Chapter 171: Previous Life (Part 3)
For a month after Pei Yi was born, Pei Yan didn't care about Jiang Shuyi.
The fact that the Eastern Palace had an heir was undoubtedly an encouragement to the prince's party. Pei Yan wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to do many great things.
The emperor was very happy, and Pei Yi's full moon banquet was held with great fanfare in the palace. Pei Yan was forced to drink a lot of wine due to his gentle nature under the instigation of his relatives. Even though he induced vomiting immediately after returning to the East Palace and took sobering soup, he still felt very uncomfortable.
Jiang Shuyi was tactless enough to ask for a meeting at this time.
Pei Yan asked Cheng Shouzhong to chase the man away without thinking. Then he could not bear the fatigue and fell asleep with a headache.
No matter how uncomfortable the day before was, as the crown prince, he still had to get up early the next day to attend court in the palace.
After Pei Yan changed into the crown of the crown prince and walked out of the palace, he glanced inadvertently and saw a person in the corner.
Jiang Shuyi hugged her knees, curled up into a ball, buried her chin between her knees, and closed her eyes, as if she had slept like this all night.
Seeing this, Cheng Shouzhong reported in a low voice: "Jiang Zhaoxun refused to leave last night no matter what. I couldn't persuade him. His Highness was already asleep, so I could only let Zhaoxun sit here..."
Pei Yan looked at Jiang Shuyi for a long time without any feeling. He just felt that the palace servants around Jiang Shuyi should be replaced. If they dared to abandon their master, they were no different from dead people.
There was still some time before the court session, so he walked up to Jiang Shuyi and kicked her lightly.
Jiang Shuyi woke up immediately and looked over with sleepy eyes. Pei Yan put on a gentle expression and asked her caringly, "Why are you sleeping here?"
Jiang Shuyi seemed to have suffered a great injustice. Her eyes suddenly turned red and she began to cry.
Pei Yan began to regret whether he should have cared about her at this time. It seemed that this would delay his morning court session.
"Now that Your Highness has a child, will you not teach me to read in the future?"
Jiang Shuyi cried for a while, grabbed his legs with tears in her eyes, looked up and asked with a wronged look on her face.
Pei Yan didn't remember when he had said such words.
He squatted down, touched Jiang Shuyi's cheek, and coaxed her gently: "I've been busy recently, I'll teach you later, okay?"
Jiang Shuyi shook her head and continued to cry: "Oh no! Your Highness has time to take care of the little grandson, why don't you have time to take care of me?"
Pei Yan had never seen her compete for favor with other women in the Eastern Palace. At most, they would quarrel and cry to him, asking him to do justice. Pei Yan only needed to make the other party apologize to Jiang Shuyi regardless of right or wrong, and the matter would be settled.
Who would have thought that the first time she was jealous would be towards a baby in swaddling clothes.
He felt that Jiang Shuyi might not recognize her own identity.
Cheng Shouzhong urged and reminded that it was time to go to the morning court.
Pei Yan thought that given Jiang Shuyi's personality of not being able to distinguish between the important and the urgency and just crying, she would definitely continue to hold on to him and not let go.
However, this time, Jiang Shuyi did not.
She let go of his legs and just looked at him, choking with sobs as she spoke word by word: "I will wait for Your Highness to come back and accompany me."
It seemed as if he would be unfaithful if he didn't come back to be with her.
Pei Yan ordered the palace servants to take Jiang Shuyi inside and prepare her favorite milk cake. He then asked the small storehouse to take out the hairpins that were awarded by the palace last time, and let Jiang Shuyi choose three of them. Those were originally supposed to be given to the Crown Princess and the concubine.
Only after making sure that he had calmed people down for the time being did Pei Yan go to court.
Today's affairs happened to be quite busy, and after the court session, I had to go to the minister's house to discuss matters and entertain people, and I was not able to return to the East Palace until the evening.
When he came back, he saw Jiang Shuyi trying to commit suicide in his bedroom.
Although Fang Chu and other palace maids tried to stop her, she continued to cry and yell that she would not live any longer, and wanted to hang herself with a narrow strip of cloth that she had found from somewhere.
