Chapter 104
Among the shops lining the street with lantern riddles, one attracted the largest crowd.
The shop, called Fragrant Memories, sold spices and incense. Its lantern riddles were notoriously difficult yet refreshingly unconventional, drawing scores of scholars and literati every Lantern Festival. It was always the most dazzling attraction of the night.
Yao Ying quietly tugged at the sleeve of the man beside her and pointed toward Fragrant Memories. “Husband, aren’t you going to give it a try?”
When the man beside her did not respond, she turned her head, only to find her husband staring motionlessly at something across the street, oblivious to everything around him.
Following Tan Shao’s gaze, Yao Ying found her own eyes drawn there as well.
The two people across the street were dressed like ordinary wealthy townsfolk, yet they stood out at a glance. Their features were simply too striking. No matter how plain their clothes, they could not conceal their radiance.
They were like the full moon in the night sky, making everyone else on the street seem like dim stars.
It was The Emperor, out for a stroll with the Empress. They were even wearing robes of the same color, with matching pieces of green jade adorning their hair.
Though Yao Ying had seen The Emperor only once, his aloofness and coldness had left a deep impression on her.
Later, she had repeatedly heard how indulgent and doting The Emperor was toward Second Miss Cui, yet she still could not imagine how someone so seemingly devoid of emotion, someone so accustomed to long silences, could communicate with Second Miss Cui.
If communication itself was difficult, how could they possibly get along?
As for Second Miss Cui, Yao Ying’s feelings were complicated.
Long before her engagement to Tan Shao, she had known that he had an exceptionally beautiful childhood sweetheart who was also his maternal cousin. Tan Shao had been determined to marry her, but because that cousin was sickly, Tan Shao’s mother had always opposed the match.
Born into the Yao family, Yao Ying had understood from a young age that the marriages of the Yao daughters were meant to benefit the family. She had never placed any hopes in romance.
When her elders chose Tan Shao for her, she agreed without much resistance, even knowing that his heart belonged to someone else.
Still, she could not help feeling that she had wronged Second Miss Cui, and she had wanted to make it up to her as best she could.
But she had been worrying unnecessarily. As Second Miss Cui, who could freely enter and leave Prince Wei’s residence, had no need of her pity or compensation.
Yao Ying had felt especially uncomfortable when her family, hoping to win Prince Wei’s approval, proposed that her own elder brother marry Second Miss Cui.
The Yao family was Prince Wei’s maternal relatives. The sons and daughters of the Yao family were his true cousins. Why, then, did Prince Wei make no distinction between outsiders and family?
But many things in this world simply could not be explained by reason. What good did resentment do? When someone as powerful and high-ranking as Prince Wei wanted something, one could only swallow one’s dissatisfaction.
Then Prince Wei became The Emperor, and the Yao family rose with him, becoming the officially recognized maternal relatives of The Emperor.
As for the rumors circulating about Second Miss Cui, Yao Ying gradually came to terms with them.
After Tan Shao passed the imperial examinations, she married into the Tan family with a lavish dowry and became Tan Shao’s wife.
She spent her days serving her parents-in-law dutifully and accompanying Tan Shao as he studied. Her life was peaceful and comfortable, and she had long since stopped thinking about Second Miss Cui.
When she heard that Second Miss Cui was pregnant with The Emperor’s child and that The Emperor intended to make her Empress, Yao Ying was genuinely filled with admiration.
From a maternal cousin to Empress—Second Miss Cui had impressive schemes and methods indeed.
It seemed that no man could resist a beautiful woman. The Emperor was no exception.
But how could being Empress be so easy? Without even mentioning more distant examples, even women from such illustrious families as Grand Empress Dowager Chen and Empress Dowager Xu had been unable to hold the position securely. The Cui family still needed Empress Cui to lift them up, so Empress Cui would only have more grievances she could not voice in the future.
