The dragon fetus in Noble Consort Xue's belly was saved. Emperor Zhao Qing was overjoyed and sent a large pile of rewards to Zhong Cui Palace. No matter how many women in the palace were jealous, Empress Rui was completely quiet.
Emperor Zhao Qing forbade the people in the palace from talking too much about the shocking fetus in the Imperial Garden, but allowed her to summon her family members into the palace to talk. However, Old Madam Xue had passed away and Prime Minister Xue's family was small in population. They didn't have many women. In the end, only Xiang Wang Fei and Xue Second Taitai, Xin shi, were summoned into the palace.
Prime Minister Xue lost his wife in his middle years and did not remarry. He had two sons and two daughters. In the eyes of others, the two daughters were good fortune. One was honored as a noble consort, the other as a wangfei.
Madam Xin was summoned to the Palace in a daze. When she heard the good news, her head felt heavy and her feet felt light as she walked out of the Palace. When she got home, she repeated what the Imperial Consort had said to Second Master Xue.
"Niangniang didn't mention anything else. She only said that we don't have to worry about the marriage of the eldest young master of the fu. I didn't dare to ask. I thought, could it be that niangniang already has a candidate in mind and is just waiting for His Majesty to appoint the marriage?"
Second Master Xue was an assistant minister of the Ministry of War. He was about forty this year. His face was pale and beardless, his body slightly plump. At first glance, he didn't look like someone who would lead troops, but more like a country gentleman. No one could tell that he had followed Prime Minister Xue to the southwest when he was fourteen or fifteen.
"When niangniang said this, was Wang Fei present?" Second Master Xue asked out of the blue.
"Yes." Xin shi looked at her master's expression and couldn't help but ask: "Didn't Taiguoye have intentions of marrying a girl from the Rui Family to the eldest young master?"
Second Master Xue smiled indifferently: "Where did you hear that? Why would our family have a marriage alliance with the Count Fu?"
Xin shi stilled: "Didn't Taiguoye want me to investigate the character of Miss Zizhu in the Count Fu?"
A few months ago, during a family banquet, Prime Minister Xue called the two members of the second branch to him and mentioned that there was a young lady in the Earl's Mansion who was yet to be betrothed. The implication was that he wanted Xin's to pay a visit and find out what was going on.
Prime Minister Xue's fu was very different from other families. the main residence was managed by a few housekeepers. The second branch had moved out early to start their own business. So the Xue family only had women who could go out to socialize, Xin shi was the only one left.
Even though the assistant minister's wife's status wasn't very high, Xin Shi still went to the Countess's mansion twice. She didn't see Rui Zizhu in person, which meant that she had brought Rui Zizhu with her. The Countess didn't seem to be unhappy about it. But who would've thought that before the marriage could even be properly brought up, it would go down the drain for no reason.
Second Master Xue glanced at her and said: "Who said that it must be done after you inquired? Didn't you find a few girls for Kuang Xu? Do you want your son to marry all of them?"
Madam Xin's face reddened. She said defiantly, "What are you talking about, Master? How can Xu 'er be compared to his eldest cousin brother? Eldest Young Master is the eldest grandson who will inherit the family business in the future. How can we allow the marriage to be so casual? If the bride's family misunderstands, wouldn't they complain?"
Other families in the capital might fight over the family business, but the Xue family didn't have to worry about this. Old Master Xue had always been a man of his word. When his two sons started their own families, he "kicked" the younger one out and divided the family property. It was obvious that he wanted the eldest son to inherit the family business. Later, when the eldest son died, he didn't even mention the matter of bringing the younger son back to the Fu. Instead, he focused on cultivating the eldest grandson and didn't even give the second branch a chance to have other thoughts.
Such a simple and crude way of managing the family had once attracted the attention of all the rich families in Anling City. Of course, there were different opinions.
"Hehe." Second Master Xue just laughed this time. He looked at his shrewd wife and didn't say anything.
He was afraid that his extremely clever eldest nephew would mistakenly think that the Old Master really wanted him to marry the daughter of the Rui Family so that he could marry into the Earl's Mansion, settle the unjust case of the Tenth Princess falling off the building, and get along well with the Empress.
But he had always known that this was impossible.
Just because of this, his guifei meimei in the palace would never agree to this marriage. For their eldest brother's only son to marry the Empress' niece, it was a fantasy.
How could he not know how stubborn his eldest sister was? Many years ago, there was an accident. His second sister was confused and caused it.
"Old Master!" Madam Xin called back Second Master Xue who was reminiscing about the past.
"We don't have to worry about Young Master Xue. Father and Her Ladyship are looking at him. It's our Xu'er who should be worried," Madam Xin said with a worried face, "Our child will be seventeen in two months. Cheng Bi's marriage will be delayed. As the younger brother, how can he be one step ahead of us? Even if I want to look for a girl, I have to do it secretly. I'm afraid that father will be unhappy if he finds out. If I wait for another year or two, I'm afraid that the girls I like will all be chosen."
Second Master Xue also had a headache when he thought of his son. But it wasn't his son's marriage that he was worried about. Let's put it this way. The more successful his eldest brother's Cheng Bi was, the more disappointing his son was!
