Chapter 26 Chapter 26 Zhou Congshan: "...There are...
"What do you want? Your mother-in-law said it would be the 12th of next month, but you took the initiative to change it to the 26th. What's the point of complaining to me now? It's already been decided." Zhou Congshan looked disappointed.
Fang Ying leaned against her friend's shoulder and said sullenly, "I just can't bear to see her sad. If the Duke leaves home again, he won't be able to return until Northern Zhao is conquered. If the Emperor conquers Northern Zhao and then wants to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun in one fell swoop, I don't know when that will happen."
Zhou Congshan stretched out his index finger and tapped her forehead: "I've never seen anyone like you. Are you marrying your mother-in-law or Ji Liulang?"
"What difference does it make now? If you want our wife to be happy, you have to be a loving couple with Ji Liulang..." At this point, Fang Ying became worried again, "But I'm really scared."
Zhou Congshan was still unmarried, and she could empathize with her friend, so she reached out and hugged her friend, silently comforting him.
Fang Ying complained to herself for a while, venting the depression she had nowhere to vent at home. Feeling a little relieved, she sat up straight and said with a smile, "Look at me, I just talk about my troubles as soon as I get here. How are you doing lately? How many days have you been home?"
"Today is the fourth day." Zhou Congshan released his hand and looked around. "I don't have anything good or bad to say. It's just like this."
"I see that the furnishings in your room seem to be very different from before." When Zhou Congshan was ill, Fang Ying came to her boudoir. She remembered that there were not so many partitions at that time, and it was relatively spacious. The window screens, curtains, toys and ornaments were also mainly generous and dignified, with relatively simple colors, not as exquisite, gorgeous and colorful as they are now.
"My stepmother was in charge of the arrangement. She was probably afraid that I would be reminded of the past and want to become a nun, so she deliberately made it different from before." Zhou Congshan turned around and poured a cup of tea for Fang Ying. "Let them do what they want."
Fang Ying looked around and said, "This is also good. It makes the room look brighter."
Zhou Congshan said, "Whether it's bright or not, I'm afraid it won't last long."
"What? Are you getting engaged?"
"How come you're more concerned about me than I am?" Zhou Congshan saw Fang Ying's nervousness and teased her with a smile, "It's only been a few days since the mourning period ended, and you're already so anxious to ask me about my engagement?"
Fang Ying: "...You said you can't stay here for long, so what else could it be but an engagement?"
"Can't I live in another yard?"
"..." Fang Ying glanced at her unhappily, "Did you call me here just to piss me off?"
Zhou Congshan said with a grin, "Who told you to be so full of worries after getting married that you don't even want to consummate your marriage with your husband, yet you're always thinking about my marriage?"
"How can you, a young lady waiting to be married, say anything?" Fang Ying would not admit defeat in an argument.
"You said it first, but you're blaming me instead."
"I am who I am. I'm married." Fang Ying said half-seriously, "As an unmarried young lady, you're not allowed to say this or do that. Don't you know that?"
"Tsk! Why don't you tell me that once you get married you have to work like a slave for your husband's family?"
Fang Ying couldn't refute this and sighed, "What can we do? It's just our bad luck to be born as a woman."
Zhou Congshan was just bickering with her, but he didn't want to spoil the fun by saying this, so he quickly said, "Stop, you're getting off track. My dad said you're having a party in a few days and asked if I wanted to go. I figured since you didn't invite me, I might as well go on my own..."
Fang Ying held her down and said, "I'm here to invite you, aren't I? If you hadn't interrupted me, I would have said it earlier."
"How can you be like this? You only told me when I asked you, which shows that you were not sincere. You even blame me for interrupting you... I have misjudged you over the past few years." Zhou Congshan spoke in a rhythmic manner, covering his chest with his hands, looking very sad.
Fang Ying laughed so hard that she fell on her, "Hahaha, I think you're a better actor than me."
Zhou Congshan said proudly: "That's right, I just don't need to act normally."
Fang Ying leaned against her and laughed for a long time before stopping. "I admit defeat. But seriously, yesterday you sent someone to pass on the message, and our wife asked me to invite you to be her guest..."
"Oh, it was your wife who invited me." Zhou Congshan nodded as if to say "I understand."
Furious, Fang Ying raised her finger and pointed at her, "You're getting even more naughty." However, she was willing to say this in a playful way, obviously in a good mood after returning home. So she asked unexpectedly, "Has there been any movement in the palace since the end of mourning? Didn't His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin come to visit again?"
Zhou Congshan had had enough of the joke and replied seriously, "You're right. The emperor told my father yesterday that he could choose any of the princes as his son-in-law. My father knelt down and said the sorcerer's words were untrustworthy, but it was useless. The emperor insisted on becoming my father's in-law."