Yao Ying shook her head, wondering how she might discreetly bring Tan Shao back to his senses. She did not want to embarrass him.
That was what she told herself, yet her gaze drifted across the street of its own accord and settled there once more.
She watched The Emperor go over and ask the price like any ordinary man, then pay for the lantern himself without relying on anyone else. He had bought a lantern for Empress Cui.
Even from that distance, Yao Ying could tell that The Emperor had never done anything like this before. Yet he was still doing it for Empress Cui.
And this was only the beginning. Empress Cui merely glanced toward a child selling candied hawthorn skewers, and The Emperor immediately understood what she meant. Without the slightest concern for the eyes of those around him, he bent down and asked the child where the candied hawthorns were being sold.
Only when the child pointed in their direction did Yao Ying realize that the stall was right behind her.
This time, she did not need to remind him. Tan Shao pulled her into the nearby sweet-soup shop.
Through the open doors and windows, they could see The Emperor support Empress Cui by the waist as they approached the candied-hawthorn stall.
Although he had deliberately softened his tone, The Emperor’s voice still carried a distant air. “Shopkeeper, one skewer of candied hawthorns.”
Empress Cui tugged at his sleeve. “Two!”
The Emperor’s large hand enclosed the Empress’s delicate one. “They’ll make your teeth ache.”
Empress Cui shook his arm. “I’ll save them for later.”
The Emperor coaxed her, “If you want some later, the kitchen can make them for you anytime. They taste best when they’re fresh.”
But Empress Cui said nothing. She merely gazed at The Emperor with a pair of limpid, dewy eyes.
The Emperor gave in. Taking the silver his attendant offered, he handed it to the shopkeeper. “Two skewers.”
The moment The Emperor took the two skewers of candied hawthorns, Empress Cui eagerly snatched one. She pushed away the hand he was about to wrap around her waist and urged him to stand in front of her. “Please, Fourth Young Master Zhao, block them for me while I have a little taste.”
The Emperor reached back and pulled her in front of him instead. “Just eat openly. Why hide behind me?”
Her eyes remained fixed on the candied hawthorns as she puffed out her cheeks. “What if someone recognizes us? Don’t I have a reputation to maintain?”
The Emperor raised a finger toward her forehead. Just before touching her, however, he relaxed his strength and gave her a tap so light it was gentler than a dragonfly brushing water. “It’s fine. If anyone recognizes us, we’ll just say our daughter was craving them.”
Empress Cui looked at him speechlessly. “Cousin… Fourth Young Master Zhao, why do you always make the child take the blame?”
The Emperor reminded her, “Don’t call me Cousin here.”
Empress Cui rolled her eyes. “I’m not an idiot.”
The corners of The Emperor’s lips curved up. “Isn’t Cui the Bold supposed to charge fearlessly ahead? Why are you afraid to eat candied hawthorns in public?”
Empress Cui truly stopped hiding. She picked up the skewer and bit off an entire hawthorn, chewing and swallowing it before speaking indistinctly. “You’re not afraid of ruining your dignity, so why should I be?”
The Emperor watched as the Empress swallowed three hawthorns in two or three bites and then bit off another whole one. Unable to restrain himself, he asked, “Aren’t they sour?”
“Not at all. They’re sweet, refreshing, and delicious.” Empress Cui held her skewer up to The Emperor’s mouth. “Try one.”
The Emperor turned away. “You eat first. I’ll have a small taste later.”
Empress Cui was puzzled. “How are you supposed to have a small taste later?”
The Emperor stared at her lips, smiling faintly without saying a word.
Empress Cui suddenly flushed. She ground her foot down on his shoe and, furious and embarrassed, mouthed two words at him.
Yao Ying saw them clearly.
“Lustful scoundrel.”
So The Emperor had just been making some lewd remark to the Empress?
Yao Ying continued staring long after the pair had walked away with their attendants, unable to regain her composure.
The Emperor and Empress before her were so lively and vivid that they completely overturned everything she had imagined.
