Chapter 171.3
At the beginning, His Majesty found this marriage somewhat inappropriate.
The Crown Prince was after all Xiao Heng"s cousin.
How could he ask to marry his own cousin"s widow?
But Wen Linlang was truly an excellent woman, plus it had already been a long time since Xiao Heng had pa.s.sed away. The Crown Prince also really liked her very much. After many considerations, His Majesty agreed to this marriage in the end.
Wen Linglang didn"t disappoint the imperial family. Although her family background wasn’t outstanding among the prince’s consorts, she was far superior to the rest of His Majesty"s daughters-in-law in terms of talent, intelligence, vision and ability.
What happened today was unexpected to His Majesty.
His Majesty continued to reprimand the Crown Prince, "Do you know how angry the people are right now? Today, if the third daughter-in-law hadn"t acted in time and saved everyone, I, your imperial father, would have to issue a self-blame decree tomorrow!"
It was only when an emperor of a country made a huge mistake that he would write a decree to blame himself, which was tantamount to slapping the imperial family in the face.
No emperor would be willing to issue a self-blame decree.
As this would go down in history and would be remembered forever!
The Crown Prince was scolded harshly like a dog.
It took him a full hour to return to the East Palace with his sore knees.
The Third Prince"s Consort made great contributions, thus His Majesty rewarded her with a thousand taels of gold, and issued an imperial decree conferring the Third Prince the t.i.tle Rui w.a.n.g and the Third Prince"s Consort as Rui w.a.n.gfei.
Ever since a crown prince was appointed, this was the first time that the t.i.tle of w.a.n.g had been bestowed.
If you wanted to bestow a w.a.n.g t.i.tle, it stood to reason that it should start with the eldest prince.
But none of the civil and military officials spoke out against it, and there was nothing they could do either. After all, there were so many human lives and future pillars of the court involved.
Even the imperial censor with the most poisonous tongue was silent.
The Third Prince... No, it should be Rui w.a.n.g now.
Rui w.a.n.g entered the palace with his w.a.n.gfei, kowtowing to His Majesty and expressing his grat.i.tude.
His Majesty was very happy. He used to think that this son was not very promising, but his wife was so capable. At least he had a good eye for picking people like Imperial Concubine Yu.
His Majesty had Rui w.a.n.g stay behind and played two rounds of chess with him.
Meanwhile, Rui w.a.n.gfei first went to pay her respects to the Empress, then went to Imperial Consort Zhuang and Imperial Concubine Yu’s places to pay them her respects as well. After that, she headed to the imperial garden.
She changed direction midway and came to the gates of the East Palace.
"You." She pointed to the Court Lady Xu. "Go in and report that this w.a.n.gfei wants to see the Crown Princess."
"...Yes." Court Lady Xu went to bite the bullet.
Soon, Court Lady Xu came out, followed by a smiling wet nurse.
The wet nurse said, "It turns out that Rui w.a.n.gfei is here. Apologies for not coming out to meet w.a.n.gfei early, but I’m afraid it’s not convenient for the Crown Princess to see guests at the moment."
Rui w.a.n.gfei laughed, "Isn’t she grounded by Imperial Father? I"m not asking her to come out, I can go in and see her!"
With these words, regardless of whether the wet nurse welcomed her or not, she lifted her skirt and crossed the threshold and then made her way to the Crown Princess’s courtyard.
The Crown Princess was currently kneeling on the mat of the heating room and copying Buddhist scriptures.
"Yo, sister-in-law, what are you doing?" Rui w.a.n.gfei raised her eyebrows and came in.
"Rui w.a.n.gfei!"
"Stand down."
A palace maid tried to block Rui w.a.n.gfei but was stopped by the Crown Princess.
The palace maid withdrew accordingly.
Rui w.a.n.gfei sat down on the cushion opposite her.
Court Lady Xu did not dare to come in and simply waited outside the door with the wet nurse and maids of the East Palace.
The Crown Princess gently put down the brush in her hand and looked at Rui w.a.n.gfei with a calm look, "I wonder why Rui w.a.n.gfei came to see me today?"
Rui w.a.n.gfei said with a smile, "I heard that you were grounded. I was afraid that you would be bored, so I came here to help you relieve the boredom. Don"t blame me for being late. I only heard this morning that you were grounded."
The Crown Princess didn"t answer, but picked up the brush again and continued to copy Buddhist scriptures.
Rui w.a.n.gfei wouldn’t feel discouraged just because she didn’t pay her any attention. She had been living in the shadow of Wen Linlang for twenty years. Finally, for once, she didn"t have to be suppressed by Wen Linlang.
Rui w.a.n.gfei said with a smile, "If you feel upset, just say it. You don"t have to pretend that you don"t care."
"I"m not upset." The Crown Princess said quietly.
Rui w.a.n.gfei smiled, "I heard that it wasn"t you who had gone to the temple, but it was your parental family which borrowed your name. Why didn"t you explain yourself to Imperial Father?"
This was where Rui w.a.n.gfei was better than the Crown Princess. Rui w.a.n.gfei"s family never dragged her down, because her family had the Duke Luo Estate as its backer, which was powerful enough.
That wasn’t the case for Wen Linlang. Wen Linlang’s family was in decline. Her father was seriously ill at home, and her elder brother was just a small official of the Court of Judicial Review.
Of course, Rui w.a.n.gfei knew that it wouldn’t be good for the Crown Princess to explain herself as it would only make things worse for herself by giving His Majesty the impression that she was someone who shirked the responsibility once something went wrong.
The Crown Princess casually said, "I heard that Rui w.a.n.gfei was already gathering people before the hanging bridge broke. I don’t mean anything else, but I wanted to ask Rui w.a.n.gfei how exactly she predicted the accident like some prophet."
Rui w.a.n.gfei"s almond eyes glared at her, "What do you mean? Do you suspect that I broke the bridge on purpose? I"m not that black-hearted!"
Crown Princess: "Then how did you know?"
"I..." The Third Prince"s Consort was at a loss for words.
Actually, she herself couldn’t fathom how Young Miss Gu knew about it. By the time her guards saved every single person, Young Miss Gu had already left. She was also worried about whether Young Miss Gu had anything to do with the collapse of the hanging bridge, so she hadn"t mentioned it to anyone for the sake of caution.
The medical hall was still on vacation and had yet to open again, and she didn’t know where Young Miss Gu lived.
The Crown Princess tugged at her lips and continued to copy Buddhist scriptures.
Rui w.a.n.gfei, realizing that she had been led by the nose, turned angry from embarra.s.sment and quickly came back to her senses, "Do you think that Imperial Father didn"t investigate? At first glance, it could be seen that the bridge was in a state of disrepair, and after driving all the worshipers there, it would have been strange if nothing had happened!"
His Majesty did investigate this matter, and there was no trace of human tampering.
However, the face of the Crown Princess still didn"t reveal the frustration that Rui w.a.n.gfei wanted to see.
Rui w.a.n.gfei narrowed her eyes.
It wasn’t easy to finally get a chance to suppress her, but how come she couldn’t see any frustration from her?
Rui w.a.n.gfei leaned her lower arm atop the long table and slowly approached the other party, "Actually, I heard something not long ago. I don"t know if it"s true, so I"d like to ask imperial sister-in-law."
The Crown Princess still ignored her.
Rui w.a.n.gfei said, "I heard that on the night of Little Marquis"s accident... he was waiting for you at the Imperial Academy. If so, wouldn’t that mean it was you who led him to his death?"
The Crown Princess"s brush jerked and drew a long ink mark on the paper——