Chapter 211 - The Apricot List

It was at night that Jian Xubai returned to the backyard. After freshening up, he told his wife about the “truth” of what happened to Prince of Yi’s mansion, “The culprit who murdered Uncle is Cailuo. She and a guard of Uncle’s were sweethearts. After she became Uncle’s concubine, she still didn’t end the relationship with the guard. Unfortunately, her affair was found by Aunt. Out of fear for being punished, she took the initiative to murder Uncle first and then attempted to scapegoat Aunt!”

Song Yixiao was aware that the so-called truth was merely an outcome of a clash of wills, probably none of which was true. She thought for a while and said, “Is the Crown Prince also fine with that?”

Such an explanation did exonerate the Crown Prince but he had never engaged in the matter of Prince of Yi. Prince of Yi committed suicide first, and then Princess Consort of Liang made a fuss. Afterwards, the concubine disclosed that the mistress plotted against her husband. The series of tumults dragged the Eastern Palace into trouble from the very beginning!

How could the Crown Prince who suffered wrong for no reason leave the matter at that?

After all, Prince of Yi was a coward for more than 20 years, which showed that he would rather live than die. How could he commit suicide if not in a desperate situation? Wuss as he was, he was the only living younger brother of Emperor Xianjia. Not many people could drive him into a corner.

Since it was not done by the Crown Prince, the ringleader must be either Prince of Wei or Prince of Zhao. Probably, they even worked jointly on that!

After exonerating himself, the Crown Prince should call to account so as to make the two half-brothers give up fighting for the throne.

“Of course the Crown Prince feels resigned!” Jian Xubai took a sip of tea and said, “For one thing, there is no solid evidence; for another, despite your grandmother’s matter as a cover, for the sake of the imperial family’s reputation, it is better to put an end to this matter promptly! Therefore, as Cousin Xishi got married today, they took the opportunity to announce such a reluctant explanation!”

Speaking of that, he narrowed his eyes and said, “I told Grandmother that it was me who asked you to give the order to Madam Liao.”

Song Yixiao was stunned at first and then came to her sense. Jian Xubai described Song Yixiao’s act of revenge as a sacrifice of a senior of her maiden family for buying time for the Crown Prince. In this way, the Empress Dowager and the others wouldn’t feel that she didn’t respect Madam Pang and instead, they would feel that they owed one to her.

“You are too bad!” Song Yixiao was touched and had no idea whether to cry or to laugh. She pretended to be angry and hit her husband, saying with a smile, “How dare you lie to the Empress Dowager? If she finds it out, she will beat you for sure!”

“You are so heartless! Who did I do that for?” Jian Xubai couldn’t help laughing and said, “Besides, it is a great opportunity to take advantage. Why would I let the opportunity slip away?”

They spent a while together. Jian Xubai thought of something and said, “The metropolitan examination will be over tomorrow and the apricot list (a list of all candidates who pass the civil examination) will come out in a few days. As I remember, you mentioned that the scholar the Wei Family select for Wei Chan was called Cheng Chongjun. I wonder whether it is settled. If it is more or less finalized, although I cannot interfere in the metropolitan examination, as long as he can attend the palace examination, I can recommend him to Uncle!”

“Has His Majesty recovered?” Song Yixiao asked in surprise, “He can chair the palace examination now?”

“No,” Jian Xubai shook his head and said, “Uncle is not going to take over the official affairs for now. However, he still hasn’t intended to delegate the task to the others by far. I suppose he will do it by himself. After all, it will take him only one day.”

Emperor Xianjia was not seriously ill. He just had better not overwork himself temporarily.

The palace examination was mainly to examine the second-degree scholars, which didn’t involve any intelligence and courage battle or require mental efforts. By reason, it was acceptable for the emperor to hang in there for one day even if he was sick.

Song Yixiao thought it over and said, “I’ll send someone to the Wei Family to ask about it!”

The next day, Qiaoqin was ordered to go to the Wei Family. When she came back, she said, “The Wei Family have come to a verbal agreement with Cheng Chongjun. The engagement will be made after the list comes out!”

“Noted!” Song Yixiao nodded her head. She thought that since he was the fiancé-to-be of her cousin, she might as well do him a favor. When her husband came back this day, she told her idea to him.

