While speaking, he presented a memorial: “The specific celestial phenomena are all recorded here for Your Majesty’s review.”
All countries of the current age had Imperial Observatories and believed in celestial signs. Emperor Wei was no exception. Upon hearing this, he had someone bring up the memorial and look at it carefully. Although he couldn’t understand it, he still asked with a serious face: “When would be most appropriate to move it forward?”
Si Chenling cupped his hands and said: “Five days from now is also an auspicious date, suitable for marriages and relocations.”
Five days? Emperor Wei frowned: “It’s rather rushed, but there’s no other way. For the sake of our Great Wei, South Peace can endure this small inconvenience. Then please have the Court of Imperial Sacrifices prepare earlier, and have the internal offices ready everything quickly. Hold the ceremony in five days.”
“Yes!” Si Chenling cupped his hands and withdrew.
No one paid much attention to this small matter. Shi Hongwei only helped the Crown Prince because he believed that the person who was bribed to rescue Guan Qingyue must be connected to Yin Chenbi!
When the new wedding date came down, South Peace hurriedly went to the Prince of Xiao’s mansion.
“What should I do?” With both shyness and fear on her face, South Peace pulled at her handkerchief with tears in her eyes as she looked at Yin Gezhi: “I’m not ready. Am I getting married to him so hastily?”
Yin Gezhi raised his eyes to look at her: “Don’t want to marry?”
“No, no, no!” South Peace bit her lip, wiping her eyes with the handkerchief: “I… I want to marry, but I’m too nervous!”
Shaking his head lightly, Yin Gezhi sighed and took the refreshments that Feng Yue brought over, placing them in front of her: “This is something your Royal Brother cannot help you with, a maiden’s feelings about getting married. Your Royal Brother doesn’t understand.”
Taking a piece of refreshment, South Peace pitifully took a bite, then glanced to the side and exclaimed in surprise: “Isn’t this… Miss Feng Yue?”
Wasn’t she some civilian mediator? How is she in the prince’s mansion?
Feng Yue gave a dry laugh, bowing while saying: “Greetings, Princess. Life outside has been difficult lately. This commoner is seeking food at the prince’s mansion.”
Blinking, South Peace looked at her, then at her own composed Royal Brother, suddenly feeling something was strange, but couldn’t point out exactly what.
Never mind, that’s not the point. Finally having a female companion, and one who was articulate and capable at that, South Peace immediately grabbed Feng Yue’s hand, gave her refreshments, and asked very sincerely: “You must understand my anxious feelings about getting married, please comfort me?”
Feng Yue was stunned, lowered her head, and thought seriously, feelings about getting married? Indeed she knew!
“Why are you anxious?” Slightly frowning, she said with a serious face: “When I was about to get married, I wanted nothing more than to take a knife and chop that person first, then go live as a widow!”
South Peace was dumbfounded, her extremely nervous heart almost stopped beating from fright: “Ch-chop… chop your husband?”
“Mm.” Scratching her head, Feng Yue said: “I wasn’t nervous at all, just felt that if he wouldn’t let me live well, I wouldn’t let him live well either!”
South Peace: “…”
Yin Gezhi shook his head hearing this: “That’s because you were marrying the wrong person, it wasn’t the marriage you wanted, naturally you thought of making trouble. South Peace is different, she’s been thinking about that Feng family’s heir for two years now.”
Ever since the royal family held a banquet to send Feng Ming to the battlefield two years ago, after they met once, South Peace had been constantly mumbling about how valiant Feng Ming was, how young yet already a general. She heard he still refused to marry, seeming very devoted to the lady he was previously engaged to, ah Royal Brother, could you invite him to dine at Zhaowu Palace?
He had thought it was just a young girl’s first love, but unexpectedly after two years, South Peace’s thoughts about Feng Ming hadn’t lessened at all but had become even more stubborn.
