Chapter 29

Chapter 29

At the Autumn Equinox, yin and yang are in balance, so day and night are equal, and heat and cold are matched.

But the weather only got hotter. Since the rain on the seventh day of the seventh month, it had been clear for over twenty days. Fu Zijing stood under the eaves, fanning himself, sipping iced osmanthus milk custard for breakfast.

He looked up at the cloudless blue sky, then down at the cracked, sun-baked earth. He tugged at his sweaty clothes and fanned himself faster.

"The flowers and grass are all going to dry up and die. The osmanthus that bloomed so beautifully will wither too. Our courtyard is turning into a wasteland because of this crazy weather. If it gets any hotter, I'll die as well."

He muttered. Li Xihua, writing at her desk with the door open, said, "Be quiet for a moment. The more you fuss, the hotter you get, right?"

Fu Zijing turned to look at her. "Oh, you're so calm? Then don't sweat."

Li Xihua had coiled her hair high on her head and wore light, thin clothing to stay cool. But the skin she showed gave Fu Zijing, leaning against the veranda pillar, plenty to feast his eyes on. Seeing him watching her with a hungry, wolfish gaze, she knew his intentions and pulled her clothes closed.

"Darling... Hua'er... Your Highness... just let me in, I'm dying of heat."

Li Xihua had refused to let him into her room for the past few days—not only at night, but during the day as well.

"I didn't tell you to bake in the sun. Go find some shade."

"The sun is everywhere, there's no shade to be found. Only this room of ours faces south, with green gauze over the windows, the coolest and most secluded spot. And you refuse to let me in. Since I'm going to die of heat anyway, I might as well stand before you and let you watch me die."

Li Xihua walked over to close the door, but Fu Zijing blocked it with his body, saying, "No touching, no embracing—am I not even allowed to look?"

A maidservant came running over and saw the two of them going back and forth at the doorway, one closing the door, the other pushing it open, repeating the motion over and over.

These two did this every day—tangled up in each other, bickering, but really, if either one just walked away, the fight would fizzle out.

This vast princess mansion housed only a pair of young lovers, yet it was noisier and more vibrant than a big multi-generational family.

The maidservant was embarrassed to approach, but she had no choice but to report. Li Xihua noticed her, shot Fu Zijing a glare, and he stepped aside to let her come forward, then followed closely behind her.

"What is it?"

The maidservant replied, "Your Highness, someone has come from the palace."

"Is it a chief eunuch, a ritual official, or a court official? Where am I supposed to receive them, and what should I wear? Why can't you state everything clearly at once?"

The maidservant glanced at the consort and said, blushing, "Your Highness can receive them in your room."

"Stop hemming and hawing—the consort isn't an outsider. Just say it plainly: who came?"

Fu Zijing stood behind, chiming in happily, "Yes, I'm no outsider. There's nothing I can't hear."

The maidservant could only answer, "A female physician has come, sent by the palace to take Your Highness's pulse."

Li Xihua and Fu Zijing had been married for a month. The Empress had ordered the head matron to keep records of Li Xihua's menstrual cycle and the days they slept together, and now they could determine whether she had conceived.

The imperial house desperately needed a child of Zhenzhou.

Li Xihua's face went still again, like deep water, no longer rippling with emotion.

"Send the physician in."

She immediately retreated into the room, and Fu Zijing watched her back for a moment before stepping away as was proper.

With the two of them silent, the mansion felt eerie and oppressive again. Even the heat felt different—stifling, suffocating.

Li Xihua had not conceived. The physician asked for details, and Li Xihua answered clearly—positions, duration, frequency—as calmly as if describing what she had eaten for breakfast, without the shyness you'd expect from a new bride talking about such things.

The physician wrote out two prescriptions and said, "Your Highness's period should be coming soon."

"They should come within the next two days. I should summon the consort again—would half a month from now be best?"

The physician said, "Seven days after the period ends is indeed the most fertile time, but Your Highness shouldn't count the days. Too much calculation can disrupt the harmony of yin and yang. Besides, some women conceive right before or after their period. Your Highness should spend more time with the consort..."

Li Xihua's face reddened despite herself, and she turned her head aside.

