He closed his eyes, feeling humiliated by his submissive posture toward Old Fang just moments ago.
Soon, six death warriors from the Crown Prince’s residence quietly slipped out, splitting into two groups – one heading to the Dong residence, the other to Liu Ruofu’s maternal grandfather’s home.
When Prince Liang came calling, no matter how displeased Dong Qingping felt in his heart, he still had someone invite Prince Liang into the residence.
After Prince Liang entered, he had Dong Qingping dismiss everyone around them, then actually knelt down before Dong Qingping, frightening Dong Qingping into kneeling as well and kowtowing repeatedly, not daring to raise his head.
“Minister Dong, I truly love and admire Tizhen!” Prince Liang’s voice choked with emotion from his first words, nearly breaking into tears. He repeated to Dong Qingping the same words he had previously spoken about Dong Tizhen, speaking with extreme pathos, as if he could not live without Dong Tizhen.
Dong Qingping roughly guessed that… the Emperor probably would not permit Prince Liang to marry Dong Tizhen because of his second brother Dong Qingyue, which was why Prince Liang had come to plead.
Dong Qingping feigned ignorance while understanding perfectly: “Your Highness Prince Liang, today His Majesty summoned this humble minister to the palace. I have already informed His Majesty and asked Your Highness, Prince Liang, to send matchmakers to formally propose marriage, as long as you don’t mention my daughter’s ornaments! I wonder… why has Your Highness Prince Liang come to say these words again?”
Prince Liang’s lips moved wordlessly. He could not bring himself to tell Dong Qingping that the Emperor disagreed.
If the Emperor disagreed, for a minister to forcibly marry his daughter to Prince Liang – wouldn’t that be opposing the Emperor? Which minister would dare do such a thing?
“Your Highness, please rise first!” Dong Qingping crawled forward on his knees and helped Prince Liang up, then said: “Your Highness Prince Liang, you see the hour is already late. Please return to your residence to rest first. That Your Highness admires my daughter is a blessing she earned over several lifetimes – how could this humble minister not agree to such a fate? Your Highness may freely send matchmakers. Tomorrow, I will have my wife visit Grand Tutor Chen to apologize and politely decline that match. Your Highness can rest assured!”
“Minister Dong, I won’t hide it from you – Father Emperor… Father Emperor simply has not agreed, which is why I have no way to formally call!” Prince Liang’s eyes reddened as he spoke.
The smile on Dong Qingping’s face stiffened slightly, and he asked: “Why is this? Today, when this humble minister entered the palace… wasn’t His Majesty specifically speaking with me about this matter? Could there be some misunderstanding? What exactly did His Majesty say to Your Highness Prince Liang?”
“Father Emperor wants me to seek Grand Tutor Chen’s granddaughter as my principal consort, but… I only want Tizhen alone! My principal consort can only be Tizhen, Minister Dong! I am willing to swear an oath to Minister Dong that in this life I will marry only Tizhen and take no concubines!” Prince Liang declared solemnly.
“Your Highness, this humble minister is merely a minor Minister of the Honglu Si – how would I dare defy His Majesty?” Dong Qingping looked deeply troubled.
Prince Liang wanted to say more, but Dong Qingping quickly continued: “Your Highness must understand… this minister is willing to betroth my daughter to Your Highness, Prince Liang, but most importantly, we need His Majesty’s agreement. After all, parental command and the matchmaker’s words are proper principles! Your Highness should go plead with His Majesty!”
Prince Liang hesitated, his moist red eyes looking toward Dong Qingping.
Dong Qingping was even more troubled, and could only carefully say: “Your Highness surely wouldn’t have this humble minister personally go plead with His Majesty? If Grand Tutor Chen learned of this, what face would this humble minister have to meet Grand Tutor Chen in the future!”
Prince Liang frowned deeply. His main purpose in coming today was to win over Dong Qingping, to let Dong Tizhen and Dong Qingping know how determined his heart was to marry Dong Tizhen. As long as Dong Qingping didn’t betroth Dong Tizhen to someone else, he would still have a chance.