Hearing Yin Gezhi say this, Feng Yue became somewhat worried. If it were an ordinary girl it would be fine, but giving Feng Ming a girl who deeply loved him, could he cherish her properly?
After thinking for a moment, she said earnestly: “Life after marriage might not be as happy as the Princess imagines. You’re marrying General Feng, perhaps after marriage he’ll go to the battlefield for years without returning. If you can’t bear such hardship, remember to tell the Prince beforehand.”
With determined eyes, South Peace clenched her fists: “I thought about these things before choosing him, but I admire him, being able to marry him is already happiness enough, as for other things, we can see slowly.”
Yin Gezhi fell silent, and Feng Yue also fell silent. In the entire room, except for Princess South Peace who was glowing, everyone else was covered in a gloomy gray.
South Peace went to change clothes, and Yin Gezhi looked at Feng Yue and asked: “What do you think?”
“What do you mean what do I think?” Somewhat frustrated, Feng Yue scratched the table and said: “This feeling isn’t good, not because I think too highly of myself, but because Feng Ming is naturally stubborn, it might be very difficult for him to wholeheartedly care for Princess South Peace for a while. Princess South Peace is a good girl, how can we watch her jump into a fire pit? But we can’t stop her either. How to stop her? Should I go up and say don’t marry him, Feng Ming still has me in his heart. Am I sick?”
Like a cat sharpening its claws, Feng Yue scratched until the low table in front of Yin Gezhi was covered in marks.
Glancing at her sideways, Yin Gezhi said: “Since you can’t figure it out, then don’t think about it, stay out of it.”
“How can I stay out of it?” Feng Yue gritted her teeth: “Isn’t everything related to me?”
“Feng Ming likes you, but it has nothing to do with you, that’s his feelings, you didn’t ask for it nor deceive him, you don’t need to be responsible for him,” Yin Gezhi lowered his eyelids and said coldly: “As for South Peace, she has even less to do with you, she’s my royal sister.”
Thinking about it this way, there wasn’t any connection! Feng Yue nodded, convinced by Yin Gezhi: “Then I won’t care about it.”
Better focus on her affairs.
The capital was under martial law, and Feng Yue secretly changed into men’s clothes, stuck on a beard, and reported to Lian Heng. Lian Heng unprincipled gave her special treatment, registering her name.
Yin Chenye seemed to want to turn the entire Wei country upside down, not only sending wanted notices to various counties but also dispatching city guards to search everywhere. People on the streets were all caught and compared against portraits. The common people were too scared to go out.
Shi Hongwei wanted to search the Prince of Xiao’s mansion, but without an imperial edict from the emperor, he couldn’t enter a prince’s residence at will, so he could only have people lingering around there every day, trying to catch some people coming out to question them.
However, after several days, there was no harvest, and the city guard hadn’t caught anyone either.
Shi Hongwei very much wanted to blame the city guard for not doing their duty, but he occasionally went to the streets to look for himself and often saw Lian Heng personally leading soldiers to question people everywhere. He was familiar with those few soldiers following him, and really couldn’t find fault.
Look, that soldier with the full beard was so earnest, not letting any passerby go, grabbing them to compare against the portrait, with determined eyes. Although small in stature, the attitude was good, seeing it made him want to promote them.
With such strict questioning yet still not finding anyone, Shi Hongwei shook his head, thinking perhaps that Guan Qingyue had died somewhere else after escaping. She might not even be in Wei country.
After understanding this point, Shi Hongwei decided to help the Crown Prince carefully investigate the person who gave the bribe instead.
The Marquis of Zhenguo’s household was celebrating, with gongs and drums resounding, and firecrackers bursting. Princess South Peace left the palace as a bride, with her red dowry extending to the Marquis’s mansion.
The Crown Prince naturally had to attend this wedding. While watching the excitement at the Marquis’s mansion gate, he suddenly heard someone reporting beside him: “Your Highness, we found someone!”
“What?” Startled, Yin Chenye quickly asked: “Who did you find?”
