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 youngdy 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 y 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 youngdy.
Qu Moying silently curved her lips. She was not surprised. Manydies didn’t expect her appearance today, and once they were instigated, there would definitely be someone challenging her. Qu Moying knew that there would bedies 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 y well. Can you y a tune first?”
Since the youngdy dared to challenge Qu Moying, she was naturally very good at ying the qin. The gathering was held fordies to show their talents, so the youngdy would not flinch. “Okay!”
A maid brought over a qin. The youngdy sat down nearby, and the maid ced the qin for her.
The youngdy slowly began to y the qin. She indeed yed the qin well. Even Qu Moying had to admit that this youngdy was a superb qin yer.
Everyone stopped talking and quietly listened to the youngdy ying the qin. After she finished ying, everyone apuded.
The youngdy looked at Qu Moyingcently 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 thedies frowned and involuntarily leaned forward, trying to see the qin case clearly.
This youngdy’s reaction was not weird. Several youngdies 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 thedy who first paid attention to the qin case looked at the qin case that Yu Chun had ced 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 yed an extremely ordinary tune, and many of the youngdies present could y it, but they knew it was hard to y it perfectly.
When Qu Moying was still Ji Hanyue, she yed this tune, which amazed many people. After that, all the youngdies in the capital knew that in terms of ying 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 y the qin so well. She yed so well that she reminded others of the ex-Crown Princess. The youngdies 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 rtionship between Ji Hanyue and Qu Moying.
Because of the rtionship between Ji Hanyue and Qu Moying, thedies didn’t overthink the simrity between Qu Moying’s music and Ji Hanyue’s music.
They thought that perhaps Ji Hanyue taught Qu Moying how to y the qin.
However, they heard that Qu Moying had a serious eye disease and couldn’t even see things clearly, but now she could y a tune so expertly, which was really surprising. Excellent ying skills required frequent practice. Although Qu Moying was abandoned in the vige at a young age, she turned out to have good breeding.
Many youngdies 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 y the qin. But even if she could y the qin, she might not be able to y it well. However, after listening to her ying the qin, somedies 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 y 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 ying a tune, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong apuded first. Liu Jingyu reacted quickly and apuded with a smile. Then, many youngdies apuded together with them.
Even Prefectural Princess Xiangrong and County Lady Jingyu apuded with appreciation, so how could the otherdies think that Qu Moying didn’t y well?
Since twodies had yed the qin, many otherdies began to y the qin as well.
The atmosphere suddenly became lively.
Later, somedies showed their paintings in twos and threes, and somedies sat together to discuss poetry and calligraphy, leaving the previous ident 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 ce was downstairs and very close.
Thedies 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 thedies 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 theirdies 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 youngdies 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 youngdies 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 in-looking person as the rumor said!
She thought that Young Master Yongning was quite blind!
Qu Moying exined, “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 ufortable 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 thedies 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 youngdies 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 notpletely 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 youngdies 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 andughed. They were veryfortable 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?” Ady sitting next to Qu Moying asked. Only then did Qu Moying find that thisdy was actually the firstdy 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’sdy, she couldn’tpare 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?