Yun Chu sat in the flower hall, raising her eyes to look at Xie Ping walking in from the entrance.

There was a customary three-day return home visit after marriage, but Xie Ping hadn’t returned home. With just a passing thought, she knew it must be that Prince An’jing was unwilling to accompany her on the return visit. Xie Ping, fearing that returning home alone would cause people to gossip about her not being favored by her husband, had also found an excuse not to come back.

Now, over half a month had passed since Xie Ping’s marriage, and she looked much more composed than before her wedding.

“Greetings to the Princess Consort.”

Yun Chu stood up and performed a courtesy.

“Mother, please rise quickly.” Xie Ping hurried forward several steps and helped Yun Chu up. “I was able to become a princess consort entirely because of Mother. If Mother still bows to me, how can I bear it?”

That’s what she said with her mouth, but in her heart there was a kind of secret satisfaction.

Look—the legitimate eldest daughter of the first-rank General’s Manor, her legitimate mother, now also had to bow to her. This was enough to show just how noble her status was.

She only appeared somewhat wretched before Concubine De and Prince An’jing. The Empress would still give her face. As for other people, they couldn’t fawn over her fast enough—how would they deliberately make things difficult for her?

This secret emotion of hers, Yun Chu naturally perceived.

“Ping’er looks extremely well. It seems you’re living well at the prince’s manor.” Yun Chu had a faint smile on her face. “Secondary Consort Shi is a bit older than you. It’s normal for the prince to summon her to attend his bed. Remember not to be jealous.”

She had rescued Du Ling’s younger sister Du Ying from Prince An’jing’s manor, but hadn’t expected that it would result in Miss Shi becoming a secondary consort instead.

In her previous life, this Miss Shi from the Shi family was married off by the Shi family matriarch to a sixty-year-old man as his fourth remarriage wife. Only three months after Miss Shi married him, the old man passed away. That whole pile of children directly drove Miss Shi out.

The Shi family found this daughter disgraceful and directly severed relations.

If it had been any other pampered young miss, she definitely would have been unable to bear the humiliation and died.

But Miss Shi had sold the pitifully small amount of dowry that the Shi family people had thrown out—reportedly selling for only three taels of silver. Then she rented a shabby house and began doing work to make a living…

Later, Miss Shi opened a teahouse, and her days could be considered prosperous… She herself liked drinking tea and specially had Tingxue go to Miss Shi’s shop every few days to buy tea, which was how she heard some things about Miss Shi.

If in this lifetime, because of her scheming, Miss Shi was implicated and killed by Prince An’jing, she wouldn’t be able to rest easy.

The only breakthrough point was—after Prince An’jing met his downfall, more than ten concubines in his rear courtyard were all released, because most of them were good family daughters who had been forcibly abducted. If she could have Secondary Consort Shi become a concubine, perhaps there would be a way to survive.

Thinking of this, Yun Chu continued: “Prince An’jing has reached the proper age yet has no sons. Concubine De will definitely want Secondary Consort Shi to conceive a child as soon as possible. Concubine De isn’t targeting you specifically. You mustn’t harbor resentment in your heart. Do you remember?”

Xie Ping pressed her lips tightly together.

Mother was truly too clever. Without even meeting Concubine De, she knew Concubine De’s calculations.

In the days before the wedding, Concubine De had palace matrons come every day to send Secondary Consort Shi all kinds of medicines, saying that taking them would enable her to bear a son at the first try.

She was the legitimate Princess An’jing—she absolutely could not allow anyone to conceive the prince’s offspring before her.

She lowered her eyelids and said: “Mother doesn’t know yet, but Secondary Consort Shi has already been demoted to a concubine. She wrote words disparaging Concubine De in her room and was disliked by the prince…”

Yun Chu’s fingers paused.

She had wanted to deliberately provoke Xie Ping into taking action, but hadn’t expected that Xie Ping had already been unable to restrain herself. The wedding had only been how long ago, and Secondary Consort Shi had already suffered from scheming.

