No one cared who Zhou Sisi married, but a lot of people attended the Zhou family’s wedding banquet.
It should have been a great honor for the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess to come to watch the ceremony and attend the banquet, but Zhou Sisi was extremely indignant.
Zhou Sisi looked at herself in the mirror, gnashing her teeth. If Lu Chen had never been so kind to her before, she would not have such obsessions. Why did Lu Chen treat her like this after being so kind to her?
At this time, Zhou Sisi heard a strange sound outside. Hearing this, she made an excuse to go to the bathroom, and when she went to the window, she saw a note and a packet of medicine powder.
Seeing the words on the note, Zhou Sisi smiled, burned the note, and threw it into the copper basin!
…
In the Zhou family’s backyard, Lu Chen was talking with his brothers, while Qiao Jinniang took Lu Xi and chatted with her sisters-in-law about raising children.
Consort Chu smiled and said, “I’m really worried about my son, Yuner. He is already six years old but he doesn’t even memorize scriptures as fast as the imperial grandson. He has been learning to write since he was three years old, but his handwriting is still so poor.”
Consort Qi said, “Second Sister-in-law, don’t talk like that. Junior Duke Jun is talented and intelligent and has always been a model student in every teacher’s eyes. You don’t know how irritating my son Bao’er is! He can’t even memorize the Three Character Classic! Alas, I forced him to write characters, but he only wrote two and ran away.”
Prince Lu hadn’t had a consort yet, so today he brought his concubine and the son of the concubine with him. The concubine didn’t dare to cut in, so she just praised Lu Xi. “My husband said the imperial grandson is gifted with an extraordinary retentive memory and all the teachers like him very much. It’s presumably because the Crown Princess has educated him well.”
Consort Su hadn’t married Prince Su yet, so Prince Su also brought a concubine over. She was also praising Lu Xi.
Being fawned on by them, Qiao Jinniang was not modest at all but praised Lu Xi. “Yes, Xi’er is amazing indeed.”
Little Lu Xi held Qiao Jinniang’s hand and said, “Mommy, I want to play with my brothers.”
Qiao Jinniang said, “Okay, don’t get yourself hurt.”
The consorts and concubines continued to talk about how to discipline children and then turned to talk about the descendants of the princes.
The sixth prince, Prince Su, was five years older than Lu Chen, and the other princes were actually not young.
But when Lu Chen disappeared, the princes didn’t dare to have children so as not to make Emperor Huilin and the Queen unhappy, so none of them had many children.
Thus, the consorts were all thinking about having more children.
Consort Huai, Li Lingling, had no children and couldn’t cut in, so she said provocatively, “I heard that His Royal Highness slept with a woman in the Duke Rong Mansion the night before. For the sake of having descendants, Crown Princess, you should take that imperial maid into the East Palace as soon as possible!
“The Empress Dowager had been looking forward to the East Palace having more children!”
Consort Qi, Consort Chu and the others looked at each other silently. Only Consort Huai dared to say this.
Qiao Jinniang picked up a cup of tea and said, “That ‘imperial maid’ is me, and Mother and Father have already known about it. ”
Li Lingling frowned. “How is that possible? How could you leave the imperial palace at midnight?!”
Qiao Jinniang said, “His Royal Highness summoned me, and I had gained the consent of Father and Mother. Why couldn’t I leave the imperial palace?”
Li Lingling stared at Qiao Jinniang resentfully. No wonder Qiao Jinniang wasn’t angry at all!
Consort Chu looked at Qiao Jinniang enviously and said, “The Crown Prince is really fond of the Crown Princess. He only loves you. How enviable is that!”
“That’s right.” Consort Qi was also very envious. “But as the wives of princes, we and our husbands can be so affectionate only when we are newlyweds… They will have more and more woman besides us as time goes by.”
Consort Chu coughed. What she said was true, but she shouldn’t say it in front of Qiao Jinniang.
Consort Qi knew she had said something wrong, but she didn’t know how to make up for it.
Qiao Jinniang was not annoyed and said, “A man must have the consent of his wife to take a concubine, and we, as the wives of princes, deserve more dignity and respect. Sister-in-law, if you don’t like your husband taking too many concubines, you can just reject him.
“Father and Mother are both wise. If husbands don’t respect their wives and indulge in beautiful women, it means that they can’t even manage their families properly. Then how can they properly govern the country and bring peace to the world?”
“They are princes, but you are also consorts recognized by His Majesty. If the princes treat you unfairly and indulge their concubines to disrespect you, Father and Mothers will uphold justice for you!”
Consort Chu sighed. “But this will cause imperial censors to impeach us for not being a virtuous wife.”
Qiao Jinniang said, “Being a virtuous wife is just a false reputation. The princesses are impeached by imperial censors every day. Do they ever care? Although we are the wives of princes, we are still common women.”
The concubines of Prince Lu and Prince Su looked at each other and didn’t dare to say anything.
As for Consort Qi and Consort Chu, they were a little tempted by Qiao Jinniang’s words.
Li Lingling sneered. “A prince is a prince after all. They are high-ranking, so they will inevitably have many women. Do you want the princes all to fall out with their mothers’ natal families only for the sake of their wives?”
Others didn’t know, but Consort Qi and Consort Chu were both aware of what happened in the Wild Goose Pagoda yesterday, and they felt that what Li Lingling said made sense.
Although Prince Chu and Prince Qi have no intention of competing for the throne.
But as princes, they had their own power and needed to balance the relationship among their supporters. Sometimes they needed to marry some concubines as a tool to balance relationships.
Qiao Jinniang smiled and said, “Only useless men need to rely on the power brought by women. Isn’t it better to put their minds on state affairs than on women? Marrying concubines to balance relationships is nothing but an excuse.”
“Besides, Sisters-in-law, you’re all from powerful families. Why do you have to be so forbearing?”
Consort Chu was a little persuaded. What the Crown Princess said made sense. Even the Crown Prince could break with the Zhou family for the sake of the Crown Princess, so why couldn’t his husband refuse taking concubines?
Consort Qi was also thinking about Qiao Jinniang’s words. Prince Qi simply had no hope of getting the throne, so marrying concubines to win over power was just his excuse.
If Prince Qi wanted to take a concubine again, she would just refuse him. Nothing was more important than having an easier life for herself.
She didn’t care if she was regarded as a virtuous wife or not. If Prince Qi wanted to divorce her, she could turn to the Queen for help!
She was in charge of the Prince Qi Mansion and had already had a son. She was not afraid of Prince Qi!
“Your Highness, Madam asks you to quickly go to Tianzhen Building. His Royal Highness, His Royal Highness has slept with Miss Sisi in the Zhou Mansion.” a maid of the Zhou Mansion hurried over to report.
For a while, Consort Qi and Consort Chu both stared at Qiao Jinniang.
Li Lingling gloated. “Congratulations, Crown Princess. You have a good sister now!”
Qiao Jinniang pointed to the princes on the other side of the lake and said, “Are you a maid of the Zhou family? What are you talking about? Open your eyes and see, who is on the other side of the lake?”
…
Lu Chen and his brothers were “talking and laughing” on the other side of the lake.
Suddenly, Prince Chu and Prince Qi both sneezed.
Lu Chen said, “Do you have a cold?”
Prince Qi shook his head. “No, there must be someone talking bad about me behind my back.”
Prince Chu somehow felt a little uneasy. “Why did it take the eldest brother so long to change clothes?”
Just now, a maid accidentally poured tea on Prince Huai’s clothes, so he went to change, but it had almost been half an hour but he hadn’t gone back.