Jian Xubai nodded his head and said, “I’ll ask Uncle to give him a good score and assign him a relatively favorable post.”

Yet, he still realized the worry shown on her wife’s eyebrows and couldn’t help wondering, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m glad that Wei Chan can be married to a good man, but I’m afraid that what happened to her before may not be forgiven by her future husband’s family.” Song Yixiao had been worried about it for a long time. Although Wei Chan told her that the Wei Family had found a way to cover up for her, as she said, a knock-off couldn’t be true. It would be fine if Cheng Chongjun didn’t find out the truth. Once he did, even if he didn’t kick up a row, he wouldn’t be pleased with Wei Chan.

However, Jian Xubai couldn’t do anything about it. After staying silent for a while, he could only say, “Wei Chan is still young. It will be fine if she has to marry again. Look at our mothers. Both of them live a good life now.”

Song Yixiao thought to herself that Jian Xubai’s mother was powerful and influential while her own birth mother was pretty and scheming. However, Wei Chan was nothing like them!

Yet, Jian Xubai’s suggestion sounded ominous but it was a good solution for Wei Chan if her secret was found out. Song Yixiao felt assured and didn’t feel worried anymore.

The apricot list was revealed after a few days. Song Yixiao got up early and ordered a servant to inquire about it. After a while, the servant came back and reported that Cheng Chongjun was on the apricot list, except that his ranking was at the bottom of the list.

“After all, he can make it to the palace examination.” Song Yixiao breathed a sigh of relief and then thought of Su Shaoge, asking, “Who got the first place? Is it Master Shaoge?”

The servant said respectfully, “Your Highness, it is Master Shaoge, the legitimate second eldest son of Duke of Ji!”

“Yinlian guessed it right. He is the laurel winner as expected!” Song Yixiao recalled that Wei Yinlian kept praising Su Shaoge when she met Su Shaoge for the first time last year and then giggled, “I’m wondering whether His Majesty will make him the champion or the runner-up by then.”

Actually, no matter what result Su Shaoge would get in the palace examination, now that he was the laurel winner of the metropolitan examination, given their relationship, Song Yixiao should send some gifts to him for congratulation. However, considering their political divisions, Song Yixiao could only dispel the thought after rumination.

Unexpectedly, this afternoon someone from the imperial palace arrived and told that the Empress Dowager wanted to meet her.

Song Yixiao hurriedly freshened up and got to Qingxi Hall with the servant. She had just gone inside when she saw that with a few servants, the Empress Dowager, the Empress and Virtuous Consort were sitting there, together with Commandery Princess Qingjiang. Apart from that, there was a person who was standing and another one who was kneeling in the hall. The one standing was Su Shaoge, wearing a dark blue round-collar shirt, who looked composed and yet a bit annoyed.

The one kneeling on the ground was Princess Yushan. Compared with Su Shaoge, she was much more emotional, whose face was covered with traces of tears. Her hands crossed in front of her belly were tightly clenched with her eyes full of resentment and grievance.

Seeing the situation, Song Yixiao realized that the fact that Princess Yushan had a crush on Su Shaoge was disclosed.

She thought of that when she was in Zhanchun Venue, Jiang Muting once said to her with a sigh, “Yushan has consulted me whether she should request the seniors to let her marry Su Shaoge as soon as she returns to the imperial palace or after Su Shaoge succeeds in the palace examination.” Song Yixiao couldn’t help feeling headache, “She must have made such a big fuss that the Virtuous Consort couldn’t have her under control and thus had to involve the Empress Dowager and the Empress. Worse still, even Su Shaoge and I are beckoned here.”

She held back her urge to laugh bitterly and paid respects.

“Please rise!” The Empress Dowager didn’t look happy. Her voice was not as amicable as before when she met her granddaughter-in-law. She only said casually, “Sit down first!”

Song Yixiao expressed her gratitude and sat on the right side of Commandery Princess Qingjiang. A palace maid in black served tea to her quietly.

The Empress Dowager said then, “Yushan claimed that she and Su Shaoge always hanged out when they were in Zhanchun Venue, which was seen by a lot of people… Yixiao, can you tell whether it is true or not?”

Song Yixiao was stunned. Then she subconsciously looked at Princess Yushan and Su Shaoge only to find that the former had a glint of shame on her face while the latter looked resigned. Instantly, she realized that Princess Yushan’s request of marrying Su Shaoge was not granted so she would rather slander him even if her reputation was ruined!

