Chapter 45
Chapter 45: Luo Ning – Four Ounces Move a Thousand Jin
The spring light was beautiful. Incense burned inside the pavilion, its smoke curling up and blending with the faint mist rising off the river outside the city.
Luo Ning had drunk two cups of sweet wine.
Prince Yong sat beside the Princess. After one brief glance at Luo Ning, he did not look her way again.
Instead, quite a few young ladies from good families secretly looked at him.
Directly across from Luo Ning sat the Grand Princess Jia Hong’s husband’s niece, Miss Pei. She almost could not control where her eyes went.
She was the most obvious of them all.
Grand Princess Jia Hong did not stop her. Instead, she called her forward and said: “A’yu, did you prepare a piece today?”
Miss Pei’s name was Pei Yu. Among the Pei family’s young ladies who were of marriageable age, she was the most outstanding. She was pretty, and she was skilled in qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting.
She also wrote very well.
Her calligraphy was hung in the classrooms of Lushan Academy for scholarly youths to admire.
It could be seen from this that she was very favored in her family, and her grandfather doted on her.
At the spring viewing banquet of the Third Day of the Third Month Festival, one part of the event was for unmarried men and women of the right age to look at one another. Pei Yu had boldly been staring at Prince Yong, so the Princess naturally wanted to give her own niece a chance.
“There is a piece I have been practicing often lately. I would like to ask the Princess to judge it,” Pei Yu said as she stepped forward and bowed with calm grace.
The Princess looked at Prince Yong.
Prince Yong had handsome features and a face as hard as iron. He sat even straighter than others, so his dark eyes were full of pressure.
Standing this close to him, Pei Yu was very nervous. It was not shyness, but fear.
He was a Grand General and Prince who decided life and death. Even without armor and weapons, he carried a killing aura that made people instinctively afraid.
Prince Yong’s bearing never changed with his clothes. It seemed to be fused into his bones and blood.
“Then play a song,” the Princess said.
A spring viewing banquet was meant to include small displays of talent, such as playing the qin or painting.
Miss Pei should, of course, perform.
A maid brought in a qin table. Pei Yu sat down and began to play.
Luo Ning practiced the qin herself and could tell at once that Miss Pei’s skill was very good.
The song she played was called “Looking at the Mountain Moon.” It was a piece written about a girl in her boudoir feeling sorrow, gazing at the distant mountains and moon, not knowing what her future would be.
The melody was moving, and Miss Pei played it very well. But she had rarely felt such confusion in her own life, so although her technique was excellent, her emotion was lacking.
To move people, one had to put real feeling into playing or singing.
When the song ended, everyone praised her.
Pei Ying, who sat a bit lower down, took this moment to glance at Luo Ning from the corner of his eye.
The Princess also praised Pei Yu and said: “It is indeed very good. Your skills have improved.”
She then asked Prince Yong: “What do you think?”
Prince Yong’s expression was flat as he said: “The music sounds half dead, yet she is not really trying to die. To pretend at sorrow like this just makes it seem affected and fake.”
Everyone: “…”
Luo Ning: “…”
The Princess had just praised Pei Yu, yet Prince Yong had gone on to criticize her. This was not giving the Princess any face.
From the looks of it, Miss Pei’s constant glances at him earlier had already annoyed him.
Luo Ning thought about how he had agreed to marry her, yet did not trust her promise and forced her to sign a deed of sale. Clearly, he disliked women throwing themselves at him.
[Prince Yong’s feelings for Empress Zheng are not ordinary. Even though she has married someone else, he is still loyal.] Luo Ning thought.
“The piece is too elegant. The Prince does not like it,” Pei Ying suddenly said from the side.
The Princess gave him a quick look.
Her eyes warned him to stop talking.
Prince Yong turned his gaze on Pei Ying and said: “A song is just a song. There is no such thing as high and low, elegant or vulgar. This is not the first time Cousin has said something like that. Do you really think you are above everyone?”
Pei Ying: “…”
Before he could speak, Prince Yong had already turned to the Grand Princess and said: “Aunt, having a high and proud heart is not a bad thing, but it must have limits. At Cousin’s age, his eyes are still above his head. He fits neither above nor below, and a good child is being wasted.”
