Chapter 63: The Old Prince Next Door 16

The advantage of Prince Chen’s high seniority was that after Su Huandan left the palace, she only needed to make a single trip to the Grand Princess¹‘s Mansion to be done with her duties. As for the current Emperor’s sisters, Su Huandan could simply wait for them to come and pay their respects to her.

“Wait for them to come? They’ll bore you to death. Every single one of them refuses to live their own lives properly and loves to stir up nonsense. The Eldest Princess keeps five male consorts² and has already given birth to three illegitimate children. If she dares to bring those bastards in tomorrow, throw her out immediately. Don’t let them soil our prince’s manor. The Second Princess is a widow with only one daughter whose health isn’t great. The girl is twenty-four and still hasn’t married. She was betrothed three times, but the girl let her grandmother cause trouble every time, swapping her out for female cousins on the wedding litters. Now she’s stuck and can’t get married. Last year, the Second Princess tried to ‘snatch a husband³‘ from the successful candidates of the imperial examinations, but the scholar already knew what that daughter of hers had done. He would rather have bashed his head against a wall and died than marry her. Now she’s twenty-four and unwed, and the mother and daughter do nothing but cause scenes with the Empress Dowager and the Empress. The Emperor has long been dissatisfied with them.”

Did the Emperor only have these two sisters?

“There were originally two younger sisters, but they were sickly growing up. After they married, the Third Princess insisted on having a child, which resulted in a difficult labor and the death of both mother and child. The Fourth Princess also had poor health and wanted a palace maid by her side to bear a child for her to raise as her own. However, that maid was overly ambitious. To become an official secondary wife, she hid in the courtyard of the Fourth Princess’s mother-in-law. The child was born, but the Fourth Princess died of sheer anger. The maid was executed anyway – would the Prince Consort’s family dare keep her? Now the Prince Consort doesn’t dare remarry and has registered the child under the Fourth Princess’s name. That child is probably only about three years old now?”

The stories Prince Chen told were quite different from what the palace nannies had said.

The nannies who taught her etiquette had said that the families of these princesses’ husbands were relatives to be cultivated and visited.

“Nonsense. With my status, do I need to cultivate ties with anyone? Ignore all that. They are juniors, and the Prince Consorts are juniors too. You just sit there and wait for them to show you filial respect. For regular interactions, just keep up appearances. That nanny is no good – what on earth was she teaching?” Prince Chen’s mind immediately filled with thoughts of conspiracies. Could that nanny have been sent by one of the imperial concubines in the palace?

“I’m not sure about that. It was that Nanny Bai I sent back last time,” Su Huandan replied. She truly hadn’t thought of it that way.

Prince Chen and Su Huandan were currently in a carriage on their way to the Grand Princess’s Mansion. Hearing this, he lifted the window curtain, and Gui Xi immediately hurried over.

“Go investigate the background of that Nanny Bai who was teaching the Princess Consort etiquette. Why was she trying to manipulate the Princess Consort?” Having grown up in the palace, Prince Chen understood all too well the troublemaking nature of the women in the inner palace.

Gui Xi scurried off to handle the task.

The carriage soon arrived at the Grand Princess’s Mansion.

The main gates of the mansion were tightly shut. Prince Chen’s temper flared the moment he saw it.

“She knows we’re coming, so she’s giving us the cold shoulder to try and assert dominance over us. Hmph, does she think I’ll indulge her? She’s in her fifties and still acts so detestably. Come, let’s go back. We’re not going in.” Prince Chen truly detested this eldest sister of his.

She had always been incredibly willful.

To what extent?

Whenever she saw the Emperor, she would strictly perform the full three prostrations and nine kowtows⁴. Once finished, she would demand the Emperor perform the etiquette of a junior to her. she loved to be pedantic about these rules.

The Empress Dowager was her sister-in-law, so she escaped the brunt of it, but the Empress was unlucky and was constantly bullied. The Grand Princess loved using these methods to highlight her own nobility.

Unfortunately, after she pulled this stunt on the Emperor and Empress in public once, they never let her into the palace again. Even if she went herself, she would be blocked at the palace gates.

Now she had found an opportunity to try and manipulate him, the Prince Chen?

Prince Chen thought to himself that they hadn’t associated for many years anyway, only exchanging formal gifts during festivals. They would just continue that way in the future.

When he said they were going back, they truly went back.

Inside the Grand Princess’s Mansion, her children were all trying to persuade her.

