CH 138.1

Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine Ch 138 Pt. 1

Translated by gingercat

Edited by gingercat

In the blink of an eye, it was August 15th. It was customary to hold a moon-admiring banquet in the palace during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Not only were the imperial family members invited, but also officials along with their family members.

Compared to other banquets, the moon admiring banquet was more fun. Naturally, it was also the most popular palace banquet for the madams and young ladies of the various noble families in the capital.

On this day, before the sun even set, many carriages drove along the streets of the imperial city. These carriages are all ornately decorated. With a single glance, one could tell that these were carriages belonging to the women of nobility. Well-dressed young masters in groups of twos and threes seated atop horses also littered the city. Meanwhile, the sedan chairs of officials were also mixed in the crowd. Like a colourful torrent, they flowed into the Forbidden City from the various palace gates.

This time Jin Wang and Yaoniang travelled separately. He entered through Donghua Gate, while Yaoniang entered through Xuanwu Gate.

The carriage continued forward until it came to a stop. At this time, the white marble square in front of Xuanwu Gate was divided into two sections. The long line on the left slowly inched forward at a nearly negligible speed. Meanwhile, on the other side, carriages were sent out of the palace to make room for those still in line.

At the front of the square, near the palace gate, one could see many beautiful and brightly dressed noblewomen. Standing there, they were waiting for servants to come to greet them and arrange for them to enter the palace.

After the carriage stopped, the guards rode their horses forward. A short while later, they returned and the carriage continued to proceed through the empty passage on the right.

The power of the imperial family was undoubtedly revealed here. But when one thought about it, it made sense. Had there been no benefits or preferential treatment, why would anyone waste their blood, sweat and tears to climb up? The group of women waiting in the back could only sigh as they watched the two gorgeous carriages decorated with the emblem of Jin Wang Manor continue forward.

It was said that Consort Jin had gone to the countryside to recuperate because of her poor health. Then it went without saying that the person sitting in the carriage must be Side Consort Su, who gave birth to two sons for Jin Wang.

Yaoniang became very well known within the capital since Jin Wang had brought her along for celebrations, like the recent one at Qing Wang Manor.

This kind of behaviour was truly rare. One must know that although she was a side consort, in the end, she was only a concubine. Normally, for events like these, the main wife would be brought along. If there was no main wife, then it was acceptable to not bring a female companion. There has yet to be someone who would bring their concubine out to socialize. This was simply treating the concubine like a wife.

Due to this matter, an imperial censor tried to impeach Jin Wang. Yet he ended up reprimanded by Emperor Hongjing for being too meddlesome with nothing better to do.

Although his original words were not like this, this was how everyone understood his meaning to be.

But as an imperial censor, one was supposed to monitor the behaviour of the various princes and officials. Reasons for impeachment ranged from big matters such as treason, forming political alliances, and causing political unrest. While the small matters ranged from visiting prostitutes, being lax in running the household, and indulging towards servants who committed violence. So minor matters like these could be brought up by the censor, yet who would’ve expected that he’d get reprimanded instead?

But as a result of this incident, those who should understand naturally would. As for those who shouldn’t, they’d come to the seemingly apparent conclusion that Jin Wang was favoured by His Majesty.

Anyways, it was well known by those in the capital that there was an unrivalled side consort in Jin Wang Manor. Naturally, people couldn’t help bringing up the old matter of Jin Wang not being close to women and likely being interested in men. Rumours floated around that Yaoniang must have the appearance of a goddess, that her beauty must outshine the moon and even put flowers to shame. Otherwise, why would Jin Wang, who had always been clean-hearted with few desires, go to such lengths to dote on a woman?

Even heroes are weak to a beauty’s charms. The hero used to be distant from women simply because he has yet to meet someone gorgeous enough.

All in all, many different rumours were spread. But because of these rumours, not even a whisper of Jin Wang’s name was heard among the list of princes wishing to marry the young miss of the Wang Family.

…

One of these admiring and envious gazes belonged to Wang Defang.

The Wang Family’s carriage happened to be at the back of the line so they’d need to wait for a long time. To be honest, with Elder Wang’s reputation in court, it wasn’t impossible to skip the line and many people were willing to make room for them. But Elder Wang was extremely conscious of appearances and gave strict orders to the family not to use their power to bully others. This was why the Wang Family could only wait in the back, impatient.

A total of two carriages were from the Wang Family. Eldest Madam Wang and Second Madam Wang, each with their own daughter-in-law, shared a carriage. The three young misses from the main branch were seated in another.

So not only was Wang Defang sitting in this carriage, but also her two younger sisters.

Normally, shu daughters weren’t of high enough status to attend these kinds of occasions. But before leaving the manor, Wang Zi spoke up, asking Eldest Madam Wang to bring along the two shu daughters. His excuse was to have them see the world, but to put it bluntly, all he wanted was for them to steal her limelight.

Not only did he want them to steal her limelight, but her father was utterly bewitched by that concubine of his. After hearing the recent rumours floating around the capital, that woman also wanted her own daughters to climb onto the dragon and follow the phoenix. Yet she didn’t even take a good look to see if their faces were worthy of that.

At the mere thought of all this, Wang Defang wished she could throw the two people out of the carriage for contaminating her air.

“What is seventh sister looking at?” Wang Shuying asked with a curious gaze.

She and Wang Shuyan were twin sisters. The two sisters looked exactly the same. Unless they dressed differently, most people wouldn’t even be able to recognize the difference between the two.

But Wang Defang could recognize them. She could tell the two of them apart even with her eyes closed by simply listening to their voices.

Despite the smile on her face, Wang Defang’s eyes were full of impatience. “I wasn’t looking at anything!”

Wang Shuying wanted to continue but was stopped by Wang Shuyan, the elder twin, pulling on her sleeve.

Wang Defang glanced at the two of them. “I don’t mean to admonish you, but you must behave yourselves in the palace. This is not Jizhou.”