Chapter 102

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Emperor Zhengwu was very worried about Li Huairou’s illness, so he ordered Qin Duofu to visit Cuiwei Palace in person. He was relieved after confirming that it wasn’t serious.

Even Prince Fu came with a young man behind him.

“This nephew greets Imperial Uncle.” Li Deqing saluted.

“Oh, eighth prince, don’t be so polite. Where’s Minghua?” Prince Fu got out of the carriage, panting. In this hot weather, it was really hard for him, as a fat man. If it was someone other than Minghua, he would not be this nervous.

“Imperial Uncle, don’t worry. Huairou-meimei is fine. It’s just that Imperial Grandmother was worried and asked her to rest in bed.” Li Deqing hurriedly ordered someone to prepare the sedan chair.

As soon as Prince Fu went through the door, he felt a burst of coolness. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, tidied up his clothes, and asked Li Deqing, “Do I look ok?”

Li Deqing held back a smile and nodded.

Only then did Prince Fu stride in. “This son greets Mother.” Then he trembled like a small mountain and wanted to kneel down and salute.

The empress dowager couldn’t bear to look at him directly. “Forget it, Lao Ba, help him up quickly. Don’t kneel and crack the tiles in aijia‘s house.” Then she frowned. “Why did you get fatter again?”

Prince Fu was used to this, and he also didn’t care. He sat down tremblingly. “Ah? Fatter? This son lost his appetite and weight this summer and has lost a few pounds!”

The empress dowager sighed, “It’s not that you are not allowed to eat, but your weight was too outrageous. What did the imperial physician say?”

“It’s fine. This son is very good, don’t worry, Mother. Mother has always been in good health; does the food taste delicious? My summer house has hired a new Hunan cuisine cook, and he cooks good dishes. When this son goes back, I will send him over, and Mother can taste it,” Prince Fu said with a smile.

“Forget it, aijia is old and can’t get used to eating those oily and meaty foods. Minghua has a bad stomach, so it also needs attention.” Seeing that her son had been visiting for a long time, yet only talking to her without asking about Minghua, she was a little unhappy. “You are Minghua’s biological father—why don’t you care about Minghua at all? You’ve been here for a long time, but I haven’t seen you ask about her.”

“Isn’t this son filial to his mother? The son is here for Minghua, so how could I not care about Minghua!” Prince Fu said with a smile.

The empress dowager rolled her eyes at him and said, “Minghua is resting in the back. Go and have a look!”

“This son will go first, and he will come to talk to his mother later.” Prince Fu happily went in.

The empress dowager was not at ease. She sat for a while, then followed.

The director of Cuiwei Palace came to ask Li Deqing how to accomodate the young people who followed Prince Fu.

Li Deqing frowned. “Find a place for him to rest first, and then I’ll ask Imperial Uncle.”

When Li Deqing mentioned this, Prince Fu slapped his forehead. “How could I forget him. Minghua, didn’t you say that you liked good-looking men? Dad met one when he was in the summer house for summer vacation. He has good looks, and his looks can’t be put into words. He was beautiful, yes, he was beautiful. Dad brought him for you to see.”

As soon as these words came out, the empress dowager was very speechless, and Li Huairou spat out her mouthful of water. Only Li Deqing’s eyes flickered. He wondered if this had been arranged by Baozhu?

The empress dowager said angrily. “Nonsense! Which family’s kid is this? Quickly send him back!

“It’s fine. He’s the child of Lao Du’s family. Lao Du, I know him very well; Lao Du is the Marquis Weiyuan, does Mother know? That kid is good at poetry and painting, so he had nothing to do over there, but I bumped into him. He had long heard that Cuiwei Palace was beautiful, and he’d wanted to come and see it, so he was willing to come with me,” Prince Fu said nonchalantly. Although he was a little dazed, he wasn’t a lawless person, and he could not do anything like kidnapping a young boy from a good family! Of course, if his Minghua really liked him, it wouldn’t be impossible.

Listening to the words of her son, the empress dowager couldn’t help but hold her forehead.

Li Deqing attempted to relieve this embarrassing situation. “The second son of Marquis Weiyuan is known as the most beautiful man in the capital, and this nephew has heard of him, but I have never met him.”

Li Huairou really didn’t expect this. And someone like this really deserved to be her father!

It was just that she remembered that it was two years later that the original owner would meet Du Yuan. Why was it so early this time? Looking at the faces of the people present, Li Huairou became playful. “Then bring him here. I’ll see what the most beautiful man in the capital looks like.”

The empress dowager gave Li Huairou a helpless look, only to see the look in her eyes—full of interest. She knew that this was just on a whim; she was not really interested in the so-called beautiful man.

When Du Yuan heard that Princess Minghua wanted to meet him, he smiled slightly, showing a confident smile. From childhood to adulthood, with this face, he was in no position to be disadvantaged. Even though he was born from a concubine, he’d still coaxed his grandmother and his mother to smile. His legal mother, the main wife, had even taken the initiative to record him in her name, erasing all traces of his biological concubine mother, and he became the second son of Marquis Weiyuan’s Mansion in everyone’s mind. But this was far from enough, and he wanted more than that.

So when that person found him, he agreed without saying a word. Third Rank Princess Minghua was well-known around the world. If he could marry Princess Minghua with this face, then his life’s glory and wealth would be just around the corner.

Du Yuan’s outfit for today was carefully designed—a white long gown with only a few stalks of green bamboo embroidered at the corners of the shirt. He wore no pearls or jade decorations on the whole body, with only a wooden hairpin to gently hold his jet-black hair. When the breeze blew, his hair and white shirt fluttered in the air, and there was quite a bit of fluttering.

