Chapter 221

The day of the concubine-taking ceremony came.

Song Yixiao freshened herself up and went out of the door in the early morning. On the way to Princess Changxing’s mansion, she was still afraid that she might be embarrassed for arriving too early. However, when she got there, she found that quite a few women were chatting merrily in the living room for guests.

Commandery Princess Qingjiang was also sitting there. Upon seeing Song Yixiao enter the living room, she hastened to wave her over, asking in a low voice, “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know!” Song Yixiao glanced around and found that everybody was staring at her curiously. Then she asked with the corner of her mouth twitched, “You didn’t ask Changxing about it?”

Commandery Princess Qingjiang, rolling the jade bracelet on her wrist, replied with a frown, “Do you see her here?”

“I’ve just asked about her. The servant said that she was busy preparing for the feast now so she asked us to have tea first.”

In other words, although quite some guests had arrived, Princess Changxing still didn’t show herself yet.

Song Yixiao found nothing wrong with it. This princess couldn’t be happy with taking a concubine for her own husband. No matter how the Empress and the others made her agree, how she felt now was imaginable!

If she came out to receive the guests early, she might not be able to hold back her emotions in the face of their constant asking.

As expected, after a while, all the guests who were invited arrived one after another, who filled the living room, but Princess Changxing was still too occupied to show herself.

It was not until the drumbeats came, followed by the arrival of the sedan that carried Shen Qimo, and the servants came to ask the guests to watch the ceremony at the side hall that Princess Changxing showed up in front of them. Dressed in the princess’s formal wear with floral hairpins and jewelry, she looked elegant and delicate, poker-faced. Just like a puppet, she was sitting in the seat of honor.

On the contrary, Jian Yiyou, sitting by the table next to her, was smiling, who seemed in a good mood.

After a while, Shen Qimo, who was wearing a pink dress with a pink embroidered napkin on her head, walked inside, escorted by two Xi-niang (the female host of a wedding) on either side of her. If the bride was to be the official wife, she would make official bows with the groom after arriving. Yet, the ceremony wouldn’t be that formal for a to-be concubine. For Shen Qimo, she only bowed to the princess and her husband, and served tea to them before being conducted to the yard groomed for her.

The female guests invited here today were all legitimate wives. Hence, of course, they wouldn’t lower themselves to go to a concubine’s residence and watch the fun.

Given Princess Changxing’s facial expression, no one dared to go forward and offer their congratulations no matter how mischievous they were. They looked at each other for a while. Having nudged by the dowry escort standing behind her, Princess Changxing finally stared at the nearby bricks, saying in a rigid tone, “Thank you for coming today. We have prepared a feast for you. Please stay and have a drink if you don’t mind.”

After saying that, she just stood up and left with a flick of sleeves before the guests gave any reply.

Apparently, although she asked the guests to stay and have a drink, she didn’t intend to keep them company. After she left, Jian Yiyou didn’t stay then. He just said something to smooth things over and then expressed his apology before leaving. Yet, it remained unknown to the guests whether he was going to comfort Princess Changxing or accompany Shen Qimo.

“What are the odds?” Xie Yiren pulled out a branch of winter jasmine from the bouquet in the vase and pretended to be appreciating the flower with Song Yixiao. Then she covered her mouth with the flower and said in a low voice, “They invited guests to the feast officially but in the end, the host and hostess both left and asked their servants to keep the guests company. What kind of feast is this?”

Song Yixiao raised her sleeves to cover her mouth, saying with a grin, “It is improper for them to treat us in this way, but will you leave now?”

Of course not!

Xie Yiren giggled, “The farce is not over yet, and my doubt is not fully dispelled. If I leave now, my trip here will be in vain.”

Pitifully, although the guests spent most of the day in the princess’s mansion and didn’t leave reluctantly until dusk, they still learnt nothing. Song Yixiao analyzed the situation and found that what the other guests knew was even less than what she did!

When she returned to Duke of Yan’s mansion, she told Jian Xubai who came back from work what happened during the feast. Jian Xubai replied seriously, “Walls have ears. We can’t figure it out for now but maybe in some days, the truth will reveal itself then.”

Obviously, he meant to put this matter aside, which was for a reason, “I got the news this afternoon that Lord Gu had arrived at the environs of the imperial capital. He will enter the imperial capital at the noon of the day after tomorrow if everything goes well.”

