Because they had to attend a banquet in the palace that evening, after lunch, Yao Huang asked the kitchen to move the kneading board, dough, and meat and vegetable fillings for making dumplings to the main room in the backyard.
Yao Huang wasn't sure about distant places, but in the capital area, people would eat dumplings on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, symbolizing the changing of the year and bidding farewell to the old to welcome the new. Wrapping the dumplings into the shape of little gold ingots was also a good omen for attracting wealth and treasures. Getting up early in winter was difficult, so the common folks usually finished wrapping this meal of dumplings on New Year's Eve amidst the sound of firecrackers everywhere; the cold weather meant they didn't have to worry about the food spoiling.
The Yao family's dumplings were made by the family themselves every year. Yao Zhenhu would use a knife to chop the filling, Luo Jinhua kneaded the dough and rolled the wrappers, and the siblings Yao Lin and Yao Huang would help out for a bit before running to the street to watch the firecrackers...
Now that Yao Huang had left her parents, married her husband, and had her own little family, the holiday traditions of this small family had to be carried on by her and Prince Hui.
The kitchen had already chopped the dumpling filling and kneaded the dough. Yao Huang could easily finish rolling the wrappers and stuffing the fillings all by herself; Prince Hui only needed to paint on the side. Every family's New Year atmosphere had its own unique aspects. Yao Huang thought that having Prince Hui paint a New Year painting every year would be the unique New Year flavor of their little family.
Zhao Sui sat in front of the easel, looking at the princess consort who had already started getting busy, but he hesitated to start drawing.
Yao Huang glanced at him: "Why aren't you painting? Do you want me to just hold the dumpling and pose without actually wrapping it?"
Zhao Sui: "No, I'm thinking about where I should draw myself."
Drawing only the princess consort made for a very simple composition, but adding himself, Zhao Sui didn't know where to place his own figure. Sitting by the table and just watching was definitely inappropriate. Sitting by the table and accompanying the princess consort to wrap dumplings together... Zhao Sui had never done such a thing, and he couldn't bring himself to paint a pretending version of himself on the rice paper.
Yao Huang thought for a moment and smiled, "Just draw yourself sitting on the side reading a book, with Jinbao lying at your feet."
Zhao Sui looked down. Jinbao was indeed lying at his feet. At seven or eight months old, when Jinbao stood up, it was level with his knees when he was seated, and even lying on the ground, it was quite a conspicuous lump.
Hearing its masters mention its name, Jinbao pricked up its ears, its dark eyes darting back and forth between its two owners.
Zhao Sui looked at the princess consort again and began to paint.
Yao Huang wrapped the dumplings very quickly, while Prince Hui painted very slowly. When the couple was about to change clothes and prepare to enter the palace, Yao Huang walked behind the easel and found that Prince Hui had only finished painting the furnishings of the main room, her hair bun, jewelry, dress, embroidered shoes, and a pair of hands that were slender and beautiful even while wrapping dumplings. The facial features were still blank, and Prince Hui, from his figure to his wheelchair, was entirely empty. Jinbao, however, had been drawn lying on the side early on.
Yao Huang asked curiously, "When will Your Highness be able to finish painting?"
Zhao Sui: "Tonight."
This year's New Year's Eve shouldn't be left to be completed next year.
.
New Year's Eve was a night of reunion. Tonight's palace banquet only included Emperor Yongchang and his imperial concubines, children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren. Even Princess Fucheng wasn't invited.
With fewer people, the whole extended family sat in the central hall of the Qianyuan Palace. Emperor Yongchang and Empress Zhou shared a table, the three princes and their consorts shared tables, and the unmarried First Princess, Second Princess, and Fourth Prince each had their own table. The three children of Prince Kang's mansion were accompanied by their wet nurses, each assigned a small table.
Although the ministers did not come, at the annual New Year's Eve palace banquet, Emperor Yongchang would bestow several dishes upon his most trusted ministers, favored noble families, and newly rising stars who had made great political achievements this year, to show imperial favor.
On such a day, Emperor Yongchang still kept state affairs in mind, asking Prince Qing, "Are all the scholars who came to the capital in advance to prepare for the examinations settled down?"
