Changying The Lady

Shen Zhou had stayed in Fengzhou for ten days, and now he had to return to the capital. Song Zaitian had come with Shen Zhou, but he was not an envoy. His destination was as same as Shen Zhou"s, and he had already asked for a leave, so he needed not to return to the capital with Shen Zhou.

…Before Shen Zhou left Fengzhou, Deng Zongqi had already set off to Qingzhou as soon as he had recovered a bit, so as to catch up with his companions.

Song Zaitian and Song Zaishui stayed in Fengzhou in the name of visiting relatives. They tacitly waited for the Standby Guards to return to the capital. At the beginning of August, Gu Yiran and his companions eventually arrived in Fengzhou. When the servants in the Wei Family pa.s.sed on the news to the rear hall, Old Madam Song asked, “Did they find Lady Zhong"s relatives?”

“There are two carriages which didn"t appear when they set off.” the servant said as he put down his hands, “According to the style of the carriages, they must have been bought in Qingzhou, so I suppose that Lady Zhong"s relatives are in the carriages.”

Old Madam Song nodded and ordered a servant to call for Madam Song. She said to Madam Song, “The young master of the Deng Family has saved Changying. Although we have invited him to heal in our mansion, he cared about the imperial command so much that he went to catch up with his companions without being totally recovered. I wonder how it is going now. By the way, we haven"t thanked him yet…. Now that he is coming back, we shouldn"t let him pa.s.s by without asking him to have a big dinner with us.”

Madam Song understood and said, “Mr. Deng won"t come alone. If we only ask him to come without asking his companions, I"m afraid he will be in a dilemma. What about inviting them to stay in our mansion for a day or two?”

“You are right,” Old Madam Song said, “Let Changfeng and Gaochuan invite them… After all, our girls are delicate, so we have to treasure Mr. Deng since he has saved them.”

Because Deng Zongqi had saved Wei Changying from a snake, it was proper for the Wei Family to invite him. Also, Lady Zhong"s birthday would be in the next month, and they would only take at most 15 days from Fengzhou to the capital. The two grandsons of the Wei Family were ordered by Old Madam Song to invite Deng Zongqi, Gu Yiran, and his companions. They talked sincerely to Gu Yiran and his companions, who had accepted Wei Family"s invitation after saying some courteous words.

They had nowhere to stay in Fengzhou, so if they were going to the Ruiyu Hall, they had to discuss how to settle down Zhong Xiaoyi"s relatives. Although the relatives were Lady Zhong"s younger siblings, her brother Zhong Jie was already married and had a daughter. He had brought his wife and daughter together with him. Lady Zhong"s sister Zhong Li was 13 years old, and she was about to be engaged to someone when the Standby Guard found them in Qingzhou. Having known that their elder sister Lady Zhong had begun to serve for the Emperor and was favored by him, Zhong Jie decided not to let his sister Zhong Li get married in Qingzhou.

The Zhong Family was poor, so Lady Zhong first entered the palace as a maidservant. Zhong Jie and his wife lacked knowledge and experience, but they knew the Standby Guards were not ordinary people because their dresses were special, and the officials of Qingzhou respected them very much. However, the four Standby Guards were kind to them, which made them feel anxious as if they had been dreaming. But during the days on their way from Qingzhou to Fengzhou, the Standby Guards were still as nice as they met the first time, so Zhong Jie thought that the Standby Guards were afraid of being complained because the Emperor favored Lady Zhong.

The imperial harems were divided into 16 grades from the lowest Beauty to the highest Empress, and the Lady was the fifth grade from the bottom up. Based on Lady Zhong"s family background and the length of time she had served His Majesty, such grade was considerable for her. However, speaking of her official rank, she was just one grade higher than Gu Yiran…. Of course, her siblings wouldn"t know about these. They only knew that their elder sister had been chosen by His Majesty and was favored by him, so they thought they had become relatives of the Royal Family. Feeling overwhelmed with special favor, they were proud of themselves.

