According to He Zhen, several well-dressed individuals had been following the disheveled man. After the self-proclaimed brother was arrested, these people disappeared into the crowd. However, Lu Zhong, following Lu Yi’s instructions, had secretly trailed them. It remained to be seen if he could uncover anything.
As night fell, the Prince of Huaiyang finally returned. Though he smelled strongly of alcohol, his mind was clear. Mian Tang ordered sobering soup for him.
After sipping a few mouthfuls, Cui Xingzhou suddenly asked, “Mama Li has been coming and going. Is something amiss?” Mian Tang hadn’t realized that while drinking with guests in the front hall, he had still been aware of the movements in the bridal chamber. She surmised the guards outside must have informed him.
So Mian Tang honestly told him about the possibility of her exiled brother seeking her out.
Cui Xingzhou didn’t frown, but simply asked, “Should I have him released?”
Mian Tang shook her head and replied firmly, “Not only should we not release him, we can’t even let him enter Zhen Prefecture. This could very well be a setup. Besides ruining our wedding day, if he has escaped his place of exile, meeting with him would make us guilty of harboring a criminal. As my brother, he’d be your brother-in-law. If ill-intentioned people at court were to impeach you, how would you explain yourself?”
As she finished speaking, Mian Tang suddenly felt a wave of sadness. Not only was her brother unfit to be the Prince’s in-law, but she had a past as a bandit. Although Yangshan had been granted amnesty and she wouldn’t be pursued by the imperial court, it was still a disreputable history.
Hadn’t the current emperor gone to great lengths to whitewash his past, never mentioning his time in Yangshan?
If Cui Xingzhou had married a woman of impeccable background and proper upbringing, would he face such troubles now? Even on their wedding day, they couldn’t find peace…
In truth, Cui Xingzhou wasn’t as calculating as Mian Tang imagined.
When he was engaged to Lian Silan, the Lian family had constantly bothered him with various issues, which he had patiently resolved one by one.
In comparison, Mian Tang’s family was much simpler. The Liu family was nearly extinct, and the Lu family had been strictly instructed by Old Master Lu not to use Mian Tang for social climbing, but to rely on their efforts and not cause trouble for her.
Cui Xingzhou had considered all the points Mian Tang had raised. If the man in the county jail was Liu Zhanpeng, he was Mian Tang’s brother. It would be natural for her to ask him to help her brother.
Cui Xingzhou had prepared himself for the potential consequences. But he hadn’t expected Mian Tang to consider his position so thoroughly, even refusing to meet her brother to avoid implicating him.
Momentarily stunned, Cui Xingzhou said, “When you first heard about your brother’s arrest, you cried inconsolably. How can you bear to abandon him now? Don’t worry, the issues you’re concerned about aren’t serious. I’ll handle them properly.”
Mian Tang wrapped her arms around his neck. “I know you’re capable. But it’s not necessary… Back then, I wasn’t crying for him, but for my father’s favoritism that hurt both others and himself. If I had strongly advised my father then, perhaps our family wouldn’t have been ruined. It’s not worth tarnishing your reputation for someone like him… You don’t know his character; he was spoiled by my father. If you help him escape trouble, he’ll think he’s found an even more powerful patron than our father and might cause more problems… That’s why I didn’t let you petition for his release before.”
Seeing Mian Tang’s expression, Cui Xingzhou couldn’t help but feel heartache for her. She wasn’t as tough as she claimed. He knew she had secretly asked her eldest uncle, Lu Wen, to bribe the jailers watching Liu Zhanpeng, requesting that they provide timely medical treatment if he fell ill and not assign him overly strenuous labor.
However, in Mian Tang’s heart, her husband was more important. She always considered him first, never wanting to put him in a difficult position.
In this regard, even his mother hadn’t thought so carefully and thoroughly for him.
Realizing this, Cui Xingzhou embraced her tenderly, comforting her, “Don’t worry so much. I’ll handle this matter for you. Just focus on taking care of yourself and the baby.”
Mian Tang hugged him tightly, but her heart remained heavy.
In noble households, it was customary for wives to sleep separately from their husbands during pregnancy. As night fell, Empress Dowager Chu, fearing her son might be careless after drinking, sent someone to urge the Prince to sleep separately, lest he disturb Mian Tang in a drunken state.
However, the Prince had already washed up and was ready to retire. He told the maid who came to relay the message, “Go tell my mother that I know what I’m doing. I won’t cause any trouble. Go on, I’m going to rest now.”
Mian Tang was restless in her sleep and had a habit of kicking off the blankets. It was early autumn, and the nights were getting cool. By sleeping with her, he could cover her with a blanket when needed. Besides, having someone beside her was more effective than a bed warmer.
As for his mother’s concerns, they were unnecessary. He had endured nights alone on the hard bed in North Street for a year; surely he could control himself for a few months now.
