Chapter 162: All is Well at Home, Come Back If You Are Unhappy
In the Imperial Palace, there was music and singing every night.
Heir Han returned home. His father learned that he had brought back another woman, and this time, he had even brought a child. He was speechless.
Ignoring his newlywed wife—what kind of bad habit was this?
As it turned out, he hadn’t touched the woman with the child either. He put her in her own private courtyard and hired a bunch of old nannies to look after her.
The Imperial Son-in-law asked a prying question about who she was.
Upon learning that this person was actually Old Madam Jiang’s eldest daughter-in-law, Madam Wu, the wife Jiang Huaisheng had married in a proper ceremony, he was so angry he almost couldn’t catch his breath.
He grabbed a whip and rushed to Heir Han.
Heir Han ran—he ran all the way to the Imperial Palace to beg his uncle, the Emperor, for help.
The Emperor felt a headache coming on after hearing the whole story.
He had intended to compensate the late Grand Tutor Jiang. Since the man had passed away, letting his son serve as an official would have fulfilled his wish.
The Emperor didn’t want to harbor grudges, nor did he want to feel guilty. But this Jiang the Second had actually rebelled, though he had now accepted amnesty and become an Official Rank.
Others could rebel, but the Jiang Family could not. He didn’t care about their complicated twists and turns, or whether they were filial or not; in short, the Jiang Family rebelling was a betrayal of his heart.
He would no longer mention bringing the Jiang Family back. His nephew was truly absurd this time, abducting someone else’s wife and child.
He had originally wanted the Jiang Family to return, but now thinking about it just annoyed him. However, the wife and daughter were innocent.
It seemed she was a girl from the Wu family; he had chatted with Grand Tutor Jiang about her before.
“Absurd, simply too absurd.” The Emperor had nothing to say about this matter.
Seeing that his uncle wasn’t truly angry, Heir Han hurriedly said: “That Madam Wu is a good woman. It was Jiang Da who beat her, so she took the child and tried to hide at the county office in the middle of the night. I was staying at the county office and happened to catch her by mistake. Uncle, why don’t you bestow her upon me as a secondary consort? I opened my eyes, and there was already a child—ready-made. I quite like little girls. In the future, my estate will have two sons and one daughter; how lively that will be.”
The Emperor:… A good woman running out in the middle of the night.
The Imperial Son-in-law:… A good woman running onto your bed.
Thus, there was one more secondary consort in the Heir’s estate. In any case, there was another piece of gossip in the capital: Heir Han had happily become a father again.
However, gossip in the capital updated quickly, and this matter didn’t circulate for long before it was replaced by something else.
Madam Wu felt very anxious for a while in the Heir’s estate. The Heir’s inner courtyard was simply too crowded and very complicated.
She was very afraid and stayed behind closed doors to raise her child. She only went out when the Heir’s wife summoned her. Most of the time, she remained behind closed doors with her child.
Madam Wu’s mother and sister even paid a visit. The three women hugged and cried. They hadn’t expected to see each other again in their lifetime. And to meet again in such a scene.
Madam Wu was originally the youngest daughter in the family; in fact, upon meeting again, Madam Wu hadn’t changed much. Her mother and elder sister had aged a lot.
Her mother said she was foolish, foolish since she was a child, and even more foolish now. Her elder sister said she was doing quite well, that she finally had some sense for once, and that since she was back in the capital, she should just raise her child in peace.
“This child looks intelligent and beautiful. You will have blessings in the future. Don’t overthink it. Since things are already like this, just raise the child in peace. Don’t fight or compete; just focus on raising the child.”
The mother and sister tried their best to talk about how cute little Shushu was, carefully avoiding mentioning how the other two children were, nor did they mention Jiang Huaisheng.
They cried when they arrived, and they cried again when they left. Though they cried, they felt that at least the person was right in front of them, and that being alive was better than anything else.
Eunuch Duan finished attending the wedding and trotted his way back. Even though he had been abandoned by Heir Han, and even though the young General Meng wasn’t returning, he still had to go back.
Upon returning to the palace, the Emperor summoned him once. The Emperor was curious about what was going on with Meng Shaoxia of the Meng Family.
He went to accept the amnesty, but actually married the daughter of the Rebels, and even had to stay behind for three years. Was he planning to rebel along with them?
Meng Qingshe had previously come to the palace to ask for instructions. The Meng Family had always maintained an image of being frank and straightforward. It was as if their children had all grown up right under the Emperor’s nose; they said whatever was on their minds.
The first time Meng Shaoxia went out traveling with friends and returned, Meng Qingshe complained to the Emperor.
That child said he had fallen in love at first sight with some girl and wanted to marry her. It scared his mother so much that she made them pack the child off to the army overnight, saying he needed to suffer to wake up.
The Emperor even laughed and asked: “Young love—look at how scared you all are. If he likes her, just let him take her in marriage; isn’t that enough?”
