69 Chapter 69
◎She couldn't kneel in the Wei family's ancestral hall.◎
Xu Qinghe had never felt that the road from Fengheyuan to the main house of the Duke and his wife was so long.
She did return home too late today, and she did so without asking the Lady of the Prince of Fuguo in person. If Wei Fu had deliberately set a trap for her by not passing on the message to the Lady of the Prince of Fuguo at the right time, she would have been accused of being disrespectful to her mother-in-law and leaving the house without permission.
What's more serious is that anyone can see that there has been an obvious disagreement between her and Wei Che in the past few days, which has led to the prince not stepping into the Fenghe Courtyard for several days, and he has not had a single word with the princess.
Under such circumstances, as a daughter-in-law, she left the house without permission and did not return until she was old. Any mother-in-law would be concerned, let alone Lady Zhao Wan, the wife of the Duke of Fuguo, who was said to be quite capable.
She was prepared to be lectured or even punished tonight.
After she had made up her mind and finally stepped into the main hall, a strong medicinal fragrance immediately rushed into her nostrils.
Lady Zhao Wan, wife of the Duke of Fuguo, sat upright on the rose chair in the hall, with a bowl of steaming medicine on the small table beside her.
Wei Fu, the eldest daughter of the Wei family, stood by and served. She reached out and took the bowl of medicine, stirred it, and handed it to her mother respectfully.
Zhao Wan covered her handkerchief with her hand and coughed lightly a few times, but did not take the medicine.
Wei Fu sighed softly with a worried look on her face. She looked at Xu Qinghe, who had already bowed to her mother-in-law but received no response, and sighed again: "The princess probably doesn't know that mother has been ill for five or six days."
Xu Qinghe's heart trembled, and she immediately lifted her skirt and knelt on the ground: "I failed to realize that my mother was ill in time and was not by her side to take care of her. It is my fault."
Although she had been avoiding the main house these days, she couldn't be so ignorant of such a big thing as her mother-in-law's illness, unless someone deliberately didn't want her to know.
No wonder when I saw Wei Fu and Aunt Jin today, they both looked exhausted. I guess they were both attending to the Duke's wife's bedside.
Zhao Wan took a sip of the hot tea on the small table, but didn't let Xu Qinghe get up. She just said, "Since the princess doesn't know about this, then it's naturally not her fault. I heard recently that the princess was in a bad mood and didn't want to go out, so I wanted to come and see her, but I didn't expect to come back empty-handed."
Xu Qinghe lowered her eyes and spoke respectfully, "This morning, Princess Jing'an sent a message, inviting me to appreciate paintings with her. I was about to ask my mother for her opinion, but I ran into my eldest sister and Concubine Jin on the way. They said my mother was meeting guests. I was afraid that it would be inappropriate to make the princess anxious, so I asked my eldest sister to pass on the message and left the palace on my own."
Xu Qinghe spent almost the entire day in the private room of the Bamboo Tea House without eating or drinking. However, because of the five latest portraits she had painted, her mind was full of thoughts about the relationships between the five people, and she really had no energy to engage in a war of words with the mother and daughter in front of her.
She had never been a daughter-in-law to other people, and she didn't know how mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, and sisters-in-law and aunts-in-law got along with each other in other families. If her mother-in-law was a soft-hearted person, she would naturally let today's matter go.
If she was a petty person and felt that her daughter-in-law's behavior offended her authority, Xu Qinghe guessed that at most she would give her a small punishment to establish her authority.
After all, her behavior was just playfulness, not an unforgivable sin.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Wan suddenly slammed the table, causing it to shake slightly. Half of the medicine in the bowl spilled out, and a strong bitter taste immediately emanated.
"At this point, you're still being vague!" Zhao Wan glared, extremely angry, and for a moment felt sorry for her son:
"If Che'er hadn't said enough good things about the princess in front of me, how could the princess, as the Crown Prince's wife, be so free? Without having to manage the household or manage the affairs, she could spend her days painting romantic scenes? Che'er has been busy outside these past few days, and yet you've gone to such great lengths to leave the house and meet someone secretly!"
