Lu Huiyi and a few of her sisters crowded around to show their concern for Shouyang. Shouyang shook her head, saying she was fine, but Lu Huiyi could clearly see that there were still unresolved worries lingering in her brows.
“Eldest cousin,” Lu Huiyi pulled her aside to ask, “as for your marriage, does the Empress Dowager have other arrangements in mind?”
Shouyang was stunned for a moment, then asked in return, “Hui-niang, how did you know?”
“It has already been a full year since the Duke of Cao’s estate first spread rumors of breaking off the betrothal. With Noble Consort Wei’s banquet right around the corner, there are still two unmarried imperial princes in the palace. I figured the Empress Dowager would rather keep you by her side.”
Her intentions having been seen through, Shouyang’s face grew even more distressed. She sighed mournfully, “Great-aunt is doing this for my own good, but I, I am weak-natured. The wealth and power of the imperial family feel more like a dragon’s pool and a tiger’s den to me.”
Lu Huiyi squeezed her hand tightly and left her with a single sentence.
“Cousin, do not panic. There will definitely be a way.”
Half a month later was Noble Consort Wei’s Chrysanthemum and Crab Banquet. Among the Lu family, only Lu Miaoyi, Lu Huiyi, and Lu Zhenyi, the three unmarried daughters of appropriate age, needed to enter the palace to attend.
The so-called Chrysanthemum and Crab Banquet was practically a thinly veiled event to scout and select future imperial princess-consorts for the two unmarried princes, especially the Seventh Prince, who had just been granted the title of Prince Jing earlier that month and was raised under the knee of Noble Consort Wei.
Prince Jing was the son of the deposed empress, which made him an object of taboo for the Emperor. Junior Concubine Yuan and Lu Zhenyi were unaware of this and mistakenly thought Prince Jing was currently at the very peak of his glory.
Watching Lu Zhenyi put on her newly purchased lavish garments, with ornate accessories weighing down her entire person, Lu Huiyi raised an eyebrow in astonishment.
“Sister, look at me. Would you say I can be described as having country-shattering beauty?”
Lu Huiyi poured cold water on her without the slightest bit of politeness: “Beauties are gathered like clouds in the palace; the one thing they never lack is lavish clothing and jewelry. Sister dressing up like this is no different from parading one’s slight skill before an expert.”
Lu Zhenyi contemptuously glanced at Lu Huiyi: “Then what kind of clothes is sister going to wear into the palace? Surely not such plain and simple attire as this.”
“I am not as generous with my spending as sister, so naturally I wear whatever the family arranges,” Lu Huiyi walked closer, gently stroking Lu Zhenyi’s sleeve, and said, “I kindly remind sister of one thing: our Lu family is a family of scholarly repute. In particular, the palace is not a place for you to display your tail like a peacock. I sincerely advise you to restrain yourself.”
That afternoon, Second Aunt, Madam Qu, sent someone to the Fourth Courtyard to summon the twelfth and fourteenth misses to the front hall.
As Lu Huiyi and Lu Zhenyi approached the front hall, they saw their grandmother sitting at the very top, with Second Aunt and Third Aunt seated on her left and right respectively. A bit further down, the eleventh miss, Lu Miaoyi, was standing on the side below Madam Qiao.
Lu Huiyi and Lu Zhenyi bowed together and retreated to the side to stand alongside Lu Miaoyi.
They heard Madam Qu speak first: “Since the three young ladies of the family are going to enter the palace, the family estate has also prepared suitable clothing and jewelry. For the next few days, you need not go to the women’s academy; Lady Gao will individually instruct you on palace etiquette matters.”
Hearing this, Lu Zhenyi subconsciously looked at Lu Huiyi, who was standing above her. Lu Huiyi happened to be looking at her at that exact moment, their gazes colliding in mid-air.
Madam Qiao smiled and said, “Our Lu family does not ask for our young ladies to have any grand fortunes of wealth and nobility. As long as you are well-behaved and do not stir up trouble outside, that is enough.”
The three young ladies bowed in unison, acknowledging the instructions and obeying the teachings of their two elders.
After Madam Qu and Madam Qiao finished speaking, Old Lady Kou beckoned Lu Huiyi to step forward.
A maid beside her stepped forward holding a precious box, from which Old Lady Kou retrieved a gold hairpin carved with a red agate peony.
“Grandmother, this is too precious.”
