Chapter 40

Gao Ran’s chest tightened. For a moment, she couldn’t tell whether Empress Dowager Qian was mocking her or ridiculing Lin Wei Xi using metaphors and exaggeration.

It was true that it had been wrong of her to secretly consent to the marriage proposal, but Prince Yan and the Second Qian Young Master had had a crush on the same woman at the same time. For men, it was romantic to wage war for a beauty, but for a woman, it wasn’t a good reputation to have.

Gao Ran’s heart jumped out of her throat the moment she heard her name, but she slowly relaxed when she processed the situation. She glanced at Lin Wei Xi and lowered her head, pretending to be terrified, “Empress Dowager, please forgive me. At that time, this humble one heard that Madam Qian wanted to propose marriage for the Second Qian Young Master. Of course, Young Master Qian is a good man, which is why this humble one didn’t think too much before accepting it, and meant to speak to the elders after returning. Unfortunately this humble one was too greedy. I only thought of how good a family the Qian family was and wanted to accept it as a good sister. But because of my impatience, I made a mistake.”

Gao Ran’s words hinted that she had listened to Madam Qian’s proposal first but Prince Yan had decided Lin Wei Xi’s matter after. As for why Prince Yan did this and what happened then, they’d have to ask the protagonist herself.

Gao Ran wanted to incite Empress Dowager to treat Lin Wei Xi as a femme fatale. It would be even better if she accused Lin Wei Xi of being a seductress. Lin Wei Xi’s smile faded when she heard the Second Qian son’s name. Empress Dowager Qian was the Empress Dowager. It was fine if she didn’t mind her words, but Gao Ran actually dared to play tricks in front of her?

Gao Ran was still so stupid. It seemed like the hot water yesterday hadn’t been hot enough. Lin Wei Xi was now the Prince Yan Consort. The power a mother-in-law had over her daughter-in-law was far more than what she’d wielded during the tea ceremony.

After Gao Ran finished speaking, she continuously stared at Lin Wei Xi. Unfortunately, she was going to be disappointed. Lin Wei Xi didn’t show any embarrassment or unnatural expression. She merely smiled calmly and said, “why do I not know about this issue regarding the Second Qian Young Master?”

Lin Wei Xi’s question caused everyone to go silent. Empress Dowager Qian couldn’t speak. No matter how old she was, she couldn’t tell the Prince Yan Consort “Gao Ran had secretly agreed to marry you to someone, but Prince Yan stepped in so the matter was dropped”.

Lin Wei Xi continued to smile innocently and naturally, her eyes full of pure curiosity, “What did Shizi Fei say? How did you get involved with the Second Qian Young Master? I know nothing about these things. Empress Dowager, please hurry and tell me. I’m curious to death.”

The Empress Dowager smiled after much difficulty and probed, “Prince Yan Consort, you didn’t know?”

“What is it that I ought to know?” Lin Wei Xi smiled and turned her head, her dark black pupils clearly reflecting Gao Ran within them, “say, Shizi Fei, what is it that I ought to know?”

Gao Ran was speechless. Their dispute had happened in private. Aside from their maids, who else would know about it? As long as Lin Wei Xi swore that she didn’t know anything, Gao Ran had no way to prove otherwise. It would instead put her at a disadvantage.

The Empress Dowager observed the interaction between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Lin Wei Xi had calmly inquired, but Shizi Fei looked stiff. Empress Dowager Qian mulled over it and asked, “Prince Yan Consort, did you really not know anything about your marriage?”

“My marriage is decided by my parents and introduced by the matchmaker. This humble one naturally listens to the Princess Royal.” Lin Wei Xi said with a smile, “one will only be a concubine if one elopes without a matchmaker. If you defy your parents and elders and act as matchmaker, you will be cast aside. Even if this humble one is mischievous, I dare not do such a thing.”

One had control over their actions and their words, and these two could differ. Lin Wei Xi spoke those words without any guilty conscience, her eyes clear and her smile calm. Gao Ran had guessed correctly. After their dispute that time, Lin Wei Xi had gotten so angry that she impulsively went to Gu Hui Yan to recommend herself for marriage. But Gu Hui Yan would certainly not speak of this and neither would Lin Wei Xi. Gao Ran actually attempted to threaten her with this incident. It would be strange if Lin Wei Xi didn’t sort her out.

It was common knowledge that Lin Wei Xi recognized Princess Royal Shou Kang as her adoptive grandmother. Empress Dowager Qian finally understood when she thought about it. Hadn’t Princess Shou Kang also acted as a matchmaker for her granddaughter and Gu Cheng Yao? It seemed that because Shou Kang didn’t have any heirs, she was especially fond of the Prince Yan Residence. Last time, it had been her own granddaughter. This time, she’d even married the adoptive granddaughter she’d just recognized to Prince Yan. Her intentions were too obvious.

After Empress Dowager Qian contemplated and ran through the entire series of events in her head, she believed she had seen the truth. It seemed that Lin Wei Xi was completely at the mercy of Shou Kang. Perhaps she didn’t know about anything that happened prior. As for Gao Ran secretly promising the Qian family, at best she didn’t know about the proposal between Prince Yan and Shou Kang, but at worst, she didn’t want a mother-in-law, so she used the Qian family.

