“Husband and wife plan for the future in the carriage.”
____
Both of them excused themselves to everyone they came across along the way and got onto the carriage. As soon as they boarded the carriage, Li Rong breathed a sigh of relief. The moment she sat down behind the table, her entire person went soft. Pei Wenxuan took a seat across from her, rather exhausted as well. As he poured tea for himself, he began to say: “Having a meal with your whole family is awfully tiring. The meal is essentially a morning court session, but it’s all just subjects between you women, I was so uncomfortable I could die.”
“You think I’m not uncomfortable with it?”
Li Rong took a cup of tea he had poured, getting a little angry: “Who does Consort Rou think she is! Does she think she can just latch onto Chuan’er because of her niece alone? Has she even taken a look at herself—a toad wanting to devour a swan1, she got off too easily today!”
[1] Describing someone’s wishful thinking or foolish aspirations.
“So what do you want to do about it?” Pei Wenxuan took a sip of tea with a face full of seriousness, “Poison her to death?”
“I genuinely think I do,” Li Rong turned to face him, “Can you do that? If you can, I will give you a thousand catties of gold in exchange for her head.”
“Her Grace the Noble Consort’s head is worth a thousand catties of gold?” Pei Wenxuan laughed. Li Rong also let out a derisive scoff and turned her head away: “A thousand catties can be considered an overly generous price.”
“It’s just that…” Pei Wenxuan fell into thought and said in all seriousness, “His Highness’s marriage is indeed a situation that needs to be assessed.”
Li Chuan’s marriage from the previous life would be decided early spring of the coming year, which meant this was around the time in which the candidates were chosen. In fact, the Empress already had a candidate for Crown Princess in mind, and she was merely looking for potential Side Consorts.
Li Rong was pondering over it when she heard Pei Wenxuan say: “I wonder how Your Highness plans to go about His Highness the Crown Prince’s marriage? Will it be like how it was in the previous life? Join hands with aristocratic clans to establish the Crown Prince’s authority and secure the throne through marriage. Or do you have other plans?”
“What do you think?” Li Rong picked up the cup of tea and took a small sip.
In reality, the two of them fully understood that what they were discussing was not Li Chuan’s marriage at all, but rather, how to vie for Li Chuan’s right to the throne as Crown Prince from here on out.
“In the previous life, the Empress found a Crown Princess and four Side Consorts for the Crown Prince, and it did actually strengthen ties between the Crown Prince and the aristocratic families. If Your Highness feels that the Crown Prince will have to follow the same path in this life as he had in the previous one, borrowing the power of the aristocratic families to secure military authority in the Northwest to take a stand and fight His Majesty head-on, then this is indeed one way to go about it.”
Li Rong said nothing, then she lightly tapped the golden folding fan in the palm of her hand, “What would be another way?”
“Does Your Highness remember how His Highness the Crown Prince was deposed in the previous life?”
When Pei Wenxuan suddenly put forth such a question, Li Rong knew that he was not arbitrarily asking, so she thought about it and replied: “Chuan’er had no military power in hand, and all of his power came from the aristocratic families. Moreover, Father Emperor had Prince Su serve as a puppet while secretly supporting the landed gentry2, and every single influential clan that sought refuge under Prince Su was also chosen and promoted to fight Chuan’er.”
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The Grand Princess
Historical Fiction[I don't own the story and the translation of this novel.] Description: Li Rong and Pei Wenxuan married at the age of 18. Li Rong used Pei Wenxuan's family background to avoid disaster, and Pei Wenxuan used Li Rong's identity as Princess to establis...
