Thousand Verdant Mountains

Thousand Verdant Mountains – Chapter 102

Chapter 102

 

Prince Ning led the crowd to escort the distinguished guests beyond the main gate. Qingtou placed a mounting stool by the side of the carriage. Xuyu then lifted her skirt slightly and stepped onto it. Pei Xiaoyuan, standing nearby, offered her an arm to assist her onto the carriage. However, she suddenly paused on the stool, as if catching a faint scent. Turning to look at him, her gaze swept over his injured shoulder. Realizing her concern, he immediately lowered his voice to explain: “I didn’t drink a sip of wine. Just now, someone nearby accidentally spilled some on my sleeve. It’s not very noticeable, so I didn’t bother to change.” As he spoke, he lightly lifted his sleeve to confirm his words.

The matter of his injury from the attempted assassination could not remain hidden after all. Since yesterday, somehow, the news spread in a small circle in the Southern Court of the Imperial Palace, and by this morning, more people knew about it. Various speculations surfaced, but everyone tread cautiously, not daring to discuss it openly. Even during the banquet earlier, no one mentioned it. When toasts were made, Pei Xiaoyuan excused himself due to health reasons and substituted tea for wine. As such, he indeed had not drunk a single drop.

Qingtou was still waiting with his hands down to take back the stool. His master explained this in a very low voice, so the other people who were seeing them off could not hear it, but it did not escape his ears. He stood still, but could not help but glanced to the side, and saw the princess glance at prince consort’s slightly wet sleeve, then she calmly looked away and got on the carriage and sat down. His master seemed to be slightly relieved.

Qingtou observe this whole scene, and became more resolute in his decision to serve the princess well in the future. As he was mulling over this, he noticed his master looking his way. Quickly averting his gaze, he dragged out his voice and ordered the coachman to set the carriage in motion.

Amidst the sounds of respectful farewells, the group departed and proceeded as planned toward the Cui Mansion.

Like Prince Ning Mansion, the Cui family had also made thorough preparations. Wang shi was especially attentive and meticulous. After the formal greetings and polite exchanges, the male and female guests were separated. She led many female relatives of the Cui family to surround Xuyu and only stopped just short of personally pouring her wine and removing her shoes.

Xuyu knew that Pei Xiaoyuan was neglected by the Cui Mansion when he was young and then left the capital to seek refuge with Pei Ji. Especially this Aunt Wang, who was extremely snobbish. Therefore, she naturally disliked her and didn’t want to have any close relationship with the other person. Today’s visit was just because many of the groom’s family matters involved in this wedding were handled by the Cui Mansion. Since they contributed a lot, and the Cui family was the uncle of Prince consort, she came here to go through the formalities and complete the etiquette.

However, her expression revealed nothing, still smiling as she exchanged pleasantries with Wang shi and the others. After a while, she excused herself on the grounds that she had low tolerance for alcohol, intending to find a moment of peace. She planned to wait until Pei Xiaoyuan finished his business before taking her leave.

Wang shi personally took her to an exquisite courtyard house that had been prepared in advance, brought her various snacks, and urging her to rest comfortably. Before departing, she carefully instructed the maids stationed outside to serve attentively and ensure that the princess would not be disturbed. Only then did she step away.

On the other side, Pei Xiaoyuan finished his socializing and had a private conversation with his uncle Cui Daosi. Knowing his aunt’s character, he was worried about Xuyu becoming impatient. After finishing his business, he hurried over to pick her up in person. When he was almost there, a stewardess from Wang shi’s side intercepted him, saying that his aunt wished to speak with him. Pei Xiaoyuan asked what it was about, but the stewardess said she didn’t know, only that she was waiting for him.

Pei Xiaoyuan had no choice but to change the route with the stewardess. After passing through a deep corridor, they arrived at a courtyard that looked quite secluded. The stewardess smiled and said that there was the person was inside and led him in.

Pei Xiaoyuan walked a few steps inside and found that the huge courtyard was surprisingly quiet. There was not even a servant girl to be seen near the porch.

This was really abnormal. He had some doubts in his heart, looked around, and slowly stopped at the corridor, not going any further. As he was hesitating, he suddenly saw a woman slowly walking out of the door opposite, it was Wang Zhenfeng.

Pei Xiaoyuan didn’t expect that she would be at Cui’s house today, not to mention seeing her here at this moment. He was surprised, but didn’t have much time to think about it. After nodding to Wang Zhenfeng, he asked, “Just now they said that my aunt was looking for me? Is she here?”

Wang Zhenfeng remained silent and did not respond to his words immediately. At this time, the stewardess said with a smile: “Prince Consort, it’s not the lady of the house who wants to thank you for your helping hand. It’s someone else who wishes to personally express gratitude for saving their life!”

Pei Xiaoyuan was confused and wanted to question further, but the stewardess quickly interrupted, “Never mind, I’ll say no more. I’ll leave it to Prince Consort and Miss Zhenfeng to discuss slowly. I’ll take my leave now.” With that, she bowed to Pei Xiaoyuan and left, even making a point of closing the courtyard gate behind her.

