"Your Majesty, the wife of Duke Zhongguo has handed in a visiting card." A young eunuch with a pale face and no beard handed over the visiting card.
The woman, who was leaning on the couch, half-closed her eyes and enjoyed the maid's gentle massage on her legs, frowned slightly: "Give it to me." She stretched out her hand, took the visiting card, unfolded it and took a look.
"Send someone to tell her to come to the palace immediately."
"yes."
After the young eunuch went out for a while, he brought the person in. Apparently her carriage had just been waiting for news outside the palace gate and had not returned.
"Your Highness, I pay my respects to you. May you be healthy and blessed."
"Get up." Concubine Xian smiled and raised her hand. The palace servant beside her immediately brought a low stool over and placed it next to the embroidered couch.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the seat." Li Yijia carefully sat down at the corner of the stool.
"You said you had something important to discuss with me today. What is it?"
"Your Majesty, this..." Li Yijia looked at the palace servants serving on both sides and seemed to be hesitant to speak.
The virtuous concubine waved her hand, and the palace maids bowed and filed out.
"Well, say whatever you want to say."
"Your Majesty, you have to help us this time. The old lady forced my Duke to ask him to submit a petition to confer Pei Che the title of Crown Prince!" When Li Yijia mentioned this, her face was still filled with resentment.
"What do you want me to do for you? Should I go and tell the Emperor for you?" The virtuous concubine stared at Li Yijia. The smile on her face was still there, but her phoenix eyes showed a bit of majesty.
Li Yijia was intimidated by her aura and dared not say a word for a moment. In her heart, she was very glad that the Duke reminded her yesterday.
"Your Majesty, how could I be so ignorant? I want you to help Pei Che and Princess Anrou to get together. Princess Anrou is almost old enough to marry a prince consort, and she has been raised under your name. You have to take care of her!" Li Yijia covered her mouth and smiled.
"You mean, let An Rou marry Pei Che as her husband?" Concubine Xian looked at Li Yijia with suspicion, not knowing what she was thinking.
"Yes, if Princess Anrou recruits Pei Che as her husband, he will naturally no longer be able to inherit the title of the Duke's Mansion. When Min'er becomes the Crown Prince, we will naturally still follow the lead of you and the Sixth Prince. Another thing is that the Feng family is Pei Che's maternal family. With this relationship, I believe the Feng family will be more cautious in their future actions. My eldest sister-in-law is the most beloved daughter of Mr. Feng."
The virtuous concubine sneered in her heart. This was not something her concubine sister would say. She was sure that the Duke had some plans behind this. However, this matter did sound interesting.
"How can you be sure that An Rou will like Pei Che? She has a strange personality. If she doesn't like it, I can't force her. After all, I'm not her biological mother."
"My lady, don't worry. My nephew is very elegant, dignified, and proficient in the six arts. It can be said that there is no one in Liangjing who can match him. Which girl would not like such a man? In this respect, he is very much like the prince back then! I still remember how many girls were attracted to the prince when we were still waiting to be married..."
Li Yijia was talking excitedly until he saw Concubine Xian stopped smiling and stared at him solemnly. Then he cursed himself for being outspoken. It was not that she was without thoughts back then, but because the Crown Prince got married to Feng Anxue first, she gave up and entered the Third Prince's mansion as a concubine.
"Then I'll try to find out what An Rou has to say. You can go back and wait for the news."
At night, Pei Che's carriage had just arrived at the door, and the butler who had been waiting here came to greet him. He helped to put the footstool in place, and after Pei Che got off, he said, "Master, the Duke has asked me to wait here, saying that he wants you to go to his study after you come back."
Pei Che, who had been wandering around the garden with his grandfather and the adults for a whole day, was already a little tired, but his second uncle had sent someone to wait here, so he felt it would not be a good idea to go over, and so he followed the housekeeper to the study.
As soon as he knocked on the study door, a voice came from inside, asking him to come in. Pei Che bowed after entering and asked, "Second Uncle, what do you want to talk to me about?"