As for Grand Tutor Chen’s granddaughter, Grand Tutor Chen was also an important court minister with many disciples.
If in the end he truly had no choice but to marry Grand Tutor Chen’s granddaughter, Prince Liang also had ways to make Dong Tizhen willingly enter Prince Liang’s residence as a concubine.
Prince Liang looked lost and dejected for a moment, then bowed deeply to Dong Qingping again: “Minister Dong, rest assured – for Tizhen’s sake, I absolutely will not give up! Tomorrow morning, I will enter the palace to kneel and beg Father Emperor! And regarding Tizhen giving me her peace lock, I will not say a single word to outsiders! I imagine Father Emperor will soon have Eunuch Gao return Tizhen’s peace lock to Minister Dong!”
Dong Qingping breathed a sigh of relief, thanked him, and escorted Prince Liang to the door.
Watching Prince Liang board his carriage, Dong Qingping turned back into the residence, his face immediately falling. He still needed to quickly settle Dong Tizhen’s marriage.
Knowing Prince Liang had come to the residence, Song Shi had arrived early and was hiding behind the main hall. As soon as Prince Liang left, Song Shi emerged from behind the screen: “Husband, since the Emperor disagrees with this match, we must quickly settle Tizhen’s marriage. That Chen Zhaolu from Grand Tutor Chen’s family is truly excellent!”
“The Chen family wants to betroth Tizhen because they think our Dong family has good household discipline, plus when the Bai residence suffered disaster this time, Wanjun didn’t abandon the Bai family and managed everything in perfect order, not bending her spine despite sudden great calamity! Otherwise… would the Chen family’s excellent son Zhaolu consider our Tizhen?” Dong Qingping’s mind was extremely clear. “If Prince Liang feels unwilling and spreads word about holding Tizhen’s accessories, not only will the Chen family not want Tizhen, they’ll question our Dong family’s discipline and character! Moreover… look at Tizhen’s attitude – even if this matter isn’t spread around, with her heart set on Prince Liang, the match with the Chen family probably won’t succeed either!”
Song Shi felt suffocated, tears about to fall, listlessly supporting herself on the chair armrest as she sat: “How did I… how did I give birth to such a troublesome child!”
“Tomorrow, you go find Old Madam Tan and say… Tizhen’s ornaments were stolen by her maid Haitang, and somehow later ended up in Prince Liang’s hands. After Tizhen learned of this, she became so angry and frightened that she fell ill and cannot discuss marriage with the Chen family for now!”
Song Shi gripped her handkerchief tightly and nodded: “Husband, rest assured!”
Since Bai Qingyan dared let Bai Jinzhi deliver a message to the Crown Prince’s residence, she knew Old Fang was no easy lamp to deal with.
Tomorrow she would return to Shouyang with Bai Jinzhi. She was preparing to think of a way to completely kill any possibility of Prince Liang marrying Dong Tizhen, when unexpectedly reports came one after another about movements from both the Crown Prince’s residence and Prince Liang’s residence.
Bai Qingyan stood under the bright moonlight in Qinghui Courtyard, head lowered in quiet contemplation.
Prince Liang’s purpose in visiting the Dong residence wasn’t hard to guess. The Emperor hadn’t granted the marriage as Prince Liang wished, so Prince Liang had certainly gone to cry and plead his sincerity before his uncle, also to show that foolish girl Tizhen.
The people the Crown Prince’s residence had previously sent out to spread word about Prince Liang holding Dong Tizhen’s ornaments had all been eliminated by Lu Ping’s men.
As for the six people the Crown Prince’s residence sent out later, three went to Princess Nandujun Liu Ruofu’s maternal grandfather’s home, three went to lurk near the Dong residence…
Wind passed through, making the towering trees by Qinghui Courtyard’s west wall rustle. Her palm tightened as she raised her eyes, suddenly clear in her heart.
The Emperor was suspicious of many sons. He could tolerate whatever harmful acts his sons committed, but the one thing… he absolutely could not tolerate was his sons having close associations with important ministers who held military power.