Chapter 235 The Queen's Fault
Meng Changyuan was slightly startled, and then he saw the little princess's nimble back like a flying rainbow, turning behind the white marble screen wall carved with a picture of a running dragon and a sea of clouds.
After a moment, the little man came out from behind the screen, pulling a woman's hand.
The hand was white, soft, slender and delicate, like a ball of snow-white cotton. At first glance, one could tell that the owner must have come from a family of scholars and wealth. However, upon closer inspection, one could see that the hand was covered with fine and dense needle and thread scratches, the scars had turned brown, and it was obvious that they had been there for many years.
Among the female members of the palace, those who could be addressed as "Aunt" by the princess were either concubines or ladies of noble families. But no matter whether they were of the two kinds, they were all pampered ladies. How could they have such a pair of hands like an embroiderer's?
Just when Meng Changyuan was wondering, he saw Doukou walking towards him with a woman.
But the woman was not tall and thin, with sharp shoulders, a narrow waist, and was slender and frail.
She had a long face, skin as white and smooth as fat, and a pair of eyes that were not very big but gentle like a lake in autumn.
The woman was wearing an ivory-white satin double-breasted jacket embroidered with a bunch of chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemum petals were pinched with silver threads, giving off a faint glow. Underneath, she wore a plain apricot-colored long skirt that covered the ground, but the hem of the skirt was embroidered with some honeysuckle patterns.
Her hair was styled in a bun, common among the imperial concubines, adorned with a few silk palace flowers, also a common style in the harem. Apart from this, she wore no other jewelry, save for a pair of white jade pendants dangling from her ears. Their gentle movement resembled drops of water about to fall.
This outfit was plain and ordinary, neither bright nor glamorous, but it was exceptionally elegant and refined, highlighting the person's gentleness and tranquility. Under the warm sun, it seemed to be radiant.
Meng Changyuan took a casual look and realized that the person in front of him was a concubine in the harem. He immediately lowered his eyes and didn't look at her again.
Doukou held Bai Yuxin's hand, her delicate face like a porcelain doll tilted upwards, her expression full of joy. "Aunt Bai, are you here now because Tete came to see me?"
Bai Yuxin caressed the princess's soft cheek and smiled gently, "Firstly, I came to see if our little princess is studying hard. Secondly, the Empress heard from the Imperial Household Department yesterday that some of the curtains in Xiefang Palace are in bad condition, eaten by insects and rats, and they need to be replaced urgently. The Empress is pregnant, so she naturally has no time to take care of these trivial matters, so I came here today to check on them."
His gentle gaze was like the sun on a spring afternoon, warm and gentle, full of love, falling only on the little princess, as if there was no one else here.
Doukou pouted her bright red lips, like a round cherry, and said coquettishly, "Auntie has become just like mother now. The first thing she says when we meet is about schoolwork! She doesn't even ask if I'm hungry or thirsty, or if I've been wronged in school. Before I started school, mother and auntie treated me so well. But after I started school, all they care about is whether I've done my homework and whether I listened to the teacher. They don't care about me anymore. It shows that going to school is not a good thing!"
I don’t know if it was because God wanted to compensate this child for being mute for more than a year. This girl, who is only four or five years old, speaks as eloquently as a knife on a chopping board, making adults who are not good at speaking feel ashamed.
Bai Yuxin was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing. "My dear little aunt, who in this palace would dare to let you suffer injustice? Not to mention the Emperor and the Empress, even the Empress Dowager would be the first to disapprove. If you insist, you're almost the same as someone who let others suffer injustice."
Doukou's pout grew even higher. "If that's what you're saying, then how do you know I haven't been studying seriously? My grandmother, my mother, and my aunt all ask me the same question whenever they see me. Even my father sometimes asks me with a stern face if I've been naughty in school. It's obvious, it's obvious that no one believes me!"
As she spoke, her bright eyes were instantly covered with a layer of mist, which condensed into two tears in the blink of an eye and rolled down her smooth cheeks.
Meng Changyuan frowned as he watched, wondering what this girl was up to.
You must know that for some time now, this little girl has been studying in Xiefang Palace. She hasn't memorized many sentences from "Female Precepts," "Nei Xun," and "Female Analects," but she has been thinking about how to go against her teacher every day. When the teacher taught her that the husband is the leader of the wife, she asked who established this principle. The teacher read out, "Humbleness and weakness are the first. In ancient times, when a girl was born, she was placed under the bed for three days, surrounded by tiles and bricks, and then fasted. Putting her under the bed showed her humility and weakness, and that she was a servant." She then asked the teacher, since she was born a girl, was she considered a servant? Was she also placed under the bed when she was born?
This sentence originally came from "Nujie", which meant that women are weak and should sleep under the bed after giving birth to show their low status.
However, Doukou was a princess, a child of the highest rank, even if she was bound by the so-called female virtues, who would dare to say that she was of low status? When she was born, although she was not brought into the palace and crowned a princess, she was still the princess of the royal palace. How could she be placed under someone's bed?
Of course, the lady could not answer any of these questions.
Although the status of women was slightly improved in the Zhou Dynasty compared to previous dynasties, Confucianism had a far-reaching influence, and the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues were inviolable. Even if a female teacher was a princess's tutor, she had been deeply influenced by the teachings of sages since childhood and could not and dared not say anything that was considered treasonous at the time.
If she didn't answer, the little girl would ask her again, "You are the one who teaches, educates and answers questions. How many of these have you done?"
Although the lady's family was not very prominent now, her ancestors were of noble character after all, and her great-grandfather was a great scholar of the time. She had been well-read in poetry and books of sages since childhood and had been brought up in pampered condition. How could she tolerate such humiliation? She did not dare to rebuke the princess in person, so she complained to the empress dowager.
Empress Dowager Jiang had been a man of cruelty and decisiveness all her life, but in her old age she became more and more fond of the younger generation. Princess He'an was her eldest son and grandson, so she doted on her even more. After hearing the female teacher's accusations, she raised her thick eyebrows and laughed out loud, "She is so mischievous, she dares to say things that others dare not say. She is truly worthy of being my granddaughter!" She was absolutely unwilling to criticize or discipline her in the slightest.
As for Queen Meng Yan, she is now at the critical time of stabilizing her pregnancy, and the baby in her belly is the first prince of the Great Zhou Emperor. Who dares to bother her with these trivial matters?
Therefore, the little girl acted recklessly in Xiefang Palace all day long, and no one dared to discipline her. The female teacher simply closed her eyes and taught the princess, leaving it to the princess to listen or not.
Therefore, there was no question of her being wronged by going to school. If the female teacher heard the princess's words in Xiefang Palace, she would probably sing the song of "Snow in June, Dou E is wronged."
Meng Changyuan was thinking in his heart, but his two thick black eyebrows couldn't help but frown.
Although the current problems are just trivial, they pose hidden dangers in the long run.
The princess can be considered as a child now, but as she grows older, if this character still does not change, her words and deeds will be improper and she will be neither virtuous nor kind.
The princess is of royal blood, but she lacks virtue as a woman. This is naturally the fault of the current mistress of the harem, the empress, for her poor education!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
