A gentle breeze wafted through the garden, causing the peonies to sway gently on their branches as butterflies fluttered among the flowers. Silence reigned, broken only by the soft bubbling of a nearby spring.
After a moment, the eunuch closed the imperial edict and stepped forward respectfully, breaking the stillness. “Congratulations, Fourth Young Miss,” he said.
Ming Tan’s mind went blank. All her usual poise and decorum vanished as she stared at the edict. It wasn’t until Zhou Jingwan tugged at her sleeve that she snapped out of her daze. Somewhat unnaturally, she bowed in gratitude and reached out with trembling hands to accept the decree.
The eunuch inwardly sighed with relief and said softly, “This humble servant will return to the palace to report now.”
He nodded apologetically to the Duke and Duchess of Ping, as delivering an edict meant for the Jing’an Marquis’s residence at the Duke’s mansion was rather abrupt.
Though this was irregular, the eunuch did not explain. The Duke and Duchess refrained from speculating about the imperial will, instead inquiring politely about His Majesty’s and the Empress’s health.
If the Duke and Duchess didn’t dare to speculate, others certainly wouldn’t speak up. Moreover, what shocked everyone even more than the unusual delivery was the content of the edict itself.
Ming Tan of the Ming family had been decreed to be the official consort of the Prince of Dingbei!
While marrying up was common, and the daughter of the Jing’an Marquis wasn’t necessarily mismatched with the Prince of Dingbei, Ming Tan had only recently broken off an engagement. Normally, a family would wait at least half a year before openly discussing a new match. His Majesty’s move was unexpected, especially since the groom was the renowned war hero, His Highness the Prince of Dingbei.
Everyone still vividly remembered how the Prince had snubbed the Cheng’en Marquis’s family at the Lantern Festival palace banquet.
“Tan’er, Tan’er!” Bai Minmin and Zhou Jingwan called softly, seeing Ming Tan remain kneeling.
After all, the future Princess of Dingbei was still kneeling with the edict in her hands. Apart from the Duke and Duchess, no one else dared to rise, but they couldn’t all keep kneeling indefinitely.
Ming Tan came to her senses and stood with their help. She slowly unfolded the edict, staring at the words “Fourth Daughter of the Jing’an Marquis’s House” and “Princess Consort of Dingbei” for a long while.
There was no mistake. It was her. She had been bestowed in marriage.
While shocking, once the news sank in, the others accepted it quickly. Seeing the edict so clearly written and bearing the imperial seal, what was there not to accept? It was an incredible stroke of fortune!
The Prince of Dingbei held the extraordinary rank of qinwang, making his consort a qinwang princess of the highest order. Moreover, the Prince’s power and authority were unmatched by other princes, which explained why so many noble ladies had vied for his attention at the Lantern Festival banquet.
Speaking of princes, what had Princess Fengzhao said earlier?
Her father, Prince Yi, was not of the same mother as the Emperor and had not been favored by the previous emperor. When he came of age, he was sent far away to his fief in Yun City. Though it was a fief, it held no real power. It was only in recent years that the current Emperor, to show fraternal affection, allowed him to return to the capital and establish his household.
For the daughter of an ordinary prince to point at the future consort of a powerful prince and say, “I am worthy of peonies, but you are not!” was utterly ridiculous! These noble ladies, in all their years, had never witnessed such a swift and brutal humiliation.
Bai Minmin, who had been incensed by Fengzhao’s words earlier, couldn’t let this opportunity pass. She stepped forward and said loudly, “Princess, what do you think now? Is Tan’er worthy of the peonies or not?”
Fengzhao’s face had never looked so awful.
Bai Minmin moved to pluck a peony to adorn Ming Tan’s hair, but Ming Tan grasped her wrist and said, “Plants have their own will; flowers bloom for their joy.”
Although Ming Tan was still unclear about the situation and didn’t want to act rashly, her words demonstrated her superiority. Princess Fengzhao’s earlier behavior now seemed even more crude and unbecoming of her status.
The others remained silent, but their gazes, like piercing needles, fell upon Fengzhao. Some were contemptuous, others mocking, all weaving together to create an unprecedented humiliation!
Fengzhao couldn’t bear to stay in the garden a moment longer. She glared fiercely at Ming Tan before storming off, covering her face as she fled back to Prince Yi’s residence.
Upon returning home, Fengzhao spent half the day crying, raging, and lashing out. Before she had finished venting, at dusk, the Empress sent someone to Prince Yi’s residence with an edict reprimanding her, explicitly stating that her conduct was lacking and that she should remain at home to reflect on her behavior.
Fengzhao was stunned.
In truth, composing peony poetry and plucking a flower wasn’t a grave offense. The crucial point was that the target of her outburst was the future Princess Consort of Dingbei, and the location was the Duchess of Ping’s residence – the Empress’s maternal home. Moreover, the peony she had plucked and trampled was a prized variety that the Empress had bestowed upon her sister for appreciation, one she had personally tended in the palace. Whose face was Fengzhao trying to slap?