After entering Fengzhou, the troop was stopped by Wei Changfeng and Wei Gaochuan. Zhong Jie was glad in the beginning because he thought that the two young masters were coming to flatter Lady Zhong. When he was about to ask Gu Yiran who the two young men were, and whether they were worth meeting, he found that they invited Deng Zongqi as well as Gu Yiran, Duanmu Wuyou, Liu Xixun…, without mentioning Lady Zhong and them.

Not until Deng Zongqi and Gu Yiran accepted Wei Family"s invitation, and began to discuss how to settle Zhong Jie and his companions, did Zhong Jie understand that the Wei Family didn"t intend to invite them!

As to Zhong Jie and other members of the Zhong Family, being ignored by the Wei Family was a strike for them. After all, they had been feeling proud of themselves since knowing that their elder sister Lady Zhong had become one of the imperial harems. Now they understood that even if Lady Zhong had served His Majesty, not all the people would respect the Zhong Family.

Such awakening was too embarra.s.sed. Zhong Jie wanted to question Wei Changfeng or Wei Gaochuan several times, but he had been a commoner for such a long time that he dared not speak when he saw their distinguished demeanor. However, his face turned sullen immediately.

Deng Zongqi and Wei Changfeng both noticed Zhong Jie"s hatred. They smiled at each other secretly…. There were two reasons why Wei Family didn"t invite the members of the Zhong Family: one was the tradition of this dynasty that aristocrats and commoners should not be treated equally. Even if Lady Zhong had entered the palace, it was not worthy for a distinguished family like the Wei Family to flatter the Zhong Family. If Wei Changfeng and Wei Gaochuan greeted Zhong Jie hospitably, the Wei Family would be laughed by others. The other reason was that they were preparing for their next step.

However, Zhong Jie really did a good job….

Wei Changfeng sneered in his mind and thought, “Zhong Jie could easily lose his composure. Even if he won"t be schemed on his way to the capital, he will cause Lady Zhong trouble someday after he arrives. In the capital where sons of n.o.ble families gather, how long can Lady Zhong protect Zhong Jie? If Lady Zhong is brilliant, she won"t help her siblings like this since she knows her brother"s personality…. I suppose that the idea of bringing Lady Zhong"s siblings to the capital belongs to Honored Consort Deng.”

Gu Yiran and others also noticed Zhong Jie"s anger, which made them surprised. After a while, they realized that Zhong Jie didn"t know anything about the sons of n.o.ble families because he was born in a poor family. If his sister hadn"t entered the palace, he wouldn"t have had a chance to leave Qingzhou for his whole life. When they were in Qingzhou, they were ordinary commoners who were barely fed and clothed. Of course, they knew about the Su Family in Qingzhou, but the children of the collateral branch of the Su Family, who had helped Gu Yiran to look for Zhong Jie, respected them very much. However, such respect was due to the imperial command as well as the families of Gu Yiran and the other four.

Maybe such respect had misled Zhong Jie and had made him go wild with joy. He thought that his sister"s status was so high that the Su Family had to flatter them. As to the Wei Family, which he had never heard before…, how dare they ignore the members of the Zhong Family?

Although Gu Yiran and his companions were nice to Zhong Jie, it was just because of their family education, and they didn"t want to annoy the favored Lady Zhong because of such a small issue. After all, it was impossible for them to respect Zhong Jie truly. Now that they had noticed that Zhong Jie was angry because the Wei Family didn"t invite him, they were all amused. If not Deng Zongqi had saved Wei Changfeng"s sister, they wouldn"t have had a chance to be invited by Wei Changfeng, who was the lineal grandson of the eldest branch in the Wei Family.

If the Wei Family hadn"t owed Deng Zongqi a favor, perhaps even if Liu Xixun could depend on his relationship with the wife of Duke Jingping"s royal heir, which could avoid him from being rejected when he visited Duke Jingping"s mansion, the four of them could never have had a chance to visit Wei Huan"s branch.

