novelraw Chapter 675 - 664: The Cuckolded Prince
Chapter 675 - 664: The Cuckolded Prince
Listening to the ladies talking all about how their own daughters could be fit to become concubines, Lin Jingxian felt inexplicably irritated. She would never admit that she had taken a liking to Ye Qiu; it must be a matter of status.
A concubine is not the same as a low ranked concubine, one would need to wear the Royal Jade Butterfly. She cannot be sold off at will. Besides, even though Ye Qiu is easily persuaded, that doesn’t mean a concubine would be, what if she finds out something amiss about her?
While Lin Jingxian listened to everyone’s conversations, she dutifully expressed that she would follow Ye Qiu’s wishes, but in fact, she was quite confident that as long as she spoke up and showed some willingness to yield, Ye Qiu would definitely not agree to take a concubine.
Today, there aren’t many people eyeing the position of Ye Qiu’s concubine, but more are looking at the status of Eldest Prince Ye Ke’s main wife.
The Eldest Prince is twenty-eight this year. At his age, he certainly must have taken a main wife before, but that wife’s fate was not so good. She followed him to the border and in less than two years, she passed away, leaving behind only a young daughter. Although there are other sons under Eldest Prince’s name, they are all born from low-ranked concubines; how could they compare to the son of a main wife?
So even though it means becoming a succeeding main wife, as long as one bears a legitimate son, there’s no fear of status being threatened. Besides, the Eldest Prince is a legitimate son himself, and the current Empress is still his birth mother, so although Your Majesty dotes on the Crown Prince, the future is not without disputes.
Ministers analyze the pros and cons in their hearts, thinking about how to become relatives by marriage with the Eldest Prince. However, this marriage is not something they can decide on their own, in the end, it all depends on Your Majesty’s will.
Emperor Xingwu is clearly also concerned about his eldest son’s marriage and asks directly: "Ke, you have now returned to the capital, it’s time to welcome a main wife. Do you have a favored lady in mind?"
As soon as Emperor Xingwu’s words were spoken, the ministers with ideas in their hearts regretted it terribly. Why didn’t they think of arranging a chance meeting for their daughters with the Eldest Prince?
Ye Ke stood up to salute, his face expressionless: "Your son has no favored woman in his heart, I leave it all to Father Emperor and Empress Mother to decide."
Emperor Xingwu nodded in apparent satisfaction, then turned to ask Empress Liu beside him: "What about you? Do you have in mind the daughter of a certain family?"
Upon hearing this, Empress Liu’s gaze swept over the ladies below. All the young ladies shyly lowered their heads, but there were also those daring to show off their beauty. She calmly retracted her gaze and spoke with a warm smile: "They are all beautiful and virtuous girls, I am practically spoilt for choice. Why don’t Your Majesty help take a look? Also, Ten is fifteen this year, has established his mansion, but there’s no mistress in his house, Your Majesty can’t be biased."
"The Empress speaks the truth. How about we pick a day to invite the young ladies from various families to play in the palace to see which child is fated with our sons?" Emperor Xingwu nodded and said.
Empress Liu smiled with dignity and grace: "Ultimately, it’s Your Majesty who has the final say."
Emperor Xingwu did not refute, and Empress Liu did not reveal any other expressions, as if the Emperor and Empress have always been so harmonious.
In fact, anyone with clear eyes could see that Emperor Xingwu would never hand over the power to choose the Eldest Prince’s wife to Empress Liu. The greatest threat to the Crown Prince now is the Eldest Prince. What if Empress Liu selects a daughter from a very powerful family for the Eldest Prince? Wouldn’t that sway his heart even more?
Actually, from the moment the Eldest Prince was stripped of his military power upon his return, it was evident that Emperor Xingwu would never allow any threat to the Crown Prince’s position.
But this still could not prevent everyone from seeking marital alliances with the Eldest Prince. Throughout history, the number of Crown Princes ascending to the throne has been less than the fingers on one hand. Currently, the Crown Prince’s position is stable, but the Holy Emperor is also exceptionally healthy. Moreover, today there is the thousand-year-old ginseng presented by the Fifth Prince. Who knows what the future holds!
