After the New Year’s banquet.
Soon it was the New Year festival, and officials were on holiday.
Matters that weren’t urgent enough to be handled immediately would generally wait until after the eighth day of the first month.
As for the case of the Sword-Holding Marquis killing an ‘assassin’ mentioned by Censor Zheng at the New Year’s banquet, since His Majesty’s attitude wasn’t that it needed to be investigated immediately, they wouldn’t go looking for trouble for themselves.
On New Year’s Day.
Apart from Qu Dubian, all the other princes and princesses were dressed in festive red. Qu Dubian couldn’t wear it; the emperor said he still had to observe mourning for three years, so at most he could only wear a bit of red inside his clothes, or just have a red trim on the outside.
Ye Xiaoyuan was extremely bothered by this, but still endured the discomfort and helped his prince change into new clothes for the New Year.
Whenever he started to have some good feelings towards His Majesty, His Majesty would always find various ways to reduce that favorability to zero.
Qu Dubian didn’t mind; clothes were just clothes. After all, he already knew what kind of temperament his cheap father had, didn’t he?
He was cute, and a light blue outfit looked good on him too.
After changing clothes, Qu Dubian took out the small gold ingots Emperor Chongzhao had given him from his little sock, “Ye Banban, Xiaochun, I’m giving you bonuses!”
“Bonuses?”
Qu Dubian smiled, being very generous, two gold ingots for each person, “Yes, it’s the New Year, so there must be bonuses. I’m always sick, and you take care of me with great effort.”
Wen Xiaochun smiled helplessly: “Your Highness, this is what we should do. Even if you want to reward us, just some silver would be fine. You only have this many gold ingots in total.”
The little prince was too straightforward. If it were someone with ulterior motives, wouldn’t they easily coax away all of the little prince’s treasury?
“No, you’re not outsiders. I wouldn’t give to outsiders.”
Ye Xiaoyuan’s heart melted, “Alright, Banban will keep it. Xiaochun should keep it too. You’ll need money for various things in the future.”
Knowing that someone would be guarding Qu Dubian, Wen Xiaochun had already made up his mind to go to the Inspection Department. The harder one worked and the higher one climbed, the more useful one could be.
After they finished preparing, they were about to go to Fengwu Palace to pay New Year’s respects.
Qu Dubian took out two more ingots from his little sock, and after they had roughly left the Zichen Palace area, “Ye Banban, you and Xiaochun wait for me a moment.”
He ran to the corner and called out: “Liuliu!”
Yi Shi’er appeared, holding a book in his hand.
When he was on duty, he would occasionally read when bored. It didn’t interfere with his work, and now there were no rules constraining him.
“What book is that?”
Yi Shi’er didn’t think that the little prince, at his age and having only attended school for a few days, would recognize many characters. He extended his hand to show him, with four characters written on the cover.
He: “The Four Books and Five Classics.”
Qu Dubian: “?”
Don’t take advantage of his lack of education. The official Four Books and Five Classics of Da Zhou were not allowed to be in a combined edition.
After getting Yi Shi’er’s permission, he pinched a corner and flipped through it, only to see a sentence inside: [“…only to see the lightly dressed guardian of the demonic sect, amidst the fluttering flower petals, fall into the young hero’s arms. Seeing the beauty injured, the hero angrily beheaded the enemy. All were shocked, and who, upon seeing this, would not say, ‘This is truly domineering and romantic!'”]
Qu Dubian: “…”
The child looked up at the former secret guard.
The former secret guard wore a mask, expressionless, looking cool.
“…”
Qu Dubian silently closed the book. He was thinking, Liuliu was quite young, so it was normal for him to read novels, and he seemed to have read quite a few, since he even knew to cover his books.
But when he read novels, which perspective did he identify with?
Complex emotions and countless words transformed into a single compliment, “Liuliu is so studious.”
“The sages’ books are very useful,” Yi Shi’er said profoundly, putting away the book and encouraging his little boss, “If Your Highness studies diligently, you will learn them too in the future.”
Qu Dubian thought of all the sad things in his life, then took out the ingots from his pocket and gave them to him.
“This is Liuliu’s bonus.”
Yi Shi’er: “I get one too?”
“Of course.”
Yi Shi’er cupped his hands and bowed, “Thank you, Your Highness.”
Hearing the notification of favorability increasing, Qu Dubian smiled and said: “Happy New Year.”
