The flower-viewing banquet was held in a pavilion by the lake. With flowers in sight and the water nearby, a gentle breeze blew.
Li Wanming didn't want to go, but the palace messenger told her that the princess had already had a table prepared for her.
If she declined again, it would seem ungrateful.
She had no choice but to follow the crowd.
As she was walking slowly, Guo Xinyue came up to her and asked with a smile, "Wanming, do you know who the green-clad girl who spoke up for you just now is?"
Li Wanming was stunned. She had no idea what Guo Xinyue was up to.
Seeing this, Guo Xinyue instead leaned closer and took her arm more affectionately.
"She's Fang Zhi, the youngest daughter of the Chief Secretary."
"The one who asked you to play the zither just now is Lü Songyuan, the daughter of Grand Tutor Lü."
"In the court, Prime Minister Fang and Grand Tutor Lü have always had different political views, so the two families don't get along well."
"Fang Zhi and Lü Songyuan are openly at odds and always try to outdo each other. They were always competing when they were at Zangshan Academy."
"So when Fang Zhi saw Lü Songyuan targeting you just now, she stood up for you."
Only then did Li Wanming understand that she had been used as a target in the feud between the two.
However, what puzzled her more now was why Guo Xinyue was telling her all this.
Weren't they openly at odds?
If Guo Xinyue hadn't held back that day, she would have beaten her up too!
...
Some time ago, when Li Wanming went back to the Li family to get something, she learned that He Shi and Sun Miaoqing had become guests of honor at her grandmother's again.
She heard that He Shi had cried and wailed in front of her grandmother, rolling and crawling while hugging her grandmother's legs for a long time, saying that she had been blinded by greed and only now realized that only her elder sister was truly good to her.
Sun Miaoqing had also added fuel to the fire, tearfully shifting all the blame for what happened at the birthday banquet onto Li Wanming.
She said that it was all Li Wanming's instigation that had made her act inappropriately at the birthday banquet.
Li Wanming had long guessed that He Shi wouldn't give up so easily.
She just didn't expect her grandmother to be so gullible. She had actually forgiven them and even called her own granddaughter over for a scolding!
Li Wanming was so angry that she had a big argument with them. Even after she returned to Pingkangfang, she was still fuming.
"I really don't understand! The greed of those two is written all over their faces. Why does grandmother still treat them as close relatives?"
Xiao Jingnan was silent for a moment. Rarely, he didn't take her side. Instead, he said, "Maybe grandmother is just lonely."
"Lonely? What does she have to be lonely about?"
Li Wanming said angrily, "If she hadn't been so unreasonable, father and mother wouldn't have had to live in the military camp all year round! And elder sister and second elder sister wouldn't have married into those families and we wouldn't be able to see each other all year!"
Xiao Jingnan tried to comfort her, "But she only has your father as her son. Your father has been serving in the army in Min for twenty years. Have you ever thought about how she spent those twenty years?"
Li Wanming's anger immediately subsided. She mumbled, "Father said that it was because he wanted to join the army but grandmother didn't agree, so he left without saying goodbye..."
"No matter how many reasons there are, they can't relieve a mother's loneliness."
Xiao Jingnan looked up at her, "After your aunt got married far away, there was only grandmother left in the Li family. If it weren't for the frequent visits from her sisters from her natal family, how would she have passed the long years?"
Li Wanming fell silent.
Xiao Jingnan said, "So you see, it's not that hard to understand why grandmother can't do without your great-aunt, right?"
After all, both grandmother and He Shi were Li Wanming's relatives. He didn't want to see her having a big fight with them.
Li Wanming still wasn't convinced, "Are we just going to watch her ruin the Li family?"
Xiao Jingnan laughed, "How is she ruining the Li family?"
"She tried to cancel our engagement but failed. She tried to adopt Sun Bingwen but also failed."
"Think carefully. Over the years, apart from swindling some money from grandmother, what else has she accomplished?"
Li Wanming opened her mouth but felt that what he said seemed to be right.
The two of He Shi and Sun Miaoqing together didn't seem to have a complete brain.
"But..."
Xiao Jingnan sighed softly, "Even if you don't trust me, you should trust your own parents. They are military generals who fought their way out of the mountains in Min. They're not as muddle-headed as you think."
"With them watching over the Li family, it won't fall into chaos."
That's right...
Even if she didn't trust her muddle-headed father, she should trust her shrewd and capable mother.
If she could pacify the seventy-two mountain strongholds in Min, dealing with a mere He Shi would be a piece of cake.
