Chapter 186: Chapter 186 - Make Concessions in Order to Gain Advantages

Jian Xubai didn’t look happy when he was back.

As his wife walked forward, he only glanced at her. After taking off his coat, he even deliberately avoided Song Yixiao’s stretched-out hands and passed it to Ji Su behind him.

Ji Su instantly shuddered and almost dropped the coat on the ground. Did the couple fall out only after spending a few days together? It was still in the first lunar month.

He was thinking in great trepidation about how to mediate between the couple. Unexpectedly, Song Yixiao turned around and smiled at him, saying with an amicable face, “You must be tired after serving Xubai for the whole day. Now just let the maids take it from here and you can leave and have a rest!”

Ji Su has no other choice but to leave, laden with anxiety.

When he left, Song Yixiao gestured the maids to leave too, poured a bowl of hot tea and offered it to Jian Xubai, saying respectfully, “I’m here for my husband’s punishment!”

Jian Xubai, who looked rather gloomy, didn’t want the tea. A bit taken aback to hear Song Yixiao’s words, he still didn’t take it and only said indifferently, “You still know that I am your husband?”

“If it were not for your love, why would Mother help deal with the trouble caused by me?” Song Yixiao knew that she was in the wrong. Now she wouldn’t mind his manner. She gripped the grisaille tea bowl with its mouth in the shape of mallow petals and lowered her head slightly, saying in a soft voice, “You and Mother treat me really well but I acted so recklessly for my private ends that I might affect your prospect, which is unforgivable!”

“Since you are unforgivable, what should I do to you?” Jian Xubai lowered his head and happened to see his wife touching the tea bowl. He hesitated and fetched the tea bowl but he didn’t drink the tea. Instead, he only played with the bowl and asked without raising his head.

Song Yixiao was relieved to sense the indifference of his tone. It was better to question her face to face than having nothing to say!

It suggested that Jian Xubai was disgruntled, but he was likely to give her a chance as Jinguo Grand Princess did. On the contrary, he wouldn’t give any chance to the people like the previous Chief House Steward in the mansion…

She ruminated for a moment and smiled bitterly, saying, “Just now Muting just dropped by. According to her, there has been a rumor at the imperial feast held last night. For the time being, if anything untoward happens to me, I’m afraid that your reputation will be disdained. By then, the people on the side of Qiu Shuxia may make trouble for you!”

Therefore, “Xubai, please allow me to stay in the mansion for, like half a month. When everything quiets down, I can declare that I need to go to Jiangnan for recuperation due to illness! By then…”

“That’s your plan?” Jian Xubai suddenly threw the tea bowl on the table and tapped it with his fingers, asking emotionlessly, “After you seek revenge for your maid, you will just get out of Duke of Yan’s mansion and head towards Jiangnan?”

Before Song Yixiao got to answer, he added, “Then you will just live a carefree and unconstrained life?”

He raised his hand to stop his wife from responding and continued saying, “In this way, you can get away from the troublesome fight for the throne and meanwhile dumb me, the husband you don’t love at all, even in the name of thinking for my own good?”

Song Yixiao was speechless.

Gosh! She only wanted to make a recession first!

However, Jian Xubai didn’t think so. He leaned backwards and sat comfortably, saying in a casual voice, “Now you have nothing to say? Yeah, I’ve never pointed out your thinking before so you must take me as a fool!”

He sneered in a graceful manner with coldness glinting in his eyes, “Now, you cannot think of any excuse?”

Still tapping the table, Jian Xubai said in a negotiating voice, “How about me making up one for you? You can just come into my arms and say that you are actually making a concession. Not for a second do you ever think of leaving me… What do you think of the saying?”

Song Yixiao had no idea how to respond.

What should she say?

“But I’m really curious.” Jian Xubai looked over her dumbfounded face and felt even assured that he was right. With his eyes getting colder, he smiled and said softly, “When the previous Chief House Steward was killed, you witnessed how great my subordinates are. I can’t help wondering why you have the confidence in cutting off contact with me and thus living a free and easy life after leaving the imperial capital?”

