Chapter 136
Chapter 136: The Bracelet From Prince Yong
Luo Ning took the box.
Inside the brocade box lay a jade bracelet.
When Luo Ning saw how clear and pure the jade was, she knew at once it was very valuable.
Luo Ning looked up and said: “Thank you, Prince. Why did Prince suddenly give me a bracelet?”
“After the Mid-Autumn Festival, it gets colder day by day, and you are this thin,” Xiao Huai Feng said. “I saw this in the storeroom. It would be a pity to let it sit there. I will give it to you first.”
Listening to him, Luo Ning opened the brocade box again.
She took out the bracelet. It felt warm to the touch, without the faint chill other jade bracelets usually had. She had not thought much of it at first. It was only early autumn, the weather was still warm, and jade would not feel icy anyway.
“…Is this Warm Jade?” Luo Ning asked.
Xiao Huai Feng nodded and said: “It will not be cold even in deep winter. If you wear it then, it will not harm your body.”
Luo Ning knew how rare Warm Jade was. She bent slightly and gave him a proper curtsey from the heart: “Thank you, Prince.”
Xiao Huai Feng said: “Rise.”
The storeroom of Prince Yong’s manor held many fine things. Some were rewards his Imperial Father had given him while he was still alive. Some were items Prince Chen and Cui Zheng Qing had brought back over the past few years.
They did work for Xiao Huai Feng. Whenever they got something good, they would first present it to him. Then Xiao Huai Feng would divide it up and give it out.
This time he went through the storeroom accounts only because Cui Zheng Qing had mentioned the pleasure boat.
By chance, Xiao Huai Feng found a small chest of Warm Jade there. For no clear reason, he thought of Luo Ning.
Maybe it was because, after Luo Ning told him about her family, he felt a little pity for her.
He had the House Steward bring out that chest.
There were jade bracelets, jade rings, jade pendants, and so on, about seven or eight pieces in all.
Only the jade bracelet looked truly fine, so he took that one.
When Xiao Huai Feng put it on his person, he still had not decided whether to give it to Luo Ning or not. He could give it, or not give it. It depended on his mood.
Not until she recited a memorial text for his River Lantern did his mind settle.
She read it so devoutly, full of compassion and grief.
Xiao Huai Feng saw that sincerity. Very naturally, he took out the jade bracelet he had prepared long ago.
Right after he handed it to her, Xiao Huai Feng worried she would overthink it. If she blushed, or looked too shocked and flustered, it would annoy him.
Luckily, in Madam Luo’s eyes there was only honest surprise at the value of the Warm Jade, nothing else.
Being a bit money-minded was good. It meant she was practical and easy to motivate. A good Deputy General should be greedy for something. Only then would a superior officer know how to reward her.
The two of them talked there for quite a while.
At the stairs, Cui Zheng Qing called: “Seventh Brother, Princess Consort, come upstairs to drink. Are you done putting out your River Lanterns?”
Luo Ning asked a question she had wondered about before: “Isn’t he your cousin?”
“Yes.”
“Sometimes he calls you by name. Sometimes he calls you Seventh Brother.”
“Sometimes he acts like he has a death wish. Most of the time he values his life,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
Luo Ning could not help laughing.
Xiao Huai Feng added: “He is a few months younger than me. When we were small, I do not know what he ate, but one year he was taller than I was. He refused to call me Seventh Brother. That glory lasted only that one year.”
Luo Ning laughed again.
They went up to the second floor.
The free and unrestrained Cui Zheng Qing was still standing at the door and said: “You two are this happy just from putting River Lanterns on the water?”
“What do you not stick your nose into?” Xiao Huai Feng said. “If I do not tie you to the door to act as a guard, it really is a waste of talent.”
“You only know Martial Training and how to think up ways to mock people,” Cui Zheng Qing said. “It is only because Third Brother and I are broad-minded that we do not argue with you.”
“You cannot match him in martial arts, and you are not his equal in learning either. Why do you insist on asking for humiliation?” Prince Chen said with a laugh, easing the mood. “Come drink. Lady Liu is going to give us riddles.”
So it was time to guess riddles, match lines, and choose music scores.
Luo Ning also liked this kind of game.
She even played a tune on the qin.
Lady Liu commented on her: “Princess Consort’s score fits her state of mind. The music is full and moving. It is only that you have not practiced enough. Your skill is a little rusty.”
Luo Ning smiled and said: “I have been too busy these days. I have not touched the qin for a long time.”
