The task of repairing the residences for the two princesses was generally quite leisurely, so as soon as the clock struck five in the late afternoon, Zhao Sui left his office in the temporary palace.
The Emperor rarely visited this temporary palace. To avoid extravagance and waste, the outer court offices were built far less spacious and grand than those in the capital. However, those who could accompany the Emperor to escape the summer heat were all high-ranking civil and military officials, along with errand-running clerks, so they didn't need much space anyway. The Ministry of Works, for instance, only had a front and back courtyard. Minister Yan Lun took it upon himself to allocate a large, separate room for Prince Hui.
Earlier, when Emperor Yongchang decided to come to the temporary palace for the summer, he had issued a decree to the Ministry of Works, ordering them to arrange for craftsmen to alter the door sills around the palace. Citing a shortage of manpower, Yan Lun then asked Prince Hui to provide a few craftsmen of his own to modify the sills of his residence and office at the palace...
Thus, Prince Hui was able to move around the temporary palace just as smoothly as he did in the imperial palace.
Qingai pushed the wheelchair while Feiquan locked the door. The master and his two servants left the Ministry of Works at an unhurried pace.
On the palace path leading to the rear halls, they ran into Prince Kang.
As soon as Prince Kang approached, Qingai tactfully stepped away from the wheelchair. He knew that his master would never bicker with Prince Kang over such trivial matters.
Prince Kang waved his attendants away and pushed his second brother forward alone, smiling as he asked, "Third Brother wiped out those bandits as soon as he arrived in Tanzhou. Have you heard about this, Second Brother?"
Important military matters required secrecy, but a victory report like this would naturally spread among the officials once their imperial father had read it.
Prince Hui, who had spent the entire day at the Ministry of Works with no one but Yan Lun coming to chat with him, shook his head.
Prince Kang: "..."
Thinking of his second brother's bookish nature, Prince Kang lowered his voice and said, "Others only know that Third Brother won. But I saw the memorial sent by the Secretariat to the Ministry of Revenue for approving compassionate funds. Guess how many casualties Third Brother suffered in this bandit extermination?"
Zhao Sui cooperatively asked, "How many?"
Prince Kang: "Seven Jingzhou naval soldiers, and nine hundred and seventy-seven Tanzhou local troops."
Zhao Sui frowned. He remembered that when this matter was brought up at the court assembly earlier, it was said that the Tanzhou bandit group only numbered a thousand men.
Prince Kang continued to reveal the details from Peng Daji's memorial, saying that those local troops were all killed because of a traitorous concubine beside Prefect Feng.
Finally, Prince Kang sighed, "Although the bandit menace has been eliminated, this kind of victory—hurting the enemy by eight hundred but losing a thousand of our own—truly makes one's heart heavy."
Zhao Sui did not respond to his heaviness.
A conversation needs a back-and-forth to continue. With him acting like this, Prince Kang felt awkward. After walking a few steps, he forced a topic about the scenery of the Northern Garden. Even then, he would speak a long string of words only to receive a few murmurs of agreement from Prince Hui. By the time they reached Qinghui Hall, where he resided, Prince Kang was almost impatient to hand the wheelchair back to Qingai.
Qingai continued to push Prince Hui back to Yunshan Hall in the front.
Eunuch Cao came out smiling to welcome them, explaining on behalf of the absent Princess Consort, "Her Highness has also just returned and just called for bathwater."
Zhao Sui nodded.
Arriving at the main room in the front courtyard, Zhao Sui saw a vase of colorful wildflowers on the long table. Red, purple, yellow, and white—most had only a few small petals. A single flower pulled out would seem quite ordinary, paling in comparison to the carefully cultivated famous blooms in the princely manor's garden. But clustered together in such a large bunch, they gave off a lively, bustling sense of vitality.
Eunuch Cao said, "Her Highness picked these from outside, saying she wanted to show Your Highness something fresh."
Before the water room delivered the hot water, Prince Hui stayed there admiring the flowers.
After bathing, Zhao Sui changed into casual clothes and went to the backyard.
The Princess Consort did not come out to greet him. When Aji lifted the curtain to the eastern side room, the sight of the Princess Consort lying vertically on the couch, her long black hair cascading over the edge, entered his field of vision. Zhao Sui immediately raised his right hand.
