GTB Chapter 46

Chapter 46: The Picked-Up Portrait

Chapter 46: The Picked-Up Portrait

Shí Qingya watched the approaching figure in the distance, her eyes landing on the object in his hand. Her pupils focused, and her expression slowly solidified.

Shí Yan’s gaze swept over Shí Qingya almost imperceptibly, further confirming her deliberate actions.

“Grandson greets Grandmother.”

He stepped forward and sat down, casually placing the portrait on the stone table. He looked at Shí Qingya and said casually, “On my way here, I saw Imperial Sister seemed to be picking up fallen rice paper. Passing by, I noticed there were still two sheets fallen among the flowers.”

Shí Qingya was greatly alarmed. Although she had anticipated that the portrait that had fallen in the bushes might be discovered, she certainly didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. Moreover, the person who found it wouldn’t know who had dropped it and would never send it to Cining Palace.

However, she never expected that such a meticulous plan would end in failure in less than a quarter of an hour, and that it would be her seventh brother who found it…

She glanced at the portrait placed in front of her. The one on top was not her sister-in-law; it was a portrait of another young lady that she had deliberately dropped along with it to make it less obvious.

Her thoughts flashed by in an instant. She suppressed the panic rising in her heart and quickly pretended to be surprised. “Ah! There were still two fallen in the flowers? Oh dear! I’m such a…”

As she quickly picked up the portraits, she continued, “Fortunately, Seventh Brother helped me pick them up. No, rather, you helped yourself pick them up. This is the beauty you’ll be choosing from later!”

After Shí Qingya teased him while facing Shí Yan’s indifferent gaze, she placed the portrait on top of the other portraits. Then, as if she had done something wrong, she looked at the Empress Dowager with an ingratiating smile.

“Grandmother, it was Qingya’s oversight. Just now, I was holding flowers and portraits, and I had a lot of things in my hands, so I accidentally dropped some. The wind is strong today, and I didn’t notice that two sheets had been blown elsewhere.”

She prayed in her heart, hoping that the Empress Dowager wouldn’t look at the one underneath. Otherwise, when her sister-in-law’s portrait was revealed, she wouldn’t be able to react at all. In that case, the Empress Dowager’s suspicious nature would definitely make her overthink things.

The Empress Dowager didn’t care much. She took a very open-minded view of such inadvertent small mistakes, feeling that everything depended on fate. If it was really lost, then the person in the painting was simply out of luck.

She arranged the paintings in front of her, placed the portraits brought by Governess Li on top, and then pushed them all in front of Shí Yan.

“Come, today, no matter what, you must choose one person. If you’re not sure, choose a few more that are pleasing to the eye. Then, at the Hundred Flowers Banquet next month, you can personally assess them.”

“Alright, Grandson will listen to Imperial Grandmother.”

After Shí Yan responded, he very cooperatively flipped through the portraits in front of him. His slender fingers turned over the portraits one by one, neither too quickly nor too slowly, making it impossible to tell whether he was being attentive or perfunctory.

But in the Empress Dowager’s eyes, it was already incredibly cooperative. She wore a faint, kind smile on her face, thinking to herself that she knew Yan’er was a thoughtful person and wouldn’t try to pull the wool over her eyes in this situation.

Meanwhile, Shí Qingya, watching Shí Yan turn over the portraits one by one, felt inexplicably nervous. Seeing him flip through them so cooperatively, she knew that he would definitely choose a young lady this time.

However, when she saw that even the last portrait of a noble lady of the third rank had been set aside, her heart instantly rose to her throat.

Because the next one to be flipped would be her Jiuchu, and among these portraits, Jiuchu’s appearance was clearly much more outstanding. Moreover, the painter had painted Jiuchu so vividly. What man wouldn’t like that?

After all, wasn’t the selection based on appearance and social status? But clearly, the Empress Dowager and Seventh Brother’s current focus was no longer on family background.

The air was momentarily silent, with only the sound of paper rustling as the portraits were flipped. Each portrait remained in Shí Yan’s hand for the same amount of time, until he flipped to Jiang Jiuchu’s portrait. His eyes darkened slightly, but he continued to set it aside and flip to the next one.

