Chapter 245 The Price
Regarding the incident at Zhuangshan, she didn't want the Princess to know that she had risked her life there, so she could only reconcile the story with the Crown Prince, saying that she went hunting with Zheng Yanling and happened to encounter Xie Tingzhou, whom she knew before, who was trapped in a hunter's trap, which caused the delay of one night.
Fortunately, everything turned out alright in the end, and with the Crown Prince's help to cover it up, the Eldest Princess didn't suspect anything.
Qi Yuxuan gave a perfunctory reply, which finally put an end to her idea of asking for a marriage decree for herself and Xie Tingzhou.
Even Pei Yan, whom I've never met, is out of the question.
She's only been married for a few months now, why would she want to be engaged to a man so early?
After dinner, it was completely dark.
The night rain tapped against the windowpane, dense and heavy, and seemed to grow louder and louder.
"What time is it?"
Qi Yuxuan was holding a book and reading when the sound of rain made her close her eyes briefly.
Lanxin was trimming the candle wick when she heard this. She looked at the Western clock not far away and said:
"It's only a quarter past Xu hour, there's still plenty of time." He then calculated the time Qi Yuxuan had spent reading and reminded her, "Princess, after another quarter of an hour of reading, you should take a break."
Qi Yuxuan hummed in agreement.
Lanxin trimmed the candle wick and went outside to wait. The princess didn't like anyone around when she was reading; it was a customary rule.
"Knock knock—"
Two dull, crisp sounds were clearly audible in the quiet night.
Qi Yuxuan pushed the window open from bottom to top and looked out at Ren Shun, who was wearing a straw raincoat.
Ren Shun took something out of his raincoat and handed it over.
"These are things hidden behind that cosmetics shop. They're mixed into everything, not much, but they smell really strange, so I took some without permission."
Qi Yuxuan took it, "Didn't we alert the enemy?"
Ren Shun shook his head: "I didn't alert anyone. Besides, this item was placed in a large urn, which was locked in a box. I only took this small amount, which is not enough to make people notice that something is missing."
"Okay, you go and rest now."
Not long after the Lantern Festival, a cosmetics shop called Xiangqifang opened on Zhuque Street, the busiest street in the south of the city. It was very popular among young women in the capital, and it had all kinds of cosmetics, from cheap to expensive. It was so popular that it made a fortune every day.
Qi Yuxuan went shopping once, and it was only that one time that she noticed something was wrong.
The women and girls passing by all wore extremely thick layers of face powder and rouge, making it almost impossible to see their original features. Yet they were all enthusiastic about it, saying that it was very effective, and they spent large sums of gold and silver just to hoard face powder and rouge.
She kept a close eye on it, observed it for a few more days, and even tried it herself, but apart from the customers flocking to it, she didn't find anything else wrong.
When Ren Shun returned, she immediately dispatched him to investigate the matter.
Ren Shun did not leave; he remained standing outside the window, maintaining the same posture as before.
"Master, those two are still kneeling outside the gate. Should I go and knock them unconscious and throw them away?"
If they continue kneeling like this, and something bad happens, it will make other people think that the Princess's Mansion is acting improperly, which is not good.
The little girl in the window lowered her eyelashes and didn't speak.
Fifteen minutes later.
The side gate of the Princess's residence opened, and Qi Yuxuan, wrapped in a cloak, stood in the doorway, looking at the middle-aged man and woman kneeling outside, swaying precariously.
Xiao Su and Lin Hui, having been separated for nearly a year, seemed to have aged considerably. Kneeling in the rain, their figures were thin and frail, their backs hunched, and their faces still bore the traces of sorrow. They did not look like they were only over forty years old.
At that moment, as if sensing something, they raised their heads.
Just a doorway away, a young girl stood inside, wearing a warm apricot-colored Shu brocade embroidered butterfly cloak. Her hands were tucked into her sleeves, and she held a delicate little hand warmer in her hands. Her hair was casually tied into a simple and elegant bun, adorned only with two jade hairpins. The jade was of exceptional quality; no shop in the entire capital could find such fine jade. It could only be a tribute from the Northwest.
Beside her, a maid held an umbrella for her, and another maid held a lantern to light her way.
Although there wasn't any grand display, when those crystal-clear eyes looked over, Xiao Su and Lin Hui felt as if they were seeing the Princess again, and their hearts skipped a beat.
When the door finally opened, the two instinctively tried to get up and go inside, but their legs were numb from kneeling for so long that they almost tripped and fell.
Finally, they helped each other to their feet, and just as they were about to take a step forward, they were stopped by the cold-faced and ruthless guards with their unsheathed long swords.
"Without the Princess's permission, you are not to set foot in the Princess's residence!"
The two had no choice but to stand outside the door, and Lin Hui moved her lips.
“Yu Xuan…”
She had clearly rehearsed countless times in her mind how to apologize, how to explain, and how to repent, but when she actually met the person, she couldn't utter a single word.
What could she say?
Did they say she was blinded by greed before?
But she was the one who ignored everything and did nothing, she was the one who favored Xiao Yuyao and disliked Yuxuan, and even after bringing Yuxuan back, how many times did she miss the opportunity to reconcile? Instead, she thought there was plenty of time and they could slowly cultivate their feelings for each other...
Lin Hui was speechless, and Xiao Su was in no better shape.
The little girl in front of them had the same look in her eyes as the princess, staring at them as if they were two strangers, without a trace of emotion.
He wiped the water stains from his face, unsure whether it was rain or tears, and after a moment of silence, he tried to call out softly in a hoarse voice:
"Yu Xuan, your parents have come to see you."
Qi Yuxuan looked at the person in front of her who should have been the closest person to her in the world, and felt nothing but resistance and indifference.
In her past life, their favoritism and harshness drove her to the brink of despair step by step. She owed them her life, which she had already repaid in the dead of winter, in the lake and pig cage.
"Father and Mother?" Qi Yuxuan's tone was flat, without resentment or agitation. "Have you two forgotten that my mother is only Princess Ningyang?"
The soft light fell on Qi Yuxuan's exquisite and gorgeous eyebrows and eyes. At some point, the shadows of the Xiao family and the Lin family that once blended on her face had faded a lot.
Lin Hui was unwilling to admit it, yet had to, that her daughter's temperament was becoming more and more like that of the eldest princess.
"Yu Xuan, we are your real parents! How could you be so heartless as to abandon us like this?!"
Qi Yuxuan's eyes flickered slightly, and she smiled slowly:
"You two are mistaken; it is you who do not want me anymore."
Her gaze fell on the two people outside the door, her tone neither sad nor happy:
"It's too late. From the moment you agreed to let Xiao Yuyao stay, an insurmountable chasm separated us."
“We have lost not only the past fourteen years, but also countless opportunities to start over that you have shattered with your own hands.”
"The more I longed for your care and love before, the more pitiful and sorrowful I am now. I blame myself for understanding too late; it turns out that parents' love for their children comes at a price. They love her for being obedient, sensible, knowledgeable, and famous throughout the capital; they don't love her for being straightforward, innocent, illiterate, and infamous."
"I……"
Lin Hui's eyes were moist and her nose was sore, but she moved her lips hesitantly and found that she couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.
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