Just as Lu Huiyi was about to decline, Old Lady Kou pressed her hand and said, “Grandmother is getting old and failing in sight, and always mistakes you for your eldest grand-aunt who passed away young. This hairpin was originally meant as a birthday gift for that eldest grand-aunt of yours, but before I could give it to her, I experienced the heartache of an older person burying someone younger. If you don’t mind it, accept it. Consider it as letting me see what Ning-er would look like if she were still alive. Since you happen to be entering the palace, only such jewelry befits young ladies like you.”
As it turned out, the Miss Ning whom Old Lady Kou had blurted out in a moment of emotional loss that day was the eldest grand-aunt of the Lu family who had died young, and also the given name of Princess Shouyang’s biological mother. Since the old lady had put it that way, and Lu Huiyi essentially occupied the status of a pitiful orphan within the Lu family, Madam Qu and Madam Qiao exchanged glances and raised no objections to this small partiality.
Thus, Lu Huiyi curtsied and lowered her head as Old Lady Kou reached out and inserted the agate gold hairpin into her temples, where it gleamed brilliantly.
“This is enough, not too simple so as to lose the Lu family’s face, yet not overly extravagant to make it seem like we are eagerly currying favor for wealth and power.”
Madam Qu took Lu Huiyi’s hand, speaking words of reassurance, but her gaze drifted toward Lu Zhenyi standing further back.
Although Lu Zhenyi was somewhat naive, she was far from stupid. If it were only Lu Huiyi warning her, she might have maliciously speculated that Lu Huiyi, a sheltered daughter of the boudoir, knew nothing of the court and was merely jealous due to tight finances; but now Second Aunt had also explicitly mentioned that they should not be extravagant.
Lu Zhenyi took these words to heart, intending to return and re-discuss the matter with Junior Concubine Yuan, because her Second Uncle was a fifth-rank official in the imperial court, and Second Aunt was bound to know much more about court affairs.
When the day of the banquet arrived, Lu Zhenyi was indeed dressed much more plainly. Standing together with Lu Miaoyi and Lu Huiyi, the three sisters truly looked like three young ladies emerging from a scholarly household.
Before their departure, Madam Qu was still nagging them to be careful and not to stir up trouble, and the three young ladies responded repeatedly until they reached the side door and saw the carriage waiting outside, at which point Madam Qu finally stopped talking.
Madam Qiao and Junior Concubine Yuan watched Lu Miaoyi and Lu Zhenyi get into the carriage with reluctance, as though the few of them were setting off on a solo mission.
Lu Huiyi opened the carriage curtain at the very last moment to look back, but still saw no sign of Madam Zhang. Her expression turned dejected as she lowered her head and dropped the curtain.
Madam Qu and Madam Qiao naturally caught Lu Huiyi’s final glance, feeling quite helpless.
Madam Qu spread her hands and remarked, “Though I have no daughter of my own, I have instead experienced what it feels like to raise a daughter through someone else.”
Sensing Lu Huiyi’s subtle regret, as well as the awkwardness of the two discordant sisters, Lu Huiyi and Lu Zhenyi, sharing the same carriage, Lu Miaoyi spoke up to ease the atmosphere.
“Being able to go to Noble Consort Wei’s banquet with both of my younger sisters is also quite a wonderful affinity of fate.”
However, Lu Miaoyi’s two younger sisters gave rather lukewarm reactions, exchanging only a couple of shallow remarks before the atmosphere inside the carriage quickly chilled once more. Having received no warm response for her enthusiasm, Lu Miaoyi curled her lips, withdrew her thoughts, and said nothing more.
Lu Huiyi harbored matters deep in her heart. Looking at Lu Zhenyi’s newly changed brocade and jade accessories, as well as Lu Miaoyi’s gentle composure, she recalled how in her previous life she had reported being ill and failed to enter the palace on this occasion.
Later, she heard that this banquet had proceeded steadily and uneventfully. Lu Zhenyi, unable to wear her extravagant attire, had entered the palace just like in this present life, blending into the crowd alongside Lu Miaoyi.
A month later, the Emperor issued a decree bestowing Princess Shouyang in marriage to Prince Yu, and granting a daughter of a prefect surnamed Xia to Prince Jing as his wife.
But this time, with her, Lu Huiyi, as a variable, perhaps everything would be different.
Lu Huiyi’s gaze swept across Lu Miaoyi and Lu Zhenyi.
Let Lu Miaoyi and Lu Zhenyi continue to dutifully play the part of a scholarly gentry family; she, Lu Huiyi, was the one who intended to latch onto imperial power.
A few days prior, because Lu Huiyi had grasped palace etiquette instantly and even won praise from Lady Gao, her grandfather had asked her if she knew why Noble Consort Wei was hosting a banquet for the daughters of various officials.
