There was a light rain last night, the sky was a little gloomy, heavy black clouds overcasted the grand palace, making people"s hearts feel even more unsettled. Su Qing walking on the bluestone path, retracted the cool fingertips into the sleeves soon after she lifted up the skirt. Her pale little face was also turned slightly red from coldness, she secretly cursed "d.a.m.n weather."
When they came to the main hall, she saw the crown prince and a number of ministers standing in the hall seemed to be discussing the funeral rites.
Walking on the palace path, she didn"t see many people along the way. Su Qing didn"t ask much, and quietly lowered her head following eunuch Changsheng from behind. Thinking of that imperial edict, Su Qing felt somewhat quite funny. Although she"s not an ancient person, she also has some knowledge of common household"s funeral. The daughter will have to observe mourning for her parents for three years, not permit to have a wedding ceremony, avoiding red silk. She has never heard that the father"s body had not turned cold yet and the daughter turned around getting married in an instant. It seemed a little strange.
Su Qing thought about it all the way, but couldn"t think of the reason, until Changsheng who was walking in front stopped and said a few words to the guard standing outside the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Su Qing finally reacted, recollected her sentiment eyes, waiting for Changsheng finished giving his instructions and went inside with him.
Walking into the hall, behind the screen, she saw a small table with a teapot, incense burner, and …previous emperor"s tablet….
Su Qing has a puzzled look.
"This is a private tablet I set for His Majesty, and it was permitted by His Majesty before his death." Changsheng said with a calm expression, then stepped forward to light the incense and pa.s.sed it to Su Qing.
"Thank you, GongGong." Su Qing received the incense, saluting respectfully to the tablet, and then inserted the incense into the incense burner.
Eunuch Changsheng stood on the side looking at Su Qing"s action and suddenly said, "The marriage decree was made by His Majesty himself."
Su Qing looked up at him in surprise. Trying to calm herself down and said, "Changsheng GongGong, did you remember it wrong….."
All along, she always thought that it was the crown prince and Grand Consort Duan"s plan who deliberately made her married into the Gu Family in order to use her. But what is going now?
Changsheng withdrew his gaze that landed on her face, the face that looked very similar to Consort Wen, in a flash everything is cleared.
"If this servant says that His Majesty did this in order to protect Your Highness, do Your Highness believe me?"
————-
Since Su Shizhou is a crown prince, naturally many things are under his control. With the support of the ministers in court manys things are easy to take care of. The back harem has always been non-interfering with the court affairs, so all the woman forks in the royal family have left early returned to their living quarters.
Su Yingruo walked out of Qingluan Palace, right after the Grand Consort went to bed. After walking quite a distance, she summoned the eunuch on the side and asked, "Any news from her?"
The eunuch answered with a bitter face, "The moment Tenth Princess entered the palace, she was taken to the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The sevenths were afraid to act rashly and making Changsheng GongGong upset, so did not dare to get closer. Until now they are still the Hall of Mental Cultivation, haven"t come out yet."
Su Yingruo frowned and the handkerchief in her hands which made out of good silk were twisted around and finally was ruthlessly thrown to the ground..
"A few of you, follow this princess to Jian Zhi Palace."
Today is a special day, not many people in the palace dare to hang out. Only a few palace maids were a.s.signed to prepare work outside. Once they saw Su Yingruo walking by in a bad mood, they disregarded the stuff in their hands, one after another bowed their heads and saluted her in unison.
One of the servants was bold enough looked up at the direction where she"s heading to and sighed, "what a pity, the Tenth Princess is going to suffer again."
"His Majesty is no longer here, falling out of favor is just a matter of time." Someone interjected.
"Not only that I also heard that the Seventh Lord has a bad temperament, he has a hard like and like to….."
That person had something more to say but saw the supervise eunuch was standing there, she quickly lowered the head, picked up the stuff and left in a rush. The other maids also quickly scattered.
