Chapter 59

Cui Yunshu felt that she needed to sleep.

It wasn't the usual kind of sleep when you're tired.

It's a deeper, death-like coma, the kind where you sleep for three years and then discover it was all a ridiculous, nonsensical nightmare.

She had just personally designed their future "revolutionary headquarters" for her passionate, foolish, and handsome fiancé who was determined to "rebel."

A beautifully situated revolutionary headquarters with a lake, pavilions, a huge underground vault, and secret passages.

Right now, all she wants to do is lie on the balustrade of the lakeside pavilion in the future, drink chilled plum juice, and read novels for ten days and ten nights, without anyone bothering her.

But she couldn't.

Because she hasn't married into the family yet.

Because this marriage was personally approved by that old fox, the emperor, right under his nose.

How could he possibly let her marry him so peacefully and comfortably?

...

The "uninvited guest" arrived in the afternoon, after she had just finished reviewing half of her accounts, drunk three cups of herbal tea, and felt her brain was about to turn into mush.

An old nanny.

One of them came from the palace, and was said to be the most capable person by the Empress's side. Her surname was Rong, and she was a nanny.

When Cui Yunshu first saw her, only two words remained in her mind.

Stone.

An old woman, soaked in the rules of the palace for decades, dried up, hardened, and cold, like a stone in a latrine.

She wore a dark brown palace dress that had been starched until stiff, and her hair was combed meticulously, like she was wearing an iron hat. Her face had few wrinkles, but her skin was bloodless, grayish-white, like the color of aged, leftover dough.

She carried a unique scent, a blend of precious spices and stale aroma, characteristic of the womb.

The moment she arrived, the air in the entire Qing Shu Courtyard became just like her—dry, hard, and cold.

"This old servant, Rong, has come by order of Her Majesty the Empress to instruct Miss Cui on royal etiquette."

Her voice was like stone.

There are no tones, no rises and falls; each word bursts out, and when it hits the ground, it can splash up a few shards of ice.

The mother, Madam Song, sat beside her, a polite yet somewhat stiff smile on her face. Looking at the stone-like Rong Momo, her eyes betrayed her unconcealed worry and anxiety for her daughter.

Cui Yunshu stood up and gave her a flawless curtsy.

"Thank you for your trouble, Granny."

Her voice was very soft and gentle, like a ball of cotton.

The stone collided with the cotton.

...

The days that followed were hell.

A refined, elegant, bloodless hell.

Cui Yunshu felt as if she had returned to the grueling training camp before her college entrance exam in her previous life.

No.

That's even more terrifying.

"The princess should walk on her tiptoes, each step measuring half a foot. Not an inch more, not an inch less."

Rong Momo followed behind her, holding a long ruler in her hand and expressionless.

Cui Yunshu felt that her feet no longer belonged to her. They were two precisely calculated, wooden prosthetics.

"The princess's posture should be upright, with her knees together and her hands placed on her knees. From sunrise to sunset, she cannot relax even for a moment."

Cui Yunshu felt like her back was about to break. She even started to miss the hard wooden chair in the courtyard of Dali Temple that had made her buttocks ache.

"The princess's smile should be one that doesn't show her teeth. The curve of her lips should resemble the crescent moon on the third day of the lunar month."

Looking at her face in the mirror, a smile that looked more like a grimace, Cui Yunshu had only one thought in her mind.

Screw the moon on the third day of the Lunar New Year.

Right now, all I want is to be the full moon, round and bright, laughing however I want.

The most dangerous thing is those words that are laced with veiled barbs.

“Miss Cui, we all know you come from a merchant family.” Rong Mama corrected her hand gestures while holding the teacup, and said in a flat, stone-like voice, “But from the moment you married into the Prince An’s mansion, you became a member of the royal family. You absolutely cannot bring this commoner’s airs with you.”

“Prince An is a young hero who has devoted himself to the country and is His Majesty’s right-hand man. Your Highness, what you need to do is to manage the household affairs for the Prince so that he has no worries. Not… interfere in matters of the court that you should not know.”

They've arrived.

The fox's tail has finally been revealed.

Cui Yunshu lowered her head, looking at the few tea leaves floating in the teacup.

My heart felt cold and knowing.

Empress.

Or rather, he was the emperor.

They were scared.

They were afraid of her marriage to Tang Pu, afraid of the Cui family's money, and afraid of getting entangled with the soldiers of the Prince of An's mansion.

