Chapter 43
◎Two chapters in one◎
The lawsuit between Madam Xu and Ji did not affect the mood of Ji and the Zheng family to welcome the Prince of Huaiyin and Huiyin. Even though the Prince of Wei had previously defeated the imperial army and Qingzhou was occupied by Lu Wei and He Guojiu, it still did not affect Li Cheng's image in Zheng Fang's heart.
In his opinion, when Li Cheng led his troops to seize Xuzhou, he was able to hold it firmly and the people of Xuzhou admired him very much, while Xie Jiuyi was driven away when he occupied Qingzhou. It can be seen that if the person who seized Qingzhou this time was Li Cheng, he would definitely not let the prince seize it again.
Zheng Fang is now relieved that he has not been involved in Li Heng's affairs. Li Heng is still controlled by Lu Wei, and even his concubine was executed. He is just a puppet. He always wants to fight hard, but his daughter is not ambitious. She is pregnant. What's the use of supporting Li Heng?
It is better to remain still now. It will not cause any loss to yourself, and you can accumulate strength to strike back at the enemy head-on.
As he thought about this, he saw Ji's eyes were red. He knew her mood and left her concubine behind to comfort her: "You will be able to see your daughter soon. The spies just reported that they have all arrived at Bali Slope."
"My Lord, I know." Ji actually felt more gratitude than love for Zheng Fang. After all, he had protected them, an orphan and a widow, and their current status was all achieved by this man. This was also the reason why Ji tolerated Madam Xu.
Zheng Fang was relieved to see Ji recover as before, "Don't be too sad, it would be bad if the Prince of Huaiyin saw you."
"Well, mother said she is not feeling well today and will not come over. I will ask someone to send a table of wine and food to mother later." Ji said.
Zheng Fang may not know why his mother was angry, but it was a bad move to bring his daughter back from the palace. If the prince really succeeded in the future, his daughter could at least get a concubine position. If the prince really failed, he could make plans in the future. The prince had not treated Deyin badly, so there was no reason for him to bring her back.
But he didn't dare to confront her directly. After all, she was his own mother, so he had to pretend that he didn't know.
The couple had their own plans in mind. The only one who was really happy was Zheng Wuheng. He even insisted on riding a horse to pick her up. But Ji said, "You are getting married, and you are still so rash. Your brother has already gone to pick her up. Don't mess up your hair."
Xin also said, "Yes, uncle, let's wait here. Look how strong the wind is outside."
Zheng Wuheng was not at all content when he was with Ji. Zheng Fang was happy to see his son. Zheng Wuheng was the only son in his life, so he was not strict like a father. Instead, he doted on his little son.
Compared to a kind father, Ji was extremely strict with his son, and Zheng Wuheng was obedient. Although he would sometimes be lazy, he would also practice diligently and was not bad in terms of kung fu or military deployment.
A moment later, the spy reported back: "My Lord, Madam, our young lady and aunt have arrived at the gate."
Only then did Ji go out with Zheng Fang to greet them.
Huiyin had not expected that her parents would come out. This was the first time that Li Cheng came to visit his parents-in-law in Jizhou. Even though he was a prince, he still felt like a prospective son-in-law, but he still had to appear calm and composed.
Huiyin was not so restrained. When she saw Zheng Fang and Ji, she quickly stepped forward and said, "Dad and Mom." She also called Xin next to her "sister-in-law."
After she finished speaking, she was about to introduce them again, but she saw Zheng Fang and his wife bowing to Li Cheng. In terms of status, Li Cheng was a prince and Zheng Fang was a marquis, and their status and position seemed to stand out immediately.
After they finished the ceremony, Li Cheng smiled and said to Huiyin, "Just now we performed the state ceremony, now we will perform the family ceremony. The son-in-law pays his respects to his father-in-law and mother-in-law."
In fact, Li Cheng was also looking at the Zheng family. Zheng Fang was seven feet tall, as tall as himself. Although he was not young, he still had a nose like a jade pillar and a mouth like red cinnabar, and was very handsome. Not to mention the brocade sleeves, he looked majestic and elegant, which was completely different from the Zheng Fang he had imagined. Looking at his mother-in-law Ji, like Huiyin, they were both tall and fit, but she seemed to be thinner, and looked smart and strong.
