Chapter 342 I can, but you can't!
(Thanks to Hanshan Hui for casting a monthly vote.)
Speaking of Jiang Feiyan, not to mention outsiders, even people in the Prince's Mansion had little impression of her.
For example, Li Chunli, who lived in the southwest corner of the Prince's Mansion, didn't know much about Consort Jiang.
In the Prince of Zhenbei's backyard, besides the Princess Zhao Changying, there are only two concubines.
One was Consort Zhou, and the other was Jiang Feiyan.
As for the other concubines below the two secondary consorts, due to their low status, they were not worth mentioning, not only outside the palace but even within the palace itself.
The Prince of Zhenbei was a man, and a man who wielded power.
Besides their obsession with power and their extraordinary desire to control others, many men also have a permissive attitude towards lust.
Or you could say it's out of control;
The only difference is that the powerful men at the top wear a veneer of respectability, while the weak men at the bottom are more blatantly exposed.
They often treat women in intimate relationships as tools, viewing them as their appendages.
Moreover, this attitude is mostly one-sided and double-standard;
This is considered normal practice in a patriarchal society.
Or rather, this is a privilege of being born male in a patriarchal society.
Of course, not all men are like that; there are definitely men who are willing to respect women and cooperate with their wives to live a good life.
However, the Prince of Zhenbei is not that kind of man.
Or rather, this kind of man is rare.
From the matter between Yan Xuefei and the Prince of Zhenbei, it can be seen that the Prince of Zhenbei is a man who cannot tolerate a woman who is disobedient.
This is also one of the reasons why the Prince of Zhenbei couldn't stand Yan Xuefei's refusal to become his concubine and why she chose Li Mingfeng as her partner after leaving him.
In the eyes of the Prince of Zhenbei, he was the only one who could be unfaithful, even though he had deceived Yan Xuefei from the beginning, concealed his identity and marital status, and used the guise of liking her to do things that hurt others.
But so what?
The Prince of Zhenbei naturally thought, "I can do it, but you can't!"
How can you compare yourself to a man like me, a prince like me?
Because the Prince of Zhenbei never liked Yan Xuefei as a person; he only liked her beauty and the role-playing fun he could have in their relationship, which was based on concealment.
In the end, the only person the Prince of Zhenbei ever truly loved was himself.
Fortunately, Yan Xuefei later saw through the Prince of Zhenbei and left him.
As for the others?
In the backyard of the Prince of Zhenbei, Princess Zhao Changying was quite capable. Apart from Consort Zhou, who was particularly favored by the Prince of Zhenbei and was somewhat arrogant and domineering, everyone else lived obediently in their own courtyards.
And Jiang Feiyan?
She is an extremely rational woman.
Jiang Feiyan's father was the former Protector-General of Andong. She was married to the Prince of Zhenbei a few years after he arrived in Andong. In order to win over the local forces and gain control of Andong's military and political affairs more quickly, the Prince of Zhenbei took the initiative to marry her.
It was called a marriage proposal, but it was actually a concubine arrangement.
After all, in the eyes of the Prince of Zhenbei, giving Jiang Feiyan the position of a concubine was already a great show of his sincerity as a prince.
His position as the principal wife was naturally reserved for a woman from a family who could be of greater help to him.
Jiang Feiyan was very clear about why she entered the Zhenbei Prince's Mansion. After meeting the Zhenbei Prince, she also learned what kind of person he was.
Therefore, she never harbored any illusions about the Prince of Zhenbei.
She knew that all she wanted was to give birth to a son and live a peaceful life in the palace.
It exists to maintain a mutually supportive relationship between the Jiang family and the Prince of Zhenbei for the future of the Jiang family in Andong.
After Jiang Feiyan gave birth to her eldest son Liu Tan, the following year, the Prince of Zhenbei married his principal wife, Zhao Changying.
From then on, Jiang Feiyan secluded herself in her courtyard and devoted herself solely to raising Liu Tan.
Even when the Prince of Zhenbei came to visit later, Jiang Feiyan declined, citing her postpartum illness as the reason why she could not serve him.
After making up excuses, he invited a doctor to visit, and the whole courtyard was filled with the bitter smell of medicine. As a result, the Prince of Zhenbei lost interest in looking for Jiang Feiyan again.
However, this is exactly what Jiang Feiyan wanted.
She achieved her goal of entering the Prince of Zhenbei's mansion—to give birth to her son, Liu Tan. Her next task was to raise Liu Tan well and ensure that he grew up healthy and safe.