"Che'er, you just came back from your grandpa's place, right? Come and sit down. We haven't had tea together for a long time. I heard that people outside like to drink chrysanthemum tea recently, so I asked someone to get some of the best tribute chrysanthemum. You can come and try it." Pei Shiyuan's tone was full of emotion. Pei Che didn't know what his second uncle wanted to say, so he had to sit down opposite him, picked up a cup of tea, brought it to his lips and blew it gently.
"This tea has a bright color, a light and clear fragrance, and tastes astringent at first but becomes sweet afterwards. It is indeed the best tribute chrysanthemum." Pei Che took a sip and praised.
"I'm glad you like it. Your uncle will have someone send it to your yard later." Pei Shiyuan said with a smile, looking very happy.
Pei Che shook his head: "A gentleman does not take away what others like. Second Uncle should keep this for himself."
"Well, what belongs to you should be given to you. This is true for tea and other things as well." Pei Shiyuan said meaningfully.
"I don't quite understand what Second Uncle means." Faced with his ambiguous and suggestive words, Pei Che could only pretend that he didn't understand.
Pei Shiyuan smiled and said, "Then my second uncle said it clearly. Your father passed away suddenly that year, and the position of the crown prince should have been inherited by you, but before you could submit a petition for the title, your grandfather passed away due to excessive grief. This huge Duke's Mansion was without a leader for a while, so your grandmother asked me to take over the position of Duke and take care of all matters in the mansion. I swore in the Pei Family Ancestral Hall that I would return the title to you after you came of age, after all, you are the eldest grandson of the Loyal Duke's Mansion. Now that you have come of age, this burden should be carried by you."
He spoke frankly, as if he had no attachment to the position of Duke.
Pei Che also felt a little emotional for a moment. He said, "Uncle and aunt work day and night for the Duke's Mansion. It's not easy. Although my nephew has reached adulthood, he has never worked before. I'm afraid it's difficult for him to take on such a big responsibility. Please wait for a few more days, uncle."
"Hey, who can be born knowing how to do things? You just need to follow me and learn for a while. With your aptitude, you will be able to do it easily soon." Pei Shiyuan finished speaking and laughed at himself, "If I don't return this title to you, I'm afraid your grandmother and grandfather will come to question me."
Seeing that he was serious, a hint of pride flashed across Pei Shiyuan's eyes, but soon disappeared into thin air.
"Okay, let's not talk about this for now." Pei Shiyuan raised the teacup, "Drink tea, drink tea, it will get cold if you don't drink it now."
Pei Che finished his cup of tea and was about to get up to say goodbye when Pei Shiyuan suddenly asked, "Che'er, do you have time the day after tomorrow?"
"Yes, what instructions does Second Uncle have?"
"Your sisters are going to attend a banquet at the Princess's residence the day after tomorrow, and your second aunt happens to be busy and can't accompany them. I know you have always been on good terms with Prince Su, so why don't you accompany them?"
The Su Shizi mentioned by Pei Shiyuan was Pei Che's good friend Su Jin. When the eldest princess married into the Pingnan Marquis's Mansion, she gave birth to Su Jin a few years later. Later, the couple had a conflict and lived separately. The eldest princess stayed in the princess's mansion for many years and only went to the marquis's mansion during festivals.
Because of the two people's affairs, the old emperor felt sorry for his daughter, so he made a rule that whoever the princess married would not inherit the family title and must live in the princess's mansion to prevent the princess from being bullied. For this reason, once a princess came of age, the emperor would first help the heir of the right age to get engaged to avoid being favored by the princess.
Pei Shiyuan had just said that, and now that he was asking for a favor, Pei Che could not refuse it out of both emotion and reason.
"My nephew must take care of several sisters."
"Then I feel relieved." Pei Shiyuan stroked the short beard on his chin and smiled with satisfaction.
On the day of departure, Pei Che watched his second uncle's Ya Ge, his third uncle's Ya Yun, Yaning, and his fourth uncle's Ya Shi get on the carriage together before he got on his horse, guarded them, and accompanied them to the eldest princess's residence.
