At the palace gate, Consort Xi had already sent a sedan chair to pick up Xie Zhaozhao. Yuanyuan got off the carriage first and reached out to help Xie Zhaozhao down.
Seeing her get out of the car, Gu Shaoyu told his guard Nanxing to slow down and stop a little distance away so as not to offend her.
Xie Zhaozhao was very disciplined and meticulous in every step she took. Even when she got off the carriage, her back was straight and the hair ornaments on her head did not sway at all. She did not look around.
Gu Shaoyu only saw her profile.
With skin as white as ice and bones as white as jade, her aura is unparalleled.
It is simple and elegant, yet stunningly beautiful, like a snow lotus in the mountains, beautiful beyond reach.
After Xie Zhaozhao left in a sedan chair, he did not call her to enter the palace.
Silently gazing in the direction Xie Zhaozhao had left, a smile crept into his eyes. Her image hadn't faded with time; instead, it unfolded slowly in his mind like a magnificent painting, repeating itself again and again.
Xie Zhaozhao entered Consort Xi's Xingning Palace and knelt down to pay her respects.
With the emperor absent, Consort Xi pulled her directly to her side and instructed the palace maids and Yuanyuan to wait in the courtyard so that the aunt and niece could have a proper conversation.
Consort Xi was still the same as I remembered, elegant and beautiful. Because she was without resentment or strife, her face looked exceptionally serene and kind.
"I heard you're engaged to Grand Secretary Gu. Your aunt is very happy; he has a good reputation."
My aunt, like a loving mother, was very satisfied with the marriage.
"The favor your grandfather owed you was truly unfair to you. I originally thought you were going to get engaged to the young master Gu, but when I heard you were engaged to the third son of the Gu family, I was relieved."
"My aunt doesn't like the heir of the Marquis of Pingyang?" Xie Zhaozhao asked in surprise.
In her past life, she exchanged birth certificates with Gu Chengyan, and her aunt also brought her to the palace, saying at the time that he was a good young man and a talented young man.
She never knew what kind of person Gu Chengyan was in her aunt's heart.
“I always felt that person was a bit unreliable,” Consort Xi said incisively. “I suspect that his poems and songs are plagiarized, or that they were written by a master craftsman.”
“His writings were always brilliant and widely read. I once thought he was a genius. But once at a palace banquet, he was given a topic to write a poem on the spot. I saw that he was very nervous. Later, he got so drunk that he was unconscious and did not finish the poem.”
After that incident, Consort Xi paid close attention to Gu Chengyan's poems and essays, and invited several renowned scholars to analyze them.
The great scholars unanimously concluded that although these poems were all stunning, they were by no means the work of one person. Many of them were works written in his later years after experiencing many vicissitudes of life, which Gu Chengyan, at his age and with his experience, could not have written.
"To be honest, when I learned that the two families would be united by marriage, I had someone test his talent. Just as I suspected, his poems and songs seemed to have come by chance. In terms of scholarship, he was barely a scholar."
The Emperor also suspected that Consort Xi meant something, praising his writing but not giving him the same importance as Grand Secretary Gu.
Xie Zhaozhao pursed her lips and remained silent. Many things she didn't understand in her previous life became clear after her rebirth, especially when she thought about Guan Yingying's background.
A faint hint of mockery crept into the corner of his eye.
Consort Xi had a long, intimate conversation with her. When the time came, feeling reluctant to part, she asked, "Is there anything you need my help with?"
Xie Zhaozhao said, "I want to ask my aunt for someone who is reliable, skillful, and knows how to handle things."
"What use do you have for me?"
"I want to open a general store in the capital."
"Why are you thinking of opening a general store? The manor doesn't lack you for food or clothing, does it?"
A lady from a prominent family like her, whose food, clothing and daily necessities are comparable to those of princes and princesses, pampered and spoiled in the mansion, would never lack food or clothing.
Besides, does she need a general store? Her sister-in-law's dowry included dozens of prime shops, right?
"It's not for making money," she said with a slight smile.
If it's not for making money, then it's to hinder certain people.
Consort Xi patted her head and said, "Then I'll think of something for you later."
Emerging from the palace, Yuan Yuan asked her with feigned delight, "Miss, shall we return to the manor?"
Xie Zhaozhao shook her head: "Go to the South City."
The layout of the capital city is such that the east is rich and the west is noble, while the north is poor and the south is lowly.
A noblewoman like Xie Zhaozhao would generally not go to places like the South City or the North City.
Yuanyuan didn't know why Xie Zhaozhao wanted to go to these places, but she had to obey her master's orders.
After crossing the Xuanhe Bridge, we arrived at the southern part of the city.
Everywhere you look, there are refugees who have come to the capital for the winter and have not yet returned home, as well as prisoners who have been branded.
A motley crew of all sorts of people, the streets were chaotic and dirty – a veritable cancer in Kyoto.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"
The guards of the Xie family were not arrogant, but they did not hide their necessary dignity.
Passersby quickly made way for the horse, which trod through the dust with a resounding thud.
The carriage was decorated with toad-shaped sachets hanging from the four corners, the curtains were made of a thousand-gold-per-foot invisible gauze, and the frame was made of precious golden nanmu wood.
Pedestrians looked on with fear and whispered among themselves.
"Who is this important person?"
"The horse is so beautiful, even its hooves are snow-white. Who can afford to raise such a fine horse?"
The carriage patrolled along several main streets for a while before finally stopping under an archway outside an alley.
This is a gate at the entrance of the commercial street. Next to it is an alley with a stone plaque at the entrance that reads "Tianhou Alley" in clerical script.
The alley is straight, with only three households. The one whose gate faces the main street has high walls made of blue bricks and a gray-tiled gatehouse, no different from the other two households.
The black wooden door creaked open, and an old woman led a child out.
The little boy looked to be three or four years old. He had loose hair, was chubby, fair-skinned, and very cute.
Behind them, a woman wore a light purple double-breasted dress, over which was a jade-colored gauze blouse with silver threads, and a short, pale pink lotus-patterned blouse.
Her hair wasn't tied up in a bun, but loosely tied into a long braid that hung down in front of her chest, completely different from the woman before her, exuding an air of unrestrained arrogance.
She called out to the old nanny in a carefree manner, "Aunt Wang, bring Yuebai back later. It's chaotic outside, so be careful of cars."
Aunt Wang agreed, and as she watched her close the door, she muttered, "In broad daylight... how can they do this? Every time the man comes, he tells the children to come home late!"
Not far from the alley entrance, there was a horse-drawn carriage parked. It was nothing special and was one of the most common horse-drawn carriages on the street.
A servant wearing a straw hat sat on the carriage shaft.
"Yuanyuan, find someone around here, give them some money, and have them keep an eye on this family's activities," Xie Zhaozhao said calmly.
Yuanyuan was a little puzzled and asked, "Miss, do you know this family?"
"Um."
How could Xie Zhaozhao not recognize him? Sitting on the carriage shaft was Gu Chengyan's personal servant, Wang Fugui, and she was even more familiar with the child that Aunt Wang was leading.
I've raised it for fifteen years!
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