vstars Chapter 188 A Preference for the New and a Dislike for the Old
Chapter 188 A Preference for the New and a Dislike for the Old
"After all, it's his first time marrying a new bride, so we still need to do more."
Jiang Zhi also agrees with this point.
When she got married, her family was busy with preparations.
Ironically, she still had time to play chess and make bets with her father before her wedding.
“Your Highness and Nianqiu are on good terms. Can you tell me about Nianqiu’s living habits?” Madam Pei said to Jiang Zhi. “That way, when she comes to our Pei residence, she won’t always be thinking about her maternal home.”
Upon hearing Madam Pei's words, Jiang Zhi stopped pretending.
“What my cousin dislikes most are two-faced servants,” Jiang Zhi said. “As long as the Pei family doesn’t have them, everything will be peaceful.”
Madam Pei was not surprised by her attitude; she simply smiled and lowered her eyes.
Her personality hasn't changed. If it weren't for the fact that this world is full of deceit and treachery, she would like to be friends with her.
Jiang Zhi glanced around and smiled, "So the young master has a habit of growing flowers."
As soon as they brought a cartload of medicinal herbs into the gate, they saw the Pei family's courtyard full of flowers and plants.
Madam Pei chuckled, "Since Shang Dao loves flowers, we found all sorts of flower seeds, and now the courtyard is full of blooms."
"The Crown Prince is indeed a man of refined taste and elegance."
Madam Pei sighed, "Leisurely elegance, leisurely elegance, but only for a short time."
"Is Madam mocking herself?"
Madam Pei looked at her.
Jiang Zhi smiled and said, "The secret you've been working so hard for your family and loved ones to keep until death could be exposed at any moment."
Shouldn't we make fun of ourselves?
Madam Pei was speechless for a moment, then asked, "How does the Princess know this?"
A smart person will understand immediately.
Jiang Zhi smiled slightly and lowered his eyes to straighten his cuffs.
"Madam, isn't it hard to raise a child who isn't your own?"
Madam Pei met her gaze, paused for a moment, and asked, "What does the Princess Consort desire?"
"I just want to remind you, Madam, not to give them compensation beyond what is appropriate for their status out of guilt. I'm afraid they won't be able to bear it, including you, Madam."
Madam Pei dismissed the matter: "Aren't you overthinking it?"
"That day will never come. If it does, I won't act irrationally."
“Then please remember this sentence, Madam,” Jiang Zhi said, ending the topic here. “You are well aware of how many people are watching what you say and do. I have heard that before you married into the Pei family, you were on good terms with Consort Duan in the palace.”
"I want to know about Consort Duan."
“Consort Duan?” Madam Pei thought for a moment. “She entered the palace and I got married, but ever since I married into the Pei family, she has stopped having any contact with me. The last thing she said to me was: ‘I will never see you again.’”
“We used to be best friends. She didn’t want to go to the palace before, but I don’t know why she suddenly agreed to go.”
"Did she encounter anything?" she asked.
"She disappeared for a period of time before entering the palace. But she returned without any major problems."
"I kept asking her how she was doing in the palace, and the answer I got was that she was doing quite well, so I stopped bothering her."
Jiang Zhi looked at the other person's expression. She first met Consort Duan at the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet.
She seemed quite capable back then.
"I've thought about it over and over for a long time. Maybe...maybe it's because the new people in the palace are replacing the old ones too quickly. But isn't that how it is? When you have a lot of power, the result is always the same."
With so many beautiful women in the palace, it's perfectly normal for them to change frequently.
Jiang Zhi was stunned. Old favorites replaced by new ones? Consort Duan was one of the few favored concubines besides the Imperial Noble Consort who could maintain her position with the Emperor. Why could she…?
Jiang Zhi looked up and smiled, trying to comfort Madam Pei while also clearing up his own doubts.
“But you, my lady, are not the kind of person who is fickle. You devote more attention to the young master than to your own son.”
“I can tell that even if you love your own son dearly, you will still favor the Crown Prince more.”
Madam Pei felt a pang of bitterness as she recalled her devotion to the Crown Prince and her past attitude towards Pei Qiu.
But the past cannot be retrieved.
“The heir is the Marquis’s child. I love the Marquis, so naturally I love his child as well.”
The two looked at each other, neither speaking.
The carriage moved slowly, swaying and rocking.
As Jiang Zhi swayed, her thoughts became unsettled.
I lifted the curtain of the car window, leaned against the window, and just looked outside.
The window was only closed when someone hugged me from behind.
She looked at noon and smiled slightly: "I'm fine."
"Your Highness, please don't pretend in front of me. You don't look like anything's wrong at all."
At noon, she took out some pastries from her sleeve and handed them to Jiang Zhi before looking up at the princess who was frowning.
"If Your Highness still can't figure out the way forward, why not look back, or ask His Highness?"
"If Your Highness doesn't know, perhaps Young Master Min does. Isn't he a scholar who passed the imperial examination?"
"Min Xiang?"
Wu Shi smiled and said, "Young Master Min is capable of passing the imperial examination, so he must be someone who knows everything."
Jiang Zhi thought for a moment, leaned on Wu Shi's shoulder, and said, "Go to Bai Xiaotang."
At noon, she softly agreed and gently shifted her body so that the Princess Consort could lean back more comfortably.
The sounds of horses' hooves and the chatter of passersby filled the quiet carriage.
After a while, Jiang Zhi said in a low voice, "Consort Duan's identity is not simple, at least not as simple as it seems."
"Why do you say that, Princess?"
"Madam Pei and Consort Duan used to be on good terms, but after Consort Duan entered the palace, she stopped contacting Madam Pei. Thinking back to the first time I met Consort Duan, I never imagined that she would be someone who was frustrated because the emperor was fickle."
"Would she target the Princess and His Highness?"
“But she has no children, and I can’t figure out her motive for attacking me and His Highness.”
"It can't be that she loves the emperor, can it?"
For Jiang Zhi,
That's absolutely ridiculous.
“Perhaps it’s to protect someone she cares about?” Wu Shi said. “Xing Luo said that if a person’s appearance is very different from their inner self, it may be because they are protecting someone they want to protect in this way.”
"The person you want to protect?"
Before he could come up with an answer, the carriage stopped; Bai Xiaotang had arrived.
As soon as they entered, they ran into Gu Liang and the prince consort.
Gu Liang led Jiang Zhi away. He opened his umbrella and leaned towards Jiang Zhi, asking, "You want to ask about the people in the palace?"
Before meeting Jiang Zhi, Qin Qi came to Gu Liang to talk about Consort Duan.
Jiang Zhi looked at him: "So who's behind her?"
"Her background is very clean."
"Could she not be from Yanjing?" Jiang Zhi asked.
"The prince consort discovered that she and Madam Pei had known each other since childhood, and that she entered the palace for her father's career advancement; her father was the magistrate of Xiyan County."
“There is a suspicious point. Before entering the palace, she disappeared for a month and then returned on her own. However, she had not agreed to enter the palace before, but immediately agreed after returning. Her father thought that his daughter had just changed her mind.”
Jiang Zhi's gaze darkened.
The two walked down the bridge.
In Kyoto's waterways, women often wash clothes, children play, and small boats occasionally glide by. If a young lady or gentleman on the street takes a liking to the person on the boat, he will greet them.
But at this moment, both sides of the waterway were quiet and peaceful, with no boats or women in sight, as if everyone was waiting for something.
Unbeknownst to them, while they were gazing at each other across the bridge, someone in the tavern in the water lane was also watching that dark green figure under an umbrella.