To Be A Virtuous Wife - Chapter 45
Chapter Forty Five High Up Above
After watching two plays, it was already past one and Jin An Princess invited everyone to a meal. She let the guniang who hadn’t come of age to gather and freely chat. She and the noble ladies and official’s wives that married chatted about the interesting things in Jing.
Qu Qing Ju heard these people once again mention the Spiritual Master Xuan Ling on the Five Estates Monastery. It looked like this Spiritual Master Xuan Ling had some skill. Regardless of whether there were ghosts and gods in this world, but the fact that a person could be recommended by so many women used to living in a complicated environment, it showed his abilities were exceptional. As to in which direction they laid, that depended on the person.
When Jin An Princess heard this, she was unexpectedly calm. She smiled calmly: “If he is an extraordinary person, there definitely will be a change to meet him in the future.” She did say that, but Qu Qing Ju could see that she didn’t even care about such a thing.
Qu Qing Ju held Mu Jin’s hand as she stood to change clothes. On her way back, she met Qu Yue Su accompanied by her yahuan. She stopped in her steps and calmly watched as Qu Yue Su gave her a full and respectful greeting.
“Greetings to Duan Wang Fei,” Qui Yue Su was now very clear, the da jie in front of her didn’t want to interact with Chang De Gong Fu at all. She could even see on da jie‘s body the coldness she held towards Chang De Gong Fu. She had heard many of the rumors on the outside. She wanted to argue but found all the rumors were true. And some events that occurred were even worse than the rumors. She didn’t have the courage to use the appellation of da jie.
The reputation of the fu was worse and worse. It had affected her and er jie‘s marriage prospects. She wasn’t content with becoming the furenof a normal official. But none of the di sons of the noble families wanted to marry her. So she wanted to try her best using her talents and beauty. It was better than mediocrely finishing her life.
“San xiaojie, please rise,” Mu Jin saw her wang fei stand still and came up a step to give insubstantial support. She once again moved behind Qu Qing Ju.
Qu Qing Ju looked at the color of the sky: “Why are you alone here. I just saw the guniang of the Tao and Lu Families chatting together, why don’t you go play with them?”
Qu Yue Su’s face was somewhat ugly. She forced a smile and answered: “Just wanted to take a walk.”
Nodding, Qu Qing Ju didn’t speak more, “I’ll go first, you be careful.”
“Farewell wang fei.” Qu Yue Su bowed again. She looked at Qu Qing Ju surrounded by quite a few yahuan as they ushered her towards Jin An Princess. She bit the corner of her lip to push down the soreness in her heart. By now, those noble girls weren’t willing to interact with her. They thought they were so high up, not willing to interact with her as someone willing to become a qie. Really, they were normal people as well. In the future, they also had to pour their heart to try to hold their husband’s heart and still manage the favoured ce shi. By that time, they would all be that common eye of the fish.
This kind of thoughts might just be Qu Yue Su comforting herself but by now she could only think like so to keep that strange sense of jealousy she had towards Qu Qing Ju. She shouldn’t fantasize, that if the person decreed would have been her, the person respected and flattered would be her.
Wei Qing E and the others saw Qu Qing Ju return and teased: “You finally came back, we just mentioned you.”
“Mentioned me?” Qu Qing Ju sat back on her original seat, picking up an already skinned tangerine to put into her mouth.
“Said you have good fortune. All the ce shi in the fu are so obedient and doesn’t have too many tricks.” Wei Qing E smiled, “Not like our fu, there’s many beauties.”
Qu Qing Ju gave a cough and swallowed down the tangerine. She wiped the corner of her mouth: “Da sao is joking.” Just recently, a ce fei on Duan Wang Fu had been demoted to qie, and then a certain tong fang had died due to illness. Before that, there was a tong fang married off to the estate. This was being called obedience, was this Wei Qing E purposefully shaming her?
“I’m not as virtuous as da sao and can’t run a household so well. Da sao, don’t laugh at me,” Qu Qing Ju knew the only people present who dared to discuss Duan Wang Fu was the three of Jin An Princess, Wei and Qin. She smiled at Jin An Princess and informed, “Jiejie, you may not know, da sao is virtuous and able but she always compliments those that are not, like me. Jiejie, you have to help get justice for me.”
“Alright, alright, ben gong‘s brothers could marry you all to be wang fei, it’s their good luck,” Jin An Princess smiled as she placed a place of red date cake into the middle, “All of you eat a bit more cake, and don’t mutually compliment each other anymore.”
Wei Qing E smiled and let the topic go. She knew that Duan Wang Fu was controlled now by Qu Qing Ju. The houyuan was like a steel box. A few days ago, wang ye had a dark expression on his face because of a certain tong fang‘s death. That tong fang must have been wang ye‘s person.
The people accompanying them were furen that were of some status. It was a pity that Qu Qing Ju’s aunt, Tian Luo shi wasn’t here. Otherwise, Qu Qing Ju wouldn’t feel so bored.
Jin An Princess holding a picture-admiring banquet today, it was to let these furen knew that she, Jin An Princess, was going to put roots down in Jing. At the same time, it was letting them go home to tell their husbands, she was going to sort out her fuma the Count of Bei Lu. These people should widen their eyes and don’t involve themselves.
This tactic had the flavour of pressuring people through privilege. But who was it that let her be the Princess Royal as personally decreed by the Emperor. It wasn’t as though there weren’t other princesses in the Da Long Dynasty, but she was the only Princess Royal. This was enough to prove her position.