Master"s affairs meant to be said.
Su Yingruo stepped into Jian Zhi Palace in high spirits, thinking that she must teach Su Qing a good lesson this time. Unexpectedly the hall was empty, they looked around for several laps still couldn"t find the person."
"Useless thing! Where"s the person you are talking about?" She picked up the teacup on the table, and threw it hard on the forehead of a eunuch who was standing not far away, the blood immediately flowed down.
"This, Your Highness …this servant clearly saw they left the Hall of Mental Cultivation and waking toward…." Saying half a sentence, his mouth was covered by the eunuch whose head was smashed by a teacup just now, he took a quick glance at Su Yingruo"s expression, she then hurriedly lowered her head and repeatedly begged for mercy.
It"s well known the Seventh Princess is as beautiful as a fairy, the number one beauty of the imperial capital, but this beauty is also a poisonous beauty in private. If one happens to know Her Highness"s real temperament, afraid that it would… realizing this fact that eunuch kept kowtowing begging for forgiveness.
Su Yingruo was annoyed by his pity acts, she impatiently ordered the servants to go inquire about Qing"s whereabouts and then ordered the rest of servants to smash all the useful items in the Jian Zhi Palace. Only after then she felt a little better and brought her people leaving the hall.
Behind the rockery not far from the Jian Zhi palace, Su Qing looked around making sure people really had gone away, and then breathed out in relief, bending over and rubbed her sore calf.
"I totally got it today, Su Yingruo a crazy dog so regardless I"m not a delicious cake or not she still wanted to bite me."
"Your Highness, watch out your words." Chuntao hurriedly reached out her hand to cover Su Qing"s mouth, and looked around vigilantly. After that copied Su Qing"s earlier expression breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Really timid." Su Qing wrinkled her eyebrows, stretched out her hand to pinched her cheek with a playful smile.
When Su Qing let go of her hand, Chuntao touched her face and murmured under her breath, "Your Highness is also timid, you"re always afraid everytime you see the Seventh Lord."
Su Qing stared at her, and reached out her hand pretended that she wanted to pinch her face again, "I just said you were timid, and now you have already learned to tease your family princess. Let"s see today will teach you a lesson." She immediately mischievously tickled Chuntao until she begged for mercy.
"Your Highness… Chuntao knew my mistake…hahaha…."
"Look if you dare to say it again."
The two played around until they entered Jian Zhi palace and saw the room was full of broken stuff. Even the items are invaluable, they"re scattered over the floor. Chuntao was about to bend down to clean up, but she was stopped by Su Qing.
Anyway, they only stay here for three days, after that they will have to return to Gu Mansion. Thinking of Gu Mansion, Su Qing suddenly remembered that she didn"t seem to mention to Gu Zifu that she will not return tonight. She looked up at the sky outside, thinking of Gu Zifu"s expression when he teased her, Su Qing"s lips curve up unknowingly.
Forget it, Gu Zifu doesn"t care anyway, why does she have to care?
———-
In the middle of the night, the window was gently pushed open, and a small figure jumped in from outside. After taking a few steps the person didn"t expect the ground was so messy, accidently slipped and fell on the ground with a "bang".
"Who?"
Su Qing did not sleep well at the Palace, so she quickly got up from the noise, opened the curtain and walked to the table to light the candle. She then walked up towards where the sound came from.
Su Shisheng with his b.u.t.t fell on the ground, he was taken aback by the sudden light, "Ah Jie…"
When Su Qing heard him call her in a grievance voice, she could not help laughing. She put the candle on the floor and stepped forward to lift him from the ground.
"In the middle of the night, why didn"t you use the main door, but instead learned to be like a cat climbed the window?"
Su Shisheng was about to say something but suddenly Chuntao"s voice came from outside asking her in worried, "Your Highness, what is happening?"
Before Su Qing could respond, Su Shisheng quickly held her mouth staring at her in panic, looking like a frightened cat.
