Although she ran into a brain-dead person from the Zheng family, the experience of buying clothes and jewelry was still quite wonderful. However, when her Sixth brother settled the account, his hands trembled a bit.
“Sister.” Ming CunFu touched his half-empty purse and said to JiuZhu, “Wait for me in the carriage. I’ve to go to the bookshop across the street to buy some books.”
“Alright ah.” JiuZhu stroked the newly purchased hairpin by her temple and nodded, clearly in a good mood.
Seeing the smile on his younger sister’s face, Ming CunFu began to question himself: Was he being too stingy? It was a good thing that his sister was having a great time, how could he feel so distressed over some silver?!
“I’ll be back soon.” Ming CunFu told ChunFen: “Take care of your Young Miss.”
“Don’t worry, Brother. I’ll be waiting for you in the carriage obediently.” JiuZhu waved her hand: “You can choose your books at ease.”
“Okay then. I’ll be right back.”
The carriage was stationed just outside the ready-made clothing shop. As soon as JiuZhu reached the side of the carriage, she heard a loud shriek in a female voice.
“In-insect!”
“It jumped on my clothes. Quick, drive it away!”
JiuZhu saw the woman’s face turn pale with fright as she kept flinging her sleeves. She stepped forward promptly and caught the insect on the woman’s sleeves.
“Guniang doesn’t need to be afraid. It is just a cricket.” JiuZhu hid the cricket behind her body, not letting the woman see it lest she got scared again.
“Thank you.” The panic on the woman’s face faded. She thanked JiuZhu and hurriedly climbed into her family’s carriage.
“Little girl, that is my family’s General ChangSheng.”
JiuZhu turned her head to look at the door of the ready-made clothing shop. The purple-robed gongzi she had seen before was currently holding a cricket cage in his hand and looking at her with a wide smile.
“Yours?”
“Naturally.” The purple-robed gongzi spread out his palm, “Alright, this kind of creature that ran off from its master should be left to the master to be dealt with.”
“Oh.” JiuZhu trotted to him and put the cricket in this person’s fair and delicate palm.
They saw ‘General ChangSheng’ squirm twice in his palm with great difficulty before stopping his movements altogether.
“That…” JiuZhu silently took a step back and covertly sized up the purple-robed gongzi’s expression and then took another small step back: “Maybe I was careless just now and ended up using a little more strength.”
In order to further verify the authenticity of her words, she used her thumb and index finger to show the size of her fingernails: “It’s really only a little bit.”
The purple-robed gongzi raised his eyebrows slightly and tossed General ChangSheng’s corpse into the cricket cage, extending it to the attendants behind him. One of them took over the cage hurriedly while another handed him a clean embroidered handkerchief.
Seeing the other party slowly wipe his hands with the handkerchief, JiuZhu fished out a piece of silver from her purse. After thinking about it, she felt that the piece of silver was a bit bigger, so she threw it back in and rummaged through the purse until she found a smaller piece of silver. She went forward and quickly stuffed it into the purple-robed gongzi’s palm. After that, she speedily retreated again.
“What a big piece of silver.” With two fingers wrapped around the piece of silver smaller than his fingernails, the purple-robed gongzi sighed: “Guniang is exceptionally generous.”
JiuZhu also hated to part with that grain-sized piece of silver, but who told her to leave the house without taking along any copper coins?
“It’s a mere trifle.” Holding back her distress, JiuZhu turned her head away, trying to avoid looking at the grain-like silver in the other’s fingertips: “This is for the cricket’s funeral expenses.”
The hand of the purple-robed gongzi’s attendant clutching the cricket cage twitched slightly. Regardless, he was a dedicated attendant of the prince’s mansion. He must never show any emotions before his Master spoke.
“Okay.” The purple-robed gongzi casually put the piece of broken silver into the pouch at his waist: “Complying with guniang’s wish, I will definitely let General ChangSheng be buried in a spectacular manner.”
