Chapter 35: Back to the basics
Yang Zhi opened her eyes wide, as if she couldn't believe it.
Yu Fei thought that in the future she would need Yang Zhi to ask her family for a promise to give her the gold medal. Maybe when Jing Cang wanted to punish her, Yang Zhi could help her and tell the truth.
"Everything my sister said is true."
Yang Zhi's dignified body softened, and the expression on her face was as if she was a real vixen who had deceived the prince.
Yu Fei smiled noncommittally, and said something that was a mixture of truth and lies: "He gave false testimony for me because his memory has not fully recovered. He didn't remember the time when I broke his leg."
Yang Zhi nodded suddenly.
Yu Fei continued: "My Yu family saved his life. As for other minor incidents, he didn't care and didn't pursue them. He was even willing to cover them up for me. It's human nature." He paused, "When he lost his memory, I followed him. The matter is done. I have a bad reputation, and he will lose face and be criticized." This explains why Jing Cang forgave her other evil deeds.
Yang Zhi seemed to have walked out of the fog and asked, "You want the golden medal of immunity from death, because you're afraid that he will recover the memory of you breaking his leg and punish you then?"
The fish was finally caught. Yu Fei was relieved in his heart, but sighed on the surface: "I once asked him how he would punish the person if his legs were broken. His Highness said that he would definitely punish the person with a stick and beat him into a pulp."
Yang Zhi shuddered, thinking that Jing Cang was not such a cruel person, and suddenly remembered the palace maid who seduced the prince and was beaten to death by the empress. If Jing Cang knew the truth about the broken leg, even if he endured it, the empress and the emperor would not let Yu Fei go.
No wonder she was so scared and tried every means to get the golden medal of immunity from death.
Thinking of this, Yang Zhi was in a dilemma: "The gold medal is the merit of our ancestors. I am a girl and cannot make the decision."
Yu Fei plotted: "Give me the gold medal first, and when your engagement with the prince is announced to the world, give me a letter of promise from the Yang family."
Seeing Yang Zhi's eyes wide open like frogs, not looking like a lady at all, she suppressed her laughter: "Without your family's promise, it's useless for me to have the gold medal. You're mainly afraid that I'll bring you and the prince together, and you'll regret not saving my life. The gold medal is the evidence that I'm doing things for you."
Yang Zhi thought what he said made sense, but she still hesitated: "The gold medal is placed in the ancestral temple, it is impossible for me to take it openly, so I have to... I have never done such a mean thing."
The moral quality of ladies in ancient times was too high. Yu Fei was good at tempting, like a madam who cheated on the Liang family, "Even if you steal, you are doing it for yourself and the family. Are you willing to give up the crown prince to other women? Watching other aristocratic families become crown princes or even queens, honoring the ancestors and being famous forever."
She almost broke her lips, "You gave me this gold medal of immunity from death today. When you become the queen in the future, it won't be difficult to ask for another one for the family. If Jing Cang doesn't agree, you still have sons and grandsons in the future, and they will always agree to you..."
Yu Fei spoke eloquently and Yang Zhi finally nodded and agreed to deliver it personally tomorrow night.
With a hint of freedom, Yu Fei saw that the gray sky had brightened a little, as if the sun was hiding behind her and would come out at any time. On the way back, she picked a branch of red plum and prepared to eat beef bone and plum blossom hot pot in the evening.
Such delicious food could not escape Jing Cang's eyes and ears. Just as she asked someone to bring the pot to the dining table, he came in.
"Eating secretly without calling me?" Jing Cang took off his fur coat and handed it to the palace maid.
"You know exactly what I'm doing every day." Yu Fei put the meat and vegetables into the pot. Except for Ding Xiang, all the people in the East Palace are his.
Jing Cang sat down and got straight to the point: "Did you visit Yang Zhi today?"
He was angry with her for Yang Zhi a few days ago. Yu Fei picked up a piece of tripe and blew it while saying, "I'm bored staying in the palace alone. Can't I find a girl to talk to and relieve my boredom?"
Jing Cang heard some resentment in Yu Fei's tone and recalled her happy and carefree life in Shu County. Compared with now, she really felt like a wild oriole in a cage.
He picked up a piece of beef and put it in her bowl. "I'll take you out of the palace when I have time."
Yu Fei was stunned. She felt a little uncomfortable chewing this piece of beef. The hot pot beef bone soup base was fresh and mellow, mixed with the cool fragrance of plum blossoms. It was smooth and tender in the mouth, with a lingering aftertaste, but she tasted a bit sour.
"What's wrong?" Jing Cang asked.
Yu Fei put down his chopsticks and said seriously, "If Yang Zhi hadn't helped Yu Shuang to go to the palace and expose me, would you have chosen her to be the future Crown Princess?"
