Chapter 1608: Brothers and Sisters — We Are All One Family!

Rescuing the Great Ming — Main Text, Chapter 1596: Be Solemn, This Is a Funeral! Maria Teresa von Mancini lifted the carriage curtain and glanced outside. The streets were filled with only blue and white — terribly monotonous. The streets of Pukou were broad, lined on both sides with tall, upright buildings, and the shops along the way stood row upon row. There were many pedestrians on the streets, and numerous itinerant vendors selling all kinds of delicious-looking snacks, calling out their wares in high and low voices from time to time — quite fascinating.

Yet the colors of this imposing, vibrant metropolis were utterly monotonous — everywhere one looked, it was either white or blue... In this respect it fell far short of the colorful great cities of Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Nanjing.

Not only did the city lack color, even the clothing of the passersby was monotonous — all blue and white. It was truly too ugly.

The whole city gave one a gloomy, sinister feeling, and stirred an impulse to flee as quickly as possible.

What made it even harder for Maria Teresa to bear was that she herself had been issued several sets of especially ugly white and blue garments — not only were the colors unattractive, the workmanship was poor, and nothing fit properly. They were all loose and baggy, hanging on her body like sacks... She was the most beautiful "Snow White" on the European continent, and she had brought more than a dozen trunks of spare clothes and several large trunks of jewelry to match her outfits when she came to the Great Ming for the funeral.

When she had appeared in the great Ming cities of Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Shanghai, she had attracted the gaze of who knew how many handsome Eastern princes... On her way to the East, Maria Teresa had already made inquiries of the swarthy uncle Zhu Hetu and the Turkmen Khan Zhu Helei.

This time, many Eastern princes would attend the funeral of the late Emperor Youjian — including princes from wealthy great nations such as the United States, the Kingdom of Qing, and the United Kingdom of the Southern Continent. Snow White, of course, was going to marry a rich and powerful prince!

A princess marrying a prince was a proper match! And the princes and princesses had all reached marriageable age. This grand funeral was the perfect opportunity to get to know one another and deepen their friendship... Once the funeral was done, they could proceed straight to the wedding — what a seamless transition!

So Maria Teresa always dressed herself up beautifully and took the initiative to strike up conversations with those princes... and had even succeeded in establishing friendships with several of them.

But just as Maria Teresa was hoping to go a step further and develop a pure friendship with a certain prince, the "Old Black Prince" — a dark, gaunt man who had traveled with her all the way from the island of Temasek and looked thoroughly unapproachable — came to break up the romance!

And he even raised a pile of baffling objections.

The strangest of them was something about not marrying someone of the same surname — but she and those princes did not share a surname at all! Her surname was Mancini, which could also be called Bourbon-Mancini, while those princes were all surnamed Zhu. How could they possibly share a surname? Could this Old Black Prince even read? Whether written in Chinese, Latin, French, or German, Bourbon-Mancini and Zhu could not possibly be the same!

Neither by transliteration nor by meaning were they the same — how could they be the same surname?

Then the Old Black Prince raised an even stranger objection — their bloodlines were too close, and they might easily produce simple-minded children!

Very well — setting aside whether a couple's blood relation had anything to do with simple-minded children, even if it did, how could Maria Teresa and those little Zhu princes possibly be close relatives? They were not even of the same race — how could their bloodlines be too close?

Zhu Cizhao had explained this to Maria Teresa all along the way, but the little minx was wicked — she agreed readily to his face, then turned around and went off to find her prince brothers again.

And there was nothing Zhu Cizhao could do about her!

For one thing, Maria Teresa was the daughter of the Archduke of Austria... and so beautiful — her future prospects were obvious.

For another, Maria Teresa's name was not in the imperial genealogy! Strictly speaking, she did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Clan Court, but was received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She had come to Nanjing as the representative of a foreign monarch to attend the funeral of the Chongzhen Retired Emperor. What was wrong with her flirting a little with unmarried Ming princes of the imperial clan?

And she had not gone too far — she was merely looking for a suitable marriage partner for herself...

