Chapter 78 (1/2)
Ruan Zhu had Dong Fang Hua stay for a meal and the two started to chat about daily life when Xing Yun came in to report that His Highness, the Prince of Yong, had come to pay a visit.
While Ruan Zhu was mulling over who His Highness, the Prince of Yong, was, the door was pushed open, and a tall, handsomely bright man swaggered inside the living room of Yi Xin Residence.
Seeing that His Highness, the Prince of Yong, had entered unsolicited, Xing Yun was worried the Princess would become angry and was so scared his face became white.
Ruan Zhu was just about to scold which family’s wild child had no manners when she looked and saw Xuanyuan Min Zhi. She knit her brows. It was time to celebrate a major holiday so what was this Prince doing, not going to the palace to attend the banquet and instead coming up with the idea of coming to the Ruan residence?
Dong Fang Hua saw that a guest had arrived for the Princess and stood up to take her leave.
Ruan Zhu sent Xing Yun out and also had servants prepare two bolts of Jiang Nan cloud brocade for the Nangong family as gifts.
Xuanyuan Min Zhi did not regard himself one bit as a stranger and took the Ruan residence as his personal courtyard in being all casual and doing whatever he pleased. Picking up the teapot, he poured himself a cup before crossing his legs in the taishi chair and slowly sipping his tea.
“Nuan Chun, don’t busy yourself. The Prince of Yong is not an outsider and it’s nothing for him to drink cold tea. Isn’t that correct, Your Highness, the Prince of Yong?” Ruan Zhu saw that Nuan Chun was about to boil more water to steep some tea and blocked him verbally: “In any case, when His Highness fled from Nan Ling, he had even eaten the weeds on Mount Lian. Drinking a few sips of cold tea is inconsequential.”
Xuanyuan Min Zhi gulped down a mouthful, the corner of his mouth hooking into a perfect curve: “The Princess of Qi is truly stingy to not even be willing to receive an old friend who has dropped by for a visit with a cup of hot tea.”
“The palace is currently hosting a feast with all kinds of delicacies that will certainly stir your appetite. Is there meaning in running over to my ordinary and humble home to drink tea?” Ruan Zhu slightly lifted her two graceful brows as she looked over at the tall and straight man opposite her, a trace of deliberation in her eyes.
Reportedly, the Prince of Yong was finally able to meet with the Emperor through Empress Dowager Zheng. However, the honorable Emperor, perhaps as a result of being consistently busy with government affairs, had long had absolutely no impression of this Prince of Yong that he had sent out as a child. He had to think for a very long time before he remembered that such a person existed. The Emperor was someone who did not like to offend anyone and on the spot, assigned him a princely residence, bestowed him land, servants, silver, silk, foodstuffs……In accordance with the standards of a prince, all that should be given was given, with the exception of an official position. After all, he had not grow up by his side and how one treated someone they were close with versus someone they were distant with was naturally different.//were not close at all.
Xuanyuan Min Zhi lazily reclined against the back of the chair. His eyes were dark and difficult to understand as he placed the empty cup back on the table: “Eating the things in the palace make my teeth hurt and is inferior to the comfort found here. I have yet to eat, hmm? Have the kitchen prepare some delicious food and send them over. It’s a major holiday and there should be a bit of a celebratory air.”
Just like a prince, this person has drifted along so pathetically! Ruan Zhu’s shapely eyebrows curved: “Nuan Chun, go call for someone to bring in the evening meal that the kitchen has already prepared, then go to the cellar and bring back a bottle of bamboo-leaf green liquor to entertain the Prince of Yong with.”
The Prince of Qi was not home and none of the servants of the princely residence dared to slight their Princess in the least. Delicious delicacies were packed on top of the table and the aromas swirled around the room. Ruan Zhu had a servant also invite her second sister to come join in the meal, but the reply she received said Ruan Yu had met Dong Fang Hua. As birds of a feather, they had became fast bosom friends and her sister had pulled the other out for a stroll.
They were the ones who were truly women of this era. No matter how close she was with them, in the end, they were still different! Ruan Zhu’s expression was complicated and there was a little hint of dejection in her eyes.
Xuanyuan Min Zhi drove away the palace eunuch that was pouring wine and personally filled the cup to the brim before downing it: “That hits the spot! It is still the wine in your residence that is the most satisfying. After staying so long in the princely Yong residence, it felt rather like squatting in prison. Fuck, it’s even more terrible than squatting in prison. It’s just a big tomb.”
