The departure of her cousins from the capital in the morning did not make Yao Huang shed tears of sorrow, but at night, Prince Hui bullied her until she wept and wailed.
The most infuriating part was that Prince Hui's hands were used to support himself. If Yao Huang wanted to run, he had no way to stop her. But Yao Huang could not run; how could she abandon her disabled husband at a time like this? Thus, it turned into a situation where she cried and scolded him while having to obediently wait for him, like sitting in a wooden boat but unable to row it herself, only allowing the boat to carry her to the shore at its own fast or slow pace.
They finally arrived. Yao Huang used her last bit of strength to leave Prince Hui's boat, then collapsed at the foot of the bed. She did not care whether Prince Hui's legs and feet were near or far from her face, closing her eyes and not even wanting to bend a fingertip.
It was pitch black inside the bed curtains. Zhao Sui knew the princess would need a long time to recover before she could move, so he allowed himself to lie down as well.
When his breathing gradually calmed, Zhao Sui was the first to sit up. He picked up a towel and wiped his left leg where the princess had brushed past when she left.
After putting on his inner garments, Zhao Sui moved to the three-wheeled wheelchair placed by the bed and went to the washroom to clean himself up first. Water had already been prepared inside.
When he came out, there was still only the lazy breathing of the princess from the bed. Zhao Sui went to the table and lit two lamps with a fire starter.
Glancing at the bed, Zhao Sui pushed his wheelchair so his back was facing the princess and picked up a book lying on the table.
Another bucket of water was placed by the bed. This was a newly adjusted habit of the couple after Prince Hui got a wheelchair he could push himself. Prince Hui, who had lost the use of his legs but had great strength and recovered quickly, would go to the washroom to clean up. Meanwhile, the princess, whose legs were perfectly fine but who would become weak and limp every time, no longer had to get out of bed; she could clean herself up just by sitting on the edge of the bed.
A full half hour later, Yao Huang finally put her inner garments back on. She draped several towels tainted with Prince Hui's scent over the edge of the bucket and lay down comfortably on the inner side of the bed, feeling fresh and clean.
Prince Hui heard her. He pushed his wheelchair to the side of the bed and used one hand to lift the wooden bucket a step away. He waited for the wheelchair to catch up before lifting it another step. Taking a bit more time, he moved the wooden bucket entirely out of the canopy bed area.
Yao Huang watched him silently from inside.
It was not that she was bullying Prince Hui. Once, she had fallen straight asleep, but her sleep was light and she was awakened by the sound of water being lifted. Opening her eyes, she saw Prince Hui carrying the bucket out. Yao Huang instinctively sat up, rubbing her eyes and saying she would carry it. Prince Hui said there was no need and told her to just keep sleeping.
After it happened a few times, Yao Huang noticed that Prince Hui seemed to actually enjoy doing these things. Anyway, he did have the strength to carry the water; it was just a bit slower, so Yao Huang let him be.
After extinguishing the lamps, Prince Hui returned to the bed.
Yao Huang leaned into his embrace. Thinking of what happened by the lake at dusk, she laughed out loud, poking Prince Hui's chest as she said, I finally know what Your Highness looked like back then.
Zhao Sui: ...
The next morning, when Zhao Sui woke up, the princess was still sleeping soundly. Her eyes were slightly swollen from her two bouts of crying the previous night, but her cheeks and lips were still as fresh and tender as petals.
Zhao Sui took a few more glances before getting dressed and leaving.
When Prince Hui got out of his carriage in front of the palace gates, he encountered Prince Qing, who was arriving on horseback.
Prince Qing stood on the ground first, watching his second brother being steadily pushed down from the carriage by his attendants. Prince Qing smiled and said, Second Brother looks to have a good complexion today.
Zhao Sui did not know if he was just casually greeting him or if he had noticed something. They exchanged a glance, which counted as a greeting.
Prince Qing was merely speaking the truth. The second brother before him indeed looked much more refreshed than he had in the past few days. Even when Yao Lin and his three brothers all passed the imperial examinations at the same time, his second brother did not have this kind of radiant look.
Prince Qing could not guess the reason and did not waste time on it. In his eyes, the low-ranking military official positions of Yao Lin and his brothers were completely insignificant. After all, he had a maternal grandfather who was the Minister of Personnel, and his eldest brother had a father-in-law who was the Duke of Zhenguo. The power of his second brother's wife's family could not even compare to the maternal families of the secondary consorts in his and his eldest brother's estates, although his own two secondary consorts would not enter the estate until September.
The two brothers walked together along the palace path for a distance before parting ways to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works.
There was no morning court assembly today, but Emperor Yongchang's desk still had two tall stacks of memorials waiting for him to review. And this was after the Secretariat had helped organize and pre-reviewed them; he just needed to check off the ones he found appropriate, and personally annotate the ones that were not.
