Aerial Rain
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GNU Ch 85 Part 3 – Bestowing Marriage (III)

Cheng Yujin’s face grew increasingly paler. She actually was wasting Cheng Yuanjing’s time and made the Emperor wait for a long time. Cheng Yujin could no longer remember what she was initially going to say. All her mind was to push Cheng Yuanjing out the door at the fastest speed.

“Ninth Uncle, I didn’t know that you have a prior appointment. It shouldn’t be too late now. Please go quickly.”

Cheng Yuanjing’s mood was already irritable after the interruption. Liu Yi could come any time, but he chose this exact moment! Hearing Cheng Yujin’s words, Cheng Yuanjing turned his head and saw her eagerly wanted to push him out.

This girl truly had no conscience.

Cheng Yuanjing sighed inwardly before he stood up and walked out. Seeing His Highness finally came out, Liu Yi also sighed in relief.

However, Liu Yi hadn’t yet take another breath when his master suddenly stopped again, turned his head, and then said to the girl behind: “I will be back soon. Wait until I come back, and we will continue our previous conversation.”

Cheng Yujin was standing on the doorsill, sending Cheng Yuanjing off. Seeing Cheng Yuanjing stopped suddenly, Cheng Yujin was stunned. After returning to her sense, she immediately responded: “Yes.”

Cheng Yuanjing also knew that he should be going now. But he still looked at Cheng Yujin, as if he didn’t want to part yet. He said again: “I have dispatched someone to send a message to Cheng family. You don’t need to go back. Stay here to recuperate, and don’t worry about anything else.”

Cheng Yuanjing has already informed Cheng family; what else Cheng Yujin could say? She could only nod her head obediently: “Okay.”

Even since the present Emperor was enthroned, he had never felt the feeling of waiting for other people. Especially because yesterday, the other party canceled the appointment halfway after making him waited for a long time. Even today, the Emperor had to send messengers a few times before he finally received a message from a eunuch that the Crown Prince had just departed.

The Emperor was speechless for a long time. If one didn’t know, they would think that he was the one who begged to see Cheng Yuanjing. The Emperor heard about Cheng Yuanjing’s itinerary from the eunuch. He calculated that their distance to the meeting place was about the same, so he walked out of the Zhanxing Tower1 under the pretext of changing clothes.

After the Emperor left, Empress Yang, who was watching the lanterns, suddenly turned her gaze. She looked in the direction of the Emperor’s departure, and her exquisitely drawn eyebrows slowly turned into a frown.

Not only Empress Yang, but other imperial consorts who accompanied the Emperor on this outing also knew that he was gone. Yesterday, the Emperor disappeared without reason for a few hours. Today, he delayed the return to the palace under the pretext of watching the lanterns. Although the Emperor seemed to be as usual, all the consorts sitting here were experts who could survive the inner palace battle. They had long noticed that the Emperor seemed to be out of mind since last night.

Now, after a eunuch whispered a few words, the Emperor immediately found an excuse to leave. All these signs pointed to one conjecture.

Of course neither Empress Yang nor other imperial consorts would think in the direction of the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince had been missing for fourteen years. Almost everyone assumed that he was dead. No matter how wild their imagination was, no one would ever guess that the Emperor was going to meet the Crown Prince. No. All the Emperor’s women, including Empress Yang, suspected that the Emperor had taken a fancy to a commoner’s girl, and took the opportunity of the past two days to enjoy the wild flower outside.

Empress Yang’s expression sank. Although the lanterns presented were still gorgeous and the performance troupe was still magnificent, there was no smile on her face. Because of Empress Yang’s bad mood, even if other imperial consorts wanted to have fun, they were too afraid to show it outright and had to suppress their laughter.

The eunuch in charge was totally befuddled. All of these entertainers were specially selected by him. He originally wanted to use this opportunity to please the imperial couple and make a great fortune for himself. Why did the atmosphere suddenly turn so cold?

A heavy atmosphere was slowly spreading in the Zhanxing Tower, but the people gathered in a secret meeting room nearby were ignorant of this.

The Emperor adjusted his mood as he began to question his eldest son: “What happened yesterday? I heard the eunuchs said that you summoned an imperial physician?”

Here, Liu Yi assumed his real identity. He stood with other eunuchs by the wall, bowing his head and daring not to look up. Facing the Emperor’s scrutiny, Cheng Yuanjing answered calmly: “On the way to meet Your Majesty, this son saw someone falling into the water. After rescuing her, my clothes became wet. Having no other choices, this son had to go back to the manor to change clothes. This son didn’t dare to let Your Majesty wait too long, so this son sent a messenger to ask Your Majesty to go back to the palace first.”

“Rescuing?” The Emperor was completely confused, “Who did you rescue? Even if you want to rescue somebody, why did you have to take the risk? What about your eunuchs and guards?”

Hearing this, Cheng Yuanjing’s attendants immediately knelt in fear. The Emperor’s attending eunuchs stood motionlessly, watching the dust scattered on the ground. Cheng Yuanjing didn’t care about his frightened attendants. Instead of continuing this topic, he said: “Your Majesty, this son has a request. Begs you to grant your permission.”

The Emperor suddenly had a strange hunch. It seemed that the perfectly arranged plan began to go off track since Cheng Yuanjing missed the appointment yesterday. The Emperor calmed down and asked: “What request?”