When they arrived at the mansion, the distinguished guests were welcomed to the backyard by the maids. Pei Che inquired about Su Jin's location and followed the servants to the martial arts arena in the front yard.
Su Jin loves to practice martial arts, and the eldest princess has always doted on him. She specially built a martial arts field with a completely different style in the mansion, which is exquisite and luxurious everywhere, just so that her son can stay in her mansion for a few more days.
When Pei Che arrived, Su Jin was practicing swordplay. Seeing his good friend coming, he did not say hello, but directly took a long sword from the weapon rack beside him and threw it towards Pei Che.
Pei Che raised his hand to catch it and said with a smile: "Ah Jin, you are not afraid of hitting me."
Su Jin snorted coldly: "You are not Han Qin." After saying that, he raised his sword and stabbed at him.
Pei Che threw the scabbard aside, raised the sword to block his attack, then shook his elbow to deflect Su Jin's sword, turned around and attacked again.
The two men fought back and forth, and the snow-white sword blades flashed so brightly in the sunlight that people couldn't open their eyes.
After exchanging about a hundred moves, Pei Che suddenly jumped out of the martial arts arena with his sword in hand and said, "I won't come again. I didn't bring enough clothes with me today, and it's not good to get them wet with sweat."
Su Jin's eyes flashed with helplessness, and he had to stop. Every time he competed with Pei Che, he never got enough. Although others thought that he was more skilled in martial arts, for some reason, he always felt that Pei Che didn't try his best every time.
The waiter beside them brought some water, and the two men washed their hands and faces, then sat in the pavilion on the rockery nearby, warmed a pot of wine, and drank slowly.
Suddenly, the maid beside the princess rushed over and shouted, "Prince, Master Pei, something bad has happened. Miss Pei has sprained her foot and is crying loudly. The princess wants you to come over quickly."
"What?" Pei Che quickly stood up and followed the man to the backyard, "How did Fourth Sister sprain her foot?"
"They were originally admiring the flowers and composing poems in the backyard, when someone suddenly suggested flying kites, so the servants brought some kites over. Fourth Miss Pei took the kite and was running, and suddenly she fell, perhaps because she tripped over a stone or something. Everyone wanted to help her up, but she was crying and wouldn't let anyone touch her, and kept shouting that she wanted her big brother to take her back." The maid told Pei Che what had just happened as they walked.
Pei Che was very anxious. His fourth sister was only eight years old this year and had always been spoiled at home. Now that she was injured, she was probably scared and cried and wanted to go home.
Su Jin followed behind them and said, "I have some good wine for treating bruises in my room. I'll go get it. You just need to rub her hard later and she'll be fine."
"Ah Jin, thank you very much. But the girl's body is delicate and I'm afraid she can't stand the pain. I'd better take her back to see a doctor."
Su Jin clicked his tongue and said that the little girl was the most annoying. Not only was she easily injured, but she couldn't even apply medicated oil on her.
Pei Che didn't know what he was thinking, so he quickened his pace and rushed to the backyard. When he got there, the eldest princess had already arranged for the women of other families to move elsewhere, leaving only the girls of the Pei family.
When Pei Ya Shi saw Pei Che, she cried even harder, raised her hands to ask him to hug her, and shouted "Big brother, it hurts so much".
Pei Che carefully avoided her sprained foot, picked her up, apologized to the princess, and then went back with the girls.
No one noticed that there was a woman hiding behind the plum tree. She looked at Pei Che's back with shining eyes as he walked away, and said to herself, "Pei Ya Ge is right. There really are such good-looking men in the world!"
"Princess, what are you doing standing here? Let's go back to the palace. The Queen only allows you to come out for a while." The little maid was exhausted from looking for someone everywhere.
"Why are you in such a hurry? I'll say goodbye to my aunt first before I leave!" The little princess glared at the little palace maid and walked towards the eldest princess. However, in her heart, she was thinking about the man just now. That man was much more handsome than her cold-faced cousin!
(End of this chapter)