1063

Chapter 1063 This Is A Dowry, Right?

Xuan Tiange did need something originally, but that person had already left, so she did not need anything now. So she just said: “It’s nothing, just that the floor heating might have turned cold, send someone to heat it up.”

After dismissing that person, she did not sleep well that night, her mind filled with questions as well as some worry. What was that person’s identity? He said Gu Shu’s new ruler bore a grudge towards the Eighth Prince, could this be trusted? Moreover, most importantly, what was he doing, barging into her room in the middle of the night? He came to see his saviour? She did not believe that the people of Gu Shu really placed this much importance on the good deeds done for them.

It was not easy to wait until sunrise, Xuan Tiange woke up very early. Cleaning up and eating breakfast, she wanted to go to Yu Palace and tell Feng Yuheng about what happened last night for the two of them to discuss further.

But she had not even left the palace when Wen Xuan Palace welcomed a group of strange visitors. Based on what the palace housekeeper said, those people came to send gifts, and specified that those gifts were for Princess Wuyang. Therefore, Xuan Tiange, King Wen Xuan and King Wen Xuan’s consort could only watch that the huge cases were carried into the palace. And those people who delivered the gifts were only asked by someone to do so. As to who asked them, they shook their heads and said they did not know.

King Wen Xuan’s consort thought it was strange and asked Xuan Tiange: “Do you know who was the one who sent the gifts? Are they your friends? Or they have something to ask from you? Counting these boxes, there are twelve of them, if precious valuables are inside, the value of this gift is not low at all!”

Xuan Tiange was confused, shaking her head and saying: “This daughter does not know who sent it, even if they have something to ask, they should ask Father King, why would they ask me directly? The people who I interact with are only some Madams and Young Misses, if they have something to ask from me, they would not be this generous, nor use this kind of method.”

King Wen Xuan heard this from the side and his desire to keep these items of unknown origin decreased, but he was rather curious about them. He walked up and casually opened one of the boxes. At that moment, he breathed in sharply and froze where he stood, mouth open wide and completely speechless.

Not just King Wen Xuan, even the servants who saw the items in the case were stunned, one of them even shouting: “Oh my gosh!”

The strange feeling Xuan Tiange had multiplied and she pulled King Wen Xuan’s consort with her, moving forward to take a look, but what she saw was a case full of jewels, pearls, jade, crystal, gold, glazed glass…… they were stacked messily, glittering. But things looked like they were positioned carelessly without much thought, but any one of these were rare valuables, priceless items.

As Da Shun’s only princess and the Emperor’s most favoured child in the past, the good things Xuan Tiange saw before were not an exaggeration. The Emperor even welcomed her to pick out anything from Da Shun’s national treasury anytime she wanted, getting good things every time. The concubines and noble ladies would fight over them until they bled but without her saying anything, the Emperor would ask someone to send it to this palace. But even it was like this, she was still shocked by these items, and the shock was great.

The crystals’ colour was even more pure than those in Da Shun, the gold was shinier than those in Da Shun, the jade more translucent, the pearls bigger, a few luminous pearls were even carelessly tossed in and even in daytime, they were able to produce some glow.

King Wen Xuan looked at these things for a long time, then finally said something solemnly: “These are objects from Da Mo.” He told his wife and daughter next to him: “The valuable and special objects in Da Mo are much more numerous than Da Shun, and much better. This King had seen the tributes from Gu Shu many times, the gold and crystal of this colour are far ahead in quality compared to ours.”

“Gu Shu?” Xuan Tiange frowned and instantly thought of the person who barged into her room. She did not even need to doubt it, these must have been sent by that person, because other than that person, she did not have any interactions with anyone else from Gu Shu. But the strange thing was, why did this person sent such valuable items? Just for the sake of repaying the gratitude of having his life saved due to twenty silver tales and helping him find a physician? What ability did he have to be this generous when gifting?

As she thought this, she personally opened the rest of the cases and without any exceptions, they were all valuable jewels. She did not have a chance to analyse further, hearing King Wen Xuan suddenly say: “Gu Shu’s new ruler might reach the capital soon.”

