Chapter 33◇
◎Aren't gorillas monkeys?◎
A surge of anger rose within Duan Jingchuan. He forcefully pried Feng Ran off him, quickly stood up, took a few steps back, and said in a hoarse voice, "That's enough. I have other things to do." Then he left in a flash.
Feng Ran felt a little unsatisfied, but she was also satisfied and felt full of energy.
When Feng Ran saw her new teacher again, she was overjoyed.
The new master's surname is Kong. Although he looks rather comical, he is very approachable.
He didn't put on a long face when he saw Feng Ran, but sat down and chatted with her.
"Princess Consort, there's no need to be nervous. We can just chat. Don't feel burdened."
As long as she doesn't have to learn the rules, Feng Ran can accept having a teacher. However, she still feels a bit apprehensive when she sees the teacher and says cautiously, "Teacher, what do you want to teach? Just bring it on, I can definitely handle five days."
Mr. Kong smiled and said, "Princess Consort, don't worry. The Prince hasn't arranged for me to teach you anything. Just keep this old man company for the next five days. I have no children, so consider this a good deed and something to keep me company, okay?"
She's good at relieving boredom.
Feng Ran smiled broadly, sat down with a flourish, picked up a cup of tea and began to gulp it down. "No problem, no problem. I'm best at relieving boredom. I understand respecting the elderly and caring for the young."
Mr. Kong nodded with satisfaction. Before he came to the Marquis's residence, Mr. Mo had advised him that the Princess Consort was extremely difficult to communicate with. He had stayed up for several nights on this matter and came up with countless solutions to deal with the willful and capricious Princess Consort. Unexpectedly, the two of them had a very pleasant first meeting.
She couldn't help but secretly mock Mr. Mo's old-fashioned ways. She must have been prejudiced from the start, thinking that the Crown Princess's background was illegitimate, which was why she treated her differently.
Mr. Kong stroked his goatee, his face serene. He was a magnanimous man, and it was very easy to become his disciple. One had to be upright and reasonable, and he would accept anyone who fit the bill.
Feng Ran noticed that Mr. Kong's face was full of wrinkles from his smile, and his already sparse beard looked even wider when he grinned. She couldn't help but look up at the top of Mr. Kong's head, and sure enough, his thin hair bun was only two fingers wide, no more than that.
Seeing that Mr. Kong remained silent for a long time, Feng Ran felt a little uncomfortable sitting in silence with an old man, so she took the initiative to speak, "Sir, what would you like to talk to me about?"
Mr. Kong laughed heartily, “Princess Consort, there’s no need to be so reserved. Let’s talk about your life after you entered the Marquis’s residence. Tell me about whatever is convenient for you.”
Upon hearing Mr. Kong ask this question, Feng Ran felt relieved.
After marrying into the Dingbei Marquis's household, that is, after she arrived, she was very familiar with this business!
"To be honest, sir, after I came to this Dingbei Marquis's residence, I felt like I had come back to life. Not only are there delicious foods and fine clothes here, but I also have a handsome husband to suck up to. This life is absolutely heavenly." Feng Ran looked happy, and her praise came out of her mouth without hesitation.
Mr. Kong understood. He had heard that when the Crown Princess was in the Prime Minister's residence, although she was the legitimate daughter of the first wife, she lived a life worse than even a concubine's daughter. Marrying into the Marquis of Dingbei's household was truly a stroke of good fortune for her. But what did this "sucking" mean?
His sixth sense told him that he shouldn't ask that question, so Mr. Kong skillfully steered the conversation away from it. "Princess Consort, do you know how to maintain this happy life?"
"Continue?" Feng Ran's heart skipped a beat when she heard this word. She asked with great concern, "Did my husband send you here as a persuader to say that he will no longer support me?"
Mr. Kong stroked his mustache with a sudden force, and another sparse hair was gone. He was so heartbroken that he could hardly breathe.
