Chapter 151.1 – Extra Chapter 10

Lu Sheng did not want to talk about marriage, but when she reached fifteen, she had to perform the coming-of-age ceremony.

April 11^th was Lu Sheng’s fifteenth birthday, and also the day she came of age. Qi Yang and Lu Qipei clearly treated her as someone important to them, and had treated her like their own daughter for years. Naturally, they would not overlook this important event.

The princess’s mansion in Yongzhou had been preparing for the ceremony since March – all kinds of hairpins and dresses, everything was prepared in advance and selected carefully. And more importantly was to determine who would attend the ceremony, such as the guests of honor, announcer, and the one who would officiate the ceremony, all of them had to be considered one by one.

After all, the princess’s mansion had not established itself in Yongzhou for that long, and it was useless to consider the elders of the royal family that were in the capital far away. And on the Lu family side, there was just two of them left. With no relatives and elders, the selection of the personnel was more of a worry than the material preparations.

Lu Qipei and Qi Yang discussed for a long time. The host would naturally be the two of them, and after a long deliberation, they decided on the teacher that Lu Sheng had studied under in Yongzhou a few years ago as the guest of honor. She was a highly respected elder, and worthy of the position as the guest of honor. But after thinking about if for a long time and not coming to a decision, they decided to leave the announcer and the officiant to Lu Sheng to decide.

The preparations continued in an orderly manner, and Lu Sheng also discussed the candidates with the friends she had made. But this time, a group of people came from the capital, not only bringing the Emperor’s decree, but Princess Anping also came personally.

Princess Anping was the Emperor’s younger sister, but they were not born from the same mother. The Emperor was the eldest son born to a commoner concubine, while she was the late Crown Prince’s legitimate daughter. If we were to really talk about their background, Princess Anping actually had a more noble bloodline. But the late Crown Prince died young and never ascended the throne, so the prestige of his legitimate wife was already gone with the Little Emperor’s ascension back then.

Fortunately, the Emperor was merciful and did not suppress his siblings these years. Princess Anping especially, who had a more noble background, did not suffer any injustice. Now that she had passed her coming of age ceremony, she also lived prosperously in the capital.

Qi Yang and Lu Qipei had long separated themselves from court matters, but they still knew about news from the capital. However, they did not know why Princess Anping came to Yongzhou.

Fortunately, everyone found out the reason when the Emperor’s decree was read out later on – the Emperor had passed the order to confer Lu Sheng the title of County Lord. It was not a very high title of nobility, but it was rare for a woman with different surname that didn’t share any blood relation to the royal family to get a noble title.

It was clear that this was the Emperor’s reward for his aunt and uncle. Because the two were far away from the court and didn’t have any children for many years, his previous plan to repay them through their descendants ultimately failed. In the end, he had no choice but to come up with this decree after hearing that his aunt really loved his uncle’s niece. He even sent his younger sister to keep up appearances and show that he still remembered his aunt.

Qi Yang and Lu Qipei were not concerned about that, and Lu Sheng was also indifferent about the title. But in front of Princess Anping and the envoy from the capital, the three of them happily received the decree.

Princess Anping was only seventeen now, just two years older than Lu Sheng. She had a solemn face when she announced the decree, but afterwards her expression relaxed and a young girl’s charming appearance immediately returned to her.

Qi Yang was very close to the Crown Prince back then, and although Anping was very young at the time, she was also quite close to this aunt. Even after not seeing each other for many years, they still did not treat the other like strangers. After handing over the royal decree, she quickly took Qi Yang’s arm and called out with a smile, “Auntie.”

Qi Yang smiled and exchanged casual greetings. Anping turned her head and called out to Lu Qipei, “Uncle.”

Lu Qipei nodded, not intending to chat with Anping, but she soon noticed that the girl’s gaze had unexpectedly stayed on her for a long time, paying even more attention to her than when she was talking to Qi Yang. This made Lu Qipei frown uncomfortably, and she secretly lowered her face to look at herself, confirming that there was no problem with her attire. Only then did she shift her slightly puzzled gaze to Qi Yang.

Qi Yang naturally saw it, but her eyes did not detect anything wrong with Lu Qipei either, so she turned her head and asked Anping, “Anping, what have you been staring at the Prince Consort for?”

Anping then withdrew her gaze, smiled, and said naturally, “There’s a rumor in the capital that my uncle looks very beautiful. I didn’t remember what my uncle looked like when I was young, but now I came to Yongzhou in a rare chance, so I couldn’t help take a few more glances. Aunt isn’t so stingy to not let me look, right?”

Qi Yang always thought that those words were a bit strange, but she didn’t think much about it since she was facing a junior. On the other hand, Lu Sheng looked at the bright smile in Anping’s eyes and vaguely sensed that there was something deeper in her smile.

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April 11th was coming soon. It would be during the time where spring and summer met, and the weather was neither hot nor cold, making it very comfortable.

Three days before the ceremony, the invitation would be sent to the guest, and one day before the ceremony, they would be given accommodation. The guest of honor was Lu Sheng’s teacher Weishi, and the officiant was Weishi’s daughter, who was Lu Sheng’s senior sister. But the announcer position was not given to the good friend that Lu Sheng had decided on before, but was snatched by Princess Anping who came from the capital. Ignoring her own prestige as a princess, she asked for it personally, making it difficult to refuse.

Fortunately, despite her noble status, Princess Anping did not come to cause trouble in Lu Sheng’s coming-of-age ceremony, nor did she want to have any grudges with her aunt. So the preparation, start and even the progress of the coming-of-age ceremony were quite smooth.

On the day of the ceremony, countless people came to watch. On top of the princess’s mansion importance, many also came to see Princess Anping.

Lu Sheng, who was having her coming of age, was supposed to be the star of the entire ceremony, but it seemed like someone else had stolen the limelight. Fortunately, she didn’t care, and Princess Anping herself also didn’t care about the others’ flattery, and ignored those irrelevant people, only considering herself as the announcer.

Amidst the lively scene, the coming-of-age ceremony started, and everyone soon fell silent.

When Lu Sheng knelt down on the mat, her teacher Weishi approached her with a solemn face, and chanted loudly, “In this auspicious day, you will start to wear a crown on your head. Abandon your youthful ambitions, and become virtuous. We wish you happiness and health, and endless blessings in your future.” After that, she combed Lu Sheng’s hair and put a hairpin on her¹.

As the announcer, Anping symbolically adjusted Lu Sheng’s hair after the main guest retreated. Then when Lu Sheng bowed and returned to her room to change, she personally took the plain clothes that matched the hairpin from the officiant and sent them to the room for Lu Sheng to change to.

Lu Sheng had a bit of a mixed feeling since a princess with high status personally sent her the clothes on her coming-of-age ceremony. But facing Anping, who she had only known for a few days and didn’t have a lot of interaction with, she naturally didn’t say much and just simply thanked her.

Anping smiled and left immediately, giving her time to change clothes before continuing with her coming-of-age ceremony.

Lu Sheng had no parents. Today, acting as the host was Qi Yang and Lu Qipei. They were her aunt and uncle in name, but she treated them as her parents in her heart. So after changing her clothes, Lu Sheng simply thanked them both for raising her.

For a moment, Qi Yang and Lu Qipei felt the urge to take Lu Sheng as their daughter on the spot, but when they looked back, they realized that the three of them had gotten along like a family for a long time, and being their daughter was just a matter of name. What it was called didn’t really matter. As long as Lu Sheng’s feelings remained the same, they would treat her as if she was their own daughter.

As those thoughts came and went, the coming-of-age ceremony continued.

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