As soon as Du Yuan came in, the empress dowager glanced at him. She couldn’t help showing admiration. It was nothing else; this child was good-looking. Prince Fu even narrowed his eyes with a smile. He liked all good food. Even if he was not masculine, it did not prevent him from admiring beautiful women.

Li Deqing glanced at him and quickly lowered his head. Du Yuan was not very masculine, but at that moment, he was moved. This was not a good sign.

Li Deqing couldn’t help but raise his head again and glance at him again. What a demon!

Li Huairou was a little disappointed. The most beautiful man in the capital was no more than this?

“Has anyone passed away in Marquis Weiyuan’s mansion?” Li Huairou asked suddenly.

“Ah?” Everyone present, including Du Yuan, looked surprised, not understanding why Li Huairou asked that.

“Otherwise, why is he wearing white? Isn’t this mourning attire?” Li Huairou said, pointing at Du Yuan. The empress dowager couldn’t help frowning at Du Yuan after hearing this. Bad luck! He was also considered a son of an aristocratic family, so why was he so ignorant of taboos?

Prince Fu thought for a while. “I’ve never heard of anyone passing away in Lao Du’s family!”

Du Yuan’s face was red and hot. He liked to wear white clothes because white was pure and flawless, which made him look out of this world.

Li Deqing felt that something was wrong, and he was about to say something.

Li Huairou suddenly said, “Ah! I see.”

“What?” Prince Fu immediately asked.

“The book says that if you want to be filial—I thought it only applies to women, but it turns out that the same is true for men!” Li Huairou looked like she’d suddenly come to a realized.

Prince Fu thought about it carefully, and he suddenly clapped his hands. “Minghua is right!”

The empress dowager could hardly bear to listen, and Li Deqing’s expression could no longer be described in words.

Li Huairou looked Du Yuan up and down and shook her head. “Dad, this is the number one beauty of the capital? Like a woman—no, he’s more charming than a woman. Look at his waist, so thin, and his arms. Tsk, tsk, this kind of aesthetic is unacceptable!”

“What do you mean?” Prince Fu asked humbly and without shame.

“If this is the mainstream aesthetic of the capital, then the common people will follow suit, taking the thin and feminine as beautiful. Over time, they will lose the masculinity and bravery of men. If there is a war, would our soldiers and the common people still be able to take weapons to defend their homes and the country?” Li Huairou frowned.

The empress dowager’s expression was solemn. “Minghua is right! This style can’t be encouraged!”

Prince Fu also nodded, although he didn’t quite understand the relationship between the two, but his mother and his daughter had both said so, so it must be right! “Minghua is right.”

Du Yuan’s face was pale by now.

Although Li Deqing couldn’t bear to see the beauty like this, what Li Huairou said had some truth. If men regarded this as beauty, it would not be a good thing in the long run. Therefore, he also nodded.

Li Huairou glanced at Du Yuan and said, “Alright, it’s not your fault that you grew up like this! You don’t have to belittle yourself! However, after growing up like this and still showing off, this simply isn’t sensible! Dad, have someone send him back!”

Prince Fu snorted and immediately had someone arrange a carriage to send Du Yuan back to the capital.

“Minghua, if you don’t like this, what do you like? Someone a little braver? You tell me a score, and Dad will find it for you!” Prince Fu continued happily.

“Dad, I don’t want to hang on one tree, and I don’t want to give up the entire forest for a single tree! There are so many beautiful people in the world, both men and women; I will find one slowly by myself, which is more interesting. No matter how good things are, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s more interesting if you come by it yourself,” Li Huairou said.

Prince Fu nodded in agreement. “Minghua is right!” Then he said quite contentedly, “In this regard, Minghua definitely inherited my wisdom and martial arts!”

Then the father and daughter got together and began to confront each other. They started to comment on the handsome men of the capital.

The empress dowager was too lazy to say anything. Just let them talk nonsense!

Li Deqing confirmed once again that the rumors in the palace were all groundless. Uncle Fu and Li Huairou were definitely biologically related, and Father Emperor was wise and talented—he would never give birth to a daughter like Li Huairou!

That night, Li Deqing wrote to Xiao Baozhu again, speaking of this matter, and vaguely reminding her not to make these small actions for the time being.

In fact, Xiao Baozhu knew about it before the letter arrived. Marquis Weiyuan’s second son went to Cuiwei Palace, and Princess Minghua’s evaluation of him, as well as her queen mother’s sentence “this style can’t be encouraged” had spread throughout the capital. It was said that after hearing about this, the emperor had highly praised Princess Minghua, and he’d even said something like “my qilin girl”.

[People often call somebody with both political integrity and ability as qilin. The qilin (麒麟) was a propitious beast in ancient Chinese mythology, with the body of a deer, tail of an ox, a single horn, and scales all over its body]

Well, the emperor’s partiality toward Princess Minghua was not new. But the words of the emperor and the empress dowager sent a signal to everyone that they did not like the type of someone like Marquis Weiyuan’s second son.

Immediately, the atmosphere in the capital changed. Everyone no longer regarded femininity and thinness as beautiful, instead regarding masculinity and bravery as beautiful. They also changed the ranking of the most beautiful men in the capital, and Du Yuan fell from the seat of the number one most beautiful man in the capital. He was not even in the top ten.

This move had won the appreciation and support of the generals for Princess Minghua! Although the civil servants were not as straightforward as the military generals, they also praised Princess Minghua in private.

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This translation is presented by Nocturne Translations.

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