When the Anguo Gong and his family heard the news that Xiao Chengjun had been deposed, their reaction was something else entirely.
“How… how can this be?” Lou Jianyu said, thunderstruck.
“Wasn’t the Crown Prince just married some days ago? How can they depose him?!” Mdm Wei screeched.
“The Emperor’s edict has been passed. The Crown Prince Consort is to be reinstated as the Anguo Gong’s Shizi, and has also been promoted to an official of the third rank – the Left Commander-General of the Yulin Troops,” the messenger said, not daring to look up at the Anguo Gong and his furen.
Lou Jianyu waved a hand to dismiss the messenger, then paced around the room with his hands behind his back.
Lou Jing actually got promoted again! If one was specific about it, he might be the Anguo Gong, but he was still in his mourning period and could not take on any assignments from the Imperial Court. Lou Jing, on the other hand, was an active Court official. The difference between a third-ranked Court official and a fourth-ranked Court official was like the difference between heaven and earth; a third-ranked official was considered a very high-ranking official, and a fourth-ranked official was not. That little bastard was going to be even harder to manage moving forward.
“Guogong ye, you can’t let Shizi ye return here to stay,” Mdm Wei said, trembling slightly as she caught hold of Lou Jianyu’s arm. “In a few months, our child will be born, and if he’s seen by Lou Jing, we won’t be able to cover it up.”
Actually, getting pregnant during the mourning period wasn’t anything particularly unusual. The usual way of dealing with this was to either abort the child, or send the pregnant consort to a country estate for two or three years. When the consort returned with the child, they could just pretend the child was a little younger than he actually was. This was their original plan – to have Mdm Wei stop receiving guests for a while, and then move to a country estate to stay after the New Year. However, if Lou Jing knew about this, then the solution would not be so simple any more.
“That bastard must have known that the Emperor was going to depose the Crown Prince! That’s why he was in such a hurry to get his hands on his share of the family assets!” Lou Jianyu fumed, kicking over a chair in fury. He was so angry that he was trembling. Suddenly, he paused. “Actually, let’s use this turn of events to get back the assets that were given to him!” he exclaimed, slapping his thigh in glee.
“Guogong ye…” Mdm Wei gaped at him. At this critical juncture, he wasn’t even thinking about protecting their child, and only had his mind on the family assets!
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The accountant had a pained expression on his face after hearing what Lou Jianyu said. “Guogong ye, these documents have already been stamped with the government official’s seal. Cheng Xiuru has also transferred most of the assets and all of the silver over to Lou Jing some time ago. The only thing left is to have the title deeds to the houses and land transferred to his name,” the account said.
“Xb, ufa wf atbrf vbmewfcar!” Obe Aljcse rjlv jcuglis. Lf qblcafv ja atf yeaifg. “Po tf ralii kjcar ab fcafg atf ujaf bo atlr gfrlvfcmf, atfc tf klii ulnf jii atf ojwlis jrrfar yjmx.”
The butler and the accountant exchanged a long-suffering look. “Guogong ye, we… the Shizi is still the Crown Prince Consort now, and we insignificant servants can’t do that,” they protested.
Before the edict deposing the Crown Prince was made public, the Chunde Emperor had to go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple to “inform” the Xiao family ancestors that the Crown Prince had been deposed, and also conduct a ceremonial sacrifice. He wasn’t considered properly deposed until then.
Of course, as the deposed Crown Prince, Xiao Chengjun did not have to go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple again. He spent his last few days in the Eastern Palace with his Consort.
“In a few days, I’ll have to go back to the Anguo Gong mansion. Dianxia, is there anything you want me to bring back?” Lou Jing asked, pouring a cup of lychee wine for Xiao Chengjun. The palace staff were scurrying about them, as busy as bees in the leadup to their move out of the Eastern Palace, but the two of them were just lazing around in the back garden of the Eastern Palace, tasting wine and tea.
“You can take whatever you want in this palace, as long as it’s within reason,” Xiao Chengjun said, accepting the white jade cup from Lou Jing and taking a small sip. The refreshing wine had the sweet taste and smell of lychees, and was very much to his liking.
“Really? Even the calligraphy, paintings and antiques?” Lou Jing asked, raising an eyebrow. He ran through what he could take with him in his mind’s eye.
Xiao Chengjun looked at him in amusement, then slowly drained his cup. “It’s not like you’re in need of money. Why do you sound so covetous?” he asked.
