Chapter 209
Chapter 209: Luo Ning’s Refusal
Luo Ning and Prince Yong then went to pay respects to the Emperor and Empress.
The Emperor had just finished court and had not yet taken off his court robes. He sat with the Empress and accepted the couple’s salute.
After this ceremony, they went again to the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
It was noon by the time everything ended.
On the way back, Luo Ning leaned openly against the wall of the carriage and dozed.
Xiao Huai Feng’s dark eyes quietly turned to her: “Very tired?”
“The clothes are heavy,” Luo Ning said.
Xiao Huai Feng said: “Your body is too weak. Now that you have entered the manor, you might as well start tomorrow morning and follow Lin Zhao to practice horse stance and learn some basic skills.”
Luo Ning instantly woke up.
She was so angry that she was suddenly wide awake.
“Prince, I really am weak. Someone weak should rest more. Martial training would only tire me out even more. It could kill me,” Luo Ning said.
She tried her best to stay calm, holding back the urge to roll her eyes.
But Xiao Huai Feng said: “Your complexion is good and your foundation is not bad. You are not so weak that you are dying. Besides, you use the whip well. If you add leg and foot work and train hard for three months, your base will be more solid.”
Luo Ning directly refused him: “I don’t want to learn.”
She was so tired she could barely lift her hand, and yet he wanted her to do martial training. This was really going too far.
Xiao Huai Feng gave her a steady look: “You are very bold.”
Luo Ning: “…”
She remembered what Lin Zhao had said: if the Prince was not satisfied, so what? Could he still beat her?
Luo Ning did not need to give everything she had either. As someone else’s subordinate, doing seventy percent of her best was already loyal enough.
Xiao Huai Feng still did not give up. After they returned, he even asked Lin Zhao how to make the Princess Consort look less like she was about to stop breathing at any moment.
Lin Zhao said: “Prince, the Princess Consort’s bones are already set. It is too late for martial training. She has never practiced since she was young.”
Xiao Huai Feng glanced at her lightly.
He was a little dissatisfied but not angry, as if he had accepted the fact that the Princess Consort could not be molded, and that Lin Zhao was not ambitious enough.
After they came back, Xiao Huai Feng did not return to the inner courtyard. Luo Ning first changed her clothes and washed up, then put on everyday dress.
After she ate some lunch, she went to sleep.
In the afternoon, although she got up, she only sat around in a daze, asking nothing and doing nothing, conserving her strength.
After two days in a row, she was truly exhausted. When you were too tired, you could not do anything well, so it was better to rest quietly. There was no hurry; sharpening the knife would not delay chopping wood.
That night, Xiao Huai Feng still slept in the main courtyard.
He came to eat dinner with Luo Ning.
The dinner was rich, and every dish suited Luo Ning’s taste, so she ate a lot.
After the meal, he took out a sheet of paper and said: “This is the gift list Tao Bo prepared for your three-day return visit. Take a look.”
The list was very long.
Everything had been prepared according to the standards for an Imperial Prince’s Consort, with more rather than less.
After Luo Ning skimmed it and silently memorized it, she expressed her satisfaction: “The Prince’s people are of course thorough and proper. Very good.”
Then she asked: “Is Tao Bo the chief steward? Is he a eunuch?”
“Yes,” Xiao Huai Feng said. “He used to serve in the Imperial Study.”
“No wonder his handwriting is so good,” Luo Ning said with a smile.
The brush-wielding eunuchs in the Imperial Study sometimes had to act as scribes, copying out memorials to the throne as the Emperor dictated. Some useless emperors even handed the memorials over for eunuchs to read and comment on.
Luo Ning added: “I’ve seen him several times. At first I didn’t think he looked like a eunuch. Later I thought he must be, since he has been able to serve by the Prince’s side for so long and came from the imperial palace.”
The most important chief steward in the Prince’s Manor had to be someone his parents trusted the most and had assigned to him.
Hearing Luo Ning praise Tao Bo, Xiao Huai Feng took the chance to say: “That’s because he trained in martial arts from a young age. He is strong and sturdy, so he doesn’t look delicate.”