He also found that Zheng Fang and his wife were looking at him. Ji was particularly excited to see him. In Ji's mind, her daughter was the best in the world, and there were not many people who could match her. In this chaotic world, whether a man was handsome or not was not important. The most important thing was to be able to protect his daughter.
The son-in-law, Li Cheng, was wearing a black dragon robe with auspicious clouds embroidered with gold thread on the cuffs, a red jade-studded belt around his waist, and his black hair tied up with a hollow carved gold crown. He looked handsome and unattainable. The more Ji looked at him, the happier she was. show-off. The smile on her face deepened.
Looking at her daughter again, she was still a young girl when she got married, but in the blink of an eye, she had become a woman. She showed a smooth forehead and had a lily bun, which made her face look more rosy and her eyes more like autumn water. Even though she had been through so much, she didn't look haggard at all, but rather full of youth. Ji knew what was going on.
"Your Highness, we have prepared good wine and delicious food at home. You and the princess can sit down together and we will have a family reunion dinner." Ji said with a smile.
Li Cheng was of course humble: "Everything is up to my parents-in-law to arrange."
Zheng Wuheng frowned and was anxious. At one moment he wanted to talk to his sister and brother-in-law, and at another moment he looked at his little nephew in his brother's arms. He felt overwhelmed and wished he had eight eyes.
Pei Shuo was holding his nephew in his arms, and Zheng Fang took him over. He weighed him in his hands and said, "How good is this child? Is he over a year old?"
Huiyin, who was walking in front, turned around and said with a smile, "Dad, what are you talking about? Our Jing'er is not even one year old yet, but he is in really good health. He weighs 20 kilograms in just four months."
When Ji saw that it was Zheng Fang holding the baby, she squeezed over quickly and said worriedly, "My Lord, you should give the child to the wet nurse." Men's hands are very rough, and it would be bad if they hurt the baby's skin.
Before Huiyin came back and spoke to Ji, she noticed that Ji's eyes were always on Jing'er and she seemed a little jealous.
The group chatted and laughed as they entered the house. Ji asked Li Cheng and Huiyin to sit at the top, while she and her husband sat at the bottom. Opposite them sat Pei Shuo and his wife and Zheng Wuheng.
After everyone sat down, Li Cheng talked about the journey: "We disguised ourselves when we were in Qingzhou to avoid unnecessary trouble. Our adults were able to hold on, but Jing'er had diarrhea for a few days before he recovered."
Huiyin felt that Li Cheng was too good at exaggerating himself, so she said, "Actually, this was all thanks to the arrangements made by the prince. When Jing'er was not feeling well, he immediately arranged a house for Jing'er to recuperate. On the way, we also encountered a bandit attack, but the whole army was unscathed. If it weren't for me, he and the child wouldn't have suffered."
"Stop saying that. I should have come here earlier to meet my parents-in-law." Li Cheng felt a little ashamed when he saw Huiyin treating him as a mere daughter at the Zheng family. Although he did come back to satisfy his wife's homesickness, he was unwilling to say this in public.
Zheng Fang and Ji Shi could see Li Cheng's shyness, but they were very happy. Zheng Fang said, "It is the happiest thing for the Zheng family that the prince can accompany the princess to her grave. When I went to Xuzhou before, I was very grateful to the prince for his hospitality."
"Don't say that, father-in-law. This is what I should do as a son-in-law." Li Cheng said with a smile.
The servants told her that the banquet was ready. Huiyin and Li Cheng followed the others to the flower hall for dinner. It had been a long time since she had eaten at home. She really felt like a fish in water. Ji even helped her daughter pick up some dishes: "This is your favorite fried shrimp. Eat more."
"Mom, I will." When Huiyin was in Jizhou, she seldom ate fried food. It's not that she didn't like it, but it would easily make her get a sore throat. A girl always has to pay attention to her appearance.
