After the Qiqiao Festival, the atmosphere reverted to its normal state, and the surrounding temperature gradually lowered with every day’s passing. Hence, Lin Feilu no longer went out of the palace often. In addition to that, with the approach of late autumn, the Crown Prince’s marriage was getting closer and closer. There were too many people entering and leaving the palace daily, so she consciously didn’t want to add to the inspection unit’s burdens.
As the first Prince in the royal family to marry a wife, Lin Qing seemed very calm. For him, this marriage was just a bargaining chip to stabilize his position. He didn’t care whether he married Si Miaoran or Shi Miaoran(2).
(T/N: Changing the way one’s name was written— or changing the surname of someone’s name— can be seen as unimportant. That means to the Crown Prince, it doesn’t matter to him how the name of his wife is spelled because he doesn’t care)
But Lin Feilu felt that since he was about to get married, he should at least have a little bit of expectation and joy for the marriage. Otherwise, his marriage would be completely reduced to a political union, which would be too pitiful of a fact for her to recognize, so she went to the East Palace to feed him some stories and anecdotes every day.
Lin Qing was annoyed by her constant bothering and deliberately frightened her, “If I had known that you were so keen on marriage prospects, I should have agreed when the Imperial Clerk came over and asked for your hand in marriage on behalf of his heir!”
It worked too well— Lin Feilu was instantly frightened, and her eyes widened, “What Imperial Clerk? What do you mean, ‘my hand in marriage’?” She remembered something and said in surprise, “You mean Ran Ye?”
Lin Qing raised his eyebrows, “So you know who it is. It looks like the feelings are mutual, then?”
Lin Feilu shook her head violently, almost to the point that the neck would break off visually.
Now she finally knew why Ran Ye was beaten up badly in the Purple Jade Forest.
(T/N: I did guess something along the lines a few chapters ago, but yes, good to know that this was the real reason)
However, Xi Xingjiang was also a problem. Whenever she thought about it, she had a headache, so she went toward Lin Qing and used her coquettish technique, “Brother Crown Prince, if Xi Xingjiang comes to ask Father Emperor for permission to marry me, you guys must do everything you can in your power to reject it.”
Lin Qing looked at her amusingly, “You don’t like Xingjiang? He is now a young and promising Great General. Admired by countless women in the empire, whoever marries him would receive great treatment once they step into the threshold of his residence.”
At times like this, the Little Fifth Princess could always make good remarks, so she retorted, “Since so many women adore him, why should I be the bad guy? Please give the majority of girls in our capital a chance to fight for their loved ones; We can’t always limit the good things to the royal family members after all, as we must be kind towards our people.”
Lin Qing, “…”
Lin Feilu begged for a long time before she got Lin Qing’s assurance. Now that she had his word for it, she happily talked about his marriage again, “I heard that my sister-in-law would come to the palace in a few days to greet Grandmother Empress Dowager and Her Royal Highness the Empress. When the time comes, I will go and take a look. Is there anything you want to ask your wife? I’ll help you out.”
Lin Qing just smiled and shook his head, “No need for that, as long as you don’t scare her off with too much enthusiasm.”
Asking about their public or private issues would not be able to change the fact that their marriage was set, so why bother?