Qiao Jinniang said with a scornful smile, “Precious? Then why did no classmate come to my wedding? “How many invitations did I send you at that time?

  “Being my classmate for ten years, you should know what kind of a person I am. It’ll be a big mistake if you think I’m stupid.”


  Qiu Su didn’t dare to say anymore and could only leave with Hongling.

  18.

  Nuomi said to Qiao Jinniang, “Miss Qiu used to hate those girls from officials’ families who said that merchants were menial. Why did she agree with them after she got married?”


  Qiao Jinniang thought about it carefully. Perhaps deep in Qiu Su’s heart, she thought merchants were menial.

  It was just that at that time, she was also a merchant, so she stood with her.

  After leaving the Qiao Mansion, Qiu Su became angrier the more she thought about it.

  Zhong Wu’er said to Qiu Su, “Third Sister-in-law, it seems that your friend doesn’t take you as a friend at all!”


  They went back to the Zhong family’s small house in Chang’an.

  Zhong Wu’er felt that this house was too small. It was only as large as Qiao Jinniang’s courtyard. Mrs. Zhong quickly asked Zhong Wu’er, “Did you see Qiao Jinniang? Did you talk with her?”


  “Mother, that menial businesswoman is really rude. I kindly advised her not to stoop to do business, but she said that I could only be her maid if I wanted to enter the East Palace. Bah!”


  “And Sister-in-law is completely useless. Mother, although Third Brother was born by Father’s concubine, you shouldn’t have found a businesswoman as his wife. It was because of her that I was so humiliated!”


  Mrs. Zhong stared at Qiu Su. “Didn’t you say that you and Qiao Jinniang grew up together in school? So that’s the ‘friendship’ you said?

  “She came from the South, having no good friends or power to support her in the East Palace. If you’re really good friends, how can she not curry favor with Wu’er?

  “If Wu’er is unable to marry into the East Palace because of you, I won’t let you off!”


  Qiu Su didn’t dare to defend herself and could only cry silently, thinking of the time in school…


  When they first met Qiao Jinniang, she was only five years old, but when she was mocked and bullied by others, she dared to take a broom and hit those people.

  The teachers came to scold her, but she quoted scriptures to defend herself.

  Later, when the students got familiar with each other, no one laughed at them anymore.

  Whenever they had quarrels with the students in other classes, Qiao Jinniang would always bravely fight back together with other classmates.

  At that time in the school, no one dared to bully the girls in their class…


  After she got married, however, everything changed. She had to deal with her difficult sister-in-law and mother-in-law who looked down on her.

  If she had married a man of her own class, maybe she wouldn’t have had to tolerate all this.

  Hearing that Qiao Jinniang’s classmate had come from the South, Zheng Xiao came to see her, only to see Qiao Jinniang playing with an abacus in anger. “Jinniang, where is your classmate?”


  Qiao Jinniang said, “She’s gone. She’s not here to reminisce about the old days with me, but to help her husband’s sister marry into the East Palace.”


  Zheng Xiao sighed. “Snobbery is the nature of many people. Don’t mind it. This year, many officials who came to Chang’an to report on their work took their daughters with them, and everybody knows why they did this.”


  Qiao Jinniang said, “Don’t worry, Mother. Since Lu Chen has promised me that he will never take a concubine, if he dares to betray me, I will never forgive him!”


  Zheng Xiao: “…”


  She didn’t mean that. She actually wanted to persuade Qiao Jinniang not to be so obsessed with concubines.

  New Year’s Eve was approaching.

  Old Madam Qiao also took Qiao Li back to the Duke Mansion from the temple, and Duke Anyuan had to shuttle between the Qiao Mansion and the Duke Mansion every day.

  Qiao Jinniang was busy dealing with the affairs in Tasty Pavilion and Myriad Taste all day long. Time flew. Now the Lantern Festival was only 15 days away. This year had gone by both slowly and quickly for Qiao Jinniang.

  This year was the most bizarre year for her in the past nineteen years of her life. What happened this year made her feel like a dream.

  On New Year’s Eve, there was a banquet in the imperial palace.

  The banquet ended early, and there was also a family banquet in the Duke Anyuan Mansion.

