White Fence Dream

Chapter 156 Early Morning
Mother Xu walked into the prince's courtyard with a little maid carrying a food box and saw the maids busy coming in and out.

Chunxiang, who was standing in the corridor, hurried over to greet her.

"Why is it so lively?" Mother Xu asked, "Are you eating?"

"Not yet. The prince and the young lady just took a bath." Chunxiang said.

Mother Xu was stunned: "Why so early in the morning..."

Chunxiang blushed slightly: "Prince and Madam, your clothes got wet accidentally..."

Last night, she was on duty. Before dawn, she heard some noises here. It seemed that the bed was shaking and people were moaning. These older girls were all taught by the housekeeper mother...

She did not rush over to ask if the young lady of the prince had gotten up.

She covered her head with the quilt and continued to sleep, but the next moment she heard the sound of water.

There was a pop.

She was startled.

It was the sound coming from the bathroom.

Chunxiang couldn't bear it any longer, so she stood up and walked out of the ear room and came to the door, where she heard the prince and the young lady whispering in the bathroom.

She hesitated for a moment, then raised her voice outside the door, "Prince, Madam, are you awake?"

There seemed to be silence inside for a moment, and then the prince's voice was heard.

"Let the stove heat up some water. I need to take a bath."

Chunxiang hurriedly responded, and asked the little maid to inform the kitchen. After waiting for a while, the prince let her in. She walked to the door of the bathroom and saw the young lady wrapped in a thin blanket by the prince in his arms. The prince was naked from the waist up, and the floor was wet, with lingerie thrown and intertwined...
Chunxiang hurriedly lowered her head to clean the room and watched the prince walk out holding the young lady.

The prince was still barefoot.

Thinking of that scene, Chunxiang still felt a little embarrassed.

Seeing the maid's look, Mother Xu realized that young couples just like to fool around.

As they were talking, the maids dispersed. Chunyue came out from inside and asked the kitchen to serve food. Seeing Madam Xu standing in the yard, she hurriedly said to the inside, "Madam Xu is here."

Zhou Jingyun's voice came from inside: "Mother Xu, come in quickly."

Mother Xu took the food box from the maid with a smile and went in.

The room was warm, and Zhou Jingyun had the fresh scent of someone who had just washed and dressed. Zhuang Li was sitting by the window fumigating her hair. When he saw Mother Xu come in, he stood up and greeted her with a smile.

"Okay." Mother Xu said with a smile, her eyes swept across the two people's faces. She saw that their brows still showed fatigue, and they seemed embarrassed, avoiding her gaze when she looked at them.

Young people are thin-skinned, so Mother Xu no longer looks at them.

"This is the lantern cake sent by the Second Madam. Madam asked the Crown Prince and the Young Madam to have a taste as well."

She handed over the lunch box.

Chunyue reached out and took it.

Zhuang Li thanked him with a smile.

Mother Xu glanced at the two of them and said with a smile, "Young Madam, please have your meal quickly." Then she was about to leave.

Zhou Jingyun asked: "Has mother eaten yet?"

Mother Xu said, "Madam is reciting sutras this morning, so we will have dinner a little later."

Zhou Jingyun nodded: "Please tell the kitchen, Mom Xu, I will go over and have dinner with my mother."

The prince is going to see his wife? Mother Xu was surprised, but not surprised, because the wife wanted to bring the young lady to the palace banquet today, but the prince flatly refused. The lady was a little angry. The prince was going to say something nice to his mother.

The prince is a filial child.

She smiled and answered yes, then went to the kitchen first.

Zhou Jingyun did not follow immediately, as if he wanted to leave but was reluctant to do so.

Chunyue had already taken out the cloak and hesitated when she saw this.

Zhou Jingyun looked at Zhuang Li: "Then, I'll go."

Zhuang Li looked at him and knelt down to salute: "Thank you for your hard work, my lord."

Zhou Jingyun took the cloak, put it on, and strode out.

Zhuang Li walked him out the door and stood in the corridor, watching Zhou Jingyun's figure disappear from his sight.

