Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2735 Still Vigorous in Old Age 119.0
"A conspiracy?" Jin Miaomiao looked at Xiao Fengqi with great curiosity. "What conspiracy?"

"Why don't you take a guess, Lord Jin?"

"Hmm," Jin Miaomiao stroked her chin, thought for a moment, and said, "I was just thinking, you said before that the two princes are older than Young Master Lan, right?"

"Yes."

"That's really strange. It was clearly the mothers of the Prince of Liao and Young Master Lan who were in love, so why is it the mothers of those two princes who are marrying into the family? Could it be that their family is so audacious as to dare to arrange a substitute marriage? Aren't they afraid that if they are discovered, their whole family will lose their heads?"

“Of course I’m not afraid. If I were really afraid, I wouldn’t have done something so audacious. Besides, there’s probably no better explanation than a substitute marriage for the princess’s cousin, and not the princess herself.” Shen Cha sighed and looked at Xiao Fengqi. “But I have a question. Didn’t anyone notice anything during the entire wedding process?”

“The entire wedding process in Liao is different from that in Da Xia, especially the process of welcoming the queen. But the most important point is that the bride and groom cannot meet before the wedding night.” Chu Han smiled at Shen Cha and explained, “Of course, they cannot meet during the wedding preparations either. In other words, for the better part of half a year from the engagement to the wedding night, the late King of Liao and the Queen cannot meet except to express their feelings to each other through letters.”

"Are they really that honest?"

“The Princess Consort certainly wouldn’t take the initiative, but the late King wouldn’t be so honest. They’ve met secretly.” Xiao Fengqi ruthlessly exposed the late King Liao’s past. “But not that frequently, only once or twice.” He chuckled. “I don’t know how it happened, but the Princess Consort’s cousin saw them meeting secretly. Just that one meeting, and she fell in love with the late King at first sight. She went back and made a scene with her parents, wanting to marry the late King in her place.”

"Her parents, or more precisely, her eldest uncle and aunt, agreed?"

"Of course they agreed. Not only did they agree, but the second wife and her husband also agreed. The day before the wedding, they put sleeping pills in the princess's tea and food, tied her hands and feet, and gagged her with a cloth. Then they dressed my cousin up as the bride and put her in the sedan chair. It sounds easy, but it was quite difficult to do. The princess's family had produced several concubines before. Although they weren't very favored, they still had some connections in the palace. They could bribe someone to help cover things up." Xiao Fengqi took a sip of tea and continued, "Besides, weddings in our area are always at night. A sedan chair is carried directly into the palace gates and delivered to the late king's chosen place. It's dark, no one can see clearly, and no one dares to look."

"And then what? Didn't the King of Liao discover that his bride had been replaced?"

"I discovered it. After the banquet, when we entered the bridal chamber, I found that my bride had been replaced by someone else."

"So we'll just go with the flow? No big fuss?"

“How could that be? The North and South Courts, the royal family and relatives were all in an uproar. Not only that, the palace even invited my great-aunt to the palace in the middle of the night. Every time my great-aunt mentions this matter, she gets so angry that her teeth itch.” Xiao Fengqi spread his hands, his expression very helpless. “Every time, he would scold those people for being so audacious. It’s one thing to mistreat the princess normally, but they actually dared to tamper with the marriage and even came up with some kind of substitute marriage.”

"Even so, my cousin got what she wanted, didn't she?"

"Yes, it's true that she got what she wanted. The fact that she married into the palace cannot be changed. She's already been brought in. If she's taken back, the princess's reputation will be damaged, and the palace will lose face. If we keep her, outsiders will praise the royal family for their magnanimity when they know the truth. However, all of this comes with conditions."

"What are the prerequisites?"

"It's agreed that the late king wouldn't make her his principal wife. She can marry in, but she'll always be a concubine. If she agrees, she stays; if not, she leaves." "So she agreed." Seeing Xiao Fengqi nod, Jin Miaomiao thought for a moment, "Is the position of principal wife reserved for his beloved?"

“Of course!” Xiao Fengqi nodded. “Besides, if that person is of bad character and does something bad, she will be abandoned without hesitation, and she has agreed to that.”

"She's already done something as immoral as taking someone else's place in a marriage, what other immoral things could she possibly do?" Jin Miaomiao rolled her eyes. "Then what about the real princess?"

"Naturally, we chose an auspicious day to marry her again, and the scale of the wedding will be even larger than the first one."

"One after the other?"

"There's a gap of over a year. We originally planned to marry soon, but a lot happened during that year, making it unsuitable for a wedding, so it was delayed for over a year," Xiao Fengqi sighed. "However, during this year, the princess moved into my house because my great-aunt was worried that if she continued to stay in that house, she might not even live to see her wedding day."

“I understand!” Jin Miaomiao nodded. “She is also a pitiful person. If you say that her stepparents don’t like her because she is not their biological child, but her biological parents don’t like her either, that’s really too much.”

“Indeed, their family didn’t even prepare a dowry when she got married. My great-aunt prepared the dowry for the princess according to the standards of our Xiao family when marrying off a granddaughter. However, the late king was very generous and married her according to the standards of the princess. From that moment on, the princess was truly blessed with happiness, but…” Xiao Fengqi sighed, “the happiness did not last long. To be precise, it was less than ten years.”

"Didn't that person do anything to her in the palace?"

"The late king and she were inseparable; apart from official duties, the two were usually together."

"Wait a minute, if they're inseparable, how were the two princes born?"

"It was the princess who persuaded him, saying that although he did such a thing, it was out of love. Since he has been married as a concubine, he should be given the treatment he deserves, otherwise it would not be fair. That's what my great-aunt said. That's the gist of it. Although she didn't agree, the royal family is not like an ordinary family. There are many things to consider, so she couldn't say much."

"and after?"

"She gave birth to two princes in a row, and her status in the palace rose sharply. The saying 'a mother's status rises with her sons' is no joke. Just when it seemed that she could be on equal footing with the princess in the palace, the princess announced that she was pregnant."

"Is that Young Master Lan?"

“No.” Xiao Fengqi shook his head. “Before Young Master Lan, there was a little prince, but unfortunately, he died before he could see the outside world.”