Chapter 60 Being a man is really comfortable
No matter how Fu Dong chattered, Jiang Xue ignored him and just went to fetch water from the well.
However, she threw the bucket several times but failed. She could only turn around and say to Fu Dong: "Teach me."
"Your Highness - how can I do this?!" Fu Dong was so anxious that he almost cried, "If you want to fetch water, why don't you ask someone else? How can you do it yourself? If the queen finds out, I will be dead!"
Jiang Xue said calmly, "Will you teach me or not? If not, I will send you back to the palace and tell you that I don't need your service anymore. You can go and serve the Queen Mother, or stay in Changle Palace. It's up to you."
Fu Dong felt like crying but had no tears. After thinking it over again and again, he had to make up his mind.
As if accepting his fate, he taught Jiang Xue how to fetch water.
Jiang Xue carried water for nearly half an hour from the side of Wen Qingxuan to the water tank in front of the small kitchen, sweating profusely.
The guards of Changle Palace could only pretend not to see it. When Jiang Xue passed by carrying water, they immediately turned their backs.
At first, it was just because I didn’t have enough strength, but later on, my hands and shoulders started to hurt from the rubbing.
Jiang Xue gritted her teeth and picked the whole jar.
She held her waist and returned to the yard, with the terrified Fu Dong beside her, only to see Lu Qiongshuang had already packed the boxes and was waiting for them.
When Jiang Xue approached, Lu Qiongshuang saw that her face was pale, and immediately said, "Cousin, believe me, you can't become fat by eating one bite. You have already reached the standard of exercise today. If you continue to exercise, it will not be worth it if you get sick."
Jiang Xue thought it made sense, so she sat on a stone bench to rest.
"Qiong Shuang, do you have to endure these hardships every day when you are outside?" Jiang Xue suddenly asked, looking at Lu Qiong Shuang's dark complexion.
"Bitter?" Lu Qiongshuang said with a smile, "It felt bitter at first, but later I felt really comfortable."
"Cousin, in order to make money, I dressed up as a man and made myself slovenly. Although it was physically tiring, cousin, being a man is really comfortable."
"You can sit however you want, stand however you want, and walk to the side of the road when you are tired, and no one will judge you. It's as if men can do whatever they want, but as a woman, if you say something, if you don't word it right, you will be criticized."
"So, cousin, if you talk about the physical aspect, it is true that it is somewhat hard, but it is also hard to be a grown-up girl in the prime minister's mansion. Every day, you are forced to learn things that you don't like at all, and you have to be polished according to the mold that men like. Just think of embroidery, knitting, and the rules of conduct - isn't it hard? It is also hard and tiring physically."
"But being a man, apart from the physical hardship, there are no other restrictions. So if you ask me whether it is hard or not, I can only say that being a man is hard, but those days were much more comfortable for me than being in the Prime Minister's Mansion."
Jiang Xue just forced a smile and said calmly: "Do you only want to be a man from now on?"
"No," Lu Qiongshuang said seriously, "It is precisely because I know how comfortable it is to be a man that I must work hard to glorify the master's sect - my master is a woman! In the future, I will also accept many female disciples, teach them skills, and let them walk between heaven and earth, and be no less inferior to men."
Jiang Xue felt relieved and a little disappointed when she heard her say this.
Being in the royal family, she had more responsibilities than Qiong Shuang. She couldn't give up everything to pursue what she really wanted like Qiong Shuang.
But so what? Even Qiong Shuang has such ambition, so why should she let him?
"Then let's work hard. We all want peace in our country and at home, and we also want all women in the world to live more comfortably." Jiang Xue smiled lightly, with a light in her eyes.
"Cousin, do you think so?" Lu Qiong's eyes were full of surprise. She said, "Then cousin, if I run away from home in the future, you have to help cover for me."
Jiang Xue pretended not to hear, stood up and walked into the house, and shouted to Fu Dong: "Fu Dong! Help me prepare a bath!"
