Qin Miaomiao said, “I heard from Tong Yingying that Young Master Zhou has a huge crush on her, but she looks down on him. Young Master Zhou is really infatuated with her.”
Tong Xuan said, “Yes, but I think he is probably blind.”
After Qiao Jinniang got the money, she didn’t care about the real relationship between Zhou Siming and Tong Yingying. She just needed Tong Yingying to pay the money.
After everyone left, Qiao Jinniang looked at the silver notes. The more she looked, the more familiar they were to her. Weren’t these silver notes from Huiyuan Bank? And the boss of Huiyuan Bank was Xie Yun.
These silver notes were not from Chang’an, but from Lin’an.
Although Huiyuan had a branch in Chang’an, the branch in Chang’an was only for withdrawing silver and couldn’t provide silver notes. There were very few people who had so many silver notes of Huiyuan in Chang’an.
Lu Chen came in from outside the door. When he saw Qiao Jinniang counting the silver notes, he said, “Last night, Zhou Siming came to borrow 10,000 taels of money from me. He didn’t want the Duke Wu Mansion to know about it, so I gave him the silver notes you gave me in Lin’an.”
During the Lantern Festival last year, Lu Chen regained his memory and wanted to go back to Chang’an. Qiao Jinniang was worried he might encounter danger on the way, so she gave him over 10,000 taels of silver as traveling expenses.
She had already forgotten about it. If she had remembered, she would have taken back the money at this time last year.
Qiao Jinniang counted the banknotes in her hands and said, “No wonder, the more I look at the banknotes, the more familiar they are. So Tong Yingying compensated me with my own money? I must have Zhou Siming repay the money.”
“What does this have to do with Tong Yingying?” Lu Chen asked curiously.
Qiao Jinniang said, “Zhou Siming borrowed such a large sum of money from you, and you didn’t even ask him what it is for?”
Lu Chen said, “Why bother? I believe him. Maybe he has some difficulties that he can’t tell Uncle.”
Qiao Jinniang told Lu Chen about Tong Yingying’s matter. “Zhou Siming loves Tong Yingying, and he compensated me on behalf of Tong Yingying with these banknotes.”
Lu Chen frowned and said, “It’s impossible. Zhou Siming’s taste can’t be this bad.”
Qiao Jinniang put away the silver notes and said, “Both Tong Xuan and Qin Miaomiao have confirmed it. How can it be false? If Zhou Siming doesn’t like Tong Yingying, why would he be willing to pay 30,000 taels for her?”
Thirty thousand taels of silver was a lot of money for anyone.
Even for the heir to Duke Wu, this was a huge amount of money.
Lu Chen couldn’t refute it, but he always felt that something was wrong.
…
In the Duke Wu Mansion.
Zhou Shihui had been making trouble for three whole days, still unwilling to learn etiquette and clamoring to go out to see her senior brother.
Old Madam Zhou had a headache because of this.
Hearing the report of her mammy in her courtyard, Mrs. Zhou frowned and said, “Is it really Tong Yingying?”
“Yes! Young Master even gave Miss Tong his personal jade pendant!”
Although Mrs. Zhou was from the Tong family, she certainly cared for her own son more. Tong Yingying’s reputation had been ruined now, and she definitely couldn’t be her daughter-in-law.
There were so many girls in Chang’an who were willing to marry her son. Why did he choose Tong Yingying?
After all, Tong Yingying was her own niece. It would be inappropriate for her to force them to break up.
“Madam, it’s not good. Miss Zhou wants to hang herself!”
Zhou Shihui was locked in her room, but her whole mind was on Qiao Lu outside. She would never sit by and watch her senior brother marry another girl!
Mrs. Zhou’s head was aching. “This girl is just like her mother. They are really…”
But after all, her mother was Old Madam Zhou’s daughter who Old Madam Zhou missed the most, so Mrs. Zhou didn’t say much but just ordered the servants and maids to hide anything that Zhou Sihui could use to hang herself.
…
In the East Palace, various flowers were in full bloom. Qiao Jinniang had been in the East Palace for ten days, but she still hadn’t been able to visit the entire East Palace.
The East Palace occupied an area of about a thousand acres. It would take several days to walk around it.
The backyard of the East Palace was empty, and weeds were invading the many courtyards that weren’t occupied.
So many empty courtyards were wasted.
Qiao Jinniang felt it a little pity, but she couldn’t think of what to use them for, and she couldn’t help but sigh that it was no wonder that a crown prince could have hundreds of concubines.
Even if there were more than a hundred people more, the East Palace could completely accommodate them.
“The Crown Princess has been in the East Palace for ten days. How come she hasn’t started to select concubines for His Royal Highness? After all, His Royal Highness doesn’t like the Crown Princess. If we can follow a concubine favored by His Royal Highness, we don’t need to pull the weeds here.”
“Shh, be careful of being heard.”
“Who can hear us in such a remote corner? It’s impossible for the Crown Prince to only have the Crown Princess. He has only had one child until now, and he has to perform his obligation to give birth to as many children as possible for the royal family!”
When Qiao Jinniang heard the imperial maids’ words, she sighed. Even the imperial maids in the East Palace thought so.
She cut a few beautiful flowers from the garden and went to Xiande Hall, where Lu Chen and the officials of the East Palace handled official affairs.
When Qiao Jinniang arrived with the flowers, Gu Ming saw her from afar outside the hall and came up to greet her. “Your Highness, are you here to look for His Royal Highness?”
Qiao Jinniang nodded and said, “Yes, I picked a lot of flowers in the garden, and I want to put them in Lu Chen… His Royal Highness’s study.”
Gu Ming said, “Your Highness, please wait a moment. Allow me to report.”
Qiao Jinniang frowned slightly, but she didn’t want to make things difficult for Gu Ming, so she waited outside the hall holding the flowers.
After a while, a white-haired old man came over and saluted Qiao Jinniang. “Greetings, Your Highness.” He was Lu Chen’s teacher.
Qiao Jinniang smiled at him and said, “Greetings, Your Excellency. Please get up.”
The old man was still on his knees and said to Qiao Jinniang, “Your Highness, you and His Royal Highness have already been married for ten days. Now His Royal Highness’ harem is still empty, and he only has one child. I hope that you can consider for him and arrange to choose concubines for him as soon as possible so that the royal family could have more offspring, which will be a meritorious deed.”
Qiao Jinniang broke the flower branch in her hand and asked with a smile, “Do you have a daughter, Your Excellency?”
“Your Highness, my daughter is already over forty years old, so she can’t marry into the East Palace…”
Qiao Jinniang said, “I don’t mean that. I just want to ask you, will you ask her to choose concubines for her husband only ten days after her wedding?”
“That’s not the same thing. The Crown Prince is not an ordinary man, and giving birth to as many offspring as possible for the royal family is the most important state affair!”
The Crown Prince’s teacher bowed to Qiao Jinniang again and tried to persuade her.
Qiao Jinniang said, “Oh, since it’s so important, why does the East Palace have to keep you and all the other ministers? It would be enough to just have women keep giving birth to children for the Crown Prince, wouldn’t it?”
The Crown Prince’s teacher frowned and looked at Qiao Jinniang. “Your Highness, please respect your identity.”
Qiao Jinniang sneered. “If I try to persuade your wife to keep gigolos, I’m afraid you’ll be even more annoyed than me!”
The Crown Prince’s teacher frowned, secretly despising Qiao Jinninag in his heart. Although she was the daughter of Duke Anyuan, she still grew up in the countryside. She was so petty, jealous and not generous and virtuous at all.
