"Can't we change to another kind of flower?" Luo Yaqing asked without thinking.
"No, how can we do business without integrity? If we say that the five-color red elixir is being auctioned, it means the five-color red elixir." Xu Shichu answered firmly.
Luo Yaqing's face was so hot that she had never been so humble to anyone before. But now she had to ask for help, so she could only bow her head again and again and try to ask: "Can you cultivate another one?"
Xu Shichu looked at her with a half-smile: "Do you think that cultivating rare and exotic flowers is a simple and easy thing? If you can cultivate them, then why don't you cultivate one yourself and give it to Princess Shunyi?"
Luo Yaqing's face suddenly turned red with shame. Of course she knew that it was not so easy to cultivate exotic flowers. She was just thinking maybe
Xu Shichu was too lazy to watch her trying to get the Five-Colored Red Pill from him, so he said to her directly: "If you really want it, just go to the Hundred Flowers Pavilion on the day of the auction and buy it back. As long as you win the auction, the camellia will be yours, and you can give it to whoever you want."
How could Luo Yaqing not know this? The problem was that she was afraid that she would not be able to win. There were so many nobles in the capital who loved flowers and plants. Where would she get so much money to compete with others? She knew how expensive the exotic flowers and plants in Baihua Pavilion were.
Even if she had a lot of dowry when she got married, she couldn't spend all of it on a flower that looked good but was useless, right
Not wanting to spend a lot of money on flowers, she had to think of other ways and asked tentatively: "Then can't you give up the one flower left by the stepmother? Just, just for my father's sake!"
Luo Yaqing's face flushed as she spoke, and she even brought up her father's name, hoping that Xu Shichu, whether he was afraid of her father or trying to please her father, would be sensible and give her the remaining five-color red pill.
She knew that she was using someone else's talent to gain a bigger reputation, and she felt ashamed for that, but she still did it in order to achieve her goal.
Xu Shichu was not surprised at all. Wasn't Luo Yaqing such a person? When there was no interest involved, she could act tolerant, gentle and kind. However, once her own interests were damaged, she would immediately reveal her true selfish face.
Xu Shichu smiled and said, "Are you using your father to threaten me? Your father has no face in front of me. He has to pay for my flowers. Who are you? Are you worthy of me giving you a flower worth a thousand gold coins?"
Hearing Xu Shichu's disdainful tone, Luo Yaqing immediately stopped caring about being ashamed. She became angry and said:
"You said that to me, aren't you afraid of offending my father? You live in the prime minister's mansion, and if you offend my father, you will suffer so much that you can't say anything. You can live so freely and carefree because of my father's protection. If my father doesn't like you, what will happen to you?!"
"What will happen to me? Will he divorce me and marry a new wife? Will the new wife be as worry-free as me? Will the new wife be favored and give birth to a son to compete with your brother for the family property and father's love? Will she alienate you, a married woman?" Xu Shichu asked a series of questions with a light smile, and then added,
"After being divorced, I have money and free time, and I don't have to pay attention to people who bother me. Even if I am targeted or bullied, I can just walk away. It's so miserable..."
Luo Yaqing looked at her in amazement, digesting her words. It seemed that she was not afraid of offending her father. So how could she make her compromise
Xu Shichu gently patted Luo Yaqing's face and said sarcastically: "You are really a good daughter of your father. You are good at bullying others by taking advantage of your power. It's a pity that you only use it on me and not on your in-laws.
"I have no desire for your father, what's the point of using his name to scare me, silly girl!"
Luo Yaqing was startled by Xu Shichu's extremely humiliating actions and words, and hurriedly moved her body away from Xu Shichu.
She used to be proud of her father's alienation from her stepmother and his lack of affection for her, but she didn't understand that her stepmother also had no affection for her father, which was why she traded everything for profit. So now, even if she needed something from her stepmother, she couldn't play the emotional card.
And divorce was no small matter. She knew that her father remarried not only because of the marriage of her siblings, but also for political considerations. Xu Shichu's background was clean and simple, which was the biggest reason why she became the prime minister's wife - so her father could not divorce her.
Not only did she fail to achieve what she asked for, but Luo Yaqing was also ridiculed and humiliated by Xu Shichu. She fled in embarrassment and lost face.
Luo Yaqing stayed in the yard where she lived before she got married, and she resented Xu Shichu very much, but she could do nothing about her.
Luo Yaqing felt even more distressed when she thought about the fact that the five-colored red pill that the princess wanted was nowhere to be found.
"Miss, why don't you ask the Prime Minister to ask the stepmother for the camellia?" Luo Yaqing's maid couldn't bear to see her young lady suffer, so she suggested.
Luo Yaqing said unhappily, "Didn't you hear my good stepmother say that my father has no face in front of her? What will happen if my father goes to ask for it in person?"
The head maid explained: "Miss, do you really believe what the stepmother said? How can a married woman not value her husband? The stepmother said that, it is very likely that she was complaining about the Prime Minister's neglect of her in the past. It's just sour grapes!
If the Prime Minister were to lower his status a little and be a little more friendly to her, would she be happy? Would she still say that the Prime Minister has no face in front of her? Once she is happy, if the Prime Minister asks for her five-color red pill, won't she hand it over to him?"
Luo Yaqing suddenly understood and smiled happily: "Yes! I was deceived by her words. Which woman would not want her husband's attention? She said she doesn't care about my father, so she really doesn't care? When my father is a little softer to her, she will definitely come up to me like a dog, wagging her tail..."
Limited by the times and her vision, she could not understand that some women really did not care about their husbands, so she took it for granted that Xu Shichu also hoped to be loved by her husband like her.
Luo Yaqing suddenly became full of confidence, and thinking of Xu Shichu's humiliation and ridicule just now, she said bitterly: "Once my father gives her a little sweetness, she will definitely come to please me in order to continue to be favored by my father. Let's see how I deal with her then!"
She had already thought about how to humiliate and torture Xu Shichu.
Unfortunately, her fantasy will never come true.
Luo Yaqing had an idea in her mind, and she waited anxiously for her father to come out of the palace to help her get the five-color red camellia from Xu Shichu.
She didn't know that her appearance was getting further and further away from the kind and gentle daughter of the prime minister, and was becoming more and more like the women in the Shunyi Palace.