I Am This Type of Woman

37

Ban Hua didn't like being too harsh to people who feared her, it made her feel as if she had been a bully abusing the weak. The respect Shi family people showed her was tinged with fear but she was too lazy to put up a show, she told her maids to give them some broken silver as reward, then entered the gates supported by a maid.

Kangning had intended to let Ban Hua went first, she only slowly got off her carriage after Ban Hua did. She watched Shi family people crowding around Ban Hua with an indifferent gaze without any remarkable expression on her face.

The servants at the gate were very happy to be rewarded, but when turning their heads and found Kangning Junzhu had been standing at the gate, they became quite scared. Stuffing the broken silver into their purses, they rushed up to Kangning. "Lowly Servants have met Junzhu, the banquet is the inner courtyard, Junzhu please follow."

"Don't worry, there are many guests today," Kangning gave them a slight smile, "I have been here several times, you don't need to show the way, I will go in myself."

How would the head of the servants momo dared to let Kangning walk by herself, she hurriedly moved forward to apologise and led Kangning inside.

The momo's respectful attitude couldn't stop the scene playing in Kangning's mind of how all the servants had surrounded Ban Hua as if Kangning didn't exist.

Yes, the first Junzhu was the Emperor's favourite, while the other Junzhu was from a family that the Emperor was suspicious of. Even servants in village estates knew which Junzhu was more important, let alone the servants of a major family in the Capital such as these ones.

The daughter of Count Zhongping was going to marry the Second Prince, but the eldest son of Xie family was still in prison on an alleged crime of preying on common people. This kind of crime, if it was judged to be a major crime, the offender could lose their head, if it was judged to be a minor offense, then only the offender's subordinates would be punished. However since the Emperor was dragging on the matter, Xie eldest son still couldn't be released.

It was possible the Emperor was using it to suppress the Second Prince who had been too active recently, or another possibility was, Ban family was involved in blocking it up.

Shi Feixian's elder sister was the Crown Princess, the future Empress, but even Shi Feixian didn't dare to disrespect Ban Hua, why was it?

Because the Emperor was biased towards Ban Hua, and the Crown Prince was very close to Ban family. The Crown Princess had to be nice to Ban Hua if she wanted to stay close to the Crown Prince. Shi family also had to be polite to Ban family to prevent anyone thinking Crown Princess' family disliked Ban family.

She had heard the rumours that the Crown Princess didn't like Ban Hua, but she had never seen the Crown Princess losing manner in front of Ban Hua. The Crown Princess was a smart person, she knew that prior to herself becoming the Empress she couldn't show the slightest dissatisfaction towards Ban Hua, she had to treat her well so noone could accuse her of any wrongdoing.

In the end it was all about power, power was the thing that moved people.

Shi family's and Yan family's relationship was a bit of a wonder. One was the Left Minister1, the other was the Right Minister2, it was unlikely for the two families to have very good relationship. If their relationship had been good, the Emperor wouldn't have made them the Left and the Right Ministers.

The youths of both families would attend gatherings to be polite but they wouldn't interact much. Today's situation was a bit strange as the most loved young gongzi of Minister Yan's family had appeared early at Shi family gate. Dressed in a rich attire, his enthusiasm almost threw Shi youths out of balance.