CHAPTER 17 PART 2 : PRIDE
At breakfast, the old Furen was happy as usual, sitting on the side of Shen Wen, always giving her food and telling her to eat more, while Yang Shi's face showed concern from time to time. Shen Yi was stern-faced and silent, Shen Jian was smiling, and Shen Zhuo looked distracted. Perhaps a little excited, Shen Xiang's face was rosy and she did not eat much.
After the meal, Yang Shi gave a few more instructions, her voice was a little hoarse, as if she had no strength. Shen Wen closed her eyes, and saw Yang's stagnation of liver qi through senses, probably due to excessive anxiety these days. Taking the excuse of saying goodbye, she ran up and shrank into Yang Shi's arms, giving her a rubdown and secretly using her consciousness power to comb her meridians past the middle jiao before smiling and walking away with Shen Xiang.
Yang Shi let out a long breath, feeling greatly refreshed, and could not help but smile as she said to the old Furen, "I am much more comfortable with Wen'er making such a mess."
The old Furen also smiled and said, "Wen'er is a sweet child, gentle and understanding, I wonder who will be blessed with such a fortune in the future."
Yang Shi's mood that had just recovered dimmed again, and she said in a low voice: "Her birthday is a month away, so there must be nothing to do this time. What if the person who came said something, wouldn't it be more embarrassing?”
The old Furen sighed, "Make her some good clothes and some good jewellery, and tell her that when she grows up a bit, we will celebrate her birthday properly."
Yang Shi nodded her head and immediately sent someone out to look for samples of fashionable jewellery.
The carriage of the Fifth Princess arrived mid-afternoon. The Third Prince accompanied the Fifth Princess and dismounted from the carriage in the front courtyard, where Yang Shi greeted them, and after both parties had saluted, the caravan of the Marquis of Pingyuan also arrived just outside the gate.
On this side, Yang Shi had just finished her etiquette and left, leaving the children to speak with the Fifth Princess and the Third Prince. Over there, Zhang Yunming, the eldest son of the Marquis of Pingyuan, also accompanied both Zhang Yunjin and Second Miss Zhang, who had been here before.
Zhang Yunming saw the Third Prince and the Fifth Princess from afar and wanted to wait elsewhere first, so as to avoid them, but Shen Zhuo had already seen them and waved at them one after another.
Zhang Yunming had to walk over with the two girls and was seeing the Fifth Princess giving Shen Xiang a short sword with jewellery on the outside and taking a huge pearl adorned under a gold thread braid and handing it to Shen Wen. Shen Wen shook her head and turned her face to look at Shen Xiang.
Shen Xiang frowned, "Such a large pearl is too precious to give to her."
The Fifth Princess smiled and said, "This is the third time I've seen my sister, the beads need to be bigger than before before I can give them away."
The Third Prince said to Shen Yi, "Quickly let your sister take it, it doesn't look good to hold it up like that."
Shen Yi had to nod his head to Shen Wen. Shen Wen took it, gave a curtsey and said with smiling eyes, "Many thanks to the Fifth Princess."
Shen Xiang smiled at Shen Wen and said, "You should not follow me over to see the Fifth Princess next time."
The Fifth Princess also hid her smile, "Don't be afraid, if I don't have any bigger beads left, I will give you two more small ones."
Shen Wen laughed so hard that her eyes were almost closed, nodding her head repeatedly.
Shen Xiang pulled her, "Don't be so obvious!"
When Zhang Yunming and the others arrived at the side, they bowed one by one and then Zhang Yunjin gave Shen Xiang a gold-handled whip and Miss Zhang the second gave a beautifully embroidered purse.
The Third Prince smiled and said to Zhang Yunming, "Congratulations on winning the Xiu Cai, I heard that you are going to take the countryside exams this year?"
Zhang Yunming replied, "Just to practise, my father said my Xiu Cai was blindfolded and I had to take another exam to show him."
Everyone laughed.
The Third Prince said to Shen Yi, "It's so hard to see you guys, let's go to the martial arts training ground and practise a few strokes. It's really hard to be in the palace without someone to practise with."
The Fifth Princess smiled and chided, "I thought you were here to accompany me, but it turns out that you took the opportunity to come and practice with the Shen brothers, and didn't ask if they wanted to play with you." The tone of her voice was a twist, seemingly angry and not angry.
Shen Wen felt that the Fifth Princess's imitation of Chen Guifei was gradually gaining its true meaning and becoming more and more natural.
The Third Prince was busy saying, "Rather, I am being abrupt, may I ask if you have time today?"
Having said that, Shen Yi couldn't shirk anymore, so he could only say: "It's hot, just wait to sweat."
The Third Prince said indifferently, "That's nothing, I have a change of clothes." He turned his face to Zhang Yunming and said, "You're coming too?"
Zhang Yunming shook his head and said, "No, no, my hands are so sore from writing that I feel tired of shaking the fan now."
Everyone laughed again, Shen Zhuo hurriedly said: "Then I just happened to play chess with you!" Pulling Zhang Yunming, he went to Zangshu Pavilion.
Shen Xiang led the Fifth Princess and the Zhang sisters towards the lakefront. Over there the piping music was melodious, and there were a few girls from the families of medium-sized military Generals who usually had some relationship with the Houfu. Except for the Fifth Princess and the Zhang family sisters, there was no daughter of a prominent noble family.
The Fifth Princess did not show any dissatisfaction. After the greeting, she talked and laughed a few times with the girls who came to her. With Shen Xiang sitting beside her, she was even laughing and chatting like she was having a good time.
The Second Miss of the Zhang family sat not far from the fifth princess, and sometimes leaned over to make up a few words, but Zhang Yunjin who was beside Shen Wen just smiled and didn't speak much.
Shen Wen came to her ear and asked quietly, "How is your eldest sister doing? It's summer now, is 'she' better?"
Sitting upright, Zhang Yunjin only turned his face slightly and whispered: "Listening to what my parents said, it's still not good. Usually I can't get out of the yard."
Shen Wen nodded, and asked in a low voice: "What does she like to eat? Will you take some away later?"
Zhang Yunjin finally smiled: "You know how to eat, why do you always say you want to give her something to eat every time you come?"
Shen Wen stared at Zhang Yunjin, "Could there be something better than food?"
Zhang Yunjin stifled her laughter as Shen Wen added, "I really don't understand how someone could dislike food."
Zhang Yunjin asked in a low voice: "Who doesn't like to eat?"
Shen Wen naively said, "My third brother. These days he has been playing chess, the moment he gets up, he doesn't eat. Several times, when my mother sent someone to call him for dinner, he said he had something to do. He wouldn't eat even when I asked someone to bring it to him. My mother then said he was enchanted, and hadn't eaten his lunch properly, and had been starving all day, and said he wasn't hungry."
Zhang Yunjin pursued in silence, Shen Wen added: "He bought a lot of chess books and said that he will definitely beat your brother. Why does he have a problem with your brother? I think your brother is a good person."
Zhang Yunjin's face slightly reddened and whispered, "You can't talk about others so casually, it is punishable by a spanking in my house!"
Shen Wen made a scared face: "Really? My mother never beats me, and if she does, she beats my third brother. He has hard hands, and my mother says it's okay to hit him twice. If your mother wants to beat me, can you let her beat my third brother?"
