Chapter 392 Daiyu Arrives
As soon as she finished speaking, Daiyu and Yuan Hongqu and the others walked in.
"Many of the ladies in the palace have been sent back to their families today. It was alright in the beginning, but it got a bit deserted in the end, so we came out to join in the fun."
Daiyu smiled. The ladies from the various palaces who came out to visit their families had all paid their respects to the Empress after the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet in the palace, and were only allowed to leave the palace after receiving an imperial decree.
Meanwhile, Daiyu had been playing chess with the Empress and enjoying the moon for a while. When the Empress's family came to the palace to request an audience, Zhao Huajing didn't want Yuan Hongqu and Daiyu to see the Empress's family's true colors, so she gave them a bunch of gifts and sent them back.
Seeing that it was still early, Daiyu decided to come to the Rongguo Mansion to join in the fun.
Wang Xifeng never expected that Daiyu would come at this crucial moment.
"Is Lin Daiyu a relative of Cao Cao? She arrived so quickly!" Wang Xifeng joked with a smile.
"Hey, who was talking about me just now? I bet it was you! You're busy enough tonight, and you still have time to talk about me?" Daiyu said with a smile.
Whenever the two of them meet, they always tease each other, and even Yuan Hongqu sometimes finds it difficult to fit in with them.
It can only be said that the two most charming female characters in the original work, despite experiencing many changes, still have a friendship that is unmatched by others.
Yuan Hongqu felt no jealousy whatsoever.
Wang Xifeng is now her good friend, and Daiyu is her student, family member, and friend. They are all on the same side and there is no distinction between them.
The two sat down on opposite sides of the table, and a maidservant quickly served them fruit tea.
"This is made from fresh fruit. Let it cool before drinking. The weather is so hot this year. It's already past midnight and it's still so hot. Sister and Daiyu, drink some to cool yourselves down."
"Sister Feng's fruit tea tastes quite good, even better than what I usually drink," Daiyu said after taking a few sips.
"The fruits we used were all from my sister's estate, each one of them top-notch; the recipe was also from your family, the only difference is the honey, right?" Wang Xifeng said after thinking for a moment.
“This honey is wild honey that a herbalist accidentally obtained when you went to Changbai Mountain this time. I don’t know what kind of honey it is, but it tastes especially sweet.”
“The honey in my house is all collected by the beekeepers on the estate. It’s always the same few kinds, and it’s not as good as the honey from the mountains. We’ll send someone to look for some in the mountains later.” Daiyu drank a cup and felt refreshed. The heat from the journey had disappeared.
Then he remembered what Wang Xifeng had said when he arrived.
"You haven't said who's been talking about me yet. If my timing is off and it creates a rift between us, then that would be my fault."
"How could that be? Who would dare say you came at an inopportune time? I knew you went to the palace today, how could I possibly still be talking about you? It was someone over there who was talking about you, and the news reached me."
Wang Xifeng tilted her chin slightly towards the garden next door.
"Hehe, I just saw her in the palace. When she went to ask the Empress for permission to take her leave, I was still sitting in front of the Empress. She didn't even glance at me then, but now she remembers me."
Daiyu originally wanted to say a few words to her elder sister, but she didn't notice her at all, so Daiyu didn't say anything more.
"It's quite amusing. She has no right to show off in the palace, but she comes here to do so." Wang Xifeng was somewhat speechless at how her eldest daughter had suddenly become so clueless.
What kind of mess is this?!
Inside the palace, anyone with eyes could see that Lin Daiyu was the Empress's junior sister and the daughter of the Emperor's favorite minister. In recent years, she had entered and exited the palace more often than she had visited the Rongguo Mansion.
As long as Yuan-chun can maintain a good relationship with Dai-yu, she can at least avoid being deliberately made things difficult for herself in the palace, if not completely unruly.
Even if someone makes things difficult for her, the Empress will help her out of respect for Daiyu.
But for some reason, she's gone mad these past two years, insisting that the Emperor Emeritus was the one who promoted her, and she's actually gotten quite close to people on his side.
He seemed to be drifting further and further away from Daiyu.
Daiyu didn't care, and things that happened inside the palace rarely got out.
Therefore, within the Rongguo Mansion, only Wang Xifeng and her husband, as well as the old lady, knew about Jia Yuanchun's actions in the palace.
Wang Xifeng and her husband had worked so hard to bring the Rongguo Mansion to its current state, and they were terrified that if Yuan Chun caused trouble in the palace, she would drag their family down with her.
Although the old lady didn't have Yuan Hongqu as her prophet like Wang Xifeng, she still knew that the retired emperor was a thing of the past, and that the Jia family should now wholeheartedly follow the current emperor.
Today, when I visited my family, the old lady only showed up a few times; she didn't go to the garden or anything like that.
In the original novel, given Yuan Chun's rank, the old lady would have had to accompany her on a tour of the entire garden. However, although Yuan Chun now holds the title of Virtuous Consort, her rank is still just that of an ordinary concubine. She is not a favored concubine in the eyes of the Emperor and has no support from her family.
The old lady had waited so long, and when Yuan Chun came, she spent time with her, enjoying the warmth of family life. She felt that was enough.
This visit to her family home cost them a lot of money. Thanks to Wang Xifeng's tireless efforts in spreading the word, none of the masters and mistresses of the Rongguo Mansion, except for Madam Wang, felt that Yuan Chun's visit to her family home was a family honor.
The old lady didn't think so either.
Especially since she knew that Daiyu could see Yuanchun whenever she entered the palace, and that if Yuanchun wanted to leave the palace to return to her parents' home, it wouldn't be impossible for her to say a few words to the Empress.
Why go to such lengths to join those other families in making a fuss about building a garden for a family visit?
It's a huge undertaking, a waste of manpower and resources.
Even the Empress didn't receive this treatment when she returned to her parents' home!
Daiyu actually made that comment.
"Sister Feng, your family is considered quite well off. You only spent tens of thousands of taels of silver in total. I heard that Consort Zhou and Consort Li spent millions just on garden renovations. My senior sister can even go back to her parents' home incognito without needing the imperial carriage!"
Yuan Hongqu glanced at Daiyu speechlessly.
"Yu'er, don't talk nonsense. That's just your senior sister being modest."
Yes, Empress Zhao Huajing did not want to be taken advantage of by her maternal family, so when she went home to visit her critically ill grandmother, she went incognito.
But even if she was traveling incognito, who would dare to show her the slightest disrespect?
"Only those who put on airs need such a big show!" Wang Xifeng also felt that although their family was frugal this time, they had still spent a year's worth of interest, which meant they hadn't earned a single penny in the past year. They had worked hard for a year for nothing, and it was really not worth it to give Yuan Chun this face!
"Keep all your bills and receipts safe; they might come in handy later," Yuan Hongqu reminded her.
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