“How on earth is the princess taught?” Song Yixiao felt so resigned, “Putting aside my mother-in-law, there are only two princesses of the young generation. Changxing took away Pei Yourui’s husband on the ground that she spent a night with him alone. Now Yushan is playing the same trick. The first time I met these two princesses, I thought they should at least behave well despite their arrogance!”

No wonder that the Empress Dowager looked so disgruntled today!

If she were in the Empress Dowager’s shoes, she couldn’t stand it either!

“Your Majesty, I don’t know. When I went to Yaohua Venue, I did happen to see that Her Highness the Princess walked together with Master Shaoge, but it was in the daytime and they were accompanied by servants.” How could Song Yixiao point out under the current circumstance that the princess was lacking in virtue?

Of course neither could she accuse Su Shao of his misconduct, so she took a deep breath and said, “In order to take care of His Highness Prince of Zhao, Her Highness the Princess specially chose to live in Yaohua Venue, a place near Lunong Building. Hence, it was a coincidence that they ran into each other when they were out!”

While she said so, all the people present were relieved with a sigh, except that Princess Yushan didn’t look happy now.

When a princess got anxious, she didn’t care about shame at all. Yushan wiped her face with the sleeves and shouted snappishly, “Yixiao, stop mumbling in reply to Grandmother! Back then, you saw me stay with Shaoge and I winked at you to go away! Afterwards, you just went away as expected. It was not the first time that I hung out with Shaoge. Think about it. How many days did I stay in Zhanchun Venue?”

Speaking of that, she looked at Su Shaoge with grievance.

Su Shaoge just slightly lowered his eyes to stare at the red stairs, as if he didn’t notice her gaze.

Empress Su tried to smooth things over with a forced smile, “Yushan, you call me Mother, which makes Shaoge kind of your brother. It is reasonable that you two hang out occasionally. There’s nothing wrong about it. However, Shaoge declared at his early age that he would start his career before he got married. Now that he has just passed the metropolitan examination and hasn’t even attended the Qionglin feast for the top-three winners in the palace examination. It is too early to talk about marriage now!”

Then she added, “There are very few princesses in the imperial palace. After Changxing got married, Yushan is really lonely. It is fair enough that you want to get close to a cousin as if he were her brother! Yet, you are too young to distinguish blood relationships from true love. Moreover, I have only two kids, you and Prince of Shu who live in the imperial palace with me. Currently, I’m really loath to see you get married!”

Virtuous Consort Jiang glared at her daughter angrily. Obviously, she felt that Princess Yushan’s insistence on marrying Su Shaoge brought shame on her, but she had to help cope with the aftermath, saying, “Yushan, the only two kids I raise by myself are Prince of Wei and you. Prince of Wei has got married and left the imperial palace to live in his own residence. Now you are the only one to keep me company. You are not even at the age of marrying and you want to leave me alone?”

“This is unfair!” The kind persuasion of the legitimate mother and birth mother didn’t succeed in making Princess Yushan change her mind. After a moment of silence, she flared up instead and then shouted hysterically, “Cousin Yiyou was engaged to Pei Yourui, which was approved by Grandmother! On what ground did Pei Yourui have to become a foster daughter of Aunt Jinguo from her future daughter-in-law just because Changxing wanted to marry him?”

“Master Shaoge is not engaged yet!”

“Why do none of you agree on my request of marrying him? Why?”

Regardless of the depressed look of the people present in the hall, Princess Yushan yelled in tears, “Just because I’m not a legitimate princess? But I’m a birth daughter of Father too! I only want to marry someone I really love just like Aunt Daiguo! What wrong have I done?”

“It is not wrong for a young person to adore someone good-looking.” The princess’s sudden crying put the Qingxi Hall into dead silence. The whole hall resounded with her resigned whimper and complaint only. Eventually, the Empress Dowager couldn’t hold back her anger anymore, shouting through clenched teeth, “However, you made your father so angry that he passed out. This is why you are wrong!”

“His Majesty passed out again?” Song Yixiao’s hands that held the tea bowl suddenly trembled. In a hurry she looked down to cover her feelings and pondered, “I wonder how His Majesty is feeling now.”