Chapter 158
Chapter 158: The Prince Is Very Pleased With Luo Ning
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In late autumn, the warm sun shone gently down from above the covered corridor.
Luo Ning wore an apricot-colored jacket, plain and elegant to the extreme. She had no extra jewelry on. A single beaded flower was pinned in her hair, and on her wrist she wore the string of Xuan Miao Buddhist prayer beads the Empress Dowager had rewarded her with.
She looked gentle and chaste. Because of those Buddhist prayer beads, she seemed like a maidservant at Guanyin’s side, her brows and eyes full of mercy.
Luo Ning greeted him and bowed: “Heir Apparent.”
Pei Ying looked at her quietly for a moment, then moved his gaze away and asked: “Are you going into the palace to visit the Empress Dowager?”
“Yes.”
He asked again: “Have you been well lately?”
Luo Ning said: “Everything is well. Thank you for your concern, Heir Apparent. Is Grand Princess in good health?”
“Mother is strong and healthy. At the last Wang family banquet, Mother even said she should have gone so she could see you. It is a pity she was too busy those few days,” Pei Ying said.
Luo Ning said: “It was my rudeness. I should have gone to pay my respects to Grand Princess.”
“If you had gone, Mother would definitely have been happy,” Pei Ying said.
While the two of them chatted, Wang Tang Yao stood quietly to the side.
He was very handsome. In the sunlight, he naturally carried a graceful, charming air. But his face was so serious that it held a hint of sharpness, which kept people from looking down on him just because of his good looks.
His whole manner was different from other people’s.
Talking as they walked, Luo Ning and Pei Ying crossed the Golden Water Bridge. Their carriages were stopped beside the bridge.
“Miss Luo, please go first,” Pei Ying said. “Another day I will send a visiting card and invite you as a guest. I have changed a few guqin scores and would like you to give me some comments.”
“I do not understand guqin scores very well. I am afraid you will laugh at me,” Luo Ning said.
“It is only for fun,” Pei Ying said. “Right, some things came from the Southern Region. After my mother divides them, there should be a share for you, Miss Luo.”
When Luo Ning heard this, she lifted her eyes and looked at him.
That look carried a deep and subtle meaning.
Pei Ying met her gaze. In an instant, his eyes became deep and a little sour. Words rose to his lips, but he swallowed them and only gave a small nod.
“I will go back now.” Luo Ning’s coachman had already set down the stepstool. She got into the carriage and left.
Pei Ying stood there by the road.
Even after the Luo family carriage had gone far away, he was still staring, lost in thought.
Wang Tang Yao watched him for quite a while, then suddenly said: “It seems your heart has changed.”
“What?”
“The feelings you had when you were young,” Wang Tang Yao said, “have already moved to someone else. That is a good thing. You and I are close friends. I do not want us to grow distant because of this.”
Pei Ying came back to himself and smiled: “I have explained it to you several times. When I was at the Imperial Academy, I did not have any feelings like that.”
What they were talking about was their admiration for Empress Zheng.
Back then at the Imperial Academy, Wang Tang Yao never stepped forward. He watched coldly from the side and saw every event clearly. Pei Ying, born with great talent, became the top student.
Over at the women’s Imperial Academy, Empress Zheng had left everyone far behind. She outshone the princesses and all the other noble young ladies.
Rumor said that Pei Ying had never married because he could not let go of the feelings he had for his childhood sweetheart. Wang Tang Yao had even asked him about it face to face.
Pei Ying had denied it.
He had never felt romantic love toward Empress Zheng. It was Wang Tang Yao who, after Madam Zheng was made Crown Princess, went out traveling and studying for several years.
And now, he was still asking about this matter.
Pei Ying came back to himself and looked at him with a bit of worry: “Tang Yao, do not commit the crime of great disrespect.”
“Of course. I will not be reckless,” Wang Tang Yao said coolly.
“As long as you know where the line is,” Pei Ying said.
He looked into the distance again. Luo Ning’s carriage had already disappeared.
“…Is she doing well?” Wang Tang Yao asked.
Pei Ying knew who he was asking about and on purpose did not answer. He only said: “I will head back too.”
On the way back, Wang Tang Yao was strangely annoyed.
He had always believed that Pei Ying admired Empress Zheng. Now, Pei Ying had fallen for someone else, and all because of Luo Ning.
He really did not like Luo Ning.
From the very first time they met, Wang Tang Yao had not had a good impression of Luo Ning.
He felt that Luo Ning was very fake.
