Chapter 1 No One Expected This

No one expected that the two princesses could fight so fiercely in Danyang.

On the surface, Ye Tao and Tan Weixin naturally stood on Tan Weishi's side, accompanying her in cursing Chang Huaiyin, with whom she had broken up. Before their falling out, these girls of similar age, evenly matched in beauty and loveliness, and both well-educated with many shared interests in poetry, literature, music, and etiquette, had seemed to embody the best of relations between Dongping and Chunnan. Since the day the two girls met, they were almost always together. Every morning, whichever one woke up first would dress up and run to the other's residence. Their carriages meeting on the road happened countless times.

Tan Weishi, after all, was the local, taking Chang Huaiyin all over Danyang and the surrounding hundred li to all the fun places. The scene of the two little lolis singing under the bright moonlight in the mountains was like a beautiful painting. And in their hearts, they both had similar mischievousness, which perhaps they had restrained for many years due to various reasons, to avoid being labeled as "naughty" or criticized by more serious and boring people as "unbecoming." But when these two were together, it was fun. In unfamiliar territory, they might be mindful of appearances, but at Ye Tao's Yi Zhan Lou, which they considered their own, the two little girls delighted in playing pranks more than once or twice. Almost whenever they couldn't think of any fun places to go, or there weren't any interesting people organizing interesting activities, these two little girls would run to Yi Zhan Lou to play for the whole day.

But how did they fall out? Tan Weixin didn't rashly ask Tan Weishi, lest she annoy her, but she easily got the answer from Tan Weishi's attendants.

It turned out that the day before the wedding of Dongping's ruler, Tan Xiaopei, and Princess Bailian, Tan Weishi had taken Chang Huaiyin to the Wang family's garden east of Danyang—the Li Yuan (Pear Garden). The Li Yuan was originally a hunting ground for the royal family, but since Tan Xiaopei's reign, almost no royal family member had shot an arrow there. The original training ground was planted with pear trees, and the Li Yuan was renamed as it is now. The deer in the hunting ground had completely lost their awareness of being prey. When food was scarce in winter, some deer would wander straight into the Li Yuan, where the soldiers stationed there and the hunters whose job was to care for the animals would treat them well. More extravagantly, when Zhuo Xiu, Tan Weixin, Tan Weishi, and others sometimes went to the Li Yuan to relax and adjust their mood, they would hang a wind chime with a very special sound on the edge of the hunting ground. Hearing the sound of the wind chime, the deer knew that a feast was prepared for them in the Li Yuan. Indeed, there was nothing more pleasant than interacting with these docile and gentle animals.

The day Tan Weishi took Chang Huaiyin to the Li Yuan was no exception. They prepared a lot of food and summoned the deer. But that's when the problem occurred. A fawn born last year was very weak at birth. Tan Weishi had stayed in the Li Yuan for almost half a month to take care of the fawn, and when she finally sent the fawn away, she put a bright yellow silk ribbon around its neck. By this year, this fawn had grown into a very beautiful little creature, very active. However, the fawn was clearly more attached to Chang Huaiyin and not so close to Tan Weishi. The subtle connection between animals and people sometimes makes no sense, but the problem was serious precisely because of this.

Tan Weishi was jealous. After playing with the deer for a while, she urged Chang Huaiyin to go back for various reasons. Chang Huaiyin was having fun and didn't pay much attention to her. Then, when Tan Weishi was feeling depressed and angry, her big dog came up to join in the fun, but she lightly kicked it. Originally, this was Tan Weishi's daily play with the dog, but Chang Huaiyin discovered Tan Weishi's worries. Chang Huaiyin finally returned with Tan Weishi, but Chang Huaiyin pouted and said Tan Weishi was petty, which caused a quarrel between the two.

Tan Weishi naturally didn't admit it, listing how many fun places she had taken Chang Huaiyin to play in recent days, and how many fun things she had given her, and so on. But Chang Huaiyin wouldn't let it go, saying that since Tan Weishi remembered everything, then she wouldn't have to bother thinking about returning anything to her...