So, they sent this old woman who's as hard as stone.

I'm not here to teach her manners.

They came to reprimand her, to warn her, to set rules for her soon-to-be "princess," who was enjoying great popularity.

Let her know what she should and shouldn't do.

Let her behave herself and be a true stay-at-home wife.

I'm too lazy to act with her anymore.

Cui Yunshu's lips curled up slightly.

That arc was like a sharp, poisoned crescent moon.

...

"Miss, are you just going to endure this?"

At night, her maid, Atao, massaged her aching back, her heart aching so much that tears welled up in her eyes.

"That old hag is clearly deliberately tormenting you!"

"Otherwise what?" Cui Yunshu lay on the bed, like a salted fish whose tendons had been pulled out, and said weakly, "Argue with her? Make a scene with her? And then make her go back to the palace and complain to the Empress, saying that I, Cui Yunshu, am arrogant, domineering, and disrespectful to the royal family?"

"But... but we can't just leave it like this..."

"Don't worry." Cui Yunshu turned over, a sly, fox-like glint flashing in her dark eyes. "The reason a stone is hard is because it has no weak points."

"But every human being has a weakness."

She closed her eyes, as if she were asleep.

Only she knew that an invisible, enormous net had been silently cast out through the channels of "Cloud Pavilion".

There is only one goal.

Rong Momo.

...

the next day.

The weather is nice.

That's so good, it makes me want to kill someone.

Cui Yunshu was in the courtyard, balancing a teacup on her head, practicing her damned, half-foot-step-per-step manners.

Rong Momo still followed behind her like a ghost, the ruler in her hand gleaming with a cold, ominous light.

Cui Yunshu seemed tired from walking and sat down on a stone bench.

She rubbed her aching ankle and sighed, seemingly unintentionally.

"Speaking of which, Your Highness has been troubled by something these past few days."

Rong Momo's eyelids twitched slightly.

"oh?"

“The Imperial Guard is short of a deputy commander position.” Cui Yunshu picked up the tea on the table and gently blew on the steam. “His Highness wants to promote a capable person from among the lower ranks, one of his own. It’s a pity that he has been in the northern border for many years and is not very familiar with or trusting of the people in the capital.”

She looked at Rong Momo, and in her clear eyes was just the right amount of innocent, troubled expression.

"The prince also said that the Jingji Guard is a lucrative and important position, and there are too many people eyeing it. He wants to find someone who doesn't have a strong family background, but is honest, hardworking, and reliable. Such a person is easier to control and more... trustworthy."

After she finished speaking, she said nothing more, but simply lowered her head and drank her tea.

She saw it.

She saw it clearly.

Rong Momo's hand, which was always steady and as solid as iron, trembled almost imperceptibly when she heard the words "Jingji Guard," "no background," and "honest and kind."

The lid and rim of the teacup made a very subtle, crisp clinking sound.

It's done.

Cui Yunshu snapped her fingers in her mind.

...

From that day on.

The stone seems less hard now.

Cui Yunshu took the wrong step, and Rong Momo's ruler only lightly tapped the air.

Cui Yunshu smiled, revealing her teeth, but Rong Momo simply pretended not to see it.

Even when Cui Yunshu "accidentally" knocked over her teacup, wetting her expensive palace dress, she not only didn't get angry, but instead asked her with concern if she had burned her hand.

The mother, Song, was dumbfounded by this 180-degree change, thinking that the old nanny was possessed.

Only Cui Yunshu knew.

It's not possession.

It was her only son, who had been ostracized by his superiors in the Imperial Guard for three years and couldn't even get a decent job, who finally had hope.

Two weeks later.

Rong Momo is going back to the palace to report.

Before leaving, she held Cui Yunshu's hand, and her eyes, which had once been as cold as stone, now held a trace of warmth.

“Your Highness,” she whispered in her ear, lowering her voice, “you are a…good person.”

"Don't worry about Her Majesty the Empress. This old servant knows what to say."

"The palace is a dangerous place. From now on, you must be careful in everything you do."

After saying that, she gave Cui Yunshu a deep look, turned around, and left.

Cui Yunshu looked at her back, which was no longer so stiff, and even carried a hint of respect.

Slowly, I let out a sigh of relief.

A probing attack from the palace, laced with barbs, was defused by her without a fight.

Not only was it resolved.

She also, incidentally, planted a small pawn next to the Empress, a pawn that might come in handy sometime in the future.