Chapter 55
Chapter 55: Prince Yong Sends Charcoal in the Snow
Inside Shoucheng Palace, the Empress Dowager was assigning the teaching nursemaids when Grand Princess Jia Hong arrived.
“…Why are you so concerned about this matter?” the Empress Dowager asked.
The Princess felt bitter but could not say it: “Not a single bit of news was leaked. It was really unexpected.”
The Empress Dowager smiled: “The Emperor had the Ministry of Rites draft the edict. Even if he said it had to be kept secret for a while, it should not have been so tight that no hint leaked out.
Yet you knew nothing. That shows Madam Pei and you did not care much about Prince Yong’s marriage. So why are you asking now? Are you asking for Madam Pei, or for A Ning?”
The Princess started to speak but stopped.
She did not answer the Empress Dowager’s question. After a long silence, she still could not give up and asked: “Has this matter really been settled? Did Prince Yong agree?”
If Prince Yong did not want it, then even with an imperial edict granting the marriage, he would find a way to ruin it.
Luo Ning might even die.
Grand Princess Jia Hong had been willing to step in, take Luo Ning over, and let her enter the Pei family as a daughter-in-law under another identity.
“Of course he agreed. After Prince Chen’s consort passed away, we had planned to give Prince Yong an imperial marriage in the fourth month. But he could not wait. He pestered me and the Emperor twice and insisted the marriage be moved up to the first ten days of the third month,” the Empress Dowager said with a smile.
He had not really pestered them.
Prince Yong had only told the Emperor that he wanted his marriage decree in early third month.
He was marrying the daughter of the Marquis of Zhen Nan instead of forming a marriage tie with a great clan. The Emperor was delighted. The Emperor had always indulged Prince Yong’s arrogance, so he immediately discussed it with the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager knew very well what was in the Emperor’s mind. Besides, she liked Luo Ning very much and was happy to see it happen.
The imperial marriage decree pleased the Empress Dowager greatly.
Grand Princess Jia Hong, however, was stunned again and again. “This… why would Prince Yong be willing? Imperial sister-in-law, you are willing too?”
“I certainly am. A Ning took a blade for me. Even now I can hardly believe she was so brave,” the Empress Dowager said.
The Princess fell silent.
[You are all willing. What about my son?]
That little ancestor had been urging the Princess to enter the palace since before dawn. He had even personally sent her to the palace gate and asked her to find out clearly what was going on.
Even now that the matter was decided, Pei Ying still held on to a sliver of hope.
“You do not seem very happy,” the Empress Dowager observed. “Why? Must the young lady of the Pei family marry Prince Yong no matter what?”
The Princess said: “It is not exactly that…”
“According to the ancestral rules, a prince of the blood may have four secondary consorts. Yesterday the Emperor even said that since the principal consort has been chosen, the secondary consorts must also be arranged. We cannot treat Prince Yong poorly,” the Empress Dowager said.
Her meaning was clear. If the Pei family’s young lady truly wanted to marry Prince Yong, then she could only become a secondary consort.
Being the secondary consort of a prince, especially Prince Yong, was still a great honor.
Prince Yong held real troops in his hands. His seven years of hardship in the borderlands had not been in vain. He now truly had the power to balance the aristocratic families and even the imperial power itself.
Sometimes even the Emperor did not know whether his mother loved Prince Yong more or feared him more.
The Princess gave a bitter little smile: “Imperial sister-in-law, I was only asking.”
She then took her leave and went back.
The Empress Dowager was left thinking.
In the Wenqi Courtyard of the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s residence, Luo Ning got up very early and sneezed twice.
“Boil some ginger soup for me,” Luo Ning ordered Nanny Kong.
She hoped she had not caught a chill.
Yesterday she had been busy all day, receiving the imperial edict and taking care of Grandmother. Only when she returned to her courtyard did she realize that the hem of her skirt and her shoes and socks were soaked through.
The cold rain cut to the bone.
Nanny Kong answered at once.
After Luo Ning drank the ginger soup, her whole body felt warm. She began to go through the “betrothal gifts” Prince Yong had sent yesterday.
Strictly speaking, these were not real betrothal gifts, because in the current dynasty the most important part of the betrothal gifts was tea.
Prince Yong had sent three chests of fine silks and satins and one chest of all kinds of jewelry. There were ornaments wrapped in red silk, such as screens, blood coral ornaments, vases, and so on.
Clothes and jewelry for wearing and use filled the room, but there was no tea at all.
So at the gate he had told Luo Ning that these things did not need to be taken back as part of her dowry. He was only using the name of betrothal gifts to give her private money.