Later, as Liu Tan grew up, Jiang Feiyan followed the Jiang family's path and arranged for Liu Tan to join the Xuanjia Army. He started as a lowly soldier, gradually rose to become a general, and through battle after battle, finally received the imperial decree of "Grand General"!
It can be said that Jiang Feiyan's father was able to retire alive from his position as Protector-General of Andong, and that her elder brother and cousins were able to maintain their positions in the Andong army, all thanks to Jiang Feiyan's efforts.
Although Jiang Feiyan stayed at home in the Prince's mansion, not participating in any activities;
But this does not mean that Jiang Feiyan was deaf or blind in the Prince's mansion.
When Liu Tan was six years old, he left Jiang Feiyan's courtyard and lived alone in his own courtyard until he got married and left the mansion.
Therefore, over the years, Jiang Feiyan and Liu Tan have naturally developed their own intelligence network within the Prince's Mansion.
It could even be said that while Princess Zhao Changying's control over the Prince's Mansion was overt, Jiang Feiyan and her son Liu Tan were the true controllers of the mansion in secret.
Moreover, Jiang Feiyan knew even earlier than Zhao Changying that the person who wanted Liu Shu dead was her own father, the Prince of Zhenbei!
Therefore, the moment the Yan family members were arrested and thrown into the dungeon of the Prince's Mansion, Jiang Feiyan, who was in her own courtyard, already knew about it through the messages passed in by the servants.
As for why this news wasn't spread outside the mansion to the General's Mansion so that Liu Tan would know,
It was really bad timing. Whether it was because the Prince of Zhenbei was frightened by the strange poison he had been poisoned with, or because there was really some movement at the border, Liu Tan was sent to patrol the border by the Prince of Zhenbei immediately after he brought back the two elixirs of immortality from the Turks.
That's how the news about the Yan family reached Jiang Feiyan.
Upon receiving the news, Jiang Feiyan remained calm and composed. She left the courtyard early the next morning to seek an audience with the Prince of Zhenbei.
The steward was required to announce Jiang Feiyan's arrival. The Prince of Zhenbei, who had just drunk his medicine that morning, saw the simply dressed Jiang Feiyan.
After the steward and the doctor closed the door for the two, only the Prince of Zhenbei and Jiang Feiyan remained in the room.
Apart from the two of them, no one knew how Jiang Feiyan had managed to persuade the Prince of Zhenbei to agree to take the Yan family out of the dungeon and put them under guard in the empty courtyard of the Prince's mansion in the short span of a quarter of an hour.
Later that night, Li Qingyun and Ma San met. They used Li Qingyun's medicine powder to clear the way, with Ma San as their helper and information from the servants in the Prince's mansion as their aid. They arrived at the North Courtyard without any trouble.
With virtually no effort, in less than a quarter of an hour, all nine members of the Yan family were brought out of the Prince's mansion.
The guards of the Prince's Mansion only discovered that the gate to the North Courtyard was unguarded when they changed shifts at dawn.
Li Qingyun explained briefly in the thatched hut, and Uncle Yan and Aunt Yan were naturally very grateful when they learned that it was Jiang Feiyan and Liu Tan who had helped them.
When Yan Xiaomei woke up, a carriage was parked outside the thatched house, and Manager Jin personally drove the carriage to pick up the Yan family.
"...That's how it is, Madam Yan and the master have already boarded the ship; "
Master Li and Madam Li disappeared after jumping off the cliff, and there has been no news of them from the army.
Upon hearing that his disciple had gone missing, Li Qingyun frowned, but remained silent for only a moment before saying to Manager Jin, "It's alright, no news is good news."
"The shopkeeper must be tired. Let's see them off," Li Qingyun glanced at Yan Xiaomei, who had already been carried onto the carriage by her aunt, and Yan's uncle, who was standing beside the carriage. "Let's leave this place of trouble. I'm sure Jiu Niang has already made arrangements in Jiangnan."
"After things are settled here, if they still want to come back, they can do so then."
Manager Jin cupped his hands in greeting to Li Qingyun, and Li Qingyun returned the greeting.
The clatter of hooves gradually moved away from the thatched hut. Once the carriage was out of sight, Li Qingyun returned to the hut and tidied it up, putting things back in their proper places, burning things that needed to be burned, and finally leaving a silver ingot on the table.
He closed the door and left the thatched hut. He drove the cart loaded with wooden crates back onto the side road and ended up on the main road, heading towards Sanshan County.
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