The arranged marriage was rejected.
Xu Yi didn't stay in the prison for long; her foot injury hadn't even fully healed before she was released. The jailer forced a bottle of medicine into her hand as she left, without saying a word. The two guards who escorted her to the prison, however, were very attentive. First, they brought her a table full of delicious food, then they spoke kindly to her, and finally, they even found a sedan chair to properly escort her back to Chenqi Palace.
The red silk in the palace has been removed, and the flowers in the courtyard have been taken away, leaving only a bare patch of ground. The old nanny had passed away five years ago. She should have had a maid, but that maid ran off everywhere and was never seen except for three meals a day. She was all alone in the vast palace.
She heard from the two guards who escorted her back that her father had bestowed a marriage upon the general and his beloved, and the people praised His Majesty's magnanimity and generosity. She, the princess who was supposed to be the main character in this story, was completely ignored; she didn't even appear in the storytelling versions of the tale.
She has been forgotten, just as she has been for so many years.
She washed and hung up her wedding dress, then returned to her room to find that the imperial phoenix crown and headdress had been taken away, leaving only faint traces of its presence. Fortunately, her two sets of everyday clothes were still there. She touched the patterns on the everyday clothes, stroking them again and again, still reluctant to wear them, so she put them back. Thinking that the maid might see them and sell them, she wrapped them in coarse cloth and hid them in the corner of the wardrobe at the back of the storeroom. She then put on her coarse cloth clothes.
Two months later, the Imperial Clothing Workshop delivered another set of magnificent clothes, saying that His Majesty summoned her. Her maid, who was well-connected, had received the news early and was waiting in the palace to help her put on the dress properly. Just then, the Imperial Ornaments Workshop delivered a set of white jade hair ornaments, which she also wore. Looking at herself in the mirror, the layers of moon-white clothing overwhelmed her figure, and the white jade hair ornaments, tied tightly around her dark hair, exuded a regal air. She realized that she could look so beautiful.
Just as she was trying to remember his appearance, her maid half-helped and half-dragged her out of the palace. When they arrived at the banquet hall in their carriage, it was already full of people. The Empress saw her and called out to her with a smile, "Thirteen, come here to your mother."
Only at this time would the Empress use the title "Mother" with a loving expression to feign her imperial authority.
Xu Yi understood that the Empress had something to tell her, so she followed the instructions of the nanny, walked with her head held high to the Empress's seat. The Empress stood up, came over and took her hand. After settling Xu Yi on the small table next to the Empress, she whispered, "I heard about what happened to you before. It was really unfair to our Thirteenth Prince. Today is the celebration banquet for your father's selection of the top scholar. I have already found someone for you. We just need to wait for your father to bestow the marriage."
Another arranged marriage? Is it because someone defied the imperial decree and they need to make amends? Xu Yi thought to herself, but remembering her nanny's teachings, she put on a smiling face: "Thank you, Mother Empress, thank you, Father Emperor."
A moment later, the Emperor and the Crown Prince arrived with the three of them. Everyone stood up and shouted in unison, "Greetings, Your Majesty." Xu Yi also shouted, "Greetings, Father."
She saw her father gesture with his hand, and everyone immediately fell silent. She heard the voice from her memory say, "My dear ministers, there's no need for such formalities. Please sit down." Everyone sat down, and then His Majesty continued, "Let me introduce you. These three are the top three scholars of this year's imperial examination: the first, second, and third place winners."
The three talents behind the Emperor stepped forward one by one: "I am Sui Zuo, the top scholar Tian Yan." A group of people below offered their congratulations, and phrases like "Congratulations, top scholar!" and "What a handsome top scholar!" rang out for a long time before they tacitly stopped.
The second person stepped forward: "I, Chen Xu, am unworthy to be ranked second." Then came the exact same congratulatory words...
Finally, the last person stepped forward: "I am Zihui, greetings to all the seniors." Everyone was obviously more amiable towards the third-place winner, offering endless congratulations such as "a handsome and talented man" and "polite and courteous."
After the three men finished introducing themselves, the Emperor asked Sui Zuo, "The top scholar is indeed a man of exceptional talent and deserves his title. I wonder if he is married?"
The top scholar replied, "Your Majesty, I am not yet married."
"Oh? Our little thirteen is incredibly clever and has been charming since she was little. She's of marriageable age..."
As soon as the emperor finished speaking, the top scholar hurriedly tried to cover it up: "Your Majesty, please forgive me, but I am already engaged in my hometown and am about to return to complete the ceremony."
The emperor paused for a moment, then laughed heartily and continued, "It's only natural for a man to have three wives and four concubines; these are no problem." He then beckoned to Xu Yi, "Thirteen, come and greet the top scholar."
Xu Yi was called upon, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and go over. He greeted Sui Zuo with the usual courtesy: "Greetings, Scholar."
Sui Zuo glanced at Xu Yi and then smirked, saying, "I have long heard of the princess's beautiful story. Since the princess is so understanding, she should be willing to grant my wish to be with my country wife, right, Princess?"
Xu Yi was taken aback. She had indeed helped Mu Qi and his wife get together. If she didn't, wouldn't she be breaking her promise? But she secretly glanced at her father's dark face and wisely kept quiet. She did see the Crown Prince across from her give her a cold laugh.
