Chapter 2: The Crown Prince is abandoned by her husband on her wedding night.
The current Crown Prince, Gu Zhan, is a man of integrity and upright character, and is known for his virtue.
When she was young and had not gone to Yanzhou to garrison with her father and brothers, she had seen Gu Zhan at Princess Pingkang's birthday banquet. At that time, he was about teens and already had the bearing of a crown prince. His well-tailored ceremonial robes made him look tall and elegant, with a dragon-like and phoenix-like appearance and extraordinary bearing.
He celebrated his aunt's birthday as was customary, showing respect and humility to his superiors while maintaining a balance of kindness and strictness towards his subordinates.
At that time, his father and elder brother both said that if His Highness the Crown Prince could successfully inherit the throne in the future, it would be a great blessing for the Great Qi.
Seeing her mistress say this, Cuiwei, despite her dissatisfaction, stopped talking, hoping that His Highness the Crown Prince would treat her with courtesy as her mistress had said.
But the reality seems to be different.
The next day, just as they got up to wash and dress, someone knocked on the door.
She was one of the palace maids who came from the palace yesterday. She stood at the door of Shen Mi's boudoir, curtsied, and said expressionlessly: "Consort Shen, from today onwards, a tutor will come from the palace to teach you palace etiquette. The tutor is already at the door, so please do not be lazy."
No one had ever told her about this before, which is why she got up to wash at her usual time, much to Shen Mi's surprise.
Her hand, which was applying makeup, paused. "I understand."
"The young lady hasn't had breakfast yet, and the tutor came to the door. Why did he only tell us when he was already at the door?"
Shen Mi took a deep breath, suppressing her emotions as she often did when she encountered injustice, and stood up from in front of the mirror. "It's alright. After all, that tutor is from the palace. Anyone who can be called a 'tutor' probably serves the Empress. I can't let the Emperor, the Empress, and His Highness the Crown Prince think I don't know the rules before I've even entered the Eastern Palace."
Cuiwei had no choice but to follow from behind.
When Shen Mi passed through the hanging flower gate and circled around to the front yard, a middle-aged woman dressed in a pomegranate-colored palace dress was already there, followed by two younger palace maids.
She bowed to the man and said, "Good job, instructor."
The woman nodded. "My surname is Wu. You can become my tutor, Consort Shen. Before you marry His Highness the Crown Prince, it would be good for you to learn the rules of the palace."
The imperial family places great importance on etiquette, and the rules of the Eastern Palace are no less strict than those of the inner court, as Shen Mi was aware of.
Therefore, she nodded to Instructor Wu, saying, "Thank you for your trouble, Instructor Wu."
After her father and brother died in battle, she spent the last three years tending to her mother's medicine alone, which almost wore away all of Shen Mi's former temperament. Even now, facing Instructor Wu's show of force, she appeared extremely docile, especially her eyes, which were so clear and innocent.
Instructor Wu's gaze swept over her without looking away, and he had already made up his mind.
This Lady Shen is much easier to deal with than the noble ladies of Bianjing whom she had previously taught manners. She doesn't seem like the type to whine and complain to His Highness the Crown Prince after entering the Eastern Palace.
Therefore, they became increasingly unscrupulous when teaching the rules.
She first deliberately tested Shen Mi on the most obscure and difficult questions in "Women's Precepts" and "Women's Instructions," questions that Shen Mi had memorized perfectly during the three years she spent caring for her ailing mother.
She then stopped trying to confuse Shen Mi with theoretical knowledge and instead taught her the proper etiquette for walking and serving tea and water.
Seeing that Shen Mi could still walk with a dignified and steady gait despite having a teacup full of tea on her head, she couldn't help but frown from behind. "Stop."
The palace maid beside her understood, tiptoed to take the teacup from the top of Shen Mi's hair, poured out the already cooled tea, added a fresh cup, and presented it on a mahogany tray.
Instructor Wu leaned back in his armchair, adopting the airs of a palace instructor. "Whether serving His Highness in the Eastern Palace or serving tea and water to the Empress in the palace, there are certain rules to follow."
The posture she had been practicing walking with a teacup on her head had made Shen Mi's neck sore, but she could only endure the discomfort and "listen respectfully to the instructor's guidance."
Instructor Wu seemed somewhat satisfied. "The rules for serving tea in the palace are that the hair ornaments on one's hair must not sway even slightly during the entire process of serving tea, otherwise it is considered impolite. Does the young lady understand?"
Shen Mi nodded, and when she took the tea from the tray, she realized that the tea had just been poured, and the rim of the cup was so hot that she almost dropped it.
It was already late afternoon. She hadn't had a drop of water since morning and had been taught various rules by Instructor Wu. She was so disoriented that she almost couldn't stand up straight.
But she knew that if she made even the slightest mistake, Instructor Wu would punish her severely.
So, suppressing her discomfort, she knelt down in front of Instructor Wu, holding the scalding hot teacup above her head with both hands. However, Instructor Wu hesitated to take the teacup, and she was afraid that if she raised her head rashly, the hair ornaments in her hair would sway, so she dared not move.
