Chapter 116: Celebrating Huaiqing

Chapter 116: Celebrating Huaiqing

After paying her respects, Jiang Hui saw the Emperor's smiling face and replied with a light smile, "What would Your Majesty like to hear?"

Xiao Sheng, holding the two children, sat on a wooden armchair, pondered for a moment, then looked down at Nian'er and asked, "What would you like to hear, Nian'er?"

Nian'er, almost four years old, no longer called him 'Daddy'. Looking up with her pale face, she fluently said, "Father, I will listen to whatever Mother plays."

Huayang, sitting to the side, didn't understand their conversation, but always fond of her brother, clapped her chubby hands a few times happily and exclaimed, "Brother!" followed by a string of baby talk that no one understood.

Xiao Sheng laughed heartily, gently patting Nian'er's thin back, and told Jiang Hui, “Play whatever you like, Hui'er.”

Jiang Hui then straightened the tong wood zither, plucked a few strings to test it, and after calming her mind with closed eyes, she began to play "Plum Blossom Melodies."

Snow, quietly lying at Jiang Hui's feet, shook its tail, suddenly stood up, bowed its head, stretched its front limbs forward with its paws spread like plum blossoms, yawned long, and then softly meowed. It curled back into its little blanket nest, forming a ball and closed its eyes to rest.

After the piece ended, Xiao Sheng opened his eyes and praised, “It’s as if we were amidst a plum grove in the snow.”

"My skills with the qin are indeed good, but," Jiang Hui gives Xiao Sheng a helpless smile, "Your Majesty, you're overpraising. It's May now, and quite warm."

"Is it? Really?" Xiao Sheng looks surprised, then lowers his head to Nian Er, asking, "What do you think, Nian Er?"

"Nian Er is also in the plum grove," Nian Er says earnestly.

After some light-hearted conversation, they return to the warm pavilion for dinner. Afterward, Nian Er and Hua Yang are taken to bed, and Xiao Sheng, dismissing the attending servants, says to Jiang Hui, "What do you think about the name 'Huai Qing'?"

The question seems familiar, reminding Jiang Hui of the time when the Emperor had similarly inquired about the era's name. However, 'Huai Qing' sounds more like a title. The only titles the Emperor personally considers without relying on the Ministry of Rites are for...

"Is Your Majesty considering a title for the Princess?" Jiang Hui lifts her head from under the lamp, the warm orange candlelight adding a radiant glow to her delicate features, momentarily mesmerizing the man opposite her.

"Hmm," Xiao Sheng nods, sitting beside Jiang Hui and playing with her hand, speaking softly, "Yu'er will soon move to Wang You Palace. It's time she had a title."

The Emperor rarely discusses his children by other women with Jiang Hui, especially at this sensitive time of the Princess's relocation. His sudden question now...

"Huai Qing is good," Jiang Hui looks into the Emperor's eyes, withdrawing her hand, "Why ask me such a question, Your Majesty?"

Xiao Sheng, unfazed by her gesture, sighs and slowly says, "Hui Er, with your intelligence, you must understand what I intend to do."

He takes Jiang Hui's hand again, playing with her fingertips, "…I think, neither you nor Yu'er would wish to reside in the same palace."

Jiang Hui turns to face Xiao Sheng directly, her brows furrowed, "Why must you do this, Your Majesty? If you really proceed, how will the courtiers view you, and how will history record you?"

Xiao Sheng smiles at the corner of his lips, gently touches Jiang Hui's cheek, and calmly says, "Hui Er, you needn't worry about this."

The night deepens, and inside the bed curtains embroidered with magnolias, it's pitch dark.

The person beside her seems to be sound asleep, breathing evenly and rhythmically.

Jiang Hui gently lifts her arm from the Emperor's neck and turns away from him, sinking into her own thoughts.

Jiang Hui doesn't consider herself the main reason for the Emperor's decision to depose the Empress. Even though Xiao Sheng adores her, he is a competent emperor and wouldn't depose the Empress without good reason.

The Empress, from the once high-ranking Yingchuan Wang family, and the newly entered palace Lu family lady, both hail from prestigious families that used to be unapproachable.

Noble families...

If previously Xiao Sheng was waiting for the Empress to make a move before deposing her, now he seems determined to do so regardless of her actions.

Such a change must be because he attributes the Empress for the Dowager Empress’s death.

In May, even the pillows in Yao Hua Palace are wrapped in finely polished cool bamboo slices. Now warmed by her body heat, Jiang Hui can faintly smell the subtle fragrance of bamboo.

The Empress?

She murmurs silently, recalling her childhood when Yuan Hui, the Crown Prince, was marrying his princess.

The Crown Princess, meticulously chosen by Emperor Qian Ning and Empress Yi Ci, was Jiang Hui's beloved elder sister figure. Before their marriage, when Jiang Hui went to add to her dowry, she congratulated the Crown Princess, whispering hopes of playing with the coveted fire gun once the Crown Princess becomes the Empress.

The face of the Crown Princess, who died in childbirth, is blurred in memory, but Jiang Hui still remembers how she had tenderly fixed her slightly disheveled red dress, her slender yet icy hands touching her cheek, sighing softly. Instead of a bride's joy, her voice held sorrow, softly whispering "Empress."

Now, it's Jiang Hui’s turn to whisper the same.

But these gloomy thoughts are quickly pushed aside. No one in the Empress's position could endure someone like her – favored, with children, and of noble lineage.

— Except herself.

The next day, the Emperor's decree naming the Princess as Huai Qing Gong Zhu spreads throughout the harem, leaving many puzzled about his intentions.

Feng Yi Palace, Lin Hua Hall.

The Empress sits in this meticulously adorned and luxurious hall, watching servants pack Huai Qing Gong Zhu's belongings.

The recently turned seven-year-old Huai Qing Gong Zhu, cuddled in the Empress’s arms, tearfully says, "Mother, Yu'er doesn't want to go to Wang You Palace."

The Empress gently pats her daughter's back, her gaze sweeping across the carefully arranged palace. Smiling, she says, "When you were six, you didn't want to squeeze in with your siblings in Ming Luan Hall's east wing, so I had Lin Hua Hall prepared for you. Now your father has chosen an even larger room for you. Why aren't you happy?"

Huai Qing Princess, unable to articulate her feelings, buries her face in the Empress's embrace, muttering, "Wang You Palace is too far from mother."

The Empress, still smiling, wipes the tears from her daughter's cheeks, saying, "Mother is here in Feng Yi Palace, you can always come visit." Her wide sleeve, embroidered with a phoenix, trails across the smooth wooden floor.

Huai Qing Princess lifts her head, asking, "Mother, does father no longer like me? Is that why he wants me to move?"

The Empress reassures her in a light tone, "Of course not. Your father adores you. Didn't he just name you Huai Qing Princess?"

The princess shakes her head, wiping her tears, whispering, "Father likes brother Lang the most, then third sister, and then me."

The Empress pauses while wiping her daughter's tears, the embroidered phoenix on her sleeve falling into shadow. She says casually, "Don't cry, my dear. I'll speak to your father. Trust me, it won't be long before you can move back to Feng Yi Palace."