A Willing Mistake, My Lady – Chapter 79
by Little PandaPlaying Matchmaker
She just went to sleep??
The princess, who was about to depart, noticed that General Shen had also arrived. Thinking to herself that young people were always so clingy — barely separated for any time at all before coming to pick up his wife — she paused.
Then she heard the girl who had fallen into the river call him biaoge1. The princess said in surprise, “That young woman is actually General Shen’s cousin?”
The princess clarified that the girl speaking should be the one who had been caught up in the incident.
“Indeed. I apologize for the trouble, and I hope Your Highness will be magnanimous and not hold it against her,” Shen Hetang said, greeting the princess.
“This young woman was caught up in the trouble through no fault of her own. How could I hold it against her? I’ll have a maid send some gifts as a token of my apology.” The princess instructed her maids, then took her leave.
The troublemaking girl was led away by the Princess Mansion’s servants. Jiang Chenyu went to Zhang biaomei2‘s side, thinking to let her change into dry clothes before leaving the mansion.
But Zhang biaomei had eyes only for her biaoge, gazing at him with a pitiful expression.
“Can you still get up?” The previous girl had been helped to her feet and escorted away, but Zhang biaomei had someone backing her, so the maids didn’t dare act on their own.
Zhang biaomei’s fright had faded, replaced by a helpless shake of her head, looking as though she might faint at any moment.
“Cuiwan, carry Miss Zhang to the guest room, and please ask the young lady to lead the way,” Jiang Chenyu said, paying no mind to the tug-of-war between the cousins.
“Yes, Madam Shen,” the Princess Mansion’s servant nodded.
Shen Hetang wanted to help her up, but remembering that she was supposed to be a man, she discreetly pulled her hand back.
Jiang Chenyu noticed this and thought to herself: Go on, help her up — with all these people watching, let’s see how you get out of that one. But she abandoned her schadenfreude and told Cuiwan to hurry and carry the girl off.
Zhang Miaoyi felt utterly aggrieved. She had so much to say to her biaoge that for a moment she couldn’t even attend to her frozen hands and feet. To think that she had been pulled from the pond by a servant boy — this was truly disaster striking from nowhere.
“Let’s go inside first, and then we can talk,” Shen Hetang said, seeing her cousin’s hesitating, wordless expression.
After entering the room and changing into dry clothes, Zhang biaomei finally broke down, weeping like pear blossoms in the rain3: “Biaoge, it was a servant boy who rescued me. Will the princess make me marry him? I’m so scared. Everyone found out who I am, and this will reach my father’s ears. He’ll make me become a nun4. Biaoge, you have to save me. I don’t want to become a nun, and I don’t want to marry a servant boy.”
Zhang biaomei spoke in fits and starts between sobs. She was filled with regret now. Why did she insist on coming to this plum blossom banquet? And once she came, why didn’t she pretend to be a maid? Now her identity was exposed, and her father would beat her to death.
She looked at Shen Hetang pitifully. Only her biaoge could save her now.
“Fortunately it’s winter, so even though a servant boy rescued you, there was no impropriety. As long as the princess doesn’t insist, you won’t have to marry him.” Jiang Chenyu’s expression darkened as she watched Zhang biaomei clutching Shen Hetang’s sleeve and crying incessantly. Zhang Miaoyi had been caught up in the incident through no fault of her own, so she shouldn’t hold it against her — but the girl kept clinging to Ah Tang, and she truly couldn’t muster a pleasant face.
“Your biaosao5 is right. Don’t be afraid. No one will make you marry a servant boy. If the princess brings it up, I’ll decline on your behalf. Rest easy.” Shen Hetang turned to look at Jiang Chenyu and saw her watching her and Zhang biaomei with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. So she quietly slipped her other hand behind her back and took Jiang Chenyu’s hand.
Seeing the tearful cousin, she realized just how rare it was to find a girl like Jiang Chenyu — delicate in appearance but steady and sharp in temperament. If her wife cried all day like this, she’d have a massive headache.
“Then, biaoge, can I stay here a while longer? My father definitely won’t spare me. I’d like to stay at Shen Manor for a few more days,” Zhang biaomei sobbed again.
“Of course. Stay as long as you need. We’ll talk once you’ve recovered.”
“Thank you, biaoge.”
“Let’s go say goodbye to the princess and head home,” Jiang Chenyu reminded.
“All right, let’s go.” Shen Hetang turned and left the room with Jiang Chenyu.
