Madam Zhou stopped in her tracks, then couldn't help but look towards Ye Qingxue's room, a sharp pain welling up in her heart.
With an endless sigh, Granny Kang cried out, "Madam!"
Madam Zhou closed her eyes, her face covered in tears again: "...It's my own fault."
Granny Kang eventually took her away, each step taken with extraordinary slowness and difficulty.
It felt as if every step I took caused my heart to bleed.
Madam Zhou gradually came to understand how Ye Qingxue and Ye Cunsi felt when she treated them the way she had treated them in the past.
It's because she was a bad person in the past.
Madam Zhou's grief seemed to be isolated in another world, having no effect whatsoever on the laughter and joy in Ye Qingxue's courtyard.
Even though Chunqian and Xialu knew that Madam Zhou had come, they did not tell Ye Qingxue about it, so as not to affect Ye Qingxue's happy mood on her wedding day.
Ji Mingwei's courtyard was equally lively.
Because of her wedding, her parents and many relatives were brought to Kyoto and are all by her side tonight.
Somehow, news of Madam Zhou being treated coldly at Lixue Residence reached Ji Mingwei, and the whole courtyard heard about it.
Ji Mingwei smiled and said, "Go and invite the First Madam over for some snacks, to liven things up."
The maidservant left.
Ji Mingwei then explained to those around her, "The eldest daughter grew up in the countryside and has some grievances against the First Madam. It's understandable that she hasn't been able to forgive her."
But someone said, "Wasn't it said that the eldest daughter was sent to the countryside because she was said to have brought misfortune to her sisters? How can this be blamed on the First Madam?"
"There are no parents who are wrong in this world. The eldest daughter is about to marry Prince Jing and become his concubine. It is wrong of her not to forgive her own mother!"
In an instant, voices siding with the First Madam, blaming, or directly scolding Ye Qingxue rang out.
Immediately following were voices praising Ji Mingwei for being filial.
Everyone had clearly compared Ji Mingwei and Ye Qingxue, and after some comparison, they concluded that Ji Mingwei was better!
Madam Zhou was unwell and did not come over for snacks or to join in the fun, but she asked Granny Kang to send over some extra dowry.
Ji Mingwei accepted it politely and expressed her gratitude, showing no displeasure whatsoever.
Everyone praised her for her magnanimity.
No wonder she was able to marry Prince Xuan as his concubine.
At the same time, he also scolded Ye Qingxue, saying that she was about to get married but was still clinging to the past and making her own mother sick, which was truly heartless.
Ji Mingwei just smiled.
...
There was a note in the brocade pouch that Hui Qi sent to Ye Qingxue.
I only wrote one sentence.
It was written in a vigorous and elegant style.
"Rest assured and wait for your marriage. I will come to marry you on time tomorrow. Yun Zhuo."
Everyone was laughing so hard they couldn't stop.
"Just for that one sentence, Hui Qi has to make a wasted trip. It seems His Highness Prince Jing is worried that Qing Xue will run away from the wedding!"
He then teased Ye Qingxue and Yun Zhuo for a while.
Princess Yu knew very well what the relationship was between Ye Qingxue and Madam Zhou, and also knew that the relationship between the mother and daughter had long been broken.
So, besides hiring the old man to comb Ye Qingxue's hair tonight, she also has an extremely important task to complete.
That was to gather several older women in the house and teach Ye Qingxue how to keep her husband's heart after marriage and prevent him from being seduced by other women.
When Ye Qingxue saw Princess Rongqing and the young girls Chunxia Qiudong being called out of the room, she sensed that something was terribly wrong.
Especially when several women slowly surrounded her, Ye Qingxue felt something was wrong and wanted to escape, but Madam Lan held her down.
Everyone looked at her with smiles.
Madam Lan added, "Tonight's lesson is about your and Prince Jing's future happiness. It's okay to be shy at first, but you can't be clueless."
Princess Yu immediately took a small box from a servant and placed it in front of Ye Qingxue. Inside was a small blue booklet.
She placed it mysteriously in front of Ye Qingxue: "Open it and take a look."
Ye Qingxue felt that the booklet was a hot potato, but since everyone was looking at her, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and turn to the first page.
The booklet was drawn with two intertwined figures in such an odd pose that she almost threw it away.
The ladies covered their mouths and chuckled upon seeing this.
Princess Yu then took out a pair of exquisite dolls and placed them in front of Ye Qingxue.
The dolls are a male and a female, and their joints are movable.
Princess Yu skillfully manipulated the puppet's limbs, demonstrating several poses: "This is called 'Mandarin Ducks Intertwined Necks,' this is called 'Fish Swimming in Spring Water,' and this one, this one..."
Princess Yu demonstrated many poses in a row.
Ye Qingxue blushed and her heart pounded.
It was truly an eye-opening experience; she had never known before that there were so many intricacies involved in the pleasures of the bedroom.
"What's the use of just looking?" A lady said coquettishly, pulling a small porcelain bottle from her bosom. "This is 'One Night in Spring' perfume. Apply it behind your ears and on your wrists, and I guarantee it will work on His Highness Prince Jing..."
The lady placed the small porcelain bottle into Ye Qingxue's hand.
Ye Qingxue felt her palms getting hot.
But then, the Marquis's wife said, "Miss Ye, men are like horses; you have to know how to ride them..."
Based on the pose of the doll that Princess Yu had shown her earlier, Ye Qingxue felt that she might never be able to look at horseback riding the same way again.
She felt like she was sitting on a raging fire, not a chair. She couldn't take it any longer; she felt like she was sitting on pins and needles, like she was being pricked by thorns...
However, the ladies insisted on teaching her all night long. In the end, Ye Qingxue was flushed and thirsty, and kept asking Chunqian to refill her tea.
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