To be honest, if her father were not Zhu Cilang's illegitimate son, her looks and background alone would have qualified her to be the Crown Princess of an "unruly feudatory."

So Zhu Cizhao, having no other choice, could only "invite" Maria Teresa to travel with him. They journeyed together the whole way, and he had his own granddaughter-in-law, a princess from the Siamese royal family, accompany Maria Teresa.

After arriving at Pukou, Zhu Cizhao, as a senior elder of the Ming imperial clan, also invited Maria Teresa to ride in the same carriage with him, so that on the way to Laoshan he could once more admonish her about the matters and etiquette requiring her attention.

It was not about elaborate ceremony... Zhu Cizhao did not expect Maria Teresa to behave with the propriety of a Ming princess or commandery princess — in truth, this generation of Ming imperial princes and princesses were none of them very proper. In the old days, who knew how many of them would have been dragged off to the high walls and confined.

But times were different now — it was simply impossible to punish them like that... It was just a funeral for a Retired Emperor who had died of old age; it would be a poor bargain indeed if it turned into a world war.

Still, Zhu Cizhao had to tell Maria Teresa not to be too conspicuous, not to smile and laugh all day, and not to go about casting flirtatious glances everywhere... She must be solemn — they were holding a funeral here!

The old man was garrulous, and he nagged the whole way. Fortunately, Maria Teresa had a good temper — no matter what the old man said, she accepted it all with an open mind. Whether she would actually change, however, was another matter entirely.

Just as she was smiling and listening to old Zhu Cizhao's nagging, the carriage suddenly came to an abrupt halt.

Zhu Cizhao lifted the curtain and looked out, then said to Maria Teresa, "Maria, we have arrived..."

Maria Teresa also glanced out the carriage window and saw a vast expanse of red walls and tall buildings, resplendent in gold and jade. In the center stood an enormous gate tower, even more magnificent in its grandeur. Above the gate tower hung a field of white banners, white streamers, and white cloth. The soldiers guarding the tightly shut great gate wore white mourning hemp over their uniforms.

"Is this Laoshan Palace?" Maria Teresa asked.

"It is," Zhu Cizhao nodded. "How does it compare with King Louis's Palace of Versailles?"

"It is grander!" Maria Teresa said. "And it seems to cover more ground..."

Zhu Cizhao said in a grave voice, "The Great Ming Celestial Dynasty is a vast and mighty nation, certainly not to be compared with the Western country of Rome! The rules within Laoshan Palace are also beyond comparison with Versailles. You must observe them carefully and on no account act rashly. Do you understand?"

"I understand..." Maria Teresa stuck out her tongue and answered in a small voice, then asked, "Granduncle, shall we go in now?"

Zhu Cizhao shook his head, then raised his hand and pointed at a two-story building outside the gate tower, saying to Maria Teresa, "We shall wait there first... Someone will come out to receive us."

Zhu Cizhao was no ordinary imperial prince. He was a senior elder of the Ming imperial clan, a "Single-Character Prince" of the Great Ming, the King of the Phuket Kingdom, and had come from afar to attend the funeral. Zhu Cilang's side naturally had to receive him with due ceremony. Even if he did not come out personally, he had to send someone of the rank of Crown Prince or Crown Princess to greet him. Therefore, the officials accompanying Zhu Cizhao had already gone ahead to announce his arrival, and Zhu Cizhao and Maria Teresa had to wait outside Laoshan Palace for a while.

As the old prince Zhu Cizhao walked with Maria Teresa toward the small building outside the main gate of Laoshan Palace, he continued to admonish her: "You have come to mourn. When you meet the Great Ming Emperor — that is, your grandfather — you must weep, and weep loudly. That is the rule. Do you understand? Even if you cannot cry, you must force out a few wails!"

"I understand," Maria Teresa nodded earnestly. "Granduncle Prince, rest assured — I can cry, and I will certainly cry very sorrowfully! For the one who has unfortunately passed away is, after all, my great-grandfather!"

Zhu Cizhao nodded. "Very well, you do have some filial piety after all!"