King Wen Xuan’s consort jolted and said immediately: “Marquis’ meaning is……”

“No matter how This King looks at this…… it seems like a dowry?” His daughter was long past the adult initiation age but was not betrothed so far due to the issues with her identity, and it was said that the new ruler of Gu Shu was only in his twenties. Because he was just crowned, he had not appointed an Empress. From this point, the new ruler might ask to marry the princess of the main country to protect his own, forming this political marriage, this actually sounded possible!

“Impossible!” Xuan Tiange suddenly denied it and shook her head quickly, “Impossible, impossible, Father King should not overthink this, it is impossible for these things to be sent by the ruler of Gu Shu, definitely not.”

“Tiange, do you know who it is?” King Wen Xuan’s consort asked her: “If you know, you can tell us, it will save us the trouble of guessing blindly.”

Xuan Tiange did not dare to say it, because she was just guessing, in addition, didn’t that mean she had to tell her parents about what happened last night? It was not that easy to explain after all! She shook her head, lying: “Daughter does not know. Since the things are already here, other than keeping them for the time being, we do not know where to return them to, so we’ll just wait, to be able to send the things to us, the person cannot continue hiding from us. Father King, Consort Mother, do not think too much first, daughter wishes to go out to Yu Palace to see Ah-Heng. We can talk about this later, okay?”

With the both of them hearing that she wanted to see Feng Yuheng, they did not stop her and nodded to let her leave first. As for those cases, other than keeping them for now, there was no other way.

Sitting in an imperial carriage, Xuan Tiange travelled towards Yu Palace, because they left early, the many breakfast stalls on the streets had not closed yet, many people were eating breakfast and chatting with each other, making for a lively scene. When the imperial carriage reached this kind of street, they would slow down and the horses are practically trotting, but because they were that slow, there were still exclamations of surprise. Hearing the driver exclaim with a “Aiyo”, his grip on the reins tightening on reflex, restraining the horses, the carriage suddenly stopped. With the sound of the horse’s whine, Xuan Tiange and her maid Huan-er were shaken a few times inside, and the carriage stopped advancing steadily. Then they heard the driver scold: “Which person hit me?”

Xuan Tiange did not understand and gave a sign for Huan-er to go out and ask, very quickly, she heard that driver say: “Princess, someone hit This Servant with seeds of dates and some of them hurt a lot, that was why This Servant pulled on the reins. For surprising Princess, This Servant seeks for Princess’ forgiveness.”

Someone hit her driver? Xuan Tiange walked out from the imperial carriage, standing outside the carriage and looked around, but there was no one suspicious. At this moment, a date seed suddenly flew over and hit the back of her hand directly. The pain caused her to pull her hand back, but she realised in that instant that the person who threw the date seed was not below, but above.

She raised her head and took a look and saw there was a person standing at the second floor window of a tea house which opened early. His arms were crossed and there was an eerie smile on his place, it was clearly the person who suddenly appeared last night.

Xuan Tiange stomped her foot, thinking it was a good chance. She had wanted to find this person to ask him about those cases of jewels and valuables and seeing that he presented herself in front of her, she was saved the effort of having to look for him. She immediately instructed the servants: “Stop the imperial carriage at the side of the road, there is no need to follow me, This Princess will go and come back in a while.”

Huan-er was still worried, chasing after her and asking: “This Servant will accompany Princess!”

Xuan Tiange waved her hand in dismissal: “No need, no one is allowed to follow!” After saying this, she had already jumped down from the imperial carriage, walking straight towards the door of the tea house.

“Did you send those things?” Entering the private room of that person, Xuan Tiange asked him directly to his face, “Even if you do owe in a debt of gratitude and you wish to return it, then you can just return me twenty silver taels, there is no need to multiply it by so many times. Our family is still a royal palace and are not lacking in good things, are you trying to aid the poor?” It was broad daylight now, Xuan Tiange was not afraid of him.

But that person sat back in his seat and poured tea for himself and Xuan Tiange, even leisurely drinking a mouthful, only after that did he speak: “Regardless of how many good things Da Shun has, they cannot compare to the truly valuable objects of Gu Shu. I can guarantee, the things that I gave you, even if you search through the whole national treasury of Da Shun, you would not be able to find anything better.”

