Chapter 192
Chapter 192: Pei Ying’s Secret Feelings
Wenqi Courtyard was spacious. The rooms were new, and the furnishings were fine. It counted as one of the best courtyards in the whole Marquis Manor.
Everything inside the courtyard was in good order.
Luo Ning had also gotten the key to the side gate, which gave her some extra freedom.
Prince Yong had come here on purpose, which surprised her a little, and his question even left her stunned.
[What kind of prince comes to visit and first complains that his host’s clothes are old?]
Luo Ning asked back: “Prince, do you only wear new clothes at home too?”
Xiao Huai Feng said: “I do not have any old clothes.”
Luo Ning had caught a weakness, so she at once put on a righteous look and said: “It is really wrong to waste the people’s money like that. Prince, old clothes are comfortable to wear.”
Xiao Huai Feng was silent.
He quietly glanced at her.
Even without any special dressing up, her half-new, half-old clothes still seemed to fill the whole room with bright beauty.
Madam Luo had a very pretty face. She looked good dressed up, and she looked good even when she did not.
Xiao Huai Feng said: “No wonder those Old Madams like you. When old people hear you talk like this, none of them would be unhappy.”
Luo Ning said: “I do not need others to be happy. It is enough if Imperial Mother is happy. I will be filial on the Prince’s behalf.”
She talked about the mutton again and said: “The Princess had people send it over.”
Xiao Huai Feng said: “Accept it. In a few days I will send people to give a return gift. You do not need to worry.”
It was not that Luo Ning could not afford to return the gift. She just felt that something was very strange about this matter.
Luo Ning asked: “Prince, why is the Princess being so attentive? That is not really like her.”
Jia Hong, the Grand Princess, had quite a temper.
Xiao Huai Feng said: “She is greedy.”
She asked: “Greedy for what?”
He said: “You guess Old Madam’s thoughts better than I do. How can you ask me instead?”
Luo Ning fell silent.
At noon, Nanny Kong made several dishes to treat Prince Yong.
It was simple home food, but Prince Yong ate it just fine and did not say anything.
The mutton was indeed very good.
After lunch, Prince Yong stood up to leave. Luo Ning walked him to the side gate.
He said to her: “Go back inside. You are dressed so thinly.”
As he spoke, he even held her hand for a moment.
His palm was burning hot, while Luo Ning’s hand was a little cold.
It was like he just wanted to check. Feeling that she was indeed cold, he said again: “Wear more clothes.”
Luo Ning answered softly: “All right.”
After the side gate closed, Luo Ning could still feel the burning heat of his skin on the back of her hand.
[His hand is really warm.]
It was a while before Luo Ning turned back and went inside.
She ordered Nanny Kong to take people and divide the mutton, sending some to every courtyard in the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s residence.
Two days later, she heard that the Princess had gotten the Hot Spring Villa that belonged to Prince Jiang’s Manor.
It was Cui Zheng Lan who told her this.
Before Luo Ning even heard the rumors, Cui Zheng Lan had already figured out the whole story.
Cui Zheng Lan said: “Prince Jiang refused to sell it to the Zheng Family and even sent people to complain. The Emperor was furious. But then he turned around and gave it to the Princess. He is really generous.”
Luo Ning’s heart moved slightly.
She kept feeling that the last time Jia Hong, the Grand Princess, came to her and said she had something to tell her, it was to talk about this villa.
But Prince Yong had cut in and stopped it.
Up to now, Luo Ning had not dared to visit the Princess. She was afraid that Prince Yong would think she was secretly getting close to the Princess and the great noble families, and that she was not loyal in her heart.
Luo Ning said: “Prince Jiang is probably afraid of trouble. Once this starts, people will keep thinking about his Hot Spring Villa in the future.”
Cui Zheng Lan said: “That is true. My older brother wanted to buy it and almost succeeded. Princess Consort Jiang even wrote him back.”
Sadly, he still lost to Jia Hong, the Grand Princess.
Jia Hong, the Grand Princess, and Prince Jiang had the same mother. Both of them were born to Xie Noble Consort in those years. But the Imperial Prince and the Princess had been raised in their own palaces since childhood, with palace maids and wet nurses to care for them, so the feelings between the siblings were only average.
