After the messenger sent by Commandery Princess Qingjiang left, the servant maids all gathered around her, looking anxious and worried, “Your Highness, it seems Commandery Princess Qingjiang will surely ask you to accompany her to Zhanchun Venue. Since Jinguo Grand Princess just got angry yesterday, it is inappropriate for you to treat Miss Nie lightly at this critical moment. However, if you leave here, how should you deal with the chores in the mansion? How about His Highness?”
As Qiaoqin, who was influenced by Wei Mengying the most greatly, saw there were no outsiders on the scene now, said anxiously, “Your Highness, the chores inside the mansion are not issues at all! After all, you will be just absent for a few days. If someone dares to be lazy or play tricks, you can just deal with them after you come back! His Highness is the most important one. Although we all know His Highness loves you deeply and affectionately, there are always some fools daring to be presumptuous and dreaming of rising overnight among hundreds of servant maids across the mansion!”
Unfortunately, Jian Xubai had been quite busy in recent days. “When people are busy and tired, they will be inevitably careless. If someone takes advantage of this opportunity at that time…”
Song Yixiao, Jian Xubai’s wife, hadn’t consummated her marriage with Jian Xubai yet.
If another servant maid took advantage of the situation, Song Yixiao would surely feel annoyed even if she could deal with her afterwards.
“So I plan to leave Jinxun and you here!” Song Yixiao said peacefully, “Oh, also Ms. Zhao. Speaking of all the ones serving in the back hall, they were all scrutinized by you first. Even if someone wants to take advantage of my absence and do something bad, I think you can handle her by uniting together!”
Qiaoqin and Jinxun said hurriedly, “Your Highness, we surely will do our best. Never should we allow someone with ill intent to approach His Highness!”
“However hard working we are, I am afraid that we can only take care of the chores in the back hall.” Ms. Zhao, who had rushed here upon hearing the news, reminded her, “What if someone in the forecourt brings people in quietly or His Highness gets somebody outside…”
“In that case, even if I am here, I may not necessarily stop it from happening!” Song Yixiao shook her head and said, “All you need to do is to take care of the back hall. If something goes wrong in other places, it has nothing to do with you at all!”
As she spoke, she assigned the tasks to the servant maids, making sure that the daily operation of the Duke of Yan’s mansion wouldn’t be affected when she wasn’t here.
A while later, the messenger informing Jian Xubai came back and reported, “Your Highness, according to His Highness, the hot spring in Zhanchun Venue is quite good. Since you have been tired in recent days, it happens that you can relax yourself there.”
He added, “Your Highness, since you won’t be home and His Highness has been quite busy in these few days, he will live in the study room directly and Ji Su will serve him there. So, according to His Highness, you should make sure all the manpower situation in the back hall is handled properly before you leave.”
As everybody on the scene heard the words, they all looked happy and thought, “Hearing that Song Yixiao would leave the imperial capital for a few days, Jian Xubai decided not to come back to the back hall directly, indicating clearly how he thought highly of his wife!
“Although Xubai won’t come back to the back hall, Ms. Zhao, please check on him for me. Advise him not to be exhausted!” Putting on an air of the mistress of Duke of Yan’s mansion, Song Yixiao smiled gently in front of the crowd and said reservedly, “If he doesn’t take your advice, you should send someone to inform me as early as possible. However urgent the official business is, he should take his health into account!”
After she was done with the reminding and task assignment, she went back to the internal room and got changed. As she was changing her clothing behind the screen alone, she curled the corner of her mouth and smiled in secret for quite a while holding her dress and clothing. After that, she adjusted the look on her face and started to get changed.
Since the main goal of the trip this time was to make Nie Wuying happy, Commandery Princess Qingjiang had left in a rush. By the time she sent someone to inform Song Yixiao, she had set out along with her son and her sister.
Song Yixiao had no choice but to get there by herself.
Fortunately, Zhanchun Venue was not far away from the imperial capital. Although the weather was freezing and the wheeler dared not to speed up for the sake of security, they, who had set out at noon, arrived at Zhanchun Venue as it almost got dark.
Due to the different season, the group of people, including Commandery Princess Qingjiang, didn’t stay in Yifang Gazebo. Instead, they stayed in the “Buyue Villa” nearby the hot spring.
Buyue Villa was quite far away from the main gate of Zhanchun Venue. By the time Song Yixiao arrived there, it was completely dark. After she got off the carriage, she glimpsed at the inscribed board above the lanterns hurriedly and stepped over the threshold under the servant’s guidance.