Seeing this, Qingai stopped in his tracks, lowered his head, and backed out.
Aji continued holding the curtain up. Once Prince Hui pushed his four-wheeled wheelchair inside himself, she let it drop.
Yao Huang had only just lain down. Her bones were feeling so comfortable that she didn't bother with empty formalities with Prince Hui. Watching him slowly approach while pushing his wheelchair, Yao Huang smiled at him.
In Prince Hui's eyes, although the Princess Consort had disheveled hair and an ungraceful lying posture, her cheeks were flushed and her dark eyes were dewy. Her thin summer clothes clung softly to her body, outlining the undulating curves of her figure. As he got closer, the clear fragrance of floral dew from her body and hair drifted over, engulfing him like an invisible mist.
"Why are you lying like that?" Zhao Sui asked.
Sitting in his wheelchair, Prince Hui was a head taller than the Princess Consort lying on the couch, adding a touch of authoritative reproach to his downward gaze.
Yao Huang blinked and said innocently, "I don't want to either, but I don't know what's wrong today. I only rode my horse for a little while, and my waist is incredibly sore."
Zhao Sui: "..."
He looked away and, after a moment, told the Princess Consort to close her eyes.
The Princess Consort might be bold, but as long as it wasn't a matter of strict rules, she would always do whatever Prince Hui told her to do. This included those nights when she would only verbally cry and scold him, while her body remained entirely cooperative. Little did she know that the more she acted this way, the greedier Prince Hui became, and the greedier he became, the more helplessly she cried.
Zhao Sui watched her closed eyelashes as he pushed himself up from the wheelchair and moved onto the couch, sitting slightly toward the middle. Looking again at her bold and charming posture that seemed to invite him to pluck her, Prince Hui fell silent for a moment. He continued shifting until he reached the southernmost edge by the windowsill, and then finally said, "You can open them."
Yao Huang could hear where Prince Hui was. She reached back to touch her hair, which was half-damp and half-dry, and continued lying there. Using her right foot, which was bare of socks but freshly washed and perfectly clean, she poked Prince Hui's leg. "Why are you sitting so far away?"
Zhao Sui grasped the Princess Consort's foot, his four fingers wrapping around her instep while his thumb rubbed against her sole. After only two rubs, she hastily pulled her foot away, curling her legs up as if afraid he would grab her again.
Her skirt hem was propped up high by her knees. Prince Hui turned his head toward the window.
Seeing this, Yao Huang quickly stepped on him again. "Why is Your Highness ignoring me?"
Prince Hui recalled her previous question and said, "The fragrance in your hair is too strong."
Yao Huang hooked a strand of black hair and brought it to her face, sniffing it. "It's fine. I don't like overly heavy scents either."
Not wanting her to dwell on the matter, Zhao Sui asked, "Did you go out to play during the day?"
The Princess Consort was a talkative person. Prince Hui only needed to toss out a topic, and she would excitedly recount where she had gone today and what novel sights she had seen.
Yao Huang absolutely loved the Northern Garden. She had run around all day and only managed to explore one corner of it. It would probably take her half a month of continuous play to superficially tour all the mountain, water, and garden landscapes within it.
Growing happier the more she spoke, Yao Huang knelt and sat beside Prince Hui, hugging his shoulders. "It's a good thing I married Your Highness, otherwise I would never have been able to enter the Northern Garden in this lifetime."
All the landscapes and palaces in the entire Northern Garden were enclosed by a high ring of city walls. Let alone trespassing, commoners couldn't even catch a glimpse of what it looked like inside.
Being able to make the Princess Consort this happy put Prince Hui in a very good mood as well.
Yao Huang suddenly thought of something and asked in a low voice, "When I was riding with my two younger sisters, we ran into Imperial Father. Did something happen up ahead? I saw that Imperial Father did not look very well, and he even scolded me. Good thing I am brave, otherwise I would still be trembling with fear right now."
Zhao Sui asked in return, "Why did Imperial Father scold you?"
Yao Huang casually explained. She valued her life very much; the hill she chose had a gentle slope, and she even had Ni Guang run it twice alone before she dared to sit on the horse and charge down.
Zhao Sui did not know exactly how gentle the slope of the hill was, but he also pictured the scenario where Ni Guang might stumble and throw the Princess Consort off the horse. He said sternly, "From now on, you are not allowed to ride your horse down from the mountains."
