"She was Möngke Khan's Princess Consort Yalun. The child in her arms should be Möngke Khan's posthumous son, Yulong Dash," Shan Yuru explained.
Song Qingshu was startled. "Möngke Khan's princess consort? How was she so close to Ariq Böke?"
Shan Yuru replied, "Möngke Khan had always been closer to Ariq Böke, and he too favored preserving Mongol customs. In contrast, he was more distant from Kublai Khan. Back when Möngke Khan was crown prince, he even clashed with Kublai Khan once. It was Kublai Khan's princess consort, Chabi, who used her family connections to ask Yalun to mediate, and only then did the two turn hostility into friendship."
"Is Princess Consort Yalun also from the Hongjila clan?" Song Qingshu asked.
Shan Yuru nodded. "She is Öchen's daughter. By seniority, Princess Consort Chabi is actually her aunt."
Song Qingshu was no longer surprised. Among the Mongols, it was common enough for an aunt and niece to marry men of the same generation—or even the same man. What concerned him was something else. "Öchen's daughter? I heard Öchen was going to marry Princess Huazheng."
Shan Yuru lowered her voice. "There have indeed been rumors to that effect. Öchen's first wife died of illness, and the Great Khan intends to marry Princess Huazheng to him."
"Isn't that an old bull eating tender grass?" Song Qingshu thought of how Öchen's daughter was already so grown up, and he even had grandchildren.
"Öchen is indeed no longer young," Shan Yuru said with a smile, "but can that Princess Huazheng really be called tender grass?"
Only then did Song Qingshu realize that Hua Zheng was already in her thirties. She would not have counted as a young girl even in later generations, much less in this era.
By the time they finished talking, the two had