This chapter has been brought to you by me, ororomunroe90, vivie and leecherleechleech.
I really liked halffriedchickens’ guess that the pearl slippers reminded He Heng of Qu Qing Ju but Blossommay0630 was correct!
Chapter Ninety Eight
As He Heng walked up to her, Qu Qing Ju prepared to stand and properly greet him but was stopped when he gently pushed on her shoulder: “There’s no need, zhen just came from muhou’s palace, and came here to take a look.”
Hearing that, Qu Qing Ju responded: “It had been planned for muhou to also come here, but who knew that the two of them would say that due to the complexity of the palace affairs, they wouldn’t be able to attend this flower banquet.” As she spoke, a hint of guilt appears on her face, as though it was her fault that the two Empress Dowagers were so busy.
“You’re pregnant now and it’s not necessary to do those burdensome matters,” He Heng smiled as he sat down beside her, “Both muhou will understand.” Towards the two Empress Dowagers, he was confident of their abilities.
Earlier, he had asked the taiyi. They said that during a woman’s pregnancy, she can’t be exhausted, and can’t be angry, or else it would harm the body and the child. That was a big no-no.
Hearing He Heng say so, Qu Qing Ju smiled, “This is escaping from frustration into relaxation.”
Even though he was sitting at the front of a crowd of women, He Heng wasn’t the slightest bit unsettled. He even managed to disregard the womenfolk sitting below, full of ease as he chatted with Qu Qing Ju about some small matters, acting as though the other people were also pots of flowers.
Using a gap in the conversation, Qu Qing Ju looked down. All of the womenfolk seemed to be comfortably engaging in conversation with those beside them. The atmosphere hadn’t cooled because the Emperor had arrived. They tried very hard to make the Emperor feel welcomed.
Qu Qing Ju felt that she couldn’t waste the time of the womenfolk present and said: “Originally, everyone was to stay for a meal before leaving, but ben gong is pregnant. The taiyi has reminded many times not to sit long in the first three months so today, we won’t keep everyone. To have neglected everyone so, ben gong hopes for everyone’s understanding.”
The womenfolk who had children stood in succession, thanking the Empress for inviting them as they mentioned that it was important to be careful in the first trimester. They also said that the Empress and the embryo inside were full of good fortune, and would smoothly coast and meet auspicious events along the way.
Qu Qing Ju smiled and let them leave. Before they left, she took another look at Qin Chao Yun. A pretty beautiful young girl. She knew how to show herself off. But it was a pity that she wore such plain clothes, but her slippers exposed her true nature.
If a person had to act, then they had to make it more realistic. Except for the normal hairpins, the plain clothing, how could she forget about her slippers?
The embroidered shoes of unmarried girls were frequently changed. Especially the kind that were encrusted with agate or pearls. Because it wasn’t easy to clean, the pearls and agate would fall apart or the color would be wrong. So after they wore it once, they wouldn’t wear it again. This caused families who didn’t have the wealth to not frequently wear that kind of slippers.
This was where Qin Chao Yun had failed. If she had really preferred plain adornments, why would she wear that kind of slippers?
She might have had some schemes, some bravery but was still too inexperienced. It wasn’t enough in front of He Heng.
Jin An Princess Royal had originally planned to privately talk with Qu Qing Ju after the banquet. But seeing the Emperor protect her so, she felt she didn’t need to say those things and smiled as she left with the other womenfolk.
After the womenfolk left, the two of them returned to Tian Qi Palace to eat. Each dish was tested by a taijian before they started to eat.
The meat and vegetables of the dishes were perfectly complementing and all of them were beneficial to a pregnant mother and her child. Qu Qing Ju didn’t like how the dishes became slightly less flavorful but still ate a lot.
After the meal, He Heng went to the front hall. Qu Qing Ju leaned back on the recliner, calmly asking: “The people who brought their di daughters into the palace, have you remembered all of them?”
“Niang niang, don’t worry,” Mu Jin put a thin blanket over her, “There were only a few families who took their unmarried daughters into the palace, nubi remembered them all.”
Qu Qing Ju nodded. She was confident in Mu Jin, “The Qin Family is very fortunate to still be an educated noble family. Doing what they have done, it doesn’t look anything like what a noble family would do.” She wasn’t very clear about the Qin Family, but based on what she knew about educated and literary families, weren’t they elegant, respectful, modest yet not false? Why was it then, when it came to the Qin Family, it seemed that they were ruining the reputation of all literary families? Wasn’t that morally wrong?
