BERW - Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Shen Yuyao swaggered into the Eastern Palace.
At first, she actually hadn't planned on going in.
It was simply that she had already reached the Eastern Palace gates, and not stepping inside for a look would have been a little impolite.
All right, to tell the truth, it was because she had thought of Qin Shujun, and the more she thought of her, the more she felt she ought to go in and see her.
That morning, Qiluo had already been brought back by the palace servants the Emperor had sent out. By now, she had presumably been delivered into the Eastern Palace and settled in properly.
Qin Shujun was now the nominal mistress holding authority in the Eastern Palace. Anyone coming or going had to pay her their respects, so it was hard for Shen Yuyao not to know of this.
Qin Shujun did indeed already know. When Shen Yuyao arrived, she was sitting there blankly, her expression lacking the liveliness she had shown when last she spoke with Shen Yuyao.
In truth, not much time had passed. Only a single day.
But think: how long had it been since she and the Crown Prince married? Only three years.
"Imperial Sister-in-Law."
Someone had announced Shen Yuyao when she entered. By rights, Qin Shujun should have risen to receive her. She was, after all, a princess with an enfeoffed title, higher in standing than a Senior Consort.
But Qin Shujun showed no reaction whatsoever. Standing before Qin Shujun, Shen Yuyao felt rather guilty.
However much Shen Yuyao looked down on Shen Zhuocong's methods, she and Shen Zhuocong were still one family. They both bore the surname Shen; break the bone and the sinew still holds. In the eyes of outsiders, they were firmly bound together.
It would have been entirely normal for Qin Shujun to redirect her anger onto her.
But when Shen Yuyao spoke, Qin Shujun suddenly came back to herself, and only then did Shen Yuyao realize that Qin Shujun had not redirected her anger at all.
She had merely been staring into space.
"Yuyang, you've come. Sit and have some tea. Fetch the candied fruit, add more sugar. Yuyang likes sweet things."
Qin Shujun truly was a very good person. Even at a time like this, she could still look after Shen Yuyao's tastes.
The original owner had not had much contact with her before, and so had not known that Qin Shujun was actually so thoughtful and considerate by nature.
Considerate to the point of making one's heart ache.
If Qin Shujun had put on a black face for Shen Yuyao at this moment, or even quarreled fiercely with the Crown Prince, Shen Yuyao would not have found her heartrending; she would only have thought her unlucky.
"Imperial Sister-in-Law, you..." Shen Yuyao stopped, not knowing what to say.
"That you could come visit me again today, and call me Imperial Sister-in-Law, makes me very happy." Qin Shujun seemed to understand Shen Yuyao's thoughts. This young woman of only twenty-one smiled magnanimously at Shen Yuyao, and there was little resentment in that smile.
Twenty-one. She was close in age to Shen Yuyao, a difference of only two or three years. Shen Yuyao could not help but think: if she were the modern her, and found herself in Qin Shujun's circumstances, how would she deal with it?
She thought for a long while, without result.
Shen Yuyao could not imagine it. With her temperament, she would never let herself fall into such a position; the marriage would never have come to be in the first place.
"Marrying into the imperial house is different from marrying into other families. I understood that long ago. He is the Crown Prince, and in the future he will be Emperor. Which emperor has no Three Palaces and Six Precincts? And which emperor has few children at his knee?"
Shen Yuyao had come to comfort Qin Shujun, yet ended up being comforted by her instead.
Qin Shujun reached out and handed Shen Yuyao the candied fruit the palace maid had brought over. "Here, try it. After you left yesterday, I specifically had the Imperial Kitchens improve it."
Shen Yuyao glanced at the silent palace maid. When she had come yesterday, that maid had not been at Qin Shujun's side.
Thinking carefully, it seemed that every time Qin Shujun went out, she would bring this maid along.
Yesterday, what had this maid been doing?
Qin Shujun noticed Shen Yuyao's confusion but did not speak of the matter.
Shen Yuyao lowered her head and took a bite of the candied fruit. This time it truly had been made with care; it was much better than before.
The sweetness was higher, yet it did not leave one feeling cloyed. It was even a little more delicious than the candied fruit on the Crown Prince's side, and gentler on the palate.
Probably because the candied fruit on the Crown Prince's side was meant for the Crown Prince to eat, its flavor catered more to Shen Zhuocong.
"It's delicious. Not too sweet, and very refreshing."
Like most people, Shen Yuyao's highest praise for sweets was that they were not sweet.
Qin Shujun seemed very pleased, and smiling, handed Shen Yuyao another piece of candied fruit.
The more she looked at Shen Yuyao, the better her mood became.
Shen Yuyao herself did not know that when she lowered her head to eat, her cheeks puffed out. Snow-white skin paired with slightly reddened eyes made her look like a rabbit earnestly nibbling grass.
A ball of snow-white loveliness.
It made one's heart soften just to look at her.
Qin Shujun could not quite explain her own feelings either. To say she had no feelings for the Crown Prince would be false.
She had known the Crown Prince since childhood, and he was handsome. In daily life he treated others with gentle refinement. When she was a girl, her maiden heart first stirring, she had naturally liked such a young man.
But later, when she entered the Eastern Palace, she was pressed down bit by bit, and she long since forgot what she had originally been like. For three years, outsiders saw her as enjoying every glory, but in truth those three years had been an existence utterly different from her girlhood.
The pain of those sleepless, tossing nights, the offhand gossip from others' mouths, were like mountain after mountain pressing down upon her head, making her bow her backbone little by little, until each day she could only lower her eyes and bow her head and dutifully play the Crown Prince's Senior Consort.
What Qin Shujun was thinking, what Qin Shujun as a person wanted, no one cared.
