Aerial Rain
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GNU Ch 84 Part 1 – Compensation (I)

The room fell into silence. For a long time, no sound could be heard. Cheng Yuanjing was the first to break the silence: “Is this your answer?”

Cheng Yujin lowered her head and replied, “Your Highness misunderstood. This subject daughter doesn’t deliberately want to offend you, but proper courtesy should be restored. This subject daughter has been rude before. Relying on the fact that Your Highness still needs Cheng family to be your cover, this subject daughter kept pestering you like a real uncle. This subject daughter is guilty. Since this subject daughter has known your identity, this subject daughter ought to maintain the courtesy between a ruler and his subject. Not to mention that yesterday, this subject daughter was fortunate enough to be rescued by Your Highness. Your Highness is the crown prince and also this subject daughter’s lifesaver. Being respectful to you is a must.”

A ruler and his subject. Restoring a proper courtesy. Cheng Yuanjing’s lips were smiling, but there was no smile in his eyes. “Oh? Then why didn’t you put on a distance when we were in the Cheng family and only realize it now?”

Cheng Yujin sighed inwardly. Sure enough, Cheng Yuanjing was not easy to take advantage of. She tried to borrow the skin from the tiger, but before she had the chance to use the skin, the tiger came to catch her.

Cheng Yujin originally thought that Cheng Yuanjing wouldn’t feel bothered by this small action of sponging, so she was full of calculations to gain the goodwill of the future emperor, to secure her own future, and finally, to get connected with a bright young talent she could marry. Three jumps in one step, and she would be the winner of life.

But Cheng Yuanjing’s act of jumping into the freezing water yesterday undoubtedly slapped a brick on Cheng Yujin’s forehead and strongly shocked her. In fact, she had begun to recall various of their intimate behaviors that were so blurred before. Indeed, for a man and woman that weren’t related by blood, they were too close. But the title ‘Ninth Uncle’ was really easy to confuse, and Cheng Yujin was gradually deceived. She felt that their closeness was normal between relatives, and their daily banter was also nothing out of the ordinary.

However, they are not real relatives. If neither of them mentioned it, no one would know about their relationship after Cheng Yuanjing was gone. But Cheng Yujin never imagined that Cheng Yuanjing didn’t intend to stop there. He tore open the flimsy paper window between them and forced Cheng Yujin to face a serious fact.

She had successfully gained the crown prince’s goodwill. Too successful, in fact.

Cheng Yujin truly never expected that Cheng Yuanjing would fall in love with her. Her mind subconsciously ruled out such possibility. When Cheng Yujin considered the candidates of her future husband, she never put Cheng Yuanjing in her options at all, so she naturally felt that Cheng Yuanjing was the same.

After all, Cheng Yujin for Cheng Yuanjing was no different than Zou Cheng for Cheng Yujin. Zou Cheng was the young man who passed the imperial examination in the same year as Lin Qingyuan and Cheng Yuanjing. But unlike the two, Zou Cheng came from a poor family. His study fund was earned by his mother and younger sister spinning threads day after day to make a living.

She and Zou Cheng were the same in that their personal worth was high, but their family was dragging them down. Considering Cheng Yuanjing’s special situation, Yichun Marquis Manor was even deadlier than the Zou family.

Cheng Yujin admired Zou Cheng’s talent, and was touched by his family’s mutual effort and support. But Cheng Yujin would never want to marry into the Zhou family and became a noble wife who allowed her husband to leap into a higher status. She definitely could pick someone like Xu Zhixian, who was of the same status, had a good family, but weaker personal ability, or she could even fight to get Lin Qingyuan, whose family background and future career were both excellent.

Unless there was a hole in her brain, Cheng Yujin would never choose Zou Cheng. Marrying him was tantamount to a high-risk, low-return business. From another perspective, however, the situation between her and Cheng Yuanjing was the same.

There was a barrier between common people and scholars, and another barrier between ordinary officials and hereditary noble families. Finally, there was also a barrier between noble families and the imperial clan, which was like the sky and the earth.

The descendants of noble families inherited their ancestor’s wealth and power. They didn’t need to pass the imperial examination and didn’t need any scholarly titles to enter the officialdom, making their starting point much higher than scholars of ordinary families. However, in the eyes of those imperial clan members, noble families were nothing more than names. The difference was that some families’ names were worth remembering, while others were not.

Yichun Marquis Manor Cheng family belonged to the unworthy category. In the capital city where princes and dukes were everywhere, a small marquis manor with no power was just an insignificant ant.

As for His Highness the Crown Prince, his existence was even higher, far above other imperial clan members. Originally, Cheng Yuanjing was someone Cheng Yujin would have never come into contact with. The situation in the court was getting more and more tense, yet Old Madam Cheng didn’t even bother to pay attention to the matter of imperial succession, which showed how low Cheng family was amounted of.