She sneered, "And that Concubine Zhang, who asked my stepmother to bring me into the palace the other day. She really thinks she's the queen."
"You didn't go?" Fang Ying guessed.
"Of course I won't go. Who the hell is she? Why would I go just because she asks me to?" Zhou Congshan's eyes were filled with disdain. "My stepmother came back and said that as soon as we sat down in Concubine Zhang's palace, the Prince of Yan and the Fourth Prince left. Only they, mother and son, could do such a shameless thing. My father was furious when he heard it."
"Isn't this great? They angered your father themselves, saving us the trouble of trying to avoid this disaster."
Zhou Congshan laughed: "When you are open-minded, you really are open-minded."
Fang Ying asked, "Isn't that right? Since the emperor has asked your father, then the final decision on which prince will be chosen must be made with your father's approval. It seems your father wouldn't dare to push you too hard, so doesn't that mean you can make the decision yourself? How old is the fifth prince?"
"..." Her last sentence was so natural that Zhou Congshan said unhappily, "How would I know?"
Fang Ying nodded. "The King of Qin is closer to your age, after all. What did you think of him the last time you met him?"
"No matter what, as soon as you and Ji Liulang left, I asked him to go burn incense on his own and ignored him."
"I knew it." Fang Ying smiled and shook her head. "Then your family has finished mourning, but there's no movement from the King of Qin?"
"My father has been in the imperial court every day these days, and he has actually met the King of Qin. It seems that the emperor intends to personally lead the King of Yan and the King of Qin to attack Northern Zhao."
"Is this to train the two princes? Ji Liulang also said that the emperor would personally lead the army." Fang Ying said this, thinking of his own worries, and sighed, "The emperor wants to attack Northern Zhao, why didn't he start sooner?"
Zhou Congshan didn't understand: "Isn't it too early? It hasn't even been a month since we conquered Jiaozhi!"
Fang Ying sighed: "If it's any earlier, there won't be enough time to make up for the wedding ceremony..."
"You can avoid the first day, but you can't avoid the fifteenth. You said it so clearly when you advised me," Zhou Congshan leaned on the table and looked at Fang Ying, "Actually, we are the same. I can't avoid marrying the prince, and you can't avoid consummating the marriage. We're already married, so don't think too much about it."
"But what if I'm unlucky and get pregnant?" Logically, this shouldn't be said to the unmarried Zhou Congshan, but Fang Ying really had no one else to talk to. "I'm scared."
"How could it be that easy?" Zhou Congshan comforted her. "It took my mother two years to get pregnant with her first child after she married my father. Empress Zhaomu was nineteen when she gave birth to my cousin, right? It usually takes two or three years to have a first child."
"But my stepmother gave birth to my second sister the year after she came into the family, and my mother also gave birth to me when she was seventeen."
Zhou Congshan was not very good at persuading people, and was blocked by her words. He could only say: "Then come back to me when you get pregnant."
Fang Ying: “…”
"I'm not angry with you. It's really too early for you to worry about this. Besides, even if you get pregnant, there's nothing to be afraid of. You're living a comfortable life in the Ji family now, so you don't have to worry about anything. Your body is also stronger than that of an average girl. You will definitely be able to give birth smoothly. Your mother-in-law will definitely be overjoyed when the time comes."
Zhou Congshan racked his brains and said all the words of comfort he could think of. After he finished speaking, he felt dry in the mouth, so he picked up the tea and drank half a cup.
But Fang Ying said, "Forget it. I'll deal with this for now. When he returns from his conquest of Northern Zhao, I'll find him an honest and obedient concubine. If they have a son, I'll raise him myself. Isn't that better than going through the gates of hell myself?"
Zhou Congshan nearly spat out the tea he hadn't swallowed. "What nonsense are you talking about? Can a bastard be trusted? Have you forgotten the time you called the third and fourth sons of the Ji family ungrateful wolves?"
"That's different. My wife has sons of her own, but she didn't raise them herself. And if I had a son, I wouldn't let him learn martial arts. I'd only have him study literature and become a civil official—civil officials are more compliant with etiquette than military commanders." Fang Ying argued confidently. "Besides, by the time he grows up, the world will have been unified, and the court will respect etiquette. If he dares to disobey me, I'll report him to the government."
Zhou Congshan: "...Is there anything in this world that you dare not do?"
Fang Ying chuckled: "Yes, there are some, but if you really become the queen one day, then there will be no more."
“…”
The author has something to say:
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I will become a V tomorrow. This article is updated slowly, so it’s late to become a V...
Anyway, I'll try my best to update three times! (I don't know when it will be updated yet, because I haven't finished the manuscript yet...
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