Chapter 6

In Prince Mu’s Mansion in Luan City, the capital of the Nan Kingdom, red silk flowers, colored ribbons and red lanterns decorated with golden traditional Chinese characters meaning “happiness” could be seen everywhere. The flowery courtyard was crowded with guests, who had come with tons of presents. Amid the deafening sounds of gongs and drums, Prince Mu’s wedding to Princess Liuxu was going on. After a heated debate, Prince Mu, recommended by the pro-peace group was finally chosen as the ideal husband for the princess of the Wen Kingdom. Why was the emperor’s third son, Nangong Wuchen, who was strongly recommended by General Xue, finally defeated? Because he was actually a moron whose IQ was even lower than that of a three-year-old! Though they could vent their anger against Yuwen Weixia by marrying his sister to a mentally retarded prince, such tricks would be considered improper. And it would also make people in other countries think that either the Nan people were too stringy, or there was no outstanding young man at all in this country! Above all, the Wen Kingdom of Wen wasn’t a country to be trifled with. Even marriages between ordinary people should be taken seriously, let alone the intermarriage between royalty members of two countries!

After going through the complicated wedding process, the bride, who almost fell down for a few times because of being too feeble or not acclimated, entered the bridal chamber with the help of several elder female servants, while Prince Mu, dressed in a scarlet wedding robe, was left there drinking with the guests.

Prince Mu, Nangong Du, was the youngest son of the previous emperor and he was about twenty years younger than Nangong Ao, his eldest brother. Therefore, Nangong Du was only in his early twenties at the moment. However, according to the local customs of the Nan Kingdom, a man could marry at the age of fifteen. That was why he had already had three female consorts and two male concubines before marrying Princess Liuxu. Needless to say, as the distinguished princess of the Wen Kingdom, Liuxu was married to Nangong Du as his legislate wife, which was kind of compensation for her.

Nangong Du had a low tolerance for liquor, so after drinking for a good while with so many people, he got so drunk that he could barely wobble back to the bedroom with the support of his servants. It might be because of Princess Liuxu’s special identity or Prince Mu’s fractiousness, nobody came to their chamber for a spree (According to the Chinese custom, the spree happens after the feast when the bride and groom go back to their bridal chamber. Relatives, friends and anyone who comes to the wedding can play all kinds of tricks on the new couple, especially the bride), so the bedroom was silent for the moment with only a few maidservants waiting upon outside. When they saw Prince Mu walking over, they immediately bowed to him and said nervously, “Your Highness, Princess Liuxu wasn’t feeling well, so she has gone to bed.” Actually, it was just the excuse they made up. They were more likely to believe that the new princess was putting on airs and showing her majesty, so before Prince Mu could come back and remove her veil, she claimed to have “gone to bed”. As all the maidservants knew Prince Mu was irritable, they deliberately explained to him in a tactful way, hoping he wouldn’t vent his anger on them because of the princess’s unruliness.

“Um…” Nangong Du muttered and waved, gesturing to the maidservants to leave before he staggered into the bedroom.

Princess Liuxu was indeed sound asleep. As soon as the wedding was over and she was taken to the bridal chamber, she threw herself on the bed even without removing the red veil and her heavy headwear. As per the customs of the Nan Kingdom, the bride was not allowed to unveil on her own, which would allegedly bring bad luck. The princess seemed to have consciously followed the rule.

Drunk as he was, Nangong Du didn’t forget to take the bride’s veil off. He staggered towards the table and managed to pick up the metal stick on it before moving to the bed slowly and sitting down. However, instead of lifting the bride’s veil, he stared at the red candle on the nightstand as if lost in thought. After quite a while, he suddenly threw the metal stick at the candle and hit the wick with perfect precision. As soon as the candle flickered out, he ripped off the bride’s soft red veil with his other hand, and without even taking a look at her face, he threw himself on her heavily.