Chapter 5: Competition
There were eight gauze screens in the front hall. Qiandeng and her mother sat behind the screens, and everyone waited quietly for Cui Fufeng to check the warrants and volumes of the ten candidates one by one.
The prince casually asked Cui Fufeng, "How is the dispute over rewarding the troops going?"
Cui Fufeng held down the scroll and lowered his voice, a hint of worry etched in his voice, "According to the Secretary's instructions, the Jingzhao Yin has ordered his men to prepare some small items and go."
Even his subordinate Cui Fufeng felt that he was not treated well enough, and the prince felt vaguely uneasy.
After all, this was a meeting to choose a son-in-law, so the two did not discuss much about court affairs. After the scrolls were counted, Cui Fufeng bowed to Qiandeng behind the gauze screen and asked, "It's getting late. May I ask the Princess of Lingling for instructions?"
Seeing Qiandeng nod behind the screen, Cui Fufeng checked the Phoenix Sticks held by the young men one by one, then raised his hand and unfolded the scroll in his hand, and began to arrange the order of entry for the candidates, allowing them to meet the county lady across the screen.
The mother's eyes were fixed on Cui Fufeng. She lowered her voice and asked Qiandeng, "This Mr. Cui is so handsome and elegant. Why haven't we heard about his marriage yet?"
Qiandeng's mother, Lady Qi, was originally a girl from an ordinary family on the outskirts of Guozhou. When the Crown Prince of Changhua was ambushed nearby and severely injured, she rescued him and cared for him meticulously, and the two gradually fell in love.
Prince Changhua was of a foreign race and did not care about family background. When he learned that his son had fallen in love with a commoner girl, he took him to propose marriage without hesitation. After the marriage, the prince and his wife were very loving, but the general was busy with the war, so they were rarely together and they had only one daughter, Qiandeng.
Therefore, after arriving at the royal palace in the capital, Lady Qi only learned calligraphy and grew flowers, and did not have much interaction with the circle of noble ladies in the capital. Later, she became a vegetarian and observed mourning, closed the door to visitors, and almost ignored worldly affairs.
Aunt Xuanji, a former palace lady-in-waiting, was familiar with the affairs of the capital. She explained in a low voice, "Lord Cui had a fiancée before, but her family was involved in a palace coup three years ago. Afterwards, Lord Cui provided all the clues and evidence, and his fiancée's family was executed and their entire clan was exiled."
The mother gasped, looking in shock at the handsome figure on the other side of the screen, muttering, "Anyone who can marry into the Cui family must be a top noble lady..."
"Even the most powerful families were eliminated without a second thought. And this wasn't the only case..." Aunt Xuanji glanced at Cui Fufeng in the outer hall, her voice lowered. "Later, the youngest daughter of the Minister of Revenue was out for a ride when her horse got spooked, and Mr. Cui happened to save her. She felt that since they had had physical contact, she should be responsible for the marriage and offered a generous dowry. But when Mr. Cui looked at the dowry list, he thought that given the family's ancestral property and salaries, such a large dowry might be due to corruption. An investigation revealed that almost half of the officials in the Ministry of Revenue, from the Minister to the Doctor and the Director, had been dismissed."
Not only the lady, but even the maids beside her gasped.
"Another time, at a flower-viewing banquet, Cui Fufeng, among all the officials' wives, only glanced twice at a certain girl. The girl's family was ecstatic and even asked their superiors to test the Cui family's attitude. Unexpectedly, a few days later, the authorities came to search the house. It turned out that Master Cui had not been interested in the girl, but the gold hairpin on her temple. He had counted the old items in the palace at the Ministry of Rites, and the hairpin the girl was wearing was something lost by a concubine. This led to the discovery of a major case of harboring and selling stolen goods..."
Qiandeng couldn't help but laugh.
Who would dare to marry this Mr. Cui? He would confiscate all his property and exterminate his clan.
"So, now everyone in the capital is avoiding him as much as possible. If a girl looks at Mr. Cui for even a second, she'll be grounded and forced to kneel. How could anyone dare to marry her?"
"What a pity! How could such a talented person be so cruel and cold-hearted..." The mother looked at Cui Fufeng with regret in her eyes.
Qian Deng felt a certain gloating pleasure. She was flawed in her appearance, while he was flawed in his character. This man might have a harder time getting married than she did.
marriage……
Thinking of this, she cast her gaze on the gentlemen who were still waiting outside the hall.
These ten men were all extremely outstanding men, yet they were willing to face the prophecy that they were unlucky in marriage, disregard the ridicule and gossip of the people in the capital, and take the absurd bets in the streets, and let her choose.