By the time she arrived at the hall, nobody had been around.
“Originally, Her Highness was here waiting for you along with Miss Nie. However, the Young Master got uncomfortable a moment ago, making Her Highness rush there to check on him.” The royal servant below the hall explained cautiously, “Feeling concerned, Miss Nie also went there.”
Song Yixiao had no choice but to ask, “Then I will go there to check on him too.”
For the sake of Nie Wuying’s safety, of course, Zhuo Ping’an couldn’t live in Buyue Villa, who was arranged to live in a nearby villa named Jianliu Building. By the time Song Yixiao rushed there, it happened that both her Senior and Junior Sister came out one after another. At that time, it was clear that they all looked wearisome. So they didn’t exchange any formalities with each other. Commandery Princess Qingjiang forced herself to sober up as she said, “Yixiao, have you had dinner yet? If not, I will ask the chef in the kitchen to arrange some dishes for you.”
She added, “Since we are all tired today, if there is any issue, let’s talk about it tomorrow!”
So they parted with each other and rested themselves respectively.
The next morning, after getting up and finishing her makeup, Song Yixiao rushed to the main hall, only to find out Commandery Princess Qingjiang had got up. With a card in her hands, she wrinkled her eyebrows slightly and seemed to be in a dilemma.
As Song Yixiao saw the look on her face, of course, she had to ask for the details after greeting her according to the family rules, “Sister, what are you holding?”
“The Yuan Siblings want to live here temporarily for a few days.” Commandery Princess Qingjiang said with difficulty, “The girl is OK. After all, there are many rooms nearby. I can lend her one randomly. However, as for Yuan Xuepei, although he is crippled, he is a young man after all! Women at my age won’t care about him at all. But as for you and Wuying…”
It didn’t occur to Song Yixiao that in the twelfth month of the lunar year, the three ones in her group, who took advantage of the time before the New Year Holiday kicked in, wouldn’t be the only ones sneaking out of the imperial capital and having a rest here. The Yuan Siblings were also here for the same purpose! Upon pondering on it, Song Yixiao figured out the situation and thought, “The bones of Yuan Xuepei’s knees were all broken. It’s said that the kind of injury like this will make him suffer the most in the cold days. Of course, he wants to enjoy the hot spring to alleviate his pain.”
Speaking of the places nearby the imperial capital where the hot spring laid, besides Zhanchun Venue, Cuihua Mountain was the other available option.
However, Cuihua mountain was not only distant but also inconvenient and not secure enough. Throughout the year, except for the time and season when people would go there to avoid the summer heat, nobody would go there basically.
In comparison, Commandery Princess Qingjiang’s Zhanchun Venue was nearby and of good condition, where there were servants taking care of it throughout the year. All the stuff inside the venue was ready and available. Except for the clothing for getting changed, nothing needed to be brought inside basically. The only thing preventing people from rushing here to enjoy themselves was Commandery Princess Qingjiang’s noble status. For her property, even if it was vacant, it was not that everybody was qualified to live in her place temporarily.
“Marquis Boling couldn’t even walk properly now. Sister, the way I see it, as long as he doesn’t come to Buyue Villa and Wuying and I don’t visit the place the siblings live in, with your monitoring and guidance, nobody dares to rumor groundlessly.” Of course, Song Yixiao needed to speak for her bestie. However, since the owner of Zhanchun Venue was her husband’s senior sister instead of hers by blood, she reasoned, “After all, Xubai treats Marquis Boling as his brother. His living here temporarily is probably due to his health condition. If we say no to him, I am afraid Xubai will feel awkward.”
Commandery Princess Qingjiang wrinkled her eyebrows for quite a while and said, “What you said makes sense.”
She turned her head and stared at a royal servant not far away from her, “You inform the Yuan Siblings that I agreed to let them live here for a few days. However, you also need to tell them about the house rules here in case we confront each other at that time, which will be bad!”
The royal servant obeyed her order and retreated. Song Yixiao took a sip of tea and asked, “Hasn’t Wuying gotten up yet?”
“I ordered a servant to add something in her tea to cool her down last night.” Commandery Princess Qingjiang planted her fingers against her lips and made a gesture that they should be quiet and said quietly, “She was too emotionally excited the day before yesterday. According to the doctor, she should drink something to cool herself down in these few days. However, she didn’t want to. I had no choice but to play some tricks in secret!”
Song Yixiao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she said, “It seems Wuying is angry this time. I remembered she was quite obedient before.”
