"An Rou, why are you sitting here alone? Are you unhappy?"
Three days had passed since she left the palace for the banquet. During these three days, Princess Anrou had been looking unhappy. When Concubine Xian saw this, she was secretly happy but pretended to be ignorant.
"Virtuous mother?" Princess Anrou turned around. "I'm not unhappy, I just feel that the palace is really boring. Can I still go to my aunt's house to play?"
She grew up in the palace and was very familiar with every plant and tree in the palace. Even if the scenery here was beautiful, she had no interest in it. She left the palace a few days ago, and although she was just playing in the princess's mansion, she felt very happy.
"Do you want to go to your aunt's house to play? Or do you want to meet someone?" Concubine Xian joked, not forgetting to stare at her expression, trying to see if she would have the shyness and anticipation of a young girl in love.
But the result disappointed her. Princess Anrou opened her eyes wide and asked in confusion, "Who are you meeting? Aunt?"
Concubine Xian smiled and covered her lips: "Of course it's not your aunt. I heard that you met a very good-looking man in the Princess's mansion that day?"
"How did the virtuous mother know?" Princess Anrou was very surprised, then she suddenly realized and said angrily, "Huaying must have told her! This little girl can never keep secrets. I won't tell her next time!"
"Don't be shy yet. Do you know who that man is?"
"Pei Yage said that was her older brother, and she bet with me that he was the most handsome man in Liangjing. I didn't believe it at first, but after meeting him, I found that he was really handsome." Princess An Rou has always liked good-looking people, both men and women.
"Then, if he were to be your consort, would you be willing?" Concubine Xian asked cautiously, not missing any of her reactions.
"Prince consort?" Princess Anrou blushed, "My virtuous mother, please stop making fun of me. I'm still young!" After all, she was a girl, and she still felt a little embarrassed when talking about such things.
"What's there to be shy about in love affairs? Pei Che is handsome and proficient in the six arts of a gentleman. Which girl in Liangjing doesn't like him? If you don't settle down soon, someone else will snatch him away. Be careful, or your father will find you an ugly prince consort." The virtuous concubine hit the mark with one strike, piercing the thing she feared most in her heart.
"No, my father promised me that I could choose my own prince consort!" She would never choose an ugly man as her prince consort.
"You choose by yourself, and your father will help you choose several first. At that time, you will just be picking the tallest one among the short ones. Can they be as good-looking as Pei Che?" Concubine Xian sighed, looking as if you were deceived.
Princess An Rou hesitated. After thinking about it, she found that the other princesses' consorts did not seem to be as good-looking as Pei Che.
"But..." She didn't understand Pei Che at all!
"Don't say buts. Just tell me, do you want Pei Che to be your consort, or another ugly man?" Concubine Xian deliberately changed the concept and limited her options to these two. Princess Anrou was inexperienced and didn't notice the trap in her words. It was obvious who she would choose.
After Concubine Xian left, An Rou's mood did not improve, but became worse. She didn't know why she chose Pei Che as her husband for no apparent reason, but what Concubine Xian said was right. What if the other men were all ugly? It would be better to recruit Pei Che as her husband. At least, he was really good-looking!
Seeing her like this, Huaying, who came in to serve, seemed to have guessed what she was thinking, and offered an idea: "Princess, don't you just want to know what kind of person Mr. Pei is? Why don't we go out of the palace to find him and see what kind of person he is."
"Leave the palace?" An Rou's eyes lit up, then dimmed again, "No, my virtuous mother will not agree to let me leave the palace."
"We can sneak out. Isn't there a scene in opera where women disguise themselves as men? We can disguise ourselves as eunuchs and leave the palace, and come back before the keys are closed. Are we still afraid that the virtuous concubine will find out?"
"Pei Che, can you come with me to take a look? I haven't been there yet!"
A woman dressed in men's clothing stood beside Pei Che, pointing at the tall building in the distance and speaking excitedly.
“It’s not nice there.”
"Over here? There is a lake. Shall we go take a pleasure boat ride?" The woman was not giving up and pointed at the lake in front and shouted.
"The water is cold in winter, what if I fall in?"
"... Don't you want to hang out with me?" The woman looked at him angrily.
"Princess, please forgive me for being frank, I think you should go back to the palace." Pei Che tried hard to force a smile, thinking that he was helping his second uncle, so he controlled his temper.
"I won't go back to the palace. If you don't accompany me, I'll go by myself!" As she said this, she was about to walk forward.
Pei Ya Ge quickly pulled her back and whispered, "Princess, it's dangerous outside with so many people around. Let us go with you."
Then, she said to Pei Che in a pleading tone: "Brother, it's rare for the princess to go out, can you accompany us to take a look?"
What do you mean it's so rare to go out? He had been out for three consecutive days. He remembered that day when his second uncle suddenly sent someone to invite him to the study, saying that there was something important to discuss. But when Pei Che went in, he only found two people dressed as eunuchs standing there, and his second aunt and eldest sister were talking to one of them.
"… Princess"
Princess? Pei Che vaguely heard this address and immediately wanted to go out, but was called back by Pei Shiyuan.
Pei Shiyuan pulled Pei Che aside and whispered, "Che'er, Second Uncle wants you to do a favor. Princess Anrou was raised by the Empress Xianfei. She sneaked out today and the Empress didn't know about it. We wanted to send her back, but she refused and just said she wanted to go out and play. It's so dangerous outside. If something happens, it will be difficult for everyone to explain. Why don't you take them out for a walk and then send her back to the palace safely? How about it?"
"Uncle, are you confused? The princess and I are alone, how can we go out alone? If the matter is exposed, it will damage the reputation of both the princess and me. I'm sorry that I can't agree to this." Pei Che refused directly.