Zhang biaomei was left alone, still shedding tears.
But her mood shifted from gloomy to bright before long, because the princess’s gifts had arrived.
A pair of gold ingots, a pair of gem-studded gold buyao6 hairpins, four pairs of jade earrings, and a pair of mutton-fat jade7 bracelets — all arranged on a wooden tray.
Zhang biaomei’s heart was thoroughly stirred, but she maintained a reserved smile on her face — and this time, the smile was entirely genuine.
“Miss, you were wrongly implicated at our mansion today. These are gifts from Her Highness. Please accept them,” the senior maid said with a smile as she set down the presents.
“This… this… then this little girl thanks Her Highness.” Zhang biaomei had meant to politely decline, but these were real gold and jewels, earned with her life. Never mind — better to accept quickly.
When Shen Hetang returned, she noticed that the misery had all but vanished from her cousin’s face. Seeing the tray of gold and jewels, she understood — the princess’s gifts. Truly generous.
But Jiang Chenyu thought the princess was probably giving face to the Shen family. Otherwise, look at the troublemaking girl — she hadn’t been so lucky. They had already found the young man she was involved with.
He was a young man from an official’s family, but he stated clearly that he had only helped her a few times out of pity, and there had been absolutely nothing improper between them. Who knew that the girl would stake out his whereabouts and cling to him, until in a moment of agitation he accidentally pushed her into the river.
The girl insisted that they had never been intimate, but the young man had been visiting her every few days, and she had long taken it as proof of an affair between them. Now, without giving her any resolution, he had come to the banquet to meet other girls.
The princess saw that this girl truly couldn’t read the situation. How many young men of noble families weren’t flirts? A few sweet words and she couldn’t see where she stood.
The princess gave her two choices: first, the young man could take her as a concubine; second, she could marry a servant boy from the Princess Mansion directly.
The girl thought to herself that while she didn’t want to be a concubine, her status indeed couldn’t support being the young man’s principal wife. So she begged him to take her as a concubine, but he refused without mercy, on the grounds that he didn’t yet have a principal wife and couldn’t take a concubine first.
So the princess, with a wave of her hand, assigned the girl to her own servant boy.
The girl looked at the young man with bitter resentment, then gritted her teeth and agreed to the princess’s proposal. Once the princess had spoken, how could there be room for refusal? She didn’t dare say no.
Sneaking into the Princess Mansion had already used up all her courage. Now she couldn’t even muster the thought of resistance.
To be casually assigned to a servant boy like that — everyone watched the spectacle from the sidelines. The princess had recently taken to playing matchmaker, which was why she hosted this plum blossom banquet in the first place, to liven things up.
Everyone felt sorry for the girl, thinking what a perfectly good young woman she was, now to become the wife of a servant — the gap between that and the young man from before was simply too vast.
Seeing her agree, the princess’s face brightened with a smile. She had someone bring the servant boy who had made the rescue into the hall, and only then did the girl get a clear look at his face — regular features, fair complexion, looking even better-looking than that young man by a fair margin.
Now the crowd’s appetite for gossip perked up again.
“This is the son of the head steward of my mansion. He now serves as a junior steward here. If you hadn’t had this bit of fate, this young man wouldn’t have come your way.” The princess had indeed been fond of playing matchmaker8 lately. She studied the noodle-shop girl carefully — her looks were clear and refined.
She liked good-looking people, but of her own three imperial sons-in-law, only the first had been decent-looking. The other two hadn’t been to her taste.
Even when she was playing matchmaker for others, she’d pick someone suitable and attractive in every regard.
After asking the junior steward’s opinion as well — both parties had no objections — she waved her hand and settled the marriage.
The noodle-shop girl had indeed come to find a match for herself. Whether it would work out or not, she’d give it a try and then let it go. She glanced at the junior steward once and cast the young man from her mind entirely.
“This commoner thanks Your Highness.” The noodle girl never looked at that young man again.
The young man, meanwhile, seemed somewhat at a loss and quietly slipped out of the crowd.
Jiang Chenyu only knew that when the princess intended to assign the girl who had crashed the banquet to a servant boy, she remarked that it was a good thing Zhang biaomei had gotten out quickly — otherwise, would that servant boy end up with two wives?
Shen Hetang laughed at this and explained that the servant boy’s conditions weren’t bad at all. If they had met through normal matchmaking, the noodle-shop girl would never have been able to secure the princess’s steward’s son. Besides, Zhang biaomei was the daughter of an official family — she wouldn’t be that easily assigned to a servant boy.
