After Mingyu followed Xu Mingye home, goose feather-like snowflakes began to fall from the sky again. This time, it did not stop after a while like before, but continued to fall until the tenth day.
When Mingyu woke up, she saw the golden light shining in from the windowsill, which hurt her eyes a little. The sky was sunny and the sunlight shone on the snow, reflecting the bright white light, which was brighter than the day with only sunshine.
After breakfast, Mingyu took Lixiang and Dongyuan out to the shop selling incense, candles, paper and pens at home, preparing to sort out the shop's accounts and count the inventory. Mingyu had long wanted to change the business of this shop, but the store had a warehouse full of incense, candles, paper and pens, which was not easy to sell all at once, and the shop owner didn't want to do the catering business, thinking that the smoke and fumes were too dirty. Just after the New Year, the contract with the shop owner expired.
Mingyu didn't plan to continue to employ him. In all her past and present lives, Mingyu asked herself that she had never encountered such a thing. How could the owner have to agree to sell something? She wanted to turn this shop into a small restaurant, selling affordable breakfast and ready-made fast food. There were so many people coming and going on this road. As long as she was willing to spend some time, she was not sure how much she could make, but she would definitely not lose money.
This time Mingyu came prepared. She took the wooden ruler that Liu Ma used to cut clothes and measured the shop. Mingyu simply drew a table and a countertop on paper, and planned to find a carpenter to make a few. Most of the shops in the capital were already open, and Mingyu also wanted to open the shop as soon as possible.
At this time, Dong Yuan, who was cleaning up the firecrackers and paper scraps outside the shop entrance, ran in and said to Ming Yu, "Miss, there's someone outside who specifically wants to see you."
Mingyu put down the ruler in her hand and looked outside. A young man in a thick bright blue satin robe was standing outside the shop looking inside. When his eyes met hers, he quickly turned his head and saluted respectfully.
"You looking for me?" Mingyu asked in surprise as she walked out.
The young man was no more than twenty years old, with a friendly smile on his face. He bowed his head and said, "It's not me who is looking for you, but my master. I want to talk to you alone."
"Who is your master?" Mingyu asked.
The young man pointed to the teahouse across the street and said with a smile, "My master's surname is Qin. I'm sure Miss Xu recognizes him. He is waiting for Miss Xu in the teahouse."
Mingyu looked in the direction of his finger. There was a teahouse diagonally opposite the shop. It was not yet the end of the first month of the lunar year, so few people came to drink tea. The teahouse was also quiet, with only a large black carriage parked in front of the teahouse.
When Mingyu heard him say that his master's surname was Qin, her heart skipped a beat. She lowered her eyes and thought for a moment before nodding, "Okay, I'll go with you."
Dongyuan was worried, so he asked Lixiang to close the shop and went to the teahouse with Mingyu.
When they reached the door of the private room on the second floor, the young man leading the way stopped Dong Yuan and Li Xiang and said with a smile, "The master likes quietness, Miss Xu can go in alone."
Mingyu waved to Dongyuan and Lixiang, opened the door of the tea room, and walked in.
The teahouse had a large window facing south, through which one could see the bright sunshine outside and the blue sky after the snow had cleared. The man in purple clothes sitting next to the window was clean and elegant. He looked at Mingyu with a stern expression on his face, unable to tell whether he was happy or angry. The sunlight shone in from the window, casting a soft golden glow on his face.
Mingyu was dazed for a moment when she saw this. Such a handsome, self-possessed and cold man was once a beautiful dream of hers.
"Greetings, His Royal Highness." After coming to her senses, Mingyu bowed politely to Prince Qin.
Prince Qin looked at Mingyu. The girl's jacket and skirt were half-worn. In order to make it easier to work, Mingyu had tied up her sleeves. There was dust on her head and body from when she was tidying up the shop. He couldn't understand it any more. She had a hard life. Why didn't she marry him
"You know what Nanny Lu means by going to your house, right?" Prince Qin said, "I want to ask you... are you willing?" He had a glimmer of hope in his heart, maybe Mingyu was willing, but that pedantic idiot Xu Changqian refused because of his bad reputation and didn't want to have a daughter as a concubine. As long as Mingyu was willing, this would not be a problem.
Mingyu was stunned and lowered his head.
Prince Qin waited patiently, feeling a little tormented.
“I… don’t want to.” Mingyu whispered. Although her voice was soft, it was very firm.
In an instant, Prince Qin felt as if he had been hit hard in the heart, and he gasped in pain.
"Why?" Prince Qin asked, he didn't give up. He could tell from Mingyu's eyes that she liked him.
