Chapter 225

Chapter 223: The Prince Puts the Secondary Consort Under House Arrest

Luo Ning did not say anything more.

Prince Yong’s manor was very close to the Imperial City. They reached it after just a short conversation.

At the gate of the Prince’s manor, the bodyguard lifted the door bar, and the carriage drove straight into the Inner Courtyard.

“Prince, I will go back to rest first. If you need anything, send someone to call me,” Luo Ning said softly to Xiao Huai Feng at the doorway.

Xiao Huai Feng seemed stunned for a moment.

Then he nodded and turned to walk toward Linhua Courtyard.

Luo Ning went back to the main courtyard and at once told Qiu Lan: “Heat water. I want to bathe and wash my hair.”

Qiu Lan answered at once.

Nanny Kong came forward to help Luo Ning change clothes and gently asked: “Princess Consort, you must be very tired. What would you like to eat?”

“What fresh things do we have?” Luo Ning asked.

“The bamboo shoots sent over these past few days are very good,” Nanny Kong said.

“Make some fresh bamboo shoot soup,” Luo Ning said. “And one dish of braised pork.”

Nanny Kong agreed.

When the hot water was ready, Luo Ning took a long, satisfying bath and washed her thick black hair until it was soft and clean.

She sat on the heated brick bed by the window. Qiu Lan and Qiu Hua used towels to wring her hair dry. Suddenly a maid from the second gate came to report: “Master Sun is here.”

Luo Ning was a little surprised when she heard this: “Master Sun? The grand master who makes guqin?”

Outside the curtain, the maid from the second gate said: “He is an old man. He asks to see the Prince. The chief steward told me to ask the Princess Consort.”

They had thought the Prince was in the main courtyard.

Matters in the Inner Courtyard all had to be reported to the Princess Consort.

“Ask him to go to Linhua Courtyard,” Luo Ning said.

Qiu Lan took the chance to say to her: “Princess Consort, the wutong-wood guqin His Highness gave you before has a loose string. Didn’t you say you wanted to have it fixed?”

“You want Master Sun to fix it?” Luo Ning laughed. “You are making a grand master do a small job.”

“But it is a top-grade old guqin. If the music shop ruins it, we could not make them pay even if we killed them,” Qiu Lan said.

Luo Ning thought it over and felt that this made sense. It was an excellent guqin and could not be handled carelessly.

She ordered: “Do up my hair. I will personally take Master Sun to Linhua Courtyard.”

She then said to Qiu Lan: “Take out my guqin and bring it along.”

She spoke again to the young maid who had come from the second gate to report: “Invite Master Sun to the main courtyard.”

Everyone answered and went off to work.

As Luo Ning sat before the mirror, she could not help thinking of Master Sun making a guqin for the Empress Dowager. Xiao Huai Feng had personally worked on one and had named it the Spring Ripple Guqin.

She had always thought that name sounded very beautiful and charming.

Later, that guqin had ended up on the Empress’s guqin stand.

Now Master Sun had come again, and she did not know why.

[Could it be that the Prince wants to make another guqin?] Luo Ning thought.

When her hair was half dry, Nanny He came in to serve and neatly did it up in a married woman’s low bun.

After Luo Ning changed clothes, Master Sun came in.

The old man, with half his hair gray, held a piece of wood wrapped in red silk in his arms and bowed to Luo Ning.

He was a master who could even enter Shoucheng Palace. Luo Ning stepped forward to help him up and said: “Please, rise.”

She then asked: “Why did you come to see the Prince?”

“Last time the Prince was making a guqin, he was not very satisfied with the wood used for the soundboard,” Master Sun said with a smile. “By chance, my humble family had a catalpa-wood soundboard that was still a few months short of being aged for ten full years. Now the time is up, so I specially brought it for the Prince.”

Luo Ning was slightly stunned when she heard this.

She remembered that at the time, Xiao Huai Feng had chosen a wutong-wood soundboard and had wanted to make the guqin himself. The process was complex and long, and Luo Ning had no time to wait, so she left Shoucheng Palace first.

Later, she saw that soundboard in Empress Zheng’s Kunning Palace.

She had thought that Xiao Huai Feng had given it to the Empress. She had also thought that the Empress Dowager had hinted to her on purpose, so that Luo Ning would understand.

Was she actually wrong?

“Back then the Prince did not pick catalpa wood, so why is he waiting for catalpa wood now?” Luo Ning quickly gathered her feelings and asked with a light smile.