“So what?” Xuan Tiange stuck her hand at her waist and theorised: “Your things are yours, what does it have to do with me? Hurry up and ask someone to take them away, I don’t want those things. In addition, who are you? Being this generous? Did you steal those things from the imperial palace of Gu Shu?”

That person shook his head, smiling helplessly, “They were not stolen, those are all mine, I will give them to whoever I want. Since they have been carried into Wen Xuan Palace, there is no reason to take them back. You can keep them, there’s no need to worry about any psychological burden. You Da Shun people would always place emphasis on returning favours, but I am a Gu Shu person, that method does not apply, you can treat all of this as repayment for saving me.” After saying this, he paused, and actually said: “If I really had other intentions and other motives, I would naturally present an even more luxurious gift, these mere dozen boxes of jewels aren’t really considered much.”

Xuan Tiange breathed in deeply, tyrant! This was a tyrant! That was considered ‘mere’? And even said ‘aren’t really considered much’? She was the princess of a large nation and was still stunned, alright? Da Shun’s national treasury really did not have such good things!

She sat down and stared at that bowl of tea, feeling that she really needed to drink something to calm down. So she straightened her neck and emptied the cup of tea like she was drinking alcohol.

That person smiled and refilled her bowl, then said: “ A quiet and modest maiden is a gentleman’s good mate. This is a saying from you Han people, I learned a few phrases but I am not sure if it is appropriate to use it now?”

Xuan Tiange shook her head: “It’s too inappropriate. But This Princess does not want to discuss with you, I just wanted to ask you, did you have nothing to do after eating? Using a date seed to hit my driver?” After saying that, she even held out her hand to show the other party, “This area became red after I was hit, it likely to swell as well, is this a murder or what?”

That person did not say anything else, grasping Xuan Tiange’s hand directly. With one hand on the top and one hand on the bottom, the top hand pressing on the reddened and swelled up area, he started to massage it gently.

Xuan Tiange immediately blushed furiously……

Chapter 1063 This Is A Dowry, Right?

Xuan Tiange did need something originally, but that person had already left, so she did not need anything now. So she just said: “It’s nothing, just that the floor heating might have turned cold, send someone to heat it up.”

After dismissing that person, she did not sleep well that night, her mind filled with questions as well as some worry. What was that person’s identity? He said Gu Shu’s new ruler bore a grudge towards the Eighth Prince, could this be trusted? Moreover, most importantly, what was he doing, barging into her room in the middle of the night? He came to see his saviour? She did not believe that the people of Gu Shu really placed this much importance on the good deeds done for them.

It was not easy to wait until sunrise, Xuan Tiange woke up very early. Cleaning up and eating breakfast, she wanted to go to Yu Palace and tell Feng Yuheng about what happened last night for the two of them to discuss further.

But she had not even left the palace when Wen Xuan Palace welcomed a group of strange visitors. Based on what the palace housekeeper said, those people came to send gifts, and specified that those gifts were for Princess Wuyang. Therefore, Xuan Tiange, King Wen Xuan and King Wen Xuan’s consort could only watch that the huge cases were carried into the palace. And those people who delivered the gifts were only asked by someone to do so. As to who asked them, they shook their heads and said they did not know.

King Wen Xuan’s consort thought it was strange and asked Xuan Tiange: “Do you know who was the one who sent the gifts? Are they your friends? Or they have something to ask from you? Counting these boxes, there are twelve of them, if precious valuables are inside, the value of this gift is not low at all!”

Xuan Tiange was confused, shaking her head and saying: “This daughter does not know who sent it, even if they have something to ask, they should ask Father King, why would they ask me directly? The people who I interact with are only some Madams and Young Misses, if they have something to ask from me, they would not be this generous, nor use this kind of method.”

King Wen Xuan heard this from the side and his desire to keep these items of unknown origin decreased, but he was rather curious about them. He walked up and casually opened one of the boxes. At that moment, he breathed in sharply and froze where he stood, mouth open wide and completely speechless.

