Living on someone else's turf, having your every move monitored, and having your freedom restricted is no different from being under house arrest.
Having fallen into such a predicament, a wise person would no longer harbor any delusions or other thoughts, such as reclaiming Xifeng and restoring their former glory; all of that is just wishful thinking.
Prince Duan is dead, and so are his confidants. Even if there are a few loyal subordinates left, what can they do? There is no possibility of him making a comeback.
Chen Yunshuang saw things very clearly. If she was still unwilling to accept her fate and wanted to avenge Prince Duan and regain control of Xifeng after escaping, after two years of fleeing and wandering, she now only wanted to live well and live freely.
Live for yourself, without depending on anyone, without seeking immense wealth or becoming a superior person. Just live a leisurely life like the villagers of Songlin Village.
"Songlin Village has everything. I really like it here. There's no backstabbing, no scheming. This kind of ordinary and simple life is something I used to look down on, but now it's what I yearn for."
"Cheng Yu, I'm not going anywhere. I'll stay here and raise Cheng Qi to adulthood. If your father gains the throne someday, perhaps Qi'er will take the imperial examination and become a scholar based on his own abilities." Liu Cheng Qi is the son of Chen Yunshuang and Prince Duan, and he is only eight years old this year.
"Why bother? If that day ever comes, you and Qi'er can just come to the capital to find me..." Liu Chengyu was interrupted before he could finish speaking.
Chen Yunshuang smiled gently, but her tone was calm and resolute, "Times have changed. I know my place. I'm not even a concubine. My former glory was entirely due to the Prince's favor. Now that the Prince is long gone, I am nothing."
Qi'er and I only want a peaceful life; we dare not covet anything else.
She was very clever. These words were not only to appease Liu Chengyu and the Prince Xian, but also to express that she only had one son and only wanted to raise him safely so that he could marry and have children in the future. That would be enough for her. She hoped that the Prince Xian could dispel his doubts and let her and her son off the hook.
No need for house arrest or surveillance; let them stay in peace.
Liu Chengyu understood her meaning and nodded solemnly, "Alright, I will convey your words to my father. You can rest assured and stay here."
That's good, it saves a lot of unnecessary trouble.
After Liu Chengyu left, seeing him leave with his guards, the other two young concubines came out of the room with sullen faces. The two of them were of low status, and Liu Chengyu usually paid little attention to them and would not discuss anything with them. The hierarchy in the royal family has always been very clear.
"Sister, why do you want to stay in this awful place? It looks like it has everything, but actually it has nothing. If we want to buy a piece of clothing, a pound of salt, or a grain, we have to ask someone to bring it back. And once we settle in, we'll have to work in the fields. We're not good at heavy work."
"We don't even have a servant. How are we supposed to survive? What hope is there for our children?" The one who felt the most distressed was the youngest, holding a baby who was just over a year old in her arms.
Bao'er, who was just a baby back then, is now over a year old and can walk. He's grown up strong and healthy, but after Liu Chengyu and the others left, there's no one to hunt for food anymore. Forget about taking care of his health, he'll probably starve to death.
“If others can survive here, why can’t we?” Chen Yunshuang took a deep breath. How could she not understand what Liu Xiaolan was saying? But this was the best arrangement for the moment. If you want to survive, you have to be pragmatic, otherwise you won’t even know how you died.
"You have a handsome face but no brains. You only think about how to enjoy yourself but can't think of anything more powerful. The Wise Prince and the Crown Prince are both kind and gentle people, which is why we have survived until now. If we hadn't been lucky enough to meet Cheng Yu back then, we might have been killed back then if it had been anyone else. How could we have survived until now?"
"How could that be? Don't lie to me. We are the prince's family members. How dare they?" Here, "they" refers to other members of the royal family.
Chen Yunshuang sneered and explained the implications to her, "Why wouldn't we dare? We don't even have a single guard, and we're still being held up as remnants of the Prince Duan. To ensure that the Prince Duan's lineage doesn't harbor any disloyalty in the future, and that someone forces a coup and rebels in ten or twenty years, we have to eliminate them completely to prevent future troubles."
Liu Xiaolan's face turned pale, and she stammered for a long time without being able to utter a single word. She had indeed thought that way. She had given birth to a son, and all of Duan Wang's other sons had died. Now, only Chen Yunshuang's son could compete with her son.
Although Chen Yunshuang is stronger than her now, who knows what will happen in a few years? Maybe her son will be more capable than Chen Yunshuang's son?
Perhaps one day her precious child will also have the ability to compete for the throne or something.
Sigh, but after hearing what Chen Yunshuang said, she was like a wilted eggplant, all her little schemes withered away. Forget it, although she didn't want to admit it, her brain really wasn't working well. Those schemes and tricks were beyond her level to win. Survival was the priority, and she shouldn't think about anything else.
Seeing that Liu Xiaolan had calmed down, Chen Yunshuang shifted her gaze to Fang Ziyue, this time with an even sharper look. "Don't think I don't know that Liu Xiaolan was instigated by you to come and cause trouble for me. You may have some tricks up your sleeve, but they're nothing compared to mine."
If I wanted to kill you, it would be as easy as crushing an ant. This isn't a royal palace; keep your shady thoughts to yourself.
"What bad intentions could I possibly have? I just can't get used to life here, it's too tough. Sister, I know you're powerful, and I've always avoided you, not daring to play tricks in front of you. But I really don't want to stay. Could you help me talk to the young master and ask him to take me and Jin'er out of the mountains?"
Despite being just a concubine, Fang Ziyue is quite cunning and has a deep mind. Chen Yunshuang and she have always been at odds, mainly because Chen Yunshuang looks down on her. When they were fleeing for their lives, Chen Yunshuang did not want to take her with her, but this woman managed to shake off Duke's pursuers and stubbornly clung to her.
In the end, out of consideration for the fact that she had given birth to a daughter for Prince Duan, he took her with him when he fled for his life. Over the past two years, he had taken good care of her. He thought that after going through so much, she would have become more honest, but she hadn't changed at all. She was still the same scheming Fang Ziyue.
She probably wants to go to Jiangnan with Liu Chengyu, then hook up with some official, marry someone else, and start a life of wealth again. Doesn't she realize that she was just a concubine when she was still in the Prince Duan's mansion? Born into a peasant family, she entered the mansion's backyard with her looks and cunning.
But life wasn't exactly happy. She was just a concubine of low status, and her daughter was naturally an illegitimate daughter. She had to endure the torment of the principal wife and the two concubines every day. How could she possibly have a good life?
However, perhaps her previous life was even more bitter and difficult, and she was often hungry and cold. Therefore, Fang Ziyue had little dissatisfaction with life in the Prince's Mansion. She was only waiting for the day when Prince Duan would ascend the throne so that she could be made a concubine. Little did she know that that day would never come.
"It's understandable that you want to find another way out, but do you think the Prince Xian would agree to you marrying someone else? Even if he did, at your age, with a daughter, what kind of good family could you marry into? I'm afraid you'd be beaten to death by someone else's first wife on some pretext within days of entering the house." Chen Yunshuang wasn't trying to scare her, but rather to kindly remind her. However, what Fang Ziyue ultimately chose was none of her business.
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