Master Sun said: “The Prince chose wutong wood, but later said catalpa wood was better. That wutong-wood soundboard had also been aged for years, so the Prince gave it to Her Majesty the Empress.”

Luo Ning: “…”

She said no more and led Master Sun to Linhua Courtyard, and she told Qiu Lan to bring her wutong-wood guqin along.

After Xiao Huai Feng came back, he went to the training ground first.

The maid serving in Linhua Courtyard asked Luo Ning to sit for a while and hurried off to report.

Soon, Xiao Huai Feng came back, soaked in sweat.

During the hour Luo Ning had spent bathing and resting, he had been on the training ground practicing with a spear.

He was truly diligent and very strict with himself.

He had been in the palace for a few days and had not trained his body much. As soon as he came back, he made up for it at once, without any rest.

“Prince, I have brought you the soundboard,” Master Sun said with a smile.

Xiao Huai Feng nodded and said: “Thank you for your trouble.”

He added: “Please sit for a while. I will change clothes and come back.”

He went into the washroom.

He quickly took a cold bath and came out again.

His hair had not been dried. It was simply tied back, and misty water clung to his temples.

“Not bad. As expected of catalpa wood aged for ten years,” Xiao Huai Feng said as he took the soundboard. His voice was cool, but there was approval in his eyes.

“Since the Prince is pleased, it is my greatest honor,” Master Sun said with a smile.

“Only great guqin houses can afford to age wood for ten years. By giving it to me, you have made the world lose one famous guqin. I am the one who should feel honored,” Xiao Huai Feng said.

Luo Ning laughed quietly at the side.

It was rare for Xiao Huai Feng to speak so gently. It seemed he really liked this soundboard.

“Someone, take Master Sun to have lunch first. In the afternoon he will help me make the guqin,” Xiao Huai Feng said.

The maid answered.

Master Sun took his leave first.

Luo Ning told Qiu Lan to bring her wutong-wood guqin over and said to him: “Prince, after you finish this afternoon, please ask Master Sun to fix this string for me. It is loose.”

“Leave it here,” he said.

“There is nothing else here, so I will go back first,” Luo Ning said.

“What will you have for lunch?” he asked.

“Fresh bamboo shoot soup and braised pork,” Luo Ning replied.

“Fresh bamboo shoots are good,” Xiao Huai Feng said.

“If you do not mind, Prince, you can go to the main courtyard and try Nanny Kong’s cooking,” Luo Ning said with a smile.

Xiao Huai Feng stood up and said: “Let’s go.”

The two of them walked back to the main courtyard. Luo Ning chatted with him about small daily things, mostly about guqin music scores.

She also said casually: “Another day, I will play the guqin for you.”

“If there is nothing in the evening, you can play,” Xiao Huai Feng said.

Luo Ning: “…”

When they turned a corner in the covered corridor, they saw Pei Yu.

Pei Yu wore a crimson over-jacket sprinkled with gold, a pomegranate-red blouse, and a white silk skirt. She was as pretty as a flower in full bloom in the third month of spring.

When she saw Xiao Huai Feng, she gave him a bright smile, also like a spring flower, lively and dazzling.

Only two maids followed behind her.

“Prince, Princess Consort,” she and the maids all greeted them.

Luo Ning nodded slightly and asked: “Sister, why are you here?”

“I bought some tasty snacks outside and wanted to bring them for the Princess Consort to try,” Pei Yu said.

She lifted her eyes, and her gaze fell straight on Xiao Huai Feng’s face, full of hope.

Xiao Huai Feng had already frowned: “You went out to stroll around?”

Pei Yu had not expected him to pick on this point and was startled. “No, it was my dowry maid’s old maid. She went out to buy some things…”

“You have no rules! If you want anything, ask the steward and they will buy it for you,” Xiao Huai Feng said coldly. “Who allowed you to bring food from outside into the manor and offer it to the Princess Consort? Do you think the Princess Consort is like you and likes these coarse snacks?”

Luo Ning: “…”

The Prince really had a poisonous tongue.

Luo Ning felt that ever since she had mentioned Empress Zheng in the carriage, his anger had not smoothed out.

Even practicing with the spear had not let him fully vent.

Pei Yu was unlucky enough to run right into the spearhead.

Her legs went weak with fear, and she knelt before Xiao Huai Feng: “Prince, I did not dare!”

Her maids also hurried to kneel.

“Go back and think it over carefully. For the next half month, do not come to the main courtyard to pay respects,” Xiao Huai Feng said coldly.

Pei Yu answered yes.

With just one sentence, Secondary Consort Pei was put under house arrest for half a month.