Ji loved watching her daughter eat. When she finished, she served another bowl of noodle soup. Zheng Fang also said, "Why did you serve this noodle soup? How can you let the princess eat this?"
"Dad, I love to eat these. Do you have steamed cabbage rolls? My daughter always wants this dish." Huiyin said angrily.
Zheng Fang hurriedly urged the servants: "Hurry up and serve that dish."
The way your parents treat you well is to feed you all the time, especially Zheng Fang and Ji Shi. When Huiyin is not at home, they feel like they are missing a backbone.
Normally, at such a feast, one should not talk while eating, which was very proper. The Zheng family had always been like this. But seeing Huiyin like this, Zheng Fang, who was not from a noble family to begin with, relaxed immediately and even used a knife to cut roasted lamb and beef for Li Cheng and Huiyin.
Huiyin was afraid that Li Cheng would think that their family had no rules, so she whispered, "My parents haven't seen me for a long time, so they are doing this to avoid being polite to you."
"I know, you don't have to explain." Li Cheng didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Instead, he could see that his wife was quite favored at home.
"Are these dishes not to your taste? I'll tell my mother that we have a chef who can cook southern dishes, and we can eat together then." Huiyin said with a smile.
Li Cheng nodded secretly.
Pei Shuo was actually observing his sister and brother-in-law, and seeing them whispering to each other, it was obvious that they were very close in private. He nodded secretly, thinking that this young prince was much more sincere than the crown prince, and he was really good to his sister. He accompanied her back from such a long distance and took care of her all the way. Apart from his sister, he had no concubines or maids, which was something even he found difficult to do.
"Your Majesty, let me offer you a toast. Our northern wine is stronger. If you are not used to it, you can try Yu Lu wine instead." Pei Shuo raised his glass.
Li Cheng laughed: "Why not? I've always wanted to see what burning a knife is."
The two men were of similar age, and after drinking together, they became as close as brothers in a short while. There was also Zheng Wuheng who liked to be with them, but it was a pity that Ji Shi didn't let her drink too much.
After the banquet, Li Cheng and Huiyin went back to wash up, and then went to see the courtyard where they lived now. It was a small courtyard carefully prepared by their family. It was very spacious. There were all kinds of flowers in front of the courtyard, and two cranes were drinking water with their heads down, and a peacock was spreading its tail beside them. Not to mention the furnishings and furniture inside, all of which were of top quality.
Huiyin held Li Cheng's arm and sat down: "You, you drank so much wine, aren't you afraid of heartburn? Now take a shower and have a good sleep. You've been exhausted all the way, you should rest for a while."
She planned to go over and have a private talk with her mother. When she was at her mother's house, the mother and daughter had endless things to talk about. Now they were far apart and it was inconvenient to send letters, so she had to go over.
But Li Cheng took her hand and said, "You sleep with me too."
"I'll be back soon. I haven't talked to my mother in private since I came back today. I have to go and tell her." Huiyin said with a smile.
Li Cheng seemed a little reluctant to leave, but Huiyin understood very well. She and her husband had come from Jiangnan to Jizhou, and they had been together day and night, never separated. They felt a little uncomfortable when they were separated for a moment.
But at home, Huiyin also wanted to reunite with her family. She said, "Tomorrow we will go to my brother's house for dinner, and daddy will take you to patrol the border. There is still a lot to do, go to sleep."
She covered his eyes with her hands. Li Cheng felt warm and fell asleep immediately.
In fact, Ji was not asleep either. Seeing her daughter coming over, she patted the empty space beside the bed. Huiyin quickly took off her shoes and got on the bed. As before, the mother and daughter slept together.
"Is the aunt asleep?" Ji asked. Being someone's wife is different from being a daughter. As a daughter, you can do whatever you want at home, but as a wife, you have to take care of your husband first.
Huiyin nodded: "They are all asleep, they don't want me to come over. Originally, my husband and I were often separated, but these days we are often together, so I feel a little reluctant to leave."