“Empress, you might not know,” Jin Zhan, who usually had the most information, interjected, “Nubi heard that the last Grand Duke Jing was a man of great character. Who knew that the heavens were jealous and he died before thirty without even a son. They could only pass the title to his shu di’s son, who is the present Grand Duke Jing. The Grand Duke Jing’s personality is weak and usually listens to the Duchess of Jing. In the past, it wasn’t visible, but the Qin Family are more and more restless. If this continues, they might not be able to keep their label of a literary family.”
“If that’s the case, does it mean that the present Qin Family isn’t considered as orthodox?” Yin Liu thought about how Rui Wang Fei acted, asking, “Since they aren’t orthodox, Rui Wang Fei also acts like this?”
“Yes, thinking about it this way, Rui Wang Fei’s branch is shu.” Mu Jin gasped ruefully, “No wonder Rui Wang Fei is like that.”
Even though she held a suspicious attitude regarding the division due to blood, Qu Qing Ju finally understood another matter. No wonder the conduct of the Qin Family was so short-sighted. So the real decision maker was a woman in the house. One had to know, in this time, no matter male or female, if they stayed in the home the entire time and didn’t try to understand what was happening outside when they sent out orders, it was easy to make a wrong decision.
The inner compound easily restricted a person’s knowledge and judgment.
When He Heng returned to the front hall, he abruptly dug out the list of the female candidates that the Department of Household Affairs had presented, “Rui Wang’s conduct has become confused, one of the causes is that Rui Wang Fei could not restrain him. Zhen doesn’t bear for didi to have a person who doesn’t serve him with the entire heart, and specially bestows some female candidates to serve in Rui Wang Fu in hopes their conduct can move Rui Wang.” After speaking, he then circled four names from the listed twenty eight, and let Qian Chang Xin leave with his words to send them to Rui Wang Fu.
These four female candidates didn’t seem to be of significance, but in reality, their paternal homes were all in Jing. Even though they weren’t of exceptional families, they still had some standing in Jing City, and they had done some things which He Heng didn’t like. So when he sent the four girls to Rui Wang Fu, he felt very good.
He Heng put the list to one side. Right now, he didn’t have any interest in taking a fei. In the past, he felt that the variety of beautiful women by his side was flowers on the gold, but now he felt, regardless of how many there were, if they weren’t satisfactory, they just took up space.
“Come, send down the order, bestow every one of the female candidates in Tuan Fang Hall a pair of gold bangles for their dowry. Three days later, they can return to their homes for marriage so they don’t have to stay in the palace.”
By making such an order, the Emperor was explicitly telling others he had no intentions of taking the female candidates as feipin so he’s allowing them to go home to marry of their own initiative.
The female candidates were sent home to marry on their own, the Empress was pregnant, then who would serve the Emperor? The people in the palace started to have thoughts, seemingly forgetting the lessons of the past.
Qin Bai Lu listened to the servants report on Qu Yue Su’s sorry situation, her mood light. She rewarded a handful of copper to the clever-tongued yahuan. Raising a teacup, she said to Ru Hua beside her, “I just want to see, without wang ye’s favor, how long she would survive.”
Ru Hua saw the mirth on wang fei’s face and said helplessly: ”Wang fei, nubi heard that today at court, wang ye was ……”
“His matters has nothing to do with me,” Qin Bai Lu smiled coldly, “Right now, I can’t even run the inner compound, much less what happens outside.”
Seeing wang fei’s expression, Ru Hua understood. Wang fei still might not know that wang ye had been demoted and banned from court. This matter was extremely serious. If wang fei’s state was seen by wang ye, would there be another fight?
“Ben wang’s affairs naturally doesn’t have anything to do with you,” He Yuan strode in from outside. He didn’t look at Qin Bai Lu and Ru Hua’s expressions, and sat down at the front, faintly remarking, “Right now, your Qin Family has put their hats for the Emperor, how would they even look at ben wang?”
Qin Bai Lu’s face instantly darkened. He Yuan’s words were ugly, but it wasn’t unsubstantiated. If he said it, then it meant that the Qin Family really did want to arrange someone to enter the palace.
He Yuan lightly laughed, “You really believe your Qin Family’s daughters are goddesses that everyone falls in love? Your Qin Family might not find it embarrassing, but ben wang feels embarrassed for you.” His fingers gently tapped on the arm of the chair, mocking, “Also, if you say that you have nothing to do with ben wang’s affairs, why don’t you pack up and go home? Ben wang will definitely ask for a divorce from the Emperor.”
Qin Bai Lu’s heart jumped. She looked at He Yuan, trying to find even the slightest hint of humor on his face. But his face didn’t seem to be joking.
