Chapter 132 The Eldest Princess There are banquets everywhere on moonlit nights. The ancestral home of the Hongnong Yang family is no exception. It is called a house, but in fact it is a continuous town. A census was done a few years ago. Not counting the branches scattered across the Celestial Empire, there were more than 20,000 members of the Yang family living in Hongnong County alone, or to put it more broadly, in Sili Prefecture (including the capital). However, apart from a few direct descendants, there are less than two thousand clan members who can live in the ancestral home for a long time. These two thousand people either have successful children, brothers who are officials or generals, or parents who hold certain positions of power. The ancestral home has a clan temple, a school, fields, and a business. Living here, life is convenient and comfortable, you have a wide range of social contacts, and the people, things and knowledge you can access are unmatched by living anywhere else. Throughout the entire Dayong world, those who are descendants of the Hongnong Yang clan all have a strong desire to allow themselves, their brothers and sisters, parents and children to live in a house before they die!
It would be best if my family could be included in the ancestral hall's genealogy. The Hongnong Yang family has a long history and has produced three dukes and prime ministers, military generals and border commanders, great scholars, great virtues, empresses, and many noble concubines, virtuous concubines, and virtuous concubines. Therefore, the return home of the current emperor's Concubine De, also known as Concubine Yang, the mother of the sixth princess and the seventh prince, is only a major event for Concubine De's family, not for the Yang family. There weren't many people who attended the welcoming banquet, accompanied us for outings, and chatted with us. The current patriarch of the Yang family, Yang Shensi, the current Minister of Dali Temple, only showed up once at the welcoming banquet and never appeared again. The only people who accompanied Concubine Yang throughout the whole process were her biological mother and her half-brother Yang Shenxiu. Yang Shenxiu's son Yang Tianci, after finishing the duel and recovering from his injuries, returned home, greeted his aunt, and followed her by her side. At this moment, the four of them, served by servants and maids, were sitting in a pavilion by the lake, feasting and admiring the moon. In front of her mother, Concubine Yang Defei did not put on any airs at all, she was just an innocent daughter. Therefore, Yang Cui, the mother of Concubine Yang De, sat in the seat at the head of the north side, enjoying the wine and food served by her daughter Concubine Yang De, feeling very calm and comfortable. Yang Cui was born in Qinghe Cui and was the legitimate daughter of Qinghe Cui. She married Yang Shenxiu's father as his second wife. From the perspective of the aristocratic family, this was considered marrying down and she suffered injustice. Therefore, the Yang Cui family had a high status in Yang Shenxiu's branch. Yang Shenxiu's father Yang Boshan and Yang Cuishi respected each other like guests. They never had a quarrel or an argument for decades. Yang Cui was a good person. She treated the son and daughter of Yang Boshan's deceased wife very well, and treated them as her own children. At that time, the current empress was planning to fill the emperor's harem. Yang Cui personally returned to her mother's home in Qinghe, cried and complained, and successfully got through the Qinghe Cui family to send both Yang and Yang into the palace. In the years that followed, he always supported Yang Da and Yang Xiao in their efforts to gain a foothold in the palace, and never showed any bias. Even the elder Yang was given the title of Shufei, while the younger Yang was given the title of Defei. According to the hierarchy of the imperial harem in the Celestial Empire, the empress was the most respected and the mother of the country. Next are the four ladies, Gui, Shu, De and Xian, whose rank is the first rank; Next in order were the nine concubines, twenty-seven ladies, and eighty-one imperial wives.
