Chapter 19 Chapter 19
Su Peisheng bent over and invited his master to sit in the private room No. 2.
Walking to the door, he ran into a familiar face with thin eyebrows and bright eyes. Yan Jin, the trusted eunuch serving the Eighth Master Yinsi, frowned, shrugged his shoulders and walked in.
Yan Jin glanced at Su Peisheng, bowed and stood beside him.
"Fourth brother, thank you for waiting." The eighth prince Yinsi casually threw the jade bone fan to the servant.
His voice was very low and soft, and his eyes occasionally glanced behind the screen.
Yinzhen took a lazily sip of the teacup, a smile on his lips as he watched his eighth brother absent-mindedly.
In the elegant room, Chu Xian placed Wan Ning's favorite dishes in front of her seat.
"Xian'er!" Wan Ning's voice arrived before she even showed up.
Chu Xian stood up to greet him: "Why did you return to Beijing early? Did someone upset you?"
Upon hearing this, Guo Luoluo immediately frowned and said unhappily, "Don't mention these depressing things, Xian'er. I want to cancel the engagement!"
"Wan Ning! Be careful with your words!" Chu Xian was so frightened that she covered Wan Ning's mouth with her hand.
"Your Majesty's granting of marriage is equivalent to an imperial decree. How can you disobey it? Don't speak in anger."
"Xian'er, I'm so angry. I just found out that on the fifth day of last month, he had already added two slaves sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to his house."
Chu Xian remained silent. She and Wan Ning talked about everything. She even knew that Mr. Ba and Wan Ning had kissed last year. Except for the fact that they didn't take the final step, the two of them were already very close.
The servants in the Eighth Master's room must be palace maids serving as trial marriages to enlighten the prince about the love affairs between men and women.
Before marriage, the princes would be enlightened and trained by palace maids on love affairs, so that they would not be ignorant of the proper etiquette of husband and wife during the wedding, causing jokes and bringing shame to the royal family.
"Wan Ning, the Eighth Master is a prince. He is destined to have many wives and concubines in this life. Now they are just two servants. After you two get married, as his legitimate wife, you will need to personally select a suitable woman for him and send her to serve him on his bed."
"Stop talking! Xian'er, I won't marry him. Out of sight, out of mind. I know deep down you don't want to marry the Fourth Prince either. Let's find a way to break off the engagement."
"Wan Ning, stop it. Don't you want the Nine Clan?" Chu Xian lowered her voice, fearing that her rebellious words would be spread.
"I have my own way to break off the engagement. I only ask if you are willing to break off the engagement with me. I guarantee that both of us will be able to get out of this safely."
Guo Luoluo patted her chest and made the promise with confidence.
"If you don't go, then I'll go by myself."
Guo Luoluo stood up angrily, and suddenly her wrist was grasped by Xian'er.
"Hey, how are you going to get out of this unscathed? Tell me first, I..."
Chu Xian looked around in panic, frowned, and lowered her voice: "I...I also want to cancel the engagement."
Separated by a door, Su Peisheng and Yan Jin lowered their heads and dared not say a word. The Fourth Master and the Eighth Master looked unhappy, and were listening with a sneer to the two people next door discussing how to cancel the engagement.
These two ladies were really bold. Su Peisheng broke out in a cold sweat and didn't dare to listen carefully.
"Xian'er, there are countless noble ladies in the Forty-Nine City who want to be the prince's wife. We two are no shortage of them. You are really stupid. If you didn't want to marry the Fourth Prince, why did you compete with Tong Jia back then?"
"Actually, I was lying to you today. You used to cling to the Fourth Prince so much that you wished you could live on him. But all these years, you never mentioned him. I knew something was wrong with you. You really didn't want to get married..."
Guo Luoluo was still confused. Back then, Xian'er had tried her best to marry the Fourth Prince and almost lost her life, and she managed to snatch the position of the Fourth Lady from Longkodo's daughter Tong Jia.
