Cui Yunchu hadn't really wanted to attend this banquet in the first place.
The moment they arrived at Pine Crane Garden, Cui Yunfeng went straight to sit beside Cui Yunli, the two siblings chatting as if they had endless things to say. Tang Qingwan, accompanied by the Crown Prince, listened to Cui Yunli and Cui Yunfeng talk, genuinely delighted.
Only Cui Yunchu seemed somewhat alone.
Cui Yunli said he had prepared gifts for each of his sisters, and a servant stepped forward to distribute them.
What landed in Cui Yunchu's hands was a hard piece of date cake and a few trinkets from the folk market—indeed quite novel.
Tang Qingwan's gift was similar to Cui Yunchu's. She held hers up to show the Crown Prince, speaking softly with a warm smile.
Cui Yunli and Cui Yunfeng continued their conversation.
Cui Yunchu kept her head down, quietly knocking the date cake against the corner of the table. A few crumbs fell off, and she wet her finger, dabbed at them, and brought it to her mouth to taste.
Before long, Prince An arrived.
Dressed in a black brocade robe, looking like he was up to no good. Cui Yunchu merely glanced up at him, then went back to eating her cake crumbs.
Cui Yunli and Prince An exchanged greetings and talked.
Mostly it was Cui Yunli, as the elder brother, voicing his concerns about Cui Yunfeng, asking Prince An to treat her well—things of that sort, and so on.
Cui Yunchu kept a wooden expression, eating while gazing out at the scenery beyond the door.
The sky had fully darkened. It was noisy all around, yet at the same time felt oddly quiet.
Just as Cui Yunchu's patience was about to run out, Old Madam Cui and Prime Minister Cui finally arrived.
The younger generation all rose to pay their respects. Old Madam Cui returned the gesture, then beckoned to Cui Yunchu. "Come here, Yunchu, sit by your grandmother."
Cui Yunchu obediently went over and sat down.
Prime Minister Cui's gaze landed on Cui Yunfeng. After a long moment, he spoke in a deep voice, "Who allowed you into the Cui household?"
He was stern, and tears immediately welled up in Cui Yunfeng's eyes.
Cui Yunli quickly stepped forward to speak, "Father, your son hasn't seen his sister in over a decade. I begged Grandmother to let her return for a visit."
"She has been expelled from the family. She is no longer your sister," Prime Minister Cui said.
Old Madam Cui held Cui Yunchu with one hand and lifted her gaze, glancing coolly at Prime Minister Cui. "Enough. On such a joyous day, let's all sit down."
Prince An clasped Cui Yunfeng's hand and also spoke, "Today, this prince came uninvited. Prime Minister Cui need not make things difficult for Yunfeng. Consider her simply a guest who has come to call."
The atmosphere grew tense. Tang Qingwan discreetly pinched the Crown Prince's waist.
The Crown Prince spoke up in agreement, offering Prime Minister Cui a way to save face, and the matter was thus settled.
Prime Minister Cui's move was, after all, for show in front of the Crown Prince—to tell him that the Cui family had no intention of sitting on the fence.
Cui Yunchu was just there to eat, and to look after Old Madam Cui at her side.
As for whatever the others were rambling on about, she paid no attention at all.
Someone placed a plate of meatballs in front of her. The sight of meatballs made her uncomfortable.
She had always favored meat—perhaps because she had known hardship in her childhood.
She held her chopsticks, her gaze roaming across the table, and noticed that almost all the dishes she liked were near Cui Yunfeng and Tang Qingwan. The plates set before her were all meatballs and greens—nothing she liked.
Prince An and the Crown Prince were still leaning in, asking Tang Qingwan and Cui Yunfeng what they wanted to eat.
The scene was so familiar—except there was no one slamming down their chopsticks anymore, and no one noticed her.
Everyone was delighted by Cui Yunli's return, eagerly anticipating what was to come next.
Old Madam Cui's voice sounded beside her ear. She quietly instructed Nanny Li, "Move those greens over to that side; let them have some too. They shouldn't eat so much meat all the time—it's hard to digest."
Cui Yunchu occasionally thought the dishes today were especially delicious, especially when Old Madam Cui patted her head. But at other moments, she felt a tinge of bitterness.
Cui Yunli had drunk a fair amount, spending most of his time talking with Prince An—worried he might mistreat Yunfeng, afraid she might suffer any grievance.
Afraid Prince An might think that, because Cui Yunfeng had been expelled from the family, he could bully her without consequence.
The Crown Prince and Tang Qingwan left a step earlier. Before they went, Cui Yunchu still said to Tang Qingwan, "Nothing is more important than your health."
Tang Qingwan smiled. She was still so nonchalant. The way she looked at Cui Yunchu was a little special—like concern, or like pity—but in the end, she said nothing and left.
Both were her sisters; she didn't know what she could say.
