What made him so happy? Cheng Yujin was totally puzzled. The crown prince wanted to recruit a person, and she ignorantly badmouthing the said person. But His Highness was actually very satisfied?
Cheng Yujin couldn’t believe it. She began to have doubts about her previous perception. Cheng Yuanjing finally heard the answer of his liking. The previous frustration and irritability dissipated from his eyes, and he even smiled: “Hearing your words, you seem to feel a pity for Duchess Cai?”
“It’s not a pity. I don’t even know the late Duchess Cai.” Cheng Yujin pursed her lips and smiled. In fact, she was very egoistic. If it had nothing to do with herself, Cheng Yujin wouldn’t care about other people’s lives and deaths. But once her own interests were involved, Cheng Yujin couldn’t bear it. Cheng Yujin’s low evaluation of Zhai Yanlin was not for the sake of the court and country, but because Old Madam Cheng had the idea to make her Duke Cai’s second wife.
Cheng Yujin heard how second Madam Cai told other madams the so many demands for Zhai Yanlin’s second wife. Before even getting married, the woman would be looked at with suspicious eyes. Who would be willing to serve those arrogant idiots?
Thinking of this, Cheng Yujin’s mood also fell. She sighed and said, “In any case, with Duke Cai’s status and position, he doesn’t lack candidates to be his second wife. Many young and beautiful women of decent family status are willing to marry him. I am not even as good as them. It’s ridiculous for me to pity the future Duchess Cai.”
Cheng Yuanjing put down the teacup on the table with a small ‘thump’ sound. He lowered his eyes and looked at her solemnly: “Don’t look down on yourself.”
“I know.” Cheng Yujin took a deep breath and quickly smiled again. “Ninth Uncle, on the day of grandfather’s forty-ninth day ceremony, I met Zhai family’s second Madam at grandmother’s place. The second Madam talked about their family’s criteria for choosing the second wife. The shizi for the duke title has been decided and wouldn’t be changed. Therefore, the second wife must pour all of her effort to raise shizi to adulthood and cannot fight for the family property for her own children. In addition, she also has to be young and beautiful, virtuous and filial, skillful at managing the household, and has a good temperament and reputation. In short, a sky-high requirement.”
Cheng Yuanjing suddenly became curious: “Then, what is your view about this?”
“Me?” Cheng Yujin looked at Cheng Yuanjing, and gradually became vigilant, “Ninth Uncle, if I said honestly, would you feel offended?”
“No, I have to go through this step sooner or later. I would like to listen to your view in advance.”
Cheng Yuanjing deliberately said this. But in Cheng Yujin’s mind, she thought that Cheng Yuanjing meant that he would marry a crown princess sooner or later. Knowing in advance a woman’s opinion about the heir and property inheritance would be beneficial for him. Since it was the crown prince’s question, Cheng Yujin didn’t hesitate to say: “My opinion? The Zhai family is thinking too highly of themselves. They made numerous demands for the future second wife. Why don’t they think of what their family can offer to her? Men want their wives to be gentle and kind, not arrogant or jealous. But if men pursued status and wealth, women also have their own demands. Women work hard to manage the family property, take care of concubines for their husbands, and raise the children. All those efforts are to enjoy the blessing in old age. If they have nothing to gain in the end, who are willing to bear the hardships?”
This was the first time Cheng Yuanjing heard of a woman’s views on marriage. His education only consisted of the way of governing the country and the duty of a ruler. None of his tutors ever taught him how to manage a family and household. It seemed that everyone agreed that it was the crown princess’ duty. As the crown prince, Cheng Yuanjing only needed to take care of governmental affairs. The inner side of Eastern Palace was the domain and duty of his crown princess.
Then why did the crown princess perform her duty? No one seemed to have mentioned it.
Of course, Cheng Yuanjing didn’t think that after he got married, he could throw all of the household matter to his wife. The front court was his office, and the inner palace was where he lived. Cheng Yuanjing felt that both sides should be grasped in his own hands. However, Cheng Yujin’s words still shocked him.
Cheng Yujin understood it too clearly, too smartly. Cheng Yuanjing asked again: “Then, what do you want?”
“Of course I want the rewards for my efforts.” Cheng Yujin raised her eyebrows and said with a smile: “Aren’t we talking about Duke Cai? Why does the topic suddenly shifted so far?”
Cheng understood what she meant: “So, you want the right to manage the household and family property. Even if you don’t have the right temporarily, it has to be yours in the future. The most important thing is that the future heir should be your own child.”
Cheng Yujin really thought so. That’s why she ruled out the Zhai family from the beginning. If Duke Cai still didn’t have a son, she might still put him into consideration. But the Cai Duke manor already had an heir. In the future, both the title and family property would belong to Zhai Qing. Why should she do such a thankless and arduous job with no return?
Smart people only did things with a high probability of profitable return, and marriage was the most important investment in Cheng Yujin’s life. Marrying Zhai Yanlin was obviously not a good idea.
Seeing Cheng Yuanjing fell into deep thought, Cheng Yujin remembered his identity again. In the imperial family, the matter regarding heirs was a very sensitive topic with enormous influence on the whole country. Cheng Yujin certainly didn’t want to get involved in this matter. She didn’t know who was the future crown princess would be, and she didn’t want Cheng Yuanjing to misunderstand that she was secretly suggesting how he should choose his heir. It made no sense for Cheng Yujin to pave the way for the future crown princess at her own expense.
T/N:
For MWFV and THDP readers, there either will be no updates this week, or probably will be very, very late.
I fell into a fraud scam.
That’s just happen two days ago, and thus I am not in the mood of translating this week.
Warning to all my readers: if you are going to wire money and sensitive data to a stranger you never meet, then go to sleep and wait for a day so you can cool your head first, and tell other people so they can give you an objective advice. And do a quick google search. Seriously. One minute quick browsing might save you from money loss, anxiety, and wasting time. After I become suspicious that this is a scam, I browse the name of the company+scam, and the first result in google is a forum post literally warning everyone of this scam (yeah I’m just that stupid).
Check this page for the status of sponsored chapters.