As he was reviewing them, Emperor Yongchang casually picked up another one and saw written on the cover: Memorial from Xu Dongyang, Magistrate of Lingshan County, Capital Region.
Emperor Yongchang slightly raised his eyebrows. He remembered that his second son had gone to Lingshan to escape the summer heat last year, and a murder case had even occurred in Lingshan at that time.
Emperor Yongchang opened the memorial and was even more surprised to find that what Xu Dongyang was discussing was actually the special Lingshan product, Solomon's seal, which his second son and his wife had brought back for him.
Xu Dongyang reported that he had cleared four fen of land in Lingshan last autumn to test planting Solomon's seal. When spring came this year and the mountain vegetation turned green again, the Solomon's seal Xu Dongyang had experimentally planted all survived. Those that were supposed to sprout sprouted, and those that were supposed to grow new root nodes grew new root nodes. Their growth was no different from the wild ones on the mountain. Therefore, Xu Dongyang believed that clearing wasteland in Lingshan to plant Solomon's seal was feasible. He requested court approval and an allocation of twenty thousand taels of silver to Lingshan County to encourage farmers to clear land and purchase Solomon's seal rhizomes.
The memorial had an annotation from the Left Chancellor: Submit to the Ministry of Works for verification; if true, it may be approved.
Emperor Yongchang then had someone call the Left Chancellor over and asked him, When was this Xu Dongyang transferred to Lingshan County?
The Left Chancellor immediately felt fortunate that he had specifically checked Xu Dongyang's previous performance evaluations because the matter Xu Dongyang reported was so novel. He replied, Answering Your Majesty, Xu Dongyang was a second-class Jinshi in the twenty-fifth year and was appointed as the Magistrate of Daming County in Jizhou. After completing his three-year term, he was transferred to Lingshan County the year before last.
Emperor Yongchang: How have his performance evaluations been these past few years?
Left Chancellor: They have all been excellent. He has done many practical things for the common people, including building bridges, paving roads, and overturning unjust cases.
Upon hearing this, Emperor Yongchang suddenly felt uncertain. This Xu Dongyang seemed like an official who could come up with the policy of clearing wasteland to plant Solomon's seal on his own. However, he had not thought of it in his first year after the transfer, but rather happened to think of it right after his second son went there to escape the summer heat. And his second son had a temperament of doing things quietly.
After dismissing the Left Chancellor, Emperor Yongchang called Yan Lun over and let him read Xu Dongyang's memorial.
Yan Lun read it carefully twice and pondered, If it can truly be cultivated, it is indeed a good method to enrich the people. It neither occupies farmland nor requires cutting down trees, which would ruin Lingshan's beautiful scenery as a famous mountain.
Emperor Yongchang: I am just puzzled. The Lingshan County office is over twenty li away from Lingshan Town, separated by an entire Mount Ling. Xu Dongyang is usually busy with official duties and only has one day off. Instead of climbing the main peak on the south side of Lingshan to enjoy the scenery, why would he think of taking a detour to the north peak to check where the Solomon's seal grows?
If the mountain peak where Xu Dongyang tested planting Solomon's seal had been located at the southern foot of Lingshan, Emperor Yongchang would not have suspected anything.
Yan Lun: Does Your Majesty mean that what Xu Dongyang stated in this memorial is untrue?
Emperor Yongchang looked at him and said, You might not know, but from June to August last year, Prince Hui was staying in Lingshan Town to escape the summer heat. When he returned, he even brought me their homemade nine-processed Solomon's seal.
Yan Lun: ...
Emperor Yongchang: Find a way to go and test Prince Hui.
Yan Lun: ...Yes.
Tucking the memorial into his sleeve, Yan Lun returned to the Ministry of Works and went about his tasks as if nothing had happened. It was not until noon that he carried his own food box over to Prince Hui's office.
Seeing that the Minister had arrived, Qingai and Feiquan excused themselves and went to the dining hall to eat.
Yan Lun chatted with Prince Hui as they ate. Just as he was about to finish his meal, Yan Lun suddenly pulled out Xu Dongyang's memorial, placed it in front of Prince Hui, and offered a mysterious smile.
Zhao Sui paused. "What is this?"
"It is about planting Solomon's seal," Yan Lun said. "Why must Your Highness play dumb? Xu Dongyang did not want to take all the credit, so he left plenty of hints in the memorial. Even the Emperor could see that it was Your Highness who guided him. If you do not believe me, why not see for yourself?"
Zhao Sui frowned slightly, took out a handkerchief to wipe his hands, and reached for the memorial.
Before he could even touch it, Yan Lun suddenly snatched the memorial back and ran off laughing.
