Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

Chapter 155: Stop Talking About Jealous Women

Translator: derekliang

Dongxiang’s eyes widened instantly, “Your Highness! Your Highness, you’re back. No one told me that. When were you back?”

Seeing his shocked look, Du Chuxuan couldn’t help but laugh. Du Chuxuan put down everything in his hand, raised his hand slightly and pointed at the teapot beside him. Dongxiang quickly served him a cup of tea. Du Chuxuan said, “Stop shouting so loudly. Do you want more people to know what’s happening here?”

“Your Highness, you are joking around again. But…” Dongxiang looked around carefully before continuing, “Haven’t you had been to the Martial Assembly with the Crown Prince. What’s the final result? Did you get the championship of martial art community?”

As expected, Dongxiang was clear about the event of Wulin Assembly. But that was all he could learn. Ada would never tell him anything else.

“No need to know more about this event. Just tell me what happened in the palace recently.” Du Chuxuan stretched lazily. Finding that Yuxing Tianrui hadn’t yet come back from the imperial court, Du Chuxuan started to wonder if any tricky issue had happened in the court that Yuxing Tianrui was unable to solve in a short time.

Dongxiang frowned and thought carefully, “The miss pretending you didn’t show up in public recently. So few people came to the East Palace recently.”

“Sometime earlier, a palace banquet was held. You were supposed to participate the banquet. But we claimed that you were sick and asked for the emperor’s permission to stay in the palace. However, I heard from some palace maids gossiping that the Crown Prince is in fact secretly keeping you in custody in order to prevent you from disgrace him in public because you two had a fight, .”

Du Chuxuan sneered and some inadvertence could be found in his eyes. Then, Du Chuxuan changed into a female dress and his manner changed dramatically. His evil look started to have a hint of bewitchment and attraction.

“Listen, go and find out which palace spread this piece of news first.” Du Chuxuan had a sip of the tea and continued, “Be careful. Don’t let anyone else notice what I’m investigating this.” Dongxiang was very aware of the confidentiality of his task. So he nodded and left.

Since Du Chuxuan had returned, he wouldn’t need to continue pretending being sick. So Du Chuxuan found a random excuse and explained that he must have eaten something wrong so that he kept suffering a poor stomach over the days. In the next early morning, Du Chuxuan started to pay a visit to the Empress, together with a bunch of gifts and a lot of followers.

“Mother, Concubine Xiao, wish you a good health.” Du Chuxuan showed a perfect smile and openly came into the palace of the Empress. Upon finding his arrival, Concubine Xiao started to have a different gaze. But she quickly concealed her nervous look.

“How are you doing over the past days? You need to rest well if you still feel uncomfortable. As the Crown Princess, your health is very important.” The Empress smiled to him and signaled her maid to give Du Chuxuan a seat.

Du Chuxuan thanked the Empress and sat down, “Mother, don’t worry. I always felt something wrong over the past days. I think it’s because of the sudden seasonal shift between summer and autumn. Two days ago, Yuxing Tianrui has asked his follower to bring me back some plum seeds that can properly quench my thirst. I became quite refreshed after I have eaten quite a few of them.”

“That would be fine.” The Empress smiled and had a slightly awkward look, “You’ve been sick all these days and I think you must have missed a lot of important information. I’d like to kindly remind you that the concubine audition is approaching. Tianrui has only you in his harem now. But he is the son of the royal family after all, so you have to help him select several concubines to serve him by then.”

As expected, the Empress was indeed a cunning fox and good at pretending. Du Chuxuan thought in his mind. Once Du Chuxuan didn’t come back this time, that miss would continue pretending to be the real Du Chuxuan and would keep pretending sick. By then, the Empress would act like she knew nothing and sent all the chosen concubines to the East Palace.

“Empress, you don’t have to remind the Crown Princess. The Crown Princess is at least the daughter-in-law of our royal family and she would naturally know the importance of heirs to our royal family. She will certainly help the chosen concubines give birth to more children for the Crown Prince.” Concubine Xiao finally got a chance to interrupt and said with a happy smile while covering her mouth with her hand.

Du Chuxuan didn’t care about her pretentious talk at the moment but turned to smile at the Empress, “Concubine Xiao is totally correct. However, the Crown Prince told me several days earlier that he admired the Emperor and the Emperor’s lifestyle very much. So he decided to attach more significance on improving people’s daily life rather than indulging himself among a group of beauties.”

“You don’t understand. Although men in the Shenglan State won’t force their wives to bear children, raising more children has always been a sacred mission of all women. What you have said might be fine to people who know the Crown Prince very well. Because they would praise the Crown Prince to be a people-oriented and open-minded lord. But to those people who don’t know much about the Crown Prince, what you said just might make them start to believe that you are indeed a jealous woman, trying to stop the Crown Prince to have more concubines.”

Concubine Xiao’s talk seemed to be casual, as if she didn’t blame anyone. But in fact, her talk was indeed pointing out that Du Chuxuan was in fact an envy woman.

Du Chuxuan didn’t say anything but turned his head to look at the Empress in confusion, “I’d like to kindly remind Concubine Xiao to be careful when talking. I can still remember that the perfect match of the Emperor and Empress has always been admired by many people. Until now, their love story are still the main subject among many folklores and books in the civil society. Your talk just now will hurt the heart of Empress.”

The eyes of the lady sitting in the top seat darkened. She glanced at Du Chuxuan quietly and found that the Crown Princess in front of her seemed to have known something. But Du Chuxuan’s talk seemed to have only shown her unwillingness to accept more concubines to stay beside the Crown Prince. So the Empress was quite confused at the moment and couldn’t figure out what Du Chuxuan was implying.

“All right, the Emperor has declared the concubine audition to the world. Some new concubines need to be enrolled into the harem no matter whether the Crown Prince is going to enrich his harem. By then, the Crown Prince might have changed his mind. But in my opinion, it would be perfect for Tianrui and the Crown Princess to live happily with the shared idea.”

Obviously, the Empress was trying to end the topic. In the end, Du Chuxuan was closer to the winning side. Concubine Xiao lowered her eyes. No one really cared what Concubine Xiao was thinking about.

Du Chuxuan didn’t leave the palace until several hours later. By then, the morning court at the Throne Hall was approaching to an end.

“Do you want to have dinner first or to wait for the Crown Prince to have dinner together?” Dongxiang asked softly as he found that the followers started to serve the lunch.

“Send someone to wait for the Crown Prince at the Throne Hall. We need to welcome the Crown Prince to come back home when he is coming back along the way.” Du Chuxuan said lazily, as if he had no strength when he was leaning against the soft bench.