Some nobles who came from Chang’an were recommending to Zhou Qinghe the delicacies of Myriad Taste.
Zhou Qinghe smiled and said, “I’ve tasted these dishes before. When I was in the South, I was the Crown Princess’ teacher, so I could often visit Myriad Taste.”
Zhou Qinghe walked up to Qiao Jinniang and said, “I didn’t remember you the last time, but now seeing Myriad Taste, I remembered you. Is this your maid? I’ve never seen her before. Who are her parents, and where is she from?”
Qiao Jinniang said, “Ms. Zhou, she is Nuomi who was with me back then. It was just that she had hurt her face and had scars on her face back then. Now the scars have been healed but there’s still a scar on her forehead.”
Zhou Qinghe stared straight at Nuomi, thinking that maybe she thought too much.
After all, Qian Yin had already recognized Xie Xiangxiang as his niece.
Nuomi timidly hid behind Qiao Jinniang. She always remembered Zhou Qinghe.
When she was nine years old, she met a woman on the street, who frantically took her hand and asked her where she came from.
Seeing the murderous intent in her eyes, Nuomi bit the woman’s hand and ran away only to run into a merchant’s carriage and hurt her own face.
Later she found that woman was Zhou Qinghe, so whenever she met Zhou Qinghe, she hid as far away as possible. Fortunately, Zhou Qinghe didn’t notice her.
The way Zhou Qinghe looked at her back then was exactly the same as how she looked at her today!
Zhou Qinghe withdrew her gaze, thinking to herself, ‘Even if that child survived and didn’t die in the latrine, as the daughter of the former Prince Wu, she shouldn’t have been a little maid in a restaurant.’
Myriad Taste was very busy, and all the tables were occupied.
Qiao Jinniang and Lu Xi went to the No.1 Private Room, where Fulu, Qiao Lu, Junior Duke Rong, Samo’er, and Qiao Ruoyun were already dining.
Seeing Qiao Ruoyun, Qiao Jinniang was a little surprised. “Oh, you finally came out of the house, Ruoyun.”
Qiao Ruoyun looked at Fulu helplessly.
Fulu smiled and said, “I brought her out to get some fresh air. It’s not good for her to stay in the Duke Anyuan Mansion all the time. Oh, why hasn’t Uncle Qian come yet? He knows how to get here, right?”
Qiao Ruoyun: “…”
Qiao Jinniang hoped that Qiao Ruoyun could find a good husband. She had some misunderstandings about Qian Yin before, but after knowing that he was really looking for his niece, Qiao Jinniang felt that Qian Yin was a reliable man.
However, if Qiao Ruoyun married Qian Yin, she would have to go back to Lin’an.
Lin’an was thousands of miles away, and Qiao Ruoyun was so weak. If she was abused in the Qian Mansion, it would be beyond Qiao Jinniang’s reach.
Qian Yin came late and cupped his hand, apologizing, “I’m sorry I’m late.”
Fulu stood up and said, “Uncle Qian, what were you doing? Sister Ruoyun has been waiting for you for a long time. You should finish three drinks as an apology. Nuomi, pour wine for Uncle Qian.”
When Nuomi was pouring wine for Qian Yin, Samo’er asked Junior Duke Rong, “Are the two of them brothers and sisters? They look really alike.”
Junior Duke Rong didn’t think so. “Alike? Nuomi’s fair-skinned and delicately-featured, while Qian Yin is dark and burly. They are not alike at all. .”
Qian Yin said, “Nuomi looks like my brother. The first time I saw Nuomi, I thought she was my niece, but unfortunately, in the end,I found out that she was not.”
After Nuomi had finished pouring the wine, she left to entertain other guests.
Qiao Jinniang was thinking about what Samo’er said. Indeed, the two of them looked alike, although most people didn’t notice it due to the great difference in their figures.
However, Nuomi’s biological parents had already been found, and they were coming to Luoyang soon. This similarity was probably just a coincidence.
After all, Mr. Xie said that Qian Yin’s niece had been killed by his brother’s enemy long ago.
There were cheers from outside, and Qiao Jinniang guessed Zhou Qinghe must be writing poems again.
