Chapter 15: Atonement
Princess Consort Ying has returned.
These words, like a bolt from the blue, struck Tang Wu’s mind, which had been idly wondering about her plans for the next day.
The return of the head mistress meant that her carefree and leisurely days were coming to an end.
Whether Princess Consort Ying would tolerate her or not was something she couldn’t guess.
She didn’t know if she would be able to continue living this way in the days to come.
After a moment, she turned to Luoying and said, “Go get my cloak. We will go and offer the Princess Consort tea now.”
“Madam, you mustn’t go,” Luoying interrupted.
“Why not?” Offering tea to the head mistress was a gesture of sincerity for a concubine. The mistress could refuse to drink it, but she couldn’t refuse to go.
Luoying cautiously walked to Tang Wu’s side and whispered, “As soon as the Princess Consort entered the gate, she knelt in front of the Sui’an Hall. It has been two hours now.”
“What did you say?” Hearing this, Tang Wu’s eyes widened.
“It’s absolutely true. I specifically went to check just now and indeed saw the Princess Consort kneeling in front of the Sui’an Hall. Steward Cao tried to persuade her for a long time, but it was useless. He has gone to find His Highness now.”
“Do you know why?” The head mistress was always the face of a residence. Even if she made a mistake, she would be punished leniently. Tang Wu couldn’t understand what could make the dignified Princess Consort Ying act this way as soon as she returned.
“The servants in the residence have always been well-behaved. I tried to ask a few people. They either truly didn’t know or were evasive and wouldn’t mention it. In the end, it was Nanny Wang who told me.”
Tang Wu frowned, sensing something was wrong.
Nanny Wang? Isn’t she Side Consort Chu’s person?
“Nanny Wang said that His Highness never intended to marry the Princess Consort. It was the Princess Consort herself who used an imperial decree from the late emperor to force His Highness to marry her. That’s all she said. I don’t know anything else.”
After hearing this, Tang Wu was deep in thought. Nanny Wang was a very shrewd person. If she said something, there were likely several layers of meaning hidden within her words.
“Luoying, have you told anyone else about this?” Tang Wu asked urgently.
Luoying quickly shook her head. “No one else.”
“That’s good. This matter… pretend you never heard it and never mention it again. No matter how the Princess Consort entered the Prince of Ying’s residence back then, she is still the Princess Consort in the end.” Tang Wu had gradually come to understand Prince Ying’s status.
To be able to force such a person into marriage was no small feat.
As autumn arrived, the wind and rain seemed to conspire, starting to fall at unexpected moments. The wind chimes hanging at the entrance of the Sui’an Hall rang ceaselessly.
An Ru’er wore a dark, intricately patterned cloak. She had no flashy accessories, only a straight back, and knelt respectfully on the ground. The raindrops fell on her, and her hair, which had been tied up, was already slightly damp.
“What are you doing? This is improper!” Prince Ying’s deep, low voice came from behind An Ru’er.
This was the voice she had yearned for with all her heart, every day, for the past three years.
He was right next to her now, but her heart was so pained that she didn’t dare to look at him. She had called him “Brother Yanzhi” for many years, and she wondered if he had forgotten or not.
An Ru’er slowly raised her head and saw the handsome and dashing face that was just as she remembered it three years ago. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of pain.
On her way back, she had heard that the Prince of Ying’s residence had already established three more courtyards.
Could it be that every one of them had received his favor?
She took a deep breath and slowly began to speak, “In all these years at Jingyin Temple, I have always gone back and forth, thinking about the past. The more time passed, the more I understood how unforgivable the mistake I made back then was. I am not a daughter of the Cheng family, but I was fortunate enough to grow up there. I was blessed by the Cheng family from a young age and received favor from His Highness, but I was greedy and ungrateful, causing both His Highness and the Cheng family to become a laughingstock in the eyes of others.”
Prince Ying’s thin lips were pressed together, and he didn’t say a word.
An Ru’er knew that nothing she said now would be of any use. If it were, her “Brother Yanzhi” would not have been so cruel as to leave her in that remote place for three years.
“Your Highness, back then, I was young and ignorant. I always thought that if I admitted my mistake, I could be forgiven. But now I see how absurd I was. This was not just a mistake; it was something that broke everyone’s heart.”
Back then, with that jade pendant, she thought she could get away with it by insisting that Old Duke Cheng had personally given it to her. She never thought that the entire Cheng family saw through her little schemes so clearly.
How much more so for His Highness.
In her youthful arrogance, a single blunder ruined the future her mother had so painstakingly planned for her.
Prince Ying glanced at An Ru’er and said coldly, “If you want to repent, you don’t need to kneel here. By doing this in front of the servants, are you threatening me?”
“Please don’t misunderstand, Your Highness. I am truly remorseful and don’t know how to make amends, which is why I’ve behaved so improperly…” An Ru’er’s tears came like a flood. She sobbed softly, her shoulders trembling.
After another long pause, she slowly continued, “For these three years… every morning when I woke up, I wanted to beg for Your Highness’s forgiveness and to atone to my aunt and the old madam! But I couldn’t, so I had to spend my days at Jingyin Temple, reciting scriptures and praying for the heavens to give me another chance.”
An Ru’er’s favor in the Cheng family was also due to her resemblance to the Old Duke Cheng’s wife; she was a beauty. Especially when she cried, it was a pitiful sight.
Seeing that Prince Ying showed no signs of softening, Steward Cao couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious.
She was, after all, the noble Princess Consort Ying. If she continued to kneel, and the other people in the small courtyards found out, it would be difficult to manage them later.