The physician did not press further, smiled, and said, "These two prescriptions—one is for a soaking bath, the other to be brewed and drunk. There are also some methods, though without scientific basis, that have been passed down by word of mouth in the bedchamber since ancient times, and they carry their own wisdom. Your Highness might also try..."

The physician explained in detail, and no matter how Li Xihua tried to keep her cool, thinking of that scoundrel Fu Zijing, her legs grew weak before anything had even happened.

He was wild—if he truly did all that, would he show her any mercy?

But she had no choice but to follow the physician's instructions.

As night fell, the scent of medicine drifted through the mansion. Su Jin led two maidservants into the side chamber, picking up Fu Zijing's clothes and carrying them toward the princess's bedchamber.

"So Li Xihua really calls me and I come running?" he said, yet he was out the door faster than anyone. Su Jin and the others were still tidying up when he had already stepped out of the room, bounding down the corridor in a few strides to reach Li Xihua's chamber.

Li Xihua, fresh from her bath with wet hair loose, was playing Go by herself, slowly peeling and eating pomegranate seeds with her other hand.

"Be careful you don't mix them up and eat a Go stone instead."

He walked over, bent down, and swallowed the two gem-like seeds she held between her fingers, even taking the opportunity to lick her fingertips.

Li Xihua wiped her fingers vigorously with a handkerchief, frowning. "How disgusting can you be?"

"You want lots of kids and blessings—well, that only happens if we do things together, right?"

She tossed the remaining half pomegranate at him, then pushed the bowl of medicine that had been sitting beside her toward him. "Drink it."

"It's your medicine. Why should I drink it? Unless we share it, mouth to mouth."

"You—"

Fu Zijing laughed, picked up the bowl, and poured it out onto a hibiscus bush outside the window. "If you don't want to drink it, then don't. Give it to them instead—let it bear more fruit."

The lamps in the room went out early. Su Jin and the others stood outside, so they could only leave Fu Zijing's bedding and clothes by the door.

"They fell asleep that fast?"

The two maidservants exchanged smiles and said, "You're still young. You don't need to know such things."

"Don't we need to send the bedding in?"

The two maidservants pulled Su Jin along as they left. "It's this hot—what would they need blankets for?"

As they walked out, one said, "The consort's things, if you ask me, shouldn't be spread out at all. Put them in a chest—we've moved them back and forth so many times already."

Inside the room, the plain garments they had been wearing lay discarded, and the embroidered quilt with twin lotus blossoms had been thrown to the floor. Through the bed curtains, two full, lovely silhouettes could be seen, tangled together in countless embraces.

Only late into the night, when the moon was bright and the stars were sparse and even the insects' chirping was clear, did the vigorous lovemaking behind the curtains finally stop.

Li Xihua propped her hips up on a porcelain pillow, her back arched.

Fu Zijing lay beside her, their necks intertwined, breathing in the scent of rosewater on her skin, and the rich, musky scent of their passion.

He stroked the nape of her neck, damp with sweat, her skin so soft and supple it felt even smoother than the silk beneath them, and chuckled hoarsely, "Are you striking that pose to invite me for another round?"

Li Xihua's eyes curved, playful for once, and she said, "Mm, do you want to?"

"Give me another quarter of an hour."

But Li Xihua suddenly crawled down his body, between his legs, doing the thing from page five of that booklet.

Fu Zijing called out, "Hua'er."

Li Xihua sat up, moving up and down like a crane, and in the heat of the moment, she suddenly propped herself on his chest, giving him a pitiful look, "Fu Zijing, will you help me?"

He ground against her, until she couldn't help but moan.

"Help you like that?"

"You don't want to have a child with me, do you? What incense did you burn in that golden lion censer?"

Fu Zijing reached out and gently touched her face, saying, "I think the child you'd bear would be as beautiful as you. How could I not want it? But Hua'er, is this the right time?"

"What kind of child would we bring into this world? Schemes, calculations, politics, and plotting—none of it has anything to do with love."

"You yourself are already in a deep pit of suffering. Do you want to drag it down with you?"

Her tears fell one by one.

Dousing all the heat.