After Commandery Princess Nanyi sat down, the smile never left her face. She took the Seventh Princess's hand and began chatting.
"Your hands clearly need meticulous care over many years, Seventh Princess. Look how fair, smooth, and tender they are."
The Seventh Princess: ...
She kept feeling that Commandery Princess Nanyi was like a weasel paying a New Year's visit to a chicken.
"Your Highness, you've already reached marriageable age. For a woman, marrying is like being born a second time. If you can't find in-laws who are easy to handle, even a princess like you will inevitably suffer after marrying into their family."
The Eldest Princess replied coolly, "You needn't concern yourself with my seventh sister's marriage, Commandery Princess Nanyi. Our imperial father and mother will see to it."
As though she couldn't understand the meaning behind the Eldest Princess's words, Commandery Princess Nanyi continued holding the Seventh Princess's hand and discussing her marriage, despite having been rebuffed to her face.
"I practically watched you grow up, Seventh Princess, and our families are related. If you married into our family, we could add another bond to our kinship."
[Salty Fish System: Heh. If the Seventh Princess really married into that family, her life wouldn't be much different from marrying into the Guangping Marquis Estate.]
[How so? I've never heard any rumors about Commandery Princess Nanyi's family.]
[Salty Fish System: Commandery Princess Nanyi sleeps in the same bed as her youngest son every night. She even said she'd keep sleeping with him until he turned forty.]
Wenren Luoshui: ...
[Yunjian: They say a grown son should keep his distance from his mother. Does he have some peculiar fetish?]
The Seventh Princess and the Eldest Princess: Whose son still sleeps in the same bed as his own mother when he's in his late teens or twenties?
Looking at Commandery Princess Nanyi now, the Seventh Princess felt as though she'd stepped barefoot into a puddle of thick phlegm someone had spat on the ground-disgusted and helpless.
If this had been her own palace, she would have had someone throw Commandery Princess Nanyi out.
The Eldest Princess's gaze was filled with knives as she looked at Commandery Princess Nanyi.
Previously, she'd thought Commandery Princess Nanyi's youngest son couldn't find a wife simply because he obeyed his mother too readily.
How could she ever have imagined there was something so filthy behind it?
Commandery Princess Nanyi noticed that the way both princesses looked at her had changed, and she blinked in bewilderment.
Had she missed something?
"Surely you have other matters to attend to, Commandery Princess Nanyi? We won't keep you, then."
The Eldest Princess truly didn't want to remain in the same space as Commandery Princess Nanyi, but she didn't want to change seats either. That left only asking Commandery Princess Nanyi to leave.
"Not at all. I finished everything at the residence before coming to the banquet today."
Commandery Princess Nanyi pretended not to hear the distance in the Eldest Princess's words. She had come to the flower-viewing banquet today specifically to avoid the Empress and hoodwink the innocent Seventh Princess in person.
Her youngest son was almost twenty and still unmarried. Other men his age already had sons old enough to run errands.
Since she couldn't hoodwink the capital's noble young ladies, she could only target a princess.
These princesses had spent years deep within the palace and knew little of the outside world. Besides, her mother was the Grand Princess. Who in the entire capital would dare wag their tongues about her youngest son behind her back?
In any case, the priority was to trick a nice, plump bride into her youngest son's hands.
"Seventh Princess, if you marry into our residence, given the relationship between our families, surely you wouldn't worry that we'd mistreat you? We certainly wouldn't."
"Besides, you're fifteen this year, and my youngest son is nineteen. As the saying goes, an older man knows how to cherish his wife. Once you marry my son, he'll surely put you on a pedestal every day."
[Salty Fish System: She's lying. She's tormented her eldest and second daughters-in-law to the verge of severe depression. If the Seventh Princess marries into that family, she'll not only have to endure sleeping alone night after night, but also pay her respects to her mother-in-law, Commandery Princess Nanyi, every morning and evening. When her husband consummates their marriage, Commandery Princess Nanyi will even stand beside the bed to instruct them. It's downright psychological torture.]
[Hah! Ugly looks, wild tricks!]
[Yunjian: At this moment, the word "pervert" has taken concrete form before my eyes.]
[So how does this Commandery Princess Nanyi dare target a princess of the reigning dynasty? Isn't she afraid the Emperor and Empress will have her beheaded when they find out?]
[Melon-Eating System: She thinks the Seventh Princess is innocent. Once the princess marries her youngest son, she'll bring her under her control and keep her from leaving the residence easily. If she can't leave, naturally she won't be able to return to the palace to complain!]
The teacup in the Eldest Princess's hand suddenly cracked. Shattered into pieces, it could no longer hold the tea, and the warm liquid soaked her dress.
"Oh! What happened, Eldest Princess? This cup is far too poorly made."
Commandery Princess Nanyi took out a handkerchief to wipe the tea from Commandery Princess Nanyi's hand, but before she could touch her, the Eldest Princess quietly moved away.
"Xiao Qi, come with me to change my dress. Luoshui, Yunjian, wait here for us."
Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian nodded in agreement.
As Commandery Princess Nanyi watched the Eldest Princess and Seventh Princess disappear from sight, a calculating gleam flashed through her eyes.
She had to find a way for her youngest son and the Seventh Princess to turn raw rice into cooked rice.
Then the Seventh Princess would have to marry into the family whether she wanted to or not.
How could those noble young ladies in the capital be as useful as a princess?
It was just a pity that the Seventh Princess's looks fell slightly short of the Eldest Princess's.
But the Eldest Princess was far too independent. She couldn't control her.
The Seventh Princess would be easier to handle.
Commandery Princess Nanyi didn't remain seated there much longer. Soon, a maid came to call her away.
[Salty Fish System: Hahahaha! The maid who just called Commandery Princess Nanyi away was arranged by the Eldest Princess. Once they reached the back of an artificial rockery, someone slipped a sack over Commandery Princess Nanyi's head from behind. After beating her soundly, they stripped off her outer robe and threw her into the lake. As she thrashed around in her underclothes, the lake water soaked them through, exposing quite a revealing view and drawing plenty of people over to watch. Commandery Princess Nanyi probably won't dare attend another banquet for an entire year.]
[Well done! Hahahahaha! That's what she gets for coming out to disgust people!]
[Yunjian: Does she have a son complex? What normal mother still sleeps in the same bed as her twenty-year-old son every night?]
[Salty Fish System: She actually doesn't. She simply dotes on her youngest son.]
[Doesn't her son find that love too heavy to bear?]
[Yunjian: Maybe he enjoys it too?]
[True. Anything is possible.]
The surrounding spectators waited for ages, yet didn't hear a single inner thought.
After the flower-viewing banquet ended, many of the ladies returned home and went to confront their husbands.
They believed their husbands had completely fabricated the claim that they could hear the thoughts of the young commandery princess from the Prince of Beiping's Residence.
Otherwise, why couldn't they hear her?
Faced with their wives' doubts, the men were helpless too.
How were they supposed to know the reason?
Some of the ill-tempered, naturally suspicious women even began to suspect that Wenren Luoshui was doing it deliberately-letting only their husbands hear her so they would fall at her feet.
Her main goal was to attract men's attention!
What a deeply scheming woman!
The moment these thoughts arose, they felt as though an enormous invisible hand had clamped around their throats and bottoms, leaving them unable to breathe.
The sensation lasted nearly thirty seconds before disappearing. But after they could breathe again, whenever such a thought resurfaced, they experienced that same sensation all over again.