Mingyu lowered her head, not knowing how to answer. She thought, is there any need to ask why? Any woman with a normal mind would not become a concubine, not to mention that she grew up in a modern society where mistresses are like rats crossing the street and everyone shouts and beats them. Even if she had a pink dream for the noble and cold Prince of the County, after learning that Prince Qin had a wife, this dream was ruthlessly punctured by the steel needle of reality.
Maybe the Prince of Qin also likes her a little, but what's the use? Maybe in the eyes of the Princess's Mansion, it is a great honor to let her be the Prince's concubine, but for Mingyu, this is simply a humiliation to her, a humiliation from the perspective of personality. Mingyu knew that her love for the Prince of Qin was hopeless and fruitless from the beginning. She only dared to bury it in her heart and think about it secretly, but she didn't expect that such an ending would be more embarrassing than no result.
After a long while without hearing Mingyu's answer, Prince Qin stared at Mingyu and continued to ask questions, as if he was determined to get an answer. He stood up from the chair and walked to Mingyu. "Why don't you want to? Just wait for a while... She is not in good health, very bad... She doesn't even have the strength to get out of bed... Everyone says she won't survive these two years..."
Mingyu suddenly felt a little sad. No matter whether it was the young lady from the Fang family lying on the sickbed whom she had never met, or the noble, cold but unhappy Prince in front of her, they all made her feel suffocated and sad.
"Your Highness," Mingyu began, weighing every word carefully. "You are an elegant and noble man. To be able to marry a man like you is a great honor for any woman. Mingyu was unable to do so... because Mingyu was not blessed, and also because... Mingyu was unwilling to pin her life's happiness on the death of an innocent woman."
Mingyu looked at the Prince of Qin and said seriously, "Mingyu believes that she is a person who cannot stand being wronged or oppressed. If Mingyu really follows you, I'm afraid she will pray every day that your wife will die soon so that she can take her place. That kind of Mingyu is no longer Mingyu, and you don't want that kind of Mingyu."
Moreover, she couldn't curse an innocent woman to death. If Miss Fang was lucky enough to live a long life even with a sick body, wouldn't she have to be a concubine for life? This was a huge gamble, it was her lifelong happiness, no matter what the result was, she would not be the winner.
When she was still a young girl, the wife of the Marquis's mansion already looked down on her background. Now she has the added identity of being divorced. Will the princess agree to let her be the legal wife of the Prince? Mingyu is not a naive little girl. She is not that stupid.
She is the kind of person who either gets everything or gives up everything, clapping her hands and walking away. Otherwise, there will always be a thorn in her heart, reminding her day and night, and she can't rest. She has to kneel on the ground to serve the wife of the principal room, and hope that the prince can rest in her room. The children she gave birth to can't call her mother. Every day, she has to work hard to help her children fight for the father's love. That kind of life is worse than death.
Mingyu thought about it and suddenly smiled. His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin might only be an object of admiration. Once this object jumped from ideal to reality, his shortcomings would be revealed. She thought that a noble man like the Prince of Qin was probably not suitable for her. She was not a rich lady who could accompany him in romantic affairs. She was just a vulgar person who worried about her livelihood and calculated how much money she earned every night and whether she could eat boiled fish tomorrow.
The person she loves the most is actually herself, and she won't tolerate any grievance. Judging from this, she can only stay at home as an old maid.
His Royal Highness the Prince did not say anything, but looked at her stubbornly and silently. He felt wronged and unwilling. He had given Mingyu all his love, so why did Mingyu treat him like this? Fang was not the one he wanted to marry. He married a young lady who had no strength to speak and half of her body was buried in the ground, in exchange for the safety of his family, and made him the laughing stock of the whole capital.
When he went out, everyone who saw him would address him respectfully as "Your Highness the Prince". However, he could see the dark and ambiguous looks in those people's eyes, despising him and laughing at him. Now that he wanted to take a concubine, those people would definitely say that now that the Princess' Mansion had received the Emperor's favor, they no longer took the Fang family, which had protected them in the past, seriously, and wanted to kick out the sickly young lady of the Fang family...
He is like a clown, Prince Qin thought sadly. He looks glamorous and noble on the outside, but he cannot marry a girl he likes.
She was right, she would definitely not be happy if she married him.
"You're right." Prince Qin spoke with difficulty.
Mingyu was very close to him and could see his deep eyes, high nose bridge, tightly pursed lips, and gracefully curved jaw.
"You're right." Qin Junwang repeated, laughing softly, feeling disappointed. He knew that Mingyu was smart and bold, and knew what was the best match. He was not a good match at all. He was overconfident, and Mingyu's words were like a blow to his head, sobering him up. (To be continued