Chapter 162: "When Did You Get Back?
Chapter 162: Chapter 162: "When Did You Get Back?
"Well, actually..." Cui Lingyao hesitated, stopping and starting before she said, "What I said earlier was a bit one-sided."
Chen Minrou raised an eyebrow. "Which part?"
"The part where..."
Cui Lingyao inwardly cursed herself. She’d spoken so recklessly just to provoke Zhao Shijie, and now she had to eat her own words.
She said woodenly, "It’s just that... I don’t think a man’s love is entirely unreliable."
The words hung in the air, followed by a moment of silence.
Chen Minrou was surprised, but she quickly processed it and let out a laugh of pure exasperation. "So you’re telling me you and Xie Jinbai have already made up?"
"..." Cui Lingyao felt ashamed, but she still nodded and admitted, "We’ve made up."
It had been nearly ten days since she’d sent the letter. By her calculations, if Xie Jinbai traveled day and night, he should be back around now.
But he was injured, so he probably couldn’t endure the jostling of a horse.
He would most likely travel by water.
’That man is so infuriating,’ she thought. ’He knew how much I was waiting for him to return, yet after receiving my letter, he didn’t even bother to send a single reply.’
For days, she had been asking constantly if any letters had arrived from Pingzhou.
The way Li Yong looked at her had even started to get strange.
’As if I miss him that much!’
Chen Minrou’s expression was complicated. "After he publicly humiliated you, after you had a near-death experience, you’re just going to forgive him that easily?"
The thought was practically written all over her face: she was being far too spineless!
"It’s not like that," Cui Lingyao explained in a small voice. "A lot of things happened... it’s complicated, but you can’t blame him for everything."
Chen Minrou laughed. "Forcing you to drink at his wedding to another woman, humiliating you in public—is there some hidden reason for that, too?"
Cui Lingyao: "..."
She couldn’t answer.
The two had grown up together, had similar temperaments, and were extremely close. There was nothing they couldn’t say to each other.
Just as Cui Lingyao could bluntly tell her to get a divorce, Chen Minrou wasn’t holding back now either.
She said, exasperated with her friend, "Don’t let him sweet-talk you into forgetting everything. Think back to that day, to the grand wedding he held to marry another woman! And what about Li Wanrong? She’s a living, breathing person! A real person standing right between you two!"
No matter how Zhao Shijie was, at least he had never shown special favor to another woman and brought her into the family.
And he certainly never made her, his principal wife, attend and drink at his wedding to another woman.
A single reckless threat from him was enough for her to hold a grudge, making it difficult for her to feel the same intimacy with him as before.
It made no sense for her best friend to be this spineless.
Chen Minrou knew Cui Lingyao.
She knew her friend wasn’t a girl without a backbone.
That’s why this was so strange.
She said angrily, "Did Xie Jinbai put a hex on you or something? A few short months is all it took for you to let go of all your grudges?"
And they’d already made up before the issue with Li Wanrong was even resolved.
That was a good question.
Cui Lingyao was asking herself the same thing.
Putting aside the inside story about the ’system’ and ’missions,’ she racked her brain for a reason.
After a long while, she managed to squeeze out, "He’s just too good at playing the victim. I can’t really handle it."
Chen Minrou was puzzled. "For example?"
Without even thinking, Cui Lingyao replied, "He really knows how to cry."
Chen Minrou: "..."
Her expression went blank for a second, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly. "Xie Jinbai?"
That fearsome god of death who looked ready to crack someone’s skull open at a moment’s notice... cries?
She would sooner believe that Zhao Shijie took a concubine and had eight sons in a row than believe Xie Jinbai could cry.
And that he ’really knows how’ to, at that.
Cui Lingyao pursed her lips uncomfortably. "Anyway, when he cries, it really gets to me. I think I must quite like him."
"..." Chen Minrou was speechless and put a hand to her forehead. "Yaoyao, not counting the three years you were in a coma, you’ve still been married for a full three years."
And yours wasn’t an arranged marriage dictated by your parents and a matchmaker; you two genuinely fell for each other first before getting married.
