Song Yixiao asked curiously, "Who?"
"Cui Jianlian." Wei Mengying"s face didn"t look good, "She is the legitimate niece of Princess Consort Cui in her maiden line."
Generally, the wife of a second marriage always was inferior before the maiden family of the previous wife, but Wei Mengying feared Miss Cui not for that. "Princess Consort Cui is the youngest aunt of Cui Jianlian and her elder auntie is n.o.ble Consort Cui as well as the birth mother of the crown prince!"
Song Yixiao couldn"t help narrowing her eyes, "Since the Cui Family have successfully cultivated a princess consort and a n.o.ble consort, why do they send the daughter to the girl"s school of the prince"s residence?"
Given such an achievement in terms of girl education, all the other people would feel eager to send their daughters to the Cui Family for study. Why would a daughter of the Cui Family study in the school of Prince of Hengshan?
Wei Mengying snorted and said, "Of course she comes with an ulterior motive. Cui Jianlian is a girl of domineering and obstinate temperament, who falls in love with good-tempered Lu Guanlun. Highly expected by the dowager consort, Lu Guanlun is always busy learning literature and martial arts, so he has no time to pay frequent visit to the Cui Family! As Cui Jianlian is afraid to distance from him, she has no other choice but to be less reserved and come to the prince"s residence herself!"
Then she took the opportunity to remind her daughter, "Actually, this is also the dowager consort"s scheme! Because Cui Jianlian"s cousin is the crown prince, even if she doesn"t fall for Lu Guanlun, I think the dowager consort must hope to cement the old ties by fixing them up! Since Cui Jianlian has shown her appreciation, the princess dowager won"t let her meet with Lu Guanlun too often. After all, what cannot be gained makes the best. Now Cui Jianlian takes a detour and comes to the prince"s residence at all rate. Out of the respect for n.o.ble Consort Cui, people don"t dare to say anything about that but her intention speaks for itself. After all, she lowers herself so suddenly!"
"Therefore, when you encounter someone or something you like, don"t show your real intention easily. Otherwise, others will have the goods on you!"
Song Yixiao accepted the advice compliantly.
"Instigated by the dowager consort, this lady always holds hatred against me. After you go to the girl"s school, she will make trouble for you. You must be careful about her. After all, I cannot offend the Cui Family so I cannot do anything about her." Wei Mengying said with a frown, "Of course, this is the prince"s residence! She doesn"t dare to go too far!"
Just after she finished talking, a servant came to report, "Madam Jin comes to discuss with you about Miss Song"s going to the girl"s school."
"To discuss with me? She must come for trouble!" Wei Mengying heard that and felt disgruntled, saying to her daughter, "Let Lingdang carry you back to the Hanxia Villa through the back door in case that you may run into her and be bothered by her. I will dispatch this unbred woman!"
Song Yixiao knew that with the partiality of the princess dowager, Wei Mengying could take down Madam Jin easily. Therefore, she left without worry as told.
Madam Jin wasn"t permitted to come in until Song Yixiao was away for a while. Because she was kept waiting for quite a while, she felt rather disgruntled and complained from the distance, "Stepmother, we all understand that you want to show favor for your daughter, but you are being too anxious, aren"t you?"
She emphasized the syllable of "step" deliberately. She went into the room resentfully, greeted casually and then shouted, "The students of the girl"s school are all decent daughters of n.o.ble families. Yet, Miss Song"s father, Song Yuan, is not even a county magistrate now. If you insist on letting her study with the n.o.ble girls, you just lower the threshold of our girl"s school."
They had fallen into the conflict since they met on the first day. Now Wei Mengying would certainly not give her face so she said indifferently, "A girl"s school is a place for learning literature and cultivation. What really matters is one"s talent and virtue instead of the official ranking of her father and brother! You had better stop talking of this. Otherwise, if your words leak out, the reputation of our girl"s school will be greatly ruined!"
Madam Jin said disgruntledly, "It is for the sake of our school"s reputation that I come here to persuade you into withdrawing the arrangement! It is neither rhyme nor reason to put Miss Song whose father is dismissed from office into a place full of decent n.o.ble girls. Does it mean that even servants can be enrolled by our school in a few days?"
"If you are so free to intervene with the matter that is actually in the charge of me, you may as well see a doctor!" Wei Mengying put down her tea bowl and glimpsed at Madam Jin"s belly, saying in an acerb tone, "You are still not pregnant after you are married for two years. How dare you mind other things? It seems that I should stop Guanqun"s concubines from taking birth control medicine so that your father-in-law and I can have grandchildren soon!"
With her face turning pale, Madam Jin snapped, "Stepmother, you are being too unfair! As I recall, you didn"t give birth to your daughter until you were married to Song Yuan for three years and then you had no other child afterwards. Am I right?"
"That"s because the Song Family are less blessed. Otherwise, how could such a vicious woman like Madam Liu become a second wife of Song Yuan? Do you mean there is also something wrong with Prince of Hengshan"s luck?" Wei Mengying said with cold eyes, "Or you hope to have a mother-in-law like Madam Pang or a husband like Song Yuan?"
Madam Jin stood up with rage in her face, "I just recall that I haven"t greeted grandmother today. Now I shall leave if you excuse me!"
"That"s all you can do!" Wei Mengying couldn"t stop her from complaining to the dowager consort but she was not afraid anyway. Since Song Yixiao resided in the prince"s residence now, no one would ruin the reputation of Prince of Hengshan with her school thing. No matter how the dowager consort disliked Song Yixiao, she would not make the family of Prince of Hengshan a source of ridicule. She might disgrace Wei Mengying in other ways via Madam Jin at most.
However, Wei Mengying didn"t know that Madam Jin returned to her own dwelling after leaving instead of going to find the dowager consort instantly.
"Madam, if you don"t go to the princess dowager, you will coincide with Master Guanlun later!" Her maid, Yanxia hastened to remind her ladyship, "If Master Guanlun knows that you advise the dowager consort not to let Miss Song go to the girl"s school, he will not agree. You know, it was because of his mediation with the princess dowager that Miss Song could enter the prince"s dowager successfully!"
"What I want is that he can plead for mercy for her!" Madam Jin touched her hair and snorted with disdain, "Do you forget what the lady of the Cui Family comes to our school for? It may be because he was softhearted that Guanlun pleaded for mercy to let Song Yixiao live here. However, if he also meddles in this girl"s matter again, he must keep showing concern for her."
Her smile turned colder, "The more concern, the greater chance he will fall for her. Miss Cui is well-known for being barbarian and domineering, who doesn"t even care about Lu Kou"er, a commandery princess, let alone Song Yixiao. If she finds out that someone dares to target at his cousin, what can"t she do?"
Yanxia finally took a tumble and said with admiration, "Madam, you are so crafty! A little trick not only sets a trap for the princess consort and her daughter but also wins favor from Miss Cui…"
"Who told you that I wanted to win favor from Cui Jianlian?" Madam Jin sneered and said teasingly, "I do so many things just for her. I only hope that she can win credit for herself. Since she is famous for being barbarian and domineering, she had better not have the jitters in real fight, which will ruin my following plan!"