The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 251 Return to the Palace

If her son liked the daughter of a wealthy family, or even the daughter of a high-ranking official, she would be able to think of a way, ask someone to inquire or even mediate, but if the other party was a princess, she had no idea.

Chen Cui felt that although she had seen through her son's thoughts, things had become even more difficult for her.

Nowadays, marriages are all based on the parents' orders and the matchmaker's words. Princess Fuyou's parents are no longer around, and she was brought into the palace at a young age and raised by the Empress Dowager. In fact, the Empress Dowager is her real elder, and if she wants to discuss marriage, she can only ask the Empress Dowager for help.

But Chen Cui, the so-called fifth-rank imperial edict, had never even seen her own powerful backer, Concubine Zhang Shufei, let alone ask for an audience with the empress dowager.

She was of low rank and had no qualifications to enter the palace. She would only have the opportunity to enter the palace if the imperial concubine specially summoned her.

Concubine Zhang Shufei was a humble person and kept a very low profile. She seldom took the initiative to summon her natal family members. Even her cousin Zhang Ruomei, she did not have the opportunity to meet her in the palace every year, let alone Chen Cui.

Therefore, even if the Liu family wanted to establish a relationship with the royal family, they had no way to do so and could not even talk to them!

Moreover, Princess Fuyou was of the first rank and of royal blood. In terms of status, she could directly crush their family. Having such a royal lady as her daughter-in-law was something she had never thought of!

It was also after Suisui accidentally saved the princess and her family became involved with Prince An's Mansion that she asked someone to inquire about the affairs of Princess Fuyou's family and learned about its past.

It turned out that Princess Fuyou’s grandfather was a cousin of the late emperor and was considered a close relative of the royal family. He was once named Prince Anhe.

King Anhe was in poor health and died early, leaving behind only one son, who is the father of Princess Fuyou.

Later, Princess Fuyou's father was promoted to a prince because of his meritorious service in saving the late emperor. However, he himself was seriously injured and died early. His only daughter became an orphan and was brought into the palace to be raised.

Actually, the current emperor is Princess Fuyou's cousin, and she is of the same generation as the emperor's children.

The Prince An's Mansion had been small in number for several generations, and this generation only had an orphan girl left. However, the wealth accumulated over several generations was still there, which attracted the attention of many interested people.

These people are all royal family members who have close relations with the Prince An's Mansion. They want to plan to adopt their children into the Prince An's Mansion so that they can inherit the title and property. That would be a great wealth that would benefit their future generations!

However, when the current emperor was named the crown prince, those brothers who had failed in the previous struggle and their followers caused him a lot of trouble. Among them were many members of the royal family. After he ascended the throne, he was ruthless in dealing with them. Except for the fact that they still had their lives left, those people had almost no hope.

The current emperor is a pragmatic man. He originally had no good feelings towards these royal family members who were well-fed all day long. After he ascended the throne, he faced internal and external troubles. These people were still jumping up and down without knowing the consequences, so he took ruthless measures to deal with them all.

Especially those who tried their best to inherit the Prince An's Mansion were dealt with badly. The current emperor directly put an end to their thoughts and ordered that the Prince An's Mansion would not find anyone to inherit it, and all the property would be used as a dowry for Princess Fuyou.

He had always intended to reduce the power of the feudal lords, and now he took the opportunity to stop the title of Prince An from being passed down, so that there would be fewer parasites harming the people in the future.

By then, we can find a good husband for Princess Fuyou, use the original property of the palace as a dowry, and pass it on to her descendants in the future, which can be considered a good use of the money.

The emperor did think so, but Princess Fuyou's health had not been good and she was always sick, so there was no way to talk about the marriage. This year, she even asked the empress dowager to allow her to leave the palace and return to Prince An's Mansion to recuperate, for fear that her health would be too poor in the future and she would not be able to return to her hometown.

However, near the New Year, I heard that Fuyou met a good doctor outside the palace, who took good care of her and her health improved greatly. The empress dowager was quite relieved to hear this.

In the twelfth lunar month, the empress dowager indeed ordered the princess to return to the palace, saying that she missed her very much and asked her to return quickly.

Princess Fuyou lived outside the palace for nearly half a year this time. It was because her old illness relapsed on the boat. Although she was given emergency treatment by Suisui and saved her life, it took her a long time to recuperate.

Later, because she adopted Doctor Qian's prescription and took medicinal baths to regulate her body, she had to have regular follow-up visits and could not enter the palace. She wrote a letter to the Empress Dowager telling her all these reasons and asking her to forgive her.

Empress Dowager Bai had been in the deep palace for many years. When the late emperor was alive, she was just an ordinary concubine. Later, her son, the King of Shu, became the crown prince and then ascended the throne, and she was promoted to empress dowager.

She only gave birth to one child in her life, and that is the current emperor, the King of Shu back then.

After the King of Shu became a fiefdom, she was left with nothing to do. The late emperor, seeing that she was honest, dutiful, and thoughtful, entrusted the orphans of Prince An's mansion to her care.

In fact, Princess Fuyou had dozens of maids and palace servants around her, so the Empress Dowager didn't need to do anything. So it was more like finding something for her to do to fill the emptiness in her heart caused by her son leaving the palace.

Later, the Queen Mother and Princess Fuyou lived under the same roof for more than ten years, spending time together day and night, and developed some true feelings for each other.

The time she spent with this frail little girl was longer than the time she spent with her own son. It could be said that although they were not officially grandparents and grandchildren, their relationship was no less than that of grandparents and grandchildren.

Princess Fuyou has lived in the palace since she was a child. Due to her poor health, her mind is particularly sensitive and delicate. She is better at understanding people's hearts and understands the Queen Mother's personality. The two of them get along happily in daily life.

To be precise, it was the Queen Mother who felt happy.

She felt that her niece, Fuyou, was much more caring and likable than her biological granddaughters.

Although this child often has to stay in bed and cannot leave the house due to poor health, her understanding and thoughtfulness are unmatched by other grandchildren.

The Queen Mother was delighted to see Princess Fuyou in good health. She not only held her hand and looked at her carefully, but also inquired about the details of her treatment.

Although someone had reported the matter long ago, the empress dowager just wanted to hear Fuyou speak herself. The child spoke slowly and gently, and she seldom coughed now. She felt happy just to hear her speak.

Of course, after Princess Fuyou returned to her own small courtyard, the Queen Mother also asked the nanny beside her to ask the servants who had accompanied the princess back to serve her to see if anything special had happened during those days.

How could the empress dowager feel at ease when the princess she had raised left the palace, even if she went back to her own palace? Of course, she had to place a few of her own people there.

The Queen Mother was not monitoring anything in particular; it was just an instinctive habit for the women in the harem to survive; she wanted to keep everything under her control!