Unlimited estates for rural beauty-Chapter 208: Celebrating Longevity (4)
Zhenzhu stepped down from the carriage, went around to the back, and looked at the ten silver notes lying on the ground with disdain, "Our Miss is magnanimous and won’t stoop to your level. The Song Residence can still afford the use of a carriage, unlike some people who bump into someone else’s carriage and still act so arrogantly. It’s really beyond me how thick your skin is."
Yudie, inside the carriage, heard Zhenzhu’s words and her delicate face turned crimson with anger. She flung the carriage curtain aside, leaped out, and approached Palace Maid Zhenzhu. Yudie slapped her forcefully across the face. Not satisfied with just one slap, she delivered another on the opposite cheek and scolded, "Hmph, a mere servant girl, you have no sense of propriety. At our manor, you would have been dragged out and sold long ago to prevent you from humiliating us further." She spoke while casting disdainful glances at the front of the carriage.
Song Miaoqiu listened to the exchange from inside her carriage, then rose and disembarked. Facing Situ Yudie in a red outfit, she approached and gently said, "My servant girl has behaved properly; it is you, miss, who hit someone’s carriage first, insulted others afterward, and now you’ve even resorted to physical harm. Are these the rules of your manor? It’s truly unheard of."
"Hmph, if your carriage hadn’t been dawdling in the middle of the road, we wouldn’t have collided with it. It’s only your carriage’s fault for being so outdated that it needs replacing," Yudie retorted with arms crossed and rolling her eyes.
"Quibbling with fallacies? The current emperor promotes frugality, leading by example. Are you suggesting I should not follow the emperor’s decree?" Song Miaoqiu pressed Situ Yudie closely.
Situ Yudie then realized she had unwittingly walked into a trap. She had just suggested the other party get a new carriage when Miaoqiu responded by citing adherence to the emperor’s will. To voice against frugality would be to contradict the emperor, but to support it would be self-contradictory. Understanding this, Situ Yudie found herself unable to form a rebuttal and, fuming, turned back to her carriage, turned it around, and took another path toward the Imperial Palace.
Yingsu watched the excitement before returning to the carriage, recounting what had just happened to her miss.
"Miss, that Situ Yudie is just too arrogant," she said.
"Yes, she’s arrogantly misplaced," Feng Xuxu couldn’t help shaking her head before frowning and asking, "Didn’t you see her brother?"
"I didn’t see him, miss, though I did look around on purpose," Yingsu was puzzled as well. On such an important day, he should have been accompanying Situ Yudie to the palace. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
"Hmm, pay more attention after we enter the palace," Feng Xuxu speculated. If Situ Wuyou was not accompanying his sister to the palace, could it be that he had gone to meet someone else?
The carriage rumbled all the way to the outside of the Imperial Palace, where Yingsu helped her miss alight from the carriage, and they presented their tokens to be allowed passage along with their cousin.
"May I ask if you are the Castle Lord and Holy Maiden from Jueqing Castle?" Eunuch Wang approached with a horsetail whisk in hand and inquired.
Jueqing and Feng Xuxu exchanged a glance, and Jueqing stepped forward and said, "Indeed, I am. May I know who you are?" "Hehe, this old servant is Eunuch Wang from the Empress Dowager’s court. Please follow me, the other Hidden Clan families have already arrived," Eunuch Wang said with a flick of the whisk as he led the way.
"May I ask, Eunuch Wang, have we arrived late?" Feng Xuxu sent a look to Yingsu by her side, and Yingsu, seizing the opportunity when Eunuch Wang paused to turn and answer, slipped a silver note into his hand.
"Not late at all. The other families simply arrived a bit earlier," Eunuch Wang pinched the silver note and deftly tucked it into his sleeve, happily responding.
When they reached a fork in the garden path, a palace maid approached and greeted Feng Xuxu with a bow, "Miss, please follow me."
"Holy Maiden, this way is for the female guests, and that way for the male guests. They will guide you to the great hall when the time comes," Eunuch Wang explained to the Holy Maiden as he followed.
