Yunchu’s Vengeance - Chapter 153
Chapter 153 - The Hunting Invitation
Yun Chu sat in the reception hall, raising her eyes to look at Xie Ping as she walked in through the doorway.
There was a custom for brides to return home for a visit three days after the wedding, yet Xie Ping had not returned. With a brief thought, Yun Chu easily guessed that Prince Anjing must have been unwilling to accompany her back, and Xie Ping, fearing she would be gossiped about for lacking her husband's favor if she returned alone, had simply found an excuse not to come.
Now, it had been a little over half a month since Xie Ping's marriage, and she appeared much more poised than she had before leaving her maiden home.
"Greetings, Princess."
Yun Chu stood up and offered a formal bow.
"Mother, please rise quickly." Xie Ping hurriedly stepped forward and helped Yun Chu up. "That I could become the Princess is entirely thanks to Mother. If Mother still bows to me, how am I supposed to conduct myself?"
Though she spoke this way on the surface, a secret sense of satisfaction bloomed deep within her heart.
Look at that: the legitimate eldest daughter of a first-rank general's estate, her formal mother, now had to bow to her. This alone was enough to demonstrate just how lofty her status truly was.
She might have suffered a few humiliating moments in front of Consort De and Prince Anjing, but the Empress would still grant her face. As for everyone else, they were far too busy flattering her to ever deliberately make things awkward for her.
Yun Chu naturally sensed this hidden emotion of hers.
"Ping'er has a wonderful complexion; it seems you are living quite well in the Prince's Manor." Yun Chu wore a faint smile on her face. "Secondary Consort Shi is a bit older than you, so it is only normal for the Prince to summon her to attend to him. You must remember not to stir up jealousy and vie for favor."
She had rescued Du Ling's younger sister, Du Ying, from Prince Anjing's Manor, yet she had never expected that it would lead to the Shi family's eldest young lady becoming a secondary consort instead.
In her previous life, this eldest Miss Shi had been married off by her stepmother to a sixty-year-old elderly man as his fourth concubine-turned-stepwife. Just three months after Miss Shi was married over, the old man breathed his last and died, leaving behind a massive brood of children who promptly drove Miss Shi right out of the household.
Ashamed that this daughter had brought disgrace upon them, the Shi family completely severed ties with her.
Any other pampered young lady would have found the humiliation unbearable and simply perished.
Yet Miss Shi instead hocked the pitifully meager amount of dowry the Shi family had thrown out with her—which reportedly fetched a mere three taels of silver—rented a dilapidated shack, and began doing odd jobs to scrape together a living...
Later on, Miss Shi opened a teahouse, and her life began to flourish quite prosperously... Because she loved drinking tea, Yun Chu had specially instructed Tingsue to buy tea from Miss Shi's shop every few days, which was how she came to hear snippets of news regarding Miss Shi.
If Miss Shi were to die because she was implicated by Prince Anjing due to Yun Chu's machinations in this lifetime, Yun Chu would never find peace of mind.
The only breakthrough point was this: after Prince Anjing met his downfall, the dozen or so concubines in his back courtyard were all set free because the majority of them were respectable women who had been forcibly seized. If she could reduce Secondary Consort Shi's status to that of a mere concubine-servant, perhaps a single thread of survival might remain for her.
Pondering this, Yun Chu continued, "Prince Anjing has reached the proper age, yet he has no issue to his name. Consort De will certainly urge Secondary Consort Shi to conceive a child as soon as possible. Consort De is not targeting you personally, so you must not harbor resentment in your heart. Do you understand?"
Xie Ping pressed her lips together tightly.
Mother was truly far too clever. Without ever meeting Consort De, she had already guessed Consort De's scheming intentions.
In the days leading up to the grand wedding, Consort De had dispatched palace matrons every single day to deliver various medicinal concoctions to Secondary Consort Shi, claiming that consuming them would guarantee the birth of a son in one stroke.
She was the legitimate, proper Princess Anjing; she could absolutely never allow anyone else to conceive the Prince's heir before her.
Lowering her eyelids, she said, "Mother doesn't know yet, does she? Secondary Consort Shi has already been demoted to a mere maid-concubine. She penned words within her room that showed contempt for Consort De, which displeased the Prince..."
Yun Chu's fingers paused mid-motion.
She had intended to deliberately provoke Xie Ping into taking action, never imagining that Xie Ping would lose her composure so quickly. Just how long had it been since the grand wedding, and already Secondary Consort Shi had fallen victim to her schemes.