Jing Cang didn't know why Yu Fei suddenly brought this up. Yang Zhi was born into a famous family, was both talented and beautiful, and had a good reputation among the noble ladies in the capital. Among the candidates for the crown princess, he had no reason to reject her.
But the last time Yang Zhi rashly targeted Yu Fei, he felt as if he had spotted a bug in a pot of orchids that everyone praised. He couldn't help but wonder if the roots of the flowers under the soil had long been eaten away by bugs.
He doesn't want to marry a woman who looks but is not what she seems.
It was not easy to tell Yu Fei about all these thoughts. Jing Cang smiled and said, "My mother likes her very much."
This is no different from the modern blind date and marriage situation where when someone asks about the origin of their relationship, the man replies that his parents introduced them. The implication is that he will go along with it.
Yu Fei knew what was going on, and ate a few pieces of beef. He then asked, "If I hadn't made you a slave and hadn't entered the palace, would you have been engaged to her when you came back?"
Jing Cang was stunned for a moment, and suddenly remembered the marriage proposal he wrote before going to Shu County. He had originally planned to submit it to his father after returning to Beijing, but who knew that Yu Fei would appear halfway and the matter was forgotten.
It seems to be placed in the study. I will find it and destroy it when I have time. Otherwise, if Yu Fei sees it one day, she might get angry.
Jing Cang ate a piece of greens and said casually, "It's a done deal. There's no point in talking about that."
Yu Fei interjected: "What if everything can be set right?"
Jing Cang put down his chopsticks and asked her, "What do you mean?"
Seeing him asking questions, Yu Fei laughed and said, "I said that if you marry Yang Zhi, everything will be set right, and the queen won't have to reluctantly give up her beloved daughter-in-law and accept another one."
With a "bang", Jing Cang almost knocked over the dishes in front of him, causing the chopsticks to fall to the ground and roll around a few times.
He stared at her impatiently and said coldly, "I told you, don't mind my business!"
Yu Fei saw him getting angry and couldn't help but feel angry. What kind of person is this? On the one hand, he wants her to serve him selflessly without any status, and on the other hand, he complains that she is lenient and generous in negotiating his marriage and doesn't care about him. It seems that he makes her act like a split personality every day.
She also pushed the bowl and smashed the chopsticks, "How dare I care about your business? You want to kill me after you get rid of the snake. I can't forget how we started. Don't act so angry. People who don't know would think you like me."
"Delusion." Jing Cang blurted out, like a cat whose tail would be stepped on if it was a second late.
"That's it." Yu Fei spread his hands and smiled. "The prince's engagement is not only a family matter, but also a state matter. Everyone can talk about it. What's wrong with me talking to you a little more? Are you worried that I will leak it?"
She responded to all the things that had made her unhappy when they were together in the past: "Don't think I'm alive now. In fact, I'm already dead." In his increasingly shocked eyes, she said leisurely, "In your eyes, I've been dead for a long time. Dead people have the tightest mouths. How could it be..."
"Shut up!"
Jing Cang scolded and ordered the palace maid to change two sets of bowls and chopsticks.
He reached out to pick up some food, but the chill on his back did not fade away. When he heard Yu Fei say that she was "already dead", his heart rose to his throat for a moment, fearing that something had gone wrong with the female pig. He only realized it was a false alarm when she finished the second half of the sentence.
"Don't mention death in front of me anymore. It's bad luck." Seeing that she loved eating beef, he gave her a few more pieces. "Everyone can discuss the prince's engagement, but you can't."
"Why?"
Jing Cang showed weakness first, so Yu Fei didn't want to respond sharply. He vaguely knew his answer, but still asked the question knowing the answer.
He did not reply, but served her food like a palace maid until her bowl was filled with a mountain of meat. He only whispered, "No reason."
Yu Fei looked at the beef and tripe sticking out of the bowl, and felt as if a stone was pressing on his heart, heavy.
His behavior was similar to that of some of her previous straight male exes: he could barely utter a word, but he secretly remembered her preferences and treated her well.
But she has always been heartless, and Jing Cang might be adopting a soft policy to attack her defenses, hoping that she would cooperate and be freed as soon as possible.
Everything else besides life and death is trivial. Yu Fei raised his cup and said, "I cannot negotiate a marriage with the prince, but I wish that lovers will finally get married."
The dragon is gone, she is gone, and the plot should develop as in the original text.
Seeing that Yu Fei was very emotional, Jing Cang guessed that she was very disappointed that he would get married in the future, but there was a big gap between their statuses and she was a proud and unruly person.
He touched her hand, clinked his wine glass with hers, and said meaningfully, "As long as the two of you are in love, no matter what happens in the outside world, you will eventually become a couple in everyone's eyes."