Mingzhu, having been asked by the Empress Dowager for quite a while, hurriedly said, "Aunt, it’s better to invite the master from Zhaohua Temple to explain the deep aspects of Buddhist Law to you! Yueyao actually knows just half of it."
Seeing that Yueyao’s expression remained unchanged, the Empress Dowager knew that Mingzhu’s words did not bother her. The Empress Dowager poked Mingzhu’s head and chided with a laugh, "If you want to talk alone with Yueyao, just say so. Don’t put Yueyao down here." This indicated that the Empress Dowager had already acknowledged Yueyao.
Mingzhu jumped up and said, "Aunt, you are the best." Mingzhu was about to lead Yueyao out of the main hall and into her own small courtyard when they heard that the Empress had arrived and was waiting outside.
The Empress Dowager was sowhat surprised, "Please invite the Empress in." The Empress Dowager was a very open-minded person; she only required the Empress and the concubines to co and pay their respects on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, and not at other tis. The Empress usually wouldn’t co over without a reason, so she must have had a matter to discuss this ti.
The Empress, also seeming to be over thirty, was dressed in a bright yellow gown embroidered with phoenixes and wore only a few pieces of jade jewelry. She was majestic and elegant in her deanor, with a gentle smile on her face.
After paying respects to the Empress Dowager, the Empress sat down and asked, "Mother, this is Yueyao, isn’t it?" The Empress knew of her by na but had not t her in person.
The Empress Dowager smiled and nodded her head.
The Empress beckoned Yueyao over with a smile and said, "This child looks as if she’s stepped right out of a painting. I wonder which family will have the fortune to marry her."
That day, Yueyao was dressed in a light rose-red embroidered yellow pleated Yulan long skirt, with a complexly styled hairdo adorned with a cinnabar gold-dotted Hairpin, filigree enal tassel pendants, a begonia Pearl Flower by each temple, and a pair of pearl earrings. Her tall, proportionate figure, exquisite features, cherry lips glowing red as if tinted, skin as smooth as cream, and eyebrows like ink paintings.
Blushing like an apple from the Empress’s complints, Yueyao said, "Thank you for your kind words, Empress." For soone of the Empress’s stature to praise her so highly, Yueyao was sowhat embarrassed.
Mingzhu found the Empress’s affectionate attitude towards Yueyao a bit strange.
The Empress took a delicate jade hairpin that she had worn from her parental ho and placed it in Yueyao’s hair, "This was from my family ho, and it suits you well."
Looking at the jade hairpin, Yueyao understood that anything worn by the Empress could not be ordinary. Yueyao was sowhat surprised, "Your Majesty..."
The Empress, smiling, said, "We are all family here; no need to be so formal."
Observing the Empress’s actions, the Empress Dowager knew what was going on and chuckled, "Mingzhu, take Yueyao down and have a chat!" The Empress’s actions were surely in consideration of Zhou Xi.
Mingzhu took Yueyao to pay their respects to the Empress and then led her to her own small courtyard.
As Yueyao saw the lavish arrangent of the courtyard, she smiled. A palace maid lifted the pearl curtain, and Yueyao followed Mingzhu inside the room.
The first thing Yueyao noticed upon entering the room was a Rosewood Eight Immortals table frad with gold. Turning her head, she was overwheld by the myriad treasures on the Treasures Pavilion: a blue and white porcelain vase with plum blossoms, a blue and white porcelain phoenix tail vase painted with landscape and figures, a white jade relief-carved Magnolia flower insert...
Mingzhu, sitting Yueyao down on a soft Rosewood couch, asked eagerly, "Quick, tell what exactly this process of calling off the engagent is?" Mingzhu was eager to know the details of canceling the engagent. Although the letter had ntioned it, a few words in a letter were hardly clear enough.
Yueyao, smiling, said, "Didn’t the letter tell you everything? The engagent has already been called off, it’s all in the past now, and there’s nothing much to talk about."
Mingzhu snorted coldly, "They just take advantage of your good nature. If it were , I would have made them peel off a layer of skin." Initially, the Ning family dared to play her for a fool, and Mingzhu had retaliated fiercely. Of course, the real person behind the revenge was Marquis Jingning, Luo Shao.
At the ti, Luo Shao had not reacted, but during his mourning period, he severely retaliated against Duke Ning’s Mansion. Duke Ning had already been struggling to find suitable employnt, and now even Ning Lixuan was unable to find any good job. Furthermore, the Ning family’s properties had also taken a hit, making life quite difficult for the people of Duke Ning’s Mansion nowadays.
Yueyao smiled faintly, "One must have the capital to be arrogant. Mingzhu has the backing of the Empress Dowager and the Marquis Jingning’s Residence, which allows her to do as she pleases. But I do not have that; all I can rely on is a bit of sympathy from others. But sympathy eventually runs out, so I must endure many things openly, and my endurance doesn’t an that I have accepted being wronged."
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