Dancer
Chapter 33: The Dancer
Different from the frugal Zhenbei Palace in the northern border, the Second Prince's Palace in Fengjing covers an area of one thousand acres. Inside the palace, there are pavilions, towers, wide lakes, slow streams, small bridges and flowing water, and rare and precious plants competing for splendor. It can be regarded as a model of aristocratic family courtyard.
The second prince, Sun Zeyuan, was born to the Empress Dowager, and his maternal grandfather was Li Min, the Prime Minister. The emperor had only three adult princes: the eldest prince, Sun Zerui, and the third prince, Sun Zehao. Their mothers were Consort De and Consort Xian, respectively, with Consort De being the most favored by the emperor.
The Second Prince loved to entertain, and every month he would hold a grand banquet in his palace. It was May, and the exotic flowers and plants in the palace were in full bloom, so he used the excuse of admiring the flowers to hold an exceptionally lavish banquet.
At the banquet, there was a precious peony pot with a green dragon lying in an ink pond, which attracted continuous praise from the crowd. Some scholars even composed poems on the spot, and the whole banquet was very lively.
After admiring the many famous flowers, everyone moved into the Qianchong Tower. The tower had five floors with a large stage built in the middle. Surrounding it were open banquet tables on the first floor, independent private rooms on the second and third floors, and rooms on the fourth and fifth floors that only the owner of the house could enter.
Today, the Second Prince placed the banquet table on the first floor to have fun with everyone so that they could watch the performance up close.
After a graceful Jiangnan tune was sung, a group of dancers dressed in Western costumes came up. The Western dance was hot and provocative, and these self-proclaimed noble scholars were staring at it. Some of them couldn't help but lean their necks forward, wishing they could stick their eyes on the dancers.
The second prince stared at the beauty leading the dance in the middle, raised his eyebrows and curled the corners of his mouth, watching her lightly tap the wine glass in her hand and then drink it all in one gulp. Then the beauty's eyes moved and she nodded in between dances.
The Second Prince had never imagined this beauty had such talent. He had met her at Xiangyun Tower and brought her home. That day, she was wearing a white gauze dress, performing the Crane Dance on stage. Her waist was slender and her movements were graceful. However, before she finished, a dandy noticed her and ordered the servants to drag her down from the stage, shouting, "I'll buy this beauty, and I'll ask the boss to come out and collect the money."
When the Second Prince saw her crying silently because of the dandy boy's fright, he felt pity and love for her, so he rescued her and brought her back to his palace. He stayed in her room for a whole month until he got tired of her.
When he saw her again today, he found that half a year had passed. He didn't expect that she had piqued his interest again.
The second prince was looking at the beauty, and the eldest prince who was invited to the banquet was also looking at the beauty. Seeing this hot dancer winking at him, the eldest prince's brain went straight to his navel, and he wanted to pull the beauty down right away and punish her on the spot.
On the other hand, the third prince was the calmest among all the people present. He would look at the dance with appreciation from time to time, and then slowly savor the food and wine on the table. He could be called a gentleman.
After the dance, everyone was still not satisfied. When they saw that the beauty had left, they came back to their senses. Many of them moved their seats, trying to cover up a few things. But when they saw that their left and right were doing the same, they became calm, smiled at each other, and raised their glasses to toast each other.
The eldest prince stood up and signaled to his two brothers that he would be leaving for a while, as he had drunk too much and needed to change his clothes. The second prince smiled and said, "My brother, you need to practice your drinking tolerance."
"That's true. I lost a little today." The eldest prince said and strode away.
The eldest prince left the Qianchong Tower and gestured for the smallest of the three eunuchs to leave, then took the remaining two to his exclusive dressing room. Once inside, the eldest prince climbed out the back window and out the courtyard gate to find Xiao Shouzi, the smallest eunuch, already waiting there.
"Lead the way."
"Yes, this way, Master."
Xiao Shouzi led his men into the rockery forest in the back garden, turned left and right, and entered a relatively private place. Sure enough, the beauty was waiting there. Xiao Shouzi consciously stepped out to guard outside.
"Beauty, your whole beauty is due to this prince's hobby." He said as he hugged her and touched her.
"Grand Prince, you can't do this. Hmm~"
"I can't do that~"
Only kisses and gasps remained in the silent space.
Seeing that the eldest prince had not appeared for a long time, the second prince was afraid that the eldest prince had really drunk too much and something had happened in his house, so he sent two servants to the changing room to look for him, and then asked his personal eunuch Wang Gonggong to go and keep an eye on him.
The three of them went to the second prince's dressing room and found the door closed. Eunuch Wang signaled his servants to knock on the door.
"Your Highness? The master has noticed that you haven't returned for a long time and is worried about your health. Your Highness, do you need to see the imperial physician?"
"Nothing, tell my second brother I'll be back after a short rest."
"Yes, I'm waiting outside. If you need anything, you can summon me directly."
Eunuch Wang asked the two men to stay and wait, and he went out of the yard. He stretched out his hand and waved to the big tree beside the courtyard wall. A guard flew down from the tree, leaned over and said a few words in Eunuch Wang's ear, then continued to stay on the tree.
Eunuch Wang walked towards the place the guard said, and saw from afar Xiao Shouzi, who was standing beside the eldest prince, outside the rockery and forest, looking around. Ha, interesting.
He turned around and took a look at the place where the dancer lived in the inner courtyard. What was there to understand? The eldest prince was so arrogant.
Eunuch Wang walked back quickly, slowed his breathing before entering the banquet hall, bent down as he entered, and reported the matter to the Second Prince in his ear.