Xu Qinghe was slightly startled, and subconsciously looked up, only to see Zhao Wan's eyes full of resentment, and that expression was not fake at all.
Could it be that when I hurried to Zhuming Pavilion to keep my appointment with Mr. Jiang today, I was deliberately watched by Wei Fu or other people from the Duke's Mansion?
But fortunately, she was well prepared. Even though the mother-in-law's resentment was about to overwhelm her, Xu Qinghe still knelt down in the hall, straightened her back, and said calmly:
"I don't understand what my mother-in-law is talking about. Today, I was indeed invited by Princess Jing'an to go to the Qi Mansion with her. We also went to the Bamboo Tea House with her to appreciate paintings. But I don't know where my mother heard the rumor that I was going there to meet someone secretly."
"If mother doesn't believe me, go to the Qi residence and ask Princess Jing'an for the truth."
Zhao Wan suddenly felt a tightness in her chest. She was already ill and couldn't help coughing a few times. After catching her breath, she said to her, "Princess Jing'an is just like you. Of course she will speak for you. What else can I ask from her?!"
"Mother, please be careful with your words!" Xu Qinghe frowned and interrupted her, "Princess Jing'an is of royal blood, no matter what. Her husband is favored by His Majesty to command the Imperial Guards, and the Crown Prince is currently serving under him. Please don't damage the harmony between the two families."
She and Jing'an grew up together, but Wei Che and Qi Sheng did not.
Even though the foundation and majesty of the Duke's Mansion are there, there is no guarantee that Qi Sheng will not vent his anger towards the wife of the Duke of Fuguo on Wei Che after learning that Jing'an was slandered.
If those people in the army really play tricks, they are no less capable than the women in the harem.
"It was my fault that I left the house without permission and caused misunderstandings, so please don't involve others. Since Qinghe is at fault, please punish her." Having said this, she bowed in the hall and said nothing more.
In fact, even if the wife of the Duke of Fuguo really sent someone to investigate, they would not be able to find anything.
She had been on guard against the Duke's Mansion ever since she knew that Wei Fu had secretly plotted to harm her on their wedding night. Seeing that she looked unhappy today and that she had taken the initiative to take on the task of delivering a message for her, she knew that she had set a trap for herself again.
The situation was urgent at the time, and she didn't have the time to think carefully about what trap she had set. She just took the Qi Mansion's carriage with Jing'an with caution to the Bamboo Tea House. After going up to the private room on the second floor with her, she changed her clothes and went to meet Mr. Jiang.
After the five portraits were finished, he followed Jing'an back to Qi's Mansion, and then took a carriage from Qi's Mansion back to the Duke's Mansion.
In this way, you will never leave anyone with any handle.
But now that Wei Che's mother is ill, it would be better for her to be obedient and admit her mistake this morning, so as not to really make the old lady angry and make herself seem unreasonable even if she is right.
not to mention……
After all, this was Wei Che's biological mother. How could she be so brazen in contradicting him? She could only admit her mistake and accept the punishment.
Anyway, she had been in the Queen Mother Wei's palace for nearly five years, and had been punished innocently many times. According to the ways of those aristocratic families, the most she would have done was to kneel in the ancestral hall.
It’s not like when I was young in the southern border, if my father and mother got angry, they would be brought to justice and beaten with military sticks.
Just as she was quietly waiting for the Duke's wife to sentence her to the crime of disrespecting her mother-in-law, Wei Fu, who was standing beside her, smiled softly and said, "What a coincidence! Today, the princess and Princess Jing'an stayed in the Bamboo Tea House for a whole day. But I heard that the eldest son of the Wei family also stayed there for a whole day. When the princess and the princess left, the eldest son of the Wei family also left. If I say there is no connection between the two, I'm afraid no one will believe it—"
"Believe it or not, when did Big Sister become so soft-hearted?"