Pei Shiyuan said all the nice things he could and looked at Pei Che with a pleading look on his face. Pei Che had no choice but to agree. This agreement lasted for three days.
Perhaps the princess had noticed the good news outside the palace, so she came out of the palace on time every day for the past three days to see them, and even brought her own suitable men's clothes, unlike the first day when she only wore two sets of eunuch clothes. This made Pei Che very suspicious of the ability of the guards at the palace gate. If such people were guarding the palace gate, would the assassin really not be able to get in? And that virtuous concubine, there was a living person missing in the palace, could she really not notice it
Thinking back to the princess' slightly strange attitude over the past three days, Pei Che had a vague bad thought in his heart, but he hoped that he was wrong.
"Big brother?"
Pei Ya Ge's words brought Pei Che back to his senses. He thought for a moment and said to them, "None of these places are fun. I know a place that's very interesting. How about taking you there to have a look?"
He felt that he was wrong. The places he had taken them to in the past few days were all bustling streets or beautiful places, which made the princess yearn for the common people. He should take them to see the real life of the people, so that she would stop thinking about leaving the palace and having inappropriate thoughts.
"Okay!" Before Pei Ya Ge could say anything, Princess An Rou shouted, "Take us there quickly!"
Pei Che called for the carriage waiting nearby and asked them to get on. He then mounted his horse, walked in front, and led them to the outer city.
At first, Princess Anrou looked out the window with great interest, but as time went by, she gradually felt a little bored: "How long will it take?"
"Princess, please wait a little longer, they should be here soon." Pei Yage said. She didn't know where her elder brother wanted to take them. For some reason, she always had a bad feeling.
The carriage went on for a while and suddenly stopped.
"We're here, get off." Pei Che got off the horse and looked at this street that he used to think was dirty and messy. The corners of his mouth couldn't help but rise slightly.
As he expected, Princess Anrou and Pei Yage were already pale from the smell on the roadside before they even got off the carriage. In fact, from the perspective of ordinary people, this street was quite clean, but these people were used to seeing places that were spotless, so they were naturally not used to it for a while.
"Didn't you say you wanted to go out and have fun? If you don't want to get off the car, go back to the palace."
How could Princess Anrou let go of the opportunity that she had finally gotten? She got off the carriage with a ruthless heart. Pei Yage struggled for a while and got off the carriage as well, but she still had a handkerchief covering her mouth and nose, and her eyes were full of disdain wherever she looked.
"Pei Che, where are you taking us?" Princess An Rou looked at the unfamiliar environment around her, feeling a little uneasy.
"Princess, haven't you always wanted to know how ordinary people live? Now that I've brought you here, you must take a good look. This is also my favorite place to come." Pei Che stood at the entrance of the alley, looking at the street outside, and lied calmly.
Before Princess An Rou could say anything, a carriage sped past the alley. When the wheels ran over a small pothole, a pool of dirty water splashed up, and mud spots flew everywhere, and a lot of it got on several people.
Pei Che frowned and was about to speak, but when he saw Princess An Rou's devastated look, he said, "Princess, you don't want to go back to the palace, do you?"
"Who... who said I was going back to the palace! I want to continue watching!" After saying that, she pushed away Huaying who was wiping the mud spots for her and walked out.
It was almost noon, and the morning market had almost dispersed. There were piles of rotten vegetable leaves and other things on both sides of the street, waiting for the cleaners to come and clean them up. The smell of these things was really strange. Princess Anrou covered her nose and walked forward despite the discomfort in her stomach. She was only looking around and didn't notice that there was another small pit under her feet. When she found it, half of her foot had already stepped into it, and her snow-white embroidered shoes immediately became dirty. She was so angry that she jumped up immediately and stomped her feet hard, trying to shake off the dirty part.
The people around had never seen such a strange person before, and they couldn't help but look at her with strange eyes, wondering in their hearts where this pretty boy who was out of place on the whole street came from.
Princess Anrou was getting more and more unhappy. She took her foot back and took a few steps forward. Finally, she stepped on a slippery dead fish and broke through. She turned around and ran towards the carriage parked in the alley.
"Let's go back to the palace. I can't stay here any longer!" An Rou wanted to jump into the bathtub immediately and scrub her whole body thoroughly.
"Princess, are you sure you don't want to take another look? If you come again tomorrow, I will still bring you here. From now on, I will only bring you here." Pei Che said with ill intentions.
Princess An Rou then realized that he was teasing her on purpose. She looked at Pei Che fiercely and said, "Pei Che, you are so bold that you dare to tease me!"
"I am doing this for the princess's own good. If you never leave the palace again, I will naturally not be able to tease you." Or, don't come to the Duke's Mansion when you leave the palace.
Princess Anrou heard the distance and displeasure in his words, and laughed in anger: "I will not do as you wish. I will leave the palace every day. I will also ask my father to recruit you as his consort, so that you will follow me every day!"
"Heh," Pei Che sneered. His speculations over the past few days finally became a reality. Thinking that he had been deceived by these people in collusion, he could no longer control his emotions.
The sound of rolling wheels came towards this side. Pei Che turned his head and suddenly smiled.
"Listen carefully, I, Pei Che, would rather be with that man in my life than marry you!" Master Pei pointed outside, at the man who was pushing a cart towards them.
There was a sign hanging on the cart, with the five big characters "Jiang's Steamed Bun Stall" written on it in a slightly childish handwriting. This was the contribution that Xiao Shitou made for his family's stall after he learned to write and pestered Jiang Miao to do so.
(End of this chapter)