After seeing off the Duke Changguo’s wife, Ji Yun and Bingtang served Qin Yining as she returned to her room to rest.
By evening, Tang Xiu came to report: “Princess Consort, someone from Duke Changguo’s mansion came with a message, saying that Duke Changguo has agreed to your request.”
Upon hearing this, the stern expression on Qin Yining’s face relaxed, and she quietly let out a long sigh of relief.
As long as Duke Changguo had nodded his agreement, the matter was already more than half accomplished.
The next day, Mu Jinghu personally took action, bringing Duke Changguo while avoiding prying eyes to the prince’s mansion.
Duke Changguo hadn’t expected that there would be someone with such exceptional martial skills beside Qin Yining, and even more unexpectedly, this “chivalrous person” hadn’t brought him through the door but had come by scaling walls, which frightened him into breaking out in cold sweat. When he looked at Qin Yining again, his gaze had completely changed.
To act with such bold decisiveness and use methods that weren’t confined by convention—that such a person was actually a woman was truly a pity.
Qin Yining and Duke Changguo had secret discussions for a full two hours.
When night fell and all was quiet, Mu Jinghu silently escorted Duke Changguo back.
Apart from Qin Yining and Duke Changguo themselves, no one knew what they had discussed.
In fact, aside from these two and Mu Jinghu, no one else even knew that Duke Changguo had visited the prince’s mansion. Even Duke Changguo’s wife, who was closest to him, had no knowledge of this and continued to worry anxiously about her youngest son’s situation.
The next day, Qin Yining had Tang Xiu bring out the Ninth Young Master, who had been confined for two days.
After being tied up for two days without a grain of rice or drop of water, the Ninth Young Master was half dead. Upon seeing Qin Yining, his eyes were so venomously hateful they seemed ready to devour someone.
Mu Jinghu said, “Do you know your mistake now?”
The Ninth Young Master gritted his teeth and craned his neck defiantly. He wanted to shout loudly, but firstly he lacked the strength, and secondly he was also afraid of the person before him. After a long while, he finally squeezed out a sentence: “I’m not wrong! What did I do wrong! You should think about it—what respectable woman would be riding in a carriage late at night? This is entirely your own fault! I was just having a normal drink at a brothel, and I happened to encounter you on the road. How was I supposed to know that a dignified princess consort would go out in the middle of the night? Yet I got captured by you people. Am I not wronged?”
As he spoke, the Ninth Young Master actually cried tears of indignation.
Qin Yining was amused by his shameless words. She stepped forward two paces to stand before the man sitting on the ground, looking down at him condescendingly: “Whether I travel at night or not is my freedom. Just because I traveled at night, does that give you reason to speak rudely? Whether I’m willing to travel at night and whether your behavior is proper or not are two separate matters. Could it be that you can push all your faults onto others? This time you encountered me, and I have many people around me, so you didn’t get to take advantage. But what if it had been an ordinary woman from a common family?”
Too lazy to waste more words with this person, Qin Yining said: “Beat him with ten board strikes and send him back to his father.”
“Yes.” Tang Xiu had already received Qin Yining’s instructions earlier and approached menacingly with a board in hand.
The Ninth Young Master was so frightened his face turned white, and he said repeatedly: “You dare! You venomous whore, you dare hit me! My father is Duke Changguo! If you hit me, my father won’t let you off!”
“Still can’t keep your mouth clean at this point? Beat him!”
Qin Yining flicked her sleeves and turned back into the room.
Soon the courtyard echoed with the crackling sounds of the board and the Ninth Young Master’s wailing cries for mercy.
The ten board strikes were quickly finished. The Ninth Young Master didn’t even have the strength left to cry and was directly carried back to Duke Changguo’s mansion on a door plank by Tang Xiu and his men.
Ji Yun and Bingtang felt vindicated watching this and spat fiercely.
“Serves him right! Such people deserve to be taught a harsh lesson!”
“Exactly! If he’s not disciplined now, who knows how many women this scoundrel will harm in the future!”
However, after venting their anger, the two became somewhat worried. After all, Duke Changguo’s status was there for all to see.
“Princess Consort, will Duke Changguo become furious from shame or hold a grudge against you?” Bingtang asked worriedly.
“Don’t worry, I have my own arrangements. Right now I actually have another matter for Tang Xiu to handle. When Tang Xiu returns, tell him to come see me.”
“Yes.” Bingtang nodded seriously.
Ji Yun smiled and said: “Princess Consort, this servant has looked over the roster you gave me and contacted quite a few old servants to return according to the addresses listed. This morning people have been trickling back to the mansion. It’s just that the mansion still has few people. Should we purchase some more?”
Qin Yining thought for a moment and smiled: “Let’s not do that for now. Let’s first use the old servants in the mansion. You can keep an eye out for purchasing opportunities—if there are suitable young maids, find a few and that will be enough.”
“Yes. How many young maids does the Princess Consort plan to keep by her side?”
“Yes.” Qin Yining smiled: “In the future, when our days become stable, I’ll find you a suitable husband and marry you off in grand style. If you’re willing, you can then serve as a managing matron by my side. At that time, the maids around me definitely won’t be sufficient, so I’m preparing in advance now.”
Ji Yun’s face immediately turned red. Looking at her this way, she truly had a peach-blossom complexion and exceptional beauty.
“Princess Consort, don’t talk nonsense.”
“How am I talking nonsense?” Qin Yining blinked innocently. “When men come of age they should marry, when women come of age they should wed. Could it be that I would keep you as an old maid forever? You’d probably end up resenting me then.”
“The Princess Consort just loves to talk nonsense.” Ji Yun stamped her feet in embarrassment and walked away.
Seeing this, both Qin Yining and Bingtang couldn’t help but laugh.