When Shí Qingya saw that her sister-in-law’s portrait had also been set aside, she instantly felt relieved. In the end, she had been overthinking things.

That’s right, if Seventh Brother had taken a liking to Jiuchu, he would have shown it when he picked up Jiuchu’s portrait earlier.

She suddenly became curious. What kind of girl would Seventh Brother take a liking to?

The Empress Dowager was also curious, but when she saw that Shí Yan had finished flipping through the last portrait album without choosing a single one, her face immediately fell.

After flipping through the last one, Shí Yan raised his head and shook his neck, exhaling a breath. “Ah! It’s making me dizzy.”

Seeing Shí Yan like this, the Empress Dowager had to resort to a harsh tactic. “Yan’er, don’t blame me for not reminding you. If you don’t choose this time, your imperial father will probably choose for you. When that time comes, don’t come looking for me.”

“Grandmother, don’t be in such a hurry to scare your grandson. Your grandson didn’t say he wouldn’t choose.”

After Shí Yan rubbed his neck, he looked at the portraits on the stone table again. Then, he reached out and spread the portraits out, drawing one from the middle and placing it in front of the Empress Dowager.

“It’s her! Since I picked her up, it can be considered fate. She also looks pleasing to the eye and not so wooden.”

The Empress Dowager was shocked, seemingly unable to react. He had been looking disinterested just now, and now he had chosen someone?

She quickly picked up the portrait in front of her with delight and began to examine it carefully. Not bad, not bad, she really was good-looking. Moreover, this little girl looked so carefree and lively. Although her smile was a bit smug, it was clear and transparent, not at all like the other daughters of noble families, full of arrogance and eyes full of pros and cons. She suddenly understood why her grandson had chosen her.

The more she looked at her, the happier she became. After a long while, she remembered to look at the name in the lower right corner: Jiang Jiuchu, the direct daughter of Vice Minister of Revenue Jiang Yuan.

The Empress Dowager seemed to instantly think of something and quickly asked Shí Qingya, who was standing beside her, “Qingya, if I remember correctly, this Vice Minister of Revenue Jiang Yuan is your Prince of the Concubine’s father, right?”

When Jiang Jiuche became a Prince of the Concubine, Jiang Yuan’s family entering the capital had attracted a lot of attention, so the Empress Dowager had some impression.

Shí Qingya’s dazed expression instantly returned to normal. Having grown up in the deep palace and seen many grand occasions, she couldn’t control the expression on her face at this moment, feeling like she couldn’t even pretend anymore.

She forced herself to reply, “Yes, yes, this is my sister-in-law.”

After Shí Qingya finished speaking, she glanced at Shí Yan, who was leisurely drinking tea on the opposite side. As a result, she met her seventh brother’s gaze, which frightened her into retracting her gaze instantly. Her guilty conscience was self-evident.

“Your sister-in-law?” The Empress Dowager seemed not to have expected such a coincidence.

She began to carefully consider the social status of the Jiang family, without any extra thoughts to pay attention to Shí Qingya’s slightly dazed expression.

Although the Jiang family was a fourth-rank family, they held a position in the Ministry of Revenue, and their son was a Third Scholar, also a fourth-rank official, and also Qingya’s Prince of the Concubine.

Looking at it this way, the Jiang family’s social status wasn’t too low. If Yan’er married her as a concubine, it wouldn’t be too degrading to his status, and it wouldn’t be too ostentatious. It was just right.

Thinking of this, the Empress Dowager suddenly thought of Shí Yan’s words, “Since I picked her up, it can be considered fate.” That was to say that this Jiang Jiuchu was also one of the portraits that Qingya had just lost.

A glint of shrewdness flashed in her eyes, and she looked at Shí Qingya and asked, “Qingya, do you think your sister-in-law and Yan’er are a good match?”

Shí Qingya had already composed herself and replied with a smile, “With the Jiang family’s social status, it’s her good fortune to be favored by Seventh Brother. How could they not be a good match? If anything, it’s my sister-in-law who’s not worthy.”

The Empress Dowager nodded without answering and continued, “Why are you belittling your own sister-in-law? You know your sister-in-law best. Tell me, what is her nature like, what are her talents like?”