Unworthy
Wei Qiao pondered Xi Chun's words. He had never imagined she harbored resentment towards his marriage to Ming Chuqing. But Chuqing was the woman he was destined to marry in both his lives, and he couldn't break off this union. Chuqing had been waiting for him, and he was determined to treat her well.
Xi Chun was just an orphan girl from the city. In terms of status, she was indeed incomparable to Chu Qing. However, he never thought of just keeping her by his side like an object. If he didn't like her, why would he go to the trouble of trying to please her?
The dim night was gradually replaced by the light of dawn, and the two people in the bed curtains were still silently facing each other.
The wound on his shoulder throbbed with pain, and the wound on her lips itched and ached. Several times, Wei Qiao tried to approach her, but when he met her cold gaze, he ultimately chose to stay where he was.
She stubbornly refused to bow down, and his pride and arrogance prevented him from submitting to her.
After another unsuccessful attempt to get closer, he coldly revealed his true thoughts: "Yes, Jiang Xichun, let me tell you. I have never thought of marrying you. Not in the Wei family, not in the palace, and not now."
"The wife I want to marry is Chu Qing. A noble lady from a high family, a well-bred young lady, only she is worthy of my status. You, a commoner orphan, and a widow who has been married before, it is already a favor that I can promise you to be my concubine. You are not worthy to be my queen."
After speaking, Wei Qiao stopped looking at her, got up, put on his clothes, opened the door, and went straight back to Ming'an Hall. He was filled with resentment, so he took out his sword and practiced swordplay in the empty courtyard, channeling all his pent-up anger into the long sword.
He had been gone for a long time, and Xichun remained in the same position until Shuixian got up and saw that the bedroom door was open, so she came in to help her up. Looking at the messy bed and Xichun's red, tear-stained eyes, Shuixian guessed that the prince must have bullied her young lady again. She had initially thought the prince was very good to her young lady, but now it seemed he wasn't at all. He didn't care about her safety and always made her cry.
After that day, Wei Qiao stopped going to Chaoxia Courtyard. He was angry and also wanted to give her some space. However, every night he would toss and turn in bed, unable to sleep because he thought of her. Xi Chun never came to Ming'an Hall to see him, nor did she send him anything.
The scab on the wound on his shoulder had fallen off, and the newly grown flesh was always itchy. Every time it itched, he thought of her.
That day, he finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked Agui to find his little maid, Shuixian.
Shui Xian followed A Gui to Ming An Hall with trepidation. The prince had not visited Chaoxia Courtyard to see the young lady for almost half a month, and she wondered why he had summoned her to Ming An Hall today.
"This servant greets Your Highness," Shui Xian said respectfully.
"Hmm, no need for formalities," Wei Qiao glanced at her and said coldly.
After getting up, Shui Xian, unaware of his intentions, stared blankly at the square bricks on the ground with her head down. It was quite a while before she heard his voice.
"How is she?" Wei Qiao tried to make his words sound casual.
When Shui Xian heard her ask about the young lady, she learned that apart from smiling less these days, the young lady seemed no different than usual. However, she still remembered how the prince had hurt Xi Chun. She could see the concern on the prince's face, but she also wanted to make him sad as well.
"Miss...Miss is very unhappy. She eats less every day and can't sleep well."
Hearing about her recent situation, Wei Qiao immediately felt a pang of heartache. It turned out she wasn't heartless. It turned out she was suffering just as much as he was.
However, Xichun hadn't given in to her yet. To make sure Xichun remembered once and for all who was in control, he decided to suppress his urge to see her. He would wait until the first day of the ninth month, when the princess entered the palace and he promoted her to concubine, before going to Chaoxia Courtyard to find her. Having made up his mind, Wei Qiao felt relieved. However, Xichun's continued bad mood wasn't a good solution; prolonged sadness might cause health problems.
After thinking for a while, he instructed Shui Xian: "You should take the young lady out for walks around the palace more often, or you can take her to stroll around the streets. I will have someone send five hundred taels of silver over in a little while. If the young lady sees anything she likes on the street, she can buy it. If she runs out of silver, she can go to Ming'an Hall to find A Gui."
Although Shuixian was still young, she had heard her mother say that a man's heart is where his money is. Hearing the prince's words, she felt that he also cared for her daughter. She nodded, accepted the order, and left.
Not long after Shui Xian returned, A Gui delivered five one-hundred-tael silver notes and ten ten-tael silver ingots to Chaoxia Courtyard. Xi Chun glanced at them, thanked A Gui, and told Shui Xian to put them away before saying nothing more. A Gui returned to Ming'an Hall to report, and Wei Qiao, thinking she was still sulking, smiled and waved him away.
A few days later, Shui Xian urged Xi Chun to go out, saying, "Miss, the weather hasn't been so hot these past few days, let's go out for a stroll and get some fresh air."
Xi Chun was getting a little bored in the Prince's mansion. She had read through all the books she had and was thinking of going to the study to buy a few new books that she liked. She remembered that Brother Miao had said there were a few good bookstores in the Moyun Street area in the west of the capital, so she said to Shui Xian, "Okay, then take twenty taels of silver and let's go out and buy some books."
"Alright!" Narcissus happily took out two ten-tael silver ingots from the box and then instructed the maid outside the door to call the mansion to prepare a carriage.
