I just want to be a princess, no, you want to be a queen

Chapter 264 Family Tenderness

"No." Lu Mingyang sat up and glared at her elder sister angrily. She really didn't miss Chu Mingzheng. She just felt that Brother Qing was a little pitiful.

Lu Mingyuan didn't believe it: "Then why are you in such a hurry to go back?"

"I really didn't do it for him." Lu Mingyang lowered his head and suddenly smiled: "Eldest sister, from the moment I decided to marry Brother Qing, I no longer had any illusions. Between us there is the emperor, the empress dowager, and my..."

Lu Mingyang didn't say the word "heart knot" out loud, and said proudly: "How can we go back after we've been in such a mess? I don't want to be someone's concubine."

Lu Mingyuan asked, "What if he reserves the position of principal wife for you?"

"Who cares?" Lu Mingyang said disdainfully, "If you leave it to me, I'll have to wait for him. How long will I have to wait? The emperor has to live another twenty or thirty years. Wouldn't I become an old lady by then and not even be able to have children? There are so many good men in the world. Why should I hang myself on a crooked tree like his?"

Now, she is in a comfortable place, maybe even has a child, so what does she mean? Lu Mingyang chased away the random thoughts in his mind, hugged his elder sister, and said with a smile: "I think Mr. Shen is a good person. How about you help me propose marriage to him?"

"Don't talk nonsense!" Lu Mingyuan patted his sister.

"How could I be talking nonsense?" Lu Mingyang protested, "Such a good man, you don't want him, and you don't allow me to have him."

Lu Mingyuan's face flushed red, but he didn't know how to refute his sister.

"Sister, I was just teasing you." Lu Mingyang laughed at himself, "I know that with my current status, marrying someone would only harm them."

"What nonsense!" Lu Mingyuan felt distressed. It was bad enough that his own marriage was not going well, but why was his sister's marriage also so unlucky?

Lu Mingyang glanced at his elder sister and continued, "But elder sister, I really think he's a good person. If I had a choice, I would definitely choose someone like Shen Yan as my husband. Really, he's better than Chu Mingzheng."

"What's his strength?" Lu Mingyuan couldn't figure it out.

Lu Mingyang sighed, "If I ever become stronger than Chu Mingzheng, strong enough to threaten his power and position, I wonder if he would be suspicious of me, wary of me, or even attack me. But Shen Yan is different. He has his own firm beliefs about right and wrong, good and evil. If you are stronger than him, he will only respect you more, admire you more, and love you more."

Just because he is better than you, does that mean he is not worthy of love?

Lu Mingyang had always remembered his elder sister's words that day, and brought the topic back to the topic: "Elder sister, this kind of person is the most worthy of entrusting your life to. You are only in your twenties, are you going to live out your life alone?"

"Why are you dragging me down!" Lu Mingyuan knew his sister's temper. Once she said something, she would have to discuss it to a conclusion. He quickly changed the subject: "Since you have figured out the matter of King Ningyuan, I am not afraid to tell you."

She recounted an incident: "Your Majesty selected a princess for Prince Ningyuan, the daughter of an idle civil servant, saying she was talented and could help curb Prince Ningyuan's absurdity. The Queen Mother disagreed and wanted to promote her to Qin Miao. Your Majesty then granted the talented woman the title of Ruren, saying whoever gave birth to the emperor's grandson first would be made Princess Ningyuan."

"The Emperor wants to see the chaos in his backyard." Lu Mingyang laughed: "But he didn't suffer any loss either, he got a talented woman for free."

With a squeak, the carriage stopped.

The curtain of the car was opened from the outside, revealing a wrinkled face with a smile: "My dear granddaughter, it's so cold, why are you leaving so suddenly? Come home with grandma and have some hot food before you go."

Lu Mingyang frowned. How could she forget to ask the coachman to take a detour and not pass through Shangyang Village?

"My daughter, if you want to eat, you should come back to my house. What does it have to do with you?" Yang's mother came over and pushed Old Lady Yang away.

"Grandma loves her granddaughter, what's wrong?"

The curtain of the car fell, and Lu Mingyang could not see outside. She could only hear her second aunt's voice joining in the chaos, so she had no choice but to go out.

"Mom, since grandma has prepared the meal, I'll go to my second uncle's house." After saying that, she turned around and said to Lu Mingyuan, "Eldest sister, wait for me for a while. I'm going to my second uncle's house to have a meal."

"I'll go with you." Lu Mingyuan also walked down.

In the past few days, Tian Qing's family has been spending money like water. Aunt Yang and Old Lady Yang have seen it all. When they were thinking about how to get closer to them, he suddenly wanted to leave.

They rushed over in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare food. On the table was only a pot of corn porridge, a bowl of pickled radish, and a pot of steamed sweet potatoes.

Lu Mingyang looked at it, a little dazed: "Just eat this?"

"Yes, yes, yes..." My eldest cousin came in with a plate of freshly fried eggs.

Old Lady Yang pulled Lu Mingyang to sit down and said with a smile, "Our family is poor and there's nothing delicious to eat. This plate of scrambled eggs is your brothers' rations for this month."

"It's delicious." Lu Mingyang picked up a piece of food with chopsticks and said, "Mom, please sit down!"

"Yes, we are all family. Big brother and wife, please take a seat."

Old Lady Yang greeted them, and Second Aunt Yang eagerly took Mother Yang's arm and sat down. Only Mother Yang had a sullen look on her face. Lu Mingyang ate his corn porridge while putting eggs into his mother's bowl, urging her to eat quickly.

Not long after, Yang Tiechui returned from outside with a plate of braised beef and a pork elbow. Lu Mingyang didn't hesitate to pick up the food and started eating.

Seeing her granddaughter enjoying her meal, Old Lady Yang rubbed her hands and began to get to the point: "Xi'er, your eldest brother is old enough to get married, and your second brother is also on the rise. But the harvest has been poor in the past two years, so we can't build a house and can't afford the bride price."

Seeing that the eldest family without a son built a new house, and Tian Qing's family whose son had died also built a new house, those who really needed to build a house and marry a wife had no money to build a house.

Old Lady Yang said bitterly, "Granddaughter, please help your eldest brother. The new bride the matchmaker mentioned is good. She has a big butt and is good at giving birth. But the bride price is a bit high."

Aunt Yang nodded quickly.

This group of people are really forgetful. Lu Mingyang sneered: "Grandma, Second Aunt, your family has so much land, you must have saved a lot of money in the past few years, right?"

"This isn't to prevent your elder brother from joining the army. We've already made arrangements."

"Cough, cough..."

Second Aunt Yang coughed, stopping Old Lady Yang from talking. Was this old lady stupid? She was really bringing up things that were irrelevant to the topic, forgetting what the argument had been about in the first place.

She looked at Lu Mingyang with a smile and said poorly, "The harvest has been bad in the past few years. The few acres of land at home are all losing money. I'd rather do odd jobs and make a living."

"Pay me money, that's easy." Lu Mingyang looked at his mother and said sternly, "Mom, did you hear me? Hurry up and take back our three acres of land. Don't delay my eldest brother's marriage."

The frustrated mother Yang's eyes suddenly lit up.

Second Aunt panicked instantly, "No, no, that's not what I meant."