“That…” Facing the purple-robed gongzi, JiuZhu bowed in apology: “I’m sorry.”
Although it wasn’t intentional, the cricket was indeed pinched to death by her.
Blame it on the fact that she had seen less of the wider world and didn’t know that people of the capital would even raise pets as ‘special’ as a cricket.
“It’s ok, don’t mind it.” The purple-robed gongzi turned around and mounted his horse before taking the whip from his attendant: “It wasn’t immortal; it was a trifle that was eventually going to die.”
He raised his whip and was about to leave when he suddenly turned his head and looked at the golden branch entwined flower hairpin dangling by JiuZhu’s temple: “Which family is guniang from? I have never seen you before.”
JiuZhu looked at the purple-robed gongzi with her black and limpid eyes. In a few quick small steps, she speedily retreated to her family’s carriage.
What was going on with the men of the capital? Did they want to know a girl’s surname after they had a disagreement with her?
Noticing the little girl’s movements, the purple-robed gongzi clicked his tongue softly. Which family brought up this little girl? She was so naive. Wouldn’t her in-laws bully her into becoming a steamed stuffed bun after getting married?
JiuZhu saw the purple-robed gongzi also watching her with the expression of looking at a ‘rabbit that was on the verge of being roasted’ before waving his whip and leaving. Finally, she was able to ascertain one thing.
The problem is not her, but the whole capital.
“Sister.” Ming CunFu came over with a few books in his arms: “Let’s go, we should return now.”
“En.”
Getting on the carriage, JiuZhu clutched her purse with heartache: “Sixth Brother, just a moment ago, I accidentally pinched someone’s cricket to death and paid for its funeral expenses.”
“What cricket?” Ming CunFu knew that some hedonistic sons of the rich people of the capital liked to raise crickets and made them fight for fun.
“It’s master calls it ‘General ChangSheng’.”
“What?”
Ming CunFu, who was sitting lazily, sat upright in an instant: “General ChangSheng1General ChangSheng [常胜将军]: Hahaha, wondering why he’s so surprised? That’s because ‘ChangSheng’ [常胜] means ‘ever-victorious’ or ‘undefeatable’ and adding ‘General’ [将军] to its name means the cricket is an undefeatable General. xD?”
In the entire capital, except that outrageous Chen Wang, who would dare to give such a name to a cricket?
“Ho–how much did you compensate?” He swallowed, feeling his throat drying.
“I had to compensate with a big piece of silver.” JiuZhu stretched out her fingers to show him the size of half a fingernail.
Ming CunFu breathed out a sigh of relief immediately. Since it was so cheap, it definitely wouldn’t be Chen Wang’s General ChangSheng.
It was rumored that Chen Wang spent nearly a hundred gold to buy a cricket and even named it General ChangSheng. If it truly was His Highness’ cricket, all the little silver his sister brought might only be enough to bury a few legs of the cricket.
A few days later, when JiuZhu was drinking tea with her mother at home, she saw her father walk in with a solemn expression.
“Did something happen?” Shen-shi asked without much thought.
“It’s nothing but those trivial matters at court.” Ming JingZhou forced out a smile, picked up the tea in front of Shen-shi, and took two sips of the remnant tea, “Today, some people in the court present a memorial to His Majesty, asking him to appoint an heir. The voices proposing to appoint Huai Wang and Qi Wang were the loudest.”
“What did His Majesty do?” Shen-shi took a piece of pastry and handed it to Ming JingZhou.
“His Majesty was furious.” Ming JingZhou sat down at the table, ate the pastry with the residual tea, and turned to look at his daughter.
JiuZhu looked at him in perplexity.
“Ai.” Ming JingZhou sighed.
All the other princes were recommended by atleast someone. Only his daughter’s fiancé, who was detested by civil officials and disliked by the military generals, was not recommended by anyone.
“What’s the matter ah?” JiuZhu stretched out her hand and patted Ming JingZhou’s back lightly: “Was His Majesty also not satisfied with the prince that Father suggested?”