Not just King Wen Xuan, even the servants who saw the items in the case were stunned, one of them even shouting: “Oh my gosh!”

The strange feeling Xuan Tiange had multiplied and she pulled King Wen Xuan’s consort with her, moving forward to take a look, but what she saw was a case full of jewels, pearls, jade, crystal, gold, glazed glass…… they were stacked messily, glittering. But things looked like they were positioned carelessly without much thought, but any one of these were rare valuables, priceless items.

As Da Shun’s only princess and the Emperor’s most favoured child in the past, the good things Xuan Tiange saw before were not an exaggeration. The Emperor even welcomed her to pick out anything from Da Shun’s national treasury anytime she wanted, getting good things every time. The concubines and noble ladies would fight over them until they bled but without her saying anything, the Emperor would ask someone to send it to this palace. But even it was like this, she was still shocked by these items, and the shock was great.

The crystals’ colour was even more pure than those in Da Shun, the gold was shinier than those in Da Shun, the jade more translucent, the pearls bigger, a few luminous pearls were even carelessly tossed in and even in daytime, they were able to produce some glow.

King Wen Xuan looked at these things for a long time, then finally said something solemnly: “These are objects from Da Mo.” He told his wife and daughter next to him: “The valuable and special objects in Da Mo are much more numerous than Da Shun, and much better. This King had seen the tributes from Gu Shu many times, the gold and crystal of this colour are far ahead in quality compared to ours.”

“Gu Shu?” Xuan Tiange frowned and instantly thought of the person who barged into her room. She did not even need to doubt it, these must have been sent by that person, because other than that person, she did not have any interactions with anyone else from Gu Shu. But the strange thing was, why did this person sent such valuable items? Just for the sake of repaying the gratitude of having his life saved due to twenty silver tales and helping him find a physician? What ability did he have to be this generous when gifting?

As she thought this, she personally opened the rest of the cases and without any exceptions, they were all valuable jewels. She did not have a chance to analyse further, hearing King Wen Xuan suddenly say: “Gu Shu’s new ruler might reach the capital soon.”

King Wen Xuan’s consort jolted and said immediately: “Marquis’ meaning is……”

“No matter how This King looks at this…… it seems like a dowry?” His daughter was long past the adult initiation age but was not betrothed so far due to the issues with her identity, and it was said that the new ruler of Gu Shu was only in his twenties. Because he was just crowned, he had not appointed an Empress. From this point, the new ruler might ask to marry the princess of the main country to protect his own, forming this political marriage, this actually sounded possible!

“Impossible!” Xuan Tiange suddenly denied it and shook her head quickly, “Impossible, impossible, Father King should not overthink this, it is impossible for these things to be sent by the ruler of Gu Shu, definitely not.”

“Tiange, do you know who it is?” King Wen Xuan’s consort asked her: “If you know, you can tell us, it will save us the trouble of guessing blindly.”

Xuan Tiange did not dare to say it, because she was just guessing, in addition, didn’t that mean she had to tell her parents about what happened last night? It was not that easy to explain after all! She shook her head, lying: “Daughter does not know. Since the things are already here, other than keeping them for the time being, we do not know where to return them to, so we’ll just wait, to be able to send the things to us, the person cannot continue hiding from us. Father King, Consort Mother, do not think too much first, daughter wishes to go out to Yu Palace to see Ah-Heng. We can talk about this later, okay?”

With the both of them hearing that she wanted to see Feng Yuheng, they did not stop her and nodded to let her leave first. As for those cases, other than keeping them for now, there was no other way.

Sitting in an imperial carriage, Xuan Tiange travelled towards Yu Palace, because they left early, the many breakfast stalls on the streets had not closed yet, many people were eating breakfast and chatting with each other, making for a lively scene. When the imperial carriage reached this kind of street, they would slow down and the horses are practically trotting, but because they were that slow, there were still exclamations of surprise. Hearing the driver exclaim with a “Aiyo”, his grip on the reins tightening on reflex, restraining the horses, the carriage suddenly stopped. With the sound of the horse’s whine, Xuan Tiange and her maid Huan-er were shaken a few times inside, and the carriage stopped advancing steadily. Then they heard the driver scold: “Which person hit me?”