After washing up, Mian Tang lay in Cui Xingzhou’s arms, fresh and fragrant.
They had known each other for so long, and she had called him “husband” for nearly two years, but only now was he truly her lawful spouse. Today, family and friends had witnessed it; there was no denying it now.
Thinking of this, she felt a surge of emotion and couldn’t help but whisper in his ear, “Husband…”
It had been a long time since Cui Xingzhou had heard such a tender “husband” from her. He felt a warm current rushing through his body.
At that moment, his nose was filled with Mian Tang’s intoxicating sweet scent, and his arms held her soft, fragrant form. The Prince of Huaiyang felt that he had boasted too soon to his mother; he was having trouble controlling himself.
He could only hold her and passionately kiss her cherry-like lips.
But Mian Tang, tired from the long day, didn’t play along for too long before yawning and falling asleep. Cui Xingzhou counted the beads hanging from the bed frame in the moonlight for a long time before getting up and going to the courtyard to practice his martial arts.
The next day, when Mian Tang woke up well-rested, she turned to look at her husband beside her and found that he was sleeping in late, just like he used to do on North Street.
This wouldn’t do; today they had to serve tea to his mother. So Mian Tang had to coax and shake her husband to get up quickly.
As a result, Cui Xingzhou went to serve tea to his mother with a grumpy, unrested face.
Due to his marriage, his sister Cui Fu had also returned to her maiden home and was accompanying their mother, waiting for the newlyweds to pay their respects.
To be honest, although Cui Fu hadn’t approved of Lian Silan, she had never imagined that her future sister-in-law would be a woman of such background.
She had originally received news of her brother’s impending marriage and, knowing that her mother wasn’t one to handle practical matters, had come back early to help with the preparations.
But when she arrived at the palace two days ago, she learned that her brother was to be married in two days. Upon questioning her mother, she discovered that the so-called county princess was with a child, and they were rushing the marriage to avoid scandal.
This… what kind of situation was this? Cui Fu was about to explode with anger, but to her surprise, her mother calmly said, “Isn’t it good that they’re getting married quickly? As long as it can be kept secret, it’s fine…”
Cui Fu had always felt powerless against her mother since childhood. She believed that if she had been in the palace, she would never have allowed her brother to act so absurdly, marrying a woman of such questionable origins. But what was done was done, and as a married sister, she couldn’t say much. She could only watch as her brother married an unsuitable woman as his princess.
So today, she and her mother had risen early, waiting for the newlyweds to serve tea. But they waited and waited, and the couple arrived late. Her brother looked drowsy and listless as if he hadn’t slept well.
She wondered how this Liu Mian Tang had enticed her brother last night. Even pregnant, she wouldn’t let him go, insisting on sleeping together!
Could it be that she feared her brother might have concubines and lose favor? Despite being the official princess of the palace, she acted with the pettiness of a lowly concubine!
Cui Fu felt she needed to remind her mother to properly educate this new bride.
However, Mian Tang was unaware of her sister-in-law’s thoughts as she stood stern-faced beside her mother-in-law. She carefully knelt with teacups to pay her respects to both of them.
Empress Dowager Chu quickly instructed her maid, “Go, quickly help her up. She’s been kneeling and bowing all day yesterday. What if she strains her belly today? There are no outsiders here, no need for such formalities.”
Cui Fu felt her mother was too accommodating, lacking the authority of a mother-in-law. She remembered when she first married into the Qing Guo Gong family, her mother-in-law, fearing that she might be unruly as a princess from the royal family, had made her stand and serve at the dining table for a whole month, establishing strict rules.
She had married far away, and even if she felt wronged in her heart, she could only swallow her pride. This woman of humble origins was lucky to have such an easy-going mother-in-law.
Comparing the two situations, as the legitimate daughter of the royal family, Cui Fu couldn’t help feeling some resentment. She spoke up, “Mother, you’re being too careful. When I was pregnant, I still had to pay my respects to my mother-in-law every day, and she never exempted me from the etiquette. This is the proper conduct for running a household. If you exempt her from everything, won’t it create chaos and make her think the palace is so casual?”
Cui Fu had always been strong-willed and sharp-tongued since childhood. It couldn’t be helped; her mother was weak, and her brother was young! However, such a temperament had caused her considerable trouble in her husband’s family, where she had no one to support her. The fact that her mother-in-law had been able to impose rules on her in various ways was largely due to her outspokenness.
Cui Xingzhou knew his sister’s temperament and intervened, “Mian Tang is not ignorant of proper conduct. Sister, you’ve only been back for a few days, so naturally you don’t know how filial and respectful she is to Mother. It’s just that her pregnancy was unstable earlier, and she had to rest for many days before recovering. What’s wrong with Mother showing her extra care?”