After taking a bath, Jiang Xue felt refreshed. Although her shoulders were sore and her hands had blisters, she was inexplicably happy. She asked Fu Dong to apply some medicine on her skin and then went to find Lu Qiongshuang for lunch.
Lu Qiongshuang looked at Jiang Xue with some respect. After all, her cousin would cry for most of an hour if she fell down when she was a child.
At lunch, Jiang Xue had a big appetite and ate a big bowl of glutinous rice. Fu Dong and Xiao Chun were worried that she might have a full stomach, but Lu Qiongshuang looked doting and kept picking up food for her.
Shortly after lunch, Jiang Xue went to the yard and started moving the two small wooden boxes.
Lu Qiongshuang instructed, "Cousin, you need to train your strength as well as your endurance. Just walk up these stairs and carry a box up and down twenty times."
Jiang Xue felt somewhat exhausted and stared at the stairs in a daze.
Lu Qiongshuang frowned and said in a pretentious manner: "It's hard to endure the most hardships——"
Jiang Xue sighed and took action immediately.
She was a little angry at herself for her pampered life in the past, which made her body so weak that she couldn't lift anything with her hands or shoulders. Now, doing these seemingly easy things made her so tired.
They practiced like this for a while, and suddenly Xiaochun came to report in a hurry.
"Your Highness, the noble historian has arrived at the palace and has been invited to Chaolu Hall."
Jiang Xue stopped what she was doing, handed the box to Lu Qiong, and said, "Got it, you go and entertain them, I'll go in and change my clothes and wash up and then I'll be over."
Xiaochun agreed, and Jiang Xue immediately called Fudong. The two of them went into the house and worked for a while, and finally cleaned up everything.
When Jiang Xue arrived at Chaolu Hall, she saw that the person who delivered the imperial edict was Eunuch Feng from the Queen's Palace. She immediately smiled and nodded to him.
Eunuch Feng bowed to Jiang Xue and said, "Your Highness, the Queen has an imperial decree."
Jiang Xue was about to kneel down to receive the order, but Eunuch Feng hurriedly held her back and said, "The Queen has an order, Your Highness does not need to kneel down to receive it."
Jiang Xue nodded.
"Her Majesty has decreed that Princess Changle will bring her husband to the palace tomorrow afternoon to attend the banquet."
Jiang Xue said: "Your son will accept the order."
She winked at Fu Dong and said to Eunuch Feng, "Thank you for your trouble, Eunuch Feng. I wonder who will be attending the banquet tomorrow?"
Fu Dong stuffed the brocade purse filled with gold beads into Eunuch Feng's hands. Eunuch Feng looked flattered and said, "Your Highness, you are embarrassing me. Tomorrow is a family banquet set by His Majesty. I sympathize with the adults who have worked hard to welcome the envoys from the Gan Kingdom recently, so I invited them all. It is said that the prince of the Gan Kingdom will also come. Because of his noble status, I also invited him."
Jiang Xue smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, eunuch. This is just tea money. Please tell my mother that I will go with my husband tomorrow. By the way, Qiong Shuang is also staying in my house these days and will go to the banquet with me tomorrow."
Eunuch Feng thanked him tremblingly, and Jiang Xue asked Xiaochun to escort him out properly.
After returning to Wenqingxuan, Jiang Xue told Lu Qiongshuang about the time to enter the palace. Lu Qiongshuang was very excited to meet her immortal senior brother.
"I'll go pick out some nice gifts for the meeting tomorrow."
Jiang Xue said helplessly: "You two shouldn't make your relationship known to the public. I'll take you to visit another day."
Lu Qiongshuang nodded obediently, "I'll follow my cousin's instructions."
When Xiaochun came back to ask Qingxuan, Jiang Xue immediately ordered:
"Go and tell Huang Fu to go to the Ministry of Rites to look for the Prince Consort. Tell him that I personally invited him, and ask him to return home tonight to prepare for the palace banquet tomorrow."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com