When her daughter said this, Ji remembered that it was the same when she married Pei Ye. He knew that she loved to eat beef buns on the street corner, so he specially lined up with a young man from a wealthy family to buy them for her. He was even very anxious when she gave birth to Shuoer. But so what? It didn't prevent him from doing the same to other women later.
But she didn't want to say this in front of her daughter. The first few years of a woman's marriage are the happiest time in her life. If she said this, what good would it do to cause a rift between her daughter and her son-in-law? Besides, even if Pei Ye was such a person, there were other good men in the world.
Therefore, Ji joked: "He can't bear to leave you, which shows that you two have a good relationship."
"Let's not talk about us. How is mom? I heard that my younger brother is getting married?" Huiyin asked in rapid succession.
Ji smiled and said, "Stop, I have to answer them one by one. I am fine, the only thing that bothers me is that your sister is clamoring to go home, and your grandmother wants your father to take her, but your father and I are unwilling. Even the Crown Princess can't go home easily, let alone the Consort Liang."
Huiyin agreed when she heard this. In her previous life, after she became a concubine, she almost always summoned her family members. Even after she became the empress dowager, she could not return to her parents' home at will.
So, she was a little speechless: "How can grandma make such an unreasonable request? But why is my sister making a fuss about going home?" When Li Cheng died in the previous life, her sister did not make a fuss about going home, but now she is making a fuss about going home.
Ji sighed after hearing this: "It was because a concubine in the Eastern Palace was killed by Lu Wei because she was pregnant, and even her brother was implicated. Her death happened to be seen by your sister, and she was frightened and felt that the Eastern Palace was a place of trouble. She wanted to get married in the first place, and it's not like an ordinary family can just come back casually."
But Ji thought that if it was her own daughter, she would definitely keep her daughter safe. However, Deyin was not her daughter, and Zheng Fang himself pretended to be deaf and dumb, so how could she do such a complicated thing.
"The concubine was killed by Lu Wei? Was his surname Dong? I seemed to have heard Madam Tong talk about it last time." Huiyin was very surprised that such a thing actually happened. It never happened in her previous life.
Ji nodded, "She was a concubine named Dong, born as a palace maid, and was the wife of Empress He. Although the Crown Prince did not favor her much, she was lucky enough to get pregnant with the child of the Eastern Palace. I didn't expect that result. In fact, what does this have to do with your sister? Your father is the Grand Commander of Jizhou and a Marquis. How could Lu Wei quarrel with your father at this time?"
Huiyin thought that in her previous life, Lu Wei was eliminated by her father, but after Lu Wei, her father's situation was not very good and he could only follow the prince. She never expected that the prince would want to get rid of him.
But Deyin tried every possible means to change the marriage, but she was so timid that she still hasn't discovered that the prince gave them contraceptive drugs.
If it was her, to persuade Zheng Fang, she must at least have a baby in her belly, then the father will fight you to the death. Otherwise, she is nothing. How could anyone do that?
"Mother, the prince and I came back this time mainly to visit relatives, but we also have to go to the palace to celebrate His Majesty's birthday. Otherwise, the prince is in charge of the navy and cannot leave easily." Huiyin explained her purpose.
Ji asked Huiyin in a low voice: "Your father already knows all this. We will enter the palace together when the time comes. But there is one thing. I heard that you and your aunt got married more than ten days later. Did he have someone in the room? Your brother is careless and only looks at the surface."
Huiyin shook her head: "I don't know what he was like before, he told me he didn't have that." But Li Chengtou was very skilled and didn't look like a novice.
"So after you entered the room, he treated you..."
"As long as he comes back, even if he is injured, we will sleep together. Do you know? His grandmother was not kind to me. She wanted to punish me and didn't let me manage the household. After he came back, he sold all his grandmother's people and gave all the money to me." Huiyin showed a bit of sweetness when she mentioned this.
Ji was about to say something, but Huiyin continued, "When my daughter gave birth, he also came into the delivery room to accompany me, holding me from behind and comforting me. At that time, I was very touched. No matter what happens in the future, at least he really treats me well. He has no parents, and his grandmother is also confused, but he treats me very well."
