I did want to stay away from the family drama that was going on in the palace and village alike, but after I had received a certain gift from a certain brain woman, I had just about enough of her antics. My husband hadn't come home since the news of his cousin's scandal and he wasn't here to put this woman in her place once and for all, so I had to be the one to do it since somebody had evidently leaked the secret of my pregnancy. Not to mention that the so=called cousin had been poorly lamenting her punishment of being locked away by her mother, never to see the beloved Prince again. As my husband hadn't discussed the issue with me yet, I had no idea if he himself wanted me to marry off his cousin to The Prince or not, but all I had in mind was so spoil HuiJae's game so that she couldn't get her way in front of anyone in the palace. I was the main and legal wife and it was about time that I started showing myself to the public sooner rather than later, although I really hoped that it was going to be as soon as I had given birth. So I made my way to this lunch that she was hosting in my man's favourite outfit with a modest amount of accessories, but it was mostly due to the fact that I couldn't resist the smell of the food anymore. I was barely 2 month pregnant and I was already unable to resist sour foods, which I never really liked before. It was always my brother who liked the usually sour foods and now I was willing to compromise my mental health and engage in more scheming just to devour a whole plate of sour biscuits? I could only hope that my husband would come home soon to keep me in order before I did anything else that would make me the subject of ridicule.
"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen; forgive me for not introducing myself to my husband's colleagues earlier, but my body always seem to stay unwell. It is a rather hot day, so why don't we all skip the flower gazing and seat ourselves inside the banquet hall to get a head start on lunch? I believe that the seating reservations have been arranged, so please feel free to ask the servants for any further assistance."
Living in bliss wih my husband made me forget what I had been through in the fire before settling into the brothel. I could tell that everyone man in attendance along with their wives were not expecting me to turn up out of nowhere, but somebody needed to sort out this scandal that had befallen us before myself and my husband moved somewhere closer to my brother where we could live in peace. I knew that I would face trouble for this sooner rather than latter, but my husband's reputation relied on this lunch of ours and I would much rather put my own reputation on the line rather than his after everything that he had done for me. Anything else that happened to me after that could wait. "My Lady Seo? Is that you? Seo Yeon?" "Actually, I am Nam Yeon now; I am recently married into The Nam Manor, but due to this scandal, I really haven't had the chance to go out in public with him." I suddenly had a lot of questions sent my way about my brother, but I managed to evade them all swiftly as a crowd began to form around my seat. Nobody even looked at HuiJae, never mind greeted her or even noticed her as she shrunk down in her seat with not a single servant in sight. I tried to answer everyone's questions as tentatively as I could whilst eating a polite amount of food in front of everyone. But just before the desert where served, I was suddenly faced with some rather direct questions from an elderly man who fit the descriptions of The Senior Scholar that my husband has been dealing with on his own for years now; and the man who took over my husband's mission and was probably still in contact with The Third Prince himself…and in the face of this new scandal, he might just take a rather desperate step to embarrass my husband further, which could result in him creating the biggest scandal of them all…
"Mistress Seo?" "It is Madame Nam to you sir, although I cannot seem to place you no matter how hard I seem to try…" "Forgive me, my name is…" "My Lady, The Master Nam has finally returned home." "Very well, have the concubine girl serve him in my absence. Tell her to fill up water for his foot bath and his actual bath, and to serve a portion of the spicy food out to him. Excuse me, I have other business to attend to." "But we haven't finished talking…" This man clearly wasn't used to not getting his way as he seemed to throw some sort of silent fit as to not attract too much attention, but just enough to let everyone know how he felt about me. But I wasn't the same person that I used to be before I was thrown between the palace and the various brothels. I like my husband always used to wait for the right timing to carry out my own schemes, but my son or daughter seemed to give me an extra boos of confidence that I didn't know that I had until I was faced with my husband's enemy who forced him into his embarrassing plight, and I wasn't going to put up with it anymore. Not even my own brother could handle me when I got into this state, so I wonder who could. Certainly not his wife who came rushing to my side and trying to pull me away from the crowd whoo still had questions for me and my past.
