Chapter 386 – First Lady Of Duke Qi’S Mansion
Chapter 386 First Lady of Duke Qi’s Mansion
As Qu Moying and Prefectural Princess Xiangrong were talking, a young lady suddenly came to Qu Moying and asked, “Fourth Lady Qu, I saw that you brought your qin set. I wonder if I can listen to you play a tune?”
Although Qu Moying was talking to Prefectural Princess Xiangrong, she had been paying attention to Liu Jingyu. She saw Liu Jingyu talk to a maid behind her, and the maid walked behind this young lady.
Qu Moying silently curved her lips. She was not surprised. Many ladies didn’t expect her appearance today, and once they were instigated, there would definitely be someone challenging her. Qu Moying knew that there would be ladies challenging her even if Liu Jingyu didn’t do anything. But the fact that Liu Jingyu made a move meant that she panicked.
Qu Moying stood up with a smile. “I can’t play well. Can you play a tune first?”
Since the young lady dared to challenge Qu Moying, she was naturally very good at playing the qin. The gathering was held for ladies to show their talents, so the young lady would not flinch. “Okay!”
A maid brought over a qin. The young lady sat down nearby, and the maid placed the qin for her.
The young lady slowly began to play the qin. She indeed played the qin well. Even Qu Moying had to admit that this young lady was a superb qin player.
Everyone stopped talking and quietly listened to the young lady playing the qin. After she finished playing, everyone applauded.
The young lady looked at Qu Moying complacently and made a gesture of invitation. “Fourth Lady Qu, it’s your turn!”
Qu Moying also walked to one side with a smile. Yu Chun had already set up the qin for her. After the qin cover was removed, the qin case was revealed. Seeing Qu Moying’s qin case, one of the ladies frowned and involuntarily leaned forward, trying to see the qin case clearly.
This young lady’s reaction was not weird. Several young ladies wanted to see Qu Moying’s qin clearly. They heard that Qu Mansion wasn’t very wealthy or powerful, so they wondered what kind of qin Qu Moying brought.
However, before they could see the qin case clearly, the qin in the qin case had already been taken out. Moreover, when most of them saw the qin case, they couldn’t recognize what the qin was, so they didn’t pay further attention to it.
But the lady who first paid attention to the qin case looked at the qin case that Yu Chun had placed behind her in shock. Although she only got a glimpse of the qin case just now, she saw it more clearly than others because she had been paying attention to it. She found the qin case really familiar, and she thought she had seen it in a picture in the past.
She gripped the handkerchief tightly and looked at Qu Moying with confusion. “If it really is that qin, why does it appear in the hands of Qu Moying?”
“I heard that that qin has disappeared!”
“It has disappeared for many years. Why is it owned by someone from Qu Mansion now? I remember that there was no Qu Mansion in the capital city when that qin disappeared.”
Melodious qin music came out. Qu Moying played an extremely ordinary tune, and many of the young ladies present could play it, but they knew it was hard to play it perfectly.
When Qu Moying was still Ji Hanyue, she played this tune, which amazed many people. After that, all the young ladies in the capital knew that in terms of playing the qin, this future Crown Princess at that time was second to none.
However, no one had expected that Qu Moying, Ji Hanyue’s cousin sister, could play the qin so well. She played so well that she reminded others of the ex-Crown Princess. The young ladies present knew that Qu Moying was the ex-Crown Princess’ cousin sister because Princess Ji mentioned it in front of them, which reminded them of the relationship between Ji Hanyue and Qu Moying.
Because of the relationship between Ji Hanyue and Qu Moying, the ladies didn’t overthink the similarity between Qu Moying’s music and Ji Hanyue’s music.
They thought that perhaps Ji Hanyue taught Qu Moying how to play the qin.
However, they heard that Qu Moying had a serious eye disease and couldn’t even see things clearly, but now she could play a tune so expertly, which was really surprising. Excellent playing skills required frequent practice. Although Qu Moying was abandoned in the village at a young age, she turned out to have good breeding.
Many young ladies looked at each other. They were really amazed. It seemed that the rumors were really misleading.
Since Qu Moying had brought a qin over, she certainly knew how to play the qin. But even if she could play the qin, she might not be able to play it well. However, after listening to her playing the qin, some ladies who originally wanted to find fault with her quieted down.
They were not qualified to find faults with Qu Moying because very few people could play the qin better than her.
Liu Jingyu’s face darkened. She did not expect this result. She failed to embarrass Qu Moying but even offer her a chance to gain a reputation. After this, nobody would say that Qu Moying was not talented.
After Qu Moying finished playing a tune, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong applauded first. Liu Jingyu reacted quickly and applauded with a smile. Then, many young ladies applauded together with them.
Even Prefectural Princess Xiangrong and County Lady Jingyu applauded with appreciation, so how could the other ladies think that Qu Moying didn’t play well?
Since two ladies had played the qin, many other ladies began to play the qin as well.
The atmosphere suddenly became lively.
Later, some ladies showed their paintings in twos and threes, and some ladies sat together to discuss poetry and calligraphy, leaving the previous accident to the back of their minds.
Seeing that it was about time, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong asked the servants to get the banquet ready. The banquet place was downstairs and very close.
The ladies packed up their things, asked their maids to take them, and went downstairs with Prefectural Princess Xiangrong.
The windows downstairs were all opened. The wind blew, and the ladies were even more excited. Prefectural Princess Xiangrong asked the maids to bring some fruit wine, which was said to be the sweetest but didn’t taste like wine, so that people wouldn’t get drunk even if they drank it.