At that time, there was no imperial concubine in the harem. After the empress, the eldest concubine Yang was the highest, followed by the younger concubine Yang. In the palace, according to the rules, when Little Concubine Yang met Big Concubine Yang, she had to pay her respects first. This matter may not be a big deal outside the palace, but it will be infinitely magnified in the palace, and it will be reflected in everything from the standards and etiquette of food, clothing, housing and transportation to the treatment and respect of palace people. Yang Shenxiu was not good at studying, practicing Taoism, worshiping Buddha, or practicing martial arts. Yang Cui then went to great lengths to obtain the qualification to worship Emperor Ziwei and made Yang Shenxiu the shaman of Emperor Ziwei. This is the only Purple Star Emperor shaman in the Celestial Empire who is not from the royal family of Li! Yang Tianci, the son of Yang Shenxiu, loved reading. The Hongnong Yang family has a tradition of poetry and literature, with countless great scholars and a top-notch heritage, so Yang Cui does not need to worry about academic studies. Therefore, Yang Cui only looked for some external objects, such as the four treasures of the study, pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, which were all Haoran's items; and the bow, arrows, scrolls, gentleman's sword, which were all Haoran's items, and so on and so forth, too numerous to mention. All these things, added up to a hundred and one things over the past few decades, have made Yang Cui's reputation grow and his status become increasingly respected. It also made Yang Shenxiu and Concubine Yang Shu submissive in front of Yang Cui, unwilling and afraid to show any disobedience. What's more, after Concubine Yang Shufei and Concubine Yang Defei entered the palace, Yang Shenxiu became closer to Concubine Yang Defei and gradually became distant from Concubine Yang Shufei. Even though the Sixth Princess has given up the fight for the throne and the Seventh Prince has not formally given up, he is still too young. This is still the case even though the Sixth Princess has openly or secretly joined the camp of the Eldest Princess, the Third Prince's biggest rival in the fight for the throne. Strangely enough, the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince couldn't get close to their grandmother. Especially the seventh prince. Therefore, although they could teleport or fly from Yuquan Mountain to the ancestral home of the Yang family in Hongnong, the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince chose to take a carriage, which took them half an hour on the road. However, the brother and sister did not dare to go too far. I still arrived at Hongnong Yang's in time and came to this lakeside pavilion. "Meet Grandma." When the brother and sister entered the pavilion, the first thing they did was to pay great respect to Yang Cui. "Meet mother. Meet uncle. Meet cousin." Then he greeted Concubine Yang Defei, Yang Shenxiu and Yang Tianci. Yang Cuishi, Consort Yang Defei and Yang Shenxiu sat upright to receive the greetings. Yang Tianci stood up and stepped aside, then he bowed to the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince meticulously: "Scholar Yang Tianci greets His Royal Highness the Sixth Princess and His Royal Highness the Seventh Prince." "Please sit down, we are a family, there is no need for so much formality." Yang Cui, who was well-maintained, had a beautiful face and a dignified and graceful temperament, spoke softly. "Yes, Grandma/Grandma." The Sixth Princess, the Seventh Prince, and Yang Tianci responded in unison and took their seats after bowing.
"I asked you two to come here because I missed you two after not seeing you for a long time." After the three children sat down, Yang Cui spoke slowly, "There is something I want to ask you two." The Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince, who had just sat down, immediately stood up, saluted to Yang Cui, and listened to her questions respectfully. Yang Cui did not let the siblings stand up, and slowly asked: "I am curious, have you two siblings really given up the fight for the throne? I am also curious, have you two siblings really joined the eldest princess's camp and helped her fight for the throne?" This question was asked very directly, without any roundabout way. The question also made the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince not know how to answer. Seeing the plight of his cousins, Yang Tianci stepped forward in time to help them out: "Grandmother, the world is uncertain, everything is possible, it is too early to say that we should give up completely or take sides. I think that Lianmei and Dong'er are in a good situation now. If we retreat, it will help the princesses fight for the throne and also retain the possibility of further progress. After all, Dong'er is still young and needs to grow in all aspects. If we really want to fight for the throne, there is no need to rush. Ten years is a long time." "is it?" Yang Cui did not comment on Yang Tianci's words, but just looked calmly at the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince who were standing with their heads bowed. Gaze has weight, gaze has power. The Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince gradually became a little upset after being stared at in such an extremely calm manner. The seventh prince was the first to become unable to hold on, and his legs and feet began to tremble slightly. Cold sweat also began to flow down the Sixth Princess's forehead. The siblings' mother, Concubine Yang Defei, seemed not to see anything and was still busy serving wine and food to their mother, Yang Cui, showing her filial piety. Yang Shenxiu's eyelids were drooping and his face was calm, making it impossible to tell what he thought about this. He looked like a clay sculpture or a wooden carving. Yang Tianci felt a little reluctant and opened his mouth to help again. Yang Shenxiu raised his