The second prince still had a smile on his face, but he squeezed the wine glass in his hand into several pieces. Eunuch Wang took it over, took out a new handkerchief, and wiped his master's hands clean.
The third prince caught a glimpse of his second brother's actions, picked up the wine glass and covered the corners of his mouth.
That night, the second prince sent the dancer to the eldest prince's palace in a sedan chair, and left a message to the eldest prince's wife, saying that the girl's dancing was very beautiful and deeply loved by the eldest prince, so she was given to the eldest prince today.
The eldest prince's wife had inexplicably received a visitor late at night, and had received such a message from the second prince. The rage burning within her was uncontrollable. She was the eldest prince's cousin, and they had been very sweet and affectionate during their early marriage. Barely a year later, she was acting like this. No wonder her mother had cried so much at her wedding. She had previously told her that the eldest prince wasn't a good match, and that if he didn't want to, they still had daughters at home, so it wouldn't matter if she married someone else. However, she had already been swept up in the web of affection woven by her cousin, and ultimately, she had made a mistake.
She knew that the eldest prince wanted to give birth to the emperor's eldest grandson first, but there were many women who had not conceived after a year of marriage. Moreover, he only stayed in her room on the first and fifteenth days of the month. How could she have a child? Should he let her have one with someone else?
The dowry nanny only dared to step forward and speak after seeing the eldest prince's wife tear three handkerchiefs into pieces: "Your Majesty, anger is harmful to your health. The most important thing for you is to take care of yourself. If you don't arrange a place for this dancer to stay first, I think the eldest prince will be returning home soon. If you leave her out like this, he will argue with you again. This is not worth it."
"I understand. You give orders to send the dancer to Yi Cui Courtyard and pick a maid to do chores for her. When the eldest prince comes back, tell others that he is in Yi Cui Courtyard and can stay anywhere he wants." The eldest prince's wife placed the torn handkerchief in the candlelight, lit it, and threw it into the spittoon.
"Yes, I'll give the order right away." Nanny Zhang breathed a sigh of relief only after she left the room, and ordered the servants to quickly settle the people.
The eldest prince went straight to the dancer's courtyard when he returned home that night. He heard from the servants on duty that Yi Cuiyuan had called for water three times that night. The eldest prince's wife was increasingly furious.
At the flower viewing banquet, one of Feng Jijiu's students meticulously wrote down everything he had seen that day and secretly sent it to Feng's residence. Feng Jijiu read it once and realized there was a lot going on. On the surface, it was the eldest and second princes arguing with each other, but underneath, all the officials who had already taken sides in the court were involved. How could this happen without anyone else's instigation?
Feng Jijiu asked his son to write a letter to the imperial concubine who was far away in the northern border, writing down everything that had happened in the court recently.
"Father, since you are so worried about me, why don't you write it yourself? I would be happier to receive your handwritten letter." Feng Chenglin asked casually.
"Hmph, you ask even though you already know the answer!" Feng Jijiu flicked his sleeves and walked away.
Feng Chenglin sighed, thinking, "Isn't it because my father always couldn't help but end his letters with a long-winded rant about this and that? How could my little sister be happy reading this?" Besides, without my little sister's management over the past few years, the palace would have been out of money long ago, not to mention that my family had benefited greatly from her support and was living much better than before. Thinking of their former poverty, he almost cried for himself. He still remembered the years when they had to eat pickles for every meal. It was during this period of growth that he was as thin as a stick. His classmates couldn't understand why he, the son of the chief priest, ate so frugally.
It was simply because the family was broke... The monthly salary of a Jijiu (official academic supervisor) was only twenty taels of silver, and the entire family depended on that twenty taels to survive. His maternal grandfather was a private school teacher in the countryside at the time. His family was also poor and had no permanent property. They only had one daughter, who married his father. His father lost his father at a young age, and his maternal grandfather took good care of him. Later, his father won the top spot in the imperial examination and stayed in Beijing to serve. A few years later, he became the Jijiu of the Imperial College. The emperor gave him an additional house, which enabled his father to bring his maternal grandparents to Fengjing to live in their old age.
His father was indeed an upright man. Even though he was so poor, he never accepted a penny from others. So when my younger sister was young at home, in addition to reading the Four Books and Five Classics, she was also very interested in business and could recite all the business knowledge on the market by heart.
If you can't accept gifts, then just earn your own money. My younger sister has always had outstanding thinking ability. If she weren't a girl, she would have probably been the top scorer in the imperial examination. Back then, my younger sister was the best in Class A in terms of current affairs and economics.
Reminiscing about the past, Feng Chenglin put aside these old memories and began writing to his younger sister. A while ago, his younger sister wrote to say that Shenzhi had found a teacher for Hengheng and had even made him his apprentice. It turned out to be Du Jiping, the runner-up in the imperial examination in the fifth year of Chongde. He still remembered him. He came from the Du family, a family of scholars in Nanling, and was considered a well-rounded scholar back then. He remembered that Du Jiping's riding and archery skills were outstanding.
Unexpectedly, after resigning from his post, he had been living in seclusion in the northern border, and no one knew why. However, having him teach Hengheng would give him some peace of mind. He had originally planned to compile an annotated copy of the Analects for Hengheng and send it to the palace, so that Shenzhi could use the annotations when he had time to teach. He had heard from his younger sister about his brother-in-law's teaching methods, but they didn't seem entirely reliable... He had always believed that the Chu family was bold and unrestrained in their approach.
After thinking about this and that, it took him half an hour to write a letter. After sealing the envelope and handing it to a special person, the letter will be delivered to my younger sister in less than three days. I have to say that my brother-in-law treats my younger sister very well. This is a secret line established by the King of Zhenbei specifically to send letters to their family.
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