Crown Princess Lu didn’t want any explanation. She looked at Song Chuyi before her, whose delicate eyebrows were tightly furrowed together, and rarely revealed a genuine smile. Even her eyes curved with the smile, causing Nanny Wu to wipe her eyes directly. She had a smiling face—when she smiled, her eyes curved into crescents, seeming to sparkle with stars. In the past, she most loved to tilt her head and smile, looking utterly innocent of sorrow’s taste. Just watching her made one’s mood brighten. But that girl who loved to smile and was carefree, from the day she married, was never seen again, as if that clever and adorable young girl in the Lu family’s great mansion had died there.
Song Chuyi watched with a heart full of bitterness. She could understand Crown Princess Lu’s feelings. When two people who once deeply loved each other become enemies, that wasn’t the saddest thing—the saddest thing was when that person still used their past affection as leverage to beg for leniency.
Better if he had been ruthless from beginning to end—at least that would be clean and decisive. Everyone would become enemies and go their separate ways. After being sad for a while, it would be over. That was better than having a treasured relationship from the past be taken out as a bargaining chip for begging, completely denying and defiling that past time.
“It’s alright.” Crown Princess Lu arranged the flowers in the glass vase and placed them on the table, seeming to speak to herself yet also comforting Song Chuyi: “From now on, he’s dead too.”
These two cousins who had been indulgent toward her in childhood, who had brought her infinite glory, along with the aunt she had always respected and loved like a mother, and her true mother and brother—these old acquaintances had, one after another, extracted high compensation from her. She had finished repaying her debts. She didn’t owe them anymore. In her heart, they had truly died.
Song Chuyi didn’t know how to comfort her. She shifted her gaze to Crown Princess Lu’s body. Year-round she wore not a single piece of jewelry, and her clothes were never brightly colored. When the heart dies, grief is greatest—no amount of comforting could revive Crown Princess Lu’s heart.
After speaking for a while, word came from outside that Madam Du was requesting an audience. Crown Princess Lu’s hand moved away from the vase as she raised her eyebrows and said the word “Admit her.”
Madam Du entered with a deathly pale face. The last time she came, she had been beaming with pride. This time when she came, she looked as if in mourning, almost unable to stand. And indeed she couldn’t stand—as soon as she entered, her legs went weak and she knelt before the Crown Princess. Only after kneeling did she discover that Song Chuyi was also present, and her old face couldn’t quite maintain composure—although Song Chuyi had already been designated as the Grand Princess Consort, she ultimately hadn’t yet married or performed the ceremonies, much less received the gold册 of the Grand Princess Consort, so she currently couldn’t receive the kneeling courtesy of a First Rank Imperial Consort.
But whether she was worthy or not, she would have to be worthy now. She forced herself to bite her teeth, calmed the agitation and shame in her heart, and tremblingly bowed down to the Crown Princess: “Your Highness… please…”
Last time she also came to beg, but not in this manner. Instead, she had seemed like the Crown Princess’s elder, coming to instruct a child on how to handle personal relationships, with a superior air of being high above. This time she truly seemed like someone desperate who had come to beg for help. Nanny Wu gave her a mirthless smile and stood rooted in place like a wooden post without moving—by rights she really should have led the palace maids to withdraw, after all, this was an Elder’s wife, a First Rank Imperial Consort, and they shouldn’t watch her humiliation like this. But Madam Du was different. Since the Crown Princess hadn’t told her to leave, she would simply pretend not to know.
Madam Du’s face flushed bright red. When she bowed her head, even her ears and the exposed section of her neck turned red as if blood would drip out. She crawled forward on her knees two steps and bowed down again, this time even her voice trembling: “Your Highness… this old woman knows she was wrong…”
Crown Princess Lu merely smiled slightly, her tone flat and without inflection: “I don’t understand what Madam means. Last time Madam came to beg me about Prince Gong’s matter, I already helped you forward the letter to my son. Why have you come to beg again this time?”
Madam Du had a bellyful of grievances. She had wanted to beg Crown Princess Lu to speak well of Prince Gong to the Grand Prince, so that the Grand Prince would plead with Emperor Jianzhang to show Prince Gong leniency. Who knew Crown Princess Lu would be so heartless, truly disregarding even a trace of past affection, turning around and having the Grand Prince report it to Emperor Jianzhang instead? They had been so delighted, thinking that when Emperor Jianzhang summoned Prince Gong this time, the matter had succeeded. Who knew that as soon as Madam Du entered the palace, she was severely reprimanded by Empress Lu?
Only then did she realize that Crown Princess Lu hadn’t been pleading for Prince Gong at all—she clearly wanted to send Prince Gong to his doom. She was so worried that she couldn’t even shed tears. She also understood Empress Lu’s meaning—Crown Princess Lu and the Grand Prince had repeatedly met with disaster all because of the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince dared to be so unscrupulous entirely because he relied on Empress Lu’s indulgence. Now Empress Lu’s words no longer carried weight before the Crown Princess. Since they had stirred up this trouble themselves, they had to clean up the aftermath themselves.
She couldn’t care about face anymore. She kowtowed to Crown Princess Lu heavily, again and again: “This subject’s wife was blinded by lard and did such a thing. Please, Your Highness, spare me…”
Song Chuyi, who hadn’t spoken all this time, suddenly interjected coolly: “Madam Du, mind your words.” She methodically straightened her skirt, stood up, walked to Madam Du, and crouched down to look at her: “These words of yours truly confuse people. The Crown Princess hasn’t done anything to you. You’re still perfectly fine here—what is there to spare you from?”
Madam Du didn’t engage with her and couldn’t afford to offend her either. She had already witnessed the capabilities of this Sixth Miss Song at the hunting grounds and knew well that crossing swords with her brought no benefit. She lowered herself even further, crying pitifully: “Your Highness, you also know that my old man is after all His Highness’s teacher. The entanglement between them…” Since she had already discarded her dignity, naturally she should speak as miserably as possible: “My old man was also wholeheartedly thinking of His Highness, which is why he urged His Highness to beg for your mercy…”
Who knew that not only had the plea failed, but now everything was ruined? According to Empress Lu’s meaning, Emperor Jianzhang’s original intention to simply send Prince Gong back to his fief and reduce his guards had suddenly changed. He said that such wolf-hearted ambition, such cruelty in being able to discard even face for the sake of survival, meant he might commit even more vicious acts in the future. He was determined to demote Prince Gong’s Prince of First Rank title to Prince of Second Rank. This was tantamount to announcing to the world that Prince Gong had fallen from favor—in this dynasty there had never been an example of a Prince of First Rank being demoted. Prince Gong would likely be the first.
Empress Lu had a bellyful of anger with nowhere to vent, so naturally she vented it on Madam Du and Elder Du. Although at first she had also had thoughts of pulling Prince Gong up through Madam Du and Elder Du, now that things hadn’t succeeded but instead gotten worse, wasn’t that the case? Even Elder Du had the bad luck of being called by Emperor Jianzhang to be scolded, told that if he couldn’t properly manage his inner household, he should retire early.