Jiang Chenyu couldn’t quite figure out Princess Shunhe, but she found her an interesting person.
Of course, the details above were things the two of them only learned later. Right now, the three of them were still in the carriage heading home.
Shen Hetang had taken a carriage to get here, so on the way back, all four of them had to squeeze into one carriage. Jiang Chenyu didn’t want her to walk back alone, so they all crammed into the carriage they’d arrived in. Fortunately, the Shen Manor’s carriage was on the roomier side.
Zhang biaomei held the pouch of jeweled gifts, wrapped in a thick cloak. She was still weak from the chill, and Cuiwan supported her the whole way.
The carriage interior was dim. Zhang biaomei was in poor shape, drowsy and unfocused. Cuiwan, too, was somewhat stiff and restrained with her master in the carriage.
Jiang Chenyu, having socialized for most of the day, looked slightly weary. With an outsider in the carriage, she couldn’t bring herself to lean back into the person behind her.
But a lean, strong arm slipped around her waist and drew her close.
Even through three layers of clothing, she could clearly feel Shen Hetang’s long, slender fingers resting against her waist.
She didn’t hold back anymore. Following that clean, cool scent, she leaned in, her face just a fist’s width from that exquisite, beautiful chin.
If there had been no one else in the carriage, she would definitely have left a faint pink mark on that jade-white neck.
Leaning there, she too closed her eyes to rest.
After returning to the manor, they didn’t make a fuss about Miss Zhang’s fall into the water, lest Madam Shen overreact — and it wouldn’t be good for the girl’s reputation either.
They simply ordered ginger sugar water to be brewed and quietly sent for a doctor. The doctor reported that she had indeed caught a chill, but a few days of rest would be fine.
Hearing it was nothing serious, the two stopped paying attention to Zhang biaomei and returned to their own quarters to rest.
That night, the long, busy day was finally over. After bathing, Jiang Chenyu changed into a vivid red embroidered bellyband9 and matching shorts.
She casually draped a semi-transparent gauze robe over her shoulders. The winter chill hadn’t yet faded, but the charcoal fire burning beneath the warming alcove kept the room toasty warm, without a trace of cold.
The gauze robe hung loose and slouchy — she was wearing it, and yet it seemed to cover nothing at all.
Her pale, slender legs were displayed squarely before the eyes with every step she took.
The vivid red bellyband, embroidered with orchids, draped beautifully, tracing her curvaceous, full figure into something utterly alluring.
This vivid red bellyband against her pale, rosy skin was far too tempting.
Shen Hetang, having washed up, was already lying in bed. She watched as Jiang Chenyu approached the bedside and unhurriedly slipped off the gauze robe, revealing swathes of beautiful bare back.
From the side of the bellyband, she could glimpse what lay hidden beneath the vivid red — soft, snow-white peaks.
Her gaze stole eager glances. Jiang Chenyu paid her no attention at all, swaying a waist as supple as a water snake’s as she drifted past above her. The embroidered bellyband brushed past the tip of her nose, carrying a mild tickle and a wave of sweet fragrance.
Then she pulled the quilt over herself, tucked it up tight, and said: “It’s getting late. Go to sleep!”
And then there was no more sound from her at all!
Shen Hetang was dumbfounded. That was it…? Jiang Chenyu rarely wore a bellyband. With this vivid red one on, she was as alluring as a temptress — truly a feast for the eyes.
But how could she just fall asleep like that…???
Footnotes
- An affectionate pinyin term for an older male cousin, used between cousins on either parent's side.
- A pinyin term for a younger female cousin, the feminine counterpart of 'biaoge.'
- A classical Chinese literary image from Bai Juyi's 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow,' comparing a beautiful woman's tears to pear blossoms trembling in spring rain.
- A colloquial Chinese term for a Buddhist nun.
- A pinyin term for the wife of a male cousin, literally 'cousin-sister-in-law.'
- A traditional Chinese hair ornament whose name means 'sway with each step'; it features dangling pendants that move when the wearer walks.
- A prized variety of white nephrite jade with a smooth, greasy luster resembling mutton fat, highly valued in Chinese jade culture.
- Literally 'pointing at the mandarin duck register' — a traditional Chinese metaphor for matchmaking, derived from the belief that mandarin ducks mate for life.
- A traditional Chinese undergarment (dudou) covering the chest and abdomen, tied at the neck and waist, often elaborately embroidered.
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