Qu Qing Ju felt that Jin An Princess was a smart and realistic woman. She had a privileged identity, she didn’t have to embarrass herself for that supposed feelings. She had given birth to son and daughter for the Count of Bei Lu. Rationally, the Count of Bei Lu shouldn’t be able to have a qie, but the Count of Bei Lu did such a thing. This didn’t just humiliate Jin An Princess, it was humiliating the Imperial Family. If today, Jin An Princess allowed such a thing to occur, then in the future, other princess’ fuma will follow in doing so. One leads to the next. At the end, the most tragic would be the women.
After the banquet finished, Qu Qing Ju came out of the Princess’ fu and saw Liang shi and Qu Yue Su at the main gate. Towering above them was Qin Bai Lu. She didn’t stop her steps, passing through the three of them to enter her carriage. Others were willing to act out a drama, she didn’t want any drama.
The carriage started moving. Qu Qing Ju looked through the window and managed to see Qin Bai Lu show a disdainful smile at Liang shi and Qu Yue Su. Liang shi‘s face was full of rage that didn’t dare erupt. She curled her lips and let go of the curtain.
Returning to Duan Wang Fu, Qu Qing Ju saw Shu Kui and Rui Xiang standing guard outside the gate to the zheng yuan. She knew that it was possible that He Heng was inside so she asked: “Is wang ye inside the room?”
She Kui bent and answered: “Wang fei, wang ye had come for a while.”
Nodding to show she knew, Qu Qing Ju passed through the main gate and crossed the garden of the zhengyuan. When she came to the outer room of the suite, she saw He Heng was looking at the “beauty dancing under the moon” that she had the servants hang up on the wall.
“Wang ye,” Qu Qing Ju smiled and walked next to He Heng. She stood abreast with him “What’s wrong with the painting?”
“I remember, you also have such a long dress,” He Heng kept on feeling that there was a shadow of Qu Qing Ju in this painting.
“How come wang ye didn’t think that this painting is me.” Qu Qing Ju laughed.
He Heng looked at the signature of the scroll. It was actually Qu Qing Ju’s work. The time of the painting was just a few days ago. No wonder he hadn’t seen it yesterday. It must have been that someone hung it up today.
“Qing Ju knows how to dance?” He Heng was shocked. There were many noble girls that studied the qin, qi, literature and art, but there was not even a few that learned how to dance.
“Learned myself,” Qu Qing Ju raised an eyebrow, as though she was proud yet helpless, “In the past, there wasn’t anything to do. In the room by myself, I wanted to spend away the time so I studied from the books.”
He Heng knew that Qu Liang shi hadn’t been good to Qu Qing Ju and had expected that she wouldn’t have spent any thought on letting Qu Qing Ju learn the things that proper women should know. He saw her smile was both proud and helpless. He smiled and asked: “When will I have the luck to see?”
Qu Qing Ju raised her smooth and beautiful chin like a proud empress, “When wang ye does something that makes qie happy, qie will consider this matter.”
Clearly calling herself qie, but He Heng heard a hint of pride. But he still felt that the other’s state was so ticklish to his heart. He couldn’t resist reaching with a hand to touch Qu Qing Ju’s waist, “Qing Ju’s waist is thin and flexible, it should make for an extremely beautiful dance.”
The corners of Qu Qing Ju’s mouth drew back: “Wang ye, are you mocking me for being a dancer girl?”
He Heng seemed to understand why women always made trouble without a reason but strangely felt the need to explain himself. He helplessly drew the person into his embrace, “Those women aren’t worthy of being mentioned together with Qing Ju. You only dance for me, no one else will see. This is between us as husband and wife. I like it, I’m not teasing you.” Finishing, he added another sentence, “In the future, when I make you happy, you have to lower yourself to dance once for me.”
Qu Qing Ju gave a gentle snort, “Since you are so expectant, when the spring comes, I will dance one for you to watch.” This body was truly flexible. When it danced, it wouldn’t seem hard and without grace. But she wasn’t really wanting to dance for He Heng like this. Men were a strange type of creature. They liked playing with willing women, but they looked down at a woman for being too willing. From a certain viewpoint, men were even more conflicted than women at times.
But if she made such a matter a delight between the two of them, to let the other feel expectant, but not let the other easily see. Then it will let He Heng’s heart give birth to a feeling of intimacy akin to “a secret belong to the two of them”.
Sometimes, a beautiful secret was useful in closing the distance between man and woman.
He Heng saw Qu Qing Ju’s pouty state and felt the cat in his heart was tickling him even more. He breathed in the smell of her hair and said in a hoarse voice: “Alright.” There was clearly layers of clothing separating them but he seemed to be able to feel the fineness under the clothing. He couldn’t resist carrying the person to bed.
Qu Qing Ju didn’t want to play the game of being on top of the other before eating. She leaned her head to He Heng’s chest as she said: “I saw that Jin An Princess Royals seems to want to separate from Count of Bei Lu.”
A second of silence, she then heard He Heng’s voice full of disdain with a hint of anger.
“Separation is necessary, how could he slight an Imperial Princess? This matter, it won’t end so easily!”
Qu Qing Ju gave a smile of unclear meaning. Look, look, this was the people of the Imperial House. No matter how arrogant, warm, or honest they were usually, in their bones, the high attitude naturally existed.