Luo Ning: “…”
She simply refused to pick up that line. A dead pig is not afraid of boiling water.
She was working for her future, planning to become the commandery princess of Shaoyang one day. It was not worth putting her life on the line for that.
She could give effort, but not her life.
As for martial training, that was absolutely impossible.
That night, when the curtains were lowered, the two of them lay on the same bed again.
Luo Ning was not as tired as the night before, so she could not fall asleep. The man beside her did not move, but his presence was there. A man’s cool scent, carrying a heat like fire, could be felt even from a distance.
In the dark, Luo Ning spoke: “Prince, the secondary consorts will enter the manor in early Third Month.”
Xiao Huai Feng was not asleep either. He made a soft sound in reply.
“Do you usually live in the main courtyard, or do you have a separate courtyard?” Luo Ning asked him.
“I live in Linhua Courtyard. I usually stay there,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
“Where is that?”
“Between the outer courtyard and the training field,” he said. “From the main courtyard, go out, pass through the corridor, and head west.”
Luo Ning thought for a moment and said: “It’s a bit like the location of the west main courtyard at my home.”
“More or less,” he said.
“When the time comes, will the residences for the secondary consorts be arranged by Tao Bo and Nanny Shi together with me?” Luo Ning asked again.
“You will be in charge,” Xiao Huai Feng said. In the dark, he turned his face slightly. “You said you came to be my principal consort. If you cannot do it well, tell me in advance so I can make other arrangements.”
After a brief silence, he added: “As for those secondary consorts, beat them if you can, kill them if you must. Just do not leave any handle for others to grab.”
Luo Ning: “…”
“The inner residence rules must be strict,” he continued. “Just do things as you see fit; I will back you up. If anyone provokes you, first seize some fault of theirs. As long as you have reason and evidence, I can stand up for you.”
As he spoke, he took the cover off the horn lamp inside the curtains, and the light returned.
Lifting the curtain, he got out of bed.
He rummaged through a cabinet, then came back to bed, let down the curtain again, and handed her a black lacquered box: “For you.”
Luo Ning opened it.
Inside was a hand crossbow, similar to the one Lin Zhao had given her before, but lighter in her hand and able to load five small bolts.
Xiao Huai Feng said: “The one Lin Zhao gave you was not fine enough and was not meant for you to use. I specially had this one made.”
Holding the hand crossbow, Luo Ning felt amused for a moment and also nervous.
The Prince’s Manor was like a battlefield.
Since even the Prince treated it like facing a powerful enemy, how could she not take it seriously?
And so, on the second night of her marriage, Luo Ning received a killing tool.
Luo Ning said seriously: “Prince, please be at ease. As for the inner residence, you will not need to worry at all. If I cannot do it well, in three years you can just throw me out with nothing.”
Then she looked at him carefully and asked tentatively: “If I do it well, will you really request a commandery princess title for me?”
“Of course,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
She had a pair of clear black-and-white eyes and long black hair like a flowing waterfall, shining faintly under the lamp. Looking at her, Xiao Huai Feng felt she was pleasing to the eye and was in a good mood.
Luo Ning let out a breath of relief and said with a smile: “Prince, I will do my best.”
“If you also do some martial training…”
“No!”
Xiao Huai Feng: “…”
Not everyone was like Prince Yong, always chasing excellence in everything.
Luo Ning knew she had shortcomings, but so what?
She also had her strengths, and that was enough.
Xiao Huai Feng had been smart since childhood and gifted, and he was naturally full of energy. Because of that, he could do everything easily.
Luo Ning did not have that ability and would not go looking for hardship.
She put the box with the short crossbow on the inner side of the bed. Xiao Huai Feng covered the lamp again, and the two of them lay down to sleep.
Luo Ning turned over, lying on her side facing him.
It was already late, and she slowly drifted into sleep.
Luo Ning did not know when Xiao Huai Feng got up in the morning. When she woke up, he was already gone from the bed.