Steward Cao whispered to Prince Ying for a while. Seeing the Prince nod, he quickly turned to Peier, An Ru’er’s maid, and said, “What are you looking at? Hurry up and help the Princess Consort up! It’s already autumn, and the ground is especially cold. What if she catches a cold?”
Pei’er, upon hearing this, also knelt on the ground and cried, “Your Highness, for these three years, the Princess Consort has always been kneeling to pray for blessings for you. Not to mention autumn, even in the snow of winter, she did the same. After three years, the Princess’s knees have suffered many injuries. Especially when it rains, she can’t even get up from the ground…”
Pei’er was interrupted by a loud command from An Ru’er.
Prince Ying sneered, turned, and said to Steward Cao, “Go and invite a physician back.” She had gotten a bit better at this “self-harm” act.
To check the external injuries, one naturally had to lift the clothes to look at the wounds. So, Pei’er helped An Ru’er into the Sui’an Hall.
Although the saying goes that the ill shouldn’t hide from the physician, it was still improper for the Princess Consort to expose both of her legs.
Therefore, before the physician arrived, she covered the rest of her body with a quilt, only revealing a pair of purple and bruised knees.
It was a gruesome sight.
Soon after, the physician arrived.
The physician examined her for a while, sighing and shaking his head. “The Princess Consort’s injuries have likely been there for years. There is internal bruising on both sides of her knees. It seems that new injuries were added before the old ones could heal. It will probably be difficult to make a full recovery, but if she takes good care of herself for three to five years, the pain will lessen considerably on rainy or overcast days.”
It had to be said that An Ru’er’s act of self-harm was masterful. Even though Peier’s words were a bit abrupt, the injuries were genuine.
In those three years at Jingyin Temple, she knelt before the Buddha every day.
When the abbess told her to recite a few scriptures, she did so, never once being lazy.
All the suffering she endured was simply waiting for this day.
After the physician left, Pei’er helped An Ru’er get up. While tidying the bedding, she heard him suddenly say, “Tomorrow, I will have Cao Yu bring the keys and account books to you. For today, you should go back and rest.”
Upon hearing this, An Ru’er’s hand trembled violently, and her heart almost leaped out of her throat. She had gotten these injuries to let him know she was truly repentant, but she had never even considered getting back the authority to manage the household…
After Prince Ying left, An Ru’er returned to Jiao Yue Hall with Peier.
Pei’er was worried about the Princess’s health, so she took two hand warmers and placed them next to the Princess Consort’s knees. “Congratulations, Princess Consort. You’ve only just returned and have already reclaimed the management of the household. It seems His Highness must have calmed down.”
Although An Ru’er was happy that the power to manage the household would return to her hands, she still couldn’t feel excited. When Physician Lu came just now, she should have been treated on the bed where he usually stayed, but he only let her lie in the side hall.
She had been neglected since her marriage and had yet to consummate it. Although her knees were unsightly, this was the first time she had taken off her clothes in front of him. But he didn’t even cast a glance at her.
And as for her injuries, he never once asked about them with any concern from beginning to end.
“Pei’er, do you know who is in those three small courtyards?” An Ru’er asked, frowning.
“I asked about it beforehand. The one living in Anshan Hall is the legitimate daughter of Imperial Physician Chu from the Imperial Academy. She was titled Side Consort as soon as she entered the residence, and she used to manage the household. But I don’t know what she did recently. I heard that His Highness has confined her to her courtyard. She can’t come out for three months, and no one is allowed to go in. The other two are more ordinary. I heard they were both gifted by the Emperor. One is said to be a talented woman from a poetry society in Jiangnan, and the other is the daughter of an unknown artist. Neither of them is from the capital, so they are probably only outstanding in their looks.”
After Pei’er finished speaking, An Ruer’s heart, which had been in her throat, finally relaxed. “Brother Yanzhi has never been one for beauty. These are not a problem. As long as they are well-behaved and don’t have any ulterior motives, I won’t make things difficult for them.”
“The Princess Consort is benevolent. It is their good fortune to have a head mistress like you. But there is one thing that I still find a bit suspicious.”
“What is it?”
“The person I asked was Yecui. She is an old servant who served on the Duke’s side. I originally thought she wouldn’t hide anything from us, but when I called her over, she was a bit evasive.”
“What did she say?” An Ru’er asked.
“She was fine when I asked about Side Consort Chu and Aunt Su, but when I asked about Aunt Tang, she stammered for a long time before saying she was from Suzhou. I’m afraid there’s something strange about it. Should I ask others about it?”
“No need. We’ve been gone for three years. The people in this courtyard are either His Highness’s or Side Consort Chu’s. Any information we get now is likely what they want us to hear. Asking too many questions would make it seem like I have an agenda. They will come to offer me tea early tomorrow morning. I’ll know then.”
—
The author has something to say:
I saw a comment asking why the Prince of Ying, as the Emperor’s eldest son, didn’t become Emperor. I’ll explain it again. [But I’ve actually mentioned it before.]
The Prince of Ying was reborn. In his previous life, his younger brother was a general who fought for him on the battlefield, but in the end, he was torn apart by five horses. This was a trauma for the Prince of Ying.
In his previous life, the male lead knew about all the battles that would happen, but he couldn’t just have a meeting with his generals because he was reborn and predict the future of the Great Yan Dynasty’s military affairs.
So, he and Empress An discussed it, and they made Song Pei the Emperor instead.
I haven’t started talking about the events of the previous life yet~
Here’s a question for you, then: Why was the male lead’s identity revealed, but the female lead’s identity was not mentioned at all~
She couldn’t have just popped up in this life, could she~
Hehe~ I love you all.