So where did those three words, "quite like him," even come from?
She had always thought her friend and her husband were a deeply devoted and loving couple.
’I guess... that wasn’t the case?’
It seemed there really was a lot more to the story.
Chen Minrou was truly curious now and was about to ask for all the details.
Just then, several figures abruptly appeared at the courtyard entrance.
The one in the lead was dressed in a eunuch’s uniform, apparently a high-ranking Chief Eunuch from the palace.
The eunuch, wearing an official’s hat and holding a bright yellow imperial edict, strode into the courtyard with his head held high. He scanned the area and asked, "Where is Princess Consort Yu?"
Cui Lingyao froze, handed the child to Chen Minrou, and slowly stood up.
The Chief Eunuch glanced at her and gave a polite smile. "By order of Your Majesty, the Princess Consort is summoned to the palace for a meeting. Please come with this servant."
It was no secret that the old Emperor was in poor health and had little interest in managing court affairs.
After Xie Jinbai was ennobled as Prince Jin, military and political power had been gradually transferred into his hands, while the Emperor himself recovered from his illness in the palace.
He spent more than half the year confined to his sickbed.
As his daughter-in-law, Cui Lingyao had only seen him once, on her wedding day.
At all other times, the Emperor rarely made an appearance.
Even for major ceremonies like the annual ancestral rites, a few of the Princes would preside in his stead.
To suddenly summon her, his daughter-in-law...
Cui Lingyao thought of Zhao Shijie’s reminder the other day.
All these days had passed, and Chen Minrou’s recovery was there for all to see.
The case records from the Imperial Hospital were also crystal clear.
It seemed word had reached the Emperor’s ears, and he had truly become interested.
Chen Minrou, standing to the side, smiled and said, "An audience with His Majesty requires one to burn incense, bathe, and change into court attire. She’ll need to return to the Prince Mansion first, Sir..."
The Chief Eunuch cut her off with a raised hand.
"His Majesty has said there is no need for such complicated formalities. The Princess Consort need only accompany this servant to the palace."
Chen Minrou’s expression changed slightly. She was about to speak again, but Cui Lingyao shook her head. "Since Father Emperor has said there’s no need for ceremony, we should obey."
She accepted the edict, handed it to Li Yong behind her, and started to walk out with the eunuchs.
Li Yong felt the imperial edict in his hands was as heavy as a mountain.
It was like a hot potato; he could barely hold on to it.
The Prince had not yet returned to the capital. If anything happened to the Princess Consort...
...no matter the reason, a failure to protect his master was a failure to protect his master.
Even if the one causing trouble was the Emperor himself, it would be the same.
Ten thousand deaths would not be enough to absolve him of the blame.
A summons from the old Emperor for his daughter-in-law shouldn’t be done with too much fanfare, so the imperial eunuch had come from the palace without bringing a royal carriage.
Cui Lingyao would have to take her own carriage to the palace.
The carriage was waiting at the main entrance of the Duke Zhao Mansion.
Chen Minrou accompanied her the whole way. Zhao Shijie, who must have heard the news from somewhere, also appeared, his expression just as grave.
But under the authority of the throne, no one dared to defy the Emperor.
Besides, the old Emperor had only summoned her for questioning; he hadn’t actually done anything yet.
At the entrance of the Zhao Mansion, Cui Lingyao stopped and smiled at Chen Minrou behind her. "Don’t worry. I’ll be right back. I’ll come see you again tomorrow."
Chen Minrou forced a smile.
Cui Lingyao sighed softly. Before getting into the carriage, she had already resigned herself to the idea of giving one Hundred Diseases Pill to the old Emperor if it came to that.
She still had two left, after all.
But as she stepped up into the carriage, lifted the curtain, and ducked inside, she saw someone was already sitting there.
He was dressed in black, cross-collared robes, his hair held up by a jade coronet. His long legs were slightly bent as he leaned casually against the carriage wall.
Cui Lingyao stared, dumbfounded. "When did you get back?"