The Lucky Farmgirl

Chapter 2360: Chapter 2335: Heartache

After court was dismissed, Manbao was still a bit dazed when she stood up. Was that it?

She mulled it over and couldn’t help turning her head to say to Tang He, "If I get promoted two more times, I’ll count as a frontier governor."

As long as you made it into the third rank, you were a frontier governor, one of the people at the very tip of the pyramid.

Tang He indicated he didn’t much want to talk to her, so he stared straight ahead and walked forward two steps, almost bumping into County Magistrate Guo. The two of them met eyes, and County Magistrate Guo reached out to grab Tang He. "County Magistrate Tang, shouldn’t we discuss this year’s distribution of seeds for our two counties?"

Tang He nodded. "Indeed."

He left together with County Magistrate Guo.

The officials beside them smiled with narrowed eyes as they congratulated Zhou Man—congratulations on her promotion, and congratulations to Bai Shan for happily receiving a title.

Manbao hastily returned the salute, but after staring at their smiling faces for a long moment, she quickly caught up with Tang He and quietly asked him, "Senior Brother Tang, I feel like there’s something strange about their expressions."

Tang He paused, then said, "Not strange. They’re envying and resenting you, just like the two of us."

County Magistrate Guo: "...County Magistrate Tang jests. Lord Zhou’s promotion is a good thing. We can only offer congratulations; how could we be jealous?"

Even if you were jealous in your heart, you absolutely mustn’t admit it aloud.

Tang He gave him a sidelong glance, feeling he wasn’t being honest. Even he felt a tiny bit jealous—how could this man not be?

Something occurred to him; his body stiffened slightly. He turned to look at her. "This cowpox method... how sure are you of it?"

Manbao said, "Eighty percent. Anyway, it definitely won’t be less than eighty percent."

Tang He more or less understood why the emperor had suppressed her promotion and only raised her by half a rank.

County Magistrate Guo at the side also understood a bit. His heart felt even more stifled, so he turned around and left.

Tang He called after him. "Lord Guo, wait for me. I’ll go with you."

Manbao followed. "Senior Brother Tang, are they really just feeling envy? I still think it’s weird."

Tang He walked on while looking back at her with a smile. "You don’t really want to know. All right, it’s the first day after the seals were opened; you’re bound to have a lot to do. Hurry back to the Eastern Palace."

But Manbao hadn’t even returned to the Eastern Palace yet. She had just turned around when a palace maid blocked her. "Princess Mingda and Princess Changyu are waiting for you at the palace gate."

Manbao said, "I’m on duty today. I don’t have time."

The palace maid smiled. "The princesses requested an edict from His Majesty, and the Imperial Hospital has already approved your leave. You can rest easy."

Half doubtful, Manbao headed toward the palace gate, where she saw Bai Shan and the others who had left the grand court session early.

She immediately ran up. "Why are you all here?"

Bai Shan said, "We figured the eunuchs proclaiming the edicts would be heading to our homes later, so we planned to leave the palace and go back home. We ran into the two princesses here at the gate."

Mingda laughed. "Originally I asked to go offer incense at Guardian of the Nation Temple on the sixth, but Father didn’t agree and only approved today—the eighth—so we got you a day of leave."

Of course, the emperor couldn’t have missed that his two daughters had given money to Zhou Man to buy local goods from the Western Regions, so the moment Mingda mentioned going to offer incense, he knew exactly what they were up to. He deliberately moved the date to today, for the express purpose of telling Zhou Man and the others that he wasn’t exactly not angry—because...

Changyu already knew about the rewards given at court. Looking heartbroken, she said to Manbao, "Who would’ve thought Father’s temper was this big? After all these days he still remembers—he had all your titles pushed down by one rank."

Manbao humbly asked for guidance, "What does ’pushed down by one rank’ mean?"

Changyu said, "After Uncle Ashina returned, Father praised you all over and over. More than once he hinted that with your kind of merit you could be made marquises. But since you and Bai Shan are still young, there’s no rush to make you marquises. You could wait until you earn more military merit in the future and get promoted then."

Seeing Manbao staring at her with her mouth wide open, Changyu spread her hands. "Well? Regretting it now? Father was originally going to make Bai Shan an earl. I heard he even had the title picked out—Earl of Pingxi."

Bai Shan clutched his chest in anguish. Manbao also felt a stab of pain, but it was Bai Shan whose title had been downgraded. She was pained, but only to a point.

Mingda saw this and couldn’t help laughing. "What are you feeling relieved about? You were supposed to get a ’Xiangzhu’ title as well."

Manbao’s eyes went wide. "Then why was I stripped all the way down? I wouldn’t have minded being just a ’Tingzhu.’"

Changyu burst out laughing and said gleefully, "I just asked Father in the back hall. He said that since you were the one in charge, your punishment had to be harsher than the others’."

At this point Manbao was heartbroken beyond measure. No wonder Senior Brother Tang hadn’t wanted to say anything—it turned out to be something this painful. The looks on the officials’ faces hadn’t been envy or jealousy at all; they’d been gloating over her misfortune!

Manbao looked around at her little gang of friends. She felt that bearing pain alone was worse than spreading the pain around, so she asked, "What about them?"

Changyu laughed. "As far as I know, other than Yin Huo, all of you were demoted by one rank."

So, other than Yin Huo, everyone else clutched their chests as well.

Changyu and Mingda watched them, thoroughly amused. After a while, once they had recovered, they said, "Let’s go, we’re going to your house to play."

Liu Huan hesitated. "Don’t we have to go back to receive the edicts?"

Changyu pointed behind them. "Look, just go with them."

Everyone turned and saw a eunuch leading a few other eunuchs and guards jogging over in quick little steps, each person holding several boxes. When he saw the two princesses he bent at the waist to salute, then looked somewhat helplessly at Zhou Man and the others. "Lord Zhou, you see, according to precedent, these imperial edicts must be delivered to your residences."

Manbao saw that they were carrying so many boxes and couldn’t help asking, "You’re all the ones proclaiming the edicts?"

"Who else? The palace unsealed the seals today; it’s extremely busy. The people proclaiming edicts were only split into two groups. The other group went to the army and to Honglu Temple. All the remaining edicts are being proclaimed by this humble servant."

Manbao couldn’t help her curiosity. "What title did Assistant General Nie receive?"

The eunuch smiled. "That this humble servant does not know. The edicts have not yet been opened—who could know what’s inside?"

Manbao thought that made sense. Even if they did know, they wouldn’t dare admit it.

So she turned to look at Changyu.

Sure enough, Changyu knew. "I heard he was promoted two grades in a row. The military merits he’s accumulated so far aren’t enough to get him a title, but he did get a lot of rewards."

Besides him, several of his men as well—those who were up for promotion to company commander were promoted to company commander. Basically, all of them received commendations.

Manbao considered this, then simply said to the eunuch, "Let’s go, then. We’ll go to the Yin Residence first, it’s close. Then the Liu Residence, and after that turn off to my house."

The eunuch: ...

All his years in the palace, this was the first time he’d ever run into people receiving edicts who escorted the edicts home themselves, taking one edict at one place, then changing locations to take the next.

But...

The eunuch glanced at the two princesses, then at the uninhibited, lively group of youths. He gave a slight smile and agreed, first bowing to invite the princesses into their carriage. Only then did he go to sit in the palace carriage that had been prepared earlier. Behind it were quite a few boxes and chests, all rewards from the emperor, already loaded in advance and ready to go.