To Be A Virtuous Wife

when the present emperor had been crown prince. The present Wei daren still carried the title of taibao but had no real power. Wei daren had a younger brother who was a fifth rank provincial governor. In all these years, he hadn't made any real progress. Right now when Jing guifei was calling Wei Ran Shuang her cousin's daughter, it was just to disguise Wei Ran Shuang to look better. Wasn't she really just a fifth-grade local level official's granddaughter? Since this Wei Ran Shuang had the guts to call her saosao, then she would happily accept it.

"Ran Shuang doesn't dare take saosao's things," Wei Ran Shuang wanted to take off the bangle but her hand was pulled by Qu Qing Ju, "You are wang ye's meimei, then you are my meimei. We shan't be so courteous." Finishing, she looked in confusion at Jing guifei, "Mufei, meimei didn't live in Jing before, did she? Otherwise, such a beautiful memei, how come I haven't seen her before?"

Jing guifei looked at how Qu Qing Ju had stopped her niece and smiled faintly: "Her father had held a post elsewhere, they have returned to the city just recently."

"No wonder," Qu qing Ju smiled as she pulled Wei Ran Shuang to sit beside her, "Now that meimei has returned to Jing, then I have another sibling in the future to play with."

Jing guifei looked at Qu Qing Ju's enthusiasm and felt her heart hurt. Did her erxifu not even think about the meaning of her leading this person here?

Her cousin was only a little sixth-grade official now that he transferred back to Jing City. Even if she did have the desire to promote him, even if Ran Shuang would marry someone of a good family, she wouldn't be able to hold her hand up. So she wanted to let her son see this yatou. If he liked her, then she wouldn't be done a disservice in the future. If he didn't like her, then it was just letting cousins meet. Also, she actually didn't really want her niece to be a qie of her son.

Seeing that her son didn't even look once at her niece, Jing guifei knew it wasn't going to happen. She turned to look at Qu Qing Ju and her expression almost broke.

What was she doing holding Wei yatou's hand and not letting go, what did she mean?!

"Meimei's skin is so good, it's so smooth to the touch," Qu Qing Ju had a face of envy, "I can see that the place meimei lived in was better than Jing City." Finishing, she actually smiled and rubbed that tender and white hand.

Jing guifei felt it. Where did her erxifu's brains go, didn't she have a sense of danger, didn't she know to be wary of other women? Complimenting another woman's skin in front of her own husband, was it to arouse curiosity in her husband?!

For no apparent reason, when she looked at Qu Qing Ju's joyful smile, Jing guifei felt helpless and fretful.

She turned to look at her son and saw her son smile as he savoured his tea with no hint of response. She could only say: "Heng'er, in a few days, your second uncle will visit you. Find a time to meet him."

He Heng knew his mother's intentions and nodded lightly. He answered: "Er chen understands." Finishing, he pushed a plate of kumquats beside him in the direction that Qu Qing Ju was sitting in.

Jing guifei saw his movement but didn't say anything. But when she looked at Qu Qing Ju, she felt her heart was even more fretful.

[1] 天启宫: 天 is sky, heaven启 is open, start, to enlighten. This palace could be called the Palace of Heavenly Enlightenment. However, 天启 in modern times also means apocalypse.

[2] The three stars are 福禄寿. 福 is luck or good fortune, 禄 is good fortune but also means the salary an official receives寿 is long life.

[3] The word used here rather than world is 天下 which means the world, land under heaven and China as a country. Due to the pseudo-alternate world nature of this novel, "China" doesn't exist and the novel states later that the surrounding countries pay tribute to the Emperor, hence the "world", rather than just the country.

[4] The idiom for favouring is usually "偏心" which literally means slanted, deviating heart.

[5] 太傅: Grand Tutor