Chapter 89 Pigeon Soup Yesterday she and Lu Bingzhi consummated their marriage. Today...

The next morning, Cui Lingyan slept until dawn before waking up. When she woke up, Lu Bingzhi had already put on his clothes. He looked dignified and cold, and there was no trace of the look on his face when he had tormented her last night.

Thinking of the absurd things that happened last night, Cui Lingyan's cheeks flushed slightly. She felt quite embarrassed and asked for something to talk about: "Why didn't you wake me up, Prince?"

Lu Bingzhi stopped her from sitting up, smoothed down the corner of the quilt for her, and said, "You were tired yesterday, so you don't have to go and pay your respects to Grandmother today. I'll ask Birou to go and tell Grandmother."

Cui Lingyan's cheeks became even redder, but she felt sore all over. Thinking that it would take a long time to walk from Wutong Courtyard to Old Madam Dou's place, she decided not to make things difficult for herself.

She nodded and muttered with a hint of complaint, "It's all because the prince has no sense of propriety."

Although her voice was low, it fell into Lu Bingzhi's ears. Lu Bingzhi smiled, not feeling that there was anything wrong with his bullying last night. Instead, he said with a bit of pride: "If I didn't work harder, my wife would think I was not well."

"Doesn't this mean that I don't want you to have any concerns?"

Cui Lingyan's cheeks flushed at his words, and she was a little afraid to look at Lu Bingzhi. She pushed Lu Bingzhi's arm and urged him, "Sir, please go out and have dinner first. I'll sleep a little longer."

Lu Bingzhi stopped teasing her and reached out to touch her cheek. His voice was gentle: "Rest well today. I'll be back to have lunch with you at noon."

Cui Lingyan smiled, nodded, watched Lu Bingzhi walk out, closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep again.

By the time she woke up again, more than half an hour had passed.

Birou heard the noise and came in to serve, helping Cui Lingyan to take a shower and change clothes. Although she looked normal, Cui Lingyan could not help but feel her gaze on her.

"What's wrong?"

Bi Rou hesitated for a moment before whispering, "Young Madam's skin is delicate and will be easily scarred. From now on, you must not let the prince do what he wants."

Cui Lingyan also knew that the bruises on her body were quite obvious. Hearing Birou say this, her cheeks flushed and she complained with a hint of embarrassment, "The prince looks so aloof and reserved, how could I have known he had such a side?"

It's not that she didn't beg for mercy last night, but Lu Bingzhi still felt a little sorry for her at first. But after she couldn't bear it anymore and begged for mercy, it made him bully her even more.

Cui Lingyan shook her head, banishing all the absurd scenes from her mind. She changed the subject and asked, "You said I'd go pay my respects later today. Did the old lady ask you anything?"

Birou couldn't help laughing when she heard her words. "Young Madam always goes to Qingde Courtyard to pay her respects early every day. Today, she was late, so the old lady was naturally concerned. She even asked if she was feeling unwell. I told the old lady that she was very happy to know that Young Madam and the Prince had consummated their marriage last night. She also felt sorry for Young Madam, so she told her to rest well today and not to go and pay her respects."

"Not only that, the old lady also ordered someone to go to the small kitchen to stew a nourishing angelica and pigeon soup. She said she would have it delivered to the young lady later so that she can replenish her body. It should be delivered by now."

Cui Lingyan blushed and before she could respond, footsteps were heard outside. Then, Nanny Sun's smiling voice came from outside: "Is the young lady up?"

Cui Lingyan gestured to Birou, who quickly went out with a smile.

Cui Lingyan stood up from the dressing table, walked to the couch and sat down.

As soon as they sat down, Birou came in with Nanny Sun, who had a smile on her face.

Nanny Sun, holding a red lacquer and gold-decorated food box, bowed to Cui Lingyan and said, "This old servant pays respects to the young lady. The old lady has ordered someone to make angelica and pigeon soup and asked this servant to bring it to the young lady."

"Young Madam, I guess you haven't eaten yet. It's a good opportunity for her to have some pigeon soup to replenish her body."

