Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

73. A Novel Way to Flatter

 

Translator: Antonia

 

Du Chuxuan hesitated for a long time, and just as the audience began to get impatient, he suddenly drew out a card. Everyone looked to the Emperor with interest to see whether he had this one in mind. Du Chuxuan made a sudden shout, “Wait a minute, father. This one. Did you have this one in mind?”

Just when everyone was wondering what was happening, the eldest prince, sitting nearest, opened his eyes large in disbelief.

Yuxing Tianrui had also been staring at every move of Du Chuxuan. He had once seen Du Chuxuan playing that thing, but he wasn’t clear how it worked. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the number on that seemingly ordinary card began to distort and turned into another sentence. He was stunned, because it was number five that had been on the card but now it was turned into a few characters, together saying—Eternity and Reputation for Shenglan.

The Emperor was shocked with joy, obviously quite satisfied at it, “Hahaha. Good. Great!” The Emperor had taken the throne for a long time and seen various kinds of flatteries, but Du Chuxuan must be the first one to polish the apple in such a novel way.

Besides, the Emperor always wanted to be a virtuous and wise emperor. Even if his reputation wouldn’t last forever, he wished he would do nothing wrong in his life to ruin the country and maintain its prosperity during his reign.

Now seeing such a sentence, he felt like being fed with a mouthful of warm soup during a cold winter day and felt utterly comfortable. The wrinkles on his face seemed to disappear from laughing with joy, and he pointed at Du Chuxuan, praising great three times in a row, “My son, you’ve really married a good wife. How wonderful!”

Yuxing Tianrui stood up and bowed to the Emperor, his face with no sigh of joy but his tone delighted, “I believe she must have a deep feeling of how powerful Shenglan is through the trip to the borders. Yet, I also believe the characters on the card are also the Heaven’s will.”

This remark was skillfully said. It sang praises to Du Chuxuan’s company to Yuxing Tianrui during the trip to the borders, the hardships he had suffered and the contribution he had made. At the same time, it set up the authority of Shenglan before the Turkic envoy. How could the Emperor not be happy with that?

At once, he rewarded the couple with a serious of treasures, making many people take a gasp of shock. Sure enough the Emperor still liked the Crown Prince best. When there was no room for the Crown Prince’s rank to be raised, what the Emperor rewarded him was no less than the whole country.

Of course Zhao Zheng didn’t care what the others were thinking. There was rage and indignation in her eyes, so vehemently burning and ready to blaze. She even to this moment couldn’t figure why she, the most talented woman in the capital city from a renown family, wasn’t worthy of becoming the Crown Princess?

For so many years, she had been cultivated herself as the next empress. Everything in her, from the way she spoke to her manners, demonstrated the air of an upper-class lady. But what had awaited her? By one paper of imperial order, and the position of the Crown Princess was granted to a daughter of a nameless merchant.

Not to mention the fact that merchants didn’t enjoy a high status in this age, she even had never heard of Du Chuyue. How could all this make her happy? Today, she finally got a chance, which if she missed to seize and failed to demonstrate herself well, she was afraid her parents would marry her off and the supremacy would have nothing to do with her forever.

The person sitting behind Mr. Xing swept his gaze around and certainly saw Zhao Zheng’s look. He had to admit that he liked this beauty very much after watching her performance, but he didn’t forget that his ultimate goal of this trip wasn’t merely to choose a princess for him.

Moreover, after the novel card performance, all of his interest was in Du Chuxuan. He dipped some wine in the cup and stroked something on the table. Immediately, Mr. Xing understood what he meant and nodded secretly to him, expressing that he would do as he wanted.

The banquet well entertained both the hosts and the guests. There were more performances made by the other ladies, but Du Chuxuan’s was too novel and eye-catching that for a time, the rest seemed less fresh.

“You’re quite smart.” When Du Chuxuan walked out of the side hall after getting changed, Yuxing Tianrui said to him in whisper only audible to them.

Du Chuxuan turned to take a helpless glance at this little prince. How could he be jealous of his own father? “Do Your Highness mean to let me guess what’s on your mind?”

Yuxing Tianrui flushed to the ears by this question. Probably he really wanted to play that, and his whole face was tinted red, “Don’t talk nonsense. But how did you know father called five?”

He hadn’t missed a moment of the Emperor’s expression. When he saw the number five, he was slightly shocked. If there hadn’t been the number turning into a sentence, even if the Emperor found it amusing temporarily, he would very likely to hold scruple when he recalled in the future.

At that time, Yuxing Tianrui had been frightfully anxious for Du Chuxuan, but surprisingly he resolved this potential trouble in an artistic way.

Du Chuxuan looked up at the dancing on the stage and lowered his voice, “It’s very simple. When I swept my fingers on the cards, I was actually taking notice of mother’s expression.

Father had been an emperor for so many years. I couldn’t figure what he was thinking unless he spoke it. Yet, mother has been taken good care of by him and sometimes shows a trace of her true feelings. Every time I stopped my fingers on five, she looked nervous.”

He explained with a smug look, which Yuxing Tianrui found so splendidly charming like a young boy at the height of his success. Hence, he looked away and coughed to conceal his deep love towards him, “I guess through today’s performance, the Turks must be very interested in the Zhao family. You have to get prepared on your part too.”

As they talk, the third prince came over passing by the eldest prince and toasted to the couple, “Brother and sister-in-law are really in deep love with each other. I’d like to make a toast to you and wish you a long-lasting happy marriage.”

Hehe. Du Chuxuan sneered inwardly. What a great wish! Did he mean happy marriage never last long?!

Though with that in his mind, he still took up the wine glass and smiled, “Thank you. Brother. I’d like to wish you a carefree innocent youth-hood forever.”