“If she acts like this, I will be less concerned!” Commandery Princess Qingjiang let out a sigh and said, “What I am afraid of is that she will be always silent and speechless, who won’t even say anything at all even if she has been greatly wronged in the future!”
“Sister, what you said makes sense. It is true that Wuying was somewhat dumb previously.” Song Yixiao echoed conveniently, “Although it is quite good for a girl to be quite and elegant, girls at Wuying’s age should be lively, which will make us less worried!”
Commandery Princess Qingjiang said, “Exactly! It doesn’t matter even if some insignificant trouble will be thus caused.”
As they talked, a royal servant in the outer room walked in and saluted with his fists as he said, “Your Highness, Prince of Zhao is at the entrance along with Second Young Master Su, saying they have something to ask of you!”
“Prince of Zhao and Su Shaoge?” Commandery Princess Qingjiang was taken aback. Exchanging a surprising look with Song Yixiao, she stood up and said, “Let’s go out and see what’s going on!”
Quite a while later, they headed for the main gate to Zhanchun Venue by carriage and ran into Prince of Zhao and Su Shaoge, who were riding here at a fast speed.
“Cousin Qingjiang! Sister Yixiao!” Prince of Zhao was quite modest. After he held his horse, he got off the horse right away, greeted them according to the family rules, and said surprisedly, “I didn’t expect that Sister Yixiao would be here too.”
He, who was a royal prince, was connected to the two female relatives on the carriage by blood. So he went to the side of the carriage directly. Although Su Shaoge could be counted as a relative, the connection wasn’t that close. Since Commandery Princess Qingjiang hadn’t summoned him over, he didn’t come over. Instead, he greeted them from afar.
Glimpsing at Su Shaoge from the lifted curtain of the carriage, Song Yixiao thought in secret, “Su Shaoge was indeed born from a distinguished family, who always behaves properly.”
In an instant, Su Shaomo’s words “The Song Family’s ancestors weren’t as amazing as those of the Su Family” flashed across her mind, but only temporarily. Setting aside the fact that the glory of her family never did any help to Song Yixiao, it was her family members who would trap her most wickedly in both her current and previous life.
Commandery Princess Qingjiang glimpsed at the figure standing as straight as a javelin and asked in a low voice, “Hegu, the end of the year is drawing near. Why are you bringing Su Shaoge to my place?”
The name of Prince of Zhao was Lu Hegu.
“Cousin Qingjiang, as you know, the top-level national examination will start in Spring next year.” Sensing that Commandery Princess Qingjiang was somewhat reluctant to entertain Su Shaoge, Prince of Zhao complained hurriedly, “Everybody thinks that if there is no accident, Cousin Shaoge will surely be on the list based on his talent! Consequently, most of the talents and academicians converging in the imperial capital like to get close to him…”
“He has potential to be ranked as NO.1!” Commandery Princess Qingjiang raised her lower chin and figured out the situation as she said, “So are there many people coming to visit him in recent days?”
“They are as many as the fishes in the river!” Prince of Zhao sighed, “To be honest, many people had come to visit him previously. That was the reason why he had not lived inside Duke of Ji’s mansion and lived alone in a side court instead. Otherwise, he simply couldn’t have focused on his academic study! However, since the side court was known to people because of some issues not long ago…”
As he spoke, he glimpsed at Song Yixiao and smiled, “Sister Yixiao, don’t be dubious. I didn’t say it was you who leaked the location of the side court. However, since such an issue had taken place there, rumor would surely be spread!”
Song Yixiao nodded awkwardly and thought, “As for how the future-to-be Princess Consort of Liang had been dead by accident, it became the talk of the imperial capital at that time. Of course, the location of Su Shaoge’s side court was surely exposed.”
Prince of Zhao added, “Cousin Shaoge has moved to five or six dwelling places consecutively in these few days, including the unknown side courts and villages inside and outside the imperial capital. Even so, it was unknown how those people had been able to come to his dwelling place in person and requested to visit him. In the end, my mother had no choice but to send me here to turn to you, Cousin Qingjiang!”
After all, Su Shaoge, who was gentle and elegant and behaved like a gentleman, surely couldn’t get angry and drive the visitors away. However, as the date of the national examination was drawing near, even if he was talented and knowledgeable, who didn’t need to get prepared in advance, reasonably, he should calm himself down and adjust his mental state.
He surely wouldn’t have time to deal with these visitors coming and going one after another.
Consequently, he had no choice but to drive the visitors away with Commandery Princess Qingjiang’s power!