"When was that? Cousin must have remembered it wrong."
Tang Qingwan turned her eyes to her own maid.
The little maid immediately lowered her head, not daring to make a sound, making Cui Yunchu even more confident, "Cousin, you are the future Crown Princess, how can you deny it?"
"..." Tang Qingwan was speechless.
She stopped acting up, but why did she suddenly become so greedy for wealth!!!
"A daughter of the Cui family should be noble and pure, how can you think about gold and silver every day." She lectured in the tone of an elder sister.
Cui Yunchu, pulling Cui Yunfeng, had already walked a few steps away. Hearing this, she turned back and glanced lightly at Tang Qingwan, "Cousin, the sage also said, one cannot be greedy in life, wanting both this and that."
"..." That made so much sense.
Nowadays, Cui Yunchu being so sensible was something everyone in the Cui family had wished for in the past.
After the figures of Cui Yunchu and Cui Yunfeng disappeared at the end of the corridor, Tang Qingwan finally stepped towards her own courtyard again.
"Miss, are you really going to give it to the eldest cousin miss? She has already taken one set from you," the maid said with a wrinkled face.
Tang Qingwan fell silent. After a long while, as if comforting herself, she said, "Think about how she used to be, and then consider that set of jewelry."
After saying that, she turned to ask the little maid, "Isn't it easier to accept this way?"
"..."
In the Maple Courtyard, Cui Yunfeng curled her lips, watching Cui Yunchu rummage through her dressing table.
"You are the older sister. Isn't it only right for you to take care of your sick younger sister? How can you ask for things?"
"Didn't you offer it yourself?" Cui Yunchu's eyes locked onto a set of gold-inlaid ruby jewelry.
Cui Yunfeng immediately stepped forward and shielded the jewelry in her arms, "Not this one, this is the dowry my mother left me."
"...Left by the legitimate mother, huh." Cui Yunchu was very agreeable and immediately shifted her target.
But after picking and choosing, Cui Yunfeng was reluctant to part with anything.
Cui Yunchu frowned, "Do you want to give me something or not?"
"." Cui Yunfeng turned her face away, and finally, with a heavy heart, gave Cui Yunchu a set of filigree pure gold hairpins that she liked relatively less.
Girls love clothes and jewelry the most, and Cui Yunfeng, as a young lady, was no exception.
Seeing Cui Yunchu holding her hairpin with a look of disdain and dissatisfaction, Cui Yunfeng felt that the sister who used to dote on her and love her was like a fleeting night-blooming cereus, gone in the blink of an eye.
So brief.
"To think I even spoke up for you in Grandmother's courtyard just now, and look at you, not acting like an older sister at all."
Cui Yunchu gave her a cool glance, "What should an older sister act like? How about I act like I used to..."
Saying that, she pinched her voice and called out, "Second Sister~"
That was Cui Yunchu's usual pretension, showing sisterly love to the rest of the Cui family, but in reality, she was bullying Cui Yunfeng.
Cui Yunfeng's face turned green, "Demons and monsters, quickly leave my eldest sister's body."
The two sisters laughed and joked together.
Cui Yunchu glanced at her lightly, "Don't think I don't know, you helping me refuse the marriage in front of Grandmother also had selfish motives. Because once my marriage is settled, the next one will be you."
"Don't make it sound so high-sounding."
"." A trace of embarrassment quickly flashed across Cui Yunfeng's face, "My eldest sister, you are really a smartie."
"Of course," she is not acting stupid anymore, so of course she is smart.
Leaving Cui Yunfeng's place, Cui Yunchu actually detoured to Tang Qingwan's courtyard.
Tang Qingwan had a dignified personality, unlike Cui Yunfeng who would just act shamelessly. Even if Cui Yunchu picked out what she liked, she could only reluctantly part with it and let Cui Yunchu take it away.
When Xing'er held two brocade boxes back to Chu Courtyard, Nanny Zhang was looking around stealthily.
Cui Yunchu sat in front of the dressing table, organizing the makeup boxes. She raised her eyes and glanced at the sneaky person at the door, "If you want to look, come in and look openly. Standing there, aren't you afraid of straining your neck?"