When Prince Yi and his wife learned of this, they were furious and ordered Fengzhao to remain indoors and reflect on her actions. As a result, Fengzhao was not seen in the capital for the next half year.
But that’s a story for another time. For now, with the sudden arrival of the imperial marriage edict and Fengzhao’s angry departure, the poetry gathering could hardly continue.
Fortunately, Zhang Hanmiao loved both creating and watching the excitement. She found today’s events thoroughly entertaining and wasn’t upset that her moment had been stolen or that the gathering had been disrupted.
As everyone returned to their homes, news of Ming Tan’s betrothal to the Prince of Dingbei spread along with the dispersing poetry gathering attendees.
When Ming Tan’s group returned to their mansion, they found Lady Pei seeing off several unfamiliar eunuchs.
Seeing Ming Tan, the eunuchs managed only a forced, awkward smile before hastily departing after a perfunctory bow.
“Mother, what’s this about?” Ming Tan’s heart skipped a beat. Her mind, still reeling from the earlier shock, buzzed with worry that this might be some additional terrifying edict.
Lady Pei suppressed her joy and said calmly, “Let’s talk inside, let’s talk inside.”
The news of the betrothal had already reached the Jing’an Marquis’s residence. Lady Pei, who had been anxious and uneasy earlier, immediately understood upon hearing of the betrothal. Surely the Emperor, knowing that the Empress Dowager had sent people to arrange a forced marriage, had made this unconventional preemptive move. It was a brilliant move, made even more so by the choice of groom – how could any prince or noble’s son compare to the Prince of Dingbei?
Lady Pei affectionately led Ming Tan into Lanxin Hall. Shortly after, Ming Tingyan also entered the mansion, his face glowing with excitement as he hurried to Lady Pei’s quarters to find them.
It turned out that Emperor Chengkang had not been lying – he had indeed intercepted an edict from the Empress Dowager. However, the Empress Dowager could write, speak, and use seals, so one edict could easily be followed by a second. When he detained Ming Tingyan after court to persuade him, the Empress Dowager found out and sent out a second edict.
By the time the persuasion was successful and he learned of this, Emperor Chengkang thought, “Oh no, how will I explain this to Jiang Qizhi?”
Fortunately, Ming Tingyan’s excitement about the excellent match sparked an idea: He knew the Empress Dowager was a stickler for propriety and would never announce a betrothal with only the stepmother present in the household. The Empress Dowager didn’t know that Ming Tan was not at home today, so her people would certainly wait for either him or Ming Tan to return before reading the edict. So he suggested going directly to the Duke of Ping’s residence to announce the edict, as all the young ladies from various families were gathered there for the poetry meeting. Once the edict was announced in front of everyone, it would be set in stone.
Emperor Chengkang thought this was an excellent idea and immediately sent someone to do so, which succeeded.
After listening to Ming Tingyan proudly recount the tumultuous events of this rushed betrothal for some time, Ming Tan was speechless.
She, getting engaged, had caused such a commotion.
She had truly underestimated her father, that unrefined brute.
But why the Prince of Dingbei?
Wasn’t he just another unrefined brute?
And if the Prince of Dingbei could be bestowed, why not the Second Young Master Shu? Wasn’t the Right Chancellor also a loyal supporter of His Majesty?
Ming Tan found it truly difficult to digest this news. She had prayed sincerely before the Buddha for over a month – had the Buddha misheard something? Hadn’t she asked for a top scholar with refined looks?
The position of Princess Consort of Dingbei was indeed extremely high, but when she thought of that brute’s arrogant and outrageous behavior at the Lantern Festival banquet, she still felt suffocated! How would they converse as husband and wife? Moreover, with his way of flaunting his military achievements, wouldn’t she end up losing her head along with him sooner or later? Most crucially, such a crude person’s appearance and demeanor surely couldn’t compare to Second Young Master Shu’s.
Ming Tingyan, completely oblivious to Ming Tan’s extremely reluctant expression, sat at the head of the room, still extolling the Prince of Dingbei’s heroic achievements:
“His Highness the Prince of Dingbei is truly a rare talent! Among the younger generation, few can truly lead troops and fight battles! At a tender age, he led 3,000 elite soldiers to hold off 30,000 barbarians from the Northern Territory. Unlike the weak Southern Yi, where victory with fewer troops isn’t surprising when I led reinforcements, he had already pushed into enemy territory and turned defeat into victory! The scene at that time – blood flowing like rivers, corpses stretching for thousands of li!”
Ming Tan’s face paled slightly.
“…When spies fell into his hands, they naturally ended up unrecognizable. Being impaled on spikes was nothing, tsk tsk. When he threw them back, their people didn’t dare to claim them. It kept them quiet for half a year!”
Ming Tan’s face paled further.
“And in the third year of Chengkang’s reign… At such a young age, his actions were decisive and his methods ruthless. He directly hung the enemy leader’s eldest son’s corpse on the city gate for three days until it dried up like jerky!”
Ming Tan thought to herself, “Are you so happy because you hope your daughter will be dried into jerky too?”