Xuan Tiange did not understand and gave a sign for Huan-er to go out and ask, very quickly, she heard that driver say: “Princess, someone hit This Servant with seeds of dates and some of them hurt a lot, that was why This Servant pulled on the reins. For surprising Princess, This Servant seeks for Princess’ forgiveness.”

Someone hit her driver? Xuan Tiange walked out from the imperial carriage, standing outside the carriage and looked around, but there was no one suspicious. At this moment, a date seed suddenly flew over and hit the back of her hand directly. The pain caused her to pull her hand back, but she realised in that instant that the person who threw the date seed was not below, but above.

She raised her head and took a look and saw there was a person standing at the second floor window of a tea house which opened early. His arms were crossed and there was an eerie smile on his place, it was clearly the person who suddenly appeared last night.

Xuan Tiange stomped her foot, thinking it was a good chance. She had wanted to find this person to ask him about those cases of jewels and valuables and seeing that he presented herself in front of her, she was saved the effort of having to look for him. She immediately instructed the servants: “Stop the imperial carriage at the side of the road, there is no need to follow me, This Princess will go and come back in a while.”

Huan-er was still worried, chasing after her and asking: “This Servant will accompany Princess!”

Xuan Tiange waved her hand in dismissal: “No need, no one is allowed to follow!” After saying this, she had already jumped down from the imperial carriage, walking straight towards the door of the tea house.

“Did you send those things?” Entering the private room of that person, Xuan Tiange asked him directly to his face, “Even if you do owe in a debt of gratitude and you wish to return it, then you can just return me twenty silver taels, there is no need to multiply it by so many times. Our family is still a royal palace and are not lacking in good things, are you trying to aid the poor?” It was broad daylight now, Xuan Tiange was not afraid of him.

But that person sat back in his seat and poured tea for himself and Xuan Tiange, even leisurely drinking a mouthful, only after that did he speak: “Regardless of how many good things Da Shun has, they cannot compare to the truly valuable objects of Gu Shu. I can guarantee, the things that I gave you, even if you search through the whole national treasury of Da Shun, you would not be able to find anything better.”

“So what?” Xuan Tiange stuck her hand at her waist and theorised: “Your things are yours, what does it have to do with me? Hurry up and ask someone to take them away, I don’t want those things. In addition, who are you? Being this generous? Did you steal those things from the imperial palace of Gu Shu?”

That person shook his head, smiling helplessly, “They were not stolen, those are all mine, I will give them to whoever I want. Since they have been carried into Wen Xuan Palace, there is no reason to take them back. You can keep them, there’s no need to worry about any psychological burden. You Da Shun people would always place emphasis on returning favours, but I am a Gu Shu person, that method does not apply, you can treat all of this as repayment for saving me.” After saying this, he paused, and actually said: “If I really had other intentions and other motives, I would naturally present an even more luxurious gift, these mere dozen boxes of jewels aren’t really considered much.”

Xuan Tiange breathed in deeply, tyrant! This was a tyrant! That was considered ‘mere’? And even said ‘aren’t really considered much’? She was the princess of a large nation and was still stunned, alright? Da Shun’s national treasury really did not have such good things!

She sat down and stared at that bowl of tea, feeling that she really needed to drink something to calm down. So she straightened her neck and emptied the cup of tea like she was drinking alcohol.

That person smiled and refilled her bowl, then said: “ A quiet and modest maiden is a gentleman’s good mate. This is a saying from you Han people, I learned a few phrases but I am not sure if it is appropriate to use it now?”

Xuan Tiange shook her head: “It’s too inappropriate. But This Princess does not want to discuss with you, I just wanted to ask you, did you have nothing to do after eating? Using a date seed to hit my driver?” After saying that, she even held out her hand to show the other party, “This area became red after I was hit, it likely to swell as well, is this a murder or what?”

That person did not say anything else, grasping Xuan Tiange’s hand directly. With one hand on the top and one hand on the bottom, the top hand pressing on the reddened and swelled up area, he started to massage it gently.

Xuan Tiange immediately blushed furiously……