Chapter 8: Someone from the Prince's Prefecture

Outside the high walls, sporadic firecrackers sounded, and the New Year's Eve of the tenth year of Jia Zhao of the Great Zhou Dynasty was about to arrive.

Inside and outside the Rongguo Prefecture, everyone began to get busy. Everywhere, door gods were changed, spring couplets, hanging plaques, and new lacquer were painted on peach charms, and the joy of welcoming spring was overflowing everywhere.

Yesterday, Jia Zheng sent someone to the Guanglu Temple to receive the spring sacrifice reward silver issued by the palace, which was specially used to worship the ancestors in the ancestral hall, which was more decent than stacking ten thousand taels of silver at home.

The East Prefecture next door also sent a lot of wild animals such as big deer, roe deer, bear paws, and deer tendons, saying they were from the village of Heishan in the East Prefecture.

In the Rongqing Hall, the Old Mistress sat high on the soft couch, and the maid Yuanyang was gently massaging her legs on the side.

Two bronze treasure tripods and incense burners were burning silver frost charcoal, and the room was as warm as spring.

Sitting next to them were Lady Xing and Lady Wang, occasionally whispering about the trivial matters of the New Year's arrangements in the East Road Courtyard and the West Prefecture. The Old Mistress listened while occasionally saying a few words.

The New Year in a wealthy and noble family was a big event, and it was the busiest time of the year for the mistress of the inner house.

Not only did they have to welcome and send off old relatives among colleagues, but they also had to manage the annual spring sacrifice to ancestors.

Hanging red, making clothes, family banquets, inviting plays, festival gifts, reward silver for each branch, settlement of shop fields, etc., the trivial matters were countless, and only a shrewd and experienced woman could handle them.

The Old Mistress didn't manage these trivial matters much now, listening to the two daughters-in-law talk about the New Year's arrangements in the East Courtyard and the West Prefecture, just to set the scene, listen to the excitement, and enjoy it.

A pair of phoenix triangular eyes, two curved willow-leaf hanging eyebrows, a slender figure, a coquettish physique, a face full of spring but not revealing power, and a smile before the lips opened.

It was Wang Xifeng, who was managing the inner affairs of the West Prefecture for Lady Wang.

Seeing her wearing a gold-thread eight-treasure clustered pearl bun, wearing a morning sun five-phoenix hanging pearl hairpin; wearing a red gold coiled dragon necklace around her neck; a bean-green official ribbon double-fish mandarin duck pendant tied at the skirt edge; wearing a gold-thread hundred-butterfly-through-flower red foreign satin narrow-padded jacket, covered with a five-colored carved silk stone-green silver-rat vest;

The Old Mistress asked curiously: "What rare thing did you encounter? Tell me about it."

The Old Mistress liked this granddaughter-in-law's lively and festive talk the most, and hearing her words, she laughed and scolded: "You monkey, you are talking nonsense again. This is asking for a beating."

Sitting beside the young woman were four young and beautiful girls, each with a fairy-like appearance and elegant demeanor.

Wang Xifeng said again: "Originally, I should have come to pay my respects to the Old Mistress early, but I encountered a rare thing, which delayed me."

"I took people to see it this morning and decided to enter the garden tomorrow morning to sing big plays for the Old Mistress properly. We will also take advantage of the Old Mistress's light and have fun."

Before the words fell, a beautifully made-up young woman entered. This person was dressed differently from the girls, colorful and brilliant, like a fairy.

Seeing this legitimate daughter-in-law of her own, Lady Xing revealed a trace of disgust in her eyes.

Seeing her enter, Lady Wang revealed a faint smile on her face.

The Old Mistress smiled: "This matter is appropriate. I was just wanting to listen to plays and storytelling. It's still Feng Yaotou who knows my heart."

Wang Xifeng smiled: "It's just the New Year. Knowing that the Old Mistress loves to listen to plays and storytelling, I sent someone to find a colorful female opera troupe yesterday, as well as clever female storytellers.

The Old Mistress smiled: "You went to toss about there this morning. We were just talking, and I didn't see your shadow."

The warm curtain was lifted, and a crisp and pleasant voice like a silver bottle cracking sounded: "Oh, everyone is here today."

Sitting below Lady Wang was an elegant and dignified young woman, wearing a bamboo-patterned snow-blue outer jacket, with a white jade plain hairpin inserted in her head, with clear eyebrows and no makeup.

A handsome youth wearing a red arrow-sleeve jacket and a hair-binding inlaid treasure purple gold crown was joking with the girls, causing them to burst into silver-bell-like light laughter from time to time.

Wang Xifeng smiled: "I'm just a life of tossing. If I can rub the edge of the Old Mistress's wealth and fate, it's enough for me to be relaxed for a lifetime, and it's also good to get rid of this life of blind tossing."

"Just outside, there was someone from the Prince Prince Jia Shun Prefecture, saying he was a Grade 7B lecturer, who came to find Young Master Cong under the Prince's order..."