"Young Madam, please come in and have dinner." Chunyue saw Zhuang Li standing still for a long time and reminded him, "It's cold, don't catch a cold."

Only then did Zhuang Li retract his gaze and walked in, placing the food in the kitchen one by one.

"What did the prince say when he saw the lady?" Chunyue asked curiously.

As a maid, I shouldn't be so talkative, but the atmosphere this morning was strange. It wasn't that they were quarreling, but the two of them looked solemn, as if they were about to make a decision.

Zhuang Li raised his head and smiled at her: "I want to go to the palace banquet with my mother to convince the prince. The prince should go and speak well of her to my mother now."

Chunyue knew about this matter. The prince had flatly refused her before. It turned out that the young lady wanted to go.

Since the young lady wanted to go, the prince naturally had no choice but to bow his head and say nice things to his mother.

Chunyue couldn't help but laugh: "I hope Madam won't make things too difficult for the prince."

Zhuang Li said, "I have already put the prince in a difficult position. I hope he will suffer less from his mother." After saying that, he sighed lightly and lowered his head to eat.

The atmosphere suddenly became quiet again.

Chunyue wanted to smile, but suddenly she felt inexplicably sad, so she put the dishes on the table and walked away.

……

……

Mother Xu no longer needed to serve food and drink to the wife of Marquis Dongyang, as that was the job of the maids. As the mother in charge, she first went to the kitchen to instruct them to prepare meals for Zhou Jingyun, and then took care of some trivial matters. When she returned to the wife of Marquis Dongyang, breakfast was over and Zhou Jingyun had left.

The wife of the Marquis of Dongyang was sitting by the window drinking tea.

Madam Xu studied her expression and asked, "Madam, did you not embarrass the prince?"

The wife of the Marquis of Dongyang snorted, "How can I embarrass him? It's more like he embarrasses me. I am a mother, and I can't bear to see him lose face in front of his wife."

Mother Xu smiled and said, "What kind of difficulties can there be between mother and son?" She urged the wife of the Marquis of Dongyang, "Madam, don't rest. Go and invite the young mistress to come. This is her first time in the palace. You must teach her well." She also reminded him, "Take out the jewelry you have hidden in the bottom of the box so that the young mistress can bring honor to you."

Mrs. Dongyanghou was angry and amused: "No need for me to invite her. It's not like I begged her to come to the palace. Jingyun said he would let her come."

However, this was indeed a big event for the Dongyang Marquis family. It was the first time that her daughter-in-law officially entered the palace and appeared in front of powerful ladies.

It must be decent. "Go ahead, go ahead, put all my things out for her to choose from."

……

……

"Prince?"

On the path leading from the wife of Marquis Dongyang to the prince's courtyard, Zhou Jingyun stood still, looking in the direction of his own courtyard, as if in a trance.

The maids who were passing by saw it and hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to ask.

Zhou Jingyun came back to his senses.

"Is the prince going back?" the maids asked.

Zhou Jingyun lowered his eyes: "No, I have to go out."

Are you going out to wait for a carriage? But you shouldn't wait here for a carriage. It looks more like you want to go back to the yard.

The maids were puzzled and did not dare to ask more questions. The prince looked a little depressed.

Just when he was at a loss, Zhou Jingyun raised his head and said, "Go and tell the young mistress that she will take her to the banquet tonight. Let her go to the mistress and listen to her instructions."

There is a banquet in the palace today, and the wife of Marquis Dongyang will definitely go. It was not certain whether she would bring the young lady with her. Now it seems to be confirmed, and the maids are also very happy.

"This is the young lady's first time entering the palace."

"This is also the first time that the young lady has officially stepped out in public."

"Yes, no need to speculate and talk behind my back anymore."

"Go, go, tell the young lady."

The maids went towards the prince's courtyard laughing and joking.

Zhou Jingyun looked at the maids and then looked towards the courtyard over there again.

Feng Er ran in from the front: "Prince, carriage and horses..."