Only those who would be noticed by the people above needed to worry about the position they stood at. Cheng family didn’t even have the qualifications to join any of the factions.

Although Cheng Yuanjing had been absent for more than ten years, his crown prince title still remained. It was clear that the Emperor had the high hope to pass the throne to him. Under such circumstances, once Cheng Yuanjing recovered his identity and status, some senior officials and high-ranking families would be willing to join under his banner. The easiest way to create an alliance was by marriage. Cheng Yuanjing could easily choose a wife whose character, appearance, and ability were on par with Cheng Yujin, but had a powerful clan as her backing. That way, it would be much easier for him to fight with the Yang family. There was no way Cheng Yuanjing had never considered this fact.

And what did Cheng Yujin have? She only has a passable but unworthy family background, a glamorous but useless reputation, and a beautiful face.

Cheng Yujin always put her interests first. She never let herself be trapped in emotions and naturally assumed others to behave the same. Cheng Yuanjing was even more rational than her, only that he had never shown it. Cheng Yujin didn’t believe that such a person would be willing to give up obvious benefits.

That being the case, his behavior yesterday gradually pointed to another possibility that made her back shudder in a chill.

 

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14 thoughts on “GNU Ch 84 Part 1 – Compensation (I)”

  1. Oh. Well, she isn’t stupid and she clearly understands the implications of his choice. However, she forgot to consider that because he saw how a powerful clan can influence and even undermine the emperor, he actually wouldn’t want to fight fire with fire, only to end up burning himself in the future.
    If yuanjing chooses another influencial family, he might be setting himself up for failure as this family might also control the court in the future. He prolly would choose a crown princess with no backing so that he holds all the power.
    Thanks for the update!

    1. True, but logically speaking, if she as a true love were out of picture, Yuanjing would also think that way. The problem of powerful clan might pressuring him can be handled later when he is already an emperor.
      At the moment he can use any help available because the opponent is too strong and he has no back up.
      So her analysis is not wrong at all.
      However she really underestimate her position in his heart… She is too skeptic towards love so that she can’t believe he could love her so deeply that he would risk everything to be with her and doesn’t even mind her lack of affection and skepticism towards love.
      She doesn’t know that he loves her enough to let her grow fond of her slowly over the time and would shield her from any problem possible.

  2. I see. She saw things from his perspective but didn’t think like he would and made an assumption. But now…will she accept his feelings? She doesn’t seem happy. It feels weird so something might be troubling her.

  3. She thinks he wants her only as a concubine I guess.

    Hopefully Yaunjing realises and disabuses her of that idea

  4. It’s very reasonable what Cheng Yujin’s thinking. If a Crown Prince is taking interest in a girl from an unsuitable family, then it’s probably to take her as a concubine, not the main wife. Chinese emperors and princes had a lot of concubines. Cheng Yujin is very rational and had this not been a novel, a crown prince like Cheng Yuanjing would never marry any woman as a main wife whose family couldn’t support his bid for the throne.

  5. Well. Makes sense considering the crown prince typical l typically needs a crown princess who had a spring family to back her up and Provide resources to help in the fight for the thrown. To bad Yuanjing doesn’t care About that
    Many thanks

  6. I think after her previous life experience, Yujin is probably scared to put herself in a position where she is under other people’s control. Hence her very rational decision to find husband who will only have her as the wife or one that she can “control”??. Too bad, she ended up in the lap of the one that she thought would give her a leg up to find the “perfect” husband… ha ha ha

  7. chinesefanreader

    Life in the royal court is like walking on a tightrope with alligators underneath and traps waiting to spring. Jin’er knows she’s not qualified to be a main wife with a weak family background and no way does she want to be a concubine. Even if she’s impossibly selected as a main wife she doesn’t want to deal with presiding over a rear court full of poisonous women. So there’s absolutely no benefit to marrying Jing’er because an emotion like love is completely unreliable, that is if she loved him in the first place. Major life decisions need to be based on cold hard facts 🤨

    Thanks for the chapter 🙏

  8. i just hope the both of them can talk it out. do not keep assuming this and that. just keep true to yourself so they can work it out together. remember two is better than one

  9. I know this will all get resolved eventually, but in the meantime I’m enjoying the author’s delving into the realities of marriage in Ancient China from the perspective of an intelligent woman who, in our era, would most likely have ended up a high-paid career woman or CEO.

  10. Just because mc was fcking unloved she, thinks every family is trash in some way if it’s poor or too strict holding respective ppl down without knowing actual situations at home which is really unexpected and narrow minded of her

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