without any hesitation.

He indeed seemed to have no interest in her.

“You are really not interested in her?” the emperor asked him with a suspicious look on his face. His eyes fell on Pei Yuanjun, trying to find every change in the latter’s expression.

“I’m truly not interested in her.” Pei Yuanjun squinted his downturned eyes. Even his laziness carried a natural trace of elegance.

“Since then, you must have someone you like already. Tell me, who is this lucky girl? How about I grant a marriage for you and her?” the emperor chuckled.

“Your Majesty, you know I don’t like being around women. Moreover, I’m not the oldest among the youngsters,” Pei Yuanjun showed him a faint smile and rejected him again, carelessly.

Pei Yuanjun was indeed not the youngest but not the oldest who hadn’t gotten married yet. The Crown Prince got engaged with Ji Hanyue long ago, but he waited for Ji Hanyue since she mourned for her mother for three years. The emperor’s oldest son didn’t marry a wife yet, so the rest of his sons couldn’t settle their marriage before their oldest brother.

Lord Jing, Lord Wei, and Lord Yan all hadn’t got married yet, not even picked their wife candidates.

“There are three forms of unfilial conduct, of which the worst is to have no descendants. Since you are not in a hurry, I won’t rush you for now. But after my other sons’ marriages are settled, you have to get married too.” The emperor finally took a step back.

In actuality, he had never used his power to push Pei Yuanjun on his marriage.

He had expected to grand a marriage for Pei Yuanjun since long ago since Pei Yuanjun was his cousin, not in the same generation as his sons.

However, Pei Yuanjun kept using his age as an excuse, leaving him no reason to argue back. When it came to age, all of his sons were indeed older than Pei Yuanjun.

“Your Majesty, don’t worry. I will find the lady I like for myself,” Pei Yuanjun’s voice was pretty reluctant, making his words sound more like an excuse.

The eunuchs in the room all lowered their heads and stood still as if a sightly louder breath would even disturb the two. Only Lord Yun dared to say such words to the emperor. If it were someone else, even the Crown Prince, the emperor would hit the ceiling immediately. He only had such patience facing Lord Yun.

Even when Lord Yun said something offensive, the emperor would just laugh it off.

“You’ve said this to me for many years, and I’ve been waiting for many years already. When you lived at the border, I always thought you liked Liu Xiangshan’s daughter. Since it’s not the case, just stay in the capital and take your pick. After all, there are many noble ladies here. I don’t believe you can’t find one you like. I’ll ask the empress to list out some suitable candidates first,” the emperor said as he waved his hand.

“Your Majesty, but I want to marry a person I like,” Pei Yuanjun didn’t want to take a step back.

“That’s for sure. You can take a look at the empress’ list and then make your pick if you see anyone you are interested in. You’ve been single all these years. It’s time to let someone take care of you. We got to confirm your first wife and two second-wife candidates this time,” the emperor seemed even more excited.

“Lord Jing and Lord Wei haven’t settled their marriages, let alone the Crown Prince. I have to give them all the choices first, right? Since I’m the youngest, I should be the last one to pick.” Pei Yuanjun stood up directly, feeling a headache.

He quickly said goodbye to the emperor, “Your Majesty, I remembered I still have some work to do back home. Please allow me to leave first.”

Then he stepped back toward the door and turned around to leave.

In the imperial study, the emperor sighed while shaking his head. Suddenly, he thought about something, and the look on his face became cold. Then he turned his head aside and started to cough quietly.

“Your Majesty, please have some water.” Li Quan, his chief eunuch, hurriedly walked up to the emperor.

The emperor took the teacup from Li Quan’s hands and patted his chest, looking a bit exhausted. Then he looked in the direction where Pei Yuanjun left as his eyes darkened.

“It’s time for Lord Yun to get married, right?” after a while, the emperor’s low voice rang in the room as if he was talking to himself.

“Lord Yun is not young. Naturally, he should get married at this age,” knowing the emperor was asking him, Li Quan lowered his head and answered respectfully.

“Since he should get married, why he is always unwilling to do so?” asked the emperor again.

Tiny beads of sweat started to show up on Li Quan’s forehead, but he had to answer, “Maybe Lord Yun wants to find a lady he really likes.”

“That’s why I even let him pick for himself, but why did he still reject me?” The emperor seemed determined to dig out an answer from Li Quan.

Now, even Li Quan’s back clothes were soaked in sweat. No one dared to talk about Lord Yun’s personal affairs. The empress’ chief eunuch was the best example, who had the same position as Li Quan. He expressed his opinions about Lord Yun’s marriage, and somehow, it was known by Lord Yun. Lord Yun then scolded the eunuch and stabbed his sword into the eunuch’s heart in front of the empress.

The empress fainted in shock as the guards all rushed to the spot to protect her, which caused a big scene and even disturbed the emperor. But did Lord Yun get any punishment in the end? Not at all. As usual, he freely left the royal palace, leaving all the mess behind. The empress was so scared that she didn’t even dare to meet Lord Yun for a while. This onerous question was now thrown at Li Quan, putting his life at risk.

If his answer was not appropriate, Li Quan felt like he would be the next one killed by a sword.