Then she didn’t need to waste more words.

Seeing Yun Chu remain silent, Xie Ping felt somewhat uneasy. She quickly changed the subject: “Mother, I came back this time to tell Mother some good news. Every autumn, His Majesty arranges a hunt. This year it’s scheduled for the twenty-first of the ninth month. The prince’s manor can have three people attend, and I’ve specially brought the extra invitation for Mother.”

Yun Chu took the invitation and glanced at it. Indeed, it was the imperial palace’s annual hunt.

In the previous life, the Fourth Prince, Prince An’jing, had his incident at this hunting ground. From then on, there was no more Prince An’jing’s manor.

She had thought Xie Ping could maintain the position of princess consort for a while, but hadn’t expected the hunt to come so quickly. The identity of Princess An’jing would be even more short-lived than she had imagined…

She smiled and said: “I won’t go to the hunt. Take this invitation and give it to An’er.”

Just as she was speaking, Xie Shi’an walked in from the entrance and said: “Mother, His Majesty has specially commanded that all students of the Imperial Academy accompany him to the hunting grounds. I don’t need an invitation.”

In the past, he always needed Mother to introduce him before he could enter the circles of the upper classes.

Now he was different from before. He could rely on himself to integrate into the noble family sons… What did it matter if those people looked down on him? He was regarded highly by the Imperial Academy teachers, who even gave him individual instruction after classes each day. In the upcoming provincial examination, he would definitely win first place and make those who looked down on him see him in a new light.

He paused and said, “For families of first and second rank high officials, one female family member is allowed to attend. Grandmother should be going. Since Elder Sister happens to have an invitation, why doesn’t Mother take the invitation to accompany Grandmother and chat?”

Yun Chu tugged at her lips.

She often returned to the Yun family now and could see her mother anytime—why would she need to specifically go to the hunting grounds to talk?

She knew that these siblings were simply trying to tell her that their status was different now, and they could in turn lead her to attend occasions she couldn’t reach before…

She was about to speak when she saw Tingfeng hurry in: “Madam, someone has come from the palace. The Empress has brought an imperial edict for Madam.”

Xie Shi’an and Xie Ping couldn’t help but exchange glances. The two followed Yun Chu together to the front courtyard.

The one delivering the edict was a young eunuch who respectfully said to Yun Chu: “Madam Xie, conveying the Empress’s edict: Madam Xie is requested to accompany the imperial procession to the Yanshan hunting grounds on the morning of the twenty-first of the ninth month. Please prepare accordingly.”

Hearing this, Yun Chu was somewhat surprised.

Their Yun family, because they had produced an imperial consort, wasn’t familiar with any of the other consorts in the palace, including the Empress. Why would the Empress specially invite her to participate in the hunt?

However, the Empress’s edict could not be defied. Even with many questions, she could only respectfully accept the command.

Xie Shi’an’s fingers tightened.

He had originally thought that Mother wasn’t qualified to attend this hunt and would need to rely on Elder Sister’s invitation to gain entry.

But completely unexpectedly, the Empress actually sent someone with an edict, specifically naming Mother to attend. What great honor this was.

Xie Ping felt even more uncomfortable.

She had relied on Mother to become a princess consort and had also wanted to let Mother rely on her to participate in the hunt.

But Mother didn’t need that at all.

She looked down at the invitation in her hand. The more she looked at it, the more ridiculous it seemed. She directly tossed it into Xie Shi’an’s arms: “Just give it to whichever classmate you want to curry favor with.”

If Father’s health weren’t so poor, she could have let Father go. Now she could only benefit an outsider.

Xie Shi’an nodded. When he had been at Huaide Academy, he had met many people, including some sons of official families. This was a perfect opportunity to cultivate connections—wouldn’t these become his network of contacts when he entered officialdom in the future?