Now, a commoner, who finally had a chance to enter the capital because of his elder sister, was angry for being ignored by the Wei Family…. For hundreds of years, many n.o.bles from the aristocratic families wanted to have a look at the authentic calligraphy of “The Little Bamboo Hill”, but they had no way to visit the Wei Family. Gu Yiran and the others secretly reminded Zhong Jie, “The Wei Family in Fengzhou is one of the six distinguished families in our country, and it has the same status as the Su Family in Qingzhou, so they attach great importance to manners and rules. Therefore, they dare not invite you because they don"t know you. Would you please stay in the inn with your wife and Miss Zhong Li? I will return as soon as possible after visiting Mr. Wei Huan and Old Madam Song.”

However, Gu Yiran didn"t know that Zhong Jie couldn"t understand how implicit the sons of the n.o.ble families would talk. Zhong Jie didn"t realize what Gu Yiran meant, and he didn"t compromise after hearing what Gu Yiran had said. Instead, he complained, “Since they don"t know me, why don"t you introduce me to them? Don"t they know that my eldest sister is an imperial consort?”

“….” Gu Yiran made a dry cough and said, “Mr. Zhong, Lady Zhong is only a Concubine now, and the status of the Consort is above the Concubine. If you say such words in the capital, you will cause Lady Zhong trouble.”

He was kind enough to remind Zhong Jie to this extend, since he had nothing to do with Lady Zhong, and he had no relationship with Empress Gu except for having the same family name. However, although Zhong Jie was surprised when he heard that he would cause Lady Zhong trouble, he asked with confusion, “His Majesty likes my eldest sister a lot, doesn"t he? Or else, why do you take us to the capital to visit her?”

His Majesty had loved numerous people, and he had even announced three sons as Crown Princes—each of them had once been highly praised by the Emperor.

Seeing that Zhong Jie was so ignorant, Gu Yiran didn"t want to talk more. He smiled and said, “Yes, Lady Zhong is favored by the Emperor. That"s why His Majesty asked us to look for you in Qingzhou.”

“Then you can tell these to the fifth young master of the Wei Family,” Zhong Jie said naively, “I don"t care whether I can visit Wei Family or not. But they are too impolite to ignore us! If they don"t explain it to us, I will tell my eldest sister as soon as I meet her.”

He meant to threaten Gu Yiran by saying those. Gu Yiran took a quick glance at his companions and made a wry smile as he said, “His Majesty has stipulated the time that we should return to the capital, so we dare not waste time. However, since the Old Madam of the Wei Family has asked her lineal grandson to invite us, we must accept the invitation…. There, what about arranging someone to accompany you? We"ll continue our journey as soon as we return from the Wei Family.”

…Gu Yiran"s compromise was not because of the threatening words that Zhong Jie had said. He did it because Duanmu Wuyou still hated Wei Changfeng, and had told Gu Yiran that he didn"t want to visit the Wei Family. The Duanmu Family in Jinxiu was at the same status as the Wei Family in Fengzhou, so it was nothing for Duanmu Wuyou to visit the Wei Family. Gu Yiran thought that he could let Duanmu Wuyou stay in the inn and look after the members of the Zhong Family so that they wouldn"t do anything wrong.

Seeing that Gu Yiran had ignored his request of introducing Wei Changfeng and Wei Gaochuan to him, the ignorant Zhong Jie had understood that Gu Yiran was reluctant to do so, or that the Wei Family still wouldn"t invite him even if Gu Yiran had done it. Feeling angry, Zhong Jie said, “Since Mr. Gu has been so tired during the journey, we won"t ignore your hard work. As soon as we meet my eldest sister, I will tell her everything about what you have done.”

Gu Yiran had a good temper. He knew that Zhong Jie was a commoner, who never had a chance to leave his hometown, and that was why Zhong Jie thought that he could look down upon everyone except for the royal family since his sister had become a Lady. Gu Yiran was amused when he heard Zhong Jie"s threatening words, but Duanmu Wuyou wasn"t that nice. He said impatiently, “You can say whatever you want after you arrive in the capital! Now follow me to the inn!”

He then said to Gu Yiran, “Come back as soon as possible. Off you go!”