There was also a black lacquer box that felt very heavy.
When she opened it, on top were silver banknotes totaling thirty thousand taels. The stack was so thick that Luo Ning’s hands went soft and her heart trembled as she counted.
So much!
Under the silver banknotes, there were also gold leaf ingots. With one rough count, Luo Ning thought there must be about two hundred taels, half again as much as what the Empress Dowager had rewarded her last time.
A prince who was both rich and generous was truly a good master.
Luo Ning really needed money.
What Bai Ci Rong lacked was status, not silver. If Luo Ning wanted to deal with her, she could not be short of money.
That was what made Prince Yong’s gift truly “sending charcoal in the snow.”
Luo Ning put everything away.
She left the silks and satins with Qiu Lan to keep. Qiu Hua held the key to the money box. The remaining things she gave to Nanny Kong.
“Qiu Hua, go ask the Marchioness to arrange a carriage. I want to enter the palace and pay a visit to the Empress Dowager,” Luo Ning said.
Qiu Hua answered and turned to go.
But before she could leave, Eunuch Wei from the Empress Dowager’s Shoucheng Palace arrived.
Everyone in the Marquis Manor came out to receive him.
Eunuch Wei had brought two teaching nursemaids, one surnamed He and one surnamed Yin. Nanny He had a honest face and gentle eyebrows and eyes. Nanny Yin did not smile and looked very strict.
The Marchioness felt nervous.
“Before the princess consort leaves the court, these two nursemaids will instruct her in all matters of clothing, food, housing, and travel. The rules of the Marquis Manor cannot be used on the princess consort. I have come specially to inform the Lord Marquis and Madam,” Eunuch Wei said with a warm smile, though his words were not that polite.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan and the Marchioness agreed again and again.
The two nursemaids were then sent to the Wenqi Courtyard.
Luo Ning trusted the Empress Dowager very much, so she also felt at ease with the nursemaids the Empress Dowager had chosen.
“Nanny Kong, clear out the two side rooms off the main room and add furniture so the two nursemaids can live there,” Luo Ning ordered.
The Wenqi Courtyard had five main rooms, with two on each side of the central hall. Luo Ning lived in the west rooms, which had been opened up and joined into one. The east two had been left unused.
The two nursemaids thanked her and did not refuse.
They briefly explained the Empress Dowager’s instructions. Luo Ning also said that she would listen to them in all things and would never make things hard for them.
“These are just small tokens of the princess consort’s regard for you two,” Nanny Kong said, slipping an embroidered pouch into each of their hands.
The pouches were very light, so the two nursemaids did not think much of it and accepted them.
Luo Ning ordered new furniture and bedding to be added and four sets of new clothes to be made. She said: “You two come from the imperial palace, so all allowances will follow Nanny Kong’s standard. I hope you will not mind.
Even if this is only the small Wenqi Courtyard, we cannot break the rules. Nanny Kong is the steward nanny, and her allowances are the highest. I cannot let you two outrank her. That would put you in the wrong.”
The two nursemaids agreed.
Luo Ning still planned to enter the palace to greet the Empress Dowager, and she only took the maidservant Qiu Hua with her.
Nanny Kong settled the two nursemaids, asked them to rest first, and then went back to her own east wing room.
The other servants all went about their own work.
Nanny He and Nanny Yin sat down and chatted for a bit.
“She is still following the old rules of her own courtyard and did not make an exception just because we come from the Empress Dowager. She has her own ideas,” Nanny Yin said.
Nanny He smiled: “She does things neatly and gives clear orders. The people around her obey at once. She has a lot of presence. The Empress Dowager’s eye is not bad.”
Nanny Yin nodded.
It seemed that teaching this princess consort would not be too tiring.
Before they came, they had worried that the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s residence, which had only been raised from a third-rank military noble household, would be too shallow in its foundations, and that this young lady would be living in a complete mess.
If a person’s life was a mess, it was hard to teach her well without offending her badly.
If they did a poor job, the Empress Dowager would blame them for being useless. But if they offended Princess Consort Yong too much in order to teach her well, they feared she would look for a chance to get revenge in the future.
They had not expected that from this first meeting, both nursemaids would already have a good impression of Luo Ning.
“Let’s see what the princess consort rewarded us with,” Nanny He said with a grin.
Nanny Yin said: “It is an embroidered pouch. The work is good. The princess consort is thoughtful.”
She did not care too much.
She only thought Luo Ning was a young lady who used these little tokens of kindness to smooth things over with them.