CH 529

529: Ning Bi’s Wedding

The empress became so annoyed she avoided seeing anyone from Hua Jin’s family entirely.

This led Hua Jin’s mother to seek out Hua Jin’s grandmother.

Hua Jin’s grandmother loved Hua Jin more than any of her grandchildren, even more than Princese Beiya. Once she found out about everything, she insisted Ming Xi marry Hua Jin in a month’s time. To not marry would be ungrateful.

How could the future emperor of the Ancient Silver Moon kingdom show such ingratitude to those around him?

The empress was harassed by her mother. Ming Xi avoided her and her husband said he was busy. At this point, the empress was sick and tired of it and had absolutely no inclination to help Hua Jin anymore.

Though the empress loved Hua Jin and wanted to help her sister and her sister’s family, the coercive way they were going about it was incredibly annoying, especially her elder sister inviting their mother out and insisting Ming Xi marry Hua Jin.

The Moon empress indulged her elder sister and her put up with her sister’s in-laws, but there was a limit to her patience. Then there was her mother. All the woman wanted was to help Hua Jin fulfill her wish, but she failed to consider the empress’s situation.

She was the empress of the Moon kingdom, but that didn’t mean she could abuse her power and arrange for Hua Jin to be the next Moon empress.

Generations and generations of Moon emperors had chosen their own spouses. It was delusion of her sister and her sister’s in-laws to think they could use gratitude to coerce Ming Xi. Her elder sister was being dishonorable and her own mother was helping her. The whole thing depressed the Moon empress.

For Hua Jin’s sake, her husband and youngest son were behaving indifferently towards her. Even her daughter and other sons were avoiding her, afraid she would do the same to them.

What was she doing all this for? The more she thought about it, the more worthless it seemed.

That night, the Moon emperor was looking at his wife from behind as she sat at her vanity table. He went over and hugged her from behind.

“Have you figured it out?” He asked softly.

The empress honestly admitted her mistake. “I’ve done you and Ming Xi wrong.”

“It is fine. You understand why now. I will scold them for you, but you can’t be soft-hearted toward them when I do,” warned the emperor.

How could she dare be soft-hearted? Wasn’t it because she was soft-hearted toward Hua Jin that she’d been tortured for so many days? The empress nodded resolutely.

“No more please. I am going to be annoyed to death by my mother and my sister and her in-laws.”

“Okay, I will take care of it.” The Moon emperor reassured his wife.

The empress snuggled in the emperor’s arms and the two cuddled like that for awhile doing things happily married couples do.

...

Feng Wu played so much. Sometimes Juntian would take her to the beach to catch fish and crabs, sometime Noel would take her to street vendors to eat or to the theater to watch shows, and sometimes Madam Lan would take her out shopping for new clothes and watch operas.

With such a busy, fun life, Feng Wu inevitably ate a lot of food. But even though her food intake increased, her weight did not. Noel was suspicious where she put it all.

This day in particular, Feng Wu was taking a walk in the garden with Little Bun when she had an unexpected visitor – Shui.[notes]

“Are you here for a reason?” Feng Wu clearly remembered this person hated her. Why was she here? Feng Wu blinked as she wondered.

“I came for a reason. Do you remember Ning Bi?” Shui asked abruptly.

Who? Feng Wu shook her head honestly. She searched her memory but didn’t remember a person by that name.

“You don’t remember Ning Bi? Ning Bi defended you so much when we were kids. Here, this is Ning Bi’s wedding invitation.” Shui handed Feng Wu a letter. “She asked me to give it to you. She says she hopes her wedding will be blessed by all her relatives and friends, so she’d really like it if you went.”

If Shui hadn’t agreed to Ning Bi’s request to hand deliver the invitation, she would never have had anything to do with Feng Wu again.[notes]

Feng Wu received the invitation with a blank expression. She really had no idea who Ning Bi was and still had no clue even after several hours after Shui left. Eventually it was Madam Lan who told her. Ning Bi had been friends with the original Feng Wu but she moved away to another region. She returned to the area a few months ago.

Madam Lan knew about the invitation and approved of Feng Wu attending. In observing someone else’s wedding, Madam Lan hoped it would help Feng Wu understand so she wouldn’t be confused when it came time for her own wedding.

