Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

186. The Third Prince Got the Better End of the Bargain?

Translator: Bryan

“Besides…” A smile touched Yuxing Tianrui’s lips. “I’ll soon be marrying Ling’er. I pondered over it for quite some time after my return, and it strikes me that it’s indeed necessary for me to take into consideration the feelings of the princess who was married to the foreign country to forge a marital bonding, so I think putting aside the matter of Turk is worth considering.”

Surprisingly, after hearing his words, the Emperor turned to glance at Old Master Zhao. The Emperor had a suspicious mind. Though knowing that Yuxing Tianrui had a lot of supporters both in and outside the palace, he never believed that Yuxing Tianrui could really build a network of contacts of his own.

However, the Zhao Family would soon become the soft underbelly of Yuxing Tianrui, so why had Old Master Zhao been arguing with them for so many days? Was it because of Zhao Zheng who had married to the Turk? Or was he pretending to be at odds with Yuxing Tianrui to trick him into lowering his guard? The very thought of this rendered the Emperor unable to consider anything else.

Eunuch Desheng standing on the side could see clearly what was going on. The Crown Prince had never sided with Old Master Zhao before. On this occasion, Old Master Zhao had suffered a setback, but he didn’t dare to say anything about it.

Naturally, Old Master Zhao who had served the Emperor for many years divined what the Emperor was thinking, but he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut and swallow the whole thing. The Emperor was always like this. The harder one tried to defend himself, the more convinced the Emperor would be of his speculation that his subordinate was trying to conceal the truth, and eventually he would lose the Emperor’s trust, which was something Old Master Zhao did not want to see.

The old man shot Yuxing Tianrui a baleful glance, as if to say, “That’s a very smart move, Your Highness!” He snorted and said no more. Thus, this matter was settled this way. If the Emperor assigned Yuxing Tianrui to deal with the matter of Turk, it would serve only to cause the people to believe that the Emperor was an extremist who had scant care for their safety. As a result, the third prince, who had never been involved in any argument, became the only candidate.

“Ha ha… This old man is pretty interesting.” Du Chuxuan also beamed from ear to ear after hearing about the Emperor’s decision. Luo San had always been maintaining a distance from Du Chuxuan because of the previous interception of Yuxing Tianrui. Now he was kneeling on the floor continuing his report.

“But in the end, this matter fell to the third prince. He’s always been in contact with Manlou. I’m afraid that if things keep going like this, the matter of Manlou will be suppressed,” Luo San said anxiously. They had been investing Manlou for so many years, and now they finally had a chance. How could they pass it up like this?

Du Chuxuan tilted his head to one side and looked down at Luo San. “You seem to be quite afraid of me.” His tone of voice was matter-of-fact, but there was a hint of slyness in his eyes. “You don’t have to worry about this matter. Just send someone to tail Yuxing Wei. I wonder what kind of pleasant surprise he’ll bring us.”

The more he thought about it, the happier Du Chuxuan became. He had originally thought that as things had come to this, unless the Emperor gave Yuxing Tianrui his full support and had him deal the Zhao Family a head-on blow, the investigation of Manlou would never fall to Yuxing Tianrui, and Yuxing Wei was the only one suitable to perform the task, which was good news for them.

Luo San did not understand what Du Chuxuan meant, but at the thought that Du Chuxuan’s plans seemed to have never failed, he felt relieved.

Yuxing Wei, living on the other side of the palace, was naturally not as well-informed as Du Chuxuan. When he heard the news, the first thought that popped into his mind was that Yuxing Tianrui and the Emperor had found out about it. When the eunuch bearing the Emperor’s fiat was gone, Yuxing Wei felt cold sweat on his back.

He would very likely have sat down hard onto the ground were it not for the servant beside him who had been supporting him all along.

“Your Highness, what’s happening to you?” The servant hurriedly settled him onto a chair next to them. “Are you not feeling well? I’ll go to the Imperial Hospital and get a court physician here right away.”

He was just about to turn around to go out when Yuxing Wei grabbed him by the arm. “Don’t you dare!” he snapped. The servant, scared witless, asked, “Your Highness, are you feeling unwell?”

Yuxing Wei roughly pushed the servant aside and burrowed his face into his hands. “What went wrong exactly?! What went wrong?! There’s no way they could’ve found out!”

As he repeated those words in his mind over and over again, he finally managed to compose himself. Squainting at the Emperor’s fiat, he tried to collect his thoughts. “Send someone smart to my mother and tell her I need to get immediate help from those people, or else all of us will be screwed!”

The servant hurriedly nodded and ran out in haste, heading for the house where Noble Lady Xiao was locked up, but he was very uneasy, and the one who had been staking out this house noticed it.

Yuxing Wei’s matter was just a recreational interlude. Every time Du Chuxuan heard it, he regarded it as an amusing story. After all, it would take more than a day to get to the bottom of the matter of Manlou. What struck him as the most annoying was the selection of concubines. As the legal marriage partner, he had got up early in the morning.

Naturally, life was much tougher for the two concubines than it was for him. The two of them probably had to get up before dawn. Since they were not legal marriage partners, the prince, naturally, would not personally go to their houses to pick them up. The servants could only carry them into the palace through a side gate with palanquins and then to the East Palace as the pre-wedding ritual.

What Du Chuxuan needed to do was to wait for the two concubines to arrive and then drink the tea they proffered him. Then he would tell them to go back and have some rest. In the afternoon, when the auspicious hour came, he would watch them go through the ceremonial formalities and then it’d be over.

“Today is the perfect time to wear scarlet garments.” Watching Dongxiang offering him the clothes, Yuxing Tianrui nodded in satisfaction, but the next moment he noticed Du Chuxuan roll his eyes at the mirror.

“You’re getting yourself two concubines today, Your Highness, so you’re naturally delighted. May I ask where you’re spending the night?” Du Chuxuan huffed, turning around to put on eye make-up.

At ordinary times, he did not have to go to the trouble of putting on elaborate make-up like this. Later today, a lot of lesser courtiers would come to watch the ceremony, so he, as the Crown Prince’s wife, naturally had to take it seriously.

Of course, Yuxing Tianrui couldn’t say that he would spend the night wherever his wife wanted him to or anything like that, so he had no choice but to lower his head to help Du Chuxuan adjust his stray hairs. “You should wear this gold hairpin today. It’s very pretty.”

Du Chuxuan curled his lip. He was the one whose father was a merchant, but unexpectedly, his jealous marriage partner liked jewels more than he did. However, since Yuxing Tianrui liked these things, Du Chuxuan naturally would not say no to these seemingly “vulgar” things.

Having checked that Du Chuxuan was “flawless” from head to toe, Yuxing Tianrui finally bobbed his head in satisfaction. “Actually, according to the etiquette, it’s okay if they wait until tomorrow to proffer you the tea. You didn’t have to get up so early.”