Pei Xiaoyuan was already feeling bewildered, and seeing this situation, he was unhappy, and a faint frow crossed his brows. If the person in front of him was not Wang Zhenfeng, someone to whom he needed to show a certain degree of respect, he might have walked away on the spot. Seeing Wang Zhenfeng bow to him and whispered to him to come in and talk, he suppressed his growing irritation and smiled, “Miss Wang, if you have anything to say, please feel free to speak here. This place is just as convenient.”

Wang Zhenfeng seemed to be in a trance and did not respond immediately. He continued, “My aunt just said she was looking for me, so I came here. Since she’s not here, then I will leave first. Miss Wang, please do as you please.”

He bowed to Wang Zhenfeng from a distance, and without waiting for her to return the greeting, he turned and walked away. At this time, he heard Wang Zhenfeng say, “Master Pei, please stay!”

Pei Xiaoyuan turned around and saw Wang Zhenfeng walking out from behind the door.

“Saving a life is a debt that can never be repaid. Please, let me bow to you, Master Pei, as a token of my gratitude!”

She stopped at the threshold of the door, kneeling and bowing deeply toward Pei Xiaoyuan.

Pei Xiaoyuan, once again filled with confusion, quickly gestured for her to rise.

“Miss Wang, what do you mean by this? What ‘saving a life’ are you talking about? You are thanking the wrong person!”

Wang Zhenfeng slowly got up from the ground, hesitated for a moment, and asked in a trembling voice: “Master Pei, don’t you know about my marriage?”

Pei Xiaoyuan hadn’t seen her for some time. When she came to him and stood under the sunlight in the courtyard, he noticed that she looked haggard, as if she was sick. Hearing her talk about marriage, he was surprised and said apologetically, “I was busy with something these days and didn’t know that Miss Wang was also planning a marriage. But I don’t know who the groom is. If the wedding is decided, remember to send someone to tell me. Then the Princess and I will prepare gifts to send.”

Wang Zhenfeng looked at him for a moment, and suddenly her eyes turned red, tears falling down: “So Master Pei, you really don’t know?”

Even if Pei Xiaoyuan was in a hurry to leave, seeing her in such a state and thinking of Wang Zhenfeng’s father, it was impossible for him to turn around and leave.

He paused for a moment, then softened his tone and said, “Miss Wang, have you been feeling unwell lately? What happened?”

“I wonder if Master Pei has heard of Prince Qing?” Wang Zhenfeng did not answer, instead she looked in daze for moment before asking in a murmur.

Prince Qing was an imperial prince, and because his father had once followed the emperor in suppressing rebellions, as long as he did not plot rebellion like the Old Prince Chen, who was the previous owner of Yongning Mansion, it would not be a big deal even if he committed a crime. Pei Xiaoyuan had met him once before at a banquet. He was over 40 years old and a widower. At that time, Chengping mentioned him as a joke, saying that he had a special fetish for sexual affairs and was cruel and sadistic. A few years ago, their house said that a concubine died of a sudden illness, but in fact, she was tortured by him.

He nodded slightly: “What happened to Prince Qing?”

Wang Zhenfeng burst into tears. After wiping her tears, she finally spoke again and told the whole story.

It turned out that Wang Zhenfeng had been preparing to officially become a nun some time ago. Unexpectedly, ten days ago, the chief secretary of Prince Qing Mansion suddenly came to the Wang family. When he saw Wang Zhenfeng’s widowed mother, he congratulated her and said that Prince Qing had passed by the gate of the women’s temple the day before and met Wang Zhenfeng by chance. He admired her very much and learned that she came from a noble family and was a daughter of the Wang family. So he wanted to marry her to be the princess consort. To show his seriousness, he sent the chief secretary to propose marriage.

How could Wang Zhenfeng accept such a marriage? Her mother was also extremely reluctant. However, since Prince Qing had already spoken, how could she dare to refuse to his face? Later, she hurried to find Wang shi, hoping to ask for her help to find a way to reject the marriage. But Wang shi only responded vaguely. A few days later, when Wang Zhenfeng’s mother came again, she said that she was busy preparing to receive the princess and prince consort, and did not meet her.