“Did you change this score yourself?” Lady Liu asked again. “Did you change it when you were young?”
“You can even hear that it was changed when I was young?”
“It is light and lively, but there is a bit of pride in it, as if it is holding in a breath of strength,” Lady Liu said with a smile. “I was like that when I was young too. Even if I was wronged, I did not feel sad, only unwilling. I had to win.”
She paused, then said: “I am not like that now. Now I know, some things do not have winning and losing.”
Luo Ning was slightly startled.
So she had never been the type to wallow in self-pity.
When her Mother ignored her in childhood, she was not full of grief. Instead, she held in a fierce drive to stand out and make her Mother look at her with new eyes.
Until her cousin Bai Ci Rong arrived.
She could be replaced.
It was this change in understanding that broke the pride she had as a child. It was also the reason for her hysterics:
[I thought I was not good enough, so you did not love me. It turned out that no matter what I did, in your eyes it was never enough.]
Only then did she go mad.
Because it was a dead end, with no solution.
Only after many years of death did she slowly accept everything and finally free herself from that trap.
Through Lady Liu’s comment, Luo Ning seemed to find her original heart again.
She had been a proud and stubborn girl.
Madam Bai had given birth to Luo Ning but had not raised her herself. When she saw Luo Ning grow into a lively, healthy, competitive little lord, Madam Bai could not stand it and slowly crushed her.
She was shattered. Her soul was cut to pieces, and then one fire burned her body to ashes.
“…There is always winning and losing. Lady Liu, you have already won more than most people. Your qin skills are this good,” Cui Zheng Lan suddenly said from the side.
Lady Liu listened, smiled brightly, and did not argue with her: “Miss Cui is very blessed.”
Cui Zheng Lan was confused.
But Luo Ning understood.
Only someone who had never truly suffered in spirit would think the world was all black and white, and that there were clear lines between winning and losing.
Cui Zheng Lan was indeed still young. She was a blessed person.
Not until the start of the Hai hour did everyone finally leave and go home.
There was no curfew, and no one had gone to report bandits to the officials. So at night, people from the City Patrol Bureau would not be making rounds. On top of that, the Ulsheepana Festival was lively by nature. Carts, horses, and pedestrians filled the streets.
Luo Ning brought her own maidservant, Lin Zhao, and the others off the pleasure boat and strolled for a while longer.
Lingering in front of a peddler’s stall, Luo Ning saw a back.
No matter where he walked, people around him kept sneaking glances at him.
Maybe his bearing was especially striking.
Looking again, he was also wearing a bright red robe. Unlike Cui Zheng Qing’s free, romantic air, this man seemed more enchanting, yet he did not look weak.
Across the lantern light, Luo Ning met his eyes again.
It was the man she had seen on the pleasure boat.
He looked away first, and Luo Ning also withdrew her gaze.
Lin Zhao, Qiu Hua, and Qiu Lan were looking too.
“…I usually hate these elegant young masters in red robes. It is hard for anyone to look good in them. Today I saw two exceptions,” Lin Zhao said.
“Is that one from just now counted as one?” Luo Ning asked.
She pointed at the man who had just walked past.
“He is.”
“And who is the other one? Young Master Cui?” Luo Ning asked again.
Lin Zhao laughed and said: “You guessed right.”
Luo Ning herself did not dislike men in bright red robes. Maybe in her mind since she was small, she had thought dressing like that was ‘noble’.
The four of them bought some food and various little trinkets, then finally got into the carriage.
Xiao Huai Feng, Prince Chen, and Cui Zheng Qing went to a teahouse to talk about serious matters.
They mainly discussed transport in the Southern Region.
“…We had you give up some profit from Smuggled Salt so we could secretly train our own people. Right now this line makes a lot of money, and it brings us quick news.
“Besides, most officials in the Southern Region have handles in our hands, even if they were born from Prestigious Clans,” Prince Chen said to Xiao Huai Feng with a smile. “My idea is pretty good, is it not?”
“If Smuggled Salt becomes a disaster, I fear we will be able to start it, but not stop it,” Xiao Huai Feng said with a slight frown.
“Who cares,” Cui Zheng Qing said. “Right now what we are taking is not the commoners’ profit, but…”
His voice dropped.
This was a huge taboo.
Prince Chen looked at Xiao Huai Feng in surprise and said: “You agreed to this at the time. Why are you suddenly worried? Did something happen? You have always thought far ahead since you were small.”
“It is my Princess Consort,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
—