Empress Dowager Qian’s gaze on Gao Ran immediately changed. Gao Ran wasn’t even aware of what was happening. In the span of a moment, what happened to the Empress Dowager and why did she look at her like that? Gao Ran’s intuition told her that something was wrong. As she was about to try to mend the situation, she was cut off by Lin Wei Xi, “Empress Dowager, the flower and bat embroidery on your dress is very bright and pleasant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.”

Empress Dowager Qian had become increasingly superstitious in recent years and liked to wear old-fashioned dresses and it was difficult for Lin Wei Xi to praise her with a beautiful expression on her face. Anyone would be pleased to have an extremely beautiful young girl complement their clothes, so Empress Dowager Qian was pleased and chattered incessantly with Lin Wei Xi about good fortune, the Bodhisattva, etc.

There was no doubt that Lin Wei Xi had a clever tongue. She deliberately changed the subject and teased Empress Dowager Qian. Gao Ran attempted to explain the matter several times to Empress Dowager Qian but failed to get through Lin Wei Xi’s defence. After all, could a junior like her interrupt her mother-in-law or the Empress Dowager? She wasn’t brave enough to do that, and could only try to find a gap to insert herself in the conversation, but she couldn’t win against Lin Wei Xi.

After continuously failing several times, Gan Ran became furious but could only grit her teeth and restrain herself. Yet she couldn’t afford to be seen with that look on her face, so she had to lower her head.

After going through the engagement in reverse order with the Empress Dowager, Lin Wei Xi continued smiling, half her attention defending against Gao Ran and the other half deliberately flattering the Empress Dowager for having good fortune. Not a moment later, Empress Dowager Qian was beaming with joy.

What Empress Dowager Qian was most proud of in her life was that she had a long and blessed life. She was formerly Emperor Muzong’s Empress, but because of her mediocre appearance and old-fashioned nature, she couldn’t earn his favour. Then when Bu Guifei appeared out of thin air later on, she was neglected on many occasions. Fortunately, she managed to hold out during the political unrest in the later part of Jianzhao. Prince Yan entered the capital to kill the traitors, the eunuchs, and Bu Guifei hung herself. Empress Qian was considered to have restored justice, and she became the Empress Dowager. Wasn’t she a lucky person?

The current emperor wasn’t Empress Dowager Qian’s biological son. Although she was the empress, she wasn’t favoured, so she had nothing to do all those years. In the third year of Jianzhao, Bu Guifei entered the palace and quickly became favoured, so she’d been backed into a corner. The spiritless Empress Qian panicked. So when a palace maid gave birth to the eldest son of the emperor in the fifth year of Jianzhao, Empress Qian didn’t care that he was the son of a concubine and hurriedly took him in to raise him herself. At that point, she no longer expected a son of her own, so she quickly adopted the eldest son of the emperor to protect herself. He had a high position and she almost considered him her own son after raising him, which put him in an advantageous position with the officials. Empress Qian counted on this child to support her as she grew old. What a pity that even though she’d had a good plan, fate liked to play pranks on people. At the end of the same year, Bu Guifei became pregnant.

That was a huge problem. Everyday, Empress Qian hoped for Bu Guifei to miscarry. Unfortunately, the mother and son were safe and sound, and she smoothly gave birth to the child, a prince, the following year. Bu Guifei was already favoured and now that she had given birth to the emperor’s son, she became greedy. She grew increasingly domineering and constantly pestered Emperor Muzong to establish the second prince as the crown prince. One was his eldest son whom he held no feelings for and the other one was his second son from his favourite concubine. Emperor Muzong actually wanted to pass the throne to his second son, but the imperial ministers firmly refused. Since the Empress didn’t have a son, the eldest son was appointed as crown prince. The eldest son had no disabilities and had been raised by the Empress. Obviously the eldest son was the legitimate candidate for crown prince.

Emperor Muzong and the imperial ministers got into a dispute due to this. Because of Emperor Muzong’s hesitation, the power struggle in the imperial harem grew fierce. Bu Guifei even colluded with palace eunuchs, removing her opposition without restraint and slaughtering the ministers who advocated for the eldest son as the crown prince. It was obvious what it was like for Empress Dowager Qian and the eldest son during those years. It was a spectacular mess during the final years of Jianzhao and the breaking point came in the form of an epidemic.

In early spring, the five poisons◇

became active and the epidemic spread from the capital to the palace. The second prince unfortunately contracted an illness and within a month, died because no medical treatment could cure him.

◇

Empress Qian almost burned incense in Kunning Palace. The Buddha was really watching over her. The long drawn struggle over the crown prince forcefully reached a conclusion. Bu Guifei went mad from the pain of losing her son and became increasingly unbridled in eliminating her opposition. For a time, the wicked eunuchs ran amok to the point where even Emperor Muzong couldn’t control them. He had no choice but to write a secret edict to summon Prince Yan into the capital to suppress the rebellion, punish the traitors and hold the reins of the Qing Dynasty. Whether or not Bu Guifei actually hung herself in the end, only Emperor Muzong and Prince Yan knew.

