A more suitable candidate?
The Empress Dowager was taken aback.
“Who is it?” she asked.
Gao Lingjun smiled.
“I’m still inquiring and haven’t reached a conclusion yet. I’ll inform Your Majesty as soon as I have reliable information,” he said.
The Empress Dowager sighed slightly in relief.
“Hurry up,” she urged. “Settling this earlier will bring stability sooner. Look at how things are nowadays – what kind of life is this?”
As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes again.
“Your Majesty, take heart. Fortune often emerges from misfortune. Better days are just around the corner,” Gao Lingjun reassured her with a smile.
After exchanging a few more words, he rose and took his leave.
Meanwhile, in the side hall, Chen Shi’ba-niang’s regular calligraphy lesson for the princesses, held once every five days, was in progress.
“…Lady Chen, is this how I should write it?” the youngest, the Fourth Princess, asked in her clear, childlike voice.
Chen Shi’ba-niang walked over and bent down to look.
“Your Highness writes very well,” she praised with a smile.
The six- or seven-year-old Fourth Princess beamed with joy and continued to concentrate on tracing the characters with her brush. Chen Shi’ba-niang knelt beside her, correcting her posture.
On the other side, the slightly older Second Princess was not focusing on her writing but instead turned her head to look at Chen Dan-niang beside her.
“Shi’jiu-niang, your handwriting is excellent,” she said.
Chen Dan-niang smiled and curtsied in response.
“You spent much more time studying with your sister,” said the Third Princess, who was about the same age as Chen Dan-niang, with a hint of unwillingness as she lowered her voice.
Chen Dan-niang shook her head.
“That’s not it,” she replied, giggling. “I haven’t studied much with my sister, but I’ve spent a lot of time with Lady Cheng.”
Lady Cheng?
The two princesses exchanged curious glances.
“You have another sister who knows how to write?” asked the Second Princess.
“No, not a sister -I mean, the Princess Consort of Jin’an,” Chen Dan-niang explained, her face brightening with excitement. “Do you know about the time when the Princess Consort of Jin’an set up a table outside her gate to display her calligraphy for everyone to admire?”
The two princesses nodded.
The story of that Lady Cheng had long been a frequent topic of conversation in the palace, both in private and openly.
“So you apprenticed under Lady Cheng?”
“Did you witness the scene yourself back then? What was it like? Please, tell us more quickly.”
Though the girls, around eleven or twelve years old, initially felt some distance due to their differing statuses and the fact that it was their first meeting, they soon found common ground, especially when they had a shared topic to discuss.
Suddenly, someone coughed loudly.
The three girls, who had almost leaned their heads together in excitement, hurriedly pulled apart and sat up straight.
Chen Shi’ba-niang looked at them with a stern expression.
“Learning requires focus and dedication,” she said. “Dan-niang, I asked you here to accompany the princesses in their calligraphy practice, not to keep them entertained with chatter.”
Chen Dan-niang quickly replied, “Yes,” but as she lowered her head, she exchanged a playful, grinning glance with the two princesses.
Both princesses lowered their heads as well and smiled in secret understanding.
A palace maid entered the room with a smile.
“Lady Chen, Her Majesty the Empress Dowager requests your presence,” she said.
Chen Shi’ba-niang promptly responded with a respectful “Yes” and bowed to the princesses in the hall.
“Let’s conclude here for today,” she announced.
The three princesses returned the courtesy and rose from their seats.
“Dan-niang, wait here,” Chen Shi’ba-niang instructed.
Chen Dan-niang nodded, watching as Chen Shi’ba-niang and the palace maid left.
“Shi’jiu-niang,” the Second Princess quickly said, “come out to play with us.”
“Yes, yes, tell us more about your calligraphy lessons with Lady Cheng,” the Third Princess chimed in eagerly.
Chen Dan-niang shook her head.
“My sister told me to wait here, so I can’t wander off,” she replied.
“Lady Chen is quite strict,” the Third Princess noted sympathetically with a nod.
Chen Dan-niang nodded as well, lowering her voice.
“She’s become even stricter since she got married,” she whispered, then stuck out her tongue slightly at the thought of speaking about her own sister behind her back.
Yet, this candid remark seemed to bring the three princesses closer to her.
“Still, you should come with us to our palace and rest for a while,” the Second Princess suggested, her expression shifting slightly. “We can tell Lady Chen that we’re going to practice calligraphy. That way, she won’t blame you.”
“Yes, yes,” the First Princess chimed in eagerly. “Refreshments are likely being served now, and there are some fresh fruits newly arrived in the palace. You should try them.”
The kindness extended by her peers made Chen Dan-niang waver, but remembering her mother and sister’s instructions, she shook her head and bowed in gratitude.
