Chapter 202 - he Crown Princess Takes Action

However, in the evening, after Jian Xubai was back, Song Yixiao was still hesitating whether to tell him about the arrival date of Elder Lady Duanmu when Jian Xubai told her one thing first, “The Crown Prince has sent his men to ask Lord Gu to take up a post again!”

“Will Lord Gu agree?” Song Yixiao asked in surprise.

She didn’t know much about Gu Shao. According to Jian Xubai, he used to be a powerful official before. Besides, she knew that he was on good terms with her grandfather, Song Ying. That was why even Song Ying was gone for more than ten years, Gu Shao still remembered to care about Song Yuan despite retirement.

However, when Gu Shao sent his nephew to Duke of Yan’s mansion some time ago, Jian Xubai said that this old man had expressed his favor for the Crown Prince but he didn’t seem interested in taking up a post again.

“Commandery Prince Zhongling asked Uncle to let Lord Gu be his teacher and Uncle granted his request,” Jian Xubai spoke of it and gave a smile, “Previously, we both thought that while Noble Consort Cui was grounded and Uncle was resting, the Crown Prince had no one to speak for him, but we forgot the commandery prince! Gladly, the Crown Princess didn’t. She asked Commandery Prince Zhongling to serve His Majesty in the Palace of Xuanming.”

Commandery Prince Zhongling, as old as Prince of Shu, the eldest legitimate son of the Crown Prince and the eldest grandson of Emperor Xianjia, always remained in favor with the emperor.

As he was still young, he didn’t need to avoid the harem. Currently, it happened that he could fill the blank of the Crown Prince in front of the emperor.

“I’m wondering whether the Crown Princess thought of it afterwards or just when she proposed releasing the Noble Consort to the Empress.” Song Yixiao pondered, “If it is the latter, the Crown Princess must have assumed that the Empress would never agree to release the Noble Consort when she said that. What she said seemed to be in consideration of the Crown Prince, but actually, she aimed to keep the Noble Consort grounded through the Empress so that her son can stand out and earn credits!”

After all, mother-in-law couldn’t be as reliable as her own son!

Especially Commandery Prince Zhongling had done a deed of merit only after serving Emperor Xianjia for a few hours. Everybody knows that Emperor Xianjia could approve of his request probably he wanted to show support for the Crown Prince, but at least Commandery Prince Zhongling was the excuse!

“Gu Shao retired and returned to his hometown because he was defeated by Xubai’s grandfather back then, but since he helped my father rise and set him up with the legitimate daughter of a third-rank official, his deep foundation is evident!” Song Yixiao couldn’t help thinking, “If such a person joins the Crown Prince’s side under the guise of being Commandery Prince Zhongling’s teacher, once the Crown Prince makes it, he will turn into the backing of Commandery Prince Zhongling from the important helper of the Crown Prince!”

By then, even if the Crown Prince and Noble Consort Cui suspected the Crown Princess of engaging in the death of Cui Jianlian, they couldn’t set against the Crown Princess and her son rashly!

“The Crown Princess’s action kind of does me a favor!” Song Yixiao felt relieved with a sigh, “After all, rumor has it that the Crown Princess caused the death of Cui Jianlian and her babies! I’m at best a pawn. But if the Crown Princess and her son have got protection, this matter must be covered up and no one can talk of it anymore!”

By then, even if someone tried to rake up the past against Song Yixiao, the Crown Princess and her son would be regarded as the target. Of course, on the contrary, if anyone wanted to scheme against the Crown Princess and her son, Song Yixiao could be dragged into trouble then.

That was to say, she was kind of on the same boat with the Crown Princess and her son…

Regarding the situation, Song Yixiao pondered for a while and still failed to think of a good solution. She had no other choice but to think, “After all, the die has been cast. Just proceed as it goes on!”

Naturally, Jian Xubai also had considered what she thought of, “Lord Gu helped your father marry the daughter of Advisor to the Crown Prince and then sent his nephew to work for the Crown Prince. Obviously, he also holds hope for the Crown Prince. Now with the approval of Uncle, he is expected to teach Commandery Prince Zhongling, so I suppose that he won’t decline the offer. In this case, Zhongling’s future is rather promising and all the members of the Eastern Palace will stop suspecting each other so that they can deal with the external problem jointly!”

“But Lord Gu lives far away in Jiangnan. Despite His Majesty’s order, the people to invite him were just sent away!” Song Yixiao reminded him, “Supposedly, even if everything goes well, he won’t arrive in the imperial capital until the top-level national examination is over. At the moment, Prince of Yi’s matter must be carefully discussed about!”

Although Emperor Xianjia’s decision would definitely leave an extremely huge influence on Prince of Yi, Qiu Shuxia and his people were not easy to deal with!

