Chapter 43: Lu Chen’s “Humiliation”

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

When Qiao Jinniang and Lu Chen came to the lobby, the ceremony had already begun.

The people of the Duke Mansion invited Lu Chen to sit at the seat of honor, but Lu Chen just sat beside Qiao Jinniang. “The Duchess Dowager should take the seat of honor. I’ll just sit here.”

Hearing this, the Duke stood beside Lu Chen. Seeing Qiao Jinniang sit down, he winked at her as a sign for her to get up but Qiao Jinniang didn’t seem to understand what he meant.

His youngest daughter was having her coming-of-age ceremony but he had missed Qiao Jinniang’s coming-of-age ceremony forever. Thinking of this, the Duke felt very guilty, and he no longer asked Qiao Jinniang to get up.

The coming-of-age ceremony for noble girls in Chang’an was very long and tedious.

Watching the ceremony, Qiao Jinniang felt a little drowsy.

But at that moment, Lu Chen suddenly thought of Qiao Jinniang’s coming-of-age ceremony.

Qiao Jinniang was almost sixteen that year.

Because her foster parents were seriously ill at that time, her coming-of-age ceremony had been delayed.

Rescued from the river, Lu Chen had amnesia.

Seeing that Qiao Jinniang’s foster parents were dying, their relatives wanted to seize Myriad Taste and came to make trouble day and night. Qiao Jinniang’s foster father was worried about Qiao Jinniang and wanted him to marry into their family. At first, Lu Chen was reluctant.

Although he was homeless and had lost his memory, he didn’t think a decent man would marry into his wife’s own family.

Plus, Qiao Jinniang was really hot-tempered.

When he lived in the backyard of Myriad Taste, he often saw Qiao Jinniang holding a rolling pin or a broom to drive those greedy relatives away.

The Qiao Family wanted Qiao Jinniang’s foster father to adopt a son from the clan, but he adamantly refused. However, those people didn’t give up and forcibly kept that young man in the Qiao Family.

That guy lived at his opposite door and went to provoke Qiao Jinniang every day, claiming that Qiao Jinniang couldn’t inherit the Myriad Taste as a woman, so the restaurant would be his sooner or later, and that her parents would die soon, so even if Qiao Jinniang didn’t give Myriad Taste to him, it would be his as soon as her parents died.

He would be swearing at Qiao Jinniang terribly every day.

And in response, Qiao Jinniang led the maids and servants in the Myriad Taste to beat that guy up.

Then she simply threw him out.

Although Lu Chen didn’t remember the past, he vaguely felt that he had never seen such a grumpy woman before.

Although she was beautiful, he didn’t think he could stand her hot temper.

Thus, he decided to reject her father.

He would repay his life-saving grace in other ways.

But then he heard her crying next door.

She had already battered that guy and threw him out. Why was she still crying?

Her crying sound was really annoying, so Lu Chen went next door.

Then he saw the petite Jinniang squatting in the corner, her face full of tears, looking at him with her tearful doe-like eyes.

At that time, he thought maybe he should just marry her. Although it would be a shame for a man to marry into his wife’s family, at least she wouldn’t cry so pitifully if he married her.

After all, she saved his life.

As soon as he agreed to her father’s request, her father immediately hired a matchmaker, and in five days, they got married. This haste was because her parents were afraid that they could not last long, and if they died before Qiao Jinniang was married, her marriage would be up to those relatives.

Before they were going to be married, Lu Chen heard that she was going to have her coming-of-age ceremony, so he wanted to give her a hairpin as a gift.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a single penny left on him. even the clothes he wore were bought by the Qiao Family. The only thing he had was a piece of jade pendant hanging on his neck.

This jade pendant’s quality was not too good but it was enough to be traded for a silver hairpin.

Thus, he traded the jade pendant for a silver hairpin and gave it to Jinniang.

Ever since then Jinniang had always been wearing that silver hairpin, and he really fancied the scene when her black hair fell like a waterfall when he took off the silver hairpin for her in bed.

Lu Chen looked at Jinniang’s hair bun. He hadn’t seen her wear that silver hairpin ever since he returned to Chang’an.