“I’ll come often with my sister in the future, so I’ll visit next time,” she replied.
The Second and Third Princesses exchanged a glance, hesitating as if wanting to say more.
“Very well, then,” they said.
No sooner had they spoken than the Fourth Princess walked over to Chen Dan-niang, tugging gently at her sleeve and looking up with wide, earnest eyes.
“Shi’jiu-niang…” she whispered in her childlike voice, “don’t stay here in Her Majesty the Empress Dowager’s quarters. The Crown Prince is here too, and it’s quite… scary.”
Before she could finish, the Second and Third Princesses simultaneously reached out and covered her mouth, silencing the rest of her words.
“Well then, please wait here for a while. We’ll take our leave now,” the Second Princess said briskly.
Without giving Chen Dan-niang a chance to respond, she quickly led the Fourth Princess away.
“… Shuning, what did Granny Sun teach you? Don’t speak carelessly…”
“…Have you forgotten why Sister Shuhui was sent to Consort Zhu to be raised?”
Accompanied by hushed voices, the three princesses left the Empress Dowager’s quarters, and the side hall fell quiet once more.
“Shi’jiu-niang, please have a seat and enjoy some tea,” two palace maids said with smiles as they brought tea and a plate of pastries.
“Thank you,” Chen Dan-niang replied with a bow.
The maids’ smiles widened as they knelt and sat down to chat with her.
Just as they were talking, a commotion erupted from behind the door. Someone burst in, slamming the door open with a thud.
It was a chubby figure holding a leather ball, shouting incoherently.
Everyone in the hall was caught off guard and screamed in fright. Chen Dan-niang hid even closer to the two palace maids.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid,” the two palace maids reassured, shielding Chen Dan-niang.
One of them pointed anxiously at the figure running around the hall pillars and shouted urgently.
“Hurry, hurry, catch him!”
“How did His Highness get out?”
His Highness?
Chen Dan-niang couldn’t help but peek out from behind the maids.
There was only one person in the palace addressed as “His Highness” nowadays.
She looked over and saw the young prince being grabbed around the waist by two strong eunuchs. The Crown Prince had been running so fast that the sudden restraint caused him to fall heavily to the floor.
With a loud thud, Chen Dan-niang shuddered and averted her eyes, unable to bear the sight.
Cries and shouts echoed through the hall.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry.”
The cries of someone with impaired mental faculties differed from those of ordinary people, sounding quite peculiar. Chen Dan-niang couldn’t help but look again.
The Crown Prince lay sprawled on the floor, several eunuchs scrambling to lift him up, but he refused to rise, struggling and reaching forward instead. In an instant, the hall descended into chaos.
“Oh, what are you all doing? Hurry and take him away. Wasn’t it said to keep the doors locked and not let him out?” one of the palace maids near Chen Dan-niang said with a hint of impatience, first reassuring Chen Dan-niang before stepping forward to speak up.
“Her Majesty needs peace and quiet to rest.”
“Don’t let His Highness keep shouting.”
“…Hasn’t he taken his medicine? Why is he running around and making noise again?”
Amid the chatter of the two maids, the Crown Prince’s cries abruptly ceased, replaced only by muffled whimpers. Chen Dan-niang looked over and saw that one of the eunuchs had stuffed a cloth into the prince’s mouth. Perhaps urged by the maids or simply losing patience with the prince’s struggles, the eunuchs moved more quickly and roughly, dragging him up and pulling him backward.
The chubby prince struggled with muffled sounds, waving his hands frantically. Whether from agitation or suffocation, his face flushed crimson, making him look even more frightening.
Amid the commotion, someone stepped on his hand…
Chen Dan-niang instinctively clenched her own hands.
Do people with such mental afflictions not feel pain?
The two palace maids also stepped forward to help. Amid the tugging and pulling, a ball was tentatively offered forward.
“Your Highness… is this… what you wanted?”
Everyone froze, looking at Chen Dan-niang, who had quietly approached with a timid expression.
In that moment of distraction, the captured prince suddenly broke free and lunged toward Chen Dan-niang.
Chen Dan-niang let out a short, sharp cry, hunching her shoulders and turning her head away, yet her hand remained outstretched.
Suddenly, the ball was yanked from her grasp.
The expected beating or rough handling never came. Instead, someone dashed past her, laughing heartily.
Chen Dan-niang slowly straightened up and watched as the figure ran past.
The chubby, ball-like silhouette gleefully dashed around the hall, tossing the ball into the air, letting it bounce on the floor, picking it up, and tossing it again…
“What’s going on? What happened?”
Hearing the commotion, the Empress Dowager hurried over, supported by Chen Shi’ba-niang.
