BERW - Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Shen Yuyao really wished everyone knew what a sense of propriety meant.
Like not bringing up the very thing best left unsaid. Like not forcing one's own thoughts onto others.
Unfortunately, most people did not understand this principle. They only knew how to counsel others to bow to the rules that convention had set.
"Giving birth is truly terrifying, you know. I thought I wouldn't survive it, but somehow I did. When the baby was first born, all wrinkled, like a little red monkey. And now he's grown so tall."
Qi Jia gestured. She recalled her child's height precisely: it came exactly to her hip.
Yu Xiangxue covered her mouth and laughed softly. "Children grow fast, a new face every day. Sometimes when I look at him, I think the days aren't so hard to bear after all. Shujun, we all have children now. Only you are left. If you're blessed with a daughter, I'll certainly seek her hand for my boy."
Her words turned the topic at once to Qin Shujun, who grimaced awkwardly.
Hearing this, Shi Caiwei's eyes deepened a shade, then she said, "Shujun, don't let this one fool you. If Shujun has a daughter, she'll surely be a future princess or commandery princess of the imperial house. Every young gentleman in the capital will then be yours to pick over as you please. How would it come down to her babbling little son?"
"Hahaha, exactly, exactly! Xiangxue, don't blame me then for forgetting old friendship and fighting you for her!"
Both had borne sons. Even if their status was not low, they still wanted a daughter-in-law of imperial blood.
To hold office at court and climb to high position, one had to be known to the Emperor's heart. The Emperor's heart was only so big. Without talent enough to startle the realm, one could only take another path and make the Emperor look at one differently.
In this dynasty, a prince consort could also hold office, so having an imperial daughter as a daughter-in-law, apart from being somewhat troublesome day to day, was all benefit and no harm!
Qin Shujun looked at the smiling faces of her two old friends and suddenly felt they were strangers.
Did they know what they were saying?
Her child was not even a shadow yet, and perhaps never would be. Yet her once-closest friends had already set their sights on her future child.
Qin Shujun, who had been somewhat looking forward to the polo match, felt her heart slide beyond her control toward the abyss.
She truly could not manage a smile.
Qin Shujun's expression was poor. The other three did not think it was because they had displeased her with their words, but because Qin Shujun had taken it all to heart, vexed at having no child yet.
Qi Jia reached out and took Qin Shujun's somewhat cold fingers, advising her earnestly, "Shujun, you must plan for your own future. As for a child, the sooner you conceive one, the better."
"Yes, I have..." Yu Xiangxue was about to continue when she met Shen Yuyao's gaze.
Shen Yuyao sat somewhat far off, but her ears and eyes were sharp, and the distance did not hinder her spectating.
To outsiders, her position made it absolutely impossible for her to hear what Qin Shujun and the others were saying.
But when Yu Xiangxue met Shen Yuyao's eyes, she always felt Shen Yuyao could see through her. Even at such a distance, it was as if Shen Yuyao could see clearly.
So she uncontrollably lowered her voice and said cautiously, "I have a very effective medicine. Would you like it?"
"...Medicine?" Qin Shujun raised her brows in surprise.
"Alas, your situation, we feel it as our own. But don't be too fixated. Most men are like this. Do you know what they say outside? A garden flower is never as fragrant as a wild one." Yu Xiangxue earnestly taught her old friend her way as a principal wife. "What is won is not treasured. Most men in this world are like this. The Crown Prince comes from the imperial house, below one and above ten thousand. What could he want and not get? No wonder his manner is cold. Shujun, the Crown Prince is destined for extraordinary things. So long as you hold your ground, good days lie ahead. Once married as another's wife, you can't be willful as you were in your family home."
She spoke rather deeply. Shen Yuyao listened and rubbed her forehead; she had a hundred complaints to spew about these words.
What did "feel it as our own" mean? There was never any such thing as feeling another's suffering as one's own in this world. There was only forced submission and forbearance.
The Crown Prince's status was indeed high, but it was not true that he could have whatever he wanted. Even the Emperor had his helplessness. Power could accomplish many things in this world, and there were many it could not.
Qin Shujun was the Crown Prince's Senior Consort. When the Crown Prince took her into the inner palace, no one held a blade to his neck forcing him to take a bride and nod to let Qin Shujun into the Eastern Palace. He had compromised at the time. Now he was unhappy, and to resort to cold violence, and still claim to be in the right?
And "good days lie ahead" was pure pie in the sky. Good days never waited ahead for anyone. If a person could not stand up on her own, then what awaited her was absolutely no good days, only endless hell!
Finally, the veiled jab that the current Qin Shujun was too willful: was that serious? For Qin Shujun's disposition to count as willful? She had nearly been crushed by the Crown Prince into having not a scrap of temper left!
If Qin Shujun truly were willful, would Yu Xiangxue dare say such things in front of her? If she met a hot-tempered one, she'd have come to blows already, like Yang Keqing and Shi Caiwen.
