The Rebirth of an Ill-Fated Consort (Chapters 1- 203)

Chapter 135 : Meeting Pei'er Again

Translated by : Irisu

Edited by : Anks & Ely

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After departing from Dong fu, both Lu Zhu and Tian Zhu did not dare to utter a word. Earlier, Jiang Ruan had been extremely callous towards Dong Yinger, as if any past signs of friendship between them no longer existed. In the end, Dong Yinger's complexion had become extremely unpleasant and one feared that from this time forward, she would be estranged from Jiang Ruan.

However, Jiang Ruan did not seem to take this matter to heart; afterall, towards Dong Yinger, she had no obligation to do so. Therefore, she could only direct her(Dong Yinger) to think things through for herself. As for the matters between Jiang Xin Zhi and Dong Yinger, she would naturally place more importance on Jiang Xin Zhi.

After leaving Dong fu, it was still early. Upon reflection, she had not entered the palace in a while to visit Empress Dowager Yi De. A few days ago, Yang gugu had sent someone to deliver a letter to tell her to come over to the palace for a walk. Seeing as it was still the early hour, she had the horse carriage make a turn and head directly towards the palace.

These days, the palace was abuzz with the matters of imperial consort selection[1] and as she walked along, she took in the training gugus who were selecting candidates from the names on the list. Jiang Ruan's lips curled up as she thought of how Jiang Dan's name would also be on it and without anyone's leave, she headed towards Ci Ning Palace.

[1] 选秀女的 (xuǎnxiù nǚde) – to select talented individuals/women. The palace harem selection – as readers of light novels with historical themes should know – is often referred to the selection of talented ladies called xiu nu, it is used to select palace maids or replacements of imperial concubines, concubines/wives of princes etc. Each dynasty has different standards for choosing and purposes of this selection. For example, the selection for concubines: more importance would be placed on looks, disposition and family background, for palace maids, the standards would be lower. This was started in the Qing dynasty for ladies above 14 years old in an every three year cycle.

As she walked towards a corner in a long corridor, her eyes fell upon a familiar figure that was standing by a flowerbed nearby. It was Princess He Yi.

Following Princess He Yi were a few young palacemaids and she was leaning over to speak to someone else. As she walked closer, she then heard the words from Princess He Yi's lips, "To think a lowly despicable child borne from a lowly palace maid could actually think that they are part of the royal family? Hmph, it is still unknown whether they are even able to be raised safe and sound. This princesshas already given him a beating today. What of it?"

The little person silently had his head lowered before Princess He Yi who pointed and scolded him. Clearly he was extremely frightened and hid behind a palace maid. That maid was also timid and was persistently nodding and bowing her head to apologise.

Jiang Ruan's gaze narrowed slightly as she took a look at that tiny figure, and she couldn't help but shiver as she stiffened in place.

It was rare for Jiang Ruan to have such a moment where her emotions were stirred up like this, and so when Tian Zhu and Lu Zhu saw this they were puzzled and looked towards the little person.

Yet what they saw was just a three to four years old young boy who was dressed extremely plainly. Moreover, if one were to take a careful look at the details of his clothes, one could see that although the clothing material was gorgeous, it was not made of fine material. A child's skin was tender and could very easily have abrasions due to this sort of rough stitches. That child's complexion was pale as if he was undernourished, still, he was extremely delicate and adorable. Though, while he was tightly clutching onto the corner of the palace maid's clothes, his expression was extremely timid.