Pei Yan looked carefully and found that the strip of cloth seemed to be his belt.
Jiang Shuyi was making a fuss when she heard the palace servants greeting her. She turned around and saw him coming back, and she suddenly fell silent.
Pei Yan had already thought of some words to scold him. Just as he was about to frown, Jiang Shuyi knelt down softly, as if nothing had happened, and said timidly, "I pay my respects to His Highness."
Pei Yan:......
He looked at the belt that fell on the ground, and Jiang Shuyi quickly grabbed it, biting her lip with a red face.
Pei Yan understood that she was so happy just now because he was not there, but now she became scared when she saw him.
He just pretended not to see her fuss and said calmly, "Come here and help me change my clothes."
Jiang Shuyi immediately felt relieved, stuffed the belt into Fang Chu's hand, and winked at them, forbidding them to mention her recent attempt to commit suicide.
When Pei Yan saw her obedient appearance, his anger subsided by about 80%.
He patiently explained: "I have been very busy these days. I have taught you so much before. You can review it yourself when you have nothing to do. After reviewing it, you can continue reading. There are annotations in the book. If you really don't understand, come back to me."
Jiang Shuyi nodded repeatedly.
Pei Yan thought she really listened to him, but from that day on, Jiang Shuyi started to come to him once a day with books in her arms.
“I don’t understand this sentence.”
"Your Highness, I don't understand this either."
"There are annotations... But, but I can't even understand the annotations..."
Pei Yan often regretted why he taught her in the first place, but since that was the case, he could only finish it well.
In the second year after Jiang Shuyi entered the Eastern Palace, the emperor became "seriously ill".
Pei Yan was ordered to supervise the country and act as regent. As important matters were about to be settled, he had time to indulge Jiang Shuyi's mischief.
In his spare time, he took Jiang Shuyi to fly kites in the imperial garden and cool off in the royal garden. Seeing her excited and happy face, he felt very happy.
Jiang Shuyi seemed to have forgotten her identity and just indulged in eating, drinking and having fun, without even remembering to fight for favors.
But it doesn't matter. After all, even if she is pregnant now, Pei Yan may not be able to take care of her because he has important things to do.
In September of that year, the emperor passed away, and Pei Yan succeeded to the throne smoothly. The harem had not yet been canonized. He planned to canonize the Crown Princess as the Queen, the Crown Prince's concubines as the Virtuous Consort and the Shu Consort. As for Jiang Shuyi——
Pei Yan did not consider Concubine De or Concubine Liang, and he was hesitating between the position of Concubine and Imperial Concubine.
The Imperial Concubine would have some troubles, as she had no children and her family background was not prominent. She ranked above the Concubine Shu who had a child and the Concubine Wu who had a prominent family background, so she would inevitably attract discussion among the ministers.
But if she were to become a concubine, would she feel wronged if she were to be ranked below two concubines?
Before he could come up with a conclusion, when he went to Zhaoyang Palace, he overheard the conversation between Jiang Shuyi and her sister who came to the palace to visit her.
"Now that my sister has a brother-in-law, she doesn't love me anymore."
It was the coquettish voice of Jiang Shuyi's younger sister.
"Of course I love you. I've given you so many things. Every time Your Highness gives me a reward, as long as it's within the rules, I'll give you a share."
"Who is more important to my sister, me or my brother-in-law?"
"They are both important. You are my biological sister, and Your Highness is my husband. You are my support for the rest of my life. You are both equally important."
"No, no! Sister, you have to choose one. Sister, you have to choose one. If only one of me and my brother-in-law can survive, who will you choose?"
"Don't talk nonsense like that!"
"elder sister......"
Jiang Shuyi's sister sounded like she was about to cry, and her affected voice was annoying.
"I'll choose you, okay?"
Pei Yan raised his eyes and looked at the backs of the two women behind the bead curtain, and looked at the back of Jiang Shuyi's sister smiling and falling into her arms. After a long time, he turned and left.
He finally finalized the undetermined position and gave Jiang Shuyi the title of noble concubine.
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