At that time, Lu Huiyi inwardly thought her opportunity had arrived to display her abilities. She first brought up the matchmaking of princess-consorts for the two princes, and then mentioned how the candidates for the Prince of Xing’s consort and the Prince of Shen’s consort had been finalized back then. Lu Huiyi omitted the delicate issue that all the imperial princes in the court had now come of age and the succession was about to burst into the open, believing she had exercised utmost restraint, only to be criticized by her grandfather.
“For a young girl in the boudoir to possess such insights, Grandfather naturally must praise you for natural intelligence. But you must be careful of cleverness overreaching itself; excessive brilliance invites backlash. Our Lu family has always been a neutral, scholarly faction. Your behavior makes me quite worried that if you harbor crooked intentions one day, you might drag the entire Lu family down with you.”
Lu Huiyi had stood at the foot of the steps, looking up at her grandfather. Struck by this cold water, her expression did not change in the slightest as she replied, “Grandfather, the Doctrine of the Mean is not equivalent to foolishness. As Grandfather has risen to the rank of Grand Academician, how many gazes from high and low within the court are fixed upon us? If the young men and women emerging from the Lu family lack even this basic ability to perceive the macro-trend from minor signs, we would truly need to be on guard as to whether that would drag the Lu family down.”
Old Grandfather Lu had laughed. It turned out the criticism was merely a facade; testing her was the true intent. He had beckoned Lu Huiyi to step forward and discussed the court struggles with her.
She had demonstrated her intelligence and revealed her ambition before her grandfather, yet she had not lost her head. She had masked her unscrupulous methods, putting on a facade of upright virtue.
Right now, with only two young girls in their early teens before her, she leaned softly against the carriage, calculating in her mind how she could coincidentally run into Prince Yu.
Yes, that very Prince Yu, the one with a violent disposition who would physically abuse Shouyang after their marriage.
Yet Lu Huiyi had always been confident. In her past life, she had been able to handle a fool like the Prince of Xing; in this lifetime, she could naturally manage Prince Yu’s temper, and after eliminating Prince Jing, she would ascend the throne of Empress just as she wished.
That way, Shouyang would escape suffering, and she too would attain glory and wealth, wouldn’t that be a happy ending for all?
The carriage arrived outside the palace gates. The accompanying maids were not allowed inside and could only wait outside. The three of them dismounted and were guided all the way to the Imperial Garden by an eunuch from within the palace.
Lu Huiyi kept her head down as she followed behind the eunuch. She recognized him, it was Feng, the personal attendant by Noble Consort Wei’s side, who would later pass the internal palace examinations to serve in the Imperial Horse Directorate, and eventually win the Emperor’s favor. By the time Lu Huiyi burned down the Prince of Xing’s residence, Eunuch Feng was already a powerful Directorate of Ceremonies pen-man.
Later on, Eunuch Feng and Lady Xu, the biological younger sister of Noble Consort Xu, would respectively represent the Wei and Xu clans, standing in rival confrontation within the palace.
Lu Huiyi’s entries into the palace in her past life had not been frequent, but neither were they few. She deliberately memorized the layout of the palace pavilions, and at this moment, standing in the Imperial Garden, she gazed toward the west, not far from there lay Noble Consort Wei’s Jingren Palace.
“Miao-niang, Hui-niang.”
Seeing Shouyang walking toward them, Lu Miaoyi and Lu Huiyi stepped forward to bow, “Eldest Cousin Shouyang.”
Noticing that only the two of them were there, Shouyang couldn’t help asking out of curiosity, “Didn’t the Lu family send three young ladies? Why is Zhen-niang not here?”
Lu Huiyi puckered her lips, signaling her to look toward the other side, “Zhen-niang is over there, chatting with Fifth Miss Xu.”
Fifth Miss Xu was the daughter of Minister Xu of the Ministry of Revenue. Minister Xu had two younger sisters, one was Lu Huiyi’s eldest aunt and the Grand Madam of the Lu family, while the other was the Prince of Xing’s biological mother, Noble Consort Xu.
Fifth Miss Xu and Lu Zhenyi were of similar age and had been close friends for many years.
After the three of them chatted for a while, Lu Miaoyi also took her leave to find other noble daughters to mingle with, leaving only Shouyang and Lu Huiyi to stroll slowly along the garden’s water pond.
“Cousin, could it be that the Empress Dowager intends to take advantage of this banquet to request the Emperor to bestow you in marriage as Princess Yu?”