“Your Majesty, His Royal Highness hadn’t many chances to meet noble ladies at the border. He just returned to the capital. I think you should give him some more time.” Li Quan’s answer couldn’t be more cautious, for fear that he said anything opposed to Lord Yun’s intention.

Li Quan couldn’t afford to offend the man who dared to pull out his sword in front of the empress and was still favored by the emperor. He was just a chief eunuch, after all.

“Since then, I’ll let him take his time as long as he finds one he likes!”

The emperor didn’t talk for a while. He just let out a deep sigh as the whole room fell into silence. No more questions needed to be answered for now…

Qu Moying didn’t expect to meet Yu Qingmeng and Xu Lipeng in the Eastern Palace. She noticed them from a distance and wanted to take another route to avoid them. After a second thought, she decided to still head forward. She didn’t need to avoid them deliberately since they were the ones who made mistakes.

However, when she walked closer, she only saw Yu Qingmeng alone and a corner of Xu Lipeng’s clothes disappearing on another path aside.

Surprisingly, Xu Lipeng chose to avoid her.

It was the second day of the Crown Princess’s funeral. There were still many guests in the Eastern Palace who had a relatively lower status than yesterday’s visitors and were not related to the Crown Prince. Since the Crown Prince had stayed in the altar room for a whole day yesterday, which he didn’t really need to but insisted on doing, he was exhausted. Therefore, he didn’t show up in public today.

After all, the Crown Prince was still nobler than the Crown Princess.

A whole day of hard work was enough for Pei Luo’an to keep up his image as the Crown Princess’s loving husband. Everyone knew that the Crown Princess was the only woman the Crown Prince loved. If it weren’t for the Crown Princess could be taken better care of, the Crown Prince wouldn’t agree to let Princess Ji marry into the Eastern Palace. Moreover, Princess Ji was truly a perfect example of a well-educated lady. Not interested in the Crown Prince’s power, she moved into the Eastern Palace only to nurse her cousin.

She even kept showing her unwillingness before, but a letter from the Crown Princess changed her mind. After that, she insisted the only reason she married the Crown Prince was for taking care of her sick cousin.

The past rumors earned a good reputation for both the Crown Prince and Ji Youran.

After the Crown Princess passed away, many people expressed their opinions in private, saying that Princess Ji’s personality and identity made her qualified enough to become the next Crown Princess.

Usually, a second wife couldn’t be promoted to the first wife, even though the latter passed away. The husband should marry another noble lady. However, Ji Youran’s situation was different. Invited by the Crown Princess herself, she moved into the Eastern Palace only to nurse her sick cousin. Her identity as Princess Ji was given to her for her convenience, but the marriage between the Crown Prince and her was not consummated.

By the looks of the situation, people all thought the virtuous lady Princess Ji deserved a promotion.

But yesterday’s drama had planted a seed of suspicion in many people’s hearts. Princess Ji didn’t seem as virtuous and aloof as she was in the rumors. No matter how they looked at it, what happened yesterday just seemed to be a fight between a wife and a concubine. They even made a scene in front of the Crown Princess’s altar room, which was such a dishonor. If they acted like this in front of the sick Crown Princess before, the Crown Princess probably died of anger!

All these rumors were still fresh, totally different than the old ones about Ji Youran. Some people found them convincing; some felt suspicious; some even thought the rumors were deliberately spread to stain Princess Ji’s name.

No matter what people thought, Qu Moying didn’t have time to care about it. Her biggest concern right now was Yu Qingmeng, who stood in front of her with tears forming in her eyes. Noticing Yu Qingmeng’s unusual behavior, Qu Moying hurriedly pulled Yu Dong’s sleeve.

She stopped far away from Yu Qingmeng on the corridor to the Crown Princess’s altar room. Since this place was not in the inner yard, many people passed by, including male guests.

However, her stopping didn’t mean Yu Qingmeng wouldn’t come. Seeing her stop moving, Yu Qingmeng rushed over to her while sobbing. When she got close enough to Qu Moying, she suddenly lost all the strength in her legs and was about to kneel on the ground. Pitifully, she called Qu Moying, staring at her with two watery eyes, “Fourth Lady Qu…”

Yu Dong was startled by her sudden movement, walked up immediately, and reached out his hand to protect Qu Moying. Staring at Yu Qingmeng warily, Yu Dong grabbed her hand and interrupted her. His voice was stern and cold, “Concubine Yu, what do you want to do again to the Fourth Lady? This is the Eastern Palace. You can’t do whatever you want here. You can’t afford to disturb the Crown Prince.”

He talked loudly and quickly, not giving Yu Qingmeng any chance to utter a word.

Meanwhile, he clenched Yu Qingmeng’s hand and didn’t let her go at all.

Grabbed by him, Yu Qingmeng lost her balance and fell on Yu Dong’s body. As Yu Dong moved backward, he accidentally stepped on Qu Moying’s dress and made her trip. Qu Moying let out a scream and fell back as Yu Chun behind her fell on the ground with her.

The two of them made a big scene on the corridor as if they were suddenly pushed by Yu Qingmeng. All the passers-by witnessed it, stopped moving, and looked at them in shock…