One year, he hunted a wild hare during a royal hunt. The rabbit possessed a tenacious vitality; even after being shot in the front leg by his arrow, it stubbornly survived.
Unfortunately, once its wound healed, it grew even more insatiable, day after day climbing all over him and kicking him viciously whenever it was unhappy.
Prince Jing often thought that if it could speak, it would undoubtedly scold him constantly.
He kept this rabbit for ten years, and it unfortunately passed away the day before the fire at the Xingwang Manor.
“This place is certainly lively.”
Consort Wei, who had been hiding in the shadows all along, finally appeared. The young ladies bowed one after another, and Consort Wei waved her hand to signal them to rise.
“It is time for the banquet to begin, so let everyone take their seats.” Surrounded by a massive retinue of palace maids and eunuchs, Consort Wei walked toward the uppermost seat. As she passed Lu Huiyi, her gaze lingered on her for a moment.
Lu Huiyi half-squatted in a bow, and as she stood up, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a piece of robe hem protruding from behind a pillar outside the pavilion.
It looked like the yisa casual attire worn by imperial princes.
Upon taking her seats, Lu Huiyi saw Prince Regent Gao sitting high at the top. Prince Jing was nowhere to be seen until after everyone else had seated themselves, arriving fashionably late, which solidified her judgment.
“Is that the Twelfth Miss from the Lu family? Call her up so I can take a look at her.”
Consort Wei gave her royal permission, and Lu Huiyi immediately stood up and stepped forward.
“This humble girl, Huiniang of the Lu family, pays her respects to the Imperial Noble Consort.”
Consort Wei did not look at Lu Huiyi directly. Lowering her head to look at the tea in the cup she held, she conversed amiably with Lu Huiyi.
“How has your grandmother’s health been recently?”
“Thank you for your concern, Your Ladyship. Grandmother’s health is very robust, and she is still able to summon this humble girl to play chess and pass the time.”
“You play chess? How is your skill?”
“This humble girl is ungifted and only a beginner, merely capable of exchanging a few moves under my grandfather’s hands.”
“A beginner yet able to play against Grand Secretary Lu, it seems Miss Lu is very talented. If the opportunity arises, you must come to the Jingren Palace to play chess with me.”
“You are too kind, Your Ladyship. To be regarded by you is this subject’s daughter’s good fortune.”
Consort Wei finally raised her head to look directly at her. She had Lu Huiyi step closer, taking her hands and examining her up and down before finally sliding a gold armlet engraved with a phoenix pattern off her own wrist and onto Lu Huiyi’s arm.
“Your Ladyship, this item is too precious.”
“Since I have bestowed it upon you, there is no reason to take it back.”
Lu Huiyi had no choice but to bow. “Thank you for the reward, Your Ladyship. This humble girl will take her leave.”
Lu Zhenyi watched Lu Huiyi step forward, watched her return to her seat, and saw the phoenix-patterned armlet bestowed by Consort Wei faintly visible beneath her sleeve.
Consort Wei had a plump, prosperous appearance, making her much fuller than Lu Huiyi, who looked thin and undernourished. Consort Wei’s armlet could not stay put on Lu Huiyi’s arm; whenever she lowered her hand, the armlet slipped down accordingly, and with Lu Huiyi’s movements, it faintly peeked out from her cuff.
Lu Zhenyi stared fixedly at Lu Huiyi’s cuff. Why, why was it her? Why could she win the favor of Consort Wei, and why had such a magnificent armlet fallen into her hands?
To make matters worse, Lu Huiyi deliberately chose to sit beside her, rolled up her wide sleeves, and showed off the dazzling armlet, complete with its gorgeous and intricate phoenix patterns, right in front of her.
“Take a close look, Zhenniang. This is an armlet bestowed by Consort Wei from the palace. After today, I am afraid you will not have many opportunities to see it again, seeing as your elder sister only graciously lets you look at it at a time like this,” Lu Huiyi whispered softly in Lu Zhenyi’s ear.
Lu Zhenyi gritted her teeth and pressed her lips together, forcing herself not to throw a tantrum in front of nobility, even though her eyes were practically breathing fire.
Sitting at the top, Prince Jing instinctively followed the figure of Lu Huiyi. He saw her leaning affectionately close to the Lu sisters, flaunting her newly acquired reward with an infuriating expression, and saw her rolling up her wide sleeves to reveal pale, frail arms reduced to mere skeletons.
