Marry Another (4)
In the Jin palace, Jiang Mingwei was leaning against the window while counting the green buds on the trees to kill time. When she was halfway through the count, she heard some movements next door. It seemed that there were many people going in and out.
Jiang Mingwei looked annoyed: “What’s the matter, why is it so noisy today?”
After she asked, a maid hurriedly came in from outside and reported to Jiang Mingwei, “Princess, it’s Princess An who went to a garden party today, and her carriage has just returned. It’s said that Prince An spent a lot of money for the princess and bought many brocades. Now, she is moving those into the palace.”
‘It’s her again, and there is also that Xie Xuanchen. It really annoys me to no end when I hear them doing so well while I’m running into bad luck, one after another.’ Jiang Mingwei gritted her teeth.
Although the Emperor did not question Jiang Mingwei after what happened at the Lantern Festival, she knew that the Emperor was very disappointed in her.
Xie Xuanji gave her a cold shoulder all this time and refused to talk with her. Even the Empress didn’t want to see her, what more she even gave Xie Xuanji a few beauties as a gift directly. Those women were given by her mother-in-law and so she could not do anything against them or she might offend the Empress even more. Therefore, poor Jiang Mingwei couldn’t even put on airs as the main wife of Prince Jin in front of those women.
Now Jiang Mingwei even felt that Lianhan was actually more pleasing to the eyes than those women gifted by the Empress. At least Lianhan did not dare to pressure her with the Empress.
Jiang Mingwei sighed and leaned back on her seat. After a while, she asked, “Whose party did they go to? Why did they buy so many things?”
“The maidservant does not know clearly. It seems to be Madam Li’s garden party. Madam Li has asked someone to perform magic tricks, the magician can create butterflies out of the beautiful brocade. It is said that those butterflies always fly towards beautiful people, so after they were created they all flew to Princess An right away. Princess An was very pleased by the performance, so Prince An rewarded the magician by buying almost all of his brocades.”
‘People actually still believe such superficial tricks. Those performers flattered the nobles in order to sell their goods, so it went without saying that those butterflies were specially trained to fly towards certain spots.’
‘Such an obvious trick, how can Mu Mingtang and Xie Xuanchen not tell?’
‘Let’s not think about these things for now. The more I think about them, the more disheartened I will feel.’ Jiang Mingwei comforted herself.
She didn’t want to act recklessly anymore to avoid angering the Emperor. Although the Emperor was still displeased with Xie Xuanji, he was still the emperor’s son, and eventually the throne would be passed down to Xie Xuanji. As long as she was Xie Xuanji’s wife, she would become the future Empress. What she needed to do was not to worsen the Emperor’s impression of her.
However, Xie Xuanchen had already committed a big taboo by accepting people’s blessings which were originally meant to be the Emperor’s on the Lantern Festival day. It was he and Mu Mingtang who were present at the platform, and the emperor would not tolerate them for long.
Before, the emperor wanted reputation and put on a facade, so he was always unwilling to make a direct move, afraid that he would lose his face if he directly took the life of a parentless nephew. But now, the severity of the situation had changed, and the emperor could no longer tolerate it.
The death of Xie Xuanchen was already set in stone.
After Xie Xuanchen’s death, who would Mu Mingtang rely on? Although Mu Mingtang was enjoying her life now, every step she took was leading to her own doom.
What Jiang Mingwei wanted to do was just endure until the downfall of Mu Mingtang. Jiang Mingwei secretly waited for Xie Xuanchen and Mu Mingtang’s end.
…
Mu Mingtang took the excuse of enjoying the spring and relaxing, and pulled Xie Xuanchen to take a walk in the garden. Mu Mingtang took the opportunity to slip away from the people behind them and whispered about Jinger elixir.
“Now that the New Year is over, there will be no taboo in the palace. I always carry Jinger elixir with me, but there is not much in the warehouse. What should I do?”