The air was quiet. His Majesty remained silent. Seeing that Xu Yi was still silent, Sui Zuo urged, "Why doesn't the princess speak? Is it simply that she is unwilling to grant my request?"
"I didn't." Xu Yi blurted out unconsciously, and Sui Zuo quickly replied with a smile: "I knew that the princess was so understanding, how could she be the only one who wouldn't grant my request? Then, thank you for granting my request, princess."
The decision was final.
Before Xu Yi could react, her father slapped her across the face and roared, "Useless trash!" The entire hall was shocked.
Xu Yi was slapped to the ground by her father, and tears streamed down her face without her realizing it. Her father roared, "You worthless thing, get out!" As soon as he finished speaking, two guards came in, grabbed Xu Yi, and carried her out. Xu Yi was a little confused. She didn't seem to have said anything, so why was she being treated so badly? She glanced at the Crown Prince without thinking. The Crown Prince just smiled faintly, finished his wine, and didn't even give her a second look.
She understood; this was worse than being forgotten—it was abandonment.
Although she wasn't imprisoned this time, her fate was even worse. As soon as the guards brought her back to Chenqi Palace, the people from the Imperial Clothing Workshop came and stripped her of her moon-white dress. Then came the people from the Imperial Ornaments Workshop. When they removed her hair ornaments, they didn't care about Xu Yi at all and tore off a lot of her hair.
Xu Yi's scalp throbbed with pain, yet she remained motionless like a speechless rag doll, completely at the mercy of others... She didn't even have the strength to cry.
Unexpectedly, the maidservant, who was usually nowhere to be seen, was now by her side, silently helping her re-tie her hair, while angrily cursing, "These shameless hussies, how dare they treat you like this! You're supposed to be a princess, how come you live worse than me?" Seeing Xu Yi standing there blankly without reacting, she poked Xu Yi's head again, still not satisfied, "And you, he told you to do as he said, and you actually did? Couldn't you have said no?"
“But his eyes were full of contempt. He didn’t want to marry me at all. Why force it?” After a long while, Xu Yi finally spoke.
"You can talk, huh? Then why didn't you say anything just now? Why didn't you say he was lying, that he didn't want to marry you? That you begged His Majesty to punish him?" The maid wiped her nose haphazardly before continuing indignantly, "You agree to this and that, but what will you get in the end? What will you do then?"
When Xu Yi was little, she often heard her nanny lamenting, "What will become of my young lady?" Every time this happened, the nanny would cry uncontrollably. Xu Yi didn't know what to say to comfort her nanny. Now, the one crying was her maid who was rarely seen, so she could only pat her hair and comfort the maid as the nanny comforted her: "It's alright, it's alright."
The maid slapped her hand away, threw down the comb, and ran out without a word.
Looking at the empty palace, and noticing her own little bun on her head like a palace maid, Xu Yi had a very bold idea. She had seen it before, seen how the old maid left the palace. She quickly ran to the old maid's room, rummaged through the drawers and cabinets, and finally found the token that allowed her to leave the palace. She clutched the token tightly in her hand, then ran to the storeroom, grabbed the two gorgeous clothes, tidied herself up, and then put on the maid's clothes. She walked to the palace gate, where guards were stationed. They only ordered her to call out her waist token.
She nervously took out the old woman's waist tag and handed it over, when the guard asked her, "This waist tag is quite old and doesn't match your age."
She was startled, but her mind raced: "This...this is the nanny's token. She...she let me go out of the palace to buy things, so, so it's her token."
The guard said "Oh," returned the waist token to her, and remained silent. She glanced at the guard, who coldly said, "Go back if you're not leaving the palace. Don't get in the way."
She quickly stepped out, almost running, and left the palace gate. The guards behind her assumed she was in a hurry to buy things and return to the palace, and did not notice anything unusual.
Xu Yi grew up in the cold palace and longed for the outside world. She never knew that she could leave the palace so easily. She remembered her nanny telling her that there were pawnshops outside where she could exchange goods for silver, and with silver, she could survive.
She wandered the streets, circling back and forth, before finally choosing a less crowded pawnshop. She handed the wrapped dress to the pawnbroker, carefully waiting for payment. The pawnbroker opened the coarse cloth bundle and found the tattered dress inside. Disdainfully, he said, "These clothes are rotten; how can I pawn them?"
Xu Yi stood on tiptoe in disbelief to look over and indeed found that her fine dress had been gnawed through several large holes. She then remembered that there were rats in the storeroom. As she was thinking about how to get the pawnshop owner to take this pile of junk, she heard him say, "However, this is palace style, and the fabric is top-notch. It certainly can't be pawned as a garment, but it's suitable as fabric. One price, thirty taels."
"Thirty taels?" Xu Yi had never known that even if the clothes in the palace were torn and sold as cloth, they would still fetch this much silver. But the pawnshop owner thought that Xu Yi thought it was too little, so he blushed and said again, "Fifty taels at most, no more."
Xu Yi had learned her lesson. She didn't say anything but just looked at the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper gave in and exclaimed, "This is only fifty taels at most. I can't give you any more, my goodness!"
“Okay, deal.” Xu Yi nodded.
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