If not abolished

Chapter 102 Unnamed Draft

The night before leaving Beijing.

"Miss Cao, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince invites you." Wu Cheng came personally to invite her. Cao Wanyi was flattered. She and Chu Xuanying had just arrived at the Eastern Palace and had been arranged to stay in a side hall of the Qingyun Palace.

"Hello, Eunuch Wu." Cao Wanyi hurried out to greet him.

"Please, girl."

"Please lead the way, sir," Cao Wanyi said modestly.

Cao Wanyi walked sideways with Wu Cheng all the way to the main hall of Qingyun Palace, "Miss Cao, we are here. I have been ordered to bring you here. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has ordered that you go in alone."

"Yes."

"Greetings to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Cao Wanyi did not look up after she entered. After paying her respects, she did not hear any voice for a long time and did not dare to stand up.

Finally, there was movement in the hall. Zhu Zhanji just went to the back to get something out and saw Cao Wanyi kneeling on the ground. She was very polite. No wonder she and Shanxiang could be friends in her previous life.

"Stand up," Zhu Zhanji put down his things and asked, "When did you come in? You were inside just now. It's hard for you to kneel the whole time."

"Your servant has just arrived, too. It hasn't been long."

"Go aside and grind the ink." Zhu Zhanji said without wasting words.

"Yes." Cao Wanyi immediately stood beside the desk and ground ink.

Zhu Zhanji picked up his pen and began to write, saying as he wrote: "I will leave the palace tomorrow. I asked you to come here tonight because I have a few things to tell you."

"Your Highness, please tell me."

The next morning.

When the Crown Princess heard that Zhu Zhanji had summoned Cao Wanyi last night, she was extremely happy.

"It seems that this Cao Wanyi has some skills."

"I think this Miss Cao is much better than the previous one. Your Highness the Crown Prince has good taste."

"Before, Aguina was bewitched by a demon, but now she has come to her senses. There is no girl in this capital city who is not better than that girl."

"It's just that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has to leave today, otherwise he would have a chance to develop a relationship with Miss Cao." Yun Jin said regretfully.

"There's no rush for this. He's already in the Eastern Palace, so he can't run away. There's still a long time to go." The Crown Princess said indifferently.

"That's what the Queen said."

Zhu Zhanji walked for more than a month and finally arrived in Jining.

Then I reunited with Hu Shanxiang.

At this time, the two were still at Zhu Zhanji's residence in Jining. Hu Shanxiang patiently listened to the whole incident. She didn't care about anything, but was just gossiping and wanted to know how this good lover became his brother's sister.

"So your brother stole your girlfriend away from you?"

"I've already told you, I gave it to him on purpose. As for stealing my girl, it's fine if others think so, but can you please listen carefully? I never liked Sun Ruoji in the first place." Zhu Zhanji didn't care what others thought about this matter, even if they were making fun of him, but Shanxiang couldn't misunderstand him.

"Why don't you like her? Miss Sun is a famous virtuous woman and she is also beautiful. How could you not like her?" Hu Shanxiang naturally couldn't understand why Zhu Zhanji didn't like Sun Ruoji. This was a preference recognized by history. If she hadn't suddenly intervened, the two of them would have been childhood sweethearts, a match made in heaven. How did it become like this now? Did she wear a fake Ming Dynasty?

"Why are there so many reasons? If you don't like her, then who cares if she is a virtuous woman or not? No matter how pretty she is, what does it have to do with me?" Zhu Zhanji said angrily.

"Your Highness really thinks so?"

"Of course, otherwise I would still be here."

"Well? It's getting late. Thank you, Your Highness, for today. I will go back first, otherwise my grandmother will be worried if she can't find anyone." Hu Shanxiang felt that if she continued the conversation, the consequences would be something she couldn't solve right now, so she quickly changed the subject.

Zhu Zhanji naturally noticed her evasive eyes. This time he couldn't push her too far and had to take it slow.

"It's really getting late. I'll take you back."

"Your Highness, please don't bother coming in person..." Hu Shanxiang declined politely.

"Even if I didn't see you off, I would still have to go back to the banquet. I didn't do this specially to see you off." It didn't matter whether Zhu Zhanji went back or not, he just wanted to see her off.

"Okay." Hu Shanxiang didn't doubt it.

The two climbed up the ladder again.

Coincidentally, as soon as I returned to the wing room, a servant came knocking on the door.

"Miss Hu San is in there. Old Madam Hu is looking for you."

Hu Shanxiang opened the door and went out. Zhu Zhanji saw her leave and left too.

Hu Shanxiang followed her into the hall and walked quickly to the side of Old Lady Hu.

"Where did you go?" Old Mrs. Hu asked in a low voice.

"This is a long story. I will explain it to my grandmother when I get back." Hu Shanxiang didn't know where to start for a moment.

Seeing this, Mrs. Hu didn't ask any more questions.

After the banquet, the grandfather and grandson rode in the same carriage on the way back.

Hu Shanxiang lowered her head and played with her fingers. Old Mrs. Hu asked casually, "You met a lot of people from the Du family today. How did you feel?" Although the elders of both families had their own ideas, it still depended on their granddaughter's own feelings.

