I Am This Type of Woman

62

Had he been able to marry Fule Junzhu, the second son of Xie family could have been someone not to be underestimated, but he had ran away with a vulgar woman, offended Ban family, and put himself into a dead end.

Ban family might be powerless on the surface, but they occupied an extraordinary status. Everyone with some brain knew that whatever opinion they had of the family should be kept to themselves, otherwise it was akin to slapping the face of the royal family.

That Shen Yu the tanhua, who used to have a limitedless future in the Capital, was buoyed up high, flattered and goaded into breaking his engagement with Ban family by people of impure minds. And how did he end up?

* tanhua 探花郎 = the third place at palace examination stage of imperial examination system.

After getting whipped by Ban Hua in public and losing his face thoroughly, his fame, position and benefits went up in smoke.

In front of the imperial power, one's fame or disgrace was just the matter of the Emperor nodding or shaking his head.

—

A few days later, Hui-wang's mansion was suddenly caught in fire. Hui-wang and Hui-wangfei lost their lives in the fire, their pair of children were lucky to survive despite being injured. The shizi Jiang Yuchen broke his leg after crushed by a falling beam, Kangning Junzhu suffered ghastly burn wounds on a large part of her arm.

* shizi 世子 = an heir of a prominent family. Like Ban Heng was the shizi of Jingting establishment.

The Emperor and the Empress took pity of the pair, a decree was issued to let Kangning Junzhu recuperate in the Palace. Hui-wang Shizi inherited Hui-wang's title although it was reduced from qinwang to junwang. Countless people praised the Emperor and the Empress for their benevolence and mercy to their juniors. Books were written about it as if it was a good deed noteworthy of major recording. As for Hui-wang and Hui-wangfei who perished in fire, apart from their old subordinates, was there anyone who sincerely concerned about them?

T/N – Qinwang = first-rank prince (usually the direct brothers or sons of emperors), while junwang = second-rank prince. This demotion is in line with convention.

Regardless of the questionable circumstances of Hui-wang's death, his funeral ceremonies was performed in the appropriate scale without any slightest cutback, but without any slightest extra either. Everything was delivered per standard protocol. Nevertheless, with regards to royal family, it was inevitable that a service performed strictly on standard protocol was a somewhat lacking one. The street offerings provided by prestigious families in the Capital were also quite perfunctory, as if saying that Hui-wang's status was just that so and so.

Jiang Yuchen and Jiang Kangning in mourning hat and mourning clothing were escorting the coffins to the funeral, they could also see that the offerings were perfunctory. Their initial anger had been reduced to numbness, ignoring the condolences offered in pretend sorrow.

Three months ago when the Grand Princess died in the assassination, these people looked as sad as if it had been their own grandmother who died, but now they didn't even bother to put on a complete act.

The world was a heartless place. The two of them, brother and sister, from thereon were duckweeds floating on water, with no backing or anyone to rely on, as good as walking on thin ice.

"Please don't grieve too much." A young and slightly immature voice was heard. Kangning lifted her head, it was the Shizi of Jingting establishment. Other major houses sent their stewards to attend, but Jingting establishment sent it's shizi to personally offer their condolences, this action carried more weight than the others.