Chapter 145
Chapter 145: Future Husband and Wife, Speaking Honestly
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, people crowded the streets like a woven cloth of human figures. Everyone carried a festival lantern in hand, as if a river of stars had fallen to earth.
Luo Ning and Cui Zheng Qing were chatting happily.
Cui Zheng Qing even brought up Luo Ning’s cousin: “I heard the Marquis of Jian Ning’s manor has taken in a new adopted daughter. That’s your cousin, right?”
“I haven’t heard about it yet,” Luo Ning said.
“It’s probably true. You’ll all know in a few days,” Cui Zheng Qing said. “For her to get such good fortune, your uncle must have spent money, yes?”
“Of course.”
“Does your uncle also hold a salt permit from the Imperial Court?” Cui Zheng Qing asked.
[Here it comes.]
At the Summer Retreat Villa, when she had run into Xiao Huai Feng by chance, he had already asked about this once, pretending it was casual.
Now Cui Zheng Qing was asking again.
Acting as if she knew nothing, Luo Ning answered: “No, he doesn’t. My uncle runs some businesses. In the last ten years, since the sea ban was lifted, he’s earned quite a lot.”
“I see,” Cui Zheng Qing said.
Following this topic, Luo Ning chatted with them about salt merchants in the Jiangnan region and about smuggled salt.
On the matter of smuggled salt, Luo Ning really did know a lot, and she held nothing back.
Prince Chen listened the whole time with a faint smile and did not interrupt. Now and then, Xiao Huai Feng would glance at her and add a sentence. Cui Zheng Qing and she were very much in tune as they talked.
After a while, they changed the subject and talked about other things.
It was getting late. The display time for the King of Lanterns ended, and there were far fewer people on this street.
“Prince, I should go back too,” Luo Ning said.
Xiao Huai Feng called for the Deputy General.
The Deputy General brought in a jade rabbit festival lantern. Xiao Huai Feng took it and handed it to Luo Ning: “This is for you.”
Luo Ning had just received a rabbit lantern from her younger brother, and now she was given another one. She did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Thank you, Prince.”
“What, you don’t like it?” Cui Zheng Qing teased.
“Not at all,” Luo Ning said.
Then she explained honestly: “I just thought of how my little brother just bought me a rabbit lantern. Having the same kind is fine. Good things come in pairs.”
Prince Chen laughed beside them: “Then that’s not quite right.”
He called to his own attendant: “Where is my revolving lantern?”
The attendant brought it in.
Prince Chen handed it to Xiao Huai Feng: “Give this one to Sister-in-law instead. Trade with her.”
Xiao Huai Feng frowned slightly.
Seeing this, Luo Ning smiled and said: “This lantern is just as nice. Thank you, Prince.”
Xiao Huai Feng handed it to her.
So Luo Ning swapped lanterns with Prince Chen.
Carrying the revolving festival lantern, she headed downstairs. Prince Chen planned to put the Jade Rabbit Lantern away, but Xiao Huai Feng reached out and took it.
A moment later, he handed the Jade Rabbit Lantern to the Deputy General: “Take it back.”
He then walked Luo Ning downstairs.
Cui Zheng Qing found it funny: “Seventh Brother is really stingy this time, taking back even a lantern.”
Prince Chen looked at the Jade Rabbit Lantern in the Deputy General’s hands. He seemed to understand something and asked the Deputy General: “This festival lantern wasn’t made by your Prince himself, was it?”
“Yes. The Prince made it himself,” the Deputy General said.
“…” Cui Zheng Qing fell silent.
Prince Chen gave a wry smile: “I meant to help them out of an awkward spot, but ended up making it worse.”
Still, never mind. He had not done it on purpose.
They were real brothers. It was not as if Xiao Huai Feng would actually blame him.
Cui Zheng Qing said: “Seventh Brother put in some thought. Looks like he really is pleased with this Princess Consort.”
“He agreed to this imperial marriage himself, of course he’s pleased,” Prince Chen said.
And giving a festival lantern was not only because he was pleased. It was also because he could do it.
He knew how, and it was an easy thing for him. When he happened to be in a good mood, he would do it.
In the past, he had made festival lanterns for their Imperial Father and Imperial Mother.
It had been many years. For a moment, Prince Chen had not recalled this.
Xiao Huai Feng escorted Luo Ning to the carriage. Just as Luo Ning was about to bow and take her leave, he said: “I will bring you back to the manor myself. There are many people on the roads today. Better to guard against accidents.”