Cui Lingyan thanked Madam Sun and wanted to invite Madam Sun to have a cup of tea, but Madam Sun declined. "This old servant would like to ask for a cup of tea from Young Madam anytime. Young Madam, please take a good rest today. This old servant will return to Qingde Courtyard first."

Nanny Sun said this and left. Birou personally saw her off.

Cui Lingyan had a feeling that the news of her and Lu Bingzhi consummating their marriage yesterday must have spread throughout the Duke's Mansion today.

Even if she didn't know it before, she must have known it when Nanny Sun came to deliver the pigeon soup.

Cui Lingyan thought of Old Madam Dou's love for her grandson Lu Bingzhi, and also of the speculations in the capital and the Duke's Mansion about Lu Bingzhi's poisoning. She understood to some extent that the Old Madam sent Nanny Sun to bring her the Angelica and Pigeon Soup, partly because she felt sorry for her, and partly because she did it on purpose to dispel all the rumors.

Cui Lingyan smiled and didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

She opened the food box herself and saw that in addition to a bowl of pigeon soup, there was also a plate of exquisite snacks.

She picked up the spoon and stirred it a few times. She saw pigeon meat, poria cocos, yam, longan, lotus seeds, red dates, and some coix seed in it. The soup was rich and delicious, and melted in her mouth.

Cui Lingyan finished the pigeon soup in a short while and had two snacks before ordering someone to take the food box away.

Bi Tao brought a cup of cloud tea over and handed it to Cui Lingyan, whispering, "Young Madam, Madam has returned from the Cen Mansion. I heard that she looked very unhappy along the way. She didn't go directly to pay her respects to the old lady, but instead returned to the Peony Courtyard."

"It's strange, considering Madam's personality. After two days back at the Cen Mansion, she should have paid her respects to the old lady first before returning to her own courtyard after returning from her parents' home. Could it be that the Cen Mansion is in such a mess that Madam has lost her mind and even ignored the rules?"

Cui Lingyan didn't take Cen's mother-in-law seriously, and had no intention of going there to pay her respects. Cen disliked her as a daughter-in-law and had long ago said that she could only pay her respects on the first and fifteenth day of each month, so as a daughter-in-law, she naturally had to obey.

Now that such a joke had happened in the Cen Mansion, it was even more difficult for her to go near them, otherwise Mrs. Cen would think that she, the young lady, was laughing at her.

"Perhaps the Madam is a little tired after her trip back to her parents' home, and she's afraid that being exhausted would be disrespectful to the Old Madam, so she wants to pay her respects to the Old Madam after she's finished packing. Whatever she thinks is none of our business, we should just stay home and live our own lives."

Bi Tao nodded and agreed: "Young Madam is right, we just need to please the old lady. Fortunately, she is only a concubine. If it was a real mother-in-law, Young Madam would have to suffer some grievances."

Cui Lingyan smiled and glanced at Bi Tao. She felt that Bi Tao had been much more lively recently. When she was with her in the Qi family, Bi Tao was actually a bit dull. How could she be so lively?

It’s better this way. In that dream, she married Qi Shaozhang and had a bad reputation. She had a hard life in the Qi family, and naturally the maid Bitao suffered as well.

Now that she is married to Lu Bingzhi, none of the things in her dream have happened, and she only feels happy in her heart.

......

Peony Courtyard

Aunt Qi advised, "Madam, you should go back to your parents' home and pay your respects to the old lady first. She might also want to ask about the situation at the Cen Mansion, even if it's just a few polite words."

Mrs. Cen's face was grim, and after a long while she spoke, "You said that someone caught my father and that young servant doing something? Could it really be that Lu Bingzhi sent someone to do it?"

When Aunt Qi heard her wife ask this, she didn't know how to respond.

Yesterday, the Jiang family came to cancel the engagement, saying that the Cen family had lost face and they didn't want their daughter to marry into the family and be unable to hold her head up high for the rest of her life.

The strange old woman, the lady, suddenly came in to report, which made the old lady very angry.

