Chapter 144 Two Princesses (Two Chapters in One)
In a blink of an eye, the day of the flower viewing party arrived. The noble ladies in the city had been preparing for this day for many days. Yang Shengqiu also changed into his best clothes. He walked out of the house and was about to get into the sedan chair, but he saw a gorgeous and spacious carriage without the family emblem parked in front of his house.
A well-dressed servant stood in front of the carriage. Seeing Yang Shengqiu, he quickly stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "I am Feng Shun, serving under the Second Young Master. Today, the Second Young Master is also going to the flower viewing party, so he left ahead. Before leaving, he instructed me to ensure that Yang Shengqiu is safely delivered."
In fact, Yang Shengqiu knew who Feng Shun was without him introducing himself.
Yang Shengqiu has an excellent memory. Although he had only seen him once, he was still able to recognize him at a glance.
The second young master mentioned by Feng Shun was named Feng Yanxing. He was the second son of Feng Ke, the Prime Minister of the dynasty, and one of the elder brothers of the third imperial concubine Feng Jiahe. Because he was good at painting landscapes, he was also a famous Feng family in the capital.
Feng Yanxing was a young genius. He became famous for his talent at the age of fourteen, but he only liked painting. He left home at the age of seventeen and returned three years later. He amazed the world with twelve landscape paintings at Xiecaixuan. His painting style was called "Fengshan". Some people even traveled thousands of miles to the capital just to see Feng Shan's true appearance.
After becoming famous, Feng Yanxing neither took the imperial examination to become an official nor wrote books. He was like a wild cloud or a wild crane, flying among mountains and rivers. Whenever he returned to the capital by chance, he would publish a masterpiece.
Yang Shengqiu was also good at calligraphy and painting. When he first arrived in the capital, Feng Ke extended an olive branch to him. However, he had not yet graduated from high school at that time, so Feng Ke only sent him a letter inviting him to participate in a painting appreciation meeting.
That painting appreciation meeting invited many talented painters and many newcomers who were eager to become famous.
When Yang Shengqiu first arrived in the capital, he brought his own paintings to participate and received personal comments from Feng Yanxing.
Feng Yanxing praised him highly and gave him a folding fan that he had painted himself. It was at that time that Yang Shengqiu met Feng Shun.
Later, Yang Shengqiu became the top scorer in the imperial examination. Feng Yanxing held another painting appreciation meeting but did not invite him. Yang Shengqiu thought that this master of painting had forgotten him. Unexpectedly, at today's flower viewing party, Feng Yanxing actually asked Feng Shun to pick him up.
Of course, Yang Shengqiu would not think that this was his own face, nor would he think that this was Feng Yanxing's idea.
He had met Feng Yanxing, who was a dashing and unconventional person. It was not Feng Yanxing's style to specially send a carriage to pick up someone he had only met once.
Yang Shengqiu thought of Feng Ke, or the third prince.
If it were a few days ago, he might have declined politely, but now, he did not refuse and happily got into the gorgeous carriage.
He thought of his little girl and the letter he had burned.
He is no longer the top scholar of Qingfeng Mingyue, and he is still a fish that escaped the massacre. The most urgent thing is that he must find a backer for himself.
And Feng Ke is the biggest supporter he can find now.
The carriage slowly drove away. Yang Shengqiu, who was sitting in the carriage, did not see that another carriage drove into the alley where he lived.
He didn't see it, but Feng Shun, who was sitting with the coachman, saw it. Not only did he see it, he also recognized whose carriage it was.
Although the carriage also did not have the family emblem, Feng Shun was the family son carefully selected by Feng Ke for his son. He was not only loyal and reliable, but also had a pair of sharp eyes.
This carriage belongs to the Dong family, and the retired Hanlin scholar Dong Qinglin in the capital is the uncle of the Crown Princess!
The Dong family is a family of scholars. Although they have no real power, they have a high reputation in the circle of scholars. Moreover, the Dong family has a princess!
If they are lucky, the Dong family may produce a queen.
But this also requires the prince to have that blessing.
Feng Shun narrowed his eyes slightly. He wanted to report the fact that the Crown Prince also wanted to win over Yang Zhuangyuan to the Prime Minister as soon as possible.
Yang Shengqiu didn't know about this at the time, but he knew Dong Qinglin. He had just entered the Hanlin Academy, and Dong Qinglin had already retired. Logically, they would not have any intersection with each other. However, in the first month after he entered the Hanlin Academy, it was Dong Qinglin's birthday. The Hanlin scholar personally led a group of Hanlin scholars to Dong's house to celebrate his birthday, including the top three scholars who served as editors and compilers in the Hanlin Academy.
Dong Qinglin was very happy and invited the three of them to his study to look at some ancient books he had just collected.