Xu Qinghe's heart suddenly tightened.
She hadn't heard such a clear and loud voice for quite some time.
"Big sister actually believes everything others say. Are you trying to help others deal with you, your sister-in-law, so that people outside can laugh at our Fuguo Mansion?"
When the words fell on the ground, Wei Che had already strode to Xu Qinghe's side. He didn't even bother to greet his mother first. He walked straight to Xu Qinghe's side and stretched out his hand to pull her up.
Xu Qinghe tugged at his sleeve and glanced upwards, reminding him that his mother was still there. How could he ignore his mother's dignity and take the lead in helping his wife to get up?
But Wei Che dragged her up regardless, and even held her against his chest. He then looked at the Duke's wife and said, "Mother, please forgive my rudeness. I have already told you that the princess has an old knee injury and cannot kneel for long. Why are you still trying to make things difficult for her?"
"...making things difficult?" His son's movements were so quick that the sick Zhao Wan only realized what had happened in the blink of an eye. Her face had already darkened. "Ask her yourself if I made things difficult for her today. She secretly met with the eldest son of the Wei family, who has long been infatuated with her and is now seeking a divorce. Logically, I should have punished her by making her kneel in the ancestral hall! Now, she's kneeling in this hall to observe her filial duty as a daughter-in-law, and now it seems I'm making things difficult for her?"
After speaking such a long speech in one breath, Zhao Wan almost couldn't catch his breath and started coughing repeatedly.
Wei Che was about to speak when Xu Qinghe quickly grabbed his sleeve and said, "Mother didn't make things difficult for me. She just had some misunderstandings about me. I wanted to kneel down on my own initiative. Please don't implicate Mother."
After all, the person sitting in the hall was Wei Che's biological mother. If she, as a daughter-in-law, disrespected her mother-in-law, at most she would be accused of not knowing the rules. But as a son, how could Wei Che talk back to his sick mother like this?
If this gets out, who knows how many people will smear this prince who already has a very bad reputation.
How could Wei Che not understand what she meant? Facing her clear, worried eyes, the anxiety he had just felt after braving the wind all the way here finally dissipated for the most part.
He looked up at the wife of the Duke of Fuguo, and finally softened his voice. "Since mother is still ill, why should she be so angry about what happened in my yard? I have long been fond of the princess and naturally trust her character. This time, mother really misunderstood her. Today, I was ordered by Commander Qi to go to the Bamboo Tea House on business. I saw with my own eyes that the princess entered the private room on the second floor and that Young Master Wei went up to the third floor. Because I was under a secret order, I told her not to spread the news. Since she had already met with my son, how could she have met with someone else in private?"
As he spoke, he glanced at Wei Fu, whose face had turned completely black. "Mother, please don't listen to other people's slander. If you let rumors spread about the discord between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the Duke's Mansion, it will tarnish the reputation of the mansion."
"It's getting late. My son and I will not disturb you any longer. We will come back tomorrow to apologize and pay our respects to our mother."
As soon as he finished speaking, he bowed to the leader, and without waiting for a reply, he turned around and pulled Xu Qinghe away.
But Xu Qinghe did have some old injuries on her knees. Although she had only been kneeling on the ground for about a quarter of an hour, her legs and feet were stiff for a while. When Wei Che pulled her, she only moved her upper body, but her lower body did not keep up in time, and she almost fell.
Wei Che felt a pain in his heart, his throat so tight that he could hardly speak. He quickly reached out to support the person and carefully helped him walk out the door.
After he got out of the door and out of the sight of his elders, he picked the person up again and carried him horizontally, striding towards Fenghe Courtyard.
A cool summer breeze blew past his ears very quickly, drying the cold sweat on his back that had almost broken out from the shock.
If he had been a step later, the girl would have had to swallow her anger and kneel in the ancestral hall.
But in the Wei family's ancestral hall, everyone can kneel, except Xu Qinghe.
【Author’s words】
Sorry I'm late again QAQ
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