Nanny Zhang immediately piled on a smile and trotted into the room, "This old servant will help Miss tidy up."
Cui Yunchu sat there, looking at the sets of shining gold jewelry, her smile spilling out of the corners of her eyes.
"This old servant heard that Miss refused the Chen family's marriage."
"Mhm."
Nanny Zhang praised, "In the end, it is still Miss who is smart. Not only did you refuse the marriage, but you also didn't make the Old Madam angry, and you even got these sets of jewelry."
Nanny Zhang's face was full of joy, "In the past, it was this old servant who was stupid, not realizing that Miss is the concubine's biological daughter, so your methods are naturally brilliant."
The more Cui Yunchu listened, the less it sounded right. She frowned slightly, raising her eyes to glance at Nanny Zhang, "What do you mean?"
"Haven't these past few days all been Miss's stratagems?" Nanny Zhang had a look of certainty, "The next step, is it to figure out a way to win over His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Prince An? Does Miss have a plan in mind yet?"
"Give your orders to this old servant, and this old servant will definitely learn from past failures and wholeheartedly assist Miss."
Cui Yunchu's smile vanished, her lip line straightened. She looked at Nanny Zhang expressionlessly for a few breaths, then turned her head to instruct Xing'er.
"Later, go find the butler and have this old hag sold off for me."
"..." Xing'er carefully glanced at Nanny Zhang, not daring to make a sound.
"M-Miss," Nanny Zhang was dumbfounded.
Her self-confidence in having seen through everything was completely crushed.
"Don't call me Miss, my concubine mother's affection has been used up."
"Don't, Miss."
Nanny Zhang hugged Cui Yunchu's leg and knelt down, "You were raised by this old servant since childhood. If this old servant leaves, how can I live?"
Cui Yunchu's biggest flaw was being soft-hearted.
Looking at Nanny Zhang crying with snot and tears, she was very disgusted, "Stop crying, it's so ugly it burns my eyes."
Nanny Zhang immediately quieted down.
Cui Yunchu said earnestly, "I am a girl, and even more so a daughter of the Cui family, how precious am I. How could you instigate me to do such... improper things."
"As a woman, one should be reserved, understand propriety, righteousness, integrity, and honor. Throwing oneself at someone is extremely disrespectful behavior and will be looked down upon by others."
Nanny Zhang raised her tear-streaked face, staring blankly at Cui Yunchu, even forgetting to beg for mercy.
Could it be... Miss has been possessed by demons and monsters?
"Miss, marrying into the royal family to be a princess, wasn't that the goal we agreed on since you were little?"
"..." Was it?
It seems... so.
The concubine mother said that only by marrying the most noble person could her fate be changed. Her lowly background meant marrying father was already the limit, so she counted on her to surpass the older generation and turn her life around.
But her concubine mother was a salted fish with no ambition, she was not.
As for an imperial mandate, who could receive a title after death anyway.
"From now on, this goal has changed," Cui Yunchu said.
"Changed?" Nanny Zhang was half-believing and half-doubting. Cui Yunchu nodded firmly.
"Yes, it's changed." She patted Nanny Zhang's shoulder, turned around, and continued fiddling with those hairpins and step-shakes.
"Xing'er, is it still a bit too little?"
"..." Xing'er unconsciously remembered the expressions of Second Miss and Cousin Miss as if their flesh was being cut, and the corners of her mouth twitched.
"Not... too little, right." If she asked for more, the two misses would be hopping mad.
"Not enough," Cui Yunchu frowned and said, "Yunfeng and Tang Qingwan are both legitimate daughters. They can inherit their mothers' dowries. When they get married in the future, it will surely be ten miles of red dowry."
"My birth mother..." Cui Yunchu turned her head and rummaged around. Oh, she forgot. The few dowry ledgers her birth mother had passed down to her had been confiscated by her father.
"I have to earn more to save up for my own dowry. Only with silver in hand can I truly secure my future."
Xing'er's eyes suddenly grew damp. "Miss, the Old Madame and the Chancellor have always treated everyone equally. They will surely prepare a dowry for you."