Cui Yunli went to see off Prince An and Cui Yunfeng. Old Madam Cui had already left the table. Cui Yunchu rose to leave as well, but was stopped by Prime Minister Cui.
"Does the Prime Minister have any further instructions?" Cui Yunchu turned back to ask.
Prime Minister Cui looked at her with a complicated expression. "Your grandmother is advanced in years, and you are the only young lady left in the household. From now on, you shall attend the various social gatherings in the capital."
Didn't he just say she wasn't allowed to leave the house freely?
It only took a moment for Cui Yunchu to understand Cui Qingyuan's meaning—he was letting her choose her own husband.
Cui Yunchu thought to herself, if she said no, the old man would probably tell her to go kneel in the ancestral hall.
After weighing her options, Cui Yunchu nodded in agreement.
Fine then. As long as he didn't mind the embarrassment, why should she care what others thought?
For official families in the capital—especially a household like the Cuis—if you wanted to attend banquets, you'd never run out of invitations. Concubine-taking feasts, second-wife ceremonies, singing girls and dancers—whether the invitation was for men or for women, as long as a card was delivered to the Cui residence, Cui Yunchu went. She even attended the funeral of someone's deceased concubine, personally delivering a memorial couplet.
In five or six days, Cui Yunchu had attended no fewer than ten banquets. On busy days, she squeezed in two.
Not a single respectable young gentleman did she meet, but she did come to know quite a few widowers who had lost their wives.
Until the memorial couplet she had sent out ended up on Prime Minister Cui's desk.
Cui Qingyuan's face was ashen. Cui Yunchu was unapologetic: "They invited me to attend a memorial service. I couldn't exactly show up empty-handed, could I?"
Prime Minister Cui slowly raised his eyes, fixing her with a stare. "Do you know who sent that couplet back?"
It certainly couldn't have been the deceased concubine—if she had the power to raise the dead, she wouldn't need to call him father; she could call him son instead.
Suppressing his fury, Prime Minister Cui said, "It was Lady Li. The deceased was a concubine, and you sent a memorial couplet meant for a principal wife. What were you trying to do?"
Cui Yunchu tilted her head. "Is that so? I had some random person write it on the way. I didn't know."
Prime Minister Cui's head was spinning with anger. Even if the Cui family had fallen on hard times, it wasn't as though every household that lost a concubine would send them an invitation.
"How did you even end up at the Li household?"
Cui Yunchu answered matter-of-factly, "That morning I attended a banquet for someone taking a second wife. At the table, there happened to be someone going to the Li household for the mourning rites in the afternoon, so I went along."
Ten coppers for a memorial couplet, and a free meal at the Li house.
"Cui Yunchu!" Cui Qingyuan slammed the table and shot to his feet.
Cui Yunchu jumped in fright, then argued back in a lowered voice, "Why so loud? Weren't you the one who told me to attend banquets?"
Meeting the prime minister's livid face, she continued, "It's not like I came back with nothing. I didn't meet a single young gentleman, but plenty of men want to take me as a second wife or a successor wife. One of them had good prospects—just a bit old in age..."
"You might have to call him 'Father.'"
That last line came out as barely a mumble.
Though Cui Yunfeng was rebellious, she was not even a fraction of Cui Yunchu's defiance.
Prime Minister Cui's anger flared as he suddenly raised his hand—his broad palm aimed squarely at Cui Yunchu's delicate face.
Cui Yunchu lifted her eyes lazily, neither dodging nor flinching. She simply watched him in silence, and the air between them instantly turned heavy and frozen.
His raised hand never fell. Slowly, he lowered it again.
"Why are you angry, Father? If you're dissatisfied, I can simply find another option." Cui Yunchu spoke in a tone of utter indifference.
Prime Minister Cui knew she was using this reckless disregard for herself as a way to show her displeasure with him.
"From now on, you need not attend any more banquets." Cui Qingyuan sat down slowly, saying the words with finality.
Cui Yunchu raised an eyebrow. "Haven't you always thought highly of Lord Zhou? Are you planning to marry me off to him directly?"
"No." From that day on, Prime Minister Cui had completely abandoned that idea. To a man, a wife's chastity was of utmost importance—Cui Yunchu had been seen meeting another man in secret right before his eyes. Even if he married her now, out of concern for his own reputation and the power of the Cui family, a thorn would always remain lodged in his heart. Someday, that thorn might just pierce Cui Yunchu herself.
Cui Yunchu wasn't dwelling on that. She simply nodded lightly. "Then may I ask one more thing—the reason?"
That day at the First Garden, he hadn't explained. But the more he withheld the reason, the more she wanted to ask, the more she needed to know the answer.
Prime Minister Cui gave Cui Yunchu a long, deep look.
His heart sank slightly. Her persistence could only mean one thing—that in her heart, there was indeed that man from the Shen family.
He lowered his gaze, as if doing so could hide his partiality and the faint trace of guilt within him. "When you marry, I will prepare an additional dowry for you separately."