Before he could even mourn the loss of his beard, Mr. Kong replied with a hint of anger, "Your Highness is overthinking this. What I wanted to ask you was how you viewed the title 'Your Highness.'"
Feng Ran, with a sour expression, asked, "I can write now, is there anything wrong with these three characters?"
Mr. Kong carefully observed the expression on Feng Ran's face and saw that she was not faking it at all, as if she really did not understand the meaning of his words. Only then did he understand what Mr. Mo meant by being difficult to communicate with.
He had no choice but to be more direct, "Every identity comes with its own responsibilities. Princess Consort, do you think you can handle it?"
Feng Ran said expressionlessly, "I knew you were telling me to learn rules. Those rules are for people who need rules, not for me."
Mr. Kong wanted to say, "Aren't you human?" But considering the identity of the person in front of him, he didn't dare to say it.
Before Mr. Kong could refute, Feng Ran asked him instead, "Didn't you say you wouldn't let me learn etiquette? Why are you bringing this up again?"
Mr. Kong's forehead vein throbbed. "Your Highness has misunderstood. To be a good Your Highness, rules are not the most important thing."
Feng Ran interrupted him, "I know, the rules aren't important for someone to become a Crown Prince's consort. What's important is the Crown Prince. If the Crown Prince is gone, where will the consort come from?"
These words left Mr. Kong speechless.
However, Mr. Kong brought up another matter, "Women in the inner quarters will eventually have to go out and socialize. Can the Crown Princess stay in the Dingbei Marquis's mansion forever and never go out? Since she has to go out, the Crown Princess must learn how to chat with people. The Crown Prince asked me to teach the Crown Princess how to talk to people."
Feng Ran exclaimed in surprise, "So it's not an idiom?"
Mr. Kong's lips twitched, and he replied with a smile, "I suppose the young master and the young master's wife were joking. To be honest, I had never met the young master before, but I didn't expect that we two would appreciate each other so much. The young master is truly a man of great talent."
Feng Ran gave Mr. Kong a strange look, shook her head dramatically, and sighed, "Mr. Kong, you are mistaken."
"Oh? What brilliant idea does the Crown Princess have?" Mr. Kong raised an eyebrow, waiting to hear what Feng Ran would say next.
It seems Mr. Kong doesn't understand Feng Ran well enough. If he knew Feng Ran's past ability to speak recklessly, he would have immediately taken precautions.
“Sir, neither you nor my husband look like monkeys, so how could you be attracted to each other? Therefore, what you said is incorrect.” Feng Ran nodded affirmatively, without the slightest hint of joking.
......
Mr. Mo was very sincere and did not deceive him at all.
The Crown Princess interpreted his words with utmost seriousness, as if he were truly wrong. Was this something a human being could do? What if he also wanted to escape? He really couldn't teach such a grown child.
Between reputation and headache, Mr. Kong compromised and tentatively asked, "Does the Crown Princess really think that's how 'mutual appreciation' is interpreted?"
"Otherwise what? Aren't gorillas monkeys?" Feng Ran looked at Mr. Kong with a look of astonishment, as if to say, "You're so uncultured!" This made Mr. Kong's scalp tingle.
The explanation that orangutans are monkeys was something Mr. Kong had seen in a rare book. At this moment, he genuinely couldn't tell whether the Crown Princess was truly unaware of her own foolishness or doing it on purpose.
Feng Ran was returned for the second time, leaving Duan Jingchuan speechless. "Mr. Kong left with the words 'I can't do anything'?"
He was genuinely curious about what the wives and husbands usually talked about that caused these men to not live more than a day.
This Mr. Kong was someone he had carefully selected—not too serious, nor too dogmatic. This really stumped him. Duan Jingchuan couldn't help but reflect, "Did I choose the wrong person to hire?"
If Feng Ran didn't need to take over the Dingbei Marquis's mansion in the future, he wouldn't be in such a hurry; he had a bit of a headache.
Xiong Qi cautiously asked from the side, "Young Master, what do you think of this gentleman...?"