Noticing that Lu Chen was staring at her, Qiao Jinniang frowned. Why is this jerk looking at me like that?

Second Madam and the Duchess respectively put on a hairpin for Qiao Ruofeng and Qiao Ruoyi, which symbolized that the two were no longer children but women who could get married.

Qiao Ruofeng’s eyes have been following Prince Mediocre, who had been on the cusp of her heart for more than a year.

She had already had her coming-of-age ceremony and could become his wife now…

After the ceremony, there was a banquet.

At the banquet, most of the guests were fawning on Qiao Ruoyi.

Li Lingling from the Earl Cheng’en Mansion walked up to Qiao Jinniang and said, “Miss Qiao, I have heard of your illustrious name for a long time, and I’m honored to see you in person today.

“But it is a pity that you can only marry a young scholar whose future is uncertain, while your sister Ruoyi, although her mother was a concubine, can marry the Crown Prince…”

Qiao Jinniang could certainly tell that Li Lingling was soliciting discord, so she chuckled. “Oh? Which young scholar am I going to marry? Why don’t I know it myself?”

Li Lingling was really well-informed. She had only gone on a blind date with Li Yun once and they weren’t even engaged yet, but she had already known it.

Li Lingling’s informant must be in the Duke Mansion.

Li Lingling smiled awkwardly.

She thought to herself, ‘Although Qiao Jinniang came from the countryside, she is not stupid, at least much smarter than Qiao Ruoshui!’

Unfortunately, if she had known that His Royal Highness was interested in Qiao Ruoyi earlier, she shouldn’t have wasted her good chess piece, Qiao Ruoshui.

She must think of a way to stop Qiao Ruoyi from marrying into the East Palace.

Qiao Jinniang was sure that Li Lingling was up to no good.

Before the banquet was over, Nuomi held a wooden box to Qiao Jinniang with difficulty. “Miss, this is from Princess Fu’an from the Duke Rong Mansion.”

Hongling came up to pick up the wooden box. However, she underestimated the weight of the wooden box. So as soon as she took it, it dropped on the bluestone slab, causing all the glistening gold jewelry inside to fall to the ground.

Hongling was so frightened that she got on her knees. “Miss, forgive me.”

Qiao Jinniang hurriedly asked Hongling to get up. “It’s okay.”

Nuomi and Hongling picked up the gold jewelry on the ground piece by piece. This box was so heavy because there were about twenty catties of gold bars underneath.

There were about twenty small gold bars stacked in the wooden box.

There were also a pair of golden dragon and phoenix bracelets, a nine-tailed golden phoenix hairpin, golden earrings, and several small golden combs.

Hearing the noise here, everyone at the banquet looked over.

Fulu leaned over, holding the nine-tailed phoenix hairpin, and said, “Isn’t this the nine-tailed phoenix hairpin was just made by the imperial goldsmiths in the Imperial Palace? How could it be gifted to you by Fu’an?”

“My imperial uncle said that I was his favorite niece. Now it seems that he likes Fu’an more than me, humph!”

Qiao Jinniang had not even met Princess Fu’an. How could she possibly give her such an expensive gift?

It must be the jerk who gifted this to her in the name of Princess Fu’an.

Just now he said that gold was tacky. Then was he humiliating her by giving her so much tacky gold?

However, if this was considered him humiliating her, Qiao Jinniang didn’t mind him humiliating her more.

After all, there were more than 300 taels of gold here, equivalent to more than 30,000 taels of silver.

Tacky as it was, she loved it!

It was the first time that Li Yun’s mother, Mrs. Li had seen so much gold and her heart was pounding. She still couldn’t accept the fact that Qiao Jinniang had once married and even had a child.

If Li Yun got first place in the Imperial Examination, it might not be impossible for him to marry a noble girl in Chang’an, but her mother-in-law thought Qiao Jinniang was suitable for Li Yun, so she could only agree.

But today, she found that Qiao Jinniang knew the two princesses well. Moreover, Princess Fu’an even gave her so much gold for no reason.

Mrs.. Li thought that she should have her son and Qiao Jinniang be engaged as soon as possible in case the Duke Mansion backed out.