Shadow (2)
Although Mu Mingtang didn’t host a party, everyone knew it was her birthday, and that she had not even invited any of them.
Such a humiliating realisation.
“It’s more than that.” The concubine of the second young master, Hou said, “It seems that Princess An lives a very lavish lifestyle. I’ve heard that she only uses the best fruits, especially apples, to make incense for the mansion and their clothes, since she doesn’t like the fragrance of spices. Once the fruits’ fragrance has faded, she discards them all within a few seconds. And this happens three times a day. Goodness! Three times a day!”
Everyone was shaken up by such a shocking revelation. As the high-ranking nobles in the royal capital, they were not poor enough to not be able to afford to buy expensive fruits like apples, but they were also not rich enough to buy them every day in such a large quantity only to use them for incense. Even the Empress Dowager in the palace would not use fresh fruits to make incense.
“Heavens!” One of the concubines exclaimed while covering her mouth. After all, she was just a concubine, and in addition to having a less powerful family than those official wives, she also had a lower level of education.
She couldn’t help but inquire more about this because she was deeply bewildered. “Wasn’t it said that Prince An wouldn’t make it to the New Year last year? Why is he still doing well since it’s already April now?”
Everyone stopped speaking as soon as those words were spoken. Xie Xuanchen hadn’t actually passed away, although there had been rumours that he only had a few breaths left.
Although everyone had doubts about Xie Xuanchen’s matter, no one dared to blatantly express their thoughts.
When the concubine finished expressing her doubts, she noticed that everyone had turned silent, and no one was responding to her question. Panicked, she immediately apologised, “Forgive me for my ignorance considering my young age, but did I say something wrong?”
Soon after she asked that question, the banquet guards made an announcement, “Princess An has arrived.”
Everyone standing beside that concubine pretended not to hear what she had just said as they were all horrified. All of them sprang to their feet and greeted Mu Mingtang.
“Greeting Princess An.”
Mu Mingtang nodded towards them as a response and said, “There’s no need to be too polite. Sit down.”
Everyone thanked her and returned to their original sitting arrangement.
After Mu Mingtang’s arrival, the atmosphere of the banquet hall completely changed. The young ladies and madams who were gossiping about Xie Xuanchen didn’t dare to open their mouths about that matter.
The most frightened among them was the concubine who asked stupid questions about Xie Xuanchen’s health. She didn’t even dare to breathe loudly, fearing that she would attract Mu Mingtang’s attention.
Mu Mingtang actually overheard others talking about her when she arrived, but she didn’t pay any attention to it because she was used to these people saying one thing in front of her and another behind her back.
In this world, people lead their own lives in which at least 90 percent of their situations go unnoticed by others. In the same way, 99 percent of other people’s opinions and viewpoints were unimportant.
Complaining about those kinds of things was actually pointless. When Mu Mingtang entered the hall, she didn’t even bother to investigate the strange silence in the hall. Anyway, no matter what these people thought, they couldn’t change her fate. Even if they didn’t like something, they could only bear it.
Mu Mingtang sat down and then spotted Jiang Mingwei, a long-lost acquaintance. It’s been a long time since Mu Mingtang had heard anything about Jiang Mingwei, so when she finally did see her, she gave her a warm greeting: “Princess Jin, I see you’re also here. This is very unusual. As I remember, I haven’t seen you outside for at least three months.”
The casual expression on Jiang Mingwei’s face turned stiff, but she barely managed to control her facial expressions as she replied to Mu Mingtang’s words. “I have suffered from a cold, so I have been staying in the mansion to recover. I didn’t think that sister-in-law would miss me that much. If sister-in-law wants to see me, you can come to the Jin Palace at any time.”
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