But after Xue came in, she blamed everything on the Madam, the married aunt, and said that all the things that happened in the mansion were because the old lady bullied Cui Lingyan to vent her anger on the Madam's daughter, which offended Lu Bingzhi and caused all these troubles, and even caused the Jiang family to come and break off the engagement.

The lady was naturally very angry and tried to make some excuses, but her sister-in-law, Xue, was convinced of the matter. She even pointed out that the lady had not helped the Cen family over the years, but instead made Old Lady Mei worry about her. The money spent during the New Year and other festivals in the mansion was not enough to make back. She didn't know how much money had been spent on her, a married lady.

Just like that, not a single benefit was gained, but instead such a scandal was caused.

Xue even said that if the lady had not punished Lu Cong'an, a bastard, with the intention of establishing her authority when she first entered the house, thus displeasing the Duke, how could she have ended up in such a situation now?

If she had known this would happen, she would have married a concubine from the mansion instead. She knew that Xiaoyi was gentle and not competitive, and now she might be able to win over the Duke and the Crown Prince Lu Bingzhi better than her, a legitimate daughter.

Because of these words, the relationship between the aunt and the sister-in-law became very serious. The lady was furious and had planned to return home yesterday. However, when Old Lady Mei heard the quarrel between the aunt and the sister-in-law, she was so angry that she vomited blood and fainted immediately.

This time he really fainted. We asked a doctor to come to the house to take his pulse. The doctor said that it was due to anger attacking his heart and that he needed to rest well and not be stimulated by anything else.

The lady took care of the old lady without taking off her clothes all night. Now that the old lady is feeling better, she has returned to the Duke's Mansion.

When she was leaving, her sister-in-law, Mrs. Xue, didn't even come to see her off, nor did she even go to the old lady's room to take care of her. She only sent the nanny by her side to come over, saying that she was traumatized by her son's broken engagement and was not feeling well, so the lady would have to take care of her.

The lady felt aggrieved and angry, and had a gloomy face all the way back. How could she not know how upset the lady felt?

At this moment, she didn't know how to answer the question asked by her lady.

After all, there is no evidence, these are just Xue's speculations.

Come to think of it, this is quite a coincidence.

Madam Qi hesitated for a moment and whispered, "Regardless of whether the Crown Prince sent someone to do it, firstly, we have no evidence, and secondly, things have come to this point, what can Madam do? Even if there is evidence, can we blame the Crown Prince and ask for an explanation from him?"

After all, it was not the prince who asked the old master to keep a young waiter. After this scandal broke out, someone in the mansion naturally investigated the young waiter's background clearly. Only then did they find out that the young waiter had been with the old master for several years.

After all, the old man himself was disrespectful and disregarded the reputation of the family, so the prince could not be blamed.

Hearing what Madam Qi said, Cen said angrily, "If it was really Lu Bingzhi who sent people to expose this scandal, then he is too cruel and ruthless!"

"After all, I am his stepmother. The Lu and Cen families are in-laws. Even if he doesn't consider me as his stepmother, he should consider Danruo as his sister. How will Danruo discuss marriage in the future when she has such a notorious grandfather? If someone makes a fuss about this, wouldn't that girl Danruo be wronged?"

"As an elder brother, he doesn't act like an elder brother at all! He only knows how to treat his half-brother Lu Cong'an well, but he doesn't care about my Danruo at all! Doesn't he know that Danruo is the legitimate daughter? He treats a lowly bastard born to a maid as more important than his legitimate sister Danruo!"

Mrs. Cen was very angry. When she thought about the Cen family being laughed at and ridiculed by those people in the capital, and her sister-in-law Mrs. Xue's dissatisfaction with her, she felt aggrieved and angry.

She sat in the room for a long time before taking Aunt Qi to Qingdeyuan.

Seeing her return, Madam Dou politely inquired about Madam Mei's health. Upon hearing that Madam Mei had woken up and that she only needed to rest well, she didn't ask any more questions. She simply said to Cen, "You've been tired these past two days. I have people to serve you here. You should go back and rest. Don't overwork yourself."

Mrs. Cen nodded, bowed, and walked out of the room.