However, Dong Qinglin had retired after all, and Yang Shengqiu had only met him once.
The carriage continued to move forward and finally arrived at Princess Jianing's mansion.
The flower viewing party was held in the garden of the Princess's Mansion, and it was already filled with beautiful people in elegant clothes and clusters of flowers.
Yang Shengqiu soon met Princess Jianing's son Zhao Wenjing.
Princess Jianing got married at the age of fifteen, divorced at the age of sixteen, and was diagnosed with pregnancy after the divorce. At the age of seventeen, she gave birth to twins, Zhao Wenjing and Zhao Wenting.
Before the two brothers were even a month old, Concubine Meng, who was then a concubine, asked the retired emperor to give them the surname Zhao.
Although the two brothers had the surname Zhao, they did not attract the attention of the emperor.
Although Xiao Zhen did not remember the appearance of the retired emperor, he had entered the palace and met the retired emperor when he was young.
However, the brothers Zhao Wenjing and Zhao Wenting had never even attended the palace banquets during the holidays, and had never seen the emperor.
However, the retired emperor treated Princess Jianing very well. All along, the rewards Princess Jianing received were the same as those received by Princess Jiayi, and higher than those received by other princesses.
When Yang Shengqiu saw Zhao Wenjing, he thought of the rumors he had heard in the Hanlin Academy.
The reason why the retired emperor distanced himself from the brothers was because of Princess Jianing's marriage.
Princess Jianing fell in love with a Jinshi from a humble family named Hong. Neither the retired emperor nor Concubine Meng was satisfied, but she was madly in love with him, and finally the retired emperor agreed to the marriage.
But within a year, Princess Jianing divorced and gave birth to two sons. The retired emperor asked her to send the children back to the Hong family. Princess Jianing threatened to commit suicide and insisted on keeping the two sons with her. She also asked the retired emperor to give them surnames. For this, the imperial censors wrote letters to the emperor, denouncing Princess Jianing's inappropriate behavior. The retired emperor was annoyed and began to dislike his two grandsons who were still in their infancy.
However, Emperor Yongjia was very fond of these two nephews, especially after Xiao Zhen's "death". Emperor Yongjia attached great importance to the children of the princesses in Beijing. He would reward them every now and then and summon them to the palace to test their knowledge and martial arts.
In particular, the brothers Zhao Wenjing and Zhao Wenting are highly valued. Therefore, the brothers are now celebrities in the aristocratic circles of the capital.
Zhao Wenjing personally accompanied Yang Shengqiu and introduced him to his friends and cousins. Facing everyone's admiring, curious or dismissive gazes, Yang Shengqiu responded with ease and humility, neither restrained nor proud. His erudition and elegant temperament made people involuntarily ignore his humble background.
And not far away, a pair of eyes followed him. The owner of those eyes was sitting behind a flower tree. The wind blew, and the petals fell on her shoulders, and the girl's pale cheeks were stained with a touch of bright red.
"Ming'er, so you are here." A young girl hurried over and looked up and down at her sister in front of her. Seeing that her clothes were neat, she just breathed a sigh of relief. When she lowered her head, she saw her sister's feet hidden under her skirt.
The embroidered shoes on her left foot were in good condition, but her right foot was only covered with silk stockings.
"Where are your shoes? And where is Chunying?" She looked around and asked in a low voice.
The girl named Ming'er pouted, her eyes reddened. "Just now, someone pushed me, and my shoes got stuck in the mud. Luckily, we brought spare clothes, shoes, and socks. Chunying went to get them for me."
My sister comforted me softly, "Thank goodness everyone is alright. By the way, who pushed you?"
Ming'er lowered her eyelids, her long eyelashes reflecting a moonlight shadow. "One is the younger sister of the Qingchuan County Master, the one named Lang Yuyu. I don't know the other one, but I think her surname is Fan."
The elder sister snorted coldly, "Since when did the county lady's followers dare to bully the princess? Lang Yuyu's father was only transferred to the capital last month, and he is only a fourth-rank official."
Ming'er smiled bitterly: "Royal sister, how can we be considered princesses? Aunt Jiayi, Aunt Jianing, Aunt Jia'an, and my fourth sister are the princesses. As for us, we are just orphans."
The elder sister sighed, and the two sisters looked at each other in silence.
At this time, the maid Chunying came trotting over, looking around as she ran, afraid of being seen.
"Princess, I have brought you the embroidered shoes. I will help you put them on."
Looking at the embroidered shoes that were exactly the same as the ones on her left foot, Princess Huiming finally breathed a sigh of relief. If people saw her wearing only one shoe, she would be laughed at again.
Sister Huixin took out a handkerchief and wiped the moisture from the corners of her sister's eyes.