Moreover, Prince of Zhao was not the only one who wanted to drag the Crown Prince off his post!

Rolling the jade bracelet on her wrist, she said, “Don’t forget Aunt Daiguo is always straightforward. Noble Consort Cui’s past experience is a good example! Qingjiang is well respected before the Empress Dowager and His Majesty, but in the last 12th lunar month, in the Zhanchun Venue, when I was quarreling with Prince of Wei and his wife, she was not sure about protecting me from Aunt’s censure and thus had to send me and Wuying away to the Yaohua Venue for shelter!”

Jian Xubai also mentioned Prince of Yi was rather weak, “If Aunt Daiguo goes to his mansion and coerces him, he may not be able to take it!”

Daiguo Grand Princess was a woman endeared by Emperor Xianjia. It was fine for her to be unreasonable and make a scene, but the heir of a state could never do that.

“How can I leave out Aunt?” Jian Xubai said with a resigned smile, “Prince of Wei’s party is sheerly made by her. How can I not keep an eye on her?”

Song Yixiao was relieved then.

As Jian Xubai had nothing to say, Song Yixiao speculated that he was feeling neither happy nor annoyed. Hence, after considering for a moment, she still told him that Elder Lady Duanmu would arrive on the 7th day of the next month, “Uncle Limiao said that the Duanmu Family has a house in the imperial capital, which has been cleaned in advance, so we wouldn’t need to worry about it. Previously, I sent our people to consult whether we needed to make some preparations for Elder Lady Duanmu’s arrival.”

Jian Xubai’s smiling face suddenly stiffened as he heard of this. He didn’t look disgusted or annoyed. Instead, he seemed stern as if carrying some burden.

He turned around his head and buried half of his face into the shadow. His lowered long eyelashes covered his emotions in the glistening eyes. After a while, he finally said casually, “Since Uncle Limiao said so, let’s listen to his advice then!”

Song Yixiao looked up and stared at her husband for a while only to find that he was gazing the embroider pattern of the brocade quilt without even noticing her gaze. She slightly frowned and gripped his sleeve, saying seriously, “Who is this elder lady? You told me that you didn’t meet her before, but why do you look so weird when I mention her? If you really don’t want to tell me, I will not talk of it anymore. I don’t mean to pry by asking. Now that the Crown Prince is still in trouble, I really hope that you can be less worried!”

“You know, my legitimate grandmother was the younger sister of Elder Lady Duanmu,” Jian Xubai stayed silent for a while and then closed his eyes to cover up his feelings, saying, “They are the descendants of Jinxiu Hall and the authentic noble ladies. However, my grandfather is of poor origin and he was not outstanding when he was young. Therefore, my grandmother’s parents didn’t agree with her to marry my grandfather, but they had to as she insisted.”

Despite that, “The two seniors were disgruntled so although they only had two daughters, they left nothing to my grandmother but the dowry when she got married. All the assets of Jinxiu Hall were passed down to Elder Lady Duanmu after they passed away.”

The problem was, “Elder Lady Duanmu had three sons and a daughter before but all her sons perished early. Our grandmother also passed away shortly after that, so Elder Lady Duanmu persuaded my grandfather to let her raise Uncle Limiao, who was still in his infancy, along with her only daughter so as to comfort her pain of losing her sons and sister!”

“Uncle Limiao and that aunt of mine are childhood sweethearts. When they grew up, they naturally got married and lived happily. Undoubtedly, Elder Lady Duanmu wanted to leave the heritage of Jinxiu Hall to them!”

By now, Song Yixiao understood a bit, “But Uncle Limiao’s wife passed away.”

“Yeah. She passed away. Even her son couldn’t survive.” Jian Xubai said with a complicated look, “Uncle Limiao swore before the wedding that he would only marry that aunt only all his life and that he would never remarry or have any concubine in all cases. Therefore, after Aunt passed away, Elder Lady Duanmu had no idea how to dispose of the assets of Jinxiu Hall.”

Song Yixiao said in astonishment, “Master Shaoge once told me this. Don’t bear any doubts first. When I was in the Zhanchun Venue and Wuying was ill, he mentioned it when I asked him about Wuying’s health condition. He told me that the direct line of the Duanmu Family had no male descendent but there were still collateral clans. Why didn’t Jinxiu Hall adopt a son from one of the collateral clans?”

Generally, influential families attached importance to lineage, let alone the Duanmu Family, the noble family that remained glorious for several dynasties.

“This is a lesson learnt from the past, more specifically, your maiden family!” Jian Xubai said seriously, “Your maiden family is the later generations of the Song Family in Jiangnan, one of the six influential families a century ago. The direct line is called Jiangnan Hall. Jiangnan Hall still had five families by the end of the West Yong with a large population. At that time, the collateral clan of the Song Family had a descendent called Song Qi, who was extremely rich and yet sonless. He was close to the direct line, so he adopted a concubine’s son from the direct line.”