“It’d be a waste not to take it,” Lou Jing said, grinning as he filled Xiao Chengjun’s cup again. Inwardly, he thought that if the Chunde Emperor gave in to Chen Guifei’s pillow talk and really made the Third Prince the Crown Prince, it would be hilarious to see the Third Prince walk into an Eastern Palace that had been completely stripped bare.
Xiao Chengjun knew exactly what he was thinking, and shook his head helplessly. “After the packing is done in the next few days, come with me to visit Chengjin,” he said. Ever since his younger brother was poisoned, visiting him made Xiao Chengjun’s heart ache with unbearable pain, which was why he only visited his brother once a month even though he was only twenty li away. He found it much easier to bear when Lou Jing was with him, and so instinctively wanted to take him along for this visit as well.
Lou Jing raised his head to look at the current Min Wang Dianxia. He smiled as he extended a hand to grasp Xiao Chengjun’s winecup-bearing hand in his. “I’d go anywhere so long as I’m with you,” he said.
Xiao Chengjun shot him a look. The heavy atmosphere had dissipated with his words and turned into an awkward one instead.
The title of Min Wang was a Qinwang rank, but this new rank was on a much lower level than the Crown Prince’s. His income was greatly decreased, and the interior of his residence could not be as lavish as before. He even had to get an entirely new set of clothes that were befitting of his lowered status, including new sets of Imperial Court robes and daily wear robes. All this required about half a month to get in order.
The ones happiest about the move back to the Anguo Gong mansion were Lou Jing’s two maids, Xunxia and Yingqiu. Being a palace maid was an honour, but palace maids could only be released from palace service after the age of twenty-five, which also meant that they couldn’t get married until then as well. They also didn’t have that much to do in the palace, as Lou Jing was always attended to by Le Xian these days. Having worked in the palace, Xunxia and Yingqiu would certainly be envied by the other younger maids, and it made them both have the feeling that they were about to have a glorious homecoming.
Lou Jing looked at his two ecstatic maids and couldn’t help smiling in amusement.
“Take whatever you want now,” Xiao Chengjun said, raising his chin slightly to indicate that he could take whatever he wanted from Bafeng Palace.
“I’ve already packed the things I wanted much earlier,” Lou Jing said with a mysterious smile. He led the Crown Prince by the hand to see the things he’d secretly stashed away.
Lou Jing’s dowry had been returned to him, and the Imperial family’s betrothal gifts had also been given to him to bring back as a form of compensation. These were all worth quite a bit, and he’d already gotten Cheng Xiuru to bring people with him to check them over, record them and cart them off to Zhuque Hall. Today was the last day of the move, and they both were here to pick up the little odds and ends that might have been missed out earlier.
The things Lou Jing wanted to take were all packed into a painted box that was about three feet long. Xiao Chengjun opened it curiously, and upon seeing the contents, was lost for words.
There were quite a few items in the box – seven or eight of the little black boxes with plum flower carvings, a blue-bound book titled “Palace of the Sun”, two little carved wooden figurines, and a pillow.
Xiao Chengjun looked helplessly at the small black painted boxes and the book; his Consort did like to behave in the most unexpected of ways, and there was nothing he could do about that. As to the pillow, however, he was completely confounded – why did Lou Jing pick the pillow he always used? “This pillow…” he started, his voice trailing off.
Lou Jing proudly showed off his treasures, then picked up the two wooden figurines. He gave the one holding the big fish to Xiao Chengjun.
“Why don’t you give me that one instead?” Xiao Chengjun asked, his lips curving into a smile as he pointed at the figurine hugging an ingot.
“This one has an ingot,” Lou Jing said, circling an arm around Xiao Chengjun’s waist. “In future, I’ll make the money. All you have to do is eat the fish.”
Xiao Chengjun smiled merrily as he held the little wooden figurine hugging a fish. Lou Jing was essentially saying that he would support him financially, and that he could be Lou Jing’s kept man. No one had ever dared to say something like this to him in his life, or rather, no one had ever been willing to say something like this to him.
The Min Wang mansion had been newly renovated, and was only a few doors down from the Anguo Gong mansion.
On the day Xiao Chengjun left the palace, he went straight to Min Wang residence. He had wanted to send Lou Jing back home, but they were no longer husband and wife, so they had to abide by the rules of propriety in front of other people. He could only sigh and board his horse carriage.
The Anguo Gong had sent a horse carriage to pick Lou Jing up. Lou Jing raised an eyebrow. Was this an olive branch? He raised his chin slightly in Xunxia and Yingqiu’s direction, indicating that they could get on the Anguo Gong’s horse carriage. He himself sat on the Imperial horse carriage and made straight for Luotang Square.