Song Yixiao asked, “Are you going to receive him?”

“Of course,” Jian Xubai said, “The Crown Prince plans to let Commandery Prince Zhongling go out of the capital and receive him, but the Commandery Prince is still too young, so the Crown Prince asks Prince of Liang and me to go along.”

It made sense that Commandery Prince Zhongling went to receive Gu Shao on his own, which showed that the imperial grandson was respectful of his teacher. However, for one thing, this imperial grandson hadn’t officially acknowledged Gu Shao as his teacher; for another, the imperial grandson was eight years old only. With no senior to keep him company, it would make his family appear impolite.

As to the Crown Prince, he was the heir of the emperor anyway. Even if he really wanted to draw Gu Shao over, he couldn’t lower himself too much. Therefore, instead of going by himself, he sent his younger brother, who was also a prince, and a cousin, who was a duke, to go with the eldest imperial grandson to receive a long-retired official, which was enough to show his respect for the talent.

Song Yixiao was worried about one thing, “Lord Gu has helped my father a lot. I’m wondering whether he will transfer the anger on you just because I’m not favored by my maiden family.”

“No,” Jian Xubai said with a resigned smile, “If Lord Gu is really that narrow-minded, you won’t be the reason why he will set against me. Don’t forget that my grandfather used to be his top one political enemy. They two fought so fiercely at court! Particularly, it was my grandfather who made Lord Gu retire in the prime of his life.”

In fact, even though Song Yixiao was on bad terms with her birth father, she was the granddaughter of Song Ying anyway.

Song Yixiao couldn’t argue about that, but she still took a glance at her husband.

“You are afraid that Lord Gu may recall the past grudge and set against me upon seeing me?” She didn’t point it out explicitly but Jian Xubai had understood her worry and didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh, saying resignedly, “The fight at court is different from that in the backyard. Lord Gu comes back to the court at such an old age not to seek revenge! Moreover, if he wants to seek revenge, why does he come to the imperial palace? My grandfather is not here now!”

“Is he here simply to meddle in the fight for the throne?” She had just wanted to utter the question when she recalled that her husband had told her not to get too much involved in the court affairs. Having thought for a while, she didn’t ask the question then. Instead, she said, “What will you wear by then? Do you need to prepare for the outfit now?”

In the following two days, the couple carefully discussed about what Jian Xubai should wear by then. However, to Song Yixiao’s surprise, after Gu Shao arrived in the imperial capital, he didn’t reside in the house he had bought in the capital before or the side yard that the Crown Prince had prepared for him. Instead, he lived in the Song Family’s mansion!

This was not the point. The point was that he lived in the Song Family’s mansion for three days. On the first day, he claimed that as he was too old, he needed to rest and freshen up after a long journey. Therefore, after entering the Song Family’s mansion, he just sent away those who received him, including Commandery Prince Zhongling, Prince of Liang and Jian Xubai.

On the second day, he entered the imperial palace to meet Emperor Xianjia and then agreed to be the teacher of Commandery Prince Zhongling.

On the third day, he put forward his wish to meet Song Yixiao.

When Song Yixiao heard of his request from the messenger of the Song Family, she stayed silent for quite a while. Apparently, Lord Gu didn’t just help Song Yuan a lot. He literally took Song Yuan as his own son!

Otherwise, given his identity, why did he want to meet a married daughter of the Song Family specially just on the third day since he arrived in the imperial capital?

He must want to intervene in the relationship between her and Song Yuan!

Honestly, it kind of annoyed Song Yixiao that Gu Shao did so. After all, those hurtful things that the Song Family had done to her couldn’t be compensated with some kindness at the moment. Particularly, the Song Family had just bought Liu Zhijin for Madam Pang.

Song Yixiao really didn’t want to deal with such an annoying maiden family.

Unfortunately, considering Gu Shao’s identity, seniority and qualification, Song Yixiao couldn’t decline the request anyhow.

Gloomy, she dressed herself up and arrived at the Song Family extremely reluctantly. In fact, this was her first time that she had come into the mansion over the past seven years.

“They always say that I shouldn’t come here for I may restrain my grandmother’s fortune. Today, just because Lord Gu wants to meet me, everyone seems to forget that.” Walking on the familiar and yet strange corridor, Song Yixiao pondered, “Mother used to say that due to the low social status of the Wei Family, Grandmother always bullied her. It sounds not entirely true, but it is not a fully wrong remark about Grandmother!”