Meng Qingshe waved his hands repeatedly: “I have a fierce wife at home; I dare not, I dare not.”
This made the Emperor curious enough to have someone investigate what kind of girl it was that caused love at first sight.
Then he learned about Grand Tutor Jiang’s family affairs. It was said that after Grand Tutor Jiang died, the inner household was in turmoil. The second son of the Jiang Family was truly outrageous and was expelled from the family for being unfilial and disrespectful.
The Emperor watched the drama for a while; he remembered that the second son of the Jiang Family and the Heir were born around the same time, one after the other.
He laughed and laughed, but then couldn’t laugh anymore. His own nephew, with his behavior as a troublemaker, would have been expelled from a normal family eight hundred times over.
The children born around this time seemed to have issues with their birth times; none of them were very good.
As it turned out, this time they sent Meng Shaoxia out to accept the amnesty. Meng Qingshe went to the Imperial Palace to plead guilty again. With a pile of matters in the Imperial Court, this useless Meng Qingshe was nothing like his father, Old General Meng; he had to bother the Emperor with every tiny little thing at home.
Meng Shaoxia also wanted to marry the girl. It was the daughter of the Rebels, Jiang the Second, who was being granted amnesty this time. If there hadn’t been prior intelligence reports, the Emperor might have truly thought the Meng Family had rebellious intentions.
But the person was still the same; it was just that his status had changed, and now it had changed again—having accepted amnesty, he could technically be considered half a person of the Imperial Court.
Little Meng had liked the same person from beginning to end, and he hadn’t changed just because the other party’s family situation had changed.
The Emperor wanted to say that the Meng Family just had too many issues and a beating would solve it. But thinking about it, Meng Shaoxia didn’t know how many times he had been beaten in the army; he really did have a thick skin.
It seemed that persisting to the end and being single-minded was the style of the Meng Family; this was very Meng-like. As for marrying the girl and having to stay with his father-in-law, such an outrageous thing didn’t sound so outrageous anymore.
Eunuch Duan described the young General Meng’s wedding in a very business-like narrative style.
“It was lively, with many people. But in the middle of the night, young General Meng took his bride to the kitchen to steal some food. Lady Qin thought a thief had broken in and almost knocked young General Meng unconscious. The next morning, young General Meng had a big bump on his forehead. Young General Meng was also scolded by his father-in-law, Jiang the Second, telling him to have some restraint.”
The words Eunuch Duan recounted made Meng Qingshe’s face twitch. The Emperor laughed until he was twitching. The eunuchs and palace maids nearby who could hear all revealed knowing smiles.
Grand Attendant Yan, who had secured a high position with his first-class singing voice, was wearing a magnificent theatrical costume and was one of only two people sitting there. The other was the Emperor.
Eunuch Duan was telling the story, and everyone else was listening attentively. Only he was checking his theatrical costume and slowly grooming his hair. He was incredibly arrogant. Yet, the Emperor just happened to like this style.
After talking about the embarrassing details of Meng Shaoxia’s wedding, Eunuch Duan mentioned another matter: the person who had impersonated the Seventh Prince had gone to pick up Jiang the Second’s mother and elder brother. Jiang the Second couldn’t bear to let his mother leave, so he went and snatched her back. His elder brother and niece had even attended Jiang the Second’s daughter’s wedding.
The Emperor wasn’t very concerned about other people’s family affairs. Moreover, his nephew had just snatched someone’s wife, and he felt inexplicably guilty, so he let the matter pass; he wouldn’t listen, he wouldn’t listen.
The Emperor turned to ask Grand Attendant Yan: “Wen Xin, take a look at this line. Should we change it? Should we change ‘cai hua yan’ to ‘cai hua xi’? It sounds smoother this way.”
That’s right. Yan Jiexi had changed his name to Attendant Yan Wenxin.
A eunuch without balls being called Wen Xin was quite funny. When he entered the palace, he had been mocked for a long time because of this name. However, no one dared to mock him now.
Grand Attendant Yan sang two passages on the spot. It came effortlessly. It was lingering and vivid.
After singing, he frowned and said: “The latter one. The character ‘xi’ has a better lingering effect.”
“Good, then it shall be ‘cai hua xi’. Let’s go, Wen Xin, let’s go sing a passage together.”
The Emperor abandoned Meng Qingshe, Eunuch Duan, and a pile of official business to go sing opera.
Grand Attendant Yan sang exceptionally well today. Tears welled up in the man’s eyes, hanging but not falling, deeply moving.
“Everything is well at home, and the conditions are better than before. If you are not happy working outside, you can come home at any time.” As soon as Eunuch Duan returned, he relayed this message to him.
“The sorrow of the returning wind shakes the tassels, come back, oh come back, let the soul return…”
The Emperor excitedly beat the drum himself. “Beautiful.”
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