Even the least favored princess is still a ruler, while Jin Chang'an is a subject. For a master to be starved to death by his servant—what else could this be but humiliation?
Bai Yan sat on the wedding bed with a cold expression.
Meanwhile, Jin Chang'an, that fellow, was holding the shoes embroidered with cloud patterns at the table, already completely drunk.
That face, which countless women in the capital considered the man of their dreams, was nothing but disgust to Bai Yan.
"Throw him out," Bai Yan ordered.
"Princess... Princess!"
The maid Cuiming's eyes widened. "It's so cold, and the prince consort is drunk. If we leave him outside his bedroom, he'll freeze to death!"
Bai Yan looked at her coldly: "I order you to throw him out."
Looking into her cold eyes, Cui Ming dared not disobey any longer. She found another younger maid, Hong Ping, who was serving in the room, and helped Jin Chang'an up, leaving him in the courtyard outside the bedroom.
Jin Chang'an was already completely drunk from drinking too much. At this moment, he was just hugging a pair of boots with a sweet smile on his face, probably having some sweet dream.
"It's freezing cold in the dead of winter." Hongping rubbed her hands together and was about to go back to the dormitory to take care of him.
"Hey, Cuiming, why aren't you going back?" She turned around and saw that Cuiming wasn't walking back.
Cui Ming lowered her eyes and clutched her stomach again: "My stomach suddenly hurts a little. You go back to your room to serve the princess. I'll be there in a bit."
Hongping felt terribly cold and didn't want to wait for her, so she went back to her room first upon hearing this.
Bai Yan was already sitting in front of the dressing mirror, removing the heavy items from her head one by one. Upon seeing this, Hong Ping immediately stepped forward to serve her: "Princess, let me help you."
Bai Yan nodded, and finally breathed a sigh of relief after the maid removed the new wedding crown from her head.
"Where is Cuiming?" she asked.
"Sister Cuiming said her stomach hurts and she'll be back soon," Hongping whispered.
Bai Yan scoffed lightly but didn't say anything. After Hong Ping made the bed, she went to sleep.
Meanwhile, Cuiming secretly ran to Madam Jin's courtyard and found the old nanny who served Madam Jin. She told the old woman what had happened in the bridal chamber. The old woman's face immediately changed. She gave Cuiming a silver ingot and praised her for doing a good job.
Then he quickly led his servants to bring Jin Changye, who was still lying on the snow, back to the city.
"This is outrageous!" Madam Jin was furious when she saw her son lying drunk on the bed.
"Who does she think she is, daring to treat my son like this!" Madam Jin slammed her hand on the table in anger. "If it weren't for Consort Li's good fortune in catching His Majesty's eye, she would have been nothing more than a slave girl from a fallen kingdom!"
"She's already incredibly lucky to have married into the Jin family, and she still dares to act like a princess?"
Madam Jin was furious and glared at her son with a mixture of anger and heartache: "If he hadn't been blinded by greed, I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to get him married. Why did he have to marry a princess of barbarian blood?"
"Enough, enough!" said Madam Jin. "It's all debt."
She closed her eyes and said to her trusted nanny, "I suppose she didn't learn any manners in the palace. Tomorrow, I'll tell her I have a headache and have her come over. I also need to teach my daughter-in-law the rules of our Jin family."
So what if she's a princess?
Before the founding of the Southern Dynasty, in the families of the princesses, the order of seniority was strictly observed. Even she, as the mother-in-law, had to lower her rank by one generation to show respect to the princess.
But these rules have long been abolished, and with the constraints of religious etiquette, women in the Southern Dynasties have always considered humility and virtue as beauty.
Most importantly, the Jin family's aunt is a legitimate empress. To Madam Jin, this sixteenth princess is no different from the daughter of a concubine in the mansion, and she looks down on her just the same.
...
The next morning, before Bai Yan even got up, the old woman from the Jin family was already calling from outside the window.
It is said that Madam Jin felt unwell as soon as she woke up this morning, and asked Bai Yan, as her daughter-in-law, to go to her mother-in-law's courtyard to take care of her.
Bai Yan opened the door and looked at the old woman standing by the door. "I just entered yesterday, and she's already sick today?"
The old woman's face darkened upon hearing this: "It is a wife's duty to be filial to her mother-in-law. Since the lady has suddenly fallen ill, the princess should go and serve her medicine. Even ordinary wives get up early and go to bed late, but the princess, as a role model for women all over the world, should set an example for others."
Bai Yan looked at the old woman and suddenly laughed: "Madam Jin should know that I am a princess who is not very favored, right?"
"What does the princess mean by this?" the old woman asked, frowning.
“My birth mother, Consort Li, has no family members left. My mother is out of favor, and I have blood from the Southern Yue. It's a good thing that I was able to marry into the Jin family.”
"Since the princess knows..."
Before the old woman could speak, Bai Yan said, "It's good that the Jin family and Madam Jin know that I have nothing to lose and nothing to fear."
Her gaze swept towards the front yard, a cold smile playing on her lips. "If things get out of hand, I'll follow the example of the late emperor's princess and knock on the palace gates at night. Then we'll see who loses face, me or the noble Jin family?"
Before the Southern Dynasties, there was a princess who had a falling out with her husband's family. She returned to the palace in the middle of the night, banging on the door and crying, causing quite a stir at the time.
"You..." The old woman choked on her words.
"Do I still need to attend to my mother-in-law?" Bai Yan asked, then smiled and said, "If Madam Jin insists, I will send someone to the palace to invite the imperial physician to see what kind of illness my newly appointed mother-in-law has. Hmm?"
No matter how lowly a princess's status may be, she is still a princess of the imperial family. If she really makes such a big fuss, even if she is unfilial in the end, Madam Jin will be even more disgraced.
"That shouldn't be necessary," the old woman said with a forced smile.
Bai Yan adjusted her hairpins and said, "Have someone prepare a horse; I'm going to the palace."
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