As soon as I came out, I heard two maids talking in the corridor. One of them said, "The old lady heard that the prince and the young lady had consummated their marriage today and she was very happy. She ordered her servants to stew angelica and pigeon soup and asked Madam Sun to personally deliver it to Wutong Courtyard."

The other one, upon hearing this, simply said, "Young Madam was already favored by the Old Madam, and now that she's consummated her marriage with the Crown Prince, the Old Madam is even more pleased. What's the point of a bowl of angelica and pigeon soup? There will be better things in the future."

Cen's heart skipped a beat, and her face immediately turned grim. She led Madam Qi out of Qingde Courtyard and asked anxiously and incredulously, "Didn't they say Lu Bing was completely useless after being poisoned? How did he consummate his marriage with Cui?"

Aunt Qi was startled when she heard her speak so directly, and she quickly said, "Madam, be careful with your words!"

As she spoke, she looked around and saw that there was no one around. She breathed a sigh of relief and whispered comfortingly, "It's just the consummation of the marriage. Madam, there's no need to worry too much."

Cen's face was solemn. How could she not be worried? As the wife of a duke, she was in such a situation in the mansion now. Not only was she not allowed to register the illegitimate son Lu Cong'an under her own name, she was also embarrassed. Because of this, the old lady was unhappy and handed over the kitchen affairs to He, her younger sister-in-law.

Her father-in-law had caused such a scandal again, which made her lose face. She had not yet recovered from the shock. Now, when she suddenly heard that Lu Bingzhi and Cui Lingyan had consummated their marriage, she felt a tightness in her heart and could hardly breathe.

Ever since Cui Lingyan got married, she has been having troubles in everything. She thought that Lu Bing was useless due to poisoning, and even if Cui was favored, it was only for face. Could Cui give the old lady a great-grandson?

But now, Lu Bingzhi and Cui Lingyan have consummated their marriage!

Seeing that her wife was silent and still had an unpleasant expression, Madam Qi sighed softly in her heart and said, "I will accompany Madam back to the Peony Courtyard to rest for a while. We can think of anything else after she has rested well."

"After all, the poisoning of the Crown Prince will definitely have some impact. Even if the marriage is consummated, the Young Madam may not be able to get pregnant soon. Perhaps it will not be easy for her to have a child."

Cen nodded and took Madam Qi to the Peony Courtyard.

In the house

After hearing the maid's report, Madam Dou's face darkened. She waved her hand and told the maid to leave. Then she said unhappily, "Look, Yan's daughter just consummated her marriage with Bingzhi, and she, as the mother-in-law, is already so upset. She didn't even try to hide it. It's no wonder that the eldest master doesn't like this second wife."

"Ever since Yan came into the family, I think she has become even more outrageous!"

Nanny Sun knew that the old lady was displeased with Cen, the eldest daughter-in-law, but she also spoke to comfort her, "After all, the Cen family has caused such a big scandal. It's understandable that the eldest lady is worried and has no mood to smile. Old lady, please be understanding."

Madam Dou sighed and said, "What can I do if I don't understand? Who told me to choose her as the eldest brother's second wife? Can I divorce her with a piece of paper now?"

"No matter how bad she is, she gave birth to a daughter for the eldest brother. Besides, our Weiguo Mansion also has to maintain its reputation!"

Nanny Sun glanced at the old lady with a hint of surprise in her eyes. Even she didn't expect that the old lady was so displeased with Cen, the eldest daughter-in-law, and even thought about asking the Duke to divorce her.

After all, if the old lady hadn't had this thought in mind, she wouldn't have said it so casually.

Seeing her surprise, Madam Dou said, "Let's talk about this privately. I wouldn't really have such thoughts. After all, our Duke of Wei's Mansion is not a small family, and our situation is different from other families. Are you going to divorce Cen and marry another one? I'm too old to bother with this, and Cen hasn't done anything too wrong. Unless she crosses my line, as an elder, I have to tolerate her a little."

"I just hope that nothing happens between her and Danruo. I don't ask for anything else. It's enough for them, mother and daughter, to just be content."