Ming JingZhou shook his head silently; if it really was merely that, he wouldn’t have sighed at all.
“Didn’t you say that His Majesty is only fifty at present?” JiuZhu didn’t understand why the courtiers were so eager to let the Emperor appoint an heir. What was the difference between this and asking the spirited elder of a common family to divide his family property ahead of time just because he was going to die sooner or later?
Ming JingZhou nodded.
“Your Majesty is in excellent health and cares for the country and its people in his heart. Even the power to deploy troops and command censor is in his hands.” JiuZhu looked at Ming JingZhou in confusion: “What good will it do His Majesty to appoint an heir so early?”
“But now, all the princes have grown up and are perhaps afraid that as His Majesty only favors Su Guifei, even the country might be snatched away by that pair of mother and son.”
“They are all His Majesty’s sons, why can Chen Wang not…”
Shen-shi took a piece of soft candy and stuffed it into JiuZhu’s mouth, whispering, “Be good, JiuZhu, don’t talk about matters of the court.”
JiuZhu bit into the candy with a loud crunch. Speaking about Qi Wang and Huai Wang was alright, but why not Chen Wang?
Recalling that even a child would dare to say that the Guifei niangniang was a Demon Consort, JiuZhu felt upset. Niangniang and Chen Wang were so good and kindhearted, how could they withstand the isolation of these people in the capital?
“Chen Wang’s actions are beyond belief.” Mentioning his future son-in-law, Ming JingZhou had several more wrinkles on his forehead: “It is said that the Marquis PingYuan’s family’s Shizi made him unhappy a few days ago, so he sent that person into the school to copy books. “
“What’s wrong with copying books?” Shen-shi asked, a little surprised. Chen Wang’s way of sorting people out this time was much gentler than before.
“He let Zheng WangNan go to the beginners’ class.”
It was hard to say whether this method was severe or not, but it must be extremely humiliating.
“It must be due to Zheng WangNan’s extreme actions that Chen Wang did this.” JiuZhu said firmly: “Chen Wang is gentle and kindhearted. He will definitely not punish people for no reason.”
Shen-shi and Ming JingZhou turned their heads and looked at JiuZhu at the same time.
Daughter, what kind of twisted and bizarre misunderstanding do you have about Chen Wang’s temperament?
“That Zheng WangNan… daughter met him last time she went out with Sixth Brother.” JiuZhu recounted the incident, “He laughed at the style of hairpin I chose for being tacky and wanted to ask me which family I belonged to.”
“I suspect that,” she touched her chin, her expression profound and her eyes brimming with wisdom, “he wanted to find out which family I was from in order to ridicule our whole family.”
“Nonsense, what do men know about jewelry?” Shen-shi firmly couldn’t tolerate any people who said her daughter, the person that was found with great difficulty, was no good: “That kind of uneducated man ought to be sent to the beginners’ class.”
“Wife, it’s the beginners’ class.”
That is, the class with the youngest children.
“This… were the other children affected by him?” She remembered that the child of a distant relative had just begun schooling.
Every family’s child was precious, they couldn’t be led astray by Zheng WangNan.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be so…” Ming JingZhou coughed dryly and turned the topic. He looked at JiuZhu and asked: “JiuZhu, where did you hear that His Highness Chen Wang… is gentle and kind? “
Why are there such outrageous rumors in the capital?
“Isn’t that the truth?”
Ming JingZhou: “……”
This rumor was just a million miles away from the truth.
Fortunately, it was not atleast at the distance between the ends of the world.
In fact, half of the words ‘His Highness Chen Wang is gentle and kindhearted’ were still true.
For example, the four words ‘His Highness Chen Wang‘.
Thanks for reading ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶! If you found any typos or want to suggest some corrections, feel free to do so in the comment section or in our discord server. And if you like my translations, please consider rating it on NU and supporting me on:
