The Wife is First

Chapter 28

Ch28 - Foreshadowing

The fourth prince received this congratulatory gift, yet wasn’t even able to get even a little bit happy about it. He was fully aware that this concubine was the one that the Eldest Prince had sent Jing Shao that year. Now that Jing Shao had sent her to him untouched, he wouldn’t even be able to throw this trouble out. Elder brothers could send their younger brothers beauties, yet there wasn’t a basis for younger brothers to send their elder brothers a concubine. Below him, there were no other younger brothers that had come of age. 

Actually, Jing Shao had already finished copying the books for a while, it was just that after living so leisurely for such a long time, he did not want to go back to morning court.

Mu Hanzhang urged him to return to court at the earliest possible time: “The situation in court changes in a blink of an eye, now that the fourth prince has returned to court, it is still best for you to be careful.”

Thus, he set Ge Ruoyi aside with Ghost of Nine Blades to learn the art of concealed weaponry, and also assigned Ren Feng with secretly tidying up the desolate forest in the eastern suburbs, then Jing Shao unwillingly packed up their luggage and returned to his palace with his Wang Fei.

The fourth prince returned to court on the third day, the Cheng Wang had also finished copying “The Art of War” ten times. Emperor Hongzheng flipped through all of it in front of the whole court, asking a few questions about the content, as he was able to reply all the questions quickly and fluently, his imperial heart was very pleased, bestowing upon the Cheng Wang gifts: ten bolts of satin from tributes as well as a bucket of pearls. 

All the court councilors said, although the Cheng Wang wouldn’t be able to inherit the throne, the Emperor’s doting never ceased. Only Jing Shao knew that his Imperial Father rewarding him was because of his standpoint on the three vassal states, nothing more than just encouraging him with some flattery, that’s all.

This satin from the tributes was good stuff, Jing Shao intended to have a few new sets of clothing made for him and Jun Qing. As for this bucket of pearls, actually it didn’t have much use. Nowadays the womenfolk in his palace only had Song Linxin left, and everytime he saw her, it made him annoyed. He let Mu Hanzhang take this bucket of first-rate pearls to return to the North Marquis’ residence, to split between his father-in-law’s sisters and wives.

Mu Hanzhang knew he wanted to help him make a good reputation and naturally did not brush away his good intentions. He had Duofu go into the storeroom to pick a few other gifts to bring along, then taking Yunzhu, he went back to the North Marquis’ residence for a trip.

A bucket of pearls, two handfuls for each of his aunts, one handful for each of his sisters, for each of his father’s concubines, twenty pearls, and for the rest, half went to his paternal grandmother in showing filial respect, and the other half was for the North Marchioness.

“Oh~ Aren’t these the pearls from the tributes, each of them are so smooth and round and so plump, I also saw a few of these over at my Mother’s place.” The big mouthed third aunt held the pearls in her hands and fondled them admiringly, talking endlessly.

As for the rest of the aunts and sisters, they also wore smiles, each of them called Wang Fei very affectionately.

Qiu Yiniang’s body had already recovered, standing behind the North Marchioness, she wore a body of splendid clothing, seeing her son with such an imposing aura, finally she was relieved a little.

The North Marchioness was cold-faced from beginning to end. Without even saying a few words, she began to criticize Mu Hanzhang: “You are a man. You can’t leave behind children. As a wife, you should be more virtuous and kind! Now, Wang Ye doesn’t have a single heir, yet you’ve practically caused all the concubines to be sent away. I don’t even have the face to go out. I know that you are young and ignorant, the people who don’t understand these things will think that I didn’t teach my son well.”