"My Lady? May I help you?" "Forgive me for this intrusion Madame Nam, but may I invite you to have some tea privately, along with my husband?" "Maybe another time My Lady, but I am busy hosting lunch right now for all of the palace ministers. If I only pay attention to you, then others would accuse me of favouritism and neglect. I am just a lowly orphan girl who has recently married, so I wish not to draw too much attention to myself in this moment." "Oh, but I have especially bought this new tea from The Qin Dynasty especially over for you to try…" "Is that so? That seems rather unlikely, as I have only emerged out of my husband's yangban today to introduce myself. But you saying that does make me feel as though as if you have been watching my family or something of the sort." "Ah…well, about that…" "And you are right about this tea; it is rather aromatic, but unfortunately I will not be able to have it anytime soon." "Oh forgive me, does drinking tea trigger your epilepsy?" ""No My Lady, tea does not trigger epilepsy, but it will cause harm to my unborn baby if I were to ingest any at all." I looked straight at HuiJae's face when I said so, only to get the reaction that I had been waiting for since my days in the palace. Even the current company I was with was far too stunned to speak for a while, until the wife commented on how I had surpassed HuiJae in the achievement of being pregnant and in an instant, I had all of the wives of the ministers inviting me over to their homes for some time amongst them. But this Senior Scholar and his wife really did not like to like to be outshined, or taken a back seat to everyone else since they started to hit me with some pretty direct questions about the scandal that my husband's cousin was involved in.
"My Lady, there seems to be some suspicion on the events that took place in the palace." "Really? How so?" "I personally think that your husband made his cousin seduce The Prince." "I see, and with what proof do you have to suggest that?" "Isn't it rather obvious? Your husband has lost favour and now he is doing anything and everything to reagin his place in the palace and….""And how do you suggest that my husband do that?" "What do you mean? Everyone knows that the battle of getting close to The Emperor is fierce and…" "But my husband has lost his piston, so how could he possibly get close to The Royal Family members at all? My husband has lost his privilege of having face to face meetings with The Emperor, who personally keeps a close eye on him in the palace. Are you then suggesting that my husband who is not even fully legitimate can lord over his non=existent status over and educated Prince who was undoubtedly been ambushed with various women in his life with his cousin who belongings to the oldest clan in this village who produced a man who came close to over=throwing The Emperor himself by attempting to assassinate his own son? Forgive me My Lord, but as a Senior Scholar for many years, does that sound logical to you at all?"
I saw that I hadn't lost my habit of bringing men to silence with just s few measly words, but I knew that it was the fact that I was so open and blunt about my husband's dismissal from all of his previous titles and luxuries. Within any other family, such a scandal would have caused such damage within a family that members of clans would kill themselves, self=isolate for the rest of their lives, be subject to bullying and ridicule for the rest of their lives and so on. But my father raised me to not value such materialistic titles without genuine respect. And as for my husband, he still hadn't said anything abut what was going on with him in the palace at all and I had been rather afraid to ask him. But once again, I found myself taking charge of his plans in his absence, to protect him and what was left of his reputation. "My Lady, I did hear somewhere that you do not uphold to Confucius rules, but now I see that you really…just do not have any rules at all." "Forgive me for my blunt tongue, but I have never seen the point in lying to anyone since I believe that it only causes more damage. Why therefore should I have to pertain to a lie to save face when the entire village knows what happened to my husband…and who exactly caused that to happen to him." "My Lady, I fear that you maybe overthinking things due to your unstable hormones…" "Forgive me, but I must not let my husband wait for me anymore. I shall bring him out here in a moment to rejoin everyone before we all get down to business." "Well what can I say, it looks like you two both share a rather intimate and passionate relationship; your infatuation with each other is really a sight to see." "I thank you for the compliments My Lady, the way you describe my relationship almost makes it sound envious to the people who are watching us very closely." "What? Oh no, forgive me for speaking out of place…" "it is true that in between domestic chores and management, that one eventually has to tase the bitter loneliness in life." "Although if a man has two wives that he treat equally, wouldn't it be harder on either one of them if someone gets favoured one night and vice versa?" "I think that all women should understand that the tighter you try to grasp something that you stole, the faster that you will loose it." "Selfish people rarely mean harm upon others and…" "My Lady, do you know why women prefer desserts rather than men?" "Excuse me?" "Their hearts are so bitter that only sugar can console them rather then they themselves displaying false pity."