CH 70

Villainous Prince (12)

As winter turned to spring and time flew by, the day arrived for Song Xu Yi’s return journey when the temperature rose a little, the shoots under the Wang family’s courtyard walls sprouted new green and the wild flowers outside the city began to bloom.

With red eyes, Wang Mian prepared a wagon full of luggage and planned to send Song Xu Yi to Yunzhou in person.

No one expected the roads to be crowded with people when Song Xu Yi set off on her journey.

“Princess Xu Yi has a safe journey, wishing Your Highness a long life and all the best!”

“Thank you Princess for your great kindness my family will finally be able to have a full meal during the New Year——”

“Thanks to the Princess, this year my family has a surplus of food and my daughter can now wear new clothes…”

……

The people knew that the princess did not lack anything, and did not know how to make long speeches, so they only used the most simple actions and words to express their gratitude to Song Xu Yi.

Countless flowers were thrown by the people from both sides of the road and fell on Song Xu Yi’s carriage, like a rain of colourful flowers.

Originally, Song Xu Yi had only done those things to be worthy of her status as a princess, but she had never expected the people to think of her in such a way, and as she listened to the sincere voices of gratitude around her, Song Xu Yi hung her head a little shyly, but her heart was filled with a strong sense of pride and satisfaction: there is nothing happier in the world than to be truly appreciated for what you have done…

Wang Mian, who was sitting on his horse, was also in a trance as he watched the scene: it was the first time he had ever seen such a spontaneous crowd of people at the age of his life.

He had once been a government official and a subordinate to the Emperor, and now he was in command of the central provinces, and he had been greeted by smiling faces wherever he went…

The establishment of the family clans dates back a hundred years to the time when the Emperor introduced the principle of imperial control and local autonomy in order to provide a better life for the people. To this day, every family has a plaque in their home saying “love the people”. When did the families start to claim to be above the people, who lost their land and became slaves?

Has the world gone bad or has the heart gone bad?

While listening to the people’s gratitude, Wang Mian felt that he had been slapped in the face: he had sensed something, but even though he was the head of the largest clan, he did not dare to reach it easily…

The overwhelming crowd was like a river, gathering at the back of the carriage to send Song Xu Yi off with joy, with new people constantly pouring in.

People called out Song Xu Yi’s name, as if even the birds were infected by the enthusiasm of the people, as countless magpies gathered around Song Xu Yi’s carriage…

Not only in the city of Zhongzhou, but also in the mountain villages and districts of Zhongzhou and Yunzhou, when they heard that Princess Xu Yi, who had “discovered new food and improved farming tools”, had arrived, the people welcomed her, expressing their gratitude and blessings…

The people were all on their own, expressing their gratitude and blessings, and with the wishes of the people, Song Xu Yi boarded the ship for the journey back to Lidu.

The system looked at the dockside and saw the dense crowd of people shouting “Hail to the princess,” and its tone took on a touch of emotion: “I have a feeling that if you continue, you will change this era.”

The system had never followed other taskers and did not know what other taskers were like when they were doing their tasks, but it knew that a tasker like Song Xu Yi was extremely valuable, she had her own principles and goals, would not change her principles for the sake of the task, and always had the heart of a pure child.

“You must have been a very good person in your original world as well.” The system continued to express its emotions.

However, Song Xu Yi’s gaze dimmed and shook her head, “Not necessarily.”

The system did not understand Song Xu Yi’s words at first, not knowing whether Song Xu Yi was denying that she could not necessarily change this era, or denying that she was a good person in her original world, it was only after the group returned to Lidu and Song Xu Yi had reached the Emperor that the system understood what Song Xu Yi was talking about.

The Emperor could not have been unaware of what she had done in Zhongzhou, and even without these merits, the Emperor should have expressed his longing for his daughter, who had returned from her grandfather’s home after more than a year’s absence, but the Emperor looked at Song Xu Yi with indifference. He scolded her for showing her face at such a young age and gave Song Xu Yi a confinement order, ordering her to stay in the palace with Empress Wang.

The Empress was angry that Song Xu Yi was being treated coldly and had a big fight with the Emperor, who then rewarded her with a bunch of things but never visited her again.

“Men are so averse to new things,” Empress Wang had been so well protected by Wang Mian that she was somehow almost naive. She hadn’t understood the reason for the Emperor’s change in attitude until now, and thought it was all because he had someone new and neglected the old, indignantly tugging at her handkerchief, “Xu Guifei also gave birth to a daughter, and your father has been staying at Xu Guifei’s place all this time…”

Xu Guifei is the daughter of the Xu family, the second largest clan after the Wang family.

In the past, the Xu family could barely compete with the Wang family, but in the year or so that Song Xu Yi has been in Zhongzhou, the Wang family has risen to attract countless talents to join them, and now the Xu family has fallen far behind the Wang family.

But even if Song Xu Yi was given the choice again, Song Xu Yi would still choose to do something for the people in Zhongzhou.

