The winter days were cold, so Yao Huang did not think much about leaving the palace. She either nestled in the Eastern Palace's side room, which was heated by the underfloor flues, teasing Jun-ge'er or reading storybooks, or she pushed Jun-ge'er to Empress Zhou's place for a short visit, or was called over by Noble Consort Du to play cards.
It was true that Noble Consort Du did not like Yao Huang, but it was also true that Yao Huang enjoyed the favor of the Emperor and Empress. Having been left out in the cold by Emperor Yongchang for a long time, Noble Consort Du wanted to bask in the Crown Princess's light. Since they did not get along well in conversation, playing cards became the only way the two could come together. As for Yao Huang, she liked playing cards and liked winning Noble Consort Du's silver, so she was willing to go over to Noble Consort Du's place, taking the opportunity to chat with her two other card partners, Consort Xian and Consort Rou.
The only female family members in the palace who could let loose in front of Yao Huang were these four imperial consorts. Yao Huang truly respected Empress Zhou. As for the other three, as long as they didn't deliberately target her, Yao Huang treated them like elder neighbors living in the same area whom she interacted with daily. Whether chatting about domestic affairs or playing cards to relieve boredom, she had to take the initiative to make life in the palace a bit more interesting.
On this day, the wind outside the window was exceptionally strong. If one went out wearing a cloak, the wind could blow half of it away. Yao Huang simply went nowhere, leaning on the couch in the side room to read storybooks. One moment Aji came in to pour her a bowl of hot water, the next Bailing came in to bring her a plate of melon slices, then Chunyan came in to help massage her shoulders, and then Qiuchan came in to take away the finished storybook and bring a new one...
Jun-ge'er did not like being cooped up in the room. Wrapped up like a ball, he sat in his stroller and let his wet nurse push him to the deer park to walk the dog and look at the deer.
Yao Huang turned two pages of the new storybook and saw an old woman selling roasted sweet potatoes inside. This instantly hooked her appetite. She hadn't eaten roasted sweet potatoes yet this winter, nor had she last year. Last year, she had just moved into the Eastern Palace and everything was fresh; the kitchen didn't make roasted sweet potatoes, and she had actually forgotten about this fragrant and sweet folk snack!
Yao Huang immediately sent someone to call Madam Gao from the Eastern Palace's small kitchen over, asking her if the kitchen had any sweet potatoes.
Madam Gao: The day before yesterday, I just collected five catties from the Imperial Kitchen. I was planning to sun-dry them for two days before boiling sweet potato porridge. Does Your Highness want to eat them now?
Yao Huang: Yes, I want to eat them roasted. Set up a charcoal basin, and