  Zheng Xiao didn’t want to go back to the Duke Mansion, so the entire Qiao family came to the Qiao Mansion to celebrate the New Year.

  The family banquet was very lively, and two young sons of Qiao Jinniang’s third uncle were setting off firecrackers in the yard, and it was full of their happy clamoring voices in the house.

  Qiao Jinniang was a little lonely. She had never missed Xi’er so much.

  So she found an excuse to go back to her room early and had Nuomi guard outside and disallowed anyone from entering her room.

  She entered the secret passage, and it took her more than half an hour to travel to the other end of the passage.

  When she finally arrived at the East Palace, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed when she saw that the lights in Lu Chen and Xi’er’s palaces were off, and there was no one in the study.

  She simply waited in Lu Chen’s study for Lu Chen and Xi’er to return.

  There were several memorials scattered on Lu Chen’s desk. Qiao Jinniang opened them and found that they were the appointments of several governors, and hurriedly closed them.

  No matter how daring she was, she dared not interfere in politics. When Lu Chen came back from the Queen’s Palace with Lu Xi in his arms, it was already after midnight.

  Although Lu Chen thought about sneaking out of the imperial palace to find Qiao Jinniang, today was New Year’s Eve.

  He hadn’t spent New Year’s Eve with his parents for three years, so he couldn’t leave.

  When he returned to the East Palace, he saw that there were candles lit in the study, so he handed Lu Xi, who was about to fall asleep, to a maid and went to the study.

  There was no one else who dared to break into his study except Qiao Jinniang. Lu Chen pushed open the door and saw Qiao Jinniang reading a novel in boredom.

  Qiao Jinniang took the novel and said, “Great! You don’t allow me to read novels, but you’re reading these dirty novels!” Lu Chen: “…”


  Qiao Jinniang hurriedly asked, “Has Xi’er come back? I’ve been missing him all night long. But due to etiquette, I couldn’t go up to hug him at the palace banquet today.”


  The palace banquet on New Year’s Eve was much more important than normal palace banquets, so everybody had to strictly abide by etiquette.

  Lu Chen took Qiao Jinniang in his arms and said, “You only missed him, not me?”


  Qiao Jinniang said, “This is the first time I haven’t been with him during the Spring Festival. Let me go. I want to see him.”


  Lu Chen looked down at Qiao Jinniang’s red lips and said, “I’ve never seen you miss me this much. Say you miss me, and I’ll take you to see him.”


  Qiao Jinniang raised her eyes, and her red lips moved slightly. “I miss you too, satisfied?”


  Lu Chen lowered his head and pressed Qiao Jinniang on the desk. “What should I do? I can’t wait for fifteen days.”


  Qiao Jinniang pushed Lu Chen. “Hey, keep your word. Now take me to Xi’er.”


  Lu Chen picked up Qiao Jinniang and strode back to his bedroom. “Xi’er is already asleep now. You might as well stay with me.”


  “I haven’t touched you for a year. Have some pity on me.”


  “It hasn’t been a year, okay?” Qiao Jinniang snorted. “It will be a year fifteen days later!”


  Lu Chen didn’t care. She was his wife, and he wanted to spend the New Year with her!

  Qiao Jinniang was lying on Lu Chen’s bed and smelled the fragrance of nanmu. Only then did she notice how big the bed was and how exquisite the nanmu was.

  Even the embroidery threads of the quilt were as smooth as silk.

  Lu Chen was angry to see that although she didn’t think about Xi’er anymore, she began to study his quilt, so he bit her red lips as a punishment. “Concentrate.”


  Qiao Jinniang finally retracted her gaze from the quilt and put her hands around Lu Chen’s neck.

  “You are so horny. Have you ever thought of turning to an imperial maid for help?”


  “How dare I? If I really do it, I’m afraid you’ll kill me…”


  Qiao Jinniang snorted. “So you don’t dare, not that you don’t want to.”


  Lu Chen untied Qiao Jinniang’s clothes and said, “I don’t want to either. Their faces are not as beautiful as yours, and their figures are not as sexy as yours. And I’m sure they won’t call me ‘Brother’ as seductively as you if they’re ‘bullied’ into tears by me in bed…”