Seeing Prince Hui holding the snowball for a long time without throwing it, Yao Huang knew that the man could not bear to hit her.
This reminded Yao Huang of the snowball fights she had played in past years. Her own brothers, male and female cousins, the boys and girls in the neighborhood, and Li Tingwang, who would specially run over from another alley to play with them. From the age of four or five to fifteen or sixteen, Yao Huang would run wild with these people a few times every winter. When they were having fun, even her brother was willing to hit her with a snowball. Li Tingwang would even chase her relentlessly. Relying on his height, long legs, and fast running speed, he would press down on her shoulders and stuff snowballs down her collar, refusing to stop until she called him brother.
Yao Huang walked over, placed the large snowball from Prince Hui's hand onto the armrest of the wheelchair, and then sat in Prince Hui's lap. Hugging his neck, she asked, "I told you to throw it, why didn't you throw it at me?"
Looking at his princess consort's pouting, unhappy expression, Zhao Sui thought he had ruined her mood for a snowball fight. He lowered his eyes and said, "I really haven't played this before, so I might not be able to control my strength well."
Yao Huang still pouted: "Liar, you just didn't want to throw it at me. But by doing this, doesn't it make me look cruel and ruthless for what I just did to you?"
As she spoke, she gently touched Prince Hui's forehead, which had been hit by a snowball.
The princess consort's fingertips were warm, softly and gently stroking his temple. Zhao Sui raised his eyes, and right in front of him were the princess consort's clear, self-reproachful eyes and her rosy, soft lips set against the surrounding snow.
Suddenly, the princess consort looked into his eyes and explained in a low voice, "I thought you could dodge it. If I had known you wouldn't dodge, I wouldn't have had the heart to hit you in the face. At most, I would have thrown it at your shoulder or chest."
Zhao Sui: "It didn't hurt."
Yao Huang glared at him: "As if."
After saying that, she cupped Prince Hui's face, leaned in, and planted a firm kiss on Prince Hui's forehead. "There, consider it compensation for you. Moreover, you were the one who didn't want to retaliate, so you can't use this snowball to settle scores with me in the future."
Prince Hui nodded.
Yao Huang smiled, got up from the wheelchair, looked around the ice, and asked, "Do you really want to build a snowman?"
Zhao Sui: "I've never built one. If it's too much trouble, then forget it."
Yao Huang: "It's no trouble, please wait a moment."
Yao Huang carefully made her way to the shore, turned her back to Prince Hui, and blew a loud whistle toward the entrance of the back garden.
Qingai and Feiquan, who were keeping watch nearby, heard it and were momentarily unsure whether the whistle was blown by the prince or the princess consort, or why it was blown.
When a second loud whistle sounded, the two decided to go over and take a look.
Yao Huang waited for a while and caught sight of their figures from a distance, so she called out loudly, "You don't need to come over. I want to build a snowman, go fetch two shovels."
Upon hearing this, Qingai and Feiquan quickly turned around to fetch the items.
Yao Huang continued to push Prince Hui across the frozen lake. As she pushed, she actually got hot, so she unfastened her cloak and hung it on a low branch on the shore.
Looking at Prince Hui's back as he slid back and forth on the ice, Yao Huang thought to herself that tomorrow she would also bring a wheelchair and have Aji and the others push her.
The prince's estate was too large, so Qingai and Feiquan ran back panting. Qingai held a brand-new snow shovel in one hand, while Feiquan carried a basket of small items that might be used for building a snowman, such as leather gloves to protect their hands, carving knives, corner knives, and flat knives for sculpting the snowman, as well as black agate and red agate to serve as the snowman's eyes and lips. Feiquan had even run to the bamboo grove to break off a bamboo branch, just in case the prince and princess consort wanted to use bamboo leaves for the snowman's eyebrows.
Yao Huang first took the snow shovel from Qingai's hand. Seeing the pile of things Feiquan was holding in his arms, she secretly thought that even the snowmen in the prince's estate were more luxurious than those of the common folk!
"Alright, there's nothing else for you to do here. Go find a warm place to stay."
Having sent Qingai and Feiquan away, Yao Huang left the basket of temporarily unused items on the shore. She took a shovel herself and stuffed the other one into Prince Hui's hands. "Let's build the snowman's body first. We'll need a lot of snow."