The maids poured the fruit wine for their ladies one by one and then passed the wine pot to the next maid.
Qu Moying was pulled by Prefectural Princess Xiangrong by the hand as they were seated. Everyone could see that Prefectural Princess Xiangrong was very kind to Qu Moying now. Therefore, everyone looked up to Qu Moying. The key was that Qu Moying was not untalented. A few young ladies had discussed poems with Qu Moying just now and felt that she was quite talented.
Qu Moying casually made a few poems just now, and one of the young ladies kept her poems in mind and kept praising her.
Yu Dong took the wine pot from the maid in Grand Princess Changyu’s mansion and looked at Qu Moying, but he did not pour it for her.
Prefectural Princess Xiangrong noticed Yu Dong’s abnormality and asked with a smile, “Fourth Lady Qu, don’t you like drinking?”
Qu Moying replied softly, “I have an eye disease, so I had better not drink.”
Yu Dong passed the wine pot in his hand to the next maid.
Prefectural Princess Xiangrong didn’t mind Qu Moying’s refusal. Instead, she was curious about Qu Moying’s eyes. She looked up at Qu Moying. She thought that Qu Moying should be quite good-looking. “Haven’t your eyes recovered yet? I heard that you recovered a long time ago, but you are just recuperating.”
Even though the long eye veil covered Qu Moying’s eyes, she still felt that Qu Moying’s appearance was outstanding. Looking at Qu Moying at such a close distance, she felt that Qu Moying was definitely not a plain-looking person as the rumor said!
She thought that Young Master Yongning was quite blind!
Qu Moying explained, “I still need to recuperate for a period of time because it is good for my eyes, especially now that the sunlight outside is still so strong.”
Although it was almost autumn, the sunlight outside was still very strong. Ordinary people would feel uncomfortable when facing such strong sunlight, let alone Qu Moying who had an eye disease.
Fourth Lady He suddenly said, “Fourth Lady Qu, I heard that you were neither beautiful nor talented before, but now I know that the rumors are all false. I wonder what you look like. It’s rare to have such a chance today. Why don’t you remove the eye veil and let us see your face?”
Her words didn’t sound malicious, but her sarcastic look showed that she was provoking Qu Moying again.
The matter between Qu Mansion and He Mansion was known to almost everyone in the capital, so the ladies knew the reason why Fourth Lady He was picking on Qu Moying.
“Yes, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong and County Lady Jingyu are both here. Fourth Lady Qu, why don’t you let us see your face?”
“We are in the room. It will be fine even if you take off your eye veil.”
“Fourth Lady Qu, you normally take off the eye veil in your own room, right?” A few young ladies sitting next to Fourth Lady He echoed.
This time, even Prefectural Princess Xiangrong became curious.
Prefectural Princess Xiangrong looked at the open windows on both sides and smiled. “Fourth Lady Qu, if you mind, I will ask someone to close the windows.”
Qu Moying said apologetically, “Prefectural Princess, you must be joking. It is not that I can’t remove it, but I am still having ointment on my eyes. It is not convenient to directly remove the eye veil now.”
Prefectural Princess Xiangrong said in surprise, “You are still applying ointment? I thought you had recovered, and you put on the eye veil just to protect your eyes from the strong light.”
Qu Moying shook her head gently and answered softly, “I am still applying ointment. My eyes are not completely cured for the time being. I am sorry.”
“Since that’s the case, then forget it!” Prefectural Princess Xiangrong waved her hand casually, causing the group of young ladies who still wanted to speak to shut their mouths.
Even Fourth Lady He, the one who initiated the matter, could not say anything. Since Prefectural Princess Xiangrong had already said “forget it”, how could they continue to let Qu Moying take off the eye veil?
Then, someone changed the topic and no longer paid attention to Qu Moying. Everyone chatted and laughed. They were very comfortable because there were no elders around, and with fruit wine adding to the fun, they became more and more excited.
“Fourth Lady Qu, can I ask you something?” A lady sitting next to Qu Moying asked. Only then did Qu Moying find that this lady was actually the first lady of Duke Qi’s Mansion, Qi Xiangyu. She hadn’t noticed Qi Xiangyu just now and didn’t know when Qi Xiangyu had sat next to her. She remembered that the one sitting next to her just now was not Qi Xiangyu.
“Miss Qi, please ask!” Qu Moying said with a smile. She put down the chopsticks in her hand and gently wiped her mouth with a handkerchief.
Qi Xiangyu asked with a kind smile, “Fourth Lady Qu, can you tell me whether your qin was left by your mother or bought in a shop?”
Qu Moying blinked and answered honestly, “It was left by my mother.”
Qi Xiangyu asked in surprise, “Your mother left it? Did she bring it over from the South?”
“It should be. I am not too sure. This was originally something from my mother’s dowry.” Qu Moying smiled and said calmly. Her eyes fell on Qi Xiangyu.
Although Qi Xiangyu was Duke Qi’s Mansion’s lady, she couldn’t compare with Liu Jingyu in Duke Qi’s eyes. How partial was Duke Qi? He treated Liu Jingyu, who was born by his daughter, so well but treated Qi Xiangyu, who was born by his son, just as if she didn’t matter a farthing. Was it because Qi Xiangyu’s father was just a concubine-born son?
Qu Moying wondered what Qi Xiangyu wanted to get from her. Was it like what she had guessed?
