Chapter 29
Everyone was dumbfounded.
The silence in the study was as still as water, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Wei Ming said with a plan in mind, “Your Highness, the Seventh Princess is a divine beauty, the best in the Central Plains. We only need to let Chief Yelu catch a glimpse of the Seventh Princess and the tribal chief will definitely agree to the replacement, firstly. Secondly, the Seventh Princess is His Majesty’s own daughter, and her mother is Noble Consort Xie, of noble status. With her to substitute the marriage, Chief Yelu has no excuse to say nonsense.”
The others came back to their senses and nodded in agreement.
The seventh princess had a beauty that was like a gift from heaven. Although Chief Yelu was a foreigner and old, he was still a man. As long as he was a man, it was a good deal.
Li Xuanzhen was stunned for a moment. The scene of meeting Li Yaoying that day at the city gate came to mind.
The delicate girl in glamorous dress, riding a Wusun horse in the evening light doused with the fragrance of flowers in late spring, raised her hand to lift the curtain hat’s gauze. The sky splashed with golden light fell on her jet-black and rich hair. She faintly glanced at the banners fluttering in the wind at the horizon, and a smile spread across her face.
For a moment, the flowering bushes beside the road were dulled, and the bustling city gates turned silent.
The soft spring breeze blew up a strand of hair at her temples.
All the people present were itching to reach out and brush away the naughty strands of hair, but they were afraid of disturbing her, this immortal fairy-like figure, and did not dare to make a sound.
The three of them, Li Xuanzhen and Noble Consort Xie’s two children, were like water and fire. But at that moment, he was also the same as the onlookers, because seventh younger sister’s celestial beauty could steal one’s soul.
If the peony understood language, her beauty would send a state into decline; though she has no sentience, she moves man all the same1.
A divine beauty was precisely this.
Indeed, unprecedented and incomparable.
It was not surprising that Wei Ming, a strategist who disregarded children’s feelings, was so confident that her beauty could make Chief Yelu change his mind.
Li Xuanzhen was lost in thought for a moment.
If Li Yaoying were his own sister, he would not treat her so cruelly.
Unfortunately, she was Noble Consort Xie’s daughter.
The Xie family deserved to die, Noble Consort Xie deserved to die, and Noble Consort Xie’s daughter also deserved to die.
Wei Ming looked at Li Xuanzhen, who was in a trance, and his expression was slightly heavy: “Your Highness, after much deliberation, only the Seventh Princess’s captivating beauty can impress Chief Yelu.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Li Xuanzhen, waiting for him to make up his mind.
Li Xuanzhen’s eyes lowered, silent for a long time.
Wei Ming’s face was getting more and more ugly.
Qin Fei scratched his head and spoke out to break the strange silence: “Will the Seventh Princess agree to marry instead?”
Which youthful and beautiful princess would be willing to leave the Central Plains to go to the grasslands to marry an old man?
The Yelu tribe practically lived a barbaric life of eating raw meat and blood. Furthermore, the custom of inheriting wives went against human decency: father died then married their stepmother, brother died then married their sister-in-law.
There were even brothers who shared wives!
If the Seventh Princess married, saying it was a phoenix entering a chicken’s coop would be praising the Yelu tribe.
This was simply a noble and elegant pearl thrown into a stinky and filthy sewer, allowing others to trample.
Even Qin Fei, a rough man, felt distressed.
”There’s another person….” He scratched his head and put up two fingers, “This one is the devil incarnate. If he makes a scene, he can turn Chang’an City upside down.”
Everyone looked at each other, understanding that he was talking about the second prince Li Zhongqian.
Li Zhongqian was born with great strength, brave and fierce, usually able to take on a hundred soldiers in the front lines. This person was domineering and unrestrained, killing people like flies. No one could control him, but was only obedient to his younger sister who he loved like a treasure. Every time he was victorious in battle, the first thing he did was bring subordinates around to search for exotic treasures to please his sister.
The seventh princess was born beautiful, that reputation spreading far and wide. Her biological mother, Xie shi, was also a di daughter of a prestigious family. Just after her thirteenth birthday, she had many seeking her hand in marriage.
Li Zhongqian disliked those idle sons of noble families, who were unworthy of his sister.
Whoever dared to come to the door to ask for marriage, he would rush to the door wielding his double hammers, forcing those youths to receive three of his strikes. If unable to take it, don’t think about marrying his sister.
In these troubled times, most of the sons of the prestigious and noble families in the capital were skilled in archery and riding, but Li Zhongqian was the bravest in the military and of extraordinary strength. Who could take three strikes of his hammer he wielded at full strength?
These part two years, Li Zhongqian injured, at the very least, a few dozens of sons of noble families. Even Pei’s family dalang, who was equally as famous as Crown Prince Li Xuanzhen, also fell under his sledgehammer.
Li Zhongqian looked down on sons of noble families who were well versed in pen and sword. What was Chief Yelu, a sixty-year-old foreigner old man?
Wei Ming lightly scoffed: “The seventh princess is just a girl. Noble Consort Xie shi is weak and demented, no need to even mention her. As long as Chief Yelu agrees to substitute, His Majesty will give the marriage. His golden mouth’s jade words are irrevocable. So what if the princess is unwilling? As for the second prince, he happens to be out of the capital. This is precisely the heavens’ assistance.”
Qin Fei frowned and asked, “What about after the second prince returns?”
The corners of Wei Ming’s mouth gently curled then said meaningfully, “That’s not our business anymore.”
Qin Fei froze for a moment and felt an eerie cold air rushing up from the bottom of his feet.
Wei Ming using the Seventh Princess to marry instead of Princess Fukang was clearly a plan within a plan!
A multifaceted chain of interlocking plans!
The sacrifice of a single Seventh Princess, not only appeases the Yelu chief, avoiding war and easing the worry of the crown prince and Emperor, but also simultaneously breaks the second prince’s arm, making animosity between the Emperor, the second prince and Noble Consort Xie grow again; a multi-beneficial plan.
The second prince has always loved his sister the most. When he learned that his sister was married off as a replacement, he was bound to go crazy.
It would take no effort to eliminate the second prince at that time.
Wei Ming was indeed ruthless. His real target was the second prince!
Qin Fei wanted to say something but hesitated.
He was disgusted by Wei Ming’s scheming against the Seventh Princess, but if it involved the Second Prince, he didn’t dare to say anything more.
The battle for the throne was a matter of life and death, so one could not be soft-hearted.
What’s more, the first prince and the second prince were separated by their mother’s hatred.
……
Everyone looked at Li Xuanzhen.
Li Xuanzhen’s face was expressionless: “Allow me to think it over.”
Wei Ming sighed, about to say something, when outside the curtain came the sound of the chamberlain reporting: “Your Highness, the princess’s residence is in trouble!”
previous | toc | next
Buy me a kofi for faster releases.
Author’s Thoughts
“Quickly write about the monk”, but the plot still has to be written. The first chapter said every time Yaoying and her eldest brother clashed, time and again, she would lose to the main character’s halo. Her vomiting blood for no reason is punishment for changing the plot, so Yaoying chooses to avoid her eldest brother’s blade, her goal right now is to keep her aniang and older brother safe.
Because these things happened, Yaoying will completely recognize her reality. In order to live, she’ll abandon all the restraints, and put her all into the fight.
1 A lovely person in NU forums helped me with this sentence so sincerest thank you to them. It’s a line from a poem that’s pretty self-explanatory.