Since this is the marriage she fought so hard for, why is she unwilling to get married?
Chu Xian smiled bitterly, "I'm sorry to the Fourth Prince, and I'm sorry to my father. It was my willful behavior that offended the Fourth Prince and caused my father to lose his position as the governor of the Nine Gates."
"Let's not talk about the past, dear Wan Ning, tell me how we can get out of this unscathed." Chu Xian asked anxiously.
"Xian'er, everyone in the capital knows that Tong Jia is in love with the Fourth Prince. Why not return the Fourth Prince to Tong Jia? I'll find out about Tong Jia and the Fourth Prince's recent itinerary, and then find a chance for them to meet and get entangled. I'll arrange for someone to catch them having an affair."
"Wan Ning." Chu Xian interrupted Wan Ning's bad idea in a deep voice.
"I can kill her, but I can't ruin her reputation."
"If someone were to catch Tong Jia and the Fourth Prince having an affair, the Fourth Prince might just get a few teasings about his youthful flirtation, but Tong Jia's reputation would be ruined. Who knows, the Tong family might even hang her with a white silk thread to protect their family tradition. How innocent is this girl from the Tong family?"
"I'm willing to try anything except destroying someone's reputation."
Although Chu Xian dreamed of breaking off the engagement as soon as possible, she would never be so cruel as to harm innocent people.
"Xian'er, everyone knows Tong Jia's feelings for the Fourth Prince. She will definitely rush to throw herself into his arms. If this happens, she might even be filled with gratitude to you. How can you cancel the engagement when you are so soft-hearted and hesitant?"
Guo Luoluo sighed, "There's another way. We can bribe the Imperial Observatory and fabricate an unlucky prophecy to delay your wedding with the Fourth Prince."
Chu Xian shook her head regretfully. "Every year, the Imperial Astronomical Observatory predicts the coming year's good or bad luck and submits a report to the Emperor. Unless there are unusual celestial phenomena before the wedding, it would be impossible to justify this. How can we control these phenomena?"
She would not be so stupid as to use such trivial tricks as making ants produce words or attracting thunder from the sky to create strange phenomena. If she were discovered, her entire clan would be overthrown.
As they were talking, a gust of hot and humid wind leaked into the elegant room from the half-open lattice window. Chu Xian's face was panicked for a moment, and she grabbed the hem of Wan Ning's clothes and sniffed it carefully.
"Hey hey hey, what are you doing?"
Guo Luoluo's wrist was itchy from Xian'er's hot breath, and she bit her lip and chuckled.
"Have you lit incense in your room again? I've reminded you so many times to use scents of fruits, vegetables and flowers, not incense." Chu Xian was horrified.
Guo Luoluo didn't take it seriously, her eyes smiling. Suddenly, she remembered that person and couldn't help but frown. "This is a body fragrance. After it is used to fumigate the body, it will prevent all kinds of diseases. This is the fragrance that person made for me. I'll throw it to the dog when I get back."
Chu Xian became more and more anxious. She knew that Wan Ning was just saying that out of anger. She couldn't bear to throw away the gift from Mr. Ba, but she had to persuade Wan Ning to abandon Xiang today.
"Come on, Master Ba just casually beckoned you, and your soul has already gone with him. How could you be willing to throw away the incense he gave you?"
"Hey! Who are you looking down on? Cuiqiao! Go to my room right now and throw the incense to the dog."
"Wan Ning." Chu Xian said sternly, "We agreed that we would never use incense again. You can't break your promise."
Guo Luoluo was joking at first, but when she saw Xian'er's stern face, she quickly soothed her, "Okay, okay, tell him not to send these anymore."
"Xian'er, you're being too paranoid. It's just incense, and it was made by Yinsi himself. What could possibly go wrong?"
Chu Xian was speechless. Wan Ning's mother was not the legitimate daughter of Prince An's wife, but Prince An's concubine's daughter.