In that case, there was no need for her to waste any more breath.
Seeing that Yun Chu remained silent, a wave of panic fluttered in Xie Ping's heart, prompting her to hurriedly change the subject. "Mother, the reason I came back this time is to share some good news with you. Every autumn, the Emperor arranges a grand hunting expedition, and this year it is scheduled for the twenty-first of the ninth month. The Prince's Manor has been allotted three spots to attend, and I have specially brought the extra invitation post for Mother."
Yun Chu took the invitation post and glanced over it. Sure enough, it was for the imperial court's annual hunt.
In her previous life, the Fourth Prince, Prince Anjing, had met his downfall right there on the hunting grounds, and from that moment on, the Prince Anjing's Manor ceased to exist.
She had half-expected Xie Ping to maintain her role as the Princess for quite a while longer, but she never anticipated that the hunt would arrive so swiftly. The identity of Prince Anjing's primary consort had proven far more fleeting than she had imagined...
She smiled faintly and said, "I won't be going to the hunt. You can take this invitation and give it to An'er instead."
Just as she spoke, Xie Shi'an walked in from the doorway and chimed in, "Mother, the Emperor has specifically ordered all students of the Imperial Academy to accompany the party to the hunting grounds; I do not need an invitation."
In the past, he had always relied on his mother to secure introductions before he could set foot into the upper-echelon social circles.
Now, he was entirely different from before; he could integrate himself among the scions of noble aristocratic families purely on his own merits... So what if those people looked down on him? He had earned the favor of his Imperial Academy instructors, who gave him private tutoring sessions every day after class. In the upcoming provincial examinations, he was bound to capture the top spot of Jieduan and make all those who looked down on him view him with a brand-new perspective.
Pausing for a moment, he continued, "Households of first- and second-rank high officials are permitted to have one female relative attend. Grandmother will surely be going, and since eldest sister happens to have an extra invitation, why doesn't Mother take the post and go accompany Grandmother for a chat?"
Yun Chu twitched the corner of her lips.
She frequently visited the Yun family these days and could see her mother whenever she pleased; there was no need to make a special trip to the hunting grounds just to talk.
She knew full well that these two siblings merely wanted to show off that their current status was different now, allowing them to turn the tables and escort her to occasions she would otherwise be unable to attend...
Just as she was about to speak, she saw Tingfeng hurry inside. "Madam, someone has arrived from the palace! Her Majesty the Empress has sent an imperial edict for Madam."
Xie Shi'an and Xie Ping exchanged an involuntary glance, the two of them following closely behind Yun Chu as she headed to the front courtyard.
The person delivering the decree was a young eunuch, who respectfully addressed Yun Chu: "Lady Xie, by imperial decree of Her Majesty the Empress, Lady Xie is requested to accompany the imperial procession to the Yanshan hunting grounds on the morning of the twenty-first of the ninth month. We ask that Lady Xie make the necessary preparations."
Hearing this, Yun Chu felt a trace of surprise.
Because their Yun family had produced a consort in the inner palace, they remained unfamiliar with all the other imperial consorts, including the Empress. Why on earth would the Empress specifically invite her to attend the hunt?
However, an imperial edict from the Empress could not be defied. No matter how many questions crowded her mind, she could only respectfully accept the decree.
Xie Shi'an's fingers tightened slightly.
He had assumed that for this hunting trip, his mother lacked the qualifications to attend and would have to rely on his eldest sister's invitation just to gain entry.
Yet never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the Empress would actually dispatch someone to deliver an imperial edict, naming his mother directly. What an extraordinary honor this was.
Xie Ping felt even more unsettled inside.
She had relied on her mother to become a Princess, and she had wanted to let her mother rely on her in turn to attend the hunt.
Yet her mother didn't need it at all.
Looking down at the invitation in her hand, she found it utterly ridiculous no matter how she viewed it, and she tossed it straight into Xie Shi'an's arms. "You can take it and use it as a personal favor for whichever classmate you please."
If Father's health hadn't been in such poor shape, they could have let Father go; now, they could only let outsiders reap the benefit.
Xie Shi'an nodded. Back when he was at Huai'de Academy, he had made the acquaintance of many people, including quite a few young masters from official families. He could just as well seize this opportunity to win them over—wasn't that precisely the network of connections he would need when entering officialdom as a court official down the road?