“Wang ye ……qie was personally decreed by xiandi to be your wang fei, you cannot treat me this way,” Qin Bai Lu stammered, “You can’t divorce qie.”
“Even if xiandi was here, if ben wang wanted to divorce you, then it will happen. Even more so, now that xiandi isn’t here,” He Yuan looked frigidly at her, “Get out, ben wang doesn’t want to see you.”
The rims of Qin Bai Lu’s eyes reddened, she bowed and prepared to leave when she saw He Fu Er rush in, and then he said something which made it harder for her to endure.
Why would the Emperor bestow a few concubines down, and accuse her of not serving wang ye well? Qin Bai Lu felt that her face was burning like someone had slapped her, burning with pain.
He Yuan didn’t care for her, only ordering He Fu Er to lead the people over for him to take a look.
Qin Bai Lu looked at He Fu Er as he trotted away. She felt as though a basin of cold water had poured over her, freezing her from head to toe.
Thank you guys 😀
Thanks for the update!! Btw was chapter 82 accidently deleted because it doesn’t appear from my tagged list. Hehe. Just letting you know. Poor QBL
82 is up. I’m not sure why it is not showing up on your list.
Daaang. Isn’t this revenge for the play He Yuan was doing before? Instead of sending off one of his women to his brother, He Heng is now the one sending FOUR women to his brother. Aha, and causing the Qin family to lose face as well.
Also another karma for QBL. Remember how she disrespect QQJ, calling her fox, just because QYS was sent ti their home even if she knew that QQJ were estranged with her family. Why, look at here, her literary family were sending their di daughter just to become the emperor’s bed warmer.
He Yuan acts like such an incompetent spoiled child, I’m starting to wonder if the author is going to make him a red herring and unmask a smart villain.
a tit for tat but throwing all the eyesores to HY. HH can be such a mean brother.
Well, as HY said, his genius brother’s skill is killing without leaving a trace. Lol.
Even if they were forced to marry young, teenagers will act like teenagers. Full of emotion and temperamental. Even if they have responsibilities, they still have servants and elders taking care of them. QQJ isn’t really a teenager from time traveling, she seems like she’s at least 26 or 27 mentally. Qin Bai Lu is spoiled and has been given everything on a golden spoon, He Yuan knocked her down a few pegs though. How old is He Yuan anyways? He can’t be more than 20.
He Heng has matured over the story. He seemed spoiled in the beginning, but now he realizes he has to work for QQJ’s love. Falling in love with someone who is more mature than you makes one want to be more mature and on their level. She treated him like he was a kid earlier on, teasing him and not taking crap from him.
had to rly think to figure out what was happening… Make so many moves had to stare at it for awhile to figure out who, where, and why, lol
Thank youuuuu
HH is really a cunning person. Sending 4 concubines to HY is a slap to Qin Bai Lu (a revenge for QQJ), an insult to the Qin family (for trying to send a woman to him) and a bloodless stab to HY (for everything bad he did to him and his family)….really, he is such a scary person that it is best to be in good terms with him….. But for HY to nonchalantly tell QBL to go home as he will divorce her, that is so cruel….. but then, she asked for it…. their marriage is a loveless one….
thanks a lot!
well, the front part was interesting! yes—-! he heng has no intention whatsoever of taking other girls into the palace, so awesome—! hmoh, i don’t care what happens to rui wang and rui wang fei…you do bad things to innocent people, it will come back to you….
Thanks! Looks like HH is starting taking revenge for all the slights that QBL did to QQJ. HH seems determined to protect QQJ from all things. The other girl from the Qin family is quite stupid. Like QQJ said…if you’re going to act, you must commit all the way.
HH is on the move!! Oh yeah! That’s what you got when messing with the wrong person. QQJ never cease to amaze me. This emperor-empress couple is too cunning…too clever..but i still like you both! ^^
“The female candidates were sent home to marry on their own, the Empress was pregnant, then who would serve the Emperor?”
But was it officially taboo for a man to touch (have sex with) his pregnant wife, even at the beginning of the pregnancy?
That makes no sense, especially when the culture acknowledges the idea of sex for pleasure and not only for procreation.
What’s the reasoning here?
It was frowned upon because people were worried that sex would cause the woman to miscarry.
Fall of the mighty continues…
Even though Qu Yue Su has been unkind to Qu Qing Ju, I still feel bad for her, actually I feel bad for all the young women here, they are just teenagers. At their age, they are supposed to have crushes, fight over cute guys, and forget it all… but here it is a war, where one mistake will cost them their lives.