His tone was very heavy.
The Princess was a little angry, but he was her nephew and also a Prince of the Blood. She could only force a smile and say: “A’ying is not that bad.”
“It is only because he knows how to hide it,” Prince Yong said.
The Princess: “…”
If they kept talking, they would start arguing.
The Princess’s original intent had been to match Prince Yong and Pei Yu. She had only hinted a little at this idea, and Prince Yong did not even spare her.
Everyone in the pavilion held their breath and fell silent.
No one dared stand up at this time and risk stepping on Prince Yong’s bad mood.
Miss Pei Yu, who had been criticized for nothing, would probably see her reputation suffer. She stood there with pale cheeks and a flash of anger in her eyes.
“Prince, you understand music. Could you teach me?” Pei Yu could not hold back and asked.
She was trying to defend herself and also strike back in a gentle way. Her tone held a bit of girlish charm, and she tried not to anger Prince Yong any further.
Prince Yong only said: “Am I someone who teaches people to play the qin?”
The Princess calmed herself and smiled: “A’yu, step back. It seems your playing does not please the Prince. Is anyone else skilled at the qin?”
Everyone lowered their heads.
Luo Ning lowered hers even more.
Someone suddenly said: “I just saw Miss Luo carry a qin in when she came.”
Luo Ning raised her eyes and glanced at the main seat.
The Princess and Prince Yong were both looking at her. Pei Ying’s gaze also turned her way.
She had no choice but to stand, bow, and say with a smile: “That is not a qin.”
“Not a qin?”
“It is a qin case, and inside is my riding whip,” Luo Ning said. “It is not proper to bring weapons to a banquet, but I was afraid something might happen, so I used this trick.
“I thought that with so many high-seated guests today, the talents of the other young ladies would be more than enough to make the Princess happy. There was no need for me to make any extra fuss.”
She especially stressed the four characters for “extra fuss.”
There was hidden mockery in her words.
She meant that the Madam who had named her just now had pushed her out on purpose to help Miss Pei escape embarrassment and to make Luo Ning look bad. Such petty tricks were not beyond the Princess’s hearing. Why bother making this “extra fuss”?
Everyone understood and looked toward that Madam.
The Madam’s face flushed red with shame, and she could not say a word.
Prince Yong’s expression eased a little.
He was probably thinking that Luo Ning had not made him lose face. Being forced to come out and play the qin at this moment would not have been wise.
Not only would she have to take a blow for Miss Pei, it would also put Prince Yong in a hard spot. Should he praise her, or criticize her?
If he praised Luo Ning, he would offend the Pei family and those close to them on her behalf. If he criticized Luo Ning, she would be just as embarrassed. Was her face not important?
It was a tiger one could not easily climb down from. Luo Ning had used four ounces to move a thousand jin and solved it.
Luo Ning’s cousin, Aunt, and sister-in-law all secretly admired her quick wits. The Princess and Pei Ying were also looking at her with appreciation in their eyes.
“All right, it is getting late. Bring in the flower baskets and flowers,” the Princess said loudly.
The palace lady answered, and soon maids came in carrying things and handed them out one by one to the unmarried Misses at the banquet.
For the young ladies, there were flower baskets woven of willow twigs, not too big or small, very light and easy to carry. For the young masters, there were flowers.
This was another part of the Third Day of the Third Month Festival: competing with flowers and grasses.
In the last few years, a new game had become popular. While walking by the river, unmarried young ladies would carry flower baskets. If a young master took a liking to one of them, he would gently place the flower in his hand into her basket.
The more flowers a girl received, the more glorious she appeared.
This was not teasing but courtship, so the young masters had to be very careful about where they put their flowers.
When Luo Ning was alive in her previous life, she had never joined such an activity. Now she held her basket and looked it over again and again.
“A’ying, lead them out to walk by the river,” the Princess said.
After the young people left, the Princess and the other noble ladies would also go down to the river to wash and enjoy the spring.
Luo Ning and her cousin each took a flower basket. They first bowed to the Princess, then followed the crowd out of the pavilion.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Prince Yong holding a single peony in his hand.