"Grandma Du is amiable, Mrs. Du is also very enthusiastic, and Miss Du takes good care of me." Hu Shanxiang commented optimistically.

"There is nothing else besides these." Old Mrs. Hu asked again.

Hu Shanxiang shook her head.

"I'm afraid all the guests today share the same feeling about your comments. It seems that you are not very satisfied with the Du family." Old Mrs. Hu affirmed.

"That's not the case. The elders in the Du family are all very nice, really. It might be that someone else made me feel bad and affected the whole process."

"Other people, who?" Old Mrs. Hu naturally didn't know what Hu Shanxiang had encountered.

Hu Shanxiang briefly recounted what happened during her meetings with those young ladies.

"How can this be? How dare they bully you like this? Do they really think there is no one in our family?" Old Mrs. Hu was so angry.

"How could the Du family do this and let their guests suffer like this in their home?" Old Mrs. Hu kept saying this.

"Grandma, don't be angry. It's just a few words. It won't matter. Besides, the Du family can't be blamed for this. It's not their family that treated me like this. I didn't know those people would do this when I was entertaining guests." Hu Shanxiang continued, "Sister Du also spoke up for me."

"Then she is the host. Can she talk about you with them?"

"Grandma, don't be angry. If I had known, I wouldn't have told you."

"That won't do. You can't learn from those people who only report good news and not bad news when they grow up. You must speak out if you suffer any grievances outside. Family is your support, right? It's an instinctive reaction for grandma to be angry, but you can't not tell me next time just because you are afraid that I will be angry. Do you hear me?" Old Mrs. Hu said solemnly.

"Okay, I'll tell you everything, whether I'm happy or sad, as long as grandma doesn't find me annoying."

"What nonsense are you talking about? How could that be possible?" The old lady looked at her granddaughter and couldn't help but sigh again.

"Grandma, why are you sighing for no reason?"

"Grandma is worried about your marriage. If those words get out, how will people in Jining City look at you? It will be difficult for you to get married in the future." Old Mrs. Hu said worriedly.

"It's all my fault. I was living well in the capital with my big family, but now I have to let my grandmother come back with me, and people say this to me. It's all my fault."

"How can you be blamed for this? Okay, grandma doesn't want to think about it anymore. Don't blame yourself anymore." The old lady loved her granddaughter to begin with. How could she bear to see her like this? She immediately hugged her and comforted her.

"Then let's not talk about the wedding yesterday. Those who know my granddaughter will naturally not believe those rumors. Those who don't know my granddaughter in the first place believed those words. Why should we care?"

"You should be open-minded. Grandmother, just thinking about those people..."

"Grandma, don't worry. If the Du family is in trouble because of those rumors, we can use this as an opportunity to see clearly what is right and wrong." Hu Shanxiang continued, "In fact, these bad guys are just paper tigers. There is nothing to be afraid of."

"That's what Er said."

"Besides, my granddaughter may not marry in Jining." Hu Shanxiang said, thinking of Zhu Zhanji.

"Well, what do you mean? Grandma, I feel like there's something else behind your words." Why does Old Mrs. Hu feel like there's something she doesn't know.

"Grandma... that's what my granddaughter said."

"No, why are you talking like that all of a sudden? Tell me, is there something else I don't know?" Mrs. Hu grabbed Hu Shanxiang's hand in a hurry, and happened to touch her wound: "Hiss."

"What's wrong?" Mrs. Hu saw her granddaughter's brows were furrowed, so she rolled up her sleeves and saw a large bruise on her elbow. There was blood oozing from it. "How did this happen?"

"I accidentally fell while playing with them. It's no big deal, it just looks scary, but it's not serious." Hu Shanxiang deliberately downplayed the incident in order not to worry her grandmother.

"This is not serious. You have grown up and have fallen down only a few times since childhood. Your skin has never been broken. Did you really fall by yourself?" It's no wonder that Mrs. Hu thought too much. Those young ladies didn't like their granddaughter in the first place. It would be easy for them to trip her up when they were playing.

"I really fell down by myself. At most they would say a few words, but they wouldn't be so bold as to harm me in the Du family." Hu Shanxiang said firmly.

When Mrs. Hu saw that her granddaughter insisted that she fell down, she no longer doubted it.

"Have you applied the medicine? Will it leave scars?"

"I've applied medicine. It's just a minor injury. It shouldn't leave a scar. Don't worry, grandma."

"It seems that the Du family is really incompatible with you. This happened on your first visit. I think we should just forget about the matter between the two families."

"But these things have little to do with the Du family, right? Besides, isn't it said that Master Du is a good person? It wouldn't be a good idea to reject it right away."

"What's wrong with this? There's no agreement. No matter how good Mr. Du is, what's the use if his family is not good? A man's character is important when getting married, but apart from that, the most important thing is what kind of family he has. You will be the one who will get along with his family in the backyard in the future, so whether they are good or not is also a factor in the selection." Old Mrs. Hu spoke from experience.

"Grandma is right. I'll do whatever you say." Hu Shanxiang didn't care. She didn't really want to get married anyway.