Chapter 29 "The ceremony is complete, escort them to the bridal chamber!"...
As dusk settled, the entertainment district was at its liveliest.
There's no performance today, so the storyteller has taken over the stage in the center of the first floor. He's going to tell the story of how, when the young master was fourteen, he single-handedly led three thousand light cavalry to defeat the twenty thousand-strong army of the northern barbarian tribe, Al-Na, when they were besieging the city.
Although the people of Yunzhong County already knew this story by heart, the theater was still packed with people who brought their families to relive the young master's famous battle. If they couldn't find a seat, they stood and crowded around the stage.
As soon as the gavel struck, a loud "bang" was heard, and someone stumbled into the shed, crashing headfirst into the door.
Everyone was taken aback at first, then burst into laughter. Those who were nearby helped the dazed man up, asking, "Have you had too much to drink?"
The storyteller joked, "Even if you're eager to hear about our young master's rampage, you don't need to 'sacrifice' yourself first!"
But then they saw the man, whose forehead was red and swollen from the kowtow, holding the hand of the person beside him, stand up shakily, his eyes red and tears streaming down his face, choking out as he reported: "Your Highness, Your Highness has died in battle! The Heir Apparent is seriously wounded and is on his way back with the coffin!"
The air suddenly tightened, the smiles on everyone's faces froze, and they looked at the man as if they were watching an absurd farce.
Someone slammed their fist on the table and stood up, spilling the murky wine from the rough earthenware bowl all over themselves, and angrily cursed, "Bullshit!"
Disbelief voices rose one after another.
"Nonsense! The Prince of Dingbei is the sky over our northern frontier, how can the sky collapse!"
"The young master has never been defeated since he was fourteen. Didn't you even bother to check before you made up this lie?"
However, the man paid no attention to the rebuttals and insults of the crowd, and curled up and cried loudly.
The heavy cries pressed down on the air above the shack, like dark clouds gathering overhead, and the entire shack was filled with sorrow.
Amidst the mournful cries, panic began to rise among the crowd. Just then, a boy named Ah Hao rushed in from outside. His face was deathly pale, and he was panting heavily, cold sweat trickling down his forehead. Before he could catch his breath, he cried out, "I was at the city gate just now, and I think I heard someone say that the Prince died in battle, and the Heir Apparent was also seriously wounded..."
His panicked gaze swept across the faces of everyone in the teahouse. Everyone was stunned, and all sounds were swallowed up by the gradually spreading atmosphere of sorrow.
Some of them, with shallow eyes, finally couldn't hold back their sobs and tears streamed down their faces, their suppressed whimpers blending together.
As someone cried out in anguish, the half-rolled bamboo curtain on the second floor was yanked down. A middle-aged man, his face flushed from drinking, smashed the wine jar in his hand, his cloudy eyes blazing with hatred, and shouted, "It's the princess! It's all that woman's fault!"
"Yesterday I was drinking at a brothel when I heard them say that the princess was destined to be a 'lone star, bringing misfortune to her family,' which is why the Emperor banished her to the northern frontier by imperial decree." The man swayed unsteadily, his hands pounding the railing with emotion, his words urgent. "I didn't believe it before, but now I think it must be her who brought misfortune to the Prince and the Heir Apparent! It must be her!"
Whispers suddenly began to hum like mosquitoes.
"That makes sense. Otherwise, why have the prince and the heir been living smoothly for so many years, but trouble has arisen as soon as she arrived?"
"It's fate that the accident happened the day before the wedding!"
Madam Zhou, standing in the crowd, hesitated. Her eyes were also red, and she was overwhelmed with grief at the bad news she had heard. However, she did not want to blame everything on the princess. "The princess has never done anything wrong. She has even brought some benefits to the soldiers. Why do you blame a young girl when the prince and the young master are in trouble? Why don't you blame the northern barbarians who attacked them?"
However, the seeds of doubt and resentment had already been sown, and some people deliberately stirred up trouble. The number of people who were willing to believe that the princess was destined to bring misfortune to her relatives far exceeded the number of people who did not believe it, and this news spread throughout Yunzhong County in an instant.
At a gambling table in a corner of the theater, the dealer who set up the betting game moved all the bets he had placed on "the marriage between the prince and the princess will succeed" to the "it will not succeed" side. "This marriage must not succeed!"
"Your Highness, you should step in immediately and stop this marriage!"
