Chapter 88: Crown Princess (I)
Chapter 88: Crown Princess (I)
Cheng Yujin coughed hard. Seeing this, her two servant girls were shocked and hurriedly stepped forward to give her water.
Cheng Yujin never expected to hear her own name out of a sudden while listening to gossip. When she finally calmed down, she no longer cared about other news. Her first sentence was to ask hurriedly: “What did you just say, who is the Emperor bestowing marriage to?”
Lian Qiao and Du Ruo exchanged a glance and replied in a low voice: “Bestowing the marriage between the Crown Prince and Yichun Marquis Manor’s eldest di daughter surnamed Cheng, named Yujin, as the Crown Princess. The imperial edict has been posted, and now people in the whole capital are talking about it.”
Du Ruo was more stable than Lian Qiao. Although she was very shocked at first, after a retrospect, she found the situation actually was not that surprising. Ninth Master’s relationship with their Miss had always been exceptional. Except for Ninth Master, Du Ruo had never seen their Miss be so affectionate to any man or even anyone else.
If Ninth Master was not of Cheng family’s blood, then there was nothing wrong with him marrying Miss. It was all logical and understandable.
Cheng Yujin couldn’t calm down. She was dumbfounded for a long time; her brain totally messed up.
Although Lian Qiao loved to joke around, she was not ignorant. Besides, who in the world would dare to make this kind of joke? Unless they no longer wanted to live.
Cheng Yujin didn’t know whether she should be shocked to find that Cheng Yuanjing had chosen a woman without a helpful family background as his Crown Princess or whether she should be more shocked to find herself as the future Crown Princess.
Neither Cheng Yujin nor Cheng family would ever dream of this.
When Cheng Yujin first learned Cheng Yuanjing’s real identity, she was both shocked and surprised. Yet, she had never once thought of him as a husband candidate. She deliberately approached him, carefully trying to please, all to obtain the Crown Prince’s favor so that he might bestow her some benefits in the future. However, she never had the slightest thought of taking the opportunity to become the Crown Princess.
Cheng Yujin never did anything that gave her no benefit, and she naturally believed others to be the same. What’s more, marriage was a major event in life, even more for the Crown Prince’s marriage, which directly related to the future of the country and the stability of the court. No one would make jokes out of this matter.
Cheng Yuanjing was not the kind of person who would ignore the overall trend for the sake of romance and love. At least, Cheng Yujin believed so. Because she thought it was impossible, she never considered the possibility between her and Cheng Yuanjing. Later, she fell into the river and was rescued by Cheng Yuanjing, and only then she realized how naive she was.
Just because she thought so didn’t mean the other party also had the same thought as her.
These few days, she had been ill and emotionally fragile. Under such an emotional state, she expressed her anger at Cheng Yuanjing and even cried in front of him. Recalling how she was at that time, Cheng Yujin didn’t want to admit the hysteric girl to be herself. However, she vaguely remembered that Cheng Yuanjing seemed to have said something to her and even denied that he wanted to take her as his side consort.
After that, Cheng Yujin slept for a long time and forgot many parts of the conversation. Moreover, she hadn’t seen Cheng Yuanjing for a few days, so she gradually forgot about the matter. However, it turned out that he was actually preparing to restore his identity and asking for a marriage bestowment?
Today, the imperial edict had been announced to the whole world. An Emperor’s words were sacred. Once the edict was released, there was no turn back. Acknowledging the missing Crown Prince was a national matter and not something the Emperor could have done by his will alone.
These days, the imperial court must have been in turmoil. Behind the curtain, Li Chengjing, Yang family, the cabinet ministers, and even the Emperor himself must have fought several rounds. What people saw today was the final result after the dust had settled and the fight was over.
No wonder she hadn’t seen him these past few days. He must have been extremely busy.
Cheng Yujin was dazed for a long time. Although the impact was great, everything had become established facts, and Cheng Yujin had no choice but to accept them. Besides, she didn’t think that this matter was bad for her.
She just couldn’t believe that a golden pie was really falling from the sky, and happened to fall on her hand.
For the first time, she looked at the role of the Crown Princess from her own perspective. Although Li Chengjing had been living in the capital for more than one decade, he only made his real comeback in the past few days. The fanfare following his return was not small. His experience was far more bizarre than any other imperial scandal. It was farfetched enough that screenwriters didn’t even dare to write such an unbelievable plot. It was conceivable that the Crown Prince would become the focus of both civil and military officials and even the common people in the capital for a long time.
At this timing, the Crown Princess was naturally pushed to the front stage along with her husband-to-be. Compared with other popular candidates prepared for the role since childhood, the present quasi Crown Princess Cheng Yujin literally popped out of nowhere. Before Li Chengjing came back, the second prince was the Crown Prince in everything but name. Many people had secretly guessed which family’s daughter would be lucky enough to be the second prince’s wife.
Some people even speculated. Yang family had produced one Empress and one Empress Dowager. Would they produce another future Empress?