Song Yixiao was totally speechless now.

Whatever. She couldn’t stop Jian Xubai from talking nonsense anyway!

However, what Jian Xubai said next just gave her a blow, “Su Shaoge? It’s him, right?”

Song Yixiao was taken aback for a while and asked in disbelief, “What are you talking about?”

“Su Shaoge promises that as long as you leave the imperial capital, he will do you a favor!” Jian Xubai stares at her indifferently with complicated feelings in his eyes, “Otherwise, given your prudence, how can you plan this without even giving me a heads-up?”

“On what ground does Mr. Su help me?” Song Yixiao took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down, asking, “Even if you and he are political opponents and he doesn’t care about offending you, what benefit does it bring for him to help a powerless woman at the cost of personnel and money? Besides, it will also ruin his reputation if it leaks out!”

“Moreover, the incidence becomes so severe for two reasons. Firstly, it is because Cui Jianlian is so cruel that she should sacrifice her twin babies! Secondly, Lady Nuan laid bare this matter by accident! If I knew that it would become so serious, how could I go to the side hall?”

Jian Xubai smiled but no delight was found in his eyes, “At the feast of last Shangsi Festival, there were so many girls in the Zhanchun Venue. Why did I only send the pendant to you?”

Song Yixiao wanted to refute him by saying that he was too lazy to choose, but she just swallowed back the words on the tip of her tongue subconsciously.

As she stayed silent, Jian Xubai hesitated for a moment and then continued saying, “It is not a secret. Everyone believes that you are important to me. Obviously, Su Shaoge thinks that if he can cheat you into leaving me, I will try all means to look for you!”

“However, even as a duke, how can I find a person who hides from me deliberately under the cover of the Su Family?”

“By then how can I spare my attention to serve the Crown Prince?”

“Even if the seniors interfere and make me shift my focus back on the fight for the throne, how can I not bear grudge?”

“Maybe I will even vent my anger on the Crown Prince…”

Speaking of this, he grinned with self-mockery, “The Crown Prince and I are cousins. We get along well with each other since we were little. If I distance from him, what will other people think of the Crown Prince? By then, how can Prince of Zhao not stand a chance?”

That night, Zhuo Ping’an burnt the Jianliu Building and Commandery Princess Qingjiang sojourned in the Lunong Building with her sister-in-law and sister. Lyu Qinghong used to stop Su Shaoge and give him a warning. How could Jian Xubai not know that Su Shaoge went into Song Yixiao’s bedroom at night. Yet, as there was no problem between them, he feigned ignorance to keep his wife from feeling embarrassed.

This time, Song Yixiao made such a big plan but she hadn’t disclosed any of it to her husband. Coincidentally, she declared to get a divorce out of rage. Now she was making a concession. Of course Jian Xubai suspected that she was instigated by Su Shaoge to leave after avenging Zhiqin.

Rage bubbled just below the surface of his mind but he just looked calm and peaceful, “As to the disclosure by Lady Nuan, it is more interesting!”

“You told mother that Lady Nuan must be leaning against the door so as to hear you talking. Then why did she eavesdrop on you specially since she was scarcely related to you and Cui Jianlian?”

Song Yixiao couldn’t help responding, “If I knew why, how could I let her disrupt my plan?”

“Because if it were not for Duke of Ji, when Wuhuan was subjugated, she would die in the war like her sisters!” Jian Xubai said coldly, “In light of her beauty, no sensation has been caused in court whether when she arrived at the imperial capital or taken into the imperial palace. Do you think it is coincidence only?”

“It was due to the Su Family?” Song Yixiao was taken aback, “But the Empress Dowager, Mother and Aunt Daiguo dislike Lady Nuan, and Duke of Ji was in trouble at that time. How dare he?”