After laughing enough, Bingtang asked: “Princess Consort, our prince’s mansion is so large, but not all the former old servants can return. I heard Ji Yun say that only about twenty-some people were found and brought back. This way the mansion seems too empty.”
“It’s fine. If the mansion is empty, let it continue being empty. Where the walls and tiles show signs of wear, there’s no need for renovation either—just maintain the current state.”
Bingtang didn’t quite understand Qin Yining’s intention. Such a fine imperial-bestowed residence, yet allowing it to appear so aged and gloomy—if outsiders saw this, they would probably gossip behind their backs, saying that Prince Zhongshun had fallen into decline, otherwise why would the prince’s mansion have become so dilapidated.
However, Bingtang knew that since Qin Yining was doing this, there must be a plan, so she didn’t continue asking.
Before long, Tang Xiu came to see Qin Yining.
Qin Yining had Ji Yun and Bingtang guard the door while she whispered a few instructions in Tang Xiu’s ear.
Tang Xiu asked in surprise: “The Princess Consort means to have the Prince’s deeds compiled into books for storytellers to tell?”
“Correct.” Qin Yining smiled: “When you go out these days, first carefully observe which places usually have the most people listening to storytelling, and which storytellers are more popular. As for the storytelling content, we’ll tell them about those episodes from when the Prince was fighting wars.”
Tang Xiu’s eyes lit up as he listened, nodding repeatedly: “This is good, this is good! Princess Consort, you don’t know—the Prince on the battlefield was truly magnificent. The Prince used troops like a god, always leading from the front, always the first to charge and the last to retreat. Not to mention anything else, all the brothers in the army were completely convinced by the Prince. The Prince was also righteous toward the brothers, never embezzling their provisions and pay. Sometimes when things were tight, he would even supplement with his own silver to pay the brothers’ wages…”
Tang Xiu clearly worshipped Pang Xiao greatly. Once he started talking about Pang Xiao’s glorious achievements, his words couldn’t stop, flowing like spilled beans as he spoke with animated excitement.
Qin Yining listened while nodding repeatedly, smiling as she said: “Everything you’re saying is very good. There’s also how the Prince risked himself to save people for the sake of civilians’ safety, and additionally how the Prince was righteously loyal and refused to massacre cities—tell all of these to the storytellers, teach them to learn it well, and have them tell these stories in the most densely populated areas of the city.”
Qin Yining thought for a moment and added: “Not only the Prince’s past military achievements, but also this recent incident in the South—the chaos between Yuchi Yan and Nanyan’s Yuchi Xujie. If the Prince hadn’t intervened, Nanyan would probably have erupted in warfare long ago.”
Tang Xiu blinked. Those who knew the inside story of Nanyan’s affairs knew that things weren’t as Qin Yining was describing.
But promoting it this way, making the Prince’s reputation better and better, wasn’t a bad thing either.
Seeing that Tang Xiu understood everything, Qin Yining smiled as she entrusted this matter to him, also smiling as she said: “Once you’ve made proper arrangements, I’ll have to go listen to the storytelling myself.”
“Why would the Princess Consort need to go listen to storytelling? You’ve already seen the Prince’s deeds with your own eyes and kept them in your heart.”
“That doesn’t prevent me from joining the excitement.” Qin Yining said with a smile.
Tang Xiu also smiled, rubbing his hands together eagerly as he went out to make arrangements.
While Tang Xiu was spending time contacting storytellers, news that Princess Consort Zhongshun had formed a feud with Duke Changguo’s family had already spread like wildfire.
Some people still didn’t quite believe it, feeling that Duke Changguo provoking Qin Yining for no reason made no sense at all.
But many people had personally witnessed the miserable state of the Ninth Young Master when he was carried back to Duke Changguo’s mansion on a door plank after being beaten with boards.
Besides this, some people privately compiled several different versions of stories about the “love-hate relationship” between Qin Yining and Duke Changguo’s family. Through such word-of-mouth transmission, the folk tales about why Qin Yining and Duke Changguo’s mansion had formed their feud had already been told in several versions.
So much so that within three to five days, what started as Qin Yining forming a feud with Duke Changguo had transformed into Pang Xiao having an irreconcilable hatred with Duke Changguo, and the news was being spread with convincing detail.
Qin Yining, staying in the mansion and listening to reports from various sources, was in such a good mood that she ate half an extra bowl of rice.
“Princess Consort, teahouses throughout the city are now telling stories of the Prince’s heroic deeds everywhere—pacifying Great Yan, fighting mountain bandits, and also quelling the Nanyan rebellion. Now in their leisure conversations, eight out of ten people are talking about the Prince’s bravery and loyalty. Some have even composed children’s songs, and children are singing them throughout the streets and alleys.”
Tang Xiu smiled as he said: “Now the storytellers are most enthusiastic about telling of the Prince’s military campaigns. The excitement level is no less than ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms.'”
Hearing this, Qin Yining smiled: “So what part have they reached recently?”
“They’ve reached the part about how the Prince quelled the great southern rebellion without losing a single soldier. Yuchi Yan and Yuchi Xujie conspired together to cause chaos, wanting to raise troops to disturb Great Zhou and provoke discord among court ministers with the intention of restoring the Great Yan dynasty. But their treacherous plot was seen through by the Prince. The Prince merely employed a small stratagem, and Yuchi Yan and Yuchi Xujie began fighting among themselves. Yuchi Yan even killed Yuchi Xujie, who had initially shown him life-saving kindness. Now all the common people are cursing Yuchi Yan as worthless.”
Qin Yining nodded.
Tang Xiu continued: “Anyway, now the Prince’s image of being both wise and brave has spread everywhere. Even when children play house, they all fight to play the Prince.”