Fulu snorted. “Why do I meet Zhou Qinghe and Zhou Shihui everywhere? Hmph, I wouldn’t have come if I knew they were coming.”
Xiao Lu Xi put a piece of duck meat on Fulu’s bowl and said, “Auntie, don’t be angry. Eat a piece of duck meat.”
Fulu glanced at Qiao Lu and said, “You are no match for your three-year-old nephew.”
“I’m four years old!” Little Lu Xi stretched out four little fingers.
“You are only three years old,” Fulu said. “You will be four in a month.”
Little Lu Xi drooped his head and aggrievedly put the duck meat back into his bowl.
Fulu: “…”
Qiao Lu laughed and said to Fulu, “Just ignore Zhou Shihui. There is something wrong with her mind. We’re going to be married soon, aren’t we?
“Is the wedding date set?” Qiao Jinniang asked curiously, “When is it?”
“In March next year. There are no good days this year,” Qiao Lu said, a little regretfully.
Qiao Ruoyun said to Qiao Jinniang, “Mom and Dad think it’s better to hold the wedding banquet in Chang’an, so the wedding date is set next year.”
Listening to the noises outside, Fulu drank a few more cups of wine and took her maid to the restroom.
When she came out of the restroom, she saw Zhou Shihui.
She had been hiding from Zhou Shihui for a few days, but today she was unlucky.
“Fulu!”
Fulu said to Zhou Shihui, “What do you want to do? My wedding date with Qiao Lu has been set, and it will be in March of next year. Qiao Lu and I are already a sure-fire couple!”
Zhou Shihui said, “Don’t you feel ashamed to force Senior Brother to marry you? You should have met Xie Xiangxiang at the Qixi Festival, right? She is the woman Senior Brother loves. Do you think Senior Brother is really referring you when he calls you ‘Xiangxiang’? No, he’s calling Xie Xiangxiang!”
“Xie Xiangxiang is her father’s only daughter, so she has to find a man to marry into her family. As the heir to Duke Anyuan, Senior Brother can’t marry into her family, so you are just a substitute for Xie Xiangxiang!”
Fulu sneered. “You finally admit that Qiao Lu doesn’t like you!”
Zhou Shihui was reluctant to admit it.
But she knew Fulu was a jealous woman. If Fulu messed with Xie Xiangxiang, Both Prince Wu and the entire Qingming Academy would be her enemy.
She just needed to instigate Fulu to provoke Xiangxiang and then she would be able to see how Fulu was taught a lesson by everyone after bullying Xie Xiangxiang.
Qiao Lu came over. When he saw Zhou Shihui standing in front of Fulu, he took Fulu into his arms and said, “County Mistress Yuquan, leave my wife alone, okay?”
Fulu looked up at Qiao Lu and said, “Just now she told me that you like Xie Xiangxiang and call me Xiangxiang because you can’t marry Xie Xiangxiang.”
Qiao Lu said anxiously, “The one I love is you, and I only love you. I don’t have any special feelings for Xie Xiangxiang. I only love you.”
It was the first time that Zhou Shihui heard Qiao Lu anxiously confess his love for Fulu, which made her unable to deceive herself anymore. She froze in place.
When Zhou Qinghe saw this scene in the corridor, she couldn’t help thinking of what happened eighteen years ago.
Since her childhood, there seemed to be another person’s memory in Zhou Qinghe’s mind. Her parents thought that she was possessed and asked Taoist monks and Buddhist monks to help exorcize the ghosts, but it was all useless.
When she grew up, Zhou Qinghe learned to coexist with the “ghost” in her mind, and she found out that it was actually the memory of her previous life.
In that memory, she was a student who died suddenly when she stayed up late writing a paper on the famous female poet, Li Qingzhao.
When she woke up, she found she was in an era similar to the Tang Dynasty whose history she had learned in her previous life, but there were some differences.
Since then, Zhou Qinghe felt that she was here to change this era.
Unfortunately, she was only a student of Chinese language and literature in her previous life.
The only thing she knew well was Li Qingzhao’s poems.
However, she met Emperor Huilin at her aunt’s funeral and proposed some modern governance methods to Emperor Huilin.
She greatly impressed Emperor Huilin, and Zhou Qinghe thought that just like all the heroines in the transmigration novels, she had gained the love of the Emperor.