Sometimes Qin Shujun would wonder whether it was her fault.
Where had she gone wrong? As the Crown Prince's Senior Consort, because she had failed to bear the Crown Prince children? Or was it that she was too jealous by nature, unable to tolerate others, and despite being merely the Senior Consort rather than the principal wife, she monopolized the Crown Prince and would not let go?
Now that the truth had been revealed, Qin Shujun suddenly understood: she had done nothing wrong.
If one had to pick out a single fault, it was that the Crown Prince did not love her.
Was that her fault? No, it was the Crown Prince's fault.
As Shen Yuyao ate, she heard a soft laugh. She looked up at Qin Shujun in puzzlement, and saw Qin Shujun gazing at her, smiling enchantingly, looking to be in a good mood.
Shen Yuyao immediately felt like hanging a question mark over her head. Was her eating that funny?
Before Shen Yuyao could speak, the next piece of candied fruit had already arrived at her lips. Shen Yuyao promptly tossed the question to the back of her mind and began seriously munching her snack.
She could eat three bowls of candied fruit like this by herself!
It really was delicious. Palace craftsmanship was extraordinary. Shen Yuyao suspected she would grow three sizes rounder, but then she thought of the amount of exercise she would get later. This tiny bit of caloric intake was nothing.
Thinking of the future, Shen Yuyao could no longer savor the delicacy. She finally stopped her munching little mouth, drank a mouthful of tea to clear her throat, and then asked Qin Shujun, "Imperial Sister-in-Law, would you like to practice martial arts and swordplay with your little sister? And ride horses, too!"
Qin Shujun raised a brow in some surprise. She looked down at her slender fingers, fair and long, her nails freshly tinted with henna, beautiful and exquisite.
Then she looked at Shen Yuyao's not-yet-grown figure, which seemed as though a single gust of wind could knock it over.
The two of them, going to practice martial arts and swordplay?
"Riding won't be necessary. In my maiden days, I often invited three or five friends to play polo. As for this practicing of martial arts and swordplay, Yuyang, you and I are too old."
Martial arts practice normally began at three or five years old, starting with horse stance and basic training. Who ever began at fifteen or sixteen? Never mind that the body was already grown and stiff tendons could not be stretched out. With such physical conditions, one would not only suffer more hardship, but the final results would also be disappointing.
She would not achieve anything of substance, only suffer for nothing.
"Being older isn't the problem. When the horse was startled yesterday, sitting in the carriage, I thought that if my skills were better, perhaps I could have saved myself."
At that moment, Shen Yuyao's head had been full of the joy of the coming drama. How could she have thought of such things? She had even feared that Yuan Shilu, climbing into the carriage to rescue her, would disrupt her performance, and kicked him off the carriage.
She had heard that Yuan Shilu had not come to the palace for duty today, that he had been injured while controlling the horse.
Qin Shujun had not been present at the time, so she truly believed that Shen Yuyao had taken an interest in martial arts because of that mishap.
She did not approve, feeling that Shen Yuyao was being childish, and that it was merely a three-day enthusiasm.
"Yuyang, martial arts practice is bitter work. Bumping and tumbling, injury is unavoidable. If you leave a scar behind, what then? You are a princess. As long as you take care, a horse-startling incident is not likely to happen again."
Others might not know the twists and turns of the horse-startling affair, but surely Qin Shujun did. Shen Yuyao had even told her that the Crown Prince had asked her to create some chaos to help him leave the palace.
The horse-startling had been arranged long in advance.
Did Shen Yuyao not know that martial arts practice was bitter work? But with her enormous strength, if she did not practice properly, wouldn't that be a waste?
Mere strength without knowing how to use it. If it truly came to a fight, she would be the one to suffer.
What Shen Yuyao loved most was eating, but she was never one to take a loss.
"Imperial Sister-in-Law, you used to play polo? Could you teach me? That way I won't have to go looking for a riding instructor."
Shen Yuyao did not respond to Qin Shujun's words about the hardship of martial arts. Qin Shujun understood: Shen Yuyao was determined to give it a try.
Let her try, then. The little princess had nothing to do all day anyway; martial arts and riding could burn off some of her energy.
Once she truly could not stand it, she would naturally give up on her own.
Qin Shujun did not try to dissuade her further, nor did she agree to teach Shen Yuyao. She was now the Crown Prince's Senior Consort; every day there was a pile of miscellaneous matters in the Eastern Palace waiting for her to handle.
Where was there still the leisure of her youth, to spend whole days out at play?
She and those maiden sisters of hers could only meet two or three times a year. With each reunion, their affection thinned a little further. In a few years, perhaps they would be like familiar strangers, no longer able to talk of everything under the sun and chat through a whole night without feeling sleepy, the way they once had.
Shen Yuyao sat a while longer, saw that Qin Shujun's mood was fairly stable, and prepared to take her leave.
But as she was leaving, she was stopped by a palace servant at the Crown Prince's side, who asked her to come to the Crown Prince's study to talk.
Shen Yuyao very much wanted to say she had no time!
But then she thought: she had just helped the Crown Prince. Although the matter had not been accomplished, the outcome was at least good. She had gone to great effort; surely she could not come away with nothing at all.
Besides, she had a feeling this matter was not going to end so simply.
The Crown Prince, as a person, was far less gentle than he appeared.
When he saw Shen Yuyao, Shen Zhuocong, without a word, cupped his hands and bowed to Shen Yuyao.
This gave Shen Yuyao quite a fright. Fortunately, she was nimble; she immediately sidestepped and dodged the bow.
When the Crown Prince straightened up, he did not see his sister's startled face, but rather the empty doorway. His expression went blank for a moment.
All the words he had prepared went to waste.
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