After what seemed like an eternity, Instructor Wu arrogantly took the teacup from her hand, took a sip, and casually placed it on the table, without making her get up.
In the dead of winter, Instructor Wu said that in order to correct her movements, she was not allowed to wear thick clothes or a cloak, and the place for learning manners was chosen to be a windy corridor.
After a long while, Instructor Wu pretended to realize something and said, "Why is Liangdi still kneeling on the ground? Get up quickly, I can't bear the thought of you kneeling like this."
But when Shen Mi stood up, she clearly saw an extremely smug smile on her face.
After that, he subjected her to all sorts of torture and hardship with various rules until dusk before finally leaving.
Shen Mi bowed respectfully to Instructor Wu to see him off, but did not rise again after that squat.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying on the couch in her boudoir, with a handkerchief to cool her down on her forehead.
Cuiwei lay by her bedside, her eyes like walnuts, clearly having been crying.
Shen Mi raised her hand to touch the top of her head, wanting to call her but she didn't have the strength, and turned her head to fall into a deep sleep again.
However, even though she caught a cold from learning etiquette, Instructor Wu did not stop making things difficult for her. This kind of instruction continued until a month later, when she married the Crown Prince.
The wedding dress was delivered by the Imperial Household Department the night before, and the hair and makeup were done by palace maids, without allowing Cuiwei any involvement.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Shen Mi couldn't remember the last time she had dressed up so beautifully.
Her lips were bright red, her teeth white and lustrous, shining like the sun rising at dawn, as radiant as a lotus emerging from clear water. Her eyebrows were like distant mountains, her eyes like spring almonds, and pearls adorned her temples. Her skin was so white that she didn't even need much lead powder.
"Since Consort Liang is so fair-skinned, she needs more rouge to look healthy," said the palace maid who was doing her makeup.
Cuiwei knew that this was clearly the result of her mistress being tormented by Instructor Wu for the past month, but seeing her mistress's expression, she finally kept quiet.
Since she was not the Crown Princess, but only the Crown Prince's concubine, Gu Zhan, as the "Lord," naturally did not need to condescend to personally welcome her at the Shen family. It was the Chamberlain of the Eastern Palace who came to welcome her.
The sixth day of the eleventh lunar month is an auspicious day for marriage. So Shen Mi was put into a sedan chair and left the Shen family home amidst the swirling snow.
No groom came to fetch her, no parents saw her off, and after three days she had nowhere to return home.
The gate, draped in red silk, slowly closed in front of her, and Shen Mi knew that she would never be able to come back.
For the rest of his life, he would be trapped within the palace walls, never again to see the moon over Yanzhou, never again to hear the flute music from beyond the Great Wall, never again to have snowball fights and build snowmen with his brother and Cuiwei in the winter corridors...
The ceremony for the concubine did not require a journey around Bianjing, nor did it require offering sacrifices at the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Instead, a small sedan chair, along with the gold, silver, and jade brought earlier, was carried into the side gate of the East Palace, and the ceremony was considered complete.
Shen Mi sat in the hall waiting for Gu Zhan for a long time, until she was almost asleep, before she heard the door being pushed open from the outside.
Hearing the increasingly heavy footsteps approaching, Shen Mi couldn't help but feel tense.
She always remembered the rules that Instructor Wu had taught her, how to serve His Highness the Crown Prince tea, how to undress him, and those bedroom arts that she had learned for a long time but was still ashamed to talk about.
Shen Mi gripped her sleeves tightly, barely daring to breathe.
Until the Crown Prince used a scale pole tied with red silk to lift the veil from her crown.
This was the first time she had seen the Crown Prince up close.
Just as rumored, the praise from the outside world was not exaggerated at all. The only thing that made Shen Mi uneasy was that Gu Zhan did not seem to have the joy of a wedding.
Following what Instructor Wu had taught her, she softened her voice as much as possible and whispered, "This concubine, Shen, greets Your Highness the Crown Prince."
Gu Zhan asked calmly, "Your name is Chen—"
“Chen Mi, the ‘Mi’ of Consort Mi.” She didn’t dare to embarrass Gu Zhan.
Gu Zhan nodded and rubbed his temples. "It's getting late, let's rest now."
Shen Mi stood up, her hands trembling as she took the initiative to wrap her arms around Gu Zhan's waist and untie the jade belt around his waist.
Disliking her awkward movements, Gu Zhan simply untied the sash on his wedding dress and casually brushed aside Chen Mi's outer garment.
But Shen Mi couldn't help turning her head away and coughing softly twice, because the cold she had been suffering from hadn't fully healed yet.
Then she noticed Gu Zhan frowning impatiently and asked, "Have you caught a cold?"
Shen Mi nodded cautiously.
Gu Zhan straightened up and said, "Fine, you can settle down on your own." He didn't even pick up the jade belt on the ground, and left with a flick of his sleeve.
The door closed in front of Shen Mi, leaving no trace of affection.
After accumulating grievances for days, Shen Mi finally couldn't hold back and covered her face, bursting into tears.
She was half-undressed, but on her wedding night, her husband abandoned her, leaving her alone in an empty room.
A note from the author:
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