“Please bestow a marriage for this son.” Cheng Yuanjing stood up and gave the Emperor a very formal bow: “Your Majesty, please bestow a marriage between this son and Yichun Marquis Manor’s eldest daughter, named Cheng Yujin.”

 

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  1. Zhanxing Tower: Literally means ‘Star-Picking Tower.’

13 thoughts on “GNU Ch 85 Part 3 – Bestowing Marriage (III)”

  1. I hav a question — Until his real identity is revealed, how to ask the Emperor to bestow a marriage between a “paternal uncle” and his niece??. Is this an indication that he is now strong enough to resume his own identity now??.

    1. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe like a ghost bride? 🤔
      Omg. If it turns out this way, it’s gonna be so funny.
      Thanks for the update!

    2. My idea was to have the emperor announce he was raised in his in-laws family and hint that the entire Cheng family already was aware of his identity. This also helps Yujin as to explain why her previous marriages fell through; she was already spoken for!!

      Wether Cheng family is intelligent enough for this plan to work is another story.

  2. Ga! So excited he straight up asked for the marriage. I’m assuming it’ll happen as soon as he’s reinstated as Crown Prince officially, which has been hinted to be happening very soon😆😆😆

    Thank you for the chapter❤

  3. I am anxious to see whether the Emperor will deny this grace or he will say “OK, make her your side-consort or your concubine”.

  4. I find the Crown prince here as annoying. He can protect her once or twice but can he forever? Even if he was powerful, how can the future Emperor only have one wife? Even his father, the current Emperor can only suppress his grief while marrying the Empress.

    1. I think you missed the core issue. At this stage, her objection is never about polygamy. She lives in the era where polygamy is legal and normal culture, so… living a family without concubines was not her main criterias in choosing husband.
      The fact that Lin family has such a rule was for her only an icing on the cake.
      Her main criteria is that the man must be rich enough, powerful enough to give her strong shelter and protect her, and the man is capable enough to be relied on.
      Lin won over her cousin because Lin is a capable man, so his prospect is better, but if she only wants peace in life..Xu would have been a better choice, because he cares about her, and then she knows that he likes her too as a woman, and his mom loves her too, so that concubines will never be a threat even if they come eventually.
      She never fears of concubines because she is confident enough that she can manage them well.
      What makes her repulsive towards Zhai Yanling was not because he is a widow and have concubines or doesn’t love her enough… No,
      Even if he loves her, she doesn’t care because for her “Love is not worth much”.
      She declines him because he only wants a manager of the house, a step mother who can raise his horrible son well, but he doesn’t offer any rewards for her except money and jewellery now . Her children will get nothing.
      She had to work hard for nothing.
      So why must she endure those hard work for years and jealousy too?
      And now with crown prince, she is only repulsive because she feels that she is out of his league.
      She just can’t believe that she could be his legal wife.
      She can accept concubines because she doesn’t love any man just yet.
      For her is any good man who is rich and powerful is fine, concubine is also fine if it has to be that way, but the main point is that she has to be the legal wife.
      If she later can’t tolerate concubine is only because she grows feeling on the man.
      But this aspect is still out of consideration for her, because she doesn’t believe in love at the moment.

  5. Sakura Natsume

    Um… This move of his is really just him doing the EXACT same thing as Zhai Yanlin…. Except he’s male lead so it’s okay??? Anyway, I’m just a liiitle annoyed but that’s how it goes, ig

  6. No, there is a difference between them, and it is rather much. He knows exactly what she wants in life and he is atleast sure that he will do his utmost to fulfill it. He is sincere towards her and doesn’t want to take advantage of her just for his own benefit and without giving any possibilty to gain a reward that she yearn for.
    No one can predict the future, even if she marries a a commoner with a good initial prospect like Lin compiler, there is never a guarantee that his family could like her and he could protect her too.
    Because again, no one can predict the future, so it is also unfair to predetermine that the crown prince will never be able to fulfill her desire nor protect her.. but he already have a better card by the fact that he is genuinely in love with her and not just pitying her like compiler Lin.
    Up to now he always put her first before him, we should acknowledge this fact too, and he understands her very well. He knows how scheming and fake her perfectionism is, and he knows that she has no trust in love nor have affection towards anyone, but he could accept her just the way she is and will just let the time takes it’s course and will be patient to wait for her to gain trust on love and her insecurity to disappear slowly.
    Zhai yanling on the other hand is completely selfish.
    He even domineeringly only wants to subdue her and force her to work hard for his family’s benefit without offering any reward. He is being evil now after realising her objective but he still insists on getting her without changing the premis at all.
    If he is an upright man and still wants to fight for her because he likes her enough but doesn’T want to put his son at a disadvantage, he could have offered her another terms that is atleast not giving her a bleak future.
    He might still set the “Duke” title for her first son but he could still promise her, black on white with witnesses for example, that he would give her “this much properties”, and that her son could get “this much percents”, that is not too shabby. It’s kind of prenuptial agreement, why not?!
    But No, he knows the reason for her objection towards the marriage but he still forces his will without changing the premise, so he had ZERO goodwill.
    He is offended and wants to make her life miserable.
    Our crown prince is not like that.
    He wants to shelter her and since the very beginning he knows what she wants and is willing to do his utmost to fulfill it.
    He just needs time to prove it to her.

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