Duan Jingchuan waved his hand, "Let's leave it at that for now, and talk about it again after this year."
Ever since he told Chunyu Zhu that he planned to enter officialdom, Duan Jingchuan had been reading books about the imperial examination system.
Although he was the heir of a marquis's family, his reputation from previous years meant he certainly couldn't use that status to directly obtain an official position. Even if his father were willing to help him, few people could trust him to succeed, so Duan Jingchuan decided to take the imperial examination route.
After all, he couldn't expect to inherit the marquisate after his father died. With his health, he wasn't even sure if he could live as long as his father.
In the blink of an eye, half a year has passed since Feng Ran married into the Dingbei Marquis's mansion. With the New Year approaching, the entire capital is filled with joy.
Originally, such matters as the New Year should have been handled by the Crown Princess Feng Ran, but the Lady of the Marquis was really worried and took on all the work herself, acting as if Feng Ran didn't exist.
The entire Dingbei Marquis's residence was bustling with activity. Qin Lianhua was busy running around, and you couldn't tell at all that she was a cousin of the Marquis.
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the traditional day for sweeping dust. The young ladies of the Duan family were busy sweeping dust in the backyard. The front yard was supposed to be overseen by Madam Qin, but Madam Qin had been feeling tired and listless these past few days. Qin Lianhua volunteered to take charge of the front yard.
Butler Li frowned. This was against the rules, but since Miss Qin was personally appointed by the Lady of the Marquis, he, as a butler, couldn't say much.
The front courtyard was where the men of the Dingbei Marquis's mansion lived. Now that the men in the mansion had all come of age, they naturally had to separate from the women in the back courtyard. The two courtyards were separated by a hanging flower gate.
The man wasn't supposed to move out of the backyard, but Duan Jingchuan wasn't suited to living in crowded places, so when he came out, the others followed him out.
The front courtyard is divided into an east courtyard and a west courtyard. Duan Jingchuan's Jinghua Courtyard is located at the westernmost part of the west courtyard, separated from the other courtyards by a long covered corridor. When Qin Lianhua brought her people over, she sincerely felt the understated luxury of Jinghua Courtyard.
Qin Lianhua had initially thought that the Dingbei Marquis's residence was rough and unrefined, and that the people in the entire residence were not good at enjoying life, which was quite different from the exquisite courtyards of civil officials. It was only when she got close to Jinghua Courtyard that she realized the difference.
When she arrived at the Marquis of Dingbei's residence, it was still summer. The entire residence was full of flowers, plants, and trees, lush and verdant. Now that winter has arrived, the withered yellow leaves have all fallen. The desolate feeling of the fallen leaves lasts only a few days before the trees become bare, devoid of any artistic conception. She had imagined countless times how she would improve the courtyard if she became the owner of this residence.
Seeing Jinghua Courtyard, she realized she was completely wrong. Several snowfalls had already occurred. While snow was cleared elsewhere, she had heard from the servants that no one was allowed to enter Jinghua Courtyard, so naturally no one had cleaned the snow. She came to Jinghua Courtyard first to sweep the dust because she was afraid that it would be too messy and difficult to manage.
At this moment, the gates of Jinghua Courtyard were wide open, and the scenery that had never been seen before came into view.
Jinghua Courtyard is not large in area, but it has all the necessary facilities.
Directly in front was a small garden. Ever since Feng Ran built a swing on that crooked tree, Duan Jingchuan had ordered people to gradually decorate the area around the garden and spent a lot of money to transplant plum blossoms.
In the depths of winter, plum blossoms bloom in profusion, creating a vibrant scene of white snow and red plum blossoms. The snow surface is pristine, unmarked by any trace of human footsteps, adorned only by fallen plum blossoms.
Further inside was a small pavilion, with curtains drawn around it. A breeze blew by, and one could vaguely see a huge rocking chair inside, where Feng Ran's petite figure was nestled. Tea was warm on a small table, and Xiu'er was carefully serving Feng Ran her food. It was truly a scene of peaceful bliss.
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