After parting unhappily, Tan Weishi thought she was indeed at fault and planned to find an opportunity to apologize to Chang Huaiyin at the banquet after the wedding. Unexpectedly, Chang Huaiyin didn't want to talk to her at all, snorted, and turned away, making Princess Xiu, Tan Weishi, who was used to being pampered, feel utterly humiliated. And the war began from then on.

In a few days, Tan Weishi regretted introducing almost all her friends to Chang Huaiyin at once. She, the darling of various social activities in Danyang, actually felt like she had nowhere to hide. As long as she participated in an activity, as long as Chang Huaiyin got the news, she would definitely come. And no host could refuse such a guest, whether there was a so-called invitation or not. Garden parties? Compared to Chang Huaiyin, who came up with exquisite lines of poetry every time, Tan Weishi began to wonder if she even knew how to read. Appreciating some novel and fun things? At treasure-hunting activities, the items full of Chunnan characteristics that Chang Huaiyin brought were always the focus. And in those activities that Tan Weishi originally loved to attend, such as appreciating rare birds and animals, Chang Huaiyin, who seemed to have a natural affinity with animals, left Tan Weishi without even the strength to be jealous. What was even more infuriating was that those scrolls written at garden parties, the paintings, and those treasures that Chang Huaiyin had originally planned to use from the mission's treasure trove to give as gifts and build relationships, Chang Huaiyin would often give to Tan Weishi at the end of the activities, using a deliberately arrogant tone, then raising her chin and uttering, "Consider it a reward from this princess."

However, Tan Weishi had no way to retaliate against Chang Huaiyin's obvious posturing. It was said that she received a considerable amount of money from the internal treasury every year, but her expenses were not high, so she had a lot of money in her hands. Moreover, everyone doted on her, and she received all kinds of gifts for reasons or no reason. But her money was now going into the beautiful little garden that was being built, and the gifts she received were novel and fun, but not precious and gorgeous enough. Although she loved them to death, there weren't many things that could be put on display. And she was reluctant to show those few things to others.

Depressed, there was nothing more depressing than this. But Tan Weishi quickly found her own advantage. In those mountain climbing and sightseeing activities, she was always able to reach the summit first, looking down at Chang Huaiyin, who was out of breath, reaching the top. In those small gatherings at Yi Zhan Lou, relying on her familiarity with the rules and her understanding of the games, she often defeated Chang Huaiyin.

When two people could find their own advantages and had corresponding parity, the war could begin. The attendants of the two little princesses had to meet every day to determine whether the other would attend this or that activity tomorrow. They only participated in activities that the other was confirmed to be attending, and the meeting of the two inevitably turned the social activities of friends gathering into a stage for their fighting. And with the status of these two, it was impossible to deliberately ignore them or not invite them.

After about a month of turmoil, almost everyone knew that the two little princesses didn't get along. Tan Xiaopei and Chang Hongquan had two informal meetings in private to discuss this matter, and they had advised their daughters more than once or twice, but it had absolutely no effect. Helpless, they had to let the two do as they pleased.

However, the two fathers also knew that these two children didn't dislike each other. They were just too young to know how to express their importance to each other. Every night when she returned to Jinguyuan, Chang Huaiyin would almost always take out the set of glazed Xingjunqi (marching chess) pieces that Tan Weishi had extorted from Ye Tao to play. As intelligent as she was, she had become a leader among the many people in the Chunnan mission who had become obsessed with Xingjunqi. Especially in two-person games, her win rate within the mission was as high as 70%. Although there were factors of those opponents letting her win, her chess skills were indeed not low.

Tan Weishi carefully collected the "rewards" from Chang Huaiyin that she had accepted with resentment. There was no angry act of destruction.

It was precisely because they understood that the two really cared about each other, but didn't know how to clean up the mess they had made, that the two fathers could watch from the sidelines while joking.