So the matter of He Shi and Sun Miaoqing returning to the Li family was over.
Li Wanming stopped dwelling on it.
However, she heard that the negotiation for Sun Miaoqing's marriage with the eldest son of the Guo family had started again.
This time, the two families had officially met each other through the matchmaker, and the marriage finally made some substantial progress.
But Li Wanming was a bit confused. Minister Guo was a third-rank official. Would he really let his son marry the daughter of a seventh-rank official because of the Li family and the Langya Cheng family, which was distantly related?
Xiao Jingnan was very evasive about this matter. He only said that the Guo family's affairs were not as simple as she thought and told her not to interfere...
Humph, who would want to interfere!
Sun Miaoqing could marry whoever she wanted. It had nothing to do with her.
However, because of this relationship, in Li Wanming's mind, Guo Xinyue became even more of a member of Sun Miaoqing's faction.
The two of them were like a weasel carrying a fox—neither of them was a good person.
Now, Guo Xinyue's sudden show of affection made her very uncomfortable.
She always felt like a venomous snake was coiling around her arm, ready to bite her when she least expected it.
However, the information Guo Xinyue could provide was very useful to her.
So Li Wanming endured the discomfort and didn't pull her hand away. Instead, she followed her lead and asked, "What is Zangshan Academy?"
Guo Xinyue said with a smile, "It's the most famous girls' academy in the capital. It was established by the wife of the Duke of Qing."
"The wife of the Duke of Qing said that even girls should be well-educated, so she established this academy to teach them the four arts of the Chinese scholar as well as the six arts for women."
After saying that, she pointed her finger at the person in front and whispered, "That Xiao Yingchu just now is the most outstanding disciple of the wife of the Duke of Qing and the most talented girl in the capital... However, her identity is a bit awkward."
"How is it awkward?"
Guo Xinyue smiled, a strange look in her eyes. She drawled, "Speaking of which, she almost became your younger sister-in-law..."
Seeing that Li Wanming didn't understand, she added, "She's from the Prince Ning's Mansion."
Oh.
She understood.
She was talking about the matter of her almost being betrothed to the heir of the Prince Ning...
But there was something strange about what Guo Xinyue said. What did she mean by "from the Prince Ning's Mansion"?
It didn't sound like she was talking about a young lady but rather some object or decoration that came from a certain place...
Guo Xinyue sensed her confusion and explained, "Although she's from the Prince Ning's Mansion, she's not the direct younger sister of the heir of the Prince Ning."
"Her grandmother was a concubine of the old Prince Ning. Her status was not high and she was not favored. So although her father is the younger half-brother of the current Prince Ning, the name of the second branch of the family was not recorded in the jade genealogy of the mansion."
Li Wanming was puzzled. "Even if she's a concubine's child, they're still brothers by blood. What does it matter if their names are not in the jade genealogy? Can they just deny their blood relationship?"
Guo Xinyue shook her head and said, "The situation in the Prince Ning's Mansion is much more complicated than that."
"The Prince Ning fought on the southern battlefield in his early years. Three of his sons died in the southern region, leaving only one son, Xiao Jingnan... The princess was so grief-stricken that she fell ill and had a lingering illness. She was too weak to manage the household."
"So the affairs of the mansion were handed over to Kang Shi, Xiao Yingchu's mother, to manage."
"Kang Shi's family background was not prominent, and she was just the wife of a concubine's son... She didn't have the status of the mistress of the mansion, but she was in charge of the mansion's affairs. After all, her position was not legitimate. There were many complaints about the second branch of the Prince Ning's Mansion in the capital."
"The same goes for Xiao Yingchu. Although she's from the Prince Ning's Mansion, her situation is awkward. She has never been given a title and is not even a county princess yet."
Li Wanming looked at the thin figure in front and didn't know what to say for a moment.
However, all this had nothing to do with her!
She was already married and would never enter the Prince Ning's Mansion again in this lifetime!
Guo Xinyue saw her expression and thought that she didn't mind her getting close. Finally, she felt relieved.
The last time she saw the chief steward of Han He standing in front of her husband's fortune-telling stall, she thought that the power behind the Li family might be stronger than she had imagined.
Her father was a minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Although he was also a high-ranking official in the court, compared with the real nobles, he was still as insignificant as an ant.
She didn't want to miss any opportunity to help her father.
When she saw Princess Chengping insisting on inviting Li Wanming to the banquet today, her eyes lit up. It confirmed her guess.
There must be a noble patron behind the Li family.
She must take this opportunity to curry favor with Li Wanming and repair their relationship.