Wei Changying naturally knew nothing about the busyness and intrigue between her grandmother and grandfather. The next day, she was urged by Song Zaishui again to go to the Old Madam Song to plead for her. At first, she told Old Madam Song the same things she used to say with Madam Song, "The Eastern Palace is way too unscrupulous nowadays. I heard that the Emperor adored the young and beautiful Miao Jieyu a lot these two years. She has adopted the sixteen and seventeen princes and has been courtesy to the courtiers. Now the position of the Empress is very unstable. If the position of the Empress were in danger, according to the fate of the first two Crown Princes of this dynasty, the position of the current Crown Prince would be unsteady as well. Moreover, most of the abandoned Crown Princes in this dynasty died of sudden diseases. While the abandoned Crown Princesses are still alive, they are just suffering. What"s the point to agree with such a marriage?"
Old Madam Song smiled softly and said, "Was this the reason you came to see me yesterday?"
After eavesdropping on the quarrel between her grandfather and grandmother, Wei Changying felt a little guilty, and said with intended carelessness, "Yes, Grandma. Shall we help my cousin Song? Knowing the stories of the Crown Prince, I feel that it would be aggrieved to even marry him a maid from our family!"
"You are getting more and more reckless when you say that." Old Madam Song was amused when she caught a glimpse of her granddaughter"s look of embarra.s.sment, but she reprimanded her with tender affections when she heard Wei Changying said that, "The Crown Prince is the one with n.o.ble birth and is currently the future emperor. How can you talk so carelessly? If you get used to talking like this at home, you will cause trouble later on! After all, you are going to marry to the capital!"
Wei Changying threw herself on her grandmother, and said, "I only talk so recklessly in front of my grandmother, because I know my grandmother loves me the most! Even if I make a mistake, grandmother will be there to help me!" Leaning on Old Madam Song, she said in a sweet voice, "Grandma, Grandma! Can you please help cousin Song?"
This was the way of Wei Changying and Wei Changfeng that Old Madam Song feared and liked the most. Her clothes were tangled, and she begged for mercy. Yet she still smiled and then scolded, "If you don"t let go, grandma"s old bones will fall apart. If so, who will you mess with in the future?"
Wei Changying stopped when she heard this. Chen Ruping came up with a smile to tidy up clothes for Old Madam Song and regained her dignified manner. Old Madam Song pointed at her granddaughter"s bright and clean forehead, and said with both love and hate, "Cousin, cousin! For the sake of your cousin, you shake your grandmother back and forth, what did you take it for? You are actually caring less of your grandma when you have a good sister!"
"There is no such thing!" Wei Changying tugged at her sleeve and changed the subject cunningly. She said, "So, will grandma help my cousin?"
Old Madam Song could clearly see her hidden thoughts. Yet just as Wei Changying thought, Old Madam Song could not bear to give her a hard time. "How can Grandma help your cousin?" Old Madam Song asked and pointed again at her forehead while mimicking from her way of speaking with rising tone at the end.
"What?" Although Old Madam Song playfully and casually responded with such a sentence, Wei Changying was keen to aware of the unusualness and was surprised, "How cannot grandma help my cousin? Anyway, my cousin is at our house now. If we just say she has fallen ill, the Crown Prince will not wait for her all the time. Wouldn"t it be alright to tell others my cousin has recovered after the Crown Prince to select a new concubine?"
Old Madam Song did not expect her granddaughter to be so sensitive, the soon-to-be-married granddaughter, of course, it would be the smarter, the better. She was somewhat gratified, but sighed and said, "As a child, don"t ask any more questions about this. In the end, Yuw.a.n.g is the father of Zaishui. How can our family mess with the matter of his daughter?"
"But now my uncle is pushing my cousin into the fire pit!" Wei Changying said with dissatisfaction, "Can"t grandma give my cousin a hand? I heard that Old Madam of the Song Family did not want my cousin to be the Crown Princess as well. By all means, my uncle is the younger generation of grandma, he won"t be able to come up and question you anyways!"
Old Madam Song smiled and said, "Since you know that Old Madam of the Song Family can"t even do anything about it, what do you think grandma can do?"
"... Why?" Wei Changying thought about it over and over again, but she could not understand the reason that the marriage of Song Zaishui was so difficult to deal with. Obviously, with everyone one heart and one mind, it was not impossible to be perfunctory and dismiss the marriage. Yet, all the elders said that they are unable to help.
