Xiao Lan glanced at the maid and sneered, "You really are stupid."
That matter was already over. The Empress Dowager's warning was just a warning; it couldn't do any damage to him at all. It was completely harmless.
That was why she had said a few words for him. It didn't even count as icing on the cake.
So he wasn't grateful at all, because to him, it was utterly useless.
He wouldn't accept the favor she was trying to sell him.
Xiao Lan shrugged. "If it really came down to risking my life, I wouldn't dare. I was too hasty. Anyone who can become His Majesty's right-hand man can't possibly be a fool."
Shen Xiabai didn't give Xiao Lan's little schemes a second thought.
When they returned to the Cui residence, Prime Minister Cui hadn't come back yet. Cui Yunchu took Cui Yunli to Old Madam Cui's courtyard first.
Along the way, Cui Yunli walked in fits and starts, gazing at the scenes around the estate with deep, thoughtful eyes, as if lost in thought.
Cui Yunchu yawned and said, "When Prime Minister Cui gets old, you'll be the master of this house. You'll have plenty of time to look around later. Let's go see Grandmother first. When she heard you were coming back, the old lady was probably so happy she couldn't sleep for days."
Cui Yunli nodded slightly. Behind him followed a servant carrying large and small bundles—probably the novel trinkets he said he'd brought back.
When they arrived at Pine Crane Courtyard, Nanny Li was in the yard disciplining the servants. Seeing Cui Yunli walking in with Cui Yunchu, she was stunned for a moment, then quickly caught on. With a loud "Ah!", she ran toward the house.
"Old Madam, Old Madam! The eldest young master, the eldest young master is back!"
Cui Yunchu tugged at her own ear and gave Cui Yunli a perfunctory smile.
A maid lifted the beaded curtain to let the two of them in. Old Madam Cui had already walked up to them, tears glistening in her aged eyes.
Cui Yunchu observed—her illness was cured, her gait was steady, and her cough was gone.
"Yunli, is that you?" Old Madam Cui stared intently at Cui Yunli.
When he had left all those years ago, he barely came up to her waist.
"Grandmother." Cui Yunli dropped to his knees with a thud. "It's your grandson. I left home for decades and never fulfilled my filial duty by your side. I have been unfilial."
Grandmother and grandson embraced and wept together.
Cui Yunchu sat to the side, watching quietly.
She always thought Cui Yunli had something wrong with his head.
Whose fault was it that he left home? Whose fault was it that he couldn't fulfill his filial duty?
If it were her, she'd at least have tried to milk it for something in return.
Just as she was mulling this over, a maid came in to report, saying, "Old Madam, the Prime Minister has returned."
The beaded curtain lifted, and the majestic Cui Qingyuan strode in.
Well, well, good timing.
Cui Yunchu looked at Cui Yunli, waiting for his second dramatic drop to his knees.
Father and son gazed at each other. Finally, Prime Minister Cui spoke, his voice slightly hoarse. "It's good that you're back."
"Father."
Cui Yunchu's eyes fixed on Cui Yunli's knees. Another thud.
Those knees had really been through the wringer today.
"Your son has returned." Cui Yunli knocked his head on the ground three times—solid, genuine thumps, no faking. When he lifted his head, his forehead was reddened.
Cui Qingyuan stepped forward in two or three strides, grasped Cui Yunli's arm, and helped him up.
If you looked closely, you could see his hands trembling slightly.
"These years—you've suffered."
Cui Yunli shook his head. "I am no longer the boy I was back then, Father. I long ago understood your helplessness."
Cui Qingyuan nodded with satisfaction and gave Cui Yunli's shoulder a heavy, reassuring pat.
Cui Yunchu looked away, lowering her gaze to the handkerchief in her hands, twisting and turning it over and over.
Say what you will—children raised out in the wild sure knew how to be agreeable. The old man's claim that her mother's upbringing had spoiled her wasn't entirely baseless.
Listening to Cui Yunli's overly mature, understanding remarks, Cui Yunchu felt... not great. It was like a backhanded jab at her, making her look all the more ungrateful by comparison.
"Grandmother, I'm a bit tired. I'll head back to my courtyard to rest," Cui Yunchu said as she stood.
"Alright, you've worked hard today. I've arranged a family dinner tonight—come a bit early," Old Madam Cui said.