Oh, there is the downfall of Qin family waiting to happen… time to strike off another person who offended our Emperor and Empress…
“At their age, they are supposed to have crushes, fight over cute guys, and forget it all…”
In my opinion, that’s the modern viewpoint and can’t really apply here. These girls live in an ancient time and are subject to traditions and a lifestyle that have little in common with our contemporary ones; they can’t be judged/evaluated according to our standards. In their time & culture, they live shorter lives (medicine wasn’t as advanced then) under harsher conditions–even as noblewomen–and thus their development is accelerated (marrying earlier, aging faster, dying younger etc.). This implies they should also mature faster. He Heng certainly did–at 21 he is more experienced and skilled in strategies than even QQJ (who was a full adult in her modern life).
What I’m trying to say: youth, even extreme youth, doesn’t seem a good excuse for stupidity and petulance in a historical setting. Even as teenagers, these girls should know better.
Umm, my reply is going to be a bit long, since I think you are lumping things together. Maybe I didn’t get your point clearly, but here is what I think.
I don’t know whether you are talking about life expectancy or life span here, but since we are referring to “ancient people”, it becomes life expectancy, which is a flawed way to think about the quality of life of our ancient ancestors as it includes infant mortality (which were quite high), those who died in early adulthood in childbirth or in wars, and those who live unimpeded until old age compared to our contemporary ones.
But I was feeling bad about the adolescent girls in ancient times who can be termed to be in their mid to late adolescent period in general. These girls are often physically mature enough to perform adult functions but lack the psychological maturity. They continue to grow physically, cognitively, and emotionally, changing from a child into an adult during this time. Even though they live in a society where they need to act as an adult, subjected to traditions and a life style which had little in common with our present-day ones, but you can’t refute the fact that they are adolescents, and thus often seem to act impulsively, rather than thoughtfully, and this may be in part because the development of the prefrontal cortex is, in general, slower than the development of the emotional parts of the brain, including the limbic system.
And when talking about HH, we can award his way of thinking as to having a high IQ and looking at problems in many different ways, because his brothers although are from the same time frame, they don’t possess the same aptitude. QQJ however coming from future, being older than the original and having great managerial skills, she is able to survive beside HH after all its survival of the fittest. And Qin Chao Yun is plain stupid, she tried to be smart, but her vanity gave her away. And talking about teen petulance and stupidity, there is a saying in my culture that the young should never talk when elders are speaking, it’s said for a reason. I am often unclear on my thoughts when commenting since they are too long winded to be written down, so my apologies if I created any confusion with my earlier comment.
That’s true but only partially. They are indeed young but not necessarily psychologically too immature, because the noble ladies are educated early enough to be a virtuous “Furen” and if possible even skillful in 4 arts. They might not study as much as the men since they won’t do national exam, but they are still trained since childhood to run a household and if one come from a scholarly family like QBL, even the girls would learn literature to a certain level.
So they should also be proficient in philosophy and be wise.
However, someone’s bad character and attitude isn’t only coming from the womb, but more of it is simply built by the way one being raised…with what kind of people one mingles.
This play a bigger role than just the blood that flows in one’s vein or scientifically said: gene plays an equal role with the environment in character building.
So…despite the young age, people in ancient world…atleast the ones belong to aristrocratic families, are not supposed to be acting like a shrew, because they shouldn’t have been educated like one.
They might be sometimes acting spoiled for being pampered as a noble xiaojie, but doesn’t mean that they couldn’t be virtuous and dignified.
Would the great culture in the whole world have been able to last
QBL is definitely extremely disappointing since she came from a famous scholarly family and always so proud of her education. Those reputation obviously doesn’t fit with the reality at all.
Ups…missed some words 😁.
Repeat: Would the great culture in thw whole world have been able to last long to be national pride if the women were all being a shrew like QBL? Those women were all marrying very early and needed to be mature very early too at that era, right?
So, we shouldn’t use modern value as a standard to judge the people of the medieval era.
They lived differently, believed in different values, having less knowledge in some certain aspects and being educated/raised differently either.
Frankly speaking, their way of thinking is even the spot where they are normally getting matured very early, way too much earlier than their physical age.
Especially for women is really a disadvantage and the biggest reason for the high mortality rate in giving birth.
It’s not only because of the lack of medical expertise and the good medicines but more because the body is not quite ready yet…but the mental state normally does.