Zhao Sui noticed the glistening fine sweat on his princess consort's nose, so he took off his own cloak as well.
Yao Huang went to the shore to hang his cloak on a tree alongside hers. When she turned around, she saw that Prince Hui had already started shoveling snow. He first shoveled the snow in front of his wheelchair forward, then pushed the wheelchair to move slowly. This was a four-wheeled red sandalwood wheelchair, which was both stable and easy to push on the ice.
Yao Huang stood right by the shore and walked toward Prince Hui while pushing her shovel. By the time she got close, the snow on the shovel was already quite high.
Yao Huang was having a great time shoveling snow. As she was shoveling, Prince Hui asked her to go break a tree branch for him.
After getting the branch, Prince Hui simply sketched the figure of a beauty wearing a cloak on a patch of untouched snow, and asked the princess consort beside him, "Build this kind?"
The cloak could cover the princess consort's figure. Since his legs were inconvenient, he could only take a shortcut and finely sculpt the snowman princess consort's neck, hair bun, and face.
Yao Huang: "..."
She took Prince Hui's branch and drew two round balls stacked together, one large and one small, next to the cloaked beauty Prince Hui had sketched. "I only know how to build this kind."
Zhao Sui: "..."
The princess consort suddenly bent down and kissed him on the cheek. "But I like the snowman you drew. As long as you have the patience, I'll accompany you to build this one."
Prince Hui thought to himself that today was a day of rest, and he had the whole day to spend building the snowman.
Next, Zhao Sui was responsible for shaping the snowman's body, while Yao Huang was in charge of handing him the various tools he needed from the basket and doing other odd jobs that were inconvenient for Prince Hui to do.
Just as the cloaked body of the beauty snowman had been outlined, around ten in the morning, Qingai came running over, saying that Prince Qing and his wife had come to visit.
Yao Huang looked at Prince Hui.
Zhao Sui thought of Prince Kang, who came to visit once a month. Prince Kang's chess skills were poor, so when he came again, it changed to pushing him around the garden to bask in the sun. Prince Qing's chess skills were decent, but Zhao Sui didn't want to waste time playing chess with him.
"Bring them here," Zhao Sui said as he continued to adjust the snowman's shape. Anyway, the snowman didn't have a head yet, so it wouldn't matter if Prince Qing saw it.
Qingai went to invite the guests.
Yao Huang wondered aloud, "What are they here for?"
If it was to pretend to be affectionate brothers, Prince Qing usually showed no such intention.
Zhao Sui: "Probably for the leather chair."
Yao Huang thought of the leather armchair she had made for herself. It was indeed enough to tempt Prince Qing and his wife. Although the couple could also have the carpenters in Prince Qing's estate figure it out themselves, how could that be as fast as coming to her directly for a ready-made one? After all, this chair was easy to describe, but it had taken the woodworking shop half a month to produce a finished product that could satisfy a noble like Prince Hui.
On the other side, Prince Qing led Zheng Yuanzhen first through the long mansion of Prince Hui's estate, and then followed Qingai onto the stone-paved path in the back garden where the snow had not been swept.
The snow scenery in Prince Hui's estate was beautiful, but Zheng Yuanzhen was in no mood to appreciate it. Once the stone path was covered with snow, it became slippery. She held onto Prince Qing's arm and walked carefully. The longer the path, the more impatient she became. Her heart was full of displaced anger toward Yao Huang, believing that Yao Huang was deliberately making things difficult for them. Otherwise, what reason was there to receive guests in the back garden amidst the ice and snow?
Prince Qing was preoccupied with the leather chair and didn't mind this bit of walking, but he guessed that his second brother must be boiling snow to brew tea in some pavilion.
Finally, the view ahead suddenly opened up, revealing Prince Hui and his wife building a snowman on the ice.
Prince Qing and Zheng Yuanzhen stopped in their tracks at the same time, sharing similar expressions of disbelief.
Yao Huang saw them too. Regardless of whether she actually liked them or not in her heart, Yao Huang could smile with absolute sincerity: "Third Brother, Sister-in-law, come over here! Look at how skillful your Second Brother is!"