“…Mm, Happy New Year.”
–
Fengwu Palace.
Qu Dubian, along with several princes, paid New Year’s respects to Emperor Chongzhao and the Empress, who were seated at the front.
They properly kowtowed three times and received two extremely large New Year’s money packets.
Qu Dubian found it quite difficult to hold them in his hands. The bonuses he had just given out were instantly replenished.
There were other consorts in Fengwu Palace. For these, they didn’t need to kneel, just bow to pay New Year’s respects, and they could receive red packets. Some gave more, some gave less.
Qu Dubian, holding the New Year’s money, was so happy his eyes disappeared when he smiled, spouting auspicious New Year’s greetings without repeating himself.
His happiness was genuine, and it made those around him happy too.
The atmosphere in Fengwu Palace was very good. It was rare to have a day when everyone was so harmonious.
When he reached Consort Xuan, Qu Dubian pulled Zhiyi along: “Happy New Year, Consort Xuan! I wish Consort Xuan to become more and more beautiful, and to grow more and more delicious things.”
He handed all the red packets he had received to Ye Xiaoyuan, then held out his little hand: “Consort Xuan must have prepared a gift, right~”
His tone when speaking to Consort Xuan was very close, more natural than when speaking to other consorts.
The Empress turned to chat with Emperor Chongzhao, smiling: “Xiao Qi looks a bit rosier. The blood-nourishing food from the kitchen is indeed effective.”
Emperor Chongzhao nodded: “Yes, but he’s not growing taller.”
A knife to the heart.
Qu Dubian secretly gritted his teeth.
Consort Xuan: “That’s nonsense, he has grown a bit,” she pondered for a moment, then added, “Perhaps it’s because his boots are higher.”
The whole place erupted in laughter.
Qu Dubian pressed his head on Consort Xuan’s knee, unable to lift it: “Ah ah ah, Consort Xuan!”
The Fourth Prince, sitting on a stool, grabbed the Sixth Prince to massage his shoulders, also laughing.
The Second Prince said softly: “In my impression, this is the first time the New Year’s greetings have been so lively. It’s also Consort Xuan’s first time coming to Fengwu Palace for the New Year, right?”
“Hahahahaha,” the First Prince’s attention wasn’t on this and didn’t hear his earlier muttering, “What? What did you just say?”
Second Prince: “…”
The Third Prince did hear it, but for once didn’t contradict.
Who wouldn’t like this kind of pure happiness, without calculations, a warm scene rarely seen in the back palace even after several years, as if they were truly just an ordinary family from among the common people.
In the past, during New Year’s greetings, although everyone was smiling, it was always…
Lively on the surface, but cold inside.
“This is your New Year’s money,” Consort Xuan gave a small bag of little rabbits made of gold, each only as big as a little finger, “And there’s an extra one, I’ll give it to you later.”
Qu Dubian’s curiosity was piqued: “Great!”
Emperor Chongzhao: “Alright, the family banquet will start soon. This time it’s a real family banquet. You probably didn’t eat well at yesterday’s New Year’s banquet.”
The Empress smiled and said: “It has always been like this.”
Just going through the motions.
When it was time for the family banquet.
Emperor Chongzhao was in a good mood today. After the family banquet began, seeing the Sixth Prince picking food for the Fourth Prince, he had the leisure to ask: “Xiao Liu, why are you being so attentive to the Fourth Brother?”
The Sixth Prince reluctantly said: “I promised to help Fourth Brother for a month, and the time isn’t up yet.”
Emperor Chongzhao: “Why?”
The Sixth Prince was unwilling to talk about being punished in the study hall. He pouted, “Don’t want to say, it’s a secret.”
Noble Consort Lan and Consort Yi both knew the inside story. Seeing her son serving someone else, Noble Consort Lan was naturally displeased and wanted to find fault with Consort Yi. However, she was always choked with anger by the other’s neither hot nor cold, indifferent attitude.
She could only comfort herself that it was children’s business, and as an adult, she wouldn’t interfere.
Emperor Chongzhao raised his eyebrows, glancing at his youngest son who was eating happily.
His intuition told him that this matter was related to this little brat.
But it wasn’t a big deal. He said: “Tonight there will be fireworks outside the city. At that time, follow me to the city wall to watch.”
“Wow!”
“Thank you, Father Emperor!”
These younger ones didn’t have the opportunity to go to the city wall to watch fireworks every year.