"Look at you, I haven't even said anything yet and you've already said so many good things about him. I know he treats you well, don't worry, mother thinks he's a good-looking man. He's also a descendant of a noble family, which is really rare, but as a woman, you must not completely entrust your life to him." Ji warned.
Huiyin smiled and said, "Don't worry, my daughter knows her limits."
Ji touched her daughter's hair and couldn't help but say, "I almost didn't recognize you when you came back today. You looked very healthy and rosy-cheeked. I knew you must be living a good life. The most important thing is that having Jing'er is better than anything else."
Back then, Ji could still get married with Pei Shuo. Even if she couldn't, when her son grew up, she would have someone to rely on. In troubled times, no matter how strong a woman is, without the protection of her family and her son, she would have been like a grass.
"How are you and your father?" Huiyin was very concerned about Ji.
Ji smiled and said, "Your father comes to my place several times a month. He always consults with me on important matters. Those concubines who are troublemakers dare not say anything in front of me. I am not afraid of them."
Ji was ambitious, and she was more grateful to Zheng Fang than she loved him, so she didn't have such a strong possessiveness, so as long as it wasn't too excessive, she didn't care at all. Besides, some of those concubines were singers or dancers, who were born in poor families and were like duckweed in the chaotic world. They knew very well who was the boss in the family.
"That's good. You'll have a daughter to support you in the future." Huiyin said with a smile.
Ji lowered her eyes and said, "As for your grandmother, I know her very well. I'm afraid she won't be happy for your sister after seeing your aunt. Let's not talk about this anymore. It's a good opportunity for you to come back. Let's choose an auspicious day for your brother to get married. Then you can also see your future siblings."
Huiyin naturally agreed, but she frowned and said, "Mother, why are you so anxious? My brother is only eighteen years old."
"It's already very late. A family like ours has been fighting back and forth. Only when your brother gets married will others treat him as an adult. And if anything unexpected happens, it's always good to leave a descendant." Ji was born in the army and was more open-minded about life and death than ordinary people.
Huiyin naturally asked about her brother's marriage: "I only heard from Madam Tong that Miss Cui is very virtuous and dignified, but I don't know the details yet."
When Ji mentioned her daughter-in-law, she couldn't help but say, "She is pretty, but not charming. She doesn't look like you and your brother, but she has a good temperament and is naturally gentle. Although she is the youngest daughter in the family, she is not coquettish or foolish, and she is open-minded. Your brother, who is so rebellious and reckless, fell in love with the girl at first sight."
"So it was my brother who chose her. I feel relieved then. By the way, Princess Wu's family is from the Cui family. Then I can go to his uncle's house with the prince." Huiyin also breathed a sigh of relief.
The mother and daughter talked about some family matters. Huiyin yawned and prepared to go back. Anyway, she was back home now and there was always plenty of time to talk to her mother.
Ji asked someone to bring her a lantern and said, "It's too dark outside, be careful."
"Mom, please don't send me off. I will be careful. Besides, the weather is not cold now, and it's not snowing yet, so you don't have to worry." Huiyin was about to go out and tried her best to stop Ji from sending her off.
When she came out of her mother's main room, she only felt that the moon was dim and the stars were sparse. She felt a little sad for a moment. Her sister was so timid in this life. She wondered what Li Heng would do?
Just as she was thinking, she walked out of the yard, and saw a man standing there holding a lantern. The light reflected on his royal blue cuffs. She looked up at his handsome face. He seemed to be absent-minded just now, but his eyes were suddenly filled with joy. In the dim light, Huiyin could see that his eyes seemed to be shining with gold.
"Husband, why are you here?" Huiyin thought he was asleep.
She wondered if he came over to confess his love for her, or if he came over for her safety or out of reluctance to leave.
Unexpectedly, Li Cheng himself was also at a loss: "I don't know either. I just walked here."
Huiyin laughed when she heard it, "You really have a smart face but a stupid mind. Can't you just say you miss me?"
【Author's words】
I wish you all a happy National Day. Double happiness to you.
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