eyelids slightly and looked over indifferently. Just one glance and Yang Tianci was unable to do anything. The whole person seemed to be under the spell of fixing the soul, motionless, like a clay sculpture or wooden carving. "sister." The Seventh Prince's legs and feet were shaking more and more violently and more and more frequently. He was almost unable to bear it anymore and cried out in a sobbing voice. The Sixth Princess closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, stood up suddenly, glared at him, and cursed: "That's enough, you old witch! My brother and I are descendants of the Li family. It's not your turn to teach us a lesson. Every time you summon us, it's always like this. Why do you, the Qinghe Cui, want to be superior to my royal family of the Li family? Do you want to shit and piss? When Taizu founded the Celestial Dynasty, he didn't sweep you, the Qinghe Cui, into the garbage dump. He didn't want to hurt the vitality of the human race! Now the catastrophe is coming again. You, the Qinghe Cui, have been living in disgrace for a thousand years. Are you going to jump out and stir up trouble again? Bah! Bullshit thousand-year-old culture! It's just a filthy thing like a termite!" The air in the lakeside pavilion almost froze with the Sixth Princess' sudden curse. Yang Tianci was dumbfounded, Yang Defei was stunned, Yang Shenxiu was like a clay sculpture or a wooden carving, and Yang Cui's eyes were indifferent, completely unaffected. But none of them knew why the Sixth Princess suddenly exploded. They just wanted to ask, what happened? Just a little blame, what's wrong? After all, grandma is grandma, she is an elder! If I blame you, you just have to bear it! The Sixth Princess ignored Concubine Yang De's angry look after she was stunned, and continued to curse: "Don't think that the means you used to control my mother and Concubine Yang Shu, two fools, can control us, the descendants of the Li family! I respect you as my grandmother by blood, so I tolerate you again and again and don't bother with you! If you don't respect this blood relationship, who do you think you are? How dare you control us again and again? Dong'er, let's go, we don't want to marry into the Hongnong Yang family!" While cursing, the Sixth Princess grabbed the Seventh Prince's hand and turned away. The anger that had accumulated in her heart from being reprimanded and criticized every once in a while in recent years was vented through scolding, but the Sixth Princess's anger and grievance remained.
I really don't want to stay here for even a second longer. "Did I let you go?" Yang Cui, who was sitting at the head of the table, spoke calmly, with a majestic presence without even getting angry. The nearly solidified air in the lakeside pavilion immediately turned into an air wall, squeezing the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince from all directions. The two of them had difficulty moving. He tried everything including physical strength, magic power, spiritual awareness, martial arts, spells, and magical powers, and even made the two little faces turn red, but he still couldn't walk out of the pavilion. The Sixth Princess is better off and can hold on. The Seventh Prince's legs were already shaking badly, and his knees could no longer be straightened and gradually bent. Suddenly, a cold voice came: "Qinghe Cui is really so powerful! He even dared to force the prince to kneel down! How dare you!" Before the voice fell, a hazy moonlight descended from the sky and sprinkled on the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince. All the restraints and pressures suddenly disappeared. A warm current of heat also followed, calming the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince's disordered breathing and internal injuries caused by overexertion. "Go, go straight, go forward, go boldly. I want to see who dares to stop the Hongnong Yang family, and how domineering the Qinghe Cui family is!" The cold voice sounded again. The volume was not loud, but it spread throughout the Yang family's ancestral home in Hongnong. In the ancestral hall, the previous head of the Yang family, Yang Boxi, stood in front of the ancestral tablet, his body hunched over and his breath weak, like a candle in the wind. Behind Yang Boxi, kneeling was Yang Boshan, who looked young but was actually in his fifties. Except for the six great masters who were either traveling or practicing in seclusion all year round, all the elders from the direct and side branches of the clan were standing in the ancestral hall. The current clan leader, Yang Shensi, is on night duty at the Daming Palace. The strong men of the Shen generation are either serving as officials in various prefectures, counties, or commanding troops in the imperial guards and border troops. Among the members of the Shen generation who stayed in the ancestral home, Yang Shenxiu, the only presentable one, was now in the pavilion by the lake, but he looked like a clay sculpture or a wooden carving, and did not say a word. Therefore, although the cold voice so rudely damaged the reputation of the Hongnong Yang family, no one from the Yang family stood up to refute it. No one stopped the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince from leaving. Yang Cui gently clenched her hands in her sleeves, her face calm and she said nothing. It was as if the person who was scolded before was not her, nor was it Qinghe Cui, whom she had always relied on as a supporter after she married into the Hongnong Yang family. There is a kind of forbearance that allows one to endure being insulted. The entire lakeside pavilion and the entire Yang family ancestral home fell into a strange silence. In this strange atmosphere, the Sixth Princess and the Seventh Prince left the waterside pavilion step by step, got on the carriage, left the Yang family's ancestral home, and drove towards the brightly lit capital. Unlike the slow pace when they came, the carriage was now moving at its fastest speed.