Obviously, some came under the pressure of the imperial court; some were tempted by power; some were desperate for their future; and some were unwilling to lose to others for the sake of face...
In any case, it wasn't because of her.
——It’s not because of Bai Qiandeng, whose appearance, personality, and interests are unknown.
The one they were seeking to marry was the Princess of Lingling County of the Changhua Palace, the one favored by the emperor and empress, the one who would be granted an official position by the court, and the one who would be rich and powerful at their fingertips.
Fortunately, she had everything they asked for.
Qian Deng leaned back in his chair with his arms folded, the corners of his lips slightly raised, as if smiling.
Come on, she doesn't believe that among the ten men, she can't pick out one that suits her taste and meets the requirements of the court and her mother's expectations.
While they were meeting here, the candidates in the side hall were also waiting.
Shangluo, the youngest candidate at only thirteen years old, leaned against the door and peeked at the figure of the county lord behind the screen, his eyes eager to penetrate the screen.
Unfortunately, Qiandeng and her mother, who were sitting closer to the gauze screen, could clearly see the appearance of the candidates outside, but the men who were farther away from the gauze screen could not see the county lady's face clearly through the gauze screen. They could only see her blurry figure in the backlight, which was not real.
Someone behind him grabbed his collar and pulled him back: "Brother Shang, what you're doing is probably not reasonable. Please sit down."
"Aren't you curious? We're all candidates, but we have no idea what the county lady looks like!" Shang Luo looked eager. "I heard the county lady is a tigress. She's been fighting in the army since she was a child, rolling around on the training grounds. She's so big and strong, with a face full of flesh!"
There were quite a few people nearby paying attention. Apparently, although these candidates appeared calm on the surface, they were all curious in their hearts about what the woman who might become their wife looked like.
"Nonsense! Even if a 28-year-old girl practices external martial arts, how much can she improve her physique?" Ji Linyou, who pulled him back, said with a smile. Born into a family of military commanders, he had a handsome face and an upright physique, evidently seasoned on the battlefield. "Besides, I admire Prince Changhua and the Crown Prince. A true man should live his life like this, loyal to his king and his country, shedding blood for the country. The County Magistrate is the one who inherits our family tradition. I couldn't ask for more, and I respect him even more!"
Shang Luo hesitated and said, "I also admire the loyal and brave people in the palace, but, but I also heard that the county lady is in mourning at home and never appears in public. It's because half of her face is disfigured, with scars from her eyebrows to her cheeks. It's hideous and scary..."
As he spoke, he glanced behind the screen in the inner hall with lingering fear and lowered his voice: "That sounds terrible. If we are chosen, will we have to stay in the palace for the rest of our lives, facing the county lady day and night? But, but the fortune teller also said..."
Even though he was still young and everyone around him had been dismissed, Shangluo knew that it was inappropriate to say the following words "no relatives are related to him and he will be unlucky in marriage", so he kept his mouth shut.
Everyone in the capital knew that the Princess of Lingling County had a disfigured face, a damaged brow bone, and a flawed destiny. However, she had spent three years in mourning, staying at home, and no one knew what she looked like now. It was only common sense that, having sustained such a horrific injury back then, she must have been a Yaksha Shura.
The candidates waiting in the hall looked at their opponents silently, and they all thought that those who dared to run for election under such circumstances, including themselves, were all true warriors.
"Speaking of which, Yan Bucheng—" Ji Linyou turned his gaze toward the window, gazing at the man who seemed so otherworldly and ethereal, "wasn't it you who examined the County Magistrate's face and rendered her verdict three years ago? Is her face really as terrifying as the legend says?"
Yan Penglai sat quietly under the window, the sunlight filtering through the window lattice onto him. His gaze was cast into the void, and he did not look like someone who came here to be a candidate, but rather to comprehend the worldly affairs.
After a long while, he finally uttered softly, "Bone skull, pus and blood skin, beauty and ugliness are just illusions, why bother?"
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. Ji Linyou scoffed and said, "Then why are you here, Master? Is form equal to emptiness and emptiness equal to form?"
The people around couldn't help but chuckle softly, and suddenly a soft voice came from the corner of the hall: "The county lady...she's very good, don't talk about her behind her back."
As he spoke, Jing Ning sat in a corner, his lunch box at his side, sitting upright. He was already a bit reserved, and when everyone looked at him, his face flushed. It was clear that he had a gentle personality and was not used to being noticed.
But even so, he still stubbornly argued: "The county lady is not a tigress, much less a she-devil."
Shangluo asked curiously, "How did you know?"
"My... my father was a soldier beside the old prince. I met the county lady when I was a child." Shi Jingning was obviously not used to being the center of attention. He lowered his head and said, "The county lady... she is really nice."
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