The Grand Princess

TGP Chapter 44.1: Regretful

“The only person I have ever truly loved and lost is Li Rong.”
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Li Rong and the Empress looked at one another, refusing to yield to the other person. After a while, the Empress decided to take a step back. After all, since Li Rong had said so, if she still insisted on forcing Li Rong to retreat, Li Rong would lose face, and things would get ugly from here.

In any case, the person Li Chuan was supposed to choose had already been decided, so it didn’t matter if Li Rong took part in it as well.

As a result, the Empress smiled and only said: “You really are stubborn. Well, quickly give Princess Ping Le an incense burner.”

“Thank you, Mother Empress.” Li Rong smiled and saluted.

Before long, incense burners and commonly used spices were brought up one by one on trays and presented before every lady.

Most ladies from aristocratic families could distinguish between scents, but if they actually had to make incense themselves, it cannot be said to be something every young lady knows. But being able to distinguish between scents was already considered a foundational skill, so there were people who began to concoct a mixture that was at least similar to some of their everyday fragrant sachets and put it into the incense burner.

Li Rong couldn’t be considered an expert in the art, but Pei Wenxuan was once an expert in making incense and had given her a few fragrant sachets he made himself. She followed the step-by-step recipe Pei Wenxuan had given her in the past, slowly mixing the ingredients in while simultaneously paying attention to the situation around her.

Everyone had their heads bowed, taking the time to pick out and smell the spices at hand, especially Shangguan Ya and a lady of the Xiao clan that Consort Rou had personally recommended, Xiao Wei. They were both clearly experts in the art with their graceful movements and skillfulness, an absolutely beautiful sight to behold.

But Qin Zhenzhen, who was sitting behind Shangguan Ya, didn’t seem to know what she was doing. She kept her head down and reached for the ingredients beside her, as if trying her best to blend in with the crowd and find something to keep herself busy.

Li Rong mused over the thoughts of each person and party involved as she picked out her ingredients.

Consort Rou had chosen her niece, and her Mother Empress wanted to support Shangguan Ya, but Emperor Li Ming didn’t really care if the Crown Prince married Consort Rou’s niece or someone else as long as they didn’t come from a noble clan like Shangguan Ya or Su Rongwen.

Consort Rou’s schemes have always been at a higher level than her mother’s. It was impossible for her to not guess that the Empress had secretly given the Crown Prince instructions to choose the incense prepared by Shangguan Ya in advance, therefore making the Crown Prince choose Shangguan Ya’s incense.

As a result, Consort Rou must have made her own arrangements.

Li Rong inspected the incense burner in front of her. These incense burners were all exactly the same. There was a light yellow silk ribbon on the bottom as well as a slip of paper with each lady’s name written on it. After a while, the palace attendants will take the incense burners back on trays over to Li Chuan, Li Chuan will try out the incense and pick the winners, then pull out the names from the bottom and send them back.

If she was Consort Rou, she would definitely arrange for someone to intercept Shangguan Ya’s incense in the process and exchange her incense with Xiao Wei’s.

When Li Chuan chooses Shangguan Ya’s incense, it would be equivalent to choosing Xiao Wei’s incense.

Once Li Rong mused over the thoughts of the people in the audience, she remained calm and collected and as she prepared the incense, she appeared to remember something and wrote it down on paper.