Chapter: 157.1 out of 171
Many noble women had come to Duke Ying’s residence to attend old madam’s birthday banquet today. If Wei Bao Shan went to the reception pavilion and the guests saw her like this, she would certainly be ridiculed by other people.
If this weren’t true, Wei Luo wouldn’t have allowed her to go there.
Wasn’t Wei Bao Shan hoping to curry favor with the rich and powerful in hopes of advancing her social status and marrying someone from a good family? Wei Luo wanted to see. What were the chances that a madam would be interested in Wei Bao Shan as a daughter-in-law after seeing her like this?
When Wei Bao Shan arrived at the reception pavilion, second madam was speaking to Marquis Xin Yang’s wife. She was enjoying their discussion quite a bit. Second madam personally brewed a teapot of bi luo chun (a type of green tea grown in Dong Tian Mountain region), poured a cup of tea, and pushed the cup in front of Marquis Xin Yan’s wife. “I heard that a new temple has been built outside of the capital. How about going there to donate money on another day?”
Marquis Xin Yan’s wife picked up the teacup that had a pattern made with varying shades of grey glaze. Just as she was about to nod, she heard a collective gasping sound in the reception pavilion. She turned her head to look in that direction.
(T/N: Below is a picture of a teacup with that type of grey glaze.)
Ch 157 - grey teacup.png
Wei Bao Shan had appeared at the entrance and she cut a sorry figure. Her cheeks were red and swollen and her hair was an unsightly mess. With red eyes, she walked to second madam Song-shi’s side, curtsied and called out, “Mother.”
Second madam’s face changed colors. She felt as if Wei Bao Shan had caused her to completely lose face. “Who told you to come here? Why do you look like this?”
The surrounding madams started whispering. Even Marquis Xin Yan’s wife furrowed her eyebrows and put down the teacup she had recently picked up.
Second Madam Song-shi naturally didn’t miss her minute actions. She had finally succeeded in having a closer relationship with Marquis Xin Yan’s wife. She naturally couldn’t let Wei Bao Shan ruin everything at the last minute. Song-shi’s expression became stern and she scolded her, “Haven’t I properly taught you? Why haven’t you even learned a small degree of propriety? Look at your clothing. Should you be coming out here and letting other people see you like? And your face, what’s happened with it?” As she spoke, her eyebrows furrowed.
Song-shi looked very dissatisfied as she continued, “That woman from outside probably didn’t properly teach you. But since you entered this household, you have to follow the rules of a duke’s household. Otherwise you’ll damage the duke’s family’s reputation when you go out.”
When the other madams heard these words, they suddenly realized. So, she was a daughter from an outside mistress. Everything made sense now.
Wei Bao Shan tightly bit her bottom lip and slowly said, “Mother, please calm down. Bao Shan came here to ask for forgiveness.”
Song-shi was very disdainful of her to begin with. When she heard the words, “ask for forgiveness”, she immediately felt annoyed. “What have you done?”
Wei Bao Shan said, “I…”
“Second Madam.” Jin Lu passed through entranced, saluted second madam, and said, “Miss Bao Shan had spoke rudely and offended Princess Consort Jing. The princess consort ordered this servant to teach Miss Bao Shan a lesson.”
Not only was Wei Luo previously Duke Ying’s family’s fourth miss, she was currently Prince Jing’s dearest person. Her position was incomparably higher than Wei Bao Shan’s. Wei Bao Shan, a daughter born from an outside mistress, had dared to offend Princess Consort Jing? Second madam fiercely glared at Wei Bao Shan. She was truly fed up with this girl to the core of her bones. Second madam asked Jin Lu, “Is Ah Luo okay?”
Jin Lu raised her eyes and glanced at Wei Bao Shan. She slowly said, “The princess consort was extremely angered by Miss Bao Shan. She’s currently resting in Pine Courtyard.”
Second madam hurriedly said, “It’s my fault that Ah Luo suffered a grievance. I was negligent in my discipline. I’ll go over there to apologize to Wei Luo later.”
Having explained everything, Jin Lu turned around and withdrew from the reception pavilion.
Second madam was infuriated by Wei Bao Shan, but it wouldn’t be good for her explode in anger in front of the other madams. She only angrily said, “Hmph! Why are you still standing here? Return to your room.”
Wei Bao Shan’s eyes were filled with glistening tears of humiliation. She bit her lip before turning around and rushed out.
Just as she had run to a verandah, she collided against a man wearing a sapphire blue robe embroidered with branches of flowering chrysanthemum. She hurriedly apologized and ran away with a tearful face.
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Wei Luo was indeed resting at Pine Courtyard. But, it wasn’t because she was angered by Wei Bao Shan’s words.
She was currently in a great mood and talking with Liang Yu Rong. Liang Yu Rong had recently made several sets of clothing for babies. She had made little tops, little shoes, and little jackets for both genders. She had even prepared diapers. Wei Luo was stunned as Liang Yu Rong showed her these items.
Liang Yu Rong fiddle with small clothing as she said, “I calculated the time. My baby will be born in winter. I need to prepare more thick clothing.”
Wei Luo picked up a small crimson embroidered jacket to look. It was very small piece of clothing. She could almost imagine a baby wearing this jacket. She felt slightly envious and in a jealous tone asked, “How do you know if it’ll be a boy or a girl? These are mostly clothing for a girl. What will you do if you give birth to a boy?”
Liang Yu Rong didn’t mind. She said with a smile, “If it’s a baby boy, then I’ll just give birth to a daughter in the future.” She was already looking obviously pregnant. She straightened her back as she sat on the arhat couch. Her reasoning made sense. “Big brother Chang Yin wants a daughter. He prepared most of these clothes. Even if I don’t give birth to a daughter this time, we said that we would definitely have one in the future.”
Wei Luo puffed up her cheeks and pushed the small jacket back into Liang Yu Rong’s hand. “You’re not afraid of exhausting yourself by having so many children.”
Liang Yu Rong knew that Wei Luo was just expressing sour grapes and didn’t lower herself to argue with her. She looked around and seeing that there wasn’t anyone around, she asked in Wei Luo’s ear, “Ah Luo… have you thought about seeing a doctor?”
Wei Luo froze for a moment and thought of Wei Bao Shan’s words. “A hen that can’t lay eggs.” Her expression immediately turned ugly.
Liang Yu Rong thought she was angry and hurriedly explained, “Don’t take it the wrong way. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that…” She spent a long time trying to figure out the words to say, but she couldn’t think of anything. She let out a sigh and held Wei Luo’s hand as she said, “Ah Luo, you’ve already been married to Prince Jing for half a year and there hasn’t been a hint of pregnancy. Perhaps, it’s not your problem, but Prince Jing’s problem?”
It wasn’t that Wei Luo hadn’t thought about this problem before. But, she didn’t dare to face this problem and kept avoiding this issue. She continued to think that a child would come when it was the right time. After all, she and Zhao Jie were both very normal and didn’t have signs of illnesses. However, now that Liang Yu Rong had brought this up, she had to face this problem.
Could there really be something wrong with her body?
Wei Luo contemplated for a while and didn’t hear a single word that Liang Yu Rong said afterwards.