Since they had not grown up together, there was always some distance. Of course, sharing the same mother still made them closer than to other people.
Luo Ning muttered in her heart, but joked out loud: “Your brother is very capable. The Prince said I can win the Old Madams’ favor, but it is really your brother who can.”
Cui Zheng Lan said: “He is very good at using crooked tricks.”
Luo Ning had nothing to say.
Luo Ning had not expected that the fight over the Hot Spring Villa would still have aftershocks.
She had thought that this matter was already over.
Now that the villa had fallen into the Princess’s hands, it should have come to a complete end, right?
But Cui Zheng Lan did not think so.
She said to Luo Ning: “The Princess has two Hot Spring Villas. A rare villa like this is not something she needs to keep for herself. She can give it away to build favors. There are many noble households who want it. No matter who she gives it to, it will be a very weighty gift.”
Luo Ning fell silent again.
[The Princess cannot really be planning to give it to me, can she?]
Luo Ning did not need it.
But this bait had indeed been thrown out by Luo Ning herself. She had done it to hook Qiu Shi Dong, and the result had been just as she wanted.
If the Princess thought Luo Ning was interested, that would also make sense, since Luo Ning was the one who started it.
Luo Ning said: “A villa like this must need a very big price, right?”
Cui Zheng Lan nodded and said: “Of course. The Princess spread the word because she is waiting for people to place their stakes. Whoever offers the highest price can get the Hot Spring Villa and the Princess’s favor.”
Luo Ning weighed herself in her heart. She was not important enough to even be put on the Princess’s scale.
A smart, sharp, and strong person like the Princess should not be investing so much this early in the women of Prince Yong’s residence.
But if it was not about the Hot Spring Villa, why had the Princess sent the mutton?
After weighing it again and again in her heart, Luo Ning realized that the Princess might really want to give the Hot Spring Villa to her. And maybe she had some secret value that others did not know of, which the Princess had already noticed.
A chill ran down her spine.
Cui Zheng Lan asked: “Princess Consort, what is wrong?”
Luo Ning shook her head and said: “It is nothing.”
The less she could guess it, the more frightening it felt.
Luo Ning was truly shocked by her own guess. This thought was not very reasonable, yet it stayed in her mind and would not leave.
Not knowing what others were thinking of doing to her was very scary. It was even more frightening than clearly knowing that someone wanted to harm her.
That afternoon, Luo Ning sat alone and did fate calculations on many matters again and again.
A vague outline slowly formed in her heart.
[Could it be that the Princess still wants me to marry Pei Ying?]
In her last life, after Luo Ning died, Pei Ying became a monk.
He traveled from temple to temple and did not return home for ten years. For the Princess, having to endure being apart from her beloved son must have been heartbreaking.
The Princess should understand Pei Ying’s temper even better.
Pei Ying seemed to live very freely.
The Princess and the Prince Consort loved him very much, and his grandparents also loved him. He had received too much, so he did not care much about many things, including his family.
When he wanted to leave, he just left.
In her last life, Pei Ying had indeed asked to marry Luo Ning. So what had he been thinking then?
If the neighbor in Shaoyang those years ago had been him, everything would make sense.
Luo Ning often felt that people’s feelings were very complicated.
A person or a thing, when simply put aside, did not feel like much. In her last life, Pei Ying’s proposal had also come more than a year after Luo Ning returned to the capital.
But once someone else wanted to fight for it and he realized he might lose it forever, that person suddenly became extremely important, and he wished he could get her right away.
If Luo Ning had not been granted in marriage to Prince Yong, would Pei Ying and the Princess have still weighed her family background and character in their hearts?
But now, were they willing to go against Prince Yong and the Empress Dowager, just to fight for one more chance?
This was Luo Ning’s guess, but she did not dare talk it over with anyone.
If others took her to be like Bai Ci Rong, too full of herself and thinking that all the men in the world were at her feet, she would feel very awkward.
This was only her own guess. The Princess Manor had not said anything at all.
Luo Ning sat like this until it was time to light the lamps.
She decided to stay fully on guard but not say a single word about it to any outsider.
It was not for anything else. If it was true, she wanted to leave some dignity for Pei Ying: that neighbor “Madam Feng” had given her many good things to eat and had played music with her, helping her pass the lonely late nights.
Luo Ning could not forget this kindness.