Chapter 207 Knee Pads
However, the voice of this cousin Chengyao sounded somewhat familiar.
"Didn't my little cousin go to the alley entrance to meet me just now, and then rush home to tell me?"
Lin Chengyao was surprised that his cousin, the princess, was so good at recognizing people by their voices after he just shouted. She immediately identified him and he scratched his head a little embarrassedly.
"It's me! I was so excited to see the princess's carriage arrive. You have no idea how much preparation our family has made to welcome the princess. We started cleaning the windows and roof beams months ago..."
"Yao-ge'er!"
Fifth Aunt gave a soft, embarrassed rebuke.
They don't know what they should or shouldn't say. This child has grown so big for nothing. What if the princess thinks they are annoyed that she is slow to arrive?
Apart from Old Madam Lin, most of the Lin family members who came today live in Lancheng. Let alone a noblewoman like the Princess, even the Prefect is a very important official in their eyes. They can only be cautious in front of Qi Yuxuan and dare not speak freely.
“Yao’er is straightforward. If he says anything wrong, please forgive him, Your Highness. However, he certainly didn’t mean any harm. We will keep him in check in the future.”
"Fifth Aunt, you flatter me. My little cousin is straightforward and honest, and his sincerity is rare. He is a rare and generous person."
Qi Yuxuan didn't want to argue with her distant relative, whom she was meeting for the first time, about whether her cousin was handsome or not, so she turned her gaze to Old Madam Lin:
"Grandmother, I have prepared a small gift for you."
Upon hearing this, Bi Sui immediately took out a long box from her sleeve.
"This is……"
The eyes of several aunts and uncles all fell on that.
Just the fact that the box was made of royal-grade golden nanmu wood was enough to make them unable to look away. With such precious wood, what could it possibly contain but dragon liver and phoenix gallbladder?
However, the princess's maid had her back to them, so even if they craned their necks, they couldn't see what was inside.
Madam Lin stared in astonishment at the two folded knee pads in the box. They were embroidered with a pine and crane motif, the stitches were fine and neat, and the pine and crane were lifelike, far surpassing many famous embroidery works she had seen before.
As for jewelry and precious objects, Madam Lin was a noblewoman before her marriage and later became a titled lady after marrying Old Master Lin, so there was nothing special about them. Now that she is old, she has no desire for those material possessions and lives a simple and frugal life, which makes her quite content.
If her granddaughter had presented her with some expensive gift, she would have worried that her granddaughter still harbored resentment over Hui'er's matter, and that the Lin family was unwilling to get close to her. She thought that her granddaughter's visit to Lancheng was just to appease Princess Chang and to put on a show for the people of the capital and the royal family. But now, seeing these two knee pads, she realized that Yu Xuan was truly a kind-hearted child with a clear sense of love and hate.
Her biological mother didn't love her, so she found a loving adoptive mother. Her uncle and maternal grandmother also doted on her, and she reciprocated their care without harboring resentment towards them...
Madam Lin has always been a strong-willed person. When her grandfather passed away, she didn't shed a single tear. A few months ago, she shed tears over her youngest daughter's family affairs. Now, looking at her granddaughter's round, bright, and moist eyes, she suddenly felt a lump in her throat and her eyes welled up with tears. She quickly turned her head away, not wanting the younger generation to see her in such a state.
"Does Grandmother not like it?"
Qi Yuxuan was actually a little apprehensive.
During the months she spent recovering from her injuries before coming here, she inquired about many things about Old Madam Lin and struggled for a long time about what gift to give her. After much thought, she went through all the inventory books in the Princess's mansion before finally deciding to embroider a pair of knee pads for Old Madam Lin herself.
As a junior, and a junior I've never even met, giving a gift that's too extravagant would seem like I'm using my status as a princess to pressure people. It seems that Madam Lin doesn't need anything else. She's worried about her leg problems, so she chose knee braces.
"I love it, I love it so much! I'll change into it tomorrow, no, later today!"
After Madam Lin finished speaking, the Lin family members sitting below noticed what she was holding in her hand.
It's just a pair of knee pads?
The aunts and uncles exchanged glances, all somewhat incredulous.
Princess Chang Le is a favorite of the Princess, how could she only send such a meager gift? Could there be some other scheme that they can't see?
Now is not the time for suspicion. The group suppressed their curiosity and praised Princess Chang Le for her thoughtfulness and filial piety.
When Qi Yuxuan arrived, it was still light. She was kept in the main room by the Lin family for half an hour, and it was already dark outside. Several maids came in early to light the lamps and trim the candle wicks, but the room inevitably became dark.
She was a little puzzled, and not afraid of being laughed at by the Lin family, she asked directly, "It should only be late afternoon now, how come it's dark so early?"
In Beijing, it doesn't get dark until at least 5 PM. Although the days are short and the nights are long in winter, it usually doesn't get dark until around 5 PM. Why does it get dark so early in Lanzhou in winter?
Lin Chengyao chimed in, "What's so strange about that? Princess, just wait and see. In a little over a month, it will be dark in Lancheng in the early afternoon. That'll be considered early!"
He sat next to his mother peeling oranges, one by one, each about the size of a baby's fist, and placed them on a small silver plate. They were round and plump, and even the white pith on top had been carefully removed.
Once the plate contained exactly nine small tangerines, he handed it to the maid and told her to place it on the low table between the daybed where Old Madam Lin and Qi Yuxuan were sitting.
"Princess, Yao-ge'er is..."
Seeing that her fifth aunt was about to repeat her cousin's bluntness and tell her not to take it to heart, Qi Yuxuan's brows furrowed, and her tone turned cold:
"Does my fifth aunt want me to forgive her again?"
Startled by the princess's interruption, Fifth Uncle and Fifth Aunt were both taken aback. If they couldn't sense the displeasure in her words, they would have lived in vain. Just as they were trembling and preparing to pull Lin Chengyao down to kneel, the princess continued:
"I came to the Lin family to visit my maternal grandmother, and also to visit my uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces. I didn't expect that after talking for so long, my fifth uncle's family would still treat me so coldly. They kept saying that they thought I would be presumptuous and blame them for disrespecting me. It's really disheartening."
Her tone was cold, but her words seemed to carry a hint of grievance. The Lin family couldn't figure out the princess's personality, so they could only look to Old Madam Lin for help.
But then Old Madam Lin smiled, pulled Qi Yuxuan to sit beside her, and embraced her.
“Look at this girl, she still says she’s not being pretentious. Relatives, relatives, what kind of relatives are so close that they can talk about anything as soon as they meet? Your fifth uncle’s family is just looking out for you, they’re just a little gossipy, is it worth you being so aggrieved?”
Qi Yuxuan gave a soft snort and leaned against Old Madam Lin without moving.
The Lin family finally realized that they felt the princess's overly cautious and respectful behavior had made her feel less intimate when visiting her maternal grandparents' home.
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