Yao Huang bit his shoulder. "Fine, it is one thing for Imperial Father to scold me, but now Your Highness is scolding me too."
Zhao Sui turned his head, meeting the Princess Consort's round, bright black eyes, her row of small teeth still biting him.
Prince Hui looked out the window again, held her hand, and said, "I am not scolding you. I am just afraid you will get hurt from playing too recklessly."
Yao Huang replied, "Alright, next time I will not ride a horse. I will run down the mountain myself. The wind blowing past at that time is the most comfortable. Wait until your day off, I will take Your Highness to experience it."
Zhao Sui thought for a moment and instructed, "It is fine if you want to play these next two days, but remember to pick places farther away from the temporary palace. Behave yourself if you run into Imperial Father."
Yao Huang asked in surprise, "Did something really happen?"
Zhao Sui did not want to ruin the Princess Consort's mood for fun, so he only said that an official had not handled an errand properly. Moreover, he was not sure if Imperial Father valued his third brother's military merits more, or the lives of those nine hundred-plus private soldiers more. Perhaps Imperial Father was just in a bad mood because of something else.
The next morning, Zhao Sui followed the civil and military officials to Imperial Father's side for a small morning court session. He found that Imperial Father's expression was as usual, and he even announced that there would be a bonfire banquet on the evening at the end of the month. This showed that Imperial Father had already let go of the matter that had briefly ruined his mood. Zhao Sui no longer had to worry that the Princess Consort's playful antics in the Northern Park would accidentally offend Imperial Father's eyes.
The Princess Consort ran wild outside during the day, and when she returned in the evening, she looked completely exhausted. Prince Hui had been considerate for two nights, and finally, on the eve of his day off, he embraced the Princess Consort once again.
If it was just one round, Yao Huang was not very afraid of him. But in the middle of the night, when Prince Hui's large hand reached over again, Yao Huang started to push him away. "We agreed that I would take Your Highness out to play tomorrow. I have picked several places. Do not make me unable to get up in the morning..."
Zhao Sui said, "It is just you and me; it does not matter if we set off a little later."
Yao Huang muttered, "...Lecher."
Zhao Sui asked, "...What?"
But the Princess Consort refused to repeat it.
Young people had things young people were passionate about. The fifty-five-year-old Emperor Yongchang's interest in women was far less than before, especially when he was not in a good mood.
But the person who had made him angry had not returned yet, so Emperor Yongchang continued to hold back his anger instead of taking it out on others.
On this rare day off, after having breakfast in the early morning, Emperor Yongchang took a group of guards and several dukes and marquises of a similar age whom he had selected yesterday to go horseback riding. When they were tired of riding, the ruler and his ministers could chat freely about the past. This was a companionship that his children or concubines could not give him.
After the mid-morning hours, the sunlight began to heat up. Just as Emperor Yongchang was preparing to ride to the shore of the North Lake to take a boat to the island palace to enjoy the coolness, he saw from a distance two fine horses heading towards the western hills, followed by a carriage.
Of the two people on horseback, one wore a red dress and the other wore a white robe.
From such a distance, horses were easier to recognize than people. Emperor Yongchang first recognized Ni Guang under his second daughter-in-law, and then looked at the white-robed figure riding the black horse.
At this glance, Emperor Yongchang's eyes went straight.
Zhao Sui noticed that his Imperial Father had delayed dismounting to board the boat and was still looking their way. He had no choice but to stop the carriage, change direction with the Princess Consort alone, and go to pay his respects to his Imperial Father.
Prince Hui on horseback had an upright, handsome, and otherworldly figure.
The dukes and marquises beside Emperor Yongchang all dismounted to bow to Prince Hui and his wife.
Zhao Sui, looking down from his horse, said, "Dispense with the formalities."
Yao Huang smiled at Emperor Yongchang from behind. "Does your daughter-in-law still need to dismount to bow to you?"
Since the husband and wife came together, if she alone dismounted, it would be somewhat awkward for Prince Hui.
Emperor Yongchang said affectionately, "We see each other every day, there is no need for so many empty formalities. Where are you two planning to go?"
Zhao Sui answered, "To the foot of the mountain to enjoy the cool breeze."
Emperor Yongchang hesitated for a moment, but still waved his hand, letting the young couple go play on their own.
