The Japanese envoys attending the palace banquet and proposing to marry a princess had only happened last night. Han Zhi probably had not yet reacted quickly enough, but that did not matter. Grand Madam Fan and Zhou Weiqi would naturally make him temporarily put away those improper thoughts—if Prince Duan could eliminate the entire Song family in one stroke without them needing to act, they would naturally not want to risk dirtying their own hands.
No matter how unwilling Han Zhi was, he could not defy his deeply calculating aunt or his dictatorial parents.
The corner of Song Chuyi’s mouth curved into a cold smile: “Thinking about it now, being young has its advantages. When I was even younger, at most I feared people would burn me like they did Wang Jiu, treating me as a monster. Now I also have to guard against those with ulterior motives who use lifelong marriage matters as leverage. How troublesome.”
What’s more, these people had no originality whatsoever. They just kept thinking of various ways to marry her into their families—as if they thought she would be just like they imagined, that once married she would obediently take the woman’s position of favoring her husband’s family over her natal family, henceforth helping them manage things inside and out.
The Song Chuyi of her previous life would naturally have done so. Back then, if Shen Qingrang had wanted her heart, she probably would have truly taken a knife and carved out her own heart to offer him.
But things in this world always change. Having suffered too much before, she would no longer want to look back. Just like now—forget marrying Shen Qingrang, even if she were truly made to marry someone of equal status who was honest and loyal, she would only feel goosebumps erupting all over her body.
She sighed deeply, her appearance completely unlike a young maiden in the bloom of youth who should be carefree. Instead, she resembled an old woman weathered by life’s vicissitudes: “Now that Han Zhi can’t attend to me, I can just free up my hands to resolve this matter with Prince Duan. It saves me from always having a swarm of filthy flies surrounding me, making it difficult to decide which one to swat first.”
This demeanor of hers really did not match her flower-like jade face. It was easy for people to think she was deliberately acting profound. Zhou Weizhao could not help but burst out laughing: “If others saw you like this, they would probably truly treat you as someone like Wang Jiu. Since you’ve been reborn, treat yourself as reborn. If you confine yourself within your past tragic experiences, aren’t you drawing a prison around yourself?”
Seeing Song Chuyi look over with slight confusion, he reminded her: “Actually, speaking of the flies around you, aside from my Uncle Prince Duan, the remaining ones who want to use your marriage to make an issue—one is Han Zhi, the other is Shen Qingrang. I heard your father still quite likes Shen Qingrang?”
Song Chuyi propped her chin on one hand, looking at the beauty vase on the table for a while before narrowing her eyes: “Qing Ying even told you this?”
She had always known that Qing Ying, given to her by Cui Shi, was formerly from the Empress’s palace. Those who came out of the Empress’s palace—which one did not also regard Zhou Weizhao as a proper master? Moreover, Qing Ying seemed unusually familiar with Qing Zhuo, carried martial arts skills, and over time, Song Chuyi would have to be a fool not to guess that the relationship between these two was not so simple.
But Qing Ying had never done anything to betray her. Words she had instructed not to be spoken outside had never been leaked by a single character. So she turned a blind eye to it—in any case, she had nothing worth hiding from Zhou Weizhao. Starting from several years ago at the Tongzhou estate, he had displayed extraordinary perceptiveness. And with that group of people he had at Longhu Mountain, what could he not investigate?
“She wanted me to help.” Zhou Weizhao looked at her openly and honestly: “But I truly have nothing I can help with. The Shen family has now retracted most of the hands they extended out. I estimate after several scares, they no longer have any other expectations. They just want to honestly marry a daughter-in-law like you to benefit from their in-law family’s influence… They say a gentleman seeks a fair lady. Although his motives are impure, he hasn’t hidden or concealed anything—his thoughts are clearly displayed on his face. If you are unwilling, I’m afraid you’ll still need to work on your grandfather and grandmother. Otherwise, your father might muddle-headedly sell you off.”
Although Song Yi had little say in matters nowadays, the trouble was precisely that he was Song Chuyi’s biological father. Since ancient times, marriages had emphasized parental command and matchmaker’s words. If he opened his mouth and consented to this marriage with Duke Yingguo’s residence, it would truly take considerable effort to undo.
Zhou Weizhao did not want Song Chuyi to suffer a loss on this account, ultimately being sent into a fire pit by her closest relatives—though for some people it would naturally be a wonderful place of splendid prosperity, for Song Chuyi it would undoubtedly be a living hell.
Song Chuyi appreciated his good intentions. Lowering her voice, she slowly told him about the matter of Grand Madam Qin on Prince Duan’s side: “Previously, Grand Madam Qin had already harbored resentment because the Princess Consort framed Madam Rui. Calculating the time now, Madam Rui is probably just at the time of being pregnant again… Taking advantage of this opportunity…”
Prince Duan had indeed recently sent a memorial reporting that Madam Rui had conceived her second child—originally this kind of thing could be reported or not, after all the child had not yet been born. But Prince Duan had gone so many years without producing a son. Even Prince Gong, who married several years later than him, already had a legitimate son. Just on the matter of heirs alone, he could not compare to the other vassal princes, much less to the Crown Prince. How could he not be anxious about the matter of offspring? Therefore, he reported it to the Emperor early, letting him know he was not incapable of bearing sons.
If at this time something went wrong with Madam Rui’s child, and this mishap originated from within the prince’s inner residence—such as wives and concubines competing for favor… Then Prince Duan’s future prospects would probably end there. Emperor Jianzhang had suffered from inner residence conflicts back in the day, which caused him to lose his birth brother. He would often issue edicts reprimanding officials incapable of managing their households. How much more so when the matter involved his own son? So even if the Crown Prince doted on Grand Madam Fan and was muddle-headed, he had never dared to harbor thoughts of shaking the Crown Princess and Zhou Weizhao’s positions. At least while Emperor Jianzhang was still alive, even if you gave him a hundred times the courage, he would not dare run before the Emperor to say such obvious suicide words as wanting to change the designation of the Grand Prince.
The situation was exactly the same when applied to Prince Duan. Once the matter of wives and concubines being at odds and the household being unstable was exposed, he would absolutely not have a good outcome. At that time, adding on his party members implicated in Yangzhou, he could be said to be beset by troubles both inside and out, utterly overwhelmed and unable to spare attention for anything else.
He would be even less able to spare attention for which princess in the capital went to Japan for a marriage alliance, or which vassal prince’s relative she married.
Since Prince Duan, Noble Consort Xian, and the Ninth Princess insisted on leaving her no room for leniency, she had no need to leave them any face either. The previous two times she had severed Prince Duan’s arms. This time she would completely break Prince Duan’s legs and see if he could still reach so far in the future.