Wang Zhenfeng’s voice faltered, her tears flowing once again: “I’ve never spoken of this before to Prince Consort because I didn’t want to burden you with it. After my father followed the Great General Shenhu to war in the past, our family’s circumstances have been less than ideal. My mother’s health has been poor, and my younger brother has no prospects, spending his days buried in books in the hope of passing the imperial examinations. We can only make ends meet by renting the few acres of land left in our family. As for my aunt—well, she isn’t truly a close relative, only distantly related to our family. For many years, we had little to no contact. Even in our most difficult times, we never dared to trouble her. But then, at the start of this year, when you arrived in the capital, my aunt suddenly began to show great care to us. She hired renowned physicians to treat my mother’s illness, arranged a marriage for my younger brother, and even brought me to her side, treating me with an unfamiliar warmth and intimacy. My aunt originally wanted to…”

She paused, met Pei Xiaoyuan’s gaze, and continued, “Since I’ve already lost my face today, I’ll just let it go. There’s nothing more I cannot say. To be honest, my aunt was optimistic about Prince Consort’s future and wanted to get close to you, but she was constrained by the past matters. So, she set her sights on me. She was attracted by the relationship between my father and Prince Consort and hoped that I could marry you. As for me…”

She gritted her teeth and said, “I think too highly of myself and have wishful thinking, secretly admiring Prince Consort. When the news of you marrying the Princess came, my aunt was deeply disappointed, and I was even more ashamed. That was when I decided to enter the Daoist temple and live out my life in seclusion. But before I could carry out my plan, this disaster struck. My mother was frightened and her old illness relapsed. She asked me to seek your help. However, with the wedding so close, how could I dare disturb you and the Princess during your joyous time? The people from Prince Qing Mansion frequently came to our house to ask about it. I only have one life, and at worst I can die, but I have my mother and brother at home. After much thought, I could not bear to part with them, so I had no choice but to agree…”

Pei Xiaoyuan frowned upon hearing this, unable to bear it any longer, and interrupted, “You are confused! Who do you think I, Pei Xiaoyuan, am? Even if it’s because of your father, if something like this happened, I would never turn a blind eye.

“As for the princess,” he paused.

“Even if the princess know you were looking for my help, so what? She’s not a stingy person! You should have come to me a long time ago!”

Wang Zhenfeng looked at him steadily, tears streaming down her face again, and she choked up, “I was wrong… but fortunately, it’s over now.” She wiped her tears again and calmed herself down.

“Just a few days ago, Prince Qing Mansion suddenly sent word that the marriage arrangement was cancelled, with no further explanation. After my aunt learned about this, she made inquiries from many sources and found an insider in Prince Qing Mansion. She came back and said that it seemed Prince Qing had acted on advice from Yuan Zhi. However, we have no connections with Yuan Zhi, so why would he suddenly intervene? She concluded that Prince Consort must have known about this and secretly asked Yuan Zhi to do it. She also said…”

Wang shi, who originally had given up, took this as proof that Pei Xiaoyuan had feelings for Wang Zhenfeng, but was constrained by his marriage to the princess and could not act openly. So she urged Wang Zhenfeng to come to her house today, and secretly arranged a meeting for her, asking Wang Zhenfeng to seize the opportunity to show her affection to prince consort.

In Wang shi‘s words, she was unlikely to make mistake. Master Pei was definitely not a mediocre person. If the court suddenly changed in the future, he would definitely take advantage of the situation to rise to the top. As long as she could climb this relationship, even if she couldn’t take the open road now because of the princess, in the future, when the emperor passed away, there might be another opportunity.

How could Wang Zhenfeng say all these words? She just picked up what she could say and skirting around the rest. But how could Pei Xiaoyuan fail to understand? His expression grew dark as water. Wang Zhenfeng, overcome with shame, wept even more uncontrollably.

“Although my family is impoverished, at least I have read a few books and know what shame is. I didn’t want to come here today, but I was afraid of offending my aunt and hindering my brother’s future. I thought that if it was Prince Consort who helped me in this matter, then it’s my duty to thank you. After dealing with my aunt, I will go back. What should I do in the future is still the same. Once I could extract myself from all this, I still plan to dedicate myself to a life of seclusion, with the company of pines and cranes, and finally find peace. But I didn’t expect that Prince Consort didn’t know about this. I am sorry for disturbing you, please forgive me!”

She bowed again and did not get up for a long time.

“It’s definitely not my doing.”

Pei Xiaoyuan said again, his tone serious.

“Get up. It’s my fault. I was so self-absorbed that I didn’t notice your plight and caused you to suffer so much. I feel guilty towards your father.”

He paused for a moment and continued, “I will pretend that what happened today never happened, and you don’t have to take it to heart. Now that the matter has been resolved, it’s the best. When you go back, live a good life and don’t let my aunt manipulate you anymore. If there are similar things that you can’t solve in the future, just come to see me openly without hiding anything. Within my ability, it’s my duty to take good care of the families of Shenhu Army’s fallen soldiers. You don’t have to worry about anything.

“I have to go pick up the Princess. Take care, Miss Wang.”

Pei Xiaoyuan finally said, nodded to Wang Zhenfeng who was looking at him with tears in her eyes, did not stay any longer, opened the gate and left.

He hurried to the hanging flower gate that separated the inner and outer part of Cui Mansion, and asked someone to announce that he had come to pick up the princess. Unexpectedly, he was told that the princess had gone to the front courtyard to wait for him. After calming himself down, he hurried over.

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One thought on “Thousand Verdant Mountains – Chapter 102

  1. wang shi isn’t really bright, considering that’s the princess and not the prince consort who is favoured by the emperor,
    so also if her scheme really worked she would have just brought disaster

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