At such a young age, Xue Rui was already a fifth-rank official with two ranks of Jinshi. He could enter and leave the imperial court and had a reputation. Xue Kuangxu was neither good at literature nor martial arts. He couldn't bear the hardships of learning martial arts. He was not suited for studying. He only knew how to get into trouble all day long.
"The young master of my Xue family doesn't have to worry about marriage." There were countless families in Anling who wanted to be related to the Xue family. It was others who were worried. Second Master Xue felt that Madam Xin was worrying for nothing.
"If you have time to ask about this nonsense, why don't you discipline your precious son? He runs around all day long. Even I, as his father, don't know what he is busy with."
Madam Xin didn't want to listen to him scolding her son. She stood up and glared at him. She said, "I don't know what you're doing. Every time you see him, you scold him with a straight face. He was so scared that he didn't dare to come close to you. Alright, I will send someone to find him. Master, please take an afternoon nap."
"I scolded him for his own good," Second Master Xue muttered. Seeing Madam Xin lift the curtain and leave, he sighed inwardly. He thought that he only had one son in his life. If he could be half as smart as Xue Rui, how could he bear to scold him?
In the early years, the princes were young and the situation was unclear. The old master was happy to see that Cheng Bi and Ning Wang were on good terms, so he had tacitly allowed Xu 'er to run behind them. Who would have thought that Cheng Bi and Ning Wang would turn against each other? That silly boy couldn't even tell. The Ninth Prince had already returned to Jing, but he was still trying to get closer to Ning Wang. How could he not be angry?
Yu Shu heard the good news of Imperial Consort Xue the next day. It wasn't that someone specially came to inform her. The news came from Xu Qing when she was "strolling" in the Celestial Commissioner's office.
Since Yu Shu had two more bodyguards by her side, they went to the Celestial Commissioner's office during the day. She didn't order them to guard the door, but sent them to walk around the office as eyes and ears.
Lu Hong and Xu Qing relied on their famous names. Other than some places, the Celestial Commissioner was unimpeded and could go anywhere. After a few days, they became familiar with each other and gradually brought back some useful or useless news for Yu Shu.
"I heard from a Chang Ji in the Imperial Secretariat that the Palace sent out an edict last night. They were to choose a thousand virgin jade coins and use pearl silk to weave a picture of the moon on the sea and send it to the Palace. It was said that the Emperor was preparing it for the Imperial Consort during the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet."
Xu Qing repeated what she said. Yu Shu pondered for a while and felt that it was strange. Virgin jade coins and pearl silk were both auspicious items. They were recorded in the half of the "List of Strange and Rare Objects" that the Xin family gave her. The former was a fine jade the size of a copper coin and hung on the neck of a baby boy who was less than a hundred days old. It absorbed the Red Yang Qi and took eighty-one days to form one. The latter was a rare pearl silk spit out by a pearl silkworm. It looked like a silver thread and was extremely flexible. It was a tribute to the Emperor.
Pearl silk was fine. The Emperor was happy to use the precious silk made of one tael of gold to weave a flower pattern for his favorite concubine. At most, she would sigh with emotion that Imperial Consort Xue's favor never waned. However, it was thought-provoking to use virgin jade coins. If she remembered correctly, this thing was always worn by the concubines who were pregnant in the Palace to comfort the fetus.
In other words, Noble Consort Xue was pregnant?!
After Yu Shu concluded, she immediately felt that this was good news.
In order to confirm this matter, she approved a few marriage invitations in the afternoon and left them for Jing Chen to stamp tomorrow morning. Without waiting for the sunset bell to ring, she ran to the Supreme Court to find Xue Rui to verify.
They were both government offices. The Supreme Court was not far away. When Yu Shu walked past the bell tower, Lu Hong led her horse over. He bowed his arm and helped her, who was wearing a loose robe, onto the saddle. He then turned around and mounted his own official horse. He and Xu Qing followed closely on her left and right, unimpeded out of the main gate of the Celestial Commissioner's office.
Xu Qing rode on the back of a tall horse, turning his head to look at the gradually diminishing figures of the guards on duty under the huge wooden gate. Just two months ago, he was like these ordinary people, standing guard day and night, being transferred from one gate to another. His eyes were blocked by the high walls of the city gate, as if he would never be able to see the day when he would be able to get out of the city.
Xu Qing ran for a while and found that he was lagging behind Lu Hong. He quickly followed.
.....
Yu Shu hadn't arrived at the Supreme Court when she saw Xue Rui's official sedan on the way. It seemed like he had just come out from the government office and was about to go somewhere else. Lu Hong stepped forward and stopped her.
Xue Rui pushed aside the cloth curtain and looked outside. Seeing it was Yu Shu, he had the sedan bearers put down the sedan and stopped by the roadside to talk to her.
"Where are you going?"
"I was just about to make a trip home …" Xue Rui leaned half of his arm against the window of the sedan chair. His docile mare named Little Red lowered its head and sniffed at him fawningly. He reached out to block its huge head and rubbed its cheek. Little Red shyly turned its head away.
A moment ago, someone from the fu had come to the yamen. Grandfather had told him to go back. He didn't know what had happened.
Yu Shu leaned down and asked in a small voice, "I heard that the Guifei is pregnant?"
Xue Rui was surprised for a moment, "What?"
"You didn't know?" Yu Shu was a little disappointed, thinking that she had misheard.
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