Luo Ning was very pretty and charming, her looks outstanding, yet she always dressed in plain clothes, wore simple ornaments, and never used powder or rouge. It was a kind of extreme low-key style.
Tell him, what woman does not know she is beautiful?
A young lady whose looks were far above ordinary, yet who always pretended not to care about it at all, was doing that on purpose.
Too much modesty was the same as too much pride. Both were just putting on an act.
Beauty was beauty. Why cover it up?
So Wang Tang Yao felt that Luo Ning was someone who overdid the act.
Anything that went too far became annoying.
He and Pei Ying were very close. They had gone to the Imperial Academy together, then traveled for a year and a half together. He admired Pei Ying’s taste. He could accept that they both admired Empress Zheng.
But Pei Ying had changed his heart.
To Wang Tang Yao, this was a fall in taste and a kind of self-degradation. It was also a betrayal of Empress Zheng.
Madam Zheng was now mother of the world. She could gain the loyalty of many people, including both Pei Ying and Wang Tang Yao.
Wang Tang Yao did not blame Pei Ying. It was not his fault. The dainty act of Madam Luo’s daughter was very different, and some men really liked that sort of thing. Pei Ying had clearly taken the bait.
“…My lord, that dead Valiant Cavalry General was very close to Prince Yong’s intended consort. Their families have been close for generations. On the day he died, Prince Yong’s intended consort went with Princess Ping Yang to Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple to burn incense.
The place where the Valiant Cavalry General died was very close to Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple. After that, Prince Yong also went to Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple,” the subordinate said in the carriage to Wang Tang Yao.
Wang Tang Yao said: “That is rather interesting.”
“Is it just a coincidence?”
“Not necessarily. But right now no one is willing to look into it carefully. From the Emperor’s attitude, he is standing on the far bank watching the fire. The bigger the fire, the happier he is,” Wang Tang Yao said.
Not only was Prince Yong hateful, Luo Ning was hateful too.
Along with her, that adopted daughter Bai Ci Rong, who had lived in the Luo family for several years, also made Wang Tang Yao feel annoyed whenever he thought of her.
He felt as if he had touched the edge of the truth, yet he still could not be sure.
After Luo Ning left the palace, before she had gone far she ran into Deputy General Zhou.
“Princess Consort, the Prince asks you to come to his residence to talk,” he said.
Luo Ning nodded and told the coachman: “Go to Prince Yong’s residence.”
Xiao Huai Feng had just finished meeting with his advisor. He lifted a cup of tea and drank slowly as he waited for Luo Ning to speak.
Luo Ning told him what had happened when she entered the palace: “Imperial Mother told me to reflect behind closed doors. I plan to confine myself at home for half a month.”
Xiao Huai Feng asked: “You are not afraid?”
“What is there to be afraid of?”
“Too much is as bad as not enough,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
“I am just a cheap life. If Imperial Mother wants it, she can take it. I am not afraid of doing too much,” Luo Ning said.
Xiao Huai Feng looked at her steadily.
She had bargained terms with him, signed a deed of sale, and made him agree to bestow the marriage.
Xiao Huai Feng had always felt that her loyalty was limited.
Today, he was sure. Luo Ning’s loyalty to him was only sixty or seventy percent. What she truly wanted was to become an imperial daughter-in-law.
To be precise, she wanted to be the Empress Dowager’s daughter-in-law.
From beginning to end, the only real support in her heart was the Empress Dowager.
Luo Ning was someone whose methods were soft and whose mind was deep. She had many shortcomings, but she was quick and clever, and she could see far ahead.
She was not foolish. She did not dream that she could soar to the sky just by being Princess Consort Yong.
Xiao Huai Feng had been very afraid that she would change her original goal, that she would want more from him, and that after a long time she might even want to be real husband and wife with him.
If that happened, it would make his head ache.
Giving up a useful subordinate was also something that troubled him.
To his surprise, Luo Ning’s goal would probably not shift toward romantic feelings between man and woman. She was firmly holding on to the Empress Dowager’s thigh.
She wanted to become a registered female head of household and be granted the title of Commandery Princess.
“Very good,” Xiao Huai Feng nodded in satisfaction.
Luo Ning: “?”
He had just said she was “going too far” and blamed her for having no defenses against the Empress Dowager, and now he was praising her.
In that moment just now, what had he thought that made him suddenly so pleased with what she said and did?
The heart of a man was really hard to guess.
The Empress Dowager, who was also a woman, was a little easier to understand.