Zhou Qinghe fell for Emperor Huilin. She had once asked Emperor Huilin tentatively whether he was willing to love only her in his life.
But Emperor Huilin didn’t promise to dismiss his harem for her.
At that time, Zhou Qinghe’s previous-life memory made her unable to accept sharing her husband with many other women, let alone her husband’s harem.
Besides, the Empress Dowager hated her aunt to her guts. Even if she married into the imperial palace, she couldn’t be the empress but only an imperial concubine.
That was not what Zhou Qinghe wanted. Fortunately, every time she went to see Emperor Huilin, she pretended to be her sister Zhou Qingxiu and even wore a veil.
Not long after, the Emperor suddenly announced that he was going to marry Zhou Qingxiu as his Empress, which shocked Zhou Qinghe.
She didn’t want to ruin her sister’s life. Besides, their aunt forbade the girls of the Zhou family to marry into the imperial palace in her last words.
Zhou Qingxiu wouldn’t end up well if she married into the imperial palace. After all, she had to face her husband’s countless concubines…
And the Empress Dowager hated the Zhou family…
Besides, the woman the Emperor loved was her, and Zhou Qingxiu was nothing but her substitute.
But she didn’t expect that Zhou Qingxiu would be willing to marry into the imperial palace as the Empress!
Their mother, who had always doted on Zhou Qingxiu, was even willing to hand over the military talisman to let Zhou Qingxiu be the Empress.
Zhou Qinghe regretted it so much that, for several times, she wanted to explain to Emperor Huilin that she was the one who was talking with him, not Zhou Qingxiu.
But if she told the truth, Zhou Qingxiu might be executed for deceiving the Emperor, and not long after, Zhou Qingxiu was pregnant.
Zhou Qinghe could only give up and leave Chang’an, hoping to make a career outside and regain the military power of the Duke Wu Mansion.
Zhou Qinghe toured the scenic spots and enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way.
Two years later, in Yinzhou, she met a very handsome man.
He was literally her dreamlover, and he was Qian Yi, Prince Wu at that time.
Learning that Qian Yi, who was the rich and powerful Prince Wu, had not married yet and had no concubines.
Zhou Qinghe had a big crush on him and even slept with him.
However, when she was three months pregnant, she wanted to give Qian Yi a pleasant surprise.
Only then did she know that although Qian Yi didn’t get married, he already had a fiance. That woman was a singsong girl at Huai River, so his mother refused to accept her as her daughter-in-law. Qian Yi only came to Yinzhou from Lin’an because he eloped to Yinzhou with that singsong girl!
And that singsong girl was also pregnant and was already about to give birth.
Qian Yi even told Zhou Qinghe that he wanted that singsong girl to give birth to a daughter for him and if she did, he would name that girl Xiangxiang…
After that, Zhou Qinghe got news from Chang’an that Emperor Huilin loved Empress Zhou so much that his harem existed in name only. Zhou Qingxiu’s son was designated as the Crown Prince as soon as he was born. In the following three years, the Emperor did not take any concubines or enter other concubines’ palaces at all.
Zhou Qinghe regretted it and hated Qian Yi, this scumbag, very much, so she forced Qian Yi to choose between her and the singsong girl.
But Qian Yi felt that the singsong girl was vulnerable and helpless, and moreover, she was about to give birth, so he chose that singsong girl over her.
She, the eldest daughter of Duke Wu, lost to a singsong girl!
In order to get revenge on Qian Yi, Zhou Qinghe bribed the midwife of the singsong girl, stole her newborn daughter Xiangxiang, and threw her into a latrine!
Qian Yi betrayed her first, so no one could blame her!
Later, to cover up the fact that Zhou Shihui was an illegitimate daughter, she found a literati to marry, gave birth to Zhou Shihui, and decided to forget about Qian Yi.
But then there was a flood in Yinzhou, which caused her to be separated from her daughter…
Now, eighteen years later, the scene of her daughter and Fulu competing for Qiao Lu was exactly the same as how she forced Qian Yi to choose between her and that singsong girl.
Back then, Qian Yi chose a singsong girl, and now Qiao Lu chose an illiterate…