Hearing that going to the wedding and observing would help her with her own wedding was enough to convince Feng Wu to go. She didn’t know how the people in this world got married, so going to observe would help her learn what to do when she married Ming Xi.

Ning Bi’s fiancé was her senior at school. The two had a very good relationship and both families were happy with them getting married. The wedding was scheduled to be held in another city at the groom’s hometown, so Ning Bi’s family arranged accommodations for all the guests.

Feng Wu arrived three days before the wedding and was placed in a room adjacent to Shui. Feng Wu didn’t care but Shui wanted to change rooms as soon as she found out. Unfortunately, when she went to request another room, she was told there were no more rooms left, so she had no choice but to reluctantly stay next door to Feng Wu.

Something unexpected happened to the groom as everyone waited for the wedding. Ning Bi and her fiancé were traveling in their carriage when they were hit by a land slide. Ning Bi’s fiancé protected her but he died from direct head trauma.

The wedding became a funeral and those who came changed their dress appropriately to reflect the mourning. Ning Bi’s close friends tried their best to comfort her, but it was of little use. She cried so much at the funeral that she nearly fainted. Later that night, she slit her wrist in a suicide attempt. Her parents were so shaken they didn’t dare leave her alone. They didn't want her to stay in a city filled with reminders of her dead fiancé, so they took her away and left for the capital as soon as the funeral was over.

The Feng family were overwhelmed when Feng Wu returned and told them the story. A good wedding turned into a funeral. Ning Bi’s life was too bitter.

How could a girl bear such a blow. . . ?

Madam Lan sympathized with Ning Bi very much. She asked Feng Wu to accompany her to Ning Bi’s home in her free time and had the kitchen stew some medicinal supplements for Feng Wu to bring over.

Although Ning Bi lost her fiancé, she had many friends who cared about her.

Ning Bi had always been cute since she was little. Her baby voice and cute, doll like appearance meant her cute meter was off the charts. She had good relations with everyone.

If the original Feng Wu was a child that people couldn’t stand, then Ning Bi was the child everyone adored. They loved her and only wanted good things for her. It wasn’t just because she was cute, she also had a lively personality that naturally attracted people to her.

Everyone said it was a pity such a good girl encountered such misfortune.

There were so many people who cared for her, and from time to time, people stopped by to drop off gifts and chat to keep her company.

A whole month passed while Ning Bi lived in a daze under everyone’s care.

A month later, the season was just right for climbing high and viewing things far away. Ning Bi invited seven close friends to come and play on Qui mountain just outside the city. They were all friends since they were little.

It was Feng Wu's third on Qui mountain. She had been there twice before when her brother had brought her out to play.

The scenery on Qui mountain was absolutely beautiful.

After hiking up from the foot of the mountain and reaching the summit, the group of eight were greeted with a breathtaking sight. Looking up, they saw puffy, white clouds drifting lazily on a sweet wind in an endless, blue sky that stretched on to eternity. While below them, sprawled out in all its glamour to behold, was the imperial city.

Two of the girls took out their supplies and prepared to sketch. Feng Wu took out a lot of delicious food and spread them out on a flowered picnic blanket. Then she sat down to eat.

Watching Feng Wu prepare so many things, the girls naturally assumed it was for the group. How nice. Everyone, except for the two girls painting, gathered around and began to nibble on things.

They ate all the food Feng Wu had prepared for herself. She was being robbed!

After eating and drinking so well, everyone went back down the mountain. Instead of taking the main pathway down, Ning Bi wanted to change the mood, so she led them through a small side path. Everyone went along with it since they were there to accompany her.

It began to drizzle not long after. The drizzle soon turned into heavy downpour and they rushed to take cover inside a cave.

There were a lot of dried straw and unburned firewood inside. Who knew who lived there, but whatever the case, it was convenient to have ready firewood to use. They was cold from the rain so they quickly started a fire.

Feng Wu wasn’t cold -- or even wet. She had kept the rain away with a shield made of qi. Only a couple of the other girls thought to do the same. Most had gotten wet because they forgot they could create a shield and had reflexively searched for a place to shelter instead.

The rain showed no signs of stopping. Just sitting together was boring so Ning Bi suggested they gather around and tell scary stories.

The girls both loved and hated these kinds of stories, so of course they agreed.