The spring civil service examination was scheduled for the ninth day of the second lunar month. To prevent travel delays due to minor illnesses on the road, and to adapt to the weather and environment of the capital in advance, provincial graduates from afar whose families did not lack accommodation money would usually rush to the capital before the New Year. They would either stay in inns or rent a quiet house. However, there were many unscrupulous merchants in the capital who deliberately raised room prices to astronomical figures taking advantage of the spring examination, and even shady merchants who disguised themselves as landlords and ran away after collecting the money.
To ensure that the graduates could prepare for their exams with peace of mind, the Ministry of Rites specially dispatched officials to take charge of this matter. On one hand, they provided the graduates with a list of reliable inns and landlords; on the other hand, they kept an eye out for those shady merchants who wanted to fish in troubled waters, promptly reporting them to the Mayor of Jingzhao for arrest and punishment.
Prince Qing stood up and said, "They are settled. Today, I even took a tour of the various inns in the capital. For a few who were sick, I sent people to call for doctors to take a closer look. For a few who were from impoverished families and wore thin clothes, I distributed some old clothes to them. As for a few others who were dazzled by the prosperity of the capital, I also gave them a warning."
Emperor Yongchang nodded.
The third son handled the spring examination matters quite diligently. Last summer, he even proposed that the imperial court provide varying amounts of silver subsidies to students from poor families who passed the local and provincial exams, including supporting measures like the selection of these poor students, to ensure that talented people wouldn't be burdened by their family's financial situation and lose the chance to travel to the capital for the examination.
"There will be more scholars coming to the capital after the New Year, so continue to pay attention."
"Yes!"
Emperor Yongchang waved his hand, letting Prince Qing sit down.
Prince Qing sat down nonchalantly, not looking toward his two older brothers.
Seeing Prince Qing stealing the spotlight, Imperial Consort Du was unhappy. She looked at Prince Hui, who was just quietly eating at the banquet: "Prince Hui has been at the Ministry of Works for over two months now. Have you shared any of your imperial father's burdens?"
She naturally knew that for the past two months, Prince Hui had been cooped up in his office reading files. Aside from occasionally calling a few minor officials over to ask about some trivial matters related to old construction projects, he had made no progress. He probably didn't even recognize all the officials in the Ministry of Works yet. Thus, she deliberately humiliated Prince Hui in public, trying to provoke him into hurrying up and doing something, so as to prevent Prince Kang and Prince Qing from always stealing the limelight.
Imperial Consort Du had it all figured out. Before her fourth son grew up, she would make good use of Prince Hui to dampen the spirits of Prince Kang and Prince Qing.
Emperor Yongchang glared at her, but it wasn't a good time to make excuses for his second son. He looked at his second son with slight concern.
Zhao Sui said frankly, "I am untalented and have not yet achieved anything."
Imperial Consort Du: "Then you should hurry up. Prince Qing is younger than you and only gets a salary of five taels, yet he has done so much. As an older brother taking twenty taels, how can you just sit idly in the Ministry of Works all day?"
Zhao Sui was just about to say yes, when the princess consort's crisp, smiling voice suddenly rang out beside him: "Imperial Mother's words are wronging the Second Highness. The reason the Second Highness read the files first upon arriving at the Ministry of Works is because he is humble and eager to learn, well aware of the principle that haste makes waste. He wants to fully understand the procedures of the Ministry of Works before properly sharing Imperial Father's burdens. Otherwise, if he went and ordered the officials around without understanding anything, wouldn't he just be doing a disservice?"
Imperial Consort Du pursed her lips. This wretched girl really dared to talk back to her about anything!
Yao Huang continued, "Furthermore, Your Highness must not think that the Second Prince is just casually flipping through the files as if reading storybooks. I also misunderstood his duties as being easy at first, but after asking, I found out that the Second Prince has actually memorized the material price lists and the performance evaluations of the participating officials for every construction project he has reviewed. And what is the significance of this? Memorizing material prices allows him to roughly estimate the required funds when taking on new projects. Memorizing the officials' performance evaluations lets him know which officials truly have the ability to bear the burdens entrusted to them by the imperial court. Sigh, there are so many intricate details; just listening to the Second Prince explain them makes my head ache. It is all thanks to Your Highness teaching him so well since childhood, instilling such patience and perseverance in him. You should be the one who understands his hard work the best."
Imperial Consort Du: "..."