Ruan Zhu’s pair of bright eyes were thoughtful as it seemed the respected Prince in front of her was filled with melancholy.
Xuanyuan Min Zhi had been kicked to a strange country when he was small and had to face an enormous amount of people who wanted his life. The way he lived must have been out of his expectations, right? Although there was the old Duke as his shield, a single person could not save the situation. Having narrowly escaped death, Xuanyuan Min Zhi finally returned to his motherland but was not accepted by either the Emperor or his Empress-Mother who had birthed him. Presumably, it must be incredibly upsetting and hard to take in.
Nuan Chun placed a little bit of every dish in front of his master into her bowl. His eyes wer gentle as he took pleasure in doing these things. “Eldest Miss, please eat a little. It will be good for the child.”
Ruan Zhu’s eyes were like a clear blue wave and she handed the bowl filled with food over to Nuan Chun: “Head over to the heated room and eat this. I am not particularly hungry.” They poured this and that soup down her throat every day, so how could she have the chance to be hungry? Besides, the fetuses also need to lose some weight. If they were too big, they would become hard to deliver.
One can eat, but it must be done nutritiously, and eating too much was not necessarily a good thing.
“Eldest Miss, I……I am not hungry……”
“Today is the Winter Solstice, a major festival. Do not go against my order; do as you are told and go eat.” Ruan Zhu handed over a pair of chopsticks.
“Thanking Eldest Miss.” Nuan Chun could only take the proffered items and silently walked into the heated room.
Xuanyuan Min Zhi was also not eating and continued to down cup after cup of wine. Resenting the wine cup for being too small, he exchanged it for a bowl and in a flash, an entire bottle of bamboo-leaf green liquor had been finished by him. After he had poured the very last drop of wine, he turned towards Ruan Zhu: “I’m not satisfied. Bring another bottle.”
Ruan Zhu did not like drunk men: “You have already said I am stingy so why on earth would I give you more liquor? If you want to drink, that’s fine–return to your princely Yong residence and satisfy your appetite there.”
Xuanyuan Min Zhi grabbed a tofu skin bun filled with lamb and threw it into his mouth: “Ten days ago, I came across your younger sister……”
豆腐皮包子 | Tofu skin bun
Was meeting Ruan Yu very strange? I run into her every day! But who would have thought that as Ruan Zhu continued listening, it wasn’t like that at all.
“She was fooling around with a male customer in front of a restaurant on An Hua Street and had been seen by the man’s wife, who rushed over, gave her several times and kicked her quite a few times. I was about to head over and give her a beating with my whip but at that moment, her several husbands ran over and stole the few silvers she had just received. Truly karma. Her husbands kicked and beat her while cursing her for being a chicken that is unable to lay eggs……”
So it was actually Ruan Ju. What ‘unable to lay eggs’? Don’t tell me after the miscarriage last time, she became sterile?
“The grand Third Miss of the Ruan clan had been reduced to being worse than a beggar. After her husbands left, her face bloomed under my whip and her nose was lost.”
Xuanyuan Min Zhi used an indifferent tone but his face was cold. At the time he had been bought by Ruan Ju from Aunt Sun, his poison injury had not yet healed and he had been tormented half to death by her. Now that he had a noble status, how could he not demand a return? He, Xuanyuan Min Zhi, was certainly not a good man. Who the hell cares if it was an elderly or a female that offended him–the result was that it was hard for them to even wish for death.
Ruan Ju had inherited the characteristics of her biological father, Wei Rong, and naturally had a fawning manner with a superb appearance. If there was the slightest blemish on the beauty, perhaps it was better to die than to live. Ruan Zhu felt a little disturbed: “You might as well kill her.”
“How much of a pity would that be? She will continue to live, live to the point where she is spurned by all those around her.” Disdain was on Xuanyuan Min Zhi’s face and the corner of his mouth hooked into a cold sneer: “That time, weren’t you also nearly killed by her? Isn’t this just false kindness?”
“That time I nearly died because of her was all thanks to you.”
Xuanyuan Min Zhi declined to comment and his face remained as frigid as before: “From today on, Ruan Ju has an appearance tantamount to a devil’s. I will see how she continues to live?”