Moreover, both Old Madam Song and Madam Song were the ones that should not be afraid of Song Yuw.a.n.g, but now none of them was willing to oppose Song Yuw.a.n.g for Song Zaishui"s sake. Although they wouldn"t love Song Zaishui as much as Wei Changying, Song Zaishui was still the direct niece of Madam Song. Therefore, they should not stand idly by like this, should they?
Although Old Madam Song loved her granddaughter, no matter how coquetry Wei Changying acted, she even made a few rolls on Old Madam Song"s bed. Old Madam Song did not say a word about the things she did not intend to say. Wei Changying had no choice but to go back and explain to Song Zaishui with disappointment.
Although Song Zaishui had known for a long time that if grandaunt intended to help her, she wouldn"t have to wait until she coaxed Wei Changying to beg for her. However, she still could not help crying when she heard the exact news.
Wei Changying was also puzzled by it, so she simply said, "Why don"t you go back to the capital and ask your father directly? I don"t believe my uncle really doesn"t love you. Maybe there"s some misunderstanding about it?"
"I"m afraid I"ll be locked up directly till the wedding date when I go back, won"t I?" Although Song Zaishui was sad at the moment, she did not change her nature. She sneered and said bitterly, "I had written in that letter that I would rather die than be the Crown Princess. If these were written to my grandaunt or aunt, what kind of misunderstanding would make them still not let go of this?"
She wiped her face discouragedly and sighed, "My father really wants me dead!"
"It shouldn"t be that bad. I think maybe that"s what my uncle said in the moment of anger when he just saw the letter." Seeing she acted like this, Wei Changying sympathized with her and tried her best to console her.
However, Song Zaishui couldn"t listen to what Wei Changying was saying at all and wept silently for a long time. When Wei Changying was going to send someone to ask Madam Song to come, Song Zaishui suddenly dried her tears, regained her calm and said, "Don"t disturb aunt. I have stayed here for many days how can I cause more trouble for my aunt?"
"Cousin?" Hearing that there was something wrong with her tone, Wei Changying could not help but call her with caution, "I think it is impossible for my grandmother and mother not to care about you, but the reason that they do not want to intervene this... Neither of them is willing to say. I think there must be a reason for this…."
Song Zaishui turned her body and leaned on the pillow. She looked at the ceiling of the tent, and said faintly, "Mm-hmm."
"What if everything will be fine if you figure that reason out?" Wei Changying seldom saw her dejected look so that she became more and more sympathetic towards her. She racked her brains to find a reason for Song Zaishui. "So-called "heaven will always leave a door open"...."
"I"m not dead yet! You don"t have to show such compa.s.sion!" Unexpectedly, Song Zaishui glared at her, sat up and said, "Alright, now that I can"t think of a way now, let"s just wait for another time to discuss it!"
Although Wei Changying did not know that Song Zaishui had decided to disfigure herself to get rid of the marriage when she had no choice, after getting along with Song Zaishui for a long time, she still felt that Song Zaishui had other plans in mind. She doubted and said, "Don"t think too much about it, cousin! Things have not yet come to a dead end, and there are still possibilities of turning things around."
"... I didn"t mind it at all!" Song"s Zaishui"s backup plan was to disfigure herself but wasn"t to kill herself. Besides, her disfigurement was intended to marry a man who would make her not to worry so much for the rest of her life. She didn"t want to die. She laughed angrily when she heard Wei Changying said that, "You, I knew you were here to restrain me! Can"t you say something nice when you see me in such a bad mood?"
Without blinking eyes, Wei Changying said, "My cousin is beautiful, virtuous, gentle, considerate, kind-hearted, and will be rewarded with blessings... Smart, kind, lovely, born n.o.ble…. Cousin, you are such a great person that I am almost jealous of you! Oh, is that enough? If it"s not enough, I"ll go through some books and come back to tell you more."
… Song Zaishui took a deep breath and said, "Yes, I"m all good now! Let me beg you something.... Please go and do whatever you are going to do! Can you stop talking to me?"
"Cousin, you are really difficult to deal with." Wei Changying got up lazily and said, "I"m so obedient, but you still want to kick me away. But I think you"re in a better mood after I said that." She seemed a little proud, "As expected, I"m sure the best at comforting people. I think cousin will not have any bad ideas now."
