A stick of incense later.
Outside Marquis Zhenyuan Residence.
“Brothers, you’ve worked hard. Why not come in and have some tea?” Du Heng said politely to the guards.
The guard captain was first stunned. As expected of the Marquis Zhenyuan heir, who had spent his childhood on the mountain in bitter cultivation, he did not look down on them like other rich young masters. The captain then waved his hands repeatedly and said they had to return to the palace for duty, so Du Heng did not insist.
“Heng’er!”
A richly dressed noblewoman, still graceful despite her age, rushed out with a large group of servants. Behind her, a tall middle-aged man followed at an unhurried pace, his face weathered and marked by a few faint scars.
“Mother!” Du Heng called out from afar.
The noblewoman’s eyes turned red as she looked at him. She rushed to Du Heng’s side and gripped his hand tightly.
“My son, you haven’t come home in all these years. You look so much thinner.”
The middle-aged man walked over beside the noblewoman. He kept his eyes fixed on Du Heng, his own eyes also red, but his words were stiff.
“Rubbish. He looks strong enough. How is he thin?”
Du Heng bowed slightly to the middle-aged man and said, “Father.”
The man nodded, then gave a faint smile.
These two were Du Heng’s parents, Du Haoqing and Zhao Ruan.
Du Heng then pulled Mingzhu over and introduced him. After learning that Mingzhu was Du Heng’s junior brother, Du Haoqing and his wife exchanged a few polite words with him, then had a servant take Mingzhu away to settle his luggage.
The three members of the Du family sat in the main hall and talked. Zhao Ruan kept holding on to Du Heng and would not let go.
“You haven’t had my bone broth in so long. Now that you’re back home, I’ll make sure to nourish you properly.”
“All right! Thank you, Mother!”
She had not seen her son in so long. As soon as she heard that Du Heng was coming home, she had begun preparing plenty of cloth and food, as if she meant to make up for the ten years Du Heng had been away.
After a round of small talk, they finally got to the main subject.
“Heng’er, I’ve already read the letter your uncle sent the day before yesterday. This match with Her Highness the Eldest Princess is quite a good one. I’ve heard you’ve already agreed?”
Several black lines seemed to appear on Du Heng’s forehead. Ye Mingshan was certainly in a hurry. He had not even arrived yet, and the man had already agreed on his behalf.
Du Heng sighed. “I rather wish I could refuse.”
“You don’t like the Eldest Princess?”
Du Heng waved his hand. “I’ve never even met her. How can I say whether I like her or not?”
That was not entirely a lie. He had seen her, but she had certainly never seen him. Her eyes had been closed the whole time. Wasn’t a matchmaking arrangement supposed to be about mutual attraction?
Du Haoqing frowned and understood. An imperial marriage really was not something they could refuse.
Zhao Ruan walked in with several maidservants carrying dishes and cut in, “Why don’t we find an excuse to call off the engagement?”
Du Haoqing shook his head. “Her Highness sent word to Ruo Xian Pavilion and specifically named Heng’er. The royal family’s face is at stake. How could we break off the engagement?”
Du Heng curled his lip almost imperceptibly. Specifically named? It was clearly that little old man uncle acting on his own.
“After the Eldest Princess received my sect’s reply, did she say anything?”
“No.”
Du Heng pointed at himself. “Can the Eldest Princess be satisfied with me?”
This kid sure did not hold back when it came to making fun of himself.
Du Haoqing glanced at Du Heng, neither confirming nor denying.
“The Eldest Princess already issued an imperial decree to our residence a few days ago. The marriage pact is settled.”
Zhao Ruan sighed. “Entering the royal family is not exactly a good thing…”
Du Haoqing comforted her. “The royal family does have more rules, but it is actually quite good that the Eldest Princess chose Heng’er.”
“The Eldest Princess has a steady and restrained temperament, with exceptional learning and cultivation. I’m afraid the young masters from the families of all the ministers can’t compare to her now.”
Zhao Ruan ladled a bowl of bone broth for Du Heng and continued, “When you come back from court, you always say Her Highness has a strange temper, that she is hard to deal with, and that her methods in governing affairs are very seasoned and her schemes run very deep.”
“Are you not worried she’ll have Heng’er completely under her thumb?”
Du Haoqing did not think much of it. “Heng’er’s path of cultivation has been full of hardships. Since the Eldest Princess has taken a liking to him, she will naturally protect him.”
“If his path in cultivation truly does not work out, then later on he can rely on the Eldest Princess and find a minor official post in court.”