The Emperor was not at all sparing with his words when he was with the Empress. He was even rather amusing. And in front of The Emperor, the Empress neither made herself small nor tried to please him with meek tenderness. Instead, she behaved entirely as she pleased.
The Empress still called him “Cousin-Uncle” in private. When she wasn’t calling him that, she addressed him directly as “Fourth Young Master Zhao.” Whatever she called him, The Emperor seemed to have no choice but to answer.
Out on the main street, The Emperor would make risqué remarks to the Empress, and once she understood what he meant, she would stomp on him and curse him right back.
Yao Ying was convinced that if they had been somewhere private with no one else around, the Empress would have long since grabbed The Emperor and started hitting him.
The Emperor and the Empress were truly a rare pair of loving spouses. They already had children, yet they were even more inseparable than newlyweds, their gazes seemingly linked by threads of honey.
Having witnessed it all with her own eyes, Yao Ying realized that none of the rumors about The Emperor and the Empress were true.
“Let’s go!” Tan Shao’s call from beside her pulled Yao Ying out of her tangled thoughts.
Meeting Tan Shao’s complicated, unreadable gaze, Yao Ying suddenly found herself unable to accept things as she once had. She had previously thought that living together with Tan Shao in courteous harmony was perfectly fine, but now she felt a lingering sense of injustice.
“She’s doing very well. You can rest easy now, can’t you?”
Tan Shao let out a soft sigh. “I knew it. If she wants something, there’s nothing she can’t accomplish.”
Yao Ying still couldn’t help adding, “You heard her too. This child is a girl. Who knows what things will be like a few years from now?”
Tan Shao gave the same reply as before. “As long as she wants it, everything will work itself out.”
Yao Ying badly wanted to ask, “If she’s doing so well, then what am I?” The words circled her lips several times, but in the end, she did not say them.
The couple continued strolling onward, but they had lost the enthusiasm they’d had when they first arrived.
Cui Lanyin, walking ahead, glanced back twice before tugging at The Emperor. “Indeed, Tan Shao and Seventh Miss Yao are behind us.”
The Emperor had naturally noticed them long ago. He asked casually, “Do you want to greet them?”
Cui Lanyin shook her head. “Do I look like I have nothing better to do?”
The Emperor asked jokingly, “Isn’t he your former lover?”
After finishing a skewer of candied hawthorn, her mouth sweet and refreshed, Cui Lanyin was in an excellent mood and did not take his teasing to heart. “What former lover? It was so long ago that it feels like something from a previous life.”
The Emperor looked at her. “With how utterly unromantic you are, I really can’t tell whether that’s a good thing or a bad one.”
“Who’s unromantic?” Cui Lanyin curled her lip at The Emperor. “As if you know anything about romance.”
It seemed that everyone in Yingcheng had come out to stroll the streets. They had not gone far before they ran into another acquaintance.
To the people hesitating over whether they should bow, The Emperor waved a hand. “We’re outside. There’s no need for formalities.”
Meng Huaizong still stepped forward with Meng Ru. The siblings respectfully performed a fist-and-palm salute and a curtsey.
Having her elder brother teach her had clearly made a difference. Meng Ru was much more reserved than she had been in Fu Ning Palace and was no longer so bold.
The Emperor’s majesty had also grown increasingly imposing. Once he put away the playful manner he showed in front of Cui Lanyin, the people around him instinctively kept their distance.
Meng Ru was no exception. After stealing one glance, she hurriedly lowered her eyes and retreated behind Meng Huaizong.
Meng Huaizong led Meng Ru to one side. As The Emperor and Cui Lanyin passed by, he suddenly said, “Cui… Madam Zhao, I have transferred Cui Chang back to Shanxi.”
“Thank you, Commander Meng.” Cui Lanyin turned and inclined her head in acknowledgment.
The second update of the night is here! [Let me take a look.]
