Chapter 243: Chapter 243: The Sachet Incident
Barbecue by the river.
Everyone was drinking, eating meat, and talking, creating a lively atmosphere.
The game used for the barbecue was actually registered and recorded, so there was no worry about it being consumed without accountability.
Xiao Shiqing sat by the river, listening to the clamor behind him. He took out two pouches from his person.
He didn’t understand why the pouches embroidered by the same person were worlds apart.
Just like Cousin Ji said, a beginner’s level.
But how could her skill be that of a beginner?
He thought perhaps her hand was injured when she was a maid, so she reluctantly embroidered a pouch for herself to use, but now her wrist was nimble. Given her character, once her hand healed, she would definitely embroider a better one to replace it.
Why did she always wear such an unpresentable pouch?
Or perhaps it was a gift from someone else, holding some commemorative significance?
"Xiao, why are you sitting here alone, come and eat meat and drink with everyone."
This person was quite close to Xiao Shiqing, otherwise, he wouldn’t call him so, then he keenly spotted the two pouches in Xiao’s hand and snatched one away.
Due to the noise behind, the sound of the river, and the person only speaking when close, Xiao Shiqing couldn’t react in time and had a pouch snatched away.
It was the one Qu Fulan dropped.
"Which girl’s embroidery is so poor, yet has the nerve to give it to someone."
Xiao Shiqing put away the other pouch, stood up to retrieve it, but that person laughed and ran away.
On the other side, Zhou Baiying saw this, came over to join in the fun, "Let me see, let me see."
The person tossed it to him, Zhou Baiying caught it and was also appalled by its ugliness. But thinking about such an ugly pouch being hidden on his cousin, it showed he had a great fondness for embroidered pouches. He started looking for characters on the pouch, but girls usually liked to embroider words on pouches, and found none, what is this?
"Zhou Baiying! One! Two!"
As expected, before the third count, Zhou Baiying quietly surrendered, returned the pouch to his cousin, and couldn’t help but lean in to ask, "Cousin, which girl’s embroidery is this?"
Xiao Shiqing, with a sullen face, put away the pouch without speaking.
But many people heard about the pouch, as things related to pouches generally involved women.
The atmosphere tonight was good, and at some distance, they didn’t see Xiao Shiqing’s grim face and joked about it.
"Heir Pei is such a handsome talent, it’s natural that many girls are vying to give him pouches."
The talk reached the emperor’s ears, who also loved a good spectacle, and immediately laughed, "Xiao, you’re quite fortunate in love, rare to see you accept a girl’s pouch, which family girl do you fancy now?"
When the emperor asked, Xiao Shiqing naturally didn’t dare not to answer, and immediately replied, "This is something I picked up by chance, I plan to return it later, not as everyone thinks."
Having said this much, the emperor didn’t press further, who doesn’t have untellable secrets?
On the other side, Pei Ji’an, seeing this scene, couldn’t help but squint slightly, thinking of the pouch that used to be treasured by Xiao Shiqing, now he starts collecting others’ pouches?
Pei Ji’an sarcastically tugged at the corners of his mouth.
But no matter what, Xiao Shiqing ultimately has the pouch she embroidered, and he doesn’t.
Thinking that his birthday is coming soon, asking for a pouch as a gift isn’t too much, right?
Meanwhile, over at Consort Zhang’s side, tormented by the aroma of rabbit meat all night long, scratching her heart and liver, she even felt the food brought by the servants tasteless, ordered some game to be grilled for her, but it wasn’t fragrant enough, made her lose appetite after a few bites.
Truly hateful!
Before long, the Seventh Prince returned, after greeting his mother consort properly, ordered someone to take off his outer garments, change his boots, and sat on the couch to rest.
Consort Zhang smelled a lot of alcohol, fortunately, she already had sobering soup prepared, had it brought over, inquired about the banquet and the emperor’s situation in detail, then talked about her plan.
"There’s a cousin girl of the Pei Family, surname Qu, whom I saw today. She seems to have good character and appearance, the key is her good cooking skills. You should find an opportunity to get to know her, if this marriage is formed, it will be greatly beneficial to us."
The Seventh Prince hadn’t even had time to drink the sobering soup yet and took a while to understand, "Mother consort wants me to take Pei Family’s cousin girl as a concubine?"
Consort Zhang laughed, "You’ve been married a year, it’s time to take a concubine. But since we’ve never been in contact with the Pei Family, it’s not good to propose directly, you should ask her first, she’s sure to be willing, and then we’ll propose, the Pei Family can’t refuse."
The Seventh Prince sobered up instantly, didn’t need any sobering soup.
"So mother consort knows the Pei Family wouldn’t agree?" The Seventh Prince just felt a buzz in his head.
Consort Zhang frowned, "What are you saying? The Pei Family wouldn’t agree because we’ve had little contact before, but if there’s contact, it’s different."
The Seventh Prince rubbed his aching temples, "Mother consort, abandon this idea early, never mind I have seven brothers ahead, even if I had a chance, your operation would ruin it."
A soldier who doesn’t want to be a general is not a good soldier, similarly, a prince who doesn’t want to be emperor is not a good prince.
The Seventh Prince also had emperor dreams, but it must be analyzed according to the situation, not delusional daydreaming.
"How could I ruin your hope? I’m just thinking for you."
The Seventh Prince felt a little helpless, his mother consort reached her current position, clearly not lacking in methods in the harem, yet when it came to matters related to the Grand Princess, she seemed to become another person, her thinking childish, focusing only on suppressing the Grand Princess, completely ignoring other consequences.
"Please think it over, Heir Pei, such a towering man, wouldn’t even give his maids as concubines, let alone his cousin. If I haven’t married a main wife, marrying her as the main wife would be possible, otherwise Heir Pei might depose me tomorrow. Father has so many sons, he’d definitely turn a blind eye, do you believe it?"
Whether Consort Zhang believed it or not, the Seventh Prince was wholly convinced.
This kind of thing wasn’t happening for the first time.
When Heir Pei just won the Young General title, the Eighth Prince took a liking to Heir Pei’s warhorse. Failing to obtain it by virtue of his prince status, he then poisoned the horse, later got beaten up by Heir Pei so badly, his grandparents didn’t recognize him, afterwards Heir Pei went to the palace to apologize.
The emperor’s son was beaten, this was no small matter, everyone thought Heir Pei was finished at the time.
But what happened?
The emperor punished all those related, whoever deserved a beating or scolding, even the Vice Ministers of the Six Ministries were scolded for failing to manage the Capital City properly, leading to such fights, holding them responsible.
And that matter was just over, Heir Pei didn’t receive a single punishment, the key was, the next day the emperor went to the tavern with Heir Pei.
Heh heh.