Inside the Prince's residence, Steward Wu was trying his best to sow discord between himself and the Princess. He had worked diligently in the Prince's residence for many years, only to promote one of his own people to be a purchasing agent, only to have him dismissed by the Princess in the blink of an eye. Although it was Steward Wu's own fault for being incompetent, he was still resentful that the Princess had publicly exposed Steward Wu's foolish actions, making him lose face, and he harbored considerable dissatisfaction with the Princess.
The princess ignored him, her mind preoccupied with whether Feng Mian's mood would be affected. She had always believed in Feng Mian, and she believed that the troops they had sent out would definitely rescue the prince and A Zhuo, and that the rumors would be dispelled, but she didn't know when they would return.
As a princess, she naturally couldn't cancel tomorrow's wedding, otherwise the people would assume she also believed in fate. But if Azhuo and the others couldn't return tomorrow, wouldn't the enraged crowd do something inappropriate to Feng Mian?
After much deliberation, the princess could no longer sit still. She hurriedly got up and instructed the guards in the mansion to accompany her to the princess's mansion to fetch her the next day.
Regardless of whether A-Zhuo returns or not, the princess must be brought back safely! Since A-Zhuo is not here, she, as his mother, will go in his place. I think that no matter how angry the people are, they will not lay a hand on the princess.
The next day, at the auspicious hour of Shenshi (3-5 PM), the wedding procession had not yet arrived.
The dozen or so imperial guards who stayed by the princess's side, with swords in hand, escorted the vermilion and gold-painted wedding sedan chair out of the princess's mansion. As soon as they entered the main street, they were stopped by the crowds of people surging from all directions.
They worked all night to make mourning clothes, hung plain white linen on the main street, and replaced the red lanterns under the eaves of the shops with white paper lanterns. In the white expanse, only the wedding sedan chair was a striking red.
The people, all dressed in white mourning clothes, stared at the wedding sedan chair with bloodshot eyes.
The paper money fluttered and scattered towards the wedding procession, some sticking to the gilded phoenix and sun design on the sedan chair roof, making it look particularly unlucky and unclean.
"Go back to your Shengjing!"
"Don't you dare harm our Crown Prince!"
The people cursed and shouted, their cries and sobs interspersed among them.
The imperial guards exchanged troubled glances. They had been instructed not to point their swords at the common people under any circumstances, so they could only do their best to protect the bridal sedan chair.
Fortunately, the princess seemed to have anticipated today's situation and did not move all of her dowry out of the palace. The wedding procession only had eight bearers to make up the numbers, which the few of them could manage to protect.
"She killed the prince and shows no remorse whatsoever! She won't even send out the wedding sedan chair! The princess can't show her face, we must drive her out! Hurry, seize that wedding sedan chair!"
Someone hidden in the crowd raised their arms and shouted, and the enraged people rushed forward, pushing aside the imperial guards who dared not point their swords at the people, and tried to seize the bridal sedan chair.
The two guards at the rear of the procession quickly tracked the sound and locked onto the figure who had raised the voice to provoke the crowd. They exchanged a glance and silently followed the figure that had disappeared into the crowd.
The remaining imperial guards were forced back step by step by the surrounding people, and were sweating profusely.
"Stop!"
With a soft shout, an arrow pierced the air and landed on the edge of the bridal sedan chair, preventing the people who were about to reach it from getting close.
Bai Lixun arrived alone on horseback, his light armor stained with blood, a long spear slung across his back, and his right hand still poised to draw a bow. The sunlight streaming down his body painted him with golden edges, as if a god had descended.
"The Crown Prince? It's His Highness the Crown Prince! He doesn't seem to be seriously injured..."
While the people were overjoyed, they were also somewhat surprised and uncertain. The prince's spirited galloping spirit did not seem like that of someone seriously injured.
Baili Xunzhou raised an eyebrow. "Are you all disappointed that I, the young master, am unharmed?"
The people shook their heads frantically, hoping that the prince would be safe and sound.
But... "Where is the Prince? Is the Prince... safe and sound?"
They craned their necks to look behind Baili Xunzhou, but saw no one.
"Father is unharmed. We are only able to escape thanks to the Princess's dispatch of the Imperial Guards. Otherwise, both my father and I would have been in grave danger." Baili Xunzhou deliberately concealed the fact that his mother had secretly mobilized the garrison, and said loudly, "Father is currently waiting for me and my new bride to pay our respects at the palace. Everyone, please make way."