The Lu family had not fallen yet; wasn’t she still a daughter of a respectable official family? The capital did not favor an aesthetic of extreme thinness, so why had she grown this thin?
He stared at Lu Huiyi in a daze for quite a while before finally turning his head away, causing both Consort Wei and Prince Regent Gao to notice his lapse in composure.
“Slap.”
As the banquet concluded and the three Lu daughters had just returned home, Lu Huiyi delivered a fierce slap across Lu Zhenyi’s face.
Lu Zhenyi shrieked, “Lu Huiyi, what are you doing?”
“I should be asking you that, shouldn’t I? The household made it clear long ago to be cautious after entering the palace; the palace is not a place where you can throw tantrums at will. With so many people staring at our Lu family, how could you still go around colluding with that Xu Fifth Miss to splash dirty water on me?”
“Wasn’t that because you were careless, throwing yourself at Prince Jing without even knowing to avoid people.”
Lu Huiyi delivered yet another slap, and Lu Zhenyi stopped arguing with her as the two women tumbled together into a physical scuffle.
Several maidservants had not been allowed to follow them into the palace, and witnessing Lu Huiyi and Lu Zhenyi’s exchange now, they wore expressions of complete shock and dismay.
Lu Miying, who had been following behind the two of them, hurriedly dispatched a maid to fetch an elder to take charge, then bit the bullet and stepped forward to separate the two blood sisters.
Right up until they were pulled apart, Lu Zhenyi was still attempting to grab Lu Huiyi’s hair.
Looking at her own disheveled, scattered strands of hair and the disheveled Lu Zhenyi, Lu Huiyi laughed out of sheer fury. She could not quite describe her current mood, which even held a shred of joy at regaining a youthful, healthy and fit body.
“Take both young ladies down to wash up and change! What kind of behavior is this!” Madam Qiao arrived in a flurry first, shouting angrily.
Lu Huiyi and Lu Zhenyi were dragged away to tidy up. When they were brought before Madam Qiao once more, Madam Qu and the sixth sister-in-law, Madam Shu, were also seated at the top.
This was the first time Lu Huiyi had seen someone capable of handling affairs in the Fourth Branch present on such an occasion. She felt a brief daze before slowly realizing that the sixth sister-in-law had already entered the family; just like in her past life, she would gradually take over all affairs of the Fourth Branch, stepping into the position of the mistress of the household for an apathetic mother-in-law.
Seeing that Old Madam Kou was not present, Lu Zhenyi felt an initial wave of relief before rushing ahead of Lu Huiyi to throw herself forward, weeping tearfully, “Second Aunt, Third Aunt, Zhenniang has been wronged!”
When junior concubine Yuan arrived, she happened to catch Lu Zhenyi’s words, rushed in, and embraced Lu Zhenyi, mother and daughter crying for a long time while wailing about grievances.
Lu Huiyi silently slid away to the side, leaving the wide open stage entirely to them.
Once junior concubine Yuan and Lu Zhenyi had cried themselves tired, she finally spoke up. “It is not that Huiniang deliberately made things difficult for younger sister; rather, the palace is dangerous, and she disregarded the Lu family’s reputation by slandering Huiniang right in front of Consort Wei and the two princes. It is like walking on the edge of a knife, and a single misstep could drag the entire Lu family down with us. Not to mention, Prince Jing merely extended a hand to pull me up when I lost my footing, yet in Zhenniang’s mouth, it became me trying to cling to Prince Jing.
“Most importantly, while you and I were arguing in the palace, Prince Jing was eavesdropping from the shadows all along. Did you know of this? You did not! The Lu family has always remained neutral; during the several undercurrents between various princes, the Lu family never intervened. Yet today, a daughter of the Lu family behaves in such a manner. What would Prince Jing think? What would the imperial concubines and other princes in the palace think? And what would His Majesty think?”
Lu Huiyi’s words were fierce, ringing with conviction. The chain of heavy information battered everyone present until their minds struggled to catch up, leaving the hall in dead silence.