Zhao Ruan fell silent. What her husband said made sense, but she still worried that her son would end up as a henpecked husband.
Du Haoqing and his wife knew very well that Du Heng had only just reached the Qi Condensation stage after so many years, but they did not blame their only son for it.
Others might hope their son would become a dragon and resent that iron had not become steel, but Du Haoqing was broad-minded.
It was enough that he alone handled the war with the Demon Court and the barbarian tribes. He was loyal to the emperor and patriotic, but he would not force his own son to be like him. Besides, if one day he failed to return from the battlefield, his widow and orphan would at least have a way out.
Du Heng drank his soup obediently while listening to their conversation in a daze.
Was his father telling him to live off a woman?
And from the way they put it, the Eldest Princess knew that the Lord Consort candidate pushed forward by Ruo Xian Pavilion was him, yet she did not object. Could it be that Ye Mingshan had falsely reported his cultivation?
But that would not help. Any false reporting or concealment would be clear the moment he came back.
Still, on the way here he had heard that the Eldest Princess had only been in power for a few years. And she already had such methods?
He asked, “Hasn’t Her Highness only been acting as regent for a few years? How are her political methods already so seasoned?”
Du Haoqing also knew that his son had grown up in Ruo Xian Pavilion and definitely did not know the situation in Great Luo, so he slowly began to tell him about the Eldest Princess and the current court situation.
“The Eldest Princess was the same as you. At the age of ten, she left the royal family and stepped onto the path of cultivation,” Du Haoqing said, searching through his memories.
The Eldest Princess of the Great Luo Dynasty, though born of noble blood, was not like the other princes and princesses who had grown up spoiled from childhood.
She was about five years older than Du Heng. Her experience was almost exactly the same as his: from a young age she entered the Dao at the Celestial Cloud Palace to cultivate, and it was said that her talent was extremely high. By the time she came of age, she had already reached the sixth realm, the Cave Profundity stage.
Several years had passed since then, and no one knew how far her cultivation had progressed.
Five years ago, the late emperor fell gravely ill, and the crown prince was still very young. So the late emperor had the Eldest Princess return to court and act as regent.
Many people scoffed at the news.
Most thought that no matter how high the Eldest Princess’s cultivation was, and no matter how gifted she might be, she still knew little about court affairs. She had cultivated in the deep mountains since childhood and had not seen much of the dangers of the mortal world.
They were afraid she would be completely fooled by the old foxes in Golden Luan Hall and would never be able to control the civil and military officials.
Du Haoqing had originally thought the same.
At the time, those who supported the new emperor, those who wanted to seize the emperor and establish themselves, those who favored war and a northern campaign, and those who favored peace were all split into several factions. The court was in utter chaos.
“I thought that even with Her Highness the Eldest Princess’s return, the situation at court would be hard to change. I never expected Her Highness the Eldest Princess to be so meticulous and steady, and her conduct not at all like that of an ordinary woman.”
Not long after the late emperor passed away, the crown prince ascended the throne. When the Eldest Princess returned to court to govern as regent, she shocked the court and the realm. Her methods were ruthless and swift, showing no mercy at all, and nothing like a delicate young lady who had never married.
Within less than half a year, there was only one voice left in the court.
No matter how the officials fought among themselves below, as soon as Her Highness the Eldest Princess set her mind on something, no one dared provoke the phoenix wrath.
Everyone was afraid of death. When the Eldest Princess first entered the court, a bold newly appointed military officer submitted a memorial.
Every word in it showed disrespect toward the Eldest Princess and the new emperor.
The next day, the man’s head rolled across the execution grounds at Xuanwu Gate, and blood spilled all over the place.
After that, aside from a few old men with sizeable factions behind them who still dared to remonstrate from time to time, the other officials did not even dare breathe too loudly when attending court. They even agonized each day over which foot to step through the palace doors with first.
Her Highness the Eldest Princess used that momentum to gradually issue several political decrees. Great Luo, which had been listless because of the late emperor’s illness, had gradually regained its vigor in recent years.
Unlike the officials who feared the Eldest Princess, the common people strongly supported her.
In addition, many officials had thrown in their lot with the Eldest Princess, and she had gained her own loyal followers.
And so a new rumor began spreading through the Great Luo Dynasty.
The Eldest Princess was the sign of a future empress!
The new emperor was so young and naive, while the Eldest Princess had governed Great Luo in an orderly fashion during her regency.
There was nothing wrong with letting the Eldest Princess sit on the future throne.