Umm, it has been quite a while since I wrote this comment, so I don’t remember what it was about exactly apart from me arguing about life expectancy and stuff, I only remember cuz while commenting I got emotionally involved cuz obviously TBAVW is one of my absolute favourite work till date, and I almost had a debate with the other person trying to get our points across 😝😝 Well, later I was so ashamed of being so argumentive that I stopped commenting on the posts 😂😂 but I agree with whatever you are saying in general. But to give my opinion based on the exact chapter, I cannot do so now, as I am using my phone to comment here, and I loose patience to read the previous comments and reply 😝😝
I think I should take up the Zen teachings, I feel like I have become too impatient and restless!
But yeah…you need not to feel bad anyway for having a different opinion. I guess, you weren’t rude to anyone either. Afterall, getting a bit too involved in the story just proved how good the author is 😁.
This book is one of my favourite too among chinese novel with ancient setting.
Hahaha… btw…I didn’t really pay atttention when the comment was written, sorry to call you over again after so long…
Its okay, I come back here too, I love to re-read this novel again and again!
Ahhh QBL, QBL. If only you keep your mouth shut and make an enemy out of the Empress, then things won’t probably turn this bad. I wonder if the Qin female is bestowed to HY, that will be a greater slap in the face. And pretty sure the Qin female won’t be a fei, just a concubine. Ouch.
QBL should stop her snobbish acts x-x she is never gonna reach anywhere if she keeps on like that… HY shows her no love and now he has no power to speak of… And wow lol HH sure is evil towards his enemies xD dumping whatever he doesnt like onto HY lol I feel pity towards HY now that he is an underdog… QQJ and HH love life….I want more dramaaaa in itttt xD or at least a dance? Weren’t we promised one??? D:
Omg HH, that was mean of you XD
Thank you so much!! 😘😘😘
Thanking u gals for translating.
I found that HH doesn’t care about how ppl used to hurt or offended him in the past but whoever had bad mouthing or hurt QQJ intentionally or unintentionally then he not only giving it back, he gives it back with no conciliation of being return back. He punishes those wrongdoers without them knowing except it may come across as blessings yet NOT REALLY. HH’s kind of revenge is very cunningly plan out without any efforts at all.
I don’t get what QBL thinking, she constantly fight with her husband, always looking for trouble, then when HY want to divorce her, she can’t believe it??? Maybe she thinks so high in the sky that reality can’t touch her.
Well, her husband is a douche. If I were her I would’ve punched him in the face already. Then again, I wouldn’t married a douchebag anyway.
But QBL really didn’t help matters. She blurted out whatever in her thoughts, demands things that she never worked to achive, and was so jealous to QQJ that she looked down upon
She does not have reason to think lowly of QQJ. QQJ is her older sister in law. According to tradition, she should be couteous and respectful to QQJ. But she didn’t.
She constantly say things she should not says, earning her HY’s hate
Thank you …i m really enjoying myself in your company …making my days more tasteful ^.^
Thank you very much~! When QQJ dances for HH I’d imagine something like this picture from superlatives site. https://12superlatives.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/chu-wang-fei/
She probably will dance after giving birth. But can’t wait to see HH reaction. LOL.
thanks for the chapter 🙂
I started rereading from the beginning, including the comments….there’s so much that I missed. Even with the fun interaction between our leads, this strikes me as a rather depressing story.
He Heng decreeing that Qin Bai Lu hasn’t served Rui Wang well (score one), and sending female candidates he himself didn’t like to Rui Wang Fu (score 2) to revenge on the Rui Wang Fu couple is totally awesome.
“Right now, he didn’t have any interest in taking a fei. In the past, he felt that the variety of beautiful women by his side was flowers on the gold, but now he felt, regardless of how many there were, if they weren’t satisfactory, they just took up space.” Score 3 for He Heng for having these new enlightened thoughts.
The new Emperor is enlightened indeed! XD
Score for Qu Qing Ju who is taking note of the people who brought their di daughters into the palace. She definitely is not taking He Heng’s affections for granted and protecting herself as well. Also, I love all her yahuans. They are so loyal!
After the Qu and Liang families’ downfall, I’m waiting for Qin family’s curtain to drop. He Yuan is spot on about them embarrassing themselves. I like his snarky ways when speaking with Qin Bai Lu. I’m actually hoping he will be down but not out. I’m not sorry for Qin Bai Lu to be divorced. She was becoming an eyesore to He Yuan, not that I approve of his own conducts. Now to see what happen to Qu Yue Su.
women are really pitiful in this type of genre
The palace intrigue and house conflict dramas are a lot of scheming between women because they are trapped in that little area.
Thanks for the chapter!
thanks for the chapter!
Serves QBL right. She always acted like she was better than everyone else. Even her husband, the Prince favoured by the Emperor wasn’t good enough for her to stop having an attitude. She never once acted with the dignity of her position or of the literary family that she was always going on about.