When Song Yixiao and Chief House Steward were testing each other, something happened in the Yamen of Jingzhao Municipality.
In the back hall.
Ban Yanxiu, the mayor, went to the warm pavilion and used the hot handkerchief handed by a maid to wipe the cold sweat on his forehead. He said, “Anyway, Liu Zhenxi is the Vice Minister in the Ministry of Punishments, and he comes here due to the order of Qiu Shuxia, the Director in the Ministry of Rituals. Although I make an excuse that my son falls into water, I can’t let him wait too long. Ziya, should I listen to his request?”
“No!” The Private Adviser, Zuo Licen, answered. He styled himself Ziya. At this time, he also sweated in the late autumn and wasn’t in a mood to take the handkerchief in maid’s hand. He casually wiped his face with his sleeve and waved hands to let servants leave. Then he said in a deep voice, “Master, now we’re pressed for time. Please don’t blame my alarmist talk. If you liste
When Ban Yanxiu spoke in a bureaucratic tone to send the visitor out, Jian Xubai loosed his collar and went into the inner room. He said, “It’s just a wet nurse’s husband who did something wrong. You can directly go to find a post in the study and send it to the Yamen of Jingzhao Municipality. Ban Yanxiu will understand after seeing it. Why do you ask me to come back?”Leaning against a soft couch, Song Yixiao was lowering her head to read a book. After hearing his words, she put down the book and was about to speak. But when she raised her head, she saw that he wore his rail crown, official costume and jade belt. He came back quickly and had no time to change clothes. It had been late autumn. But there were still marks of sweat on his clothes clearly. Would anyone doubt that he was hurried to come?“Since he doesn’t want to admit his attention to me, he’d better come here before changing clothes!” Jian Xubai’s pretense made Song Yixiao dumbfounding. But sh
Jian Xubai remained silent for a while about his wife’s question and then replied, “I told you before that Aunt Daiguo held grudge against Noble Consort Cui. Do you know how the grudge was harbored?”Song Yixiao puckered her lips, “Don’t you know about my family background? I can never hear of such anecdote unless it is spread all over the city.”“It happened many years ago. I didn’t hear of it until I grew up.” Jian Xubai said. “One spring, Noble Consort Cui went to appreciate flowers in the imperial garden. When she arrived there, she saw that her favorite flowers were all broken and ruined. Of course she felt so furious that she spoke a few angry words. However, the flowers happened to be ruined by the lynx raised by Aunt Daiguo, who left temporarily to chase the lynx and then heard her when coming back. At the moment, she flew into a rage!”Daiguo Grand Princess, as the young legitimate daughter of late emperor, she was less free in the pre
The couple’s conversation ended with Jian Xubai’s threat. Song Yixiao didn’t think of that they only discussed about how to frame Jian Yiyou but not how to counteract Qiu Shuxia until she took a bath and almost fell asleep in bed.“Oh crap...” In light of the dim candle light through the bed net, she took a look at the arm around her waist and thought, “I may as well bring it up to him tomorrow morning!”Thinking of this, she suddenly got surprised, “I just said that I failed to understand what actual damage Qiu Shuxia does to Jian Xubai by creating this case. The cause of the case is that my wet nurse’s husband is put into prison. Qiu Shuxia holds grudge against Jian Xubai, making me feel that Duke of Yan should be the target! However, if it is not the truth...”Qiu Shuxia held grudge against Jian Xubai but it didn’t mean he would be nice to other people!In fact, he didn’t care to hurt his nephew for supporting the idea of making