Luo Ning froze for a moment.
She knew he had something to say, so she nodded slightly: “I’ll trouble the Prince, then.”
Lin Zhao moved to the back to ride with Qiu Hua and Qiu Lan, while Luo Ning and Xiao Huai Feng rode in the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s green-canopy carriage.
The road was a little jammed.
The revolving festival lantern gave off a soft, faint glow, lighting up the small heaven and earth inside the carriage.
Playing with the festival lantern, Luo Ning watched Xiao Huai Feng’s expression.
“Prince, if you have something to say, just tell me directly,” Luo Ning said bluntly.
“You should know what I want to talk about,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
“Is there something wrong with what I said about smuggled salt?” Luo Ning asked. “Prince, you tested me once. Tonight, Prince Chen and Young Master Cui asked again.”
Xiao Huai Feng glanced at her.
“You did notice after all,” he said, sounding half like he was sighing and half relieved.
His Princess Consort was not stupid.
“Prince, which sentence of mine was wrong?” Luo Ning asked.
“In the Jiangnan region, there is no disaster of smuggled salt. It is my people who are running this matter,” Xiao Huai Feng said. “Yet you know everything.”
Luo Ning jolted.
The underside of her sleeve trembled slightly.
“Does Imperial Mother know about this?” He went straight to the question he cared about most.
A bit of cold sweat broke out on Luo Ning’s back.
Plotting was nothing, but if she went too far, it could bring a death sentence.
Luo Ning understood that smuggled salt could never grow into a huge threat, because the merchants were easy to deal with.
But smuggled salt really was hugely profitable.
She only knew that Qiu Shi Dong was making a lot of money from it during the time when she was a ghost. He had said all this privately to Madam Bai and Luo Yin.
So Luo Ning had assumed that anyone with a mind for such things already knew about it.
“Other than you, Prince Chen, and Young Master Cui, I haven’t talked to anyone else about smuggled salt,” Luo Ning said. “If Imperial Mother knows, it didn’t come from me.”
“Don’t mention it for the time being,” he said.
Then he asked: “Where did you learn of it?”
“Qiu Shi Dong was plotting with my mother. I overheard a few lines and then did my own fate calculation,” Luo Ning said.
Xiao Huai Feng very clearly let out a breath of relief.
It seemed he had guessed the same thing.
“Don’t be nervous,” he said. “You are about to be part of Prince Yong’s manor. The ledgers for the smuggled salt will be given to you too.”
“…” Luo Ning was speechless.
She had just been looking down on Qiu Shi Dong, and in the blink of an eye, she was about to become one of the masterminds behind the same matter.
“What are you thinking?” Xiao Huai Feng asked her.
“I just remembered what a book said: ‘Those who steal hooks are executed, those who steal kingdoms become lords.’ Whatever you do, you have to do it on the grandest scale. That’s what counts as righteous,” Luo Ning said.
“…If you were an advisor, I’d be willing to spend a lot to keep you,” Xiao Huai Feng said. “It’s comfortable listening to you talk.”
She was very good at flattery.
She could quote the classics to please her master. Even with something like “stealing,” she could bring up a saying from a book.
“Prince, I will definitely be loyal,” Luo Ning said.
Xiao Huai Feng gave a slight nod.
The carriage returned to the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s manor. Xiao Huai Feng got out first. When he saw the coachman taking out the mounting stool, his gaze paused for a moment.
Luo Ning stepped down using the stool.
By now, the full moon hung high in the sky. Its light made the space in front of the Marquis Manor gate bright as snow, almost like daytime.
Under the moonlight, Xiao Huai Feng’s vermilion robe looked even colder, like frost. The clear light covered his already icy brows and eyes, adding a layer of cold shine to him. He looked like a deity, neither happy nor sad.
“Prince, I’ll go back now,” Luo Ning said, bending her knees in a curtsey.
Xiao Huai Feng nodded.
Luo Ning returned to Wenqi Courtyard. She set the revolving festival lantern Prince Chen had given her beside the rabbit lantern Luo You had sent.
Looking at the two lanterns, she thought of what Xiao Huai Feng had said in the carriage and took several deep breaths.
From now on, any words she spoke about power or money would have to be weighed again and again.
If she were not Prince Yong’s intended consort, if Prince Yong did not trust her, would she already have been quietly put to death by now?
She might die without even knowing the reason.