The Old Mistress's body leaning on the couch sat up subconsciously, her expression surprised: "Prince Prince Jia Shun Prefecture! How could he have any connection with Prince Prince Jia Shun?"

Everyone in the hall looked at each other in dismay. Although they all came from wealthy and noble families and had seen the world, a current prince was also considered a very big figure in their cognition.

Lady Wang, Lady Xing, and other older generations in the hall, who didn't know that Jia Cong was born lowly and had a fierce and ominous name from birth.

The Old Mistress had always disliked this grandson, and although she didn't abuse him like Jia She and his wife, she turned a deaf ear to this grandson and couldn't see him once a year.

Now she cared about it, knowing that this matter was not ordinary.

The Old Mistress looked at Lady Xing and asked: "You are his father and mother, do you know the reason?"

Lady Xing was a bit confused at this moment. How could a prince come to the door to find that goods raised by a prostitute?

Seeing the Old Mistress ask her, Lady Xing stammered: "This beast is usually naughty and rude, and the Old Master and I teach him from time to time, but he didn't learn well. I don't know what trouble he caused again, that even a prince came to the door."

The Old Mistress listened to her muddled reply and didn't grasp the head at all, frowning: "It seems you don't know the root cause either."

Wang Xifeng glanced at her mother-in-law and saw that she was muddled and her reply didn't match. She felt a bit disdainful in her heart. Was this what the Old Mistress wanted to hear?

"The Old Mistress doesn't need to worry. Although that person is an official, his words are also polite and regular. It doesn't look like he's coming to blame, saying he brought a letter from Prince Prince Jia Shun to Young Master Cong and wants to hand it to him personally."

A prince sending a letter to a boy who hadn't grown up, what was this and what was that? And it was an illegitimate son with such a lowly status. The Old Mistress, Lady Wang, and others were all a bit stunned.

Only Tan Chun's bright eyes turned, and she seemed to have associated something.

Sitting beside her was a girl who was weak and not victorious, the most intelligent and spiritual, seeming to notice Tan Chun's strangeness, and her clear-as-water eyes kept sizing her up.

The Old Mistress said: "Then let someone go and call him, let him go and see the person himself. The person from Prince Prince Jia Shun Prefecture shouldn't be neglected."

Wang Xifeng said: "Someone has already been sent to call him, saying he went out early in the morning."

The Old Mistress frowned after hearing this. She was old and knowledgeable, and she was a super-grade National Lady. She entered the palace to pay respects to the Empress Dowager and Empress every festival, and her understanding of the roots of the powerful in the court was not something others in the hall could compare to.

She knew that Prince Prince Jia Shun was the youngest son most doted on by the Retired Emperor, and had been raised by the legitimate wife of Prince Wu, the old thousand-year-old, when he was young, but the current Emperor was still very close to this youngest brother.

This Prince Prince Jia Shun was talented and romantic, had always ignored political affairs, only loved to read and study, was a wise king with a very good reputation in the court, and his status in the royal family was very clear and noble.

Such a person could not be neglected in the slightest, whether for public or private reasons. Since he sent someone to the prefecture to deliver a letter, the etiquette must be thorough and beyond reproach, so that everyone would be decent when it spread.

The Old Mistress looked at the handsome youth chatting with the girls and said: "Then let Lian'er go and entertain him. The etiquette cannot be less. Call a few more servants to find your brother. It's New Year's Eve and he's still wandering around."

Wang Xifeng smiled: "It's not a coincidence today. Lian'er and the Great Master were called away by the East Prefecture's Zhen Big Brother, saying they were discussing the list of New Year's banquet invitations. They invited too many people last year, so they have to be careful this year."

The Old Mistress thought for a while and said: "Then you can't leave people there, it doesn't look like it. Since he is also an official, let the Second Master come forward to meet him, complete the etiquette, and ask what's going on."

She said again: "When the person is found and the matter is finished, call him over. I want to ask him."

Hearing this, Lady Wang's expression was indifferent, and other young men and women were a bit curious. Most of them were not familiar with the youth in the East Road Courtyard.

Only Tan Chun's expression was a bit moved. Hearing Prince Prince Jia Shun sending a letter to Jia Cong, she vaguely thought of some reasons, but she wasn't sure in her heart.

The weak-as-a-flower girl beside her didn't pay attention to Tan Chun's expression this time.

Seeing the cousin she hadn't seen before in the prefecture, she must not be well-liked.

Lady Xing heard the Old Mistress wanting to call Jia Cong over to ask questions, her face stiffened, and she felt very uncomfortable in her heart.

She hated this illegitimate son with a lowly status the most, half because Jia She didn't like this son, and she fawned over her own man the most, so naturally, she followed her husband's lead.

Another reason was that she also believed that if it weren't for this fierce and ominous evil seed and his lowly mother, the Old Mistress wouldn't have despised her husband.

Now it should have been her branch that was glorious and occupied this Rongguo Prefecture, instead of being suppressed in that unnatural East Road Courtyard now.