Nie Wuying hastened to explain, “No! No! I have a lot of jewelries. Those earrings are new to me, so I mentioned them thoughtlessly. Actually, they are not very special...”Instantly, she was pinched by her maid again. Obviously, it was okay for her to reject Song Yixiao’s kindness but why did she belittle the gift bought by another sister-in-law in the meanwhile? Although Earl Shouchun’s wife was not at present, this talk was not private and words might be spread to her. After all, Earl Shouchun’s wife didn’t forget to buy something for Nie Wuying out of kindness while shopping for her own daughter. How could Nie Wuying pay back to her kindness with these improper utterances?“I was not asking for gifts. I just heard you talk about ornaments so I brought up the earrings carelessly!” Nie Wuying got the hint of the maid and hurriedly continued to come up with an excuse. Pitifully, she got increasingly anxious and thus found it harder to talk well. In the end
It was in the afternoon now. By tacit rule, one shouldn’t pay a visit to another at the moment unless they were really close or anything urgent happened. Otherwise, it would be a disrespectful act for the latter.Commandery Princess Qingjiang was Jian Xubai’s sister. Yet, Song Yixiao was still new to the family and didn’t get familiar with her. After careful consideration, Song Yixiao didn’t set off immediately but send a visiting card first to ask whether it would be convenient to her that she came by.“Send my word to Ms. Zhao that she doesn’t need to come back in a hurry since Mr. You’s case has been just closed and she has a lot of family issues to deal with. She should take care of her family first.” Song Yixiao instructed, “As to Ms. Zhao’s daughter and grandson, send for a doctor to check on them. If they don’t have enough money, just take it from the accountant and put the expense under my name!”Upon thinking of Ms. Zhao, Song Yixiao i
Jian Xubai remained stern until he went to sleep.After putting down the curtain, he didn’t even touch her finger, let alone cuddling her!Song Yixiao attempted to pull his hand but she was slapped away by him coldly. When she tried again, Jian Xubai didn’t slap her hand anymore. Instead, he just stared at her silently with disdain, as if he wished to distance himself from her.“Well! He still seems to be angry now.” Song Yixiao noticed his lingering anger so she gave up trying. She pulled up the quilt and closed her eyes, “In this case, I may as well sleep first. Maybe he will realize that he is making a fuss willfully and then will stop being angry?”However, Jian Xubai was still waiting for his wife’s consoling him...He stared at the top of the bed net and took a few deep breaths so as to hold back his impulse to push his wife off the bed!Over the night Jian Xubai kept turning over every once a while.
To be honest, Zhuo Ping’an didn’t look like an idiot at all.Like other high-fed childes, he was fair-skinned with regular facial features unlike Commandery Princess Qingjiang. He must take after his father. The disheveled hair on his shoulders was obviously delicately cleaned, which was black and long enough to reach his waist. He was wearing a brocade robe with blue background and the pattern of four kinds of flowers that bloomed in different seasons. His waist was loosely tightened. As a draught blew by, his robe hem swung slightly, showing the emptiness due to his bony appearance. In this way, his morbid state was revealed.“What a pity!” Song Yixiao looked him up and down, and couldn’t help feeling sorry for her sister-in-law, “Given his good look, if his brain were not ruined due to difficult labor, regardless of his talent, he could still occupy a foothold in court by virtue of his mother’s status! Unfortunately, something unexpected may happen any t
Jian Xubai left neatly while Commandery Princess Qingjiang and Song Yixiao were confused. Hence, they asked the eunuch to stay so that they could learn more about the sudden incidence.“It should be official business?” The eunuch racked his brains to recall what the errand-man of Marquis Boling said, “It seems to be related to Ministry of War.”Song Yixiao was relieved to hear that. Because of Zhiqin, she had no relish for Yuan Xuepei, but she still didn’t want to see anything untoward happen to him. After all, without him, Yuan Xue’e would have nobody to rely on.Now that the Yuan Family was okay, she shifted her focus onto bonding with Commandery Princess Qingjiang.However, after a while, another servant came to report, saying that Zhuo Ping’an was crying in the yard and that no one could stop him. Commandery Princess Qingjiang replied, “Never mind.” Yet, she was sitting on pins and needles. Song Yixiao realized that she couldn’