But as they reached the entrance of the hall, the Empress Dowager suddenly halted, her eyes widening in surprise as she took in the scene inside.
Inside, the eunuchs and palace maids were standing by, while the seemingly ever-restless, mentally impaired Crown Prince was actually sitting – albeit somewhat awkwardly – but sitting nonetheless.
A ball rolled over from the side.
Suddenly, loud shouts erupted in the hall as the young prince stretched out his hand and grabbed the ball.
“Your Highness, push it back,” Chen Dan-niang called out to him with a cheerful wave, gesturing repeatedly to demonstrate.
The prince sitting across from her abruptly shoved the ball back.
The ball wobbled unevenly as it rolled, and Chen Dan-niang quickly leaned forward to catch it.
“Your Highness is amazing!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands joyfully.
Across from her, the young prince also clapped his hands, his face breaking into a wide grin as drool trickled even more freely down his chin.
“My goodness.”
The Empress Dowager watched in astonishment.
“Whose child is this? How is she able to play with the Crown Prince like this?”
It wasn’t just strangers – even the eunuchs and palace maids who regularly served in the palace had never played with the Crown Prince this way.
Yet this unfamiliar girl, around twelve or thirteen years old, could interact so naturally with the mentally impaired child. She wasn’t afraid…
Chen Shi’ba-niang, standing behind the Empress Dowager, lowered her gaze slightly, concealing a flicker of melancholy in her eyes.
“It is my younger sister, Shi’jiu-niang,” she replied quietly.
…
Regarding the impeachment or any potential punishments, Duke Jin’an paid no mind. After causing a stir in the capital and stirring up widespread controversy, Duke Jin’an’s residence had instead fallen into quietude.
Yet today, the household was unusually lively.
“Are we really going to move?” Ban Qin asked Su Xin.
“Not so soon,” Su Xin replied, flipping through the household account books. “With repainting, partitioning, and new furniture, it’ll likely be around Mid-Autumn Festival before everything’s ready.”
Ban Qin let out an “Oh” and sat down beside her, reaching for some melon seeds from a plate to munch on.
“Why are you so free?” Su Xin asked.
“Madam is practicing calligraphy, and His Highness is resting in his room, so I’m taking the chance to relax a bit,” Ban Qin replied.
Su Xin tossed an account book in her direction.
“Since you have free time, help me cross-check this,” she said.
Ban Qin simply continued cracking melon seeds, smiling but not moving.
“I said I’m relaxing – I’m not cut out for your kind of godly tasks,” she replied.
The two were still chatting and laughing when a young maid hurried in.
“Madam is urgently asking for His Highness,” she said.
Ban Qin and Su Xin were startled and promptly rushed out. The young maids in the courtyard were already scattering in confusion.
“His Highness only lay down for a while before going out.”
“Someone was with him, but they didn’t ask where he was going.”
Muffled, flustered whispers filled the air.
“What’s going on?” Su Xin quickly asked, stopping a maid.
“Madam finished practicing calligraphy, couldn’t find His Highness, and started looking for him,” the maid replied in a low voice.
Su Xin and Ban Qin paused, then glanced toward the veranda. Cheng Jiao-niang stood there, her gaze fixed on the gate.
Eagerly awaiting his return…
The phrase suddenly crossed Su Xin’s mind.
“What happened?”
Hearing the news, Duke Jin’an hurried out from his former room and asked anxiously.
“No one knows,” a maid replied uneasily. “Her Highness the Princess Consort only said she was looking for Your Highness.”
Duke Jin’an dared not ask further. Carefully tucking the small wooden piece he had just found into his robe, he strode quickly toward the courtyard. Before even entering the gate, he spotted the woman standing on the veranda.
As if she had been waiting for him for a long time, he hurriedly quickened his pace to enter.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice tinged with a tension he himself hadn’t noticed.
“Where did you go?” Cheng Jiao-niang asked.
“I went to the other building to see how the tidying-up was progressing,” Duke Jin’an replied.
Cheng Jiao-niang let out an “Oh.”
“It’s nothing, I just wanted to know where you went,” she said.
Duke Jin’an paused in surprise, and the others in the courtyard were equally stunned. Before they could react, Cheng Jiao-niang had already turned and walked back into the hall.
Seriously?
While some pine away as if separated for years after just a day apart, she’s acting flustered after just a short while apart?
Duke Jin’an chuckled softly, the earlier tension dissipating as he stepped lightly up the stairs and into the room.
Eunuch Jing shook his head with a touch of helplessness.
One of them now attends discussions absentmindedly, eager to finish quickly and send everyone away, while the other can’t bear to let the other out of sight for even a moment. Truly, they are a well-matched pair.
“Alright, alright, everyone disperse,” he said, waving his hand dismissively.