The common people hurriedly parted to the sides, awkwardly removing the white flowers from their heads. The prince and the crown prince were unharmed, but their attire was considered unlucky.
Everyone simultaneously glanced nervously at the bridal sedan chair, muttering, "Did the princess really save the prince? Have we wronged the princess?"
"On their wedding day, we filled the streets with white mourning clothes and scattered paper money..."
"Oh no, this is terrible! What should we do?!"
Bai Lixun rode his horse to the bridal sedan chair. The disheveled imperial guards on both sides bowed to him as if they had survived a disaster. They had never been so happy to see this prince.
Baili Xunzhou leaned down slightly and spoke to Feng Mian across the bridal sedan chair, "Princess, don't be afraid, everything is alright now."
Silence fell inside the sedan chair. Baili Xunzhou, puzzled, leaned closer. "Princess?"
Suddenly, someone among the people nearby, seemingly trying to appear casual, loudly explained to the surrounding crowd—
"You only heard people say that the princess is destined to bring misfortune to her family, but you didn't hear the whole story! There's another half to it. They say that our young master is the princess's 'lucky star,' and that the princess and the young master are a match made in heaven. When they're together, they can turn bad luck into good and enjoy lasting blessings!"
Someone else chimed in, "The princess is a pitiful person too. She lost her mother at birth and her father died early, but she was able to turn danger into safety when she was with our young master. Isn't it she who saved the young master's life? We should all thank the princess!"
“I should also apologize to the princess!” Ah Hao suddenly said loudly, and knelt down first. “It’s all my fault for believing the rumors without verifying them. I made everyone believe it and misunderstand the princess. It’s all my fault. Please punish me, princess!”
The surrounding people knelt down in a rush, each admitting their own fault, and finally they all said, "Please punish me, Princess!"
There was still no movement inside the bridal sedan. Baili Xunzhou looked curiously at the curtain, but a member of the Imperial Guard stepped forward to block his view. He cleared his throat and said, "It was all a misunderstanding. The princess said that this was caused by someone with ulterior motives, so it's no wonder. If we delay any longer, the auspicious time will pass. We should set off now!"
Upon hearing this, the crowd was first startled, looking around to see who the culprit was. Then they were startled again, and hurriedly jumped up and scattered to remove the white lanterns and plain white linen hanging on both sides of the street.
"Your Highness, let's go quickly."
Urged on by the Imperial Guards, Baili Xun rode his horse at the head of the wedding procession toward the Prince's Mansion.
He is probably the first groom in history to come to his wedding wearing a suit of light armor stained with blood.
The bridal sedan chair moved forward, and the people dismantled the white banners along the way, until they arrived at the gate of the Prince's Mansion.
Bai Lixun was about to dismount to help the bride alight from the sedan chair when his gaze swept across the entrance of the Prince's Mansion, and he suddenly froze.
He saw the princess standing at the entrance of the palace, leading her bride, who was dressed in auspicious attire, and smiling at him.
Baili Xunzhou: ?
Baili Xunzhou glanced at the bridal sedan behind him and realized that the strange thing he had felt earlier was that the sedan was completely empty.
The princess has probably already slipped away and run to the prince's mansion.
Very good. She should also be the first bride in history to run to her husband's house without waiting for the wedding procession.
No wonder the wedding procession didn't even go to the princess's residence; he said his mother wasn't the type to let the princess be mistreated. The bridal sedan chair was just a smokescreen to attract attention.
The matchmaker handed a red silk ribbon woven with a love knot to Feng Mian and Baili Xunzhou. The two of them, holding the red ribbon, stepped onto the seemingly endless red carpet and entered the Marquis's mansion.
Feng Mian lowered her eyes slightly, looking at the small space under the red veil. The thumb-sized beads on the tips of her wedding shoes appeared and disappeared under the skirt, which was covered with beaded tassels, and shimmered like moonlight.
Her mood suddenly brightened. She hadn't expected the prince to arrive so promptly, and the situation had clearly turned in her favor.
The matchmaker's voice rang in my ears: "Kneel—"
The other end of the wedding silk sank downwards, and Feng Mian knelt down. Following the wedding officiant's instructions, they bowed to heaven and earth, then to their parents, and finally to each other, until the very end—
"The ceremony is complete; escort them to the bridal chamber!"
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