By the time the family banquet was over, it was already mid-afternoon. While waiting for the fireworks show in the evening, everyone split into several tables to play leaf cards in Fengwu Palace.
Madiao cards were the predecessor of modern mahjong, and push-nine was played with bone tiles in ancient times, shaking dice, usually appearing more in gambling houses. Qu Dubian understood these somewhat.
However, he didn’t know about leaf cards, which was a rather ancient way of playing.
He had Ye Xiaoyuan carry him around to look at several rounds, slowly figuring it out. Da Zhou’s leaf cards were divided into four suits: copper coins, white pieces, ten thousand strings, and hundred thousand strings.
The way of counting cards was very similar to mahjong.
The place where the consorts confronted each other had shifted from the back palace to the card table. Amid light laughter behind covered mouths, they showed no mercy in their moves, with hints of conflict.
Qu Dubian couldn’t join in, so he went to look at other people’s cards, occasionally accepting money to help the consorts cheat.
A true gentleman watches chess without speaking, but watching cards without calculating…
Before long, he, as a market disruptor, was chased away by his cheap father. Palace servants brought up a tray of clean mud, letting the four young princes and Princess Zhiyi play together.
Until it got dark.
After everyone had dinner, they went to the city wall together.
The emperor, high-ranking consorts, and all imperial heirs appeared here, with security at its maximum.
Openly, imperial guards were guarding around, and secretly, there were hidden guards.
Yi Shi’er didn’t deliberately hide his presence, after all, being mistaken for an assassin wouldn’t be good. His hiding place wouldn’t be discovered by others, but the secret guards could easily detect him.
One hand holding milk tea, one hand holding a book, and year-end bonus in his pocket.
The new secret guard, new Yi Shi’er, couldn’t stand it and made several hand gestures, meaning: This person has become increasingly slack since he stopped being a secret guard. Having accepted a prince as his master, his life is still controlled by the secret guards. Once the Seventh Prince no longer wants him, he’ll die. How pathetic.
The head of the Yi character secret guards glanced over there and replied: Master? He hasn’t accepted a master.
For a secret guard to accept a new master, they must remove their mask.
And as far as he knew, since Yi Shi’er had followed the Seventh Prince, he had never shown his true face to the Seventh Prince.
Bang—!
Brilliant fireworks exploded outside the city wall.
Yi Shi’er finally returned from his book, his gaze falling on the Seventh Prince.
Qu Dubian raised his head, the brilliant lights in the sky reflected in his clear black pupils.
Around him stood his cheap father, his brothers, his sister, Consort Xuan, Xiaoyuan and Xiaochun, Da Hei…
Qu Dubian exhaled a white breath, his eyes curved.
This was the first New Year he had spent with these people in this strange dynasty.
–
After the city wall fireworks ended.
Emperor Chongzhao didn’t call Qu Dubian back to Zichen Palace. He thought he would go to Shunning Palace with Consort Xuan, but Consort Xuan instead put him in a carriage.
Xin Qing, the head palace maid of Shunning Palace, ran over with a brocade box.
Qu Dubian: “Consort Xuan, where am I going?”
Surely his cheap father hadn’t lost his mind and decided to throw him away!
“You’ll know soon,” Consort Xuan smiled and opened the brocade box, “Look.”
A red scarf made of wool, knitted a bit crookedly.
“I knitted it myself. My knitting skills have deteriorated. There was a loose end I couldn’t finish properly, so Noble Lady Guo helped me tie it off. It was just finished, fortunately in time. It… it can still be considered something I made myself, right?”
Qu Dubian held the soft red scarf, his heart softening.
He wasn’t someone who was easily moved, but when surrounded by warm and sincere feelings, people gradually become softer.
He grinned and hugged Consort Xuan, “Consort Xuan is the best Consort Xuan!”
Consort Xuan put it around his neck and examined it for a moment, “Not bad, it fits. Don’t believe what His Majesty says about observing mourning. If I were your mother, as long as you’re happy, I’d be pleased with whatever you wear.”
Qu Dubian nodded heavily: “Mm!”
The carriage slowly stopped, and Consort Xuan said: “We’re here.”
Qu Dubian got off with her. This was the East Hua Gate, and surprisingly, the gate was open.
Outside, a carriage was already waiting. The Sword-Holding Marquis Xu Jin and Old Madam Hou Wu Siwan were anxiously waiting here, occasionally peering inside.
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