Jian Xubai sneered, “Or why do you think Grandmother doesn’t support Prince of Zhao? In fact, before that, Grandmother adores Prince of Zhao and Changxing very much. After all, Grandmother has suffered a lot from the previous favored concubines, which makes her loathe the concubines’ disrespect for the empress!”

But the maiden family of Prince of Zhao’s mother offered an exceptional beauty to Emperor Xianjia!

How could the Empress Dowager not feel disappointed about the Su Family and then distance herself from the son and daughter born the Empress?

Seeing Song Yixiao’s surprised look, Jian Xubai got up and said casually, “Think about it yourself!”

Then he walked to the screen and fetched the coat, “Xuepei is in the study waiting for me to discuss about business. I may not come back for dinner and you can just have it sent to us!”

“Wait!” Song Yixiao had mixed feelings and hastened to stop him, “Muting found some useful prescriptions for Marquis Boling the other days and asked me to hand it over to Xue’e. Since Marquis Boling is at the front yard, why don’t you give them to him?”

She had tried her best to persuade Jiang Muting but Jiang Muting still insisted on leaving the prescriptions. As a result, Song Yixiao had to act the go-between for her resignedly.

Jian Xubai was expecting her to explain to him, but when he saw the prescriptions, he instantly pulled a long face and fetched it, saying coldly, “Okay!”

He walked through the corridor and arrived at the study. As he opened the door, he felt warmed by the inner heater in the study, where Yuan Xuepei was sitting in his wheelchair, wearing the spring outfit only with a blanket on his knees. He was setting up the chess with a casual air. When Jian Xubai entered the study, he messed up the chess pieces and said smilingly, “Did you have a quarrel with your wife just now? What took you so long that you even didn’t get changed?”

“I forgot it!” Jian Xubai was not in a good mood now and refused to talk about that with him. Then he put the prescriptions beside Yuan Xuepei’s hand, saying briefly, “These are for your sister from Ms. Jiang. Since you are here, you can just take them back then.”

Yuan Xuepei thought that it was none of his business so he pressed them with an ornament without even glancing at them. Then he started to talk of business, “Words just came from the imperial palace that the Empress is worried about Side Concubine Cui’s babies, so she has decided to promote the low-class concubines so as to bring luck for the Side Concubine!”

“What ranking is Lady Nuan now?” Jian Xubai knew that Empress Su did so simply to reward and draw Lady Nuan over, so he just cut to the chase.

“Officially fourth-rank beautiful lady,” Yuan Xuepei said, “It seems that the Empress even wants to arrange a new palace for her, but since it is still in the first lunar month, this has to be postponed for the moment.”

“A beautiful lady is eligible to live in a side palace then.” Jian Xubai grew up in the imperial palace, which made him know something about the imperial harem system of the Great Rui. He said aloofly, “But she was only a side fifth-rank lady before. Now she has skipped three grades, how can my grandmother approve of it?”

Yuan Xuepei replied, “The Empress wanted to promote her by two grades on the ground that Side Concubine Cui is pregnant with twins and one grade is not enough! However, Noble Consort Cui learnt about that and then sent her trusted maid to the Palace of Weiyang to remind the Empress openly that Lady Nuan used to conceive a baby, though the baby was not born. Yet, according to the rules in the imperial palace, any concubine under the third-rank can get a promotion for pregnancy and labor. Therefore, she should be promoted by three grades instead of two!”

In this case, no wonder a side fifth-rank lady became an officially fourth-rank beautiful lady.

“The Noble Consort is the birth mother of the Crown Prince. She fought back just shortly after being insulted by Aunt Daiguo!” Jian Xubai frowned, “But don’t they worry that the third party may gain benefits from their fight?”

A side fourth-rank talented lady seemed one grade away from an officially fourth-rank beautiful lady. Seemingly, it made no difference to the super-rank empress and the officially first-rank noble consort.

Nevertheless, those who knew about the imperial rules of the Great Rui were all aware of what the difference actually meant!