During this Mid-Autumn banquet, first it was Ye Qiu’s thousand-year-old ginseng that caused a sensation, followed by the marriage affairs of the Eldest Prince and Tenth Prince stirring up another wave of discussion. Only they themselves knew their personal thoughts.
Emperor Xingwu and Empress Liu acted swiftly. Merely five days after the banquet, they issued an imperial decree for the daughters of various households to enter the palace. In the end, they decided on the legitimate eldest daughter of the Minister of the Ministry of Justice for the Eldest Prince, and the legitimate second daughter of the Capital Governor for the Tenth Prince.
Once the imperial decree was announced, all the high officials and ministers began to strategize internally. It seems His Majesty truly intends to suppress the Eldest Prince. By association, the Tenth Prince was also implicated and married off together. His father-in-law’s status could not surpass that of the Eldest Prince, the legitimate son.
Although the Minister of the Ministry of Justice holds a Third-rank office and is in charge of the penal system, he could not provide help in other political affairs for the Eldest Prince. In comparison, the Crown Prince’s main wife is the legitimate daughter of the Prime Minister, and even the concubine is the niece of the Grand Commandant. The disparity is too great.
Meanwhile, Ye Qiu was on his way to the Lin Mansion with Lin Jingxian for a drink, as it happened to be the day Lin Zhao, Lin Jingxian’s elder brother, was marrying the legitimate daughter from Marquis Zhengyuan’s Mansion.
Although Marquis Zhengyuan’s Mansion is a First-rank Marquis Mansion, due to the unremarkable achievements of its heirs, it had been a long time since it was significantly utilized. Otherwise, they would not have married their legitimate daughter to Lin Zhao. Even though the Marquis Mansion has gradually declined, they still possess considerable wealth; hence, the dowry was quite generous. In comparison, the betrothal gifts from the Lin Family seemed somewhat insignificant.
Moreover, the mansion was old and only clean, showing no trace of opulence. All the guests attending could not help but sigh inwardly; it seemed the daughter from Marquis Zhengyuan’s Mansion would suffer hardships after marrying into this family.
At this point, they couldn’t help but recall an incident a month ago. It’s no surprise that Lin Jingxian’s mother had gone to ask for money from her daughter and son-in-law, it appears they truly were short on cash. Without the insistence of the Fifth Prince, even the wedding would not have been much to speak of.
Observing the unusual gazes of those around, Mrs. Lin and Lin Jingxian felt like they were sitting on pins and needles. On the other hand, Lin Xueyuan, with nothing to hide, sat patiently in his chair waiting for his son to welcome the bride through the door.
Ye Qiu, on the other hand, greeted the guests with ease and commendation, saying: "My father-in-law is truly an honest and upright man. If he has money, he has money; if not, he has not. If I offered money, my father-in-law wouldn’t even take it. Look, even today’s gifts were personally and carefully selected by myself. I didn’t dare offer gold and silver, thinking that my father-in-law and elder brother-in-law love reading books, so I’ve collected quite a few books from the bookstores. Not sure if they’ll like them."
With Ye Qiu saying such, everyone had nothing but praise, admiring his thoughtfulness.
Yet on the other hand, Lin Jingxian nearly vomited blood in frustration. What was clearly a legitimate way to subsidize her family was now turned into a situation where, due to her father’s words a month prior, she couldn’t even offer silver.
And if the books Ye Qiu sent were either antiques or famous works it would’ve been fine, but regrettably, he had purchased them from bookstores without understanding their value. Even if one bought up all the bookstore’s books, how many of them would actually be worth anything?
After today, who knows how many families will come to laugh at the Lin Family!
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the Crown Prince sent a generous monetary gift in the name of Mr. Lin being the Dean of the Hanlin Academy and the teacher of scholars throughout the world, which greatly relieved Lin Jingxian’s anxiety.