What made her nurse a grievance was that not only Madam Pang but also she had to succumb to Gu Shao.

After a while, she arrived at the guest’s residence specially prepared for Gu Shao by the Song Family.

Having waited for only a while at the entrance, she heard someone beckon her from inside.

Song Yixiao composed herself and walked in steadily.

She walked across a rosewood screen carved with landscape-painted mica. The one sitting straightly next to the table in the hall must be Gu Shao.

This big shot in the political field, who still couldn’t be overlooked nowadays, should be over 60 years old, but he looked much younger than his age, perhaps because he lived a comfortable retirement life over these years. On his white face, he had thick eyebrows above his beautiful eyes, a straight nose, a square mouth, and three wisps of beards on his chin, who was really graceful and handsome.

Yesterday, Emperor Xianjia had granted him an official position but now he was wearing a common outfit, which was a piece of blue attire with a pattern of entangled branches and lotus, and a ruanjin (a type of man’s hat). With an amicable look, he acted gracefully.

Song Yuan could be regarded as a rarely-seen handsome man. Now standing beside Gu Shao, he was more handsome than Gu Shao in terms of appearance indeed but he appeared gloomy and sullen. Clearly, he was no match for Gu Shao in bearing.

“I’m Song Yixiao from the Jian Family. Greetings to Lord Gu!” Song Yixiao was disgruntled in her heart but now that she was here, she couldn’t have bad manners. She took a few steps forward and curtsied respectfully, saying, “Greetings to Father too!”

“Glad to meet you, my grandniece,” said Gu Shao. Then he waved his hand at her to let her rise and looked her over drily. Song Yixiao was wearing a garnet dual-winding curving-front robe, whose collars and sleeves were inlaid with two-inch-plus wide dark black damask and embroidered with the Qiequ pattern (transformative beast’s curve pattern). Besides, beneath her knees, a part of the pale blue skirt with the hidden embroidery pattern of entangled branches and lotus was exposed.

Garnet was bright red. If a young girl wore garnet clothes, she was inclined to look wild and arrogant.

However, she was standing demurely with her sleeves rolled up. As she raised her head and stared ahead, she turned flame-like liveliness into brightness and grace, neither cringing nor arrogant.

For a man at Gu Shao’s age and to this point, it was not important whether one was beautiful or not. Therefore, he just took a glance at Song Yixiao’s pretty appearance and didn’t care about it at all. Yet, in his heart, he pondered, “It is said that this girl and Yuan are seriously estranged from each other. Now, she hailed herself as Song Yixiao from the Jian Family just after she entered the room. Clearly, she was reminding me that she was one of the Jian Family. Moreover, she knew that she would meet seniors, but she is still dressed up in such a swanking way. Evidently, although she looks obedient and respectful, she is unruly and arrogant inside her heart.

Amidst thinking, he gave an amicable smile, “Your grandfather and I are not sworn brothers, but we are as close as real brothers. Therefore, I shall refer to you as my grandniece!”

“Lord Gu, you are well-known in the state for your great virtue and high prestige. It is my honor to have you regard me as a junior,” Song Yixiao curtsied to him again and then said respectfully, “If my husband knows that, he will feel honored too.”

Whatever Song Yixiao said was closely related to her marital family.

With a glint of smile in his eyes, Gu Shao stroked his beards and didn’t point that out, saying with a smile, “Yuan always regards me as his uncle. Since you are willing to take me as a senior, is it fine that you listen to my advice on you and your father?”

He cut to the chase and Song Yixiao also didn’t want to beat around the bushes, “How can I be unappreciative of your kindness? However, you have just arrived here from afar. With a lot of things on your hands, if you still need to be bothered by such a trivial thing of the Song Family, my father and I will be too unfilial, won’t we?”

She was not good at the political struggle. Neither did she know about Gu Shao. Yet, for an old man like him, he came from afar to the imperial capital to intervene in the fight for the throne and be the teacher of Commandery Prince Zhongling. Now that the ceremony of acknowledging him as the teacher was not officially held, he came to meddle in the bad blood between Song Yuan and her daughter. Even if Gu Shao treated Song Ying’s blood as his own, how could he not have an ulterior motive for doing so?