Su Qing said in amus.e.m.e.nt, "Nothing, I"m just thirsty and got up to pour myself a cup of tea. You can go to bed first."
"Okay, Your Highness be careful."
Chuntao felt not rest a.s.sured, and stayed a little longer, until she heard there was no movement inside, only then she returned to her room.
The brother and sister relied on the candle light, lowered their heads and carefully walked over the mess on the ground. When they reached inside the chamber, Su Shisheng suddenly grabbed her hand and asked her with deep eyes, " Ah Jie, did that woman come to bully you again?"
Su Qing was thinking how to explain it, but Su Shisheng thought she was bullied, his small mouth closed up and his eyes flash with sharp and cold murderous aura.
The room was dark, Su Qing couldn"t see his facial expression clearly, she raised her hand and squeezed his small face. She said with a smile, "No, Chuntao and me hid from her when she came over. If I really meet her face to face, there is no way I couldn"t beat her."
"It"s because of my uselessness, let ah jie to suffer in the palace." Su Shisheng lowered his head full of self-blaming and did not dare to look at her.
Su Qing had never coaxed a child before, but it would be quite troublesome if he causes trouble in a moment of impulse. Thinking of this, she knocked her forefinger on his forehead, pretending to be angry, "Only a small child, where did you get all so much thought from?"
Upon hearing her remade, Su Shisheng sobbing slightly, with a sound of feeling wrong at the end, "Ah Jie, you used to call me Sheng"er.
Su Qing froze for a moment.
This pair of sister and brother….
Su Shisheng sniffed his nose, raised his sleeve to wipe his face, and then pulled out a small package from inside his clothes and put it into Su Qing"s hand, "This bun made by Consort Jing, there is meat in it. I secretly kept some during the day."
Su Qing frowned, "Consort Jing?" The one who is living in the harem, and only eats vegetarian and prays to Buddha all day long?
During these days in Gu Mansion she has always been living in fear and completely threw Su Shisheng behind her back of her head. Tomorrow she should find a chance to ask Chuntao in detail.
Su Shisheng nodded, "En, Consort Jing said I"m in the age of growing up, so she"ll make meat bun for me every few days." He paused after seeing Su Qing"s face was somewhat in a trance, looking at her in worried.
"Ah Jie, are you feeling unwell?"
His gaze then fell on Su Qing"s body, saw that she was only wearing thin clothes, feeling upset, he quickly got up and took off his coat for her to wear.
"No, I"m not cold." Su Qing stopped him. She thought for a moment and asked him, "Sheng"er, during the day…. did Changsheng GongGong take you to the Hall of Mental Cultivation."
Upon hearing her question, Su Shisheng lowered his head unhappily, after a moment of silence he then said, "Ah Jie, I don"t like the Imperial Father."
He didn"t like the Royal Consort Mother, and didn"t like his older sister and him. Why would he want so many people to call him Imperial Father? Last time he casually mentioned it to Consort Jing, she had him kneeled all night in the Buddhist Hall.
Older and him don"t have a father. He only has Ah Jie as his older sister.
Seeing his reaction, Su Qing be able to guess he did go. She touched his head and said in a gentle voice, "Sheng"er be good, you can"t say that in the future."
Su Shisheng nodded and said obediently, "Ah Jie, no need to worry, Sheng"er will not cause trouble for Ah Jie and Consort Jing."
This child…..
Su Qing suddenly felt a little distressed. The nine- year-old child, who was supposed to have fun, but happened to be born in this deep palace and heard all these vicious gossip, it really shouldn"t be.
The two talked for a little while, most of them were Su Shisheng"s concerned words and advice….., Su Qing felt amused while listening to him. In the end, feeling a little sleepy, she stopped him and told him to be careful when he returned.
As for meat bun, Su Qing has no appet.i.te in the middle of the night and placed it on a small table not far away. She was thinking about how to explain this to Chuntao in the morning.