Shen Yuyao snarked to herself as she watched Qin Shujun's side.
Qin Shujun's expression grew even worse. She looked at her old friend's face and thought of the women she had seen in the palace, the principal wives of high officials and nobles, and the noble ladies of the palace.
They all spoke of managing the Eastern Palace well, of being more understanding of the Crown Prince, as if her whole value lay in being the Crown Prince's Senior Consort, making the Crown Prince happy, and bearing a son.
Everyone gave "for your own good" as the reason, even her mother.
But who knew that in these three years, the Crown Prince, for the sake of a palace maid, had never touched a finger of hers!
The more Qin Shujun thought, the more lost she felt. Could it really be her fault? Everyone thought she was at fault. Was the Crown Prince, because of the fault in her, unwilling to favor her?
Seeing Qin Shujun grow more silent and lost, Shen Yuyao gripped her cup and prepared to go help her out of the predicament.
Not for any other reason, but simply out of compassion as one woman for another. Qin Shujun had never been at fault, and she would not allow others to twist black and white!
Before Shen Yuyao could rise, Shi Caiwei spoke first.
"Enough, Xiangxue. Do you truly think it's all because Shujun hasn't done well enough? A man's fickleness doesn't mean we women must debase ourselves! Be it this dynasty or the former, there are rules for divorce by mutual consent. No rule tells us women that when life becomes unbearable we must endure it and grind on until good days come."
Shi Caiwei and Qin Shujun were the closest of friends, so she could speak wholly from Qin Shujun's standpoint.
Yu Xiangxue's face flushed scarlet at Shi Caiwei's retort, her eyes reddening too, and she asked with an air of innocent grievance, "It was all for Shujun's good, with no selfish motive, and no intent to make Shujun debase herself. Caiwei, how can you wrong me for no reason?"
"Ten days ago, Lord Zhang spent the night at a pleasure house and was caught red-handed by the Jingzhao Prefecture Office. That very day a censor impeached Lord Zhang for contempt of law and reckless arrogance. When the Jingzhao Prefecture Office took him, he brazenly said his father-in-law was Yu Shu, Vice Minister of Personnel, and none could convict him. Later, because Minister Yang and my father argued ceaselessly at court over the matter, it was set aside, and afterward no one spoke of it again."
Shen Yuyao heard Shi Caiwei's clear, logical words and her eyes lit up.
Compared to Shi Caiwen, Shi Caiwei's temper was actually harder, and her strikes more to the point. More precious still, Shi Caiwei knew how to use what she already had to deal a lethal blow to an enemy.
This was talent! Talent already grown to full form! Shen Yuyao was somewhat moved.
As Yu Xiangxue listened to Shi Caiwei's words, her face grew paler and paler, and finally she wore an almost ashamed look.
Her wish to cling to wealth and position and clear her husband of guilt was laid bare before everyone, like a fig leaf torn away, leaving one with nowhere to hide.
Yu Xiangxue still had some shame in her. Meeting Qin Shujun's thoughtful gaze, she lowered her head in panic, tossed out "I have things to do," and withdrew first, hurrying away.
Her action was abrupt, even rude, but either way, leaving was better than staying.
Qi Jia watched Yu Xiangxue's bedraggled back, bit her lower lip, and awkwardly put in a word for her. "Shujun, you're now the Crown Prince's Senior Consort, only one step from the seat of the Crown Princess. Xiangxue meant to lend you a hand. She's just impetuous, that's why she said unpleasant things. We grew up together; you know her temper. Don't hold it against her."
"I recall I too have urgent business at home, so I won't keep you company today. Enjoy yourselves."
With that, she chased after Yu Xiangxue and left.
Shi Caiwei looked utterly accustomed to such things, but Qin Shujun's face darkened.
"Qi Jia still hasn't given up?" Qin Shujun asked.
"Her husband has little talent, but he has a face Qi Jia likes. Qi Jia won't give up so easily. If not for the shallow friendship between the Qi and Yang families, she wouldn't go so far afield. She'd not go to Minister Yang, but instead flatter Vice Minister Yu."
Qin Shujun sighed.
Shi Caiwei was rather moved. "She married a poor man against her uncle's opposition. Now for that poor man she runs east and west, swallowing her pride to court old friends. How lamentable. Shujun, from now on keep some things in mind. They are no longer who they once were."
Qin Shujun certainly knew this. "A pity. We can never play polo together again."
Seeing Qin Shujun's forlorn look, Shi Caiwei reached out and patted her arm, feeling the muscles not yet wholly worn away by a life of ease. "It's fine. Yudu Town has more than the two of us. Isn't my good-for-nothing little sister here too? I hear you even smuggled the princess out of the palace?"
Roused by her friend's banter, Qin Shujun was caught between laughter and tears, all her gloom gone.
"Smuggled out of the palace? I wouldn't dare."
Who would dare smuggle a princess out of the palace? It was more that the princess had smuggled her out!
Comments
Post a Comment