What Prince Qing saw was his second sister-in-law in a red dress, smiling as beautifully as a flower. What Zheng Yuanzhen saw was Prince Hui in a wheelchair, dressed in a tea-white brocade robe, looking as handsome and elegant as jade.
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Prince Qing took Zheng Yuanzhen's hand and stepped onto the ice.
Yao Huang took a few steps forward to greet them. "With such heavy snow, the Prince and I didn't expect any guests. We felt playful and came out to build a snowman. When we just heard you had arrived, the Prince wanted to go to the front to entertain you, but I stopped him. We are all family, brothers and sisters-in-law; there is no need to stand on ceremony, wouldn't you agree?"
Zheng Yuanzhen smiled, while Prince Qing smiled very affectionately. "Second Sister-in-law is right. I don't consider Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law as outsiders either, otherwise I would have sent a calling card in advance yesterday."
Seeing Zheng Yuanzhen's tense expression, Yao Huang guessed she was worried about slipping and falling on the ice, so she took the initiative to link arms with her. "Come, let me help you, Sister-in-law."
Zheng Yuanzhen really wanted to refuse, but Yao Huang holding her arm was indeed more reassuring than Prince Qing holding her wrist, so she softly said a word of thanks.
The three of them arrived beside Prince Hui and the snowman.
Zhao Sui nodded to the two of them, but the movements of his hands did not stop.
Just as Prince Qing was about to ask his second brother what he was building, he suddenly noticed Zheng Yuanzhen looking at another spot on the ground. Prince Qing followed her gaze and found two snowmen drawn in the snow. One was a realistic snowman, and the other was just two circles. At a glance, one could guess whose hand each drawing came from, and the contrast between elegance and vulgarity was vividly displayed here.
Zheng Yuanzhen looked at the cloaked beauty drawn on the ground, then glanced at the cyan satin cloak she was wearing. Just as ripples began to stir in her heart, she raised her eyes to look at Prince Hui's profile and finally spotted a red cloak and a black cloak hanging on the tree branches opposite them.
Prince Qing was already teasing his older brother: "When we were young, I asked Second Brother to come out and play in the snow several times, but you always made excuses saying you had no interest. Now that you have Second Sister-in-law, you suddenly have the mood for it."
Zhao Sui did not respond. He had invited Prince Qing and his wife over hoping that they would see him and the Princess Consort busy and tactfully leave early.
His reaction made Prince Qing feel a bit awkward, and he subconsciously looked at his second sister-in-law.
Yao Huang had no choice but to smooth things over for Prince Hui: "Your Second Brother is the worst at taking a joke. If you talk to him about serious matters, he might say a few more words."
Prince Qing: "Second Brother does have a serious temperament. It just so happens that I actually do have a matter to discuss."
He patted Prince Hui's wheelchair, smiled at Zheng Yuanzhen, and then said to Yao Huang: "Yuanzhen heard me praising Second Brother's leather chair and thought it was wonderful too. We wanted to ask Second Sister-in-law if you could have your estate's craftsmen make a set of leather armchairs for us. Just tell us the number for how much silver it will cost; we certainly can't let Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law pay for it."
Zheng Yuanzhen: "..."
Yao Huang laughed: "Is that all? That's easy. I had the Yaju Pavilion on South Street figure out how to make the leather chairs. You can just go directly to their shop to place an order. You can tell them whatever kind of leather or satin upholstery you like. The craftsmen in our estate are at best only good for repairing beams and pillars; they are not as skilled as those who specialize in the woodwork business."
Prince Hui needed to present a leather armchair to Emperor Yongchang, and one with the same craftsmanship as hers would do. Yesterday at dusk, when Proprietor Fu received the message, he immediately picked out an armchair and handed it over. This showed that the shop already had a batch of finished products. A shrewd merchant like him had probably sent people to buy out the inventory of all the fur shops the moment he heard about her leather chair idea from Master Deng.
Hearing this, Prince Qing cast a meaningful glance at his second brother.
Clearly, there was a shop named Yaju Pavilion, yet yesterday morning in front of the main hall, he had insisted on claiming that it wasn't bought but modified for him by his second sister-in-law. Was he deliberately showing off how good his second sister-in-law was to him?