Song Zaishui turned over and buried her head in the thin quilt to pretend she didn"t hear anything....
When she got out of Mingse House, Wei Changying asked people to invite Jiang Zheng to come to the backyard. Lvbin looked at the bright sun overhead and tried to persuade her, "It"s really hot now, so why don"t First Miss go back to Xianshuang Court for a rest and wait for the sun to go down a bit?"
Wei Changying said, "I"m not sleepy. It"s boring to rest in Xianshuang Court. I might as well practice boxing under the shade."
She was not sleepy, but all the maidservants felt tired. So Lvchi said, "Under the bright sun, it"s not cool even under the tree. First Miss, look at the leaves on the trees around us, they don"t move at all. It would not be a pleasant feeling if your clothes were wet through sweat and affixed to your body."
"Moreover, didn"t First Miss just get a sunburn on the face two days ago? Madam and Granny He both said that First Miss should stay in the house more often now."
With a lot of talks, Wei Changying finally agreed to go back to Xianshuang Court first.
When she just arrived at Xianshuang Court, she saw Zhu Shi snooping around at the door. When Zhu Shi saw Wei Changying, she ran out and told her, "First Miss, Huamei sister just came over and said that Madam had asked you to visit her."
Wei Changying asked suspiciously, "I don"t seem to have caused any trouble these days, have I?"
"..." Maidservants were silent for a moment, and then said uncertainly, "No...?" Wei Changying has already been punished to kneel twice during this period. Moreover, basically every time she was called by Madam Song, she would be giving a lecture. Thus, when the master and maidservants heard that Madam Song called her daughter to come over, their first thought was: Is Wei Changying going to be punished again today?
"How did my mother ask me to come over?" Wei Changying said uneasily, "Lvbin, you stay here to inquire about this. If you find things are going the wrong way, just go and report to grandma, understand?"
With such a backup plan, Wei Changying went to Madam Song"s yard. However, she actually worried too much. Because Madam Song didn"t call her this time to scold her for not doing her proper job, but for something else, "You went to find your grandmother today. Did you hear your grandmother talk to people around about your fourth sister"s marriage?"
Wei Changying said with surprise, "No, what happened to the fourth sister"s marriage?"
"Just now your third aunt came over and said that your third uncle told her yesterday that he took a fancy to Song Duan, the eldest son of Song Han. Therefore, he wanted to match up Song Duan with your fourth sister." Madam Song never kept secrets from her beloved eldest daughter and said, "You know how your third uncle is. He is always easy to coax with. Fortunately, your third aunt was careful and asked about the details of Song Duan, but your third uncle couldn"t think of any details. It was only then that he told your third aunt that he had drunk too much at that time, but he felt good several times when he met Song Duan. How can your third aunt rest a.s.sure? So she came over to me to discuss this."
Wei Changying could not help but laugh, "How could the third uncle so muddled? That"s the thing about the lifetime of the fourth sister. He drank too much, yet didn"t he ask more about it afterward? It is not strange that Song Duan acted well in front of the third uncle. Not to mention that he wants to marry the fourth sister, Song Duan is only the son of the vice-governor and a side branch of the Song Family. Moreover, the third uncle is the son of the main branch and the governor of Fengzhou. This time, grandfather also went to suppress the bandits in Fengqi Mountain, how dare Song Duan be disrespectful?"
Madam Song also disliked Wei Shengnian very much and said, "He was going to tell your grandmother! It was your third aunt who said that your grandmother had already spoken that she would discuss Gaochan"s marriage later, and only then did he stop it! Otherwise, he seemed to be rather married out your fourth sister right away! I guess he"s probably dizzied by Song Han! If it hadn"t been your third aunt, Gaochan would have suffered a great loss this time!"
"Does the third aunt want to make the third uncle give up the idea?" Wei Changying asked.
However, Madam Song shook her head, "Although Song Han is a side branch of the Song Family, your third aunt thinks that if Song Duan is actually good, it is not impossible to consider him. After all, Gaochan will be married in Fengzhou, and it would be convenient for her to visit her mother"s house later. Thus, she can be taken good care of if something happens. So now the main thing is to get to know the character of Song Duan first, and then find out your grandmother"s att.i.tude... If there is no problem on both sides, and then your third uncle actually did something good unintentionally this time."