He wanted to say that the carriage and horses were ready, but when he saw the prince looking at the courtyard like a stone sculpture, he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

The prince looks very sad.

But Zhou Jingyun, who heard the footsteps, looked over and asked, "Are the carriages and horses ready?"

Feng Er nodded and couldn't help but say, "Prince, take a day off today. Why don't you go out tomorrow?"

What's so urgent?

Zhou Jingyun smiled at him and took a step forward: "Let's go."

……

……

In the early morning after the festival, there were not many people on the streets, as many people were still asleep after last night's revelry.

Shopkeeper Cai sat in the carriage with a dazed look on his face, as if he had not yet woken up.

To be exact, he didn't sleep all night.

First, the young master rushed in front of the son of Dongyang Marquis during the Lantern Festival without caring about anything. Fortunately, he did not make a fool of himself in public. Then he came back and shouted that he wanted to use a sleeping incense, otherwise he could not sleep.

He couldn't stop it and could only guard it himself.

Then, the young master began to struggle in his sleep, as if he was suffocating. He hurriedly splashed water on the young master to wake him up. When the young master woke up, he was frightened by the nightmare and seemed to go crazy.

Thinking of this, Shopkeeper Cai looked inside the car and saw Shangguan Yue wrapped in a cloak leaning against the corner, or rather, Miss Shangguan was huddled in the corner.

Compared with before, Miss Shangguan's face was paler today, her eyes were flickering, and her cherry lips were tightly closed, like a piece of white porcelain that would shatter if touched.

So when she made a fuss about coming to see the Young Lady of Marquis Dongyang again, he didn't dare to stop her.

He was afraid that if he really stopped him, the young master would be broken.

"The son of the Marquis of Dongyang has come out!" The young master suddenly said, sitting up straight from his huddled body, crawling to the window, peeking out through the crack, muttering, "He's mounted his horse, he's gone, he's gone out—"

Having said this, he climbed out.

"Let's go, let's go, I'm going to see her, I'm going to see her."

In fact, not only the young master was crazy, but Manager Cai himself was also going crazy. He climbed down and took the lead to stand in front of the gatekeeper of Dongyang Marquis' Mansion.

"Excuse me, our young lady would like to see the young lady for treatment." He pinched his throat and forced a kind smile.

He also disguised himself as a woman and insisted on accompanying Shangguan Yuelai.

Otherwise, "I will not let you go out even if I die."

Shangguan Yue seemed to be at her wit's end and muttered, "Come if you want to. It's the same as not coming anyway."

I don't understand what he means, but it doesn't matter. I have to keep an eye on him and never let anything embarrassing happen to the young master when he is going to the palace to meet the emperor and the royal family today!
The doorman looked him up and down, as if he had never seen such an ugly woman. Fortunately, his eyes fell on Shangguan Yue and he recognized this pretty young lady.

"Miss Li, please come in." The doorman said politely, "The young lady has asked you to come today."

……

……

Shopkeeper Cai stood in the corridor and looked up. This place was called Xichun Hall.

Two maids were standing nearby, discussing, "…I think the jewelry set given by Madam Xue would be better." "It should be paired with apricot yellow..."

They wanted to talk to him, but because the woman dressed as Manager Cai looked scary, or because they had their own things to do, and seeing that he was deaf and dumb and didn't respond, they ignored him.

Shopkeeper Cai had no interest in chatting with the two maids and just pricked up his ears to listen to what was going on.

Just now, the young wife of the Marquis of Dongyang came in wrapped tightly. I don’t know if it was because of the woman’s hair combing that made him dizzy, so he didn’t see her clearly and went in.

There were voices coming from inside.

"are you OK?"

in unison.

Both of them were greeting each other.

There was an atmosphere somewhat like a pair of lovebirds in distress. Shopkeeper Cai muttered to himself and yawned inexplicably. He quickly raised his hand to cover his mouth and glanced at the maids beside him. The maids were still talking, their voices were noisy and seemed very close and yet very far away.

He listened in a daze, his eyes gradually becoming confused.