In the end, the second prince died of illness and Bu Guifei was executed. The eldest prince was the only remaining prince. Even if he was an idiot, the ministers had to assist him in becoming a wise monarch. Emperor Muzong received such a huge blow from this incident that he passed on soon after. Before his death, he appointed the eldest prince as crown prince and Gu Hui Yan, Zhang Xiao Lian, and Eunuch Feng as the regent ministers. Together, they’d assist the young emperor as he grew up until he was old enough to govern the country himself.

It was currently the fifth year of Yuanjia. The young Emperor had ascended the throne five years ago and was already twelve years old.

Empress Dowager Qian really didn’t care about the state of the imperial court. The harem wasn’t allowed to interfere with politics and she wasn’t interested. She already held the highest position and the most respected status in the land. No matter how the dynasty changed, would it involve the Empress Dowager? All the more reason for her to grow old with a peace of mind in the harem. If she wasn’t observing a vegetarian diet and praying to the Buddha, she’d summon her sister-in-law for a chat. The issue between the Second Qian Young Master and Lin Wei Xi was something that came from Madam Qian.

At that time, news of Prince Yan marrying a Consort had already spread. Of course, the Qian family didn’t dare fight with Prince Yan over a woman. Plus, he’d specifically passed on the news. When that happened, the Second Qian Young Master became too scared to leave the house. After a period of time, when the news died down, Madam Qian became a little uncomfortable. The Prince Yan Shizi Fei had clearly already given her word, but it was intercepted by Prince Yan no more than a few days later. Was the Prince Yan Residence going to step on the Qian family’s face like this?

The more Madam Qian thought about it, the more unresigned she became, so she entered the palace and raised the issue. Empress Dowager Qian only knew that Prince Yan was going to marry a new Consort. Only after hearing her sister-in-law’s version did she realize that the new Prince Yan Consort, Lin Shi, and her second nephew were connected in this manner. Of course, Empress Dowager Qian wouldn’t have any complaints about Prince Yan. The Emperor succeeded the throne back then thanks to his assistance. When he first ascended the throne, they were invaded by foreign forces, and it was Prince Yan who led the army to suppress the rebellion. Without Prince Yan’s military strength that acted as a deterrent, Empress Dowager Qian and the Emperor were nothing more than an orphan and widow. What could they do to suppress the court officials and generals of the previous dynasty? Empress Dowager Qian actually depended on Prince Yan a lot. How could she criticize him for marrying a Consort?

While she was too scared to blame Prince Yan, it didn’t prevent her from criticizing this troublesome new Princess Consort. Today, Lin Shi would enter the palace to kowtow. She intended to test her. She wanted to see for herself what kind of person could incite her nephew and Prince Yan to fight for her hand in marriage.

But it seemed like this Prince Yan Consort was not only very beautiful, but also very clever and lovable. When Emperor Muzong was still alive, Princess Royal Shou Kang was treated extremely respectfully, her face almost comparable to Qian Shi, who was the Empress. As a result, Empress Dowager Qian held a bit of a grudge. Now that the tables had turned, she n was not at all afraid to speculate the worst about Shou Kang. From her perspective, Shou Kang most likely chose Lin Shi for her beauty and recognized her as an adoptive granddaughter. After that, she thought of a way to have Lin Shi marry Prince Yan to stabilize the relationship between the Princess Shou Kang Residence and the Prince Yan Residence. After all, Shou Kang’s biological granddaughter had died. It made sense that she was anxious.

Empress Dowager Qian’s mood turned for the better when she thought this. She would never make an enemy out of Princess Royal Shou Kang. However, it gave her indescribable joy to see the once well-regarded princess inferior to herself. Which was why Lin Wei Xi looked more pleasing to her. However, when Empress Dowager Qian looked at Gao Ran, she thought to herself that one really couldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. A gentle, sweet, well-bred young lady like her could actually do something like block her mother-in-law from entering the household and promise her to another family. What was especially abominable was that she had plotted against her nephew!

At this point, Empress Dowager Qian had completely forgotten that it was Madam Qian who had proposed the marriage to Gao Ran first. Then, since the Qian family didn’t dare confront Prince Yan, the reason why they had lost face was because of other people!

Gao Ran unknowingly took the blame for Madam Qian, but unfortunately she wasn’t able to explain it. One could tell from Empress Dowager Qian that the Qian family was not an honest family. Gao Ran couldn’t say what she wanted to say and Lin Wei Xi didn’t give her a chance to speak.

Gao Ran spent the entire morning trying to get a word in and it was truly unspeakably upsetting. Just as she grew fretful, a voice chanted from outside, “The Emperor has arrived. Prince Yan has arrived.”

Cining Palace erupted into commotion. Lin Wei Xi stood up and bowed to the door in greeting.

“Long live the Emperor.”

The Emperor entered Cining Palace escorted by a group of people, Gu Hui Yan standing beside him. He looked around after entering, his eyes suddenly focusing on one person, “Uncle Yan, is this my new Aunt?”