They are the daughters of Emperor Xiaokang. Although they grew up in the capital and were given the title of princess, they are marginal and dispensable people in the royal family.
Over the years, the occasions they are most reluctant to attend are ones like today. Every time at this time, they are always isolated.
Things like today have happened before. Either tea spilled on me, or I was knocked to the ground by a little girl who came out from nowhere, or I even fell into the water in public.
They had no grudges against the noble ladies in the capital, but those people would still tease them because in their eyes, they were just orphans with no one to rely on.
"They bully us all the time, and they will definitely not let us go today. Why don't we just hide here?" Princess Huiming said.
Although many noble ladies were invited to today's flower viewing party, in fact, everyone knows that the purpose of this flower viewing party is to select princes-in-law for the three princesses.
Other noble ladies, no matter how noble their status, can only look for their ideal husbands among the ones left by the three princesses.
This alone is enough to make the sisters look bad in public.
The three princesses who have to choose their husbands all have awkward identities.
In addition to Emperor Xiaokang's two daughters, Princess Huixin and Princess Huiming, there was also Princess Jiale.
Although Princess Jiale was the daughter of the retired emperor, her biological mother was the deposed queen, Wang.
If Wang had not been deposed, Princess Jiale would have been one of the only two legitimate princesses of the retired emperor, as noble as Princess Jiayi.
Unfortunately, she was unlucky. Queen Wang died in the cold palace before she could remember anything. Princess Jiale's status was not much better than her two nieces, and she was often subject to rules set by Concubine Li.
If it were any other princesses choosing their consorts today, the ladies wouldn't dare compete with them. But it had to be these three. It's easy to imagine how unwilling the ladies would be. Why should they choose the ones they left behind? But that was the reality. Although they were not popular, they still had the title of princess.
Princess Huixin knew her sister was frightened. She felt both distressed and helpless. Catching a glimpse of a man in the distance, she softly asked, "Ming'er, have you noticed today's guests? Is there anyone you like?"
Princess Huiming bit her cherry lips lightly and shook her head, but her cheeks became even redder.
The two sisters depended on each other and grew up together. Seeing her sister like this, Princess Huixin guessed something. She smiled and asked, "Which young man does Ming'er like?"
Princess Huiming finally raised her head and looked through the branches of the flower trees, but she could no longer see the group of people who had just gathered together to chat.
"I don't know who he is. He is wearing a moon-white robe, with a face as white as jade, and he is very elegant and extraordinary."
This was the first time she saw that person, and after just one glance, that person was engraved in the girl's heart.
Princess Huixin was happy that her sister had found a lover, but she also felt a sense of loss.
Her sister has a lover, but she and her lover are separated forever.
Sensing her sister's disappointment, Princess Huiming gently held her sister's hand and said softly, "Sister, since this is a matchmaking event held for us, you should look around. Perhaps someone will..."
Before her sister could finish, Princess Huixin shook her head and said, "No."
She smiled bitterly and said, "We are old now and will eventually get married. Let's just follow their arrangements. They won't be dumb or crippled. The worst that can happen is that we will marry into a foreign country."
Having said that, the two sisters all knew that Emperor Yongjia was concerned about his reputation, and even if he really needed a princess to marry, it would not be them. The Yong Dynasty had many royal relatives, and any princess from the royal family could be more suitable than Emperor Xiaokang's daughter.
So as Princess Huixin said, as long as the emperor wants them to get married, the prince consort he chooses will not be too bad. Besides, among the princesses of the Yong Dynasty, except Princess Jiayi, there was no other princess whose marriage lasted long. They either divorced or became widows.
But they still want to get married, because after getting married, they will have their own house and as long as they close the door, they don’t have to worry about other people’s opinions.
At this time, in a flower pavilion in the garden, the Princess of Qingchuan was looking at the woman in front of her cautiously.
Sitting in front of her was the Third Prince's wife Feng Jiahe, and standing behind the Qingchuan County Lady, being scolded along with her were Lang Yuyu and Fan Qiujun.
Feng Jiahe was furious. She said, "Do you know where this is? This is the Princess's residence! I think you've got the audacity to tease them here. What's the matter? Are you worried they'll snatch the man you like? Do you have any shame? Do you have any shame?"
The Princess of Qingchuan lowered her head, not even daring to breathe.
The Third Prince's wife scolded her, and she didn't dare to refute, but she didn't regret it either. She was just angry at the idiot Lang Yuyu for only letting Princess Huiming dirty her shoes.
According to her original plan, she wanted to let Princess Huiming fall into the lake as written in the storybook, and then let the servants of the Princess's Mansion rescue her.
She hated Princess Huiming and had hated her since she was a child.
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