In less than a quarter of an hour, they had returned to the capital from Hongnong County. Seeing the towering city gate tower, the Seventh Prince's heart, which had been beating all the way, finally calmed down. He then widened his eyes, looked at the Sixth Princess with admiration, and shouted excitedly: "Sister, how can you be so brave! I admire you so much! Sister, you are so amazing! So amazing! Mua..." The Seventh Prince was so excited that he rushed to the Sixth Princess and kissed her hard. The Sixth Princess did not push him away and let her stinky brother drool on her face. At this point, the Sixth Princess herself actually found it hard to believe that the scolding she had just received was actually her fault. No, not a thing, but a feat. only…… I felt good, as I vented out my long-suppressed resentment, but I ruined my elder sister's plan. My eldest sister wanted to establish a good relationship with the Hongnong Yang family. After what happened tonight, can this plan still be carried forward? The Sixth Princess couldn't help but feel a little worried. Then he changed his mind and thought, in this case, my elder sister should be completely relieved. As the other party involved, the eldest princess did not come in person. After she rescued the sixth princess and the seventh prince from a distance, she did not care what would happen next in the ancestral home of the Yang family in Hongnong, what Yang Cui would do later, or how she felt. She has a lot of things to do. I finally got my father's permission to come out in this way, so I have to finish everything I can. Anyway, the signal has been sent out. Whether the Hongnong Yang family will cooperate, confront, or remain neutral is something that the Hongnong Yang family needs to consider. She just waited patiently for the reply. Suddenly, the eldest princess, who was secretly moving between reality and illusion, entered the capital before the sixth princess and the seventh prince and arrived at Taibai Tower. In the Hutian Arena in the lobby on the first floor, the fight between two talented warriors is still going on. However, both Lanling and Gao Wei had already used up all their martial arts energy, their pistols were broken, and their three-pointed, double-edged swords were broken into two pieces. They were now relying on their physical strength to fight with their fists and feet. Both of them have a very solid foundation. You punch, I kick, block, resolve, counterattack, counter-counterattack, it's dangerous and exciting. The fist-fighting not only did not reduce the attention of the guests in Taibai Tower, but instead continued to push people's enthusiasm higher and higher. Dong Shou no longer beat the drum or sang lyrics. Instead, he tore off his clothes, bare-chested, revealing his strong muscles. Veins bulged all over his body, and he clenched his fists and roared to cheer for Lan Ling. Under the wild leadership of Dong Shou, Shan Yi was the first to respond, shouting with his clothes bursting, and Zhu Cong followed closely, followed by Yuan Luyao. There are few people in Qingzhou, and with Gao Wei in the arena, there are only four geniuses. Among the other three, Monk Huineng had realized his true nature, and except when he had disputes over doctrines, when he would get angry, he was very calm at other times. The same is true for Kun Dao and female Confucian scholars. Therefore, judging solely from the performance of the family and friends group, Lanling won.
The eldest princess hid between reality and illusion. She glanced at the fight in the Hu Tian arena and the cheers outside the arena. She wrote down a few names and became more and more impressed with the madman Dong Shou. She then went straight to the top floor. The Third Prince was meeting with the New Marquis, so naturally he had to book the entire top floor. At this moment, the third prince had already left and no one knew where he had gone. Only Marquis Xinxi and his four followers were left on the top floor. One of the followers walked over and sat down opposite to Marquis Xinxi. He raised his right hand and gently tore off the mask on his face that could conceal his true face. Who else could it be if not Ma Weiwei, the legitimate daughter of Marquis Xinxi? "Father, is it worth it?" There was an unremovable gloom between Ma Weiwei's brows, and her whole temperament was completely different from what it was more than a month ago. At that time, Ma Weiwei just had some of the melancholy temperament of Lin Daiyu in the early and middle stages of her life. At this moment, Ma Weiwei is more like the later Lin Daiyu who shed tears all day long, feeling that her life is dull and she has lost all hope. "what?" Marquis Xinxi didn't seem to understand what his daughter said. He waved his hand and changed the subject. "When your master travels next time, you don't have to follow him. Just stay in the capital." Ma Weiwei lowered her head and said in a weak voice, "Waiting for the Zongzheng Temple to choose a concubine for the Third Prince, right?" Xinxi Hou was silent for a moment, then he said, "Miss is tired, send her back to the mansion to rest." The other three followers stepped forward immediately. Two of them helped Ma Weiwei up, and one of them took out a communication jade, operated it for a while, and after getting permission, he took out a shuttle. The four of them entered the shuttle and left Taibai Tower in an instant. The cold moonlight then poured in, forming a hazy human figure. When Xinxi Hou Ma Jinyu saw this, he immediately knelt on one knee, more pious than when he saluted the Third Prince: "I pay my respects to the Princess." (End of this chapter)