Empress Zhou and the others, who truly had no idea what Prince Hui could possibly achieve by being cooped up in the Ministry of Works all day flipping through files: "..."
Emperor Yongchang smiled. Before the court holiday, he had met with his second son privately, suspecting that he was deliberately keeping a low profile to avoid his brothers' suspicions. His second son's explanation was as simple as always, saying he was learning the procedures of the Ministry of Works. With just those few words, Emperor Yongchang thought his son was brushing him off. Now, hearing his daughter-in-law's crisp and rapid-fire explanation, he finally understood his second son's careful deliberation and strategic planning.
"Alright, let us enjoy the banquet."
Emperor Yongchang did not continue to dwell on this matter.
Yao Huang smiled brazenly at the glaring Imperial Consort Du. Prince Hui might not care about these empty vanities, but she would not indulge Imperial Consort Du's nasty habit of dragging Prince Hui out to humiliate him for no reason. She wasn't even his biological mother. As long as she and Prince Hui were in the right, the only one who would end up looking bad was Imperial Consort Du.
After smiling, Yao Huang picked up a piece of deer tendon from the braised phoenix feet and deer tendon dish for Prince Hui. Phoenix feet were actually chicken feet; the noble Prince Hui certainly wouldn't eat them, but Yao Huang wasn't so fussy. She would eat any dish the imperial kitchen dared to serve, and she could nibble on chicken feet both deliciously and gracefully.
After the palace banquet ended, there was a grand fireworks display. The palace fireworks were made by the most skilled craftsmen of the Great Qi Dynasty. Aside from gorgeous fireworks shaped like peonies and carp, they actually set off a Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl display that covered almost half the night sky. Yao Huang held the Eldest Princess's hand, exclaiming repeatedly, feeling that her horizons had been broadened once again.
Once all the fireworks concluded, the three pairs of princes and princesses who lived outside the palace were to leave.
Prince Kang, carrying the sleeping little heir, could no longer come over to fight for the wheelchair, so he took large strides walking beside it.
At first, the three brothers walked in front. Later, Prince Qing noticed that his two sisters-in-law were chatting lively in low voices, while Zheng Yuanzhen looked rather pitiful walking by herself on the side. He slowed his pace, stood beside Zheng Yuanzhen, and kept her company.
Exiting the palace gates, the three couples each boarded their respective carriages.
After sitting down, Yao Huang gave Prince Hui a mysterious smile and pulled out a handful of handheld sparklers from her sleeve.
Zhao Sui: "... Where did you get those?"
Yao Huang: "I just asked a little eunuch to run an errand and fetch them for me."
With that said, Yao Huang took out a fire starter, hooked up the side window curtain, and then held a sparkler outside, lighting it with the fire starter.
The sparkler crackled as it burned, lighting up a patch of the night and reflecting a rosy glow onto the princess's smiling face.
Yao Huang told Prince Hui to light one too, having already hooked up the window curtain on his side.
Prince Hui didn't want to, but the princess forcefully shoved a sparkler into his hand and placed his hand on the window sill.
The fire starter approached, and the sparkler lit up.
Zhao Sui looked at the dancing light, and for some inexplicable reason, thought of his third brother running past him showing off with a sparkler when they were young.
.
Prince Hui wanted to paint, but he painted too slowly. Yao Huang kept him company for over an hour before she couldn't hold on any longer and slipped into bed first.
An unknown amount of time passed before Prince Hui came over. His slightly cool lips landed on the side of her neck, gradually growing hot.
It was a very long session, leaving Yao Huang burning and parched. She draped a piece of clothing over herself and got up to pour some water. Catching a glimpse of the hazy outline of the easel in the dark, Yao Huang lit a lamp and leaned in to look.
On the rice paper, the princess had her head slightly lowered as she wrapped dumplings; she was smiling, as if recounting something amusing.
Prince Hui was sitting not far away in his red sandalwood wheelchair, holding a book in his hand, with Jinbao lying at his feet. But Prince Hui was neither reading the book nor teasing the dog; his eyes were looking at the princess, and though he wasn't smiling, his gaze was gentle.
Yao Huang looked at it for a very, very long time.
Afterward, she extinguished the lamp, put down the teacup, and walked to the bedside with a mouthful of water, leaning over to feed Prince Hui, who had painted himself looking quite handsome as well.