It was nothing by now. “However, more than ten years later, Song Qi died of an illness and his adopted son, Song Xu restructured the assets and returned to the direct line. Song Qi was the only son with no close relatives. How can ordinary clansmen piss off the direct line for a dead person? As a result, he spent more than ten years fostering his adopted son and even passed on all the assets to him. Sadly, he ended up dying alone with no one to inherit his family! Given such a bitter lesson, Jinxiu Hall would never follow his steps!”

Song Yixiao was so speechless, “Jiangnan Hall was still justifiable back then, wasn’t it? Were the clansmen afraid of being the laughingstock for their injustice?”

“There was a reason for that. Song Xu was adopted by the collateral clan by the end of the West Yong and then he returned to the direct line in the early year of the East Yong,” Jian Xubai said with a smile, “Simply put, the country was in a state of chaos at that time. Due to some reason, Jiangnan Hall suffered severe loss. His return with huge fund and generous financing at the moment was somewhat welcome. Under the circumstance, even the influential family could feign ignorance!”

Jian Xubai knew that his wife was not affectionate about the Song Family anymore, so he said bluntly, “Actually, among the six influential families back then, only the Wei Family of Ruiyu Hall and the Su Family of Fufeng Hall are still celebrated; the Liu Family of Ranli Hall and the Shen Family of Mingpei Hall declined because they were too weak; Jinxiu Hall fell down because of no descendants; Jiangnan Hall collapsed simply due to two persons, one of whom was Song Xu!”

Because, “Song Xu betrayed Song Qi, but a lot of Song Qi’s old subordinates and servants were grateful. If the East Yong lasted for some more years, these people might feel disgruntled and couldn’t do anything about Song Xu. However, the East Yong only lasted less than 40 years. Back then, the living old subordinates of Song Qi contacted the invaders during the turmoil and chaos of war and looted Jiangnan Hall jointly. Only two boys who were less than ten years old escaped!”

Only two kids survived. “It was really lucky to keep the descendants of Jiangnan Hall. How could it not decline?”

Song Yixiao held back her astonishment, saying, “Forget it. Let’s talk something else. In this case, Elder Lady Duanmu comes to the imperial capital not only to cure wandering arthritis but also find someone to inherit the assets of Jinxiu Hall?”

If that was the case, she couldn’t understand what her husband was worried about.

“By reason, the assets of Jinxiu Hall must be passed down to the descendent of the direct line of the Duanmu Family! Elder Lady Duanmu has no son now and she only has two nephews—your father and Uncle Limiao, but Uncle Limiao is raised by her and also her son-in-law. How can she not show preference for Uncle Limiao? You told me before that you were Uncle Limiao’s favorite among his nephews and nieces. Of course you must be the one to inherit the assets.”

Jian Xubai glanced at his wife, “It seems that I have forgotten to tell you about Elder Lady Duanmu’s husband’s family?”

Before Song Yixiao responded, he said calmly, “21 years ago, the servants didn’t address her as Elder Lady Duanmu but Princess Consort of Chengyang! Uncle Limiao’s wife, as the niece of the late Emperor, was titled as Commandery Princess Yishui.”

Song Yixiao was stunned, “21 years ago?”

This year was the 21st year in the reign of Xianjia.

“Dowager Consort of Chengyang was the legitimate aunt of Noble Consort Shentu during the reign of late Emperor.” Jian Xubai said with a poker face, “This was also the reason why my grandfather had to agree on Elder Lady Duanmu’s request of raising Uncle Limiao. However, after His Majesty ascended the throne, none of his half siblings could survive but Prince of Yi, let alone the people related to Noble Consort Shentu.”

“Prince of Chengyang was sentenced to death the next day after the late Emperor passed away and all his family were exiled to outside Shanhaiguan Pass!”

“Uncle Limiao submitted a petition after Aunt died of the difficult labor, which touched His Majesty. It was then Prince of Chengyang and his family were pardoned, but they were not permitted to return to the imperial capital. Instead, they were sent to guard the tomb of His Majesty Emperor Taizu!”

“Elder Lady Duanmu comes to the imperial capital for medical advice, which is specially allowed by Grandmother!”

“Now it is in consideration of her past identity that she is addressed as Elder Lady!”

“Actually, the clan of Prince of Chengyang is in bad condition!”

It was so dark in the bed net that she couldn’t see clearly Jian Xubai’s facial expression. With glistening eyes hidden in the shadow of the long eyelashes, he said prudently, “What do you think she comes to the imperial capital under the guise of curing her illness at the moment?”