Cui Yunchu nodded. As she turned her head, she caught Cui Qingyuan's gaze, which had somehow fixed on her without her noticing.
He'd been so busy talking with Cui Yunli that she'd thought he hadn't seen her. But since he was looking at her now, Cui Yunchu reluctantly gave him a perfunctory bow and left.
Those two—father and son, all love and duty—weren't a scene fit for a dark-hearted one like her.
Back at First Garden, Cui Yunchu made a beeline for the folding screen that had been carried over from the Shen residence.
"My beauty, I'm back." She stroked the screen and blew on its pearls, absolutely besotted with it.
"Nanny Zhang, has anyone returned my silver hairpin?"
Nanny Zhang shook her head.
Cui Yunchu's face fell with visible disappointment.
"He's probably too busy with that little nun to bother."
Oh, wait. Wrong. She was a princess now, and Shen the lover was currently in the honored position of consort to a royal.
She flopped onto the soft couch beside the screen. "Tonight's full-moon banquet was the worst meal I've had since I turned eight. Bar none."
She hugged a soft pillow and closed her eyes.
When she woke again, it was to a tickling at the tip of her nose. Cui Yunchu shook her head left and right, but it only eased for a moment. Soon, the tickling returned.
She shot up like a corpse rising from the dead, eyes snapping open—scaring Cui Yunfeng half to death.
"What are you doing?"
"I wanted to scare you to death." Cui Yunchu rubbed her nose and sat up. "What's the matter? Your brother's back, so you've got a stiff spine now? Trying to stage a rebellion?"
Cui Yunfeng pouted, wrapped her arms around Cui Yunchu's waist, and ignored her pushes as she rubbed her face against her. "He's just a man—how could he compare to the bond between sisters like us?"
Cui Yunchu nodded. "Fine. At tonight's dinner, I'll tell your big brother exactly that."
Cui Yunfeng clapped a hand over her mouth. "Eldest sister, don't you know the first thing about how to get along with people?"
"That's called being a fence-sitter, playing both sides." Cui Yunchu shot her a glare.
The two sisters fooled around for a while, and by then dusk had fallen. A maid came to report that the Crown Prince and Tang Qingwan had also arrived, and they were all to head to Pine Crane Courtyard for dinner.
Cui Yunchu glanced at Cui Yunfeng and asked, "Where's your dog?"
Cui Yunfeng immediately knew who Cui Yunchu meant. "My husband said he'd come a bit later."
And Prince An, who was fashionably late, was at that very moment standing at the entrance of the Shen residence. Yu Feng frowned, watching Xiao Yi standing with his hands clasped behind his back, suspecting he'd come to demand more silver.
Could it be that the future lady of the house had gone to his residence again to haul away goods by the cartload?
"My master is in the study. Please, enter, Your Highness," Yu Feng said.
"No need." Prince An raised an eyebrow. "I came to ask—since the Cui residence is hosting a dinner tonight, will Lord Shen be attending as well?"
Hearing this, Yu Feng's eyes widened.
A private Cui family dinner. The master and Eldest Miss Cui had barely gotten one brushstroke of that "marriage" character drawn, and the other half was still firmly in Prime Minister Cui's grip. How could he go?
An uninvited guest would probably be thrown out at the door.
Prince An frowned. "What? Lord Shen doesn't know about it?"
"Then I must have misremembered. Perhaps my father-in-law invited Lord Zhou instead."
With that, he turned and left the Shen residence.
"..."
Yu Feng stood there stunned, watching Prince An leave, before turning and sprinting back into the estate.
Prince An was outright humiliating them—coming all the way here to rub salt in the wound.
In the study, Shen Xiabai was flipping through documents. Hearing the door, he looked up at the fuming Yu Feng and asked calmly, "What is it?"
Yu Feng had no idea how to describe Prince An’s seemingly deranged behavior.
“His Highness Prince An said that the Cui residence is hosting a dinner tonight and that he came to escort you there. Then he said he had misremembered—that the one Prime Minister Cui had invited wasn’t you, but Lord Zhou. And then he left.”
As if he had deliberately come all this way just to humiliate him.
Shen Xiabai looked up from his official documents, his gaze cold and leaden.
After a long moment, he let out a scoff. “As if he could even get through the gates of the Cui residence.”
Only then did Yu Feng remember that, publicly, Cui Yunfeng had already been cast out of her family.
The pot calling the kettle black, and not even a good joke.