“Don’t always do things that offend people. You are the Grand Princess, so the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and Prince Chen won’t make things too hard for you, but what about us children in the future?”

“Don’t worry. Prince Chen values his Princess Consort very much. If he doesn’t have her pay respects to me, his eldest sister, how will his Princess Consort be able to hold her head up among the imperial clan in the future? I don’t intend to do much; I just want to tell the power players in the capital that I am not to be trifled with.” To her children’s ears, the Grand Princess’s words sounded like madness.

The power players would have to be insane to provoke a Grand Princess with such mental issues.

For fifty years, she had done nothing but obnoxious things. People couldn’t avoid her fast enough; who would willingly approach her?

The elites simply acted as if she didn’t exist, and they treated her family the same way.

They were like outsiders living on the fringes of the capital. No other family would associate with them, and it felt terrible.

The family certainly lived in luxury, but when they stepped out, there wasn’t a single person they could talk to.

The Grand Princess’s husband sat with his eyes half-closed. He had long since grown used to his old wife’s behavior – she was a complete fool.

It wasn’t just the Grand Princess; all four daughters of the late Emperor were somewhat mentally unstable.

He didn’t know how the imperial family educated their princesses, but look at them – whichever family they married into, they brought ruin.

After waiting and waiting, the gatekeeper reported that Prince Chen saw the gates were closed and simply turned back.

The Grand Princess was stunned.

He really left?

She began to tremble with rage.

The Prince Consort stood up and left without saying a word.

The Grand Princess’s children also left in a huff. Soon, the Grand Princess was the only one left in the hall.

Before long, the servants inside and outside the room heard the Grand Princess begin her usual wailing and cursing: “Father! Why did you leave so early? Look, now that you’re gone, who in this capital still treats me as a princess? From the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and Prince Chen down to those officials and nobles, they all treat me like I’m dead. My heart is so bitter. Father…”

Even the old woman sweeping the courtyard sighed and shook her head upon hearing these ramblings. Wasn’t this situation entirely of her own making? If she had just been a bit more normal and hadn’t always tried to step on others to show off her status, how could there not be a place for her in the capital?

See, even an illiterate sweeping woman understood such simple logic, yet the Grand Princess had failed to see through it for fifty years. When looking at a problem, she only ever picked out the faults of others, while she herself was perfect in every way, without a single flaw.

After Su Huandan returned home, she sent Xia Chan to the kitchen to order their meal.

It was nearly noon, so there was no need for anything too elaborate. A few simple, home-cooked dishes and some rice would suffice.

Prince Chen looked at the meager spread of four dishes and a soup⁵, then shot a look at Gui Xi. Gui Xi hurriedly handed Su Huandan a small box containing a hundred thousand taels in banknotes.

After checking the contents, Su Huandan wondered to herself, is this for household expenses?

“This is pocket money for you. From now on, I will give you a portion of the income from my properties every year. The normal monthly budget for the kitchen in our manor is two thousand taels of silver. Do not be afraid to spend money; there is no need to eat such simple meals.” The Prince thought to himself that he had never suffered such grievances before.

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Translator’s Notes

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1. Grand Princess: A title (长公主, zhǎng gōngzhǔ) usually reserved for the sisters or paternal aunts of the reigning Emperor. In this context, her seniority is high, but her actual political power depends on her relationship with the Emperor. ↩
2. male consorts: The term ‘miànshǒu’ (面首) literally means ‘fine face.’ It refers to handsome men kept by high-ranking women for pleasure, a practice that was historically scandalous and often used in literature to characterize a princess as decadent or transgressive. ↩
3. snatch a husband: Refers to the custom of ‘bǎng xià zhuō xù’ (榜下捉婿), where wealthy or noble families would wait at the posting of imperial examination results to ‘capture’ successful candidates as sons-in-law, securing a promising scholar for their daughters. ↩
4. three prostrations and nine kowtows: The ‘san gui jiu kou’ (三跪九叩) is the highest formal act of reverence in Chinese etiquette, typically reserved for the Emperor or during major religious ceremonies. The Grand Princess uses this to force a reciprocal display of ‘junior’ respect from the Emperor. ↩
5. four dishes and a soup: A ‘sì cài yī tāng’ (四菜一汤) spread is a traditional benchmark for a simple, balanced meal. For a Prince accustomed to imperial luxury, this modest arrangement is perceived as a sign of poverty or extreme frugality. ↩