“The escaped jailer was caught by Prime Minister Shi’s people, and after severe torture, he finally confessed. He said it was a guard from the Marquis of Zhenguo’s household who gave the money, he had to agree because he feared their power.”
The Marquis of Zhenguo’s household? Yin Chenye thought somewhat bewilderedly: “Why does this place sound so familiar?”
The guard was stunned, pointing at the plaque above the door behind them.
Yin Chenye looked where he pointed and nodded in realization: “Oh, isn’t this the Marquis of Zhenguo’s mansion?”
As he spoke, his body suddenly stiffened, his eyes widening as he shouted: “The Marquis of Zhenguo’s mansion?!”
Everyone around was startled. Shi Hongwei frowned and looked at him, coming closer to say in a low voice: “Your Highness, in public, mind your deportment. What’s worth such commotion?”
Nervously grabbing Shi Hongwei’s sleeve, Yin Chenye lowered his voice and excitedly said: “It was the Marquis of Zhenguo’s household! The one who bribed the jailer to release Guan Qingyue was someone from the Marquis’s household!”
Slightly stunned, Shi Hongwei’s face turned ashen: “How could…”
“Why not?” the Crown Prince said: “Wasn’t Feng Ming engaged to Guan Qingyue? He always liked her, bribing to let her escape makes perfect sense.”
Closing his eyes in anger, Shi Hongwei shook his head. He didn’t care who liked whom! He wanted to implicate Yin Gezhi, how did it turn out to be Feng Ming? Today was the joyous occasion of the Feng family welcoming the princess as bride, there was no way to question the Feng family’s crimes at this time. But after the wedding, Feng Ming would be the Imperial Son-in-law, who would bother using a three-year-old case to make things difficult for the new Imperial Son-in-law and Princess? Even if reported to the Emperor, His Majesty would certainly have them cover up this matter and pretend it never happened.
How could it turn out like this?
The Crown Prince noticed nothing, still happy, suppressing his voice: “Let’s tell Father Emperor about this, in his anger, South Peace won’t be able to marry Feng Ming.”
“Your Highness.” Shi Hongwei said with exasperation: “Things aren’t as simple as you think. Feng Ming is now Wei country’s top general, all battles depend on him to lead troops. Do you think the Emperor will severely punish him? Moreover, at this crucial moment of the Princess marrying into the family, if you go against Feng Ming, aren’t you going against the Princess and the Emperor who arranged the marriage!”
Yin Chenye was stunned, saying very unwillingly: “So we just let it go like this? The leverage we finally got…”
“It’s useless now.” Brushing his sleeve, Shi Hongwei frowned and said: “Nothing we say will work now, let’s gloss over this matter, randomly find someone who’s already gone to take the blame, and don’t offend His Majesty.”
“Then Guan Qingyue…”
“Can’t catch her.” Suddenly feeling somewhat tired, Shi Hongwei said: “Someone who’s been missing for over three years isn’t so easy to find.”
Yin Chenye was stunned, his heart suddenly sinking.
He couldn’t even do well the task he took on himself, how would Father Emperor view him?
No need to ask, Emperor Wei was furious, severely scolded him in the study, and in his anger even said things like “How can someone like you be Crown Prince.”
Yin Chenye trembled and went to see his mother in the inner palace, tears flowing.
“Your son also feels I might not be suitable to be Crown Prince,” he choked: “With Big Royal Brother ahead, Father Emperor will never be satisfied with your son no matter what.”
Gently stroking his head, Empress Shi smiled and said: “What are you afraid of? Your Father Emperor is already old, when he ascends to heaven, this Wei country’s realm will certainly still be yours.”
Father Emperor is only in his forties, not even fifty next year, always healthy, how would he ascend? Yin Chenye was confused but looked up to see his mother’s composed expression.
“After so many years, you and Mother have waited long enough, if your Father Emperor still has others in his heart, then he can’t blame Mother for being ruthless.”