“After all, mother is the Empress, and there is no need for mother to be bothered with them. I have not seen you for so long, I miss you so much…” Song Xu Yi took the hand of Empress Wang and did not intend to tell her the truth, but with a few words she made her smile.

Since then, Song Xu Yi has been living in the palace of Empress Wang.

With Empress Wang’s protection, Song Xu Yi’s time in the harem was extremely quiet and peaceful, but unlike the tranquility of the harem, the situation in the former court was turbulent.

When the newly-appointed Crown Prince of the Wu Empire was suddenly bitten by a poisonous snake and seemed to be in critical condition, there were voices in the court asking the Emperor to take advantage of the opportunity to attack the Wu Empire, but the Emperor kept his mouth shut.

About six months after Song Xu Yi’s return, the news of her forcible robbery of Prince Nie of the Wu Empire was once again released by someone unknown to her, and now that a new prince had been crowned in the Wu Empire, people naturally felt some pity for Prince Nie, who had lost his crown prince position and had been forcibly taken over by the unruly princess.

Empress Wang was furious when she heard the rumours and privately investigated the source of the rumours, but somehow nothing could be found. Naturally, Empress Wang did not blame her daughter, so she blamed Prince Nie, the scourge, for turning her daughter into this!

After Song Xu Yi returned to the palace, Empress Wang was extremely happy at first, even though she had heard some rumours about Song Xu Yi, but she always thought that this was false news deliberately spread by her father, Wang Mian, in order to give her daughter a good name, but it was not until some time later that Empress Wang realised with hindsight that her daughter’s temper had changed dramatically.

Her daughter’s temper was much better than before, she no longer punished those who served her for no reason, and she treated everyone with a smile; she no longer hated reading, and she even created a small room next to her bedchamber, where she wrote and drew all year round…

It is a good thing that her daughter’s temperament has changed, but with such a sudden change, Empress Wang still has some suspicions that her daughter may have been aggrieved when she was not aware of it, and that is why she has undergone such a drastic change.

The maids attributed everything to “the princess’s change for love” and told of Song Xu Yi’s “abandonment of the pretty boy for love” and her “vow to wait for Nie Qian Yu’s return from her studies”, among other things. ” and that Song Xu Yi often sent people to the Bai Qiao Academy to deliver things to him, making her increasingly convinced that Song Xu Yi was under that man’s spell…

If that man was still the Crown Prince of Wu, Empress Wang felt that he was barely worthy of her daughter, however that man was now just a ruined Crown Prince, not worthy of her daughter’s devotion at all!

Even though the Emperor’s prohibition prevented Song Xu Yi from leaving the palace, the Empress had her own way of doing things. She had her eye on some of the youths, and since they were unable to enter the palace, she asked the families of the youths to enter the palace on the pretext that she wanted to find some schoolmates for the Princess.

On the one hand, Song Xu Yi could play with others of her own age, and on the other hand, she could learn about the youths from the mouths of these noble girls.

However, Empress Wang’s calculations missed the rejection of Song Xu Yi by the noble girls of Lidu, and Song Xu Yi’s bad reputation spread throughout the city, with the noble girls smearing their brothers or sisters in front of Song Xu Yi, making up flaws if they didn’t have any, fearing that Song Xu Yi would take a liking to their own relatives.

Among the noble daughters who entered the palace was Liu Rumeng, the heroine of this world.

Liu Rumeng comes from the Liu family, which was originally a big family like the Wang family, but has gradually declined over the past hundred years, fortunately Liu Rumeng’s brother is quite talented and has hopes of reviving the Liu family, so naturally the Liu family does not want Liu Rumeng’s brother to marry the unruly princess, so they instruct Liu Rumeng to smear her brother in front of Song Xu Yi.

Now Liu Rumeng is also involved with the main character, Song He, as in the original plot. Without Nie Qian Yu, Liu Rumeng is now attracted to him, and being in the same palace, the two of them go out quietly from time to time, but one day they are caught by Song Xu Yi and her maids while taking a walk.

Song He looks at Song Xu Yi with a wary eye, while Liu Rumeng is on the verge of tears…

Knowing how this would affect Liu Rumeng’s reputation, Song Xu Yi ordered the maids to keep quiet and cover up the matter quietly.

As a result, Liu Rumeng was very grateful to Song Xu Yi and gave her the family’s ancestral white jade hairpin as a gift.

Song Xu Yi thought that this white jade hairpin was extremely beautiful and seemed to be a pair with the black jade hairpin she had once given to Nie Qian Yu, so she also gave this hairpin to Nie Qian Yu when she gave her clothes and tonic…

Soon, two years passed in a flash…

But then Nie Qian Yu broke her promise.

In the year of Song Xu Yi’s maturity, Nie Qian Yu did not return to Lidu. No one knew where she had gone. According to the boys who followed her, Nie Qian Yu met some people after descending from Bai Qiao Academy and then suddenly lost track of her…