Prince An's second wife, Hesheli, had many legitimate granddaughters.
Wan Ning lost her father at the age of one and her mother at the age of three. She was taken in by her maternal grandfather, Prince An, to be raised in the palace.
Prince An was naturally unable to go to the rear house to teach his granddaughter in person, so it was usually Hesheli who taught her personally.
I heard that Wan Ning's maternal grandmother had a quarrel with Hesheli and soon died of a cold.
There are so many dirty things hidden in the deep mansions that it is hard to unravel them.
Chu Xian tacitly acknowledged that Hesheli and Wan Ning's grandmother were mortal enemies.
Emperor Kangxi chose a fatherless and motherless illegitimate orphan as the wife of the eighth prince, which was a slap in the face of Hesheli. How could she be truly open-minded and generous?
Others said that Wan Ning was well cared for by everyone in Prince An's Mansion and was the apple of his eye.
Since the death of Prince An, Hesheli has been doting on Wan Ning, and Wan Ning's temperament has become more domineering, aggressive, and willful.
In contrast, Hesheli's own granddaughter, Yehenara, was beautiful, intelligent, and well-educated.
Wan Ning has been deliberately spoiled by Hesheli. She has a hot temper and acts impulsively, and occasionally shows some narrow-minded behavior of a concubine in the harem.
Chu Xian became increasingly anxious, but Prince An's wife, Hesheli, was of such noble status, and had the support of the Empress's party and the prince's mother's family, the Hesheli clan. How could she dare to sow discord between Wan Ning and Hesheli?
She was afraid that Wan Ning would be deceived by Hesheli with just a few words and would reveal everything about her. After all, Wan Ning and Hesheli had always been close and could talk about anything.
"Xian'er, don't you like my grandmother?" Guo Luoluo lived under someone else's roof, so she knew how to read people's expressions.
"No..." Chu Xian was panicked by Wan Ning's touch. She hurriedly picked up the teacup and lowered her head to pretend to drink tea.
Wan Ning is imprisoned without knowing it, and Chu Xian is really worried.
She came prepared today. She put down the teacup and took out the prepared notebook from the rose stool beside her.
"Wan Ning, a few days ago I stumbled upon a miscellaneous book called 'Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Customs'. It's quite interesting. I brought it here today so we can read it together."
"Xian'er, please don't embarrass me! You can keep it for yourself. With my limited ink skills, I'm lucky to be able to understand the sketchbook."
Guo Luoluo shook her head in disgust. She hated the Han people's shabby and flowery books the most. She would feel sleepy when she read them.
Chu Xian persisted, "I knew you would cheat, so I chose a few interesting and novel stories from the "Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Customs," drew them into cute little figures, and turned them into a storybook in Manchu."
Chu Xian grabbed Wan Ning's hand without saying anything and opened the first page of the storybook.
Guo Luoluo was attracted by the cute big-eyed, round-faced character in the storybook. She took the initiative to come forward and take a look, but she couldn't help frowning.
"What does this mean? What does it mean that the one who killed the king's horse is a roadside boy? Whoever praises it is the one who harms it?"
Chu Xian calmed herself down and painstakingly hid the heartfelt words she wanted to warn Wan Ning in her explanation: "What I mean is, the real murderer who killed your horse is the person standing on the side of the road praising your horse. In other words, it's a case of flattery."
"The moral of this story is that when others praise you, you must be careful. Listening to too much slander and flattery can actually harm you, making you complacent and unable to recognize your own shortcomings and deficiencies.
Guo Luoluo sneered, "Southern barbarians are always long-winded. They insist on rambling on about things that can be explained in a few words. Now that you've explained it this way, I understand."
"Xian'er, all the servants around me are good at what they do. It was Yinsi who secretly arranged them. Don't worry about me." Guo Luoluo was moved and clenched the notebook made by Xian'er herself.
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