Chaoxia Courtyard was closest to the west gate of the mansion, so Xichun boarded the carriage there. It took an hour to get from Tongshun Street to Moyun Street. Shuixian hadn't left the mansion in a long time, and she chattered away with Xichun, sharing her observations from outside the window, so the time passed quickly.
After browsing several bookstores, Xichun spent eight taels of silver to buy ten books. Remembering how Shuixian had mentioned in the carriage that the roasted pigeons at Juwei Pavilion in the north of the city were the best in the capital, and that her wish for the year was to buy two roasted pigeons to eat, Xichun asked the driver to turn around and go to Juwei Pavilion. Including herself, there were now nine people in Chaoxia Courtyard. Xichun spent five taels of silver to buy ten roasted pigeons, and handed two to Shuixian, saying, "Here, Shuixian, you eat two, and the rest of us in Chaoxia Courtyard each get one."
"Thank you, young lady!" Narcissus grinned as she thanked Xichun. Then, unable to resist the aroma of the roasted pigeon, she tore off a leg and happily ate it inside the carriage.
Xi Chun looked out of the carriage window. The streets of the capital were always bustling with people. As the carriage entered Zhuque Avenue, Xi Chun's eyes caught sight of a woman carrying a medicine bag. The woman was thin, with a blue headscarf wrapped around her head and wearing coarse cloth clothes. Xi Chun felt that she looked familiar, and when the carriage got closer, she realized that it was none other than Aunt Liu.
She quickly stopped the carriage, got off, and walked to Aunt Liu.
Aunt Liu had only come out to get her medicine while her husband was out on business. She was afraid he would beat and scold her again if he found her missing when he got home, so she was hurrying home. Suddenly, she saw a woman in fine clothes appear in front of her and was momentarily stunned. Upon closer inspection, she realized that this was Jiang Xichun, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Wei family, who had been sent to the palace by the Wei family.
"Young Mistress, is that you?" Aunt Liu exclaimed excitedly.
Xichun nodded. "It's me, Aunt Liu. It's been a long time."
Seeing that the main street was too crowded to talk on, Aunt Liu pulled Xichun to a quiet corner in a nearby alley. After looking Xichun up and down, she said excitedly, "Young mistress, you seem to be doing quite well now. Good, really good."
Seeing the tears welling up in Aunt Liu's eyes, Xichun quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe them away. In just over a year, Aunt Liu had become terribly haggard. The charm in her eyes was gone, and her once smooth and full face was now covered with yellowish-brown spots. Her hands, which used to be painted with red nail polish, were now rough and calloused, with several white scars on the back of her hands.
"Aunt Liu, what happened to you? Didn't you go south with Madam and the others?" Xi Chun hadn't heard from Aunt Liu since she entered the palace last spring. Later, she heard Guang Jinfu say that Wei Changsong had been appointed to an official position and was going to Jiangnan. She thought that Aunt Liu, the most favored woman in the mansion, would definitely go with him. But now it seems that's not the case.
Aunt Liu gave a bitter laugh. "Xichun, I'll still call you that. Wei Changsong is just like my previous husband; he's a man who sells women for wealth. You hadn't been in the palace long when he gave me to a retainer from the Prince Cheng's mansion who was visiting. That retainer had a wife, so he rented me a house and kept me as a mistress. At first, things were alright, but later his wife found out, sold the house, and sent me back to the mansion."
"I finally conceived a boy, but that shrew tormented me until he died. Now I can't have any more children. Later, she even turned around and accused me of being unfaithful to my husband. In a fit of anger, my husband betrothed me to the stableman in the manor. Now I'm the stableman's wife. That Mrs. Stableman is crude, stupid, and an alcoholic. She beats and scolds me all the time. Now I have many illnesses, and I don't know how long I have left to live." Aunt Liu's voice grew more and more mournful as she spoke.
As Xichun listened, tears streamed down her face. How could Aunt Liu, who used to play the pipa and sing Yangzhou folk songs, have been worn down by life to this state?
"Don't cry, it's alright." Aunt Liu reached out to wipe away Xichun's tears. Being able to talk to Xichun about these things had already eased much of her suffering. Xichun hadn't had it much easier than her before, and she didn't want to make her cry.
"So now you're the wife of some high-ranking official?" Aunt Liu looked at the luxurious carriage Xichun was riding in and assumed that she had married a good man.
Xi Chun thought of Wei Qiao, hesitated, and nodded. In this place he didn't know, she would let her pretend for once.
"That's good, that's good. Being a legal wife is great, being a concubine is like being a floating duckweed, so unstable. Either of the couple can find something to mess with you if they don't like you. I'm happy that you've found a good home."
Aunt Liu looked up at the sky and remembered that her husband had said he would be back for lunch, so she was in a hurry to leave.
"Xichun, I'll be going now, I'm in a hurry to get home." After saying that, he curtsied to Xichun and walked out of the alley.
Xi Chun quickly grabbed her, "Aunt Liu, wait." Xi Chun took the money bag from Shui Xian's body, then pulled out two silver hairpins inlaid with gemstones and a gilded square knot from her hair and stuffed them all into her hand, "Take this money and get well."
Aunt Liu swallowed her tears and nodded to her. After packing her things, she quickly walked out of the alley.
Xichun watched her retreating figure, sighed for a while, and then returned to the carriage with Shuixian. Just as she instructed the driver to drive, she heard a familiar voice outside the carriage window. Lifting the curtain, she saw it was Aunt Liu who had returned.
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