Lu Huiyi waited a moment before walking right up to Lu Zhenyi, continuing in words as sharp as pearls: “This was merely friction between sisters in the inner quarters, yet you insisted on following the Xu family’s daughter to spread rumors and stir up trouble. Have you still not learned your lesson from being punished for pushing me into the water and kneeling in the ancestral hall for those few days? As the eldest daughter of our father, I just slapped you a few times on behalf of our mother to teach you a profound lesson.”
Lu Zhenyi struggled out of junior concubine Yuan’s embrace, her tear-soaked eyes glaring fiercely at her.
A mocking smile hung on Lu Huiyi’s lips. She did not speak aloud, but Lu Zhenyi felt as though she could hear Lu Huiyi’s thoughts clearly: I hit you, so what can you possibly do about it?
Junior concubine Yuan wailed, “Twelfth Miss! Zhenniang is your own flesh-and-blood sister! How could you sisters beat her like this? Is there no way to speak reasonably?”
“You are mistaken, Concubine Yuan. Am I not calmly dissecting and reasoning things out with her right now? Back in the palace, the situation was critical; I neither could nor should explain in detail, and in my sudden panic and anger, would younger sister really blame me?”
Lu Zhenyi could not argue back. Clutching her face, she squeezed her eyes shut and kept dead silent.
With imperial matters now involved, Madam Qu and Madam Qiao exchanged glances, neither wishing to meddle in this mess. With great taciturnity, both women cast their gazes toward Madam Shu.
Madam Shu lowered her gaze to study the handkerchief in her hands without speaking. Seemingly sensing the gazes of the two elder aunts, she happened to look up.
Madam Qiao pulled her close and whispered a few words, which boiled down to this being an internal matter of the Fourth Branch, with the Fourth Master and Fourth Madam absent, she, as the sixth sister-in-law, should act on behalf of the elders to handle the two younger sisters.
Madam Shu’s fingers clutching her handkerchief tightened. Her thoughts whirled several times; panic filled her heart, but she kept her expression composed.
Her husband had indeed warned her that her mother-in-law was hands-off and that everything in the Fourth Branch was managed by the muddle-headed grandfather and concubine. Now, pushed forward by Madam Qiao to take charge in a crisis, her mind felt somewhat chaotic.
There were still elders around, yet the ones fighting down below were all daughters of the Fourth Branch, she was merely a newly wedded sister-in-law, what kind of situation was this.
Madam Shu’s mind spun round and round before she decided to smooth things over. Claiming that all three young ladies had exhausted themselves entering the palace today, and seeing that night had already fallen, she advised the unyielding Lu Huiyi and Lu Zhenyi to return to their respective courtyards to rest and discuss matters tomorrow.
Tomorrow? What tomorrow?
Unless the old master personally inquired about it, this matter would simply be swept away lightly like this.
Hearing the nanny’s announcement that the old master had opened the ancestral hall and summoned all members of the Lu family to gather there, and upon asking what was the matter, it turned out to be none other than yesterday’s verbal dispute.
Madam Shu felt a dull throb in her temples. Lu Qizheng happened to be home on his regular ten-day leave today, and wanting to know what had happened, Madam Shu recounted it in a few sentences, causing even Lu Qizheng to furrow his brows in a headache.
The couple looked at each other, shook their heads, and sighed helplessly.
When Lu Qizheng and Madam Shu arrived at the ancestral hall, not only was Lu Zhenyi kneeling on the ground, but ahead of her were also the Fourth Master, Madam Zhang, and junior concubine Yuan. However, Lu Huiyi was nowhere to be seen; Madam Shu asked around everywhere, and even the know-it-all Madam Qiao and Lu Miying shook their heads in ignorance.
Only then did Madam Shu realize that the old master was making a mountain out of a molehill. She wondered what on earth was going on, how did that Miss Hui possess such immense weight to make the old master stand up for her right in front of the entire household?
Lu Qizheng stepped forward, kneeling behind his father, while Madam Shu followed to kneel beside him.
Lu Qizheng asked, “Grandfather, may I ask what wrongdoing Father has actually committed?”
It was only after the Fourth Branch’s master, mistress, young masters, young mistresses, and young ladies had all arrived that Old Grandfather Lu announced that Lu Zhenyi’s foolishness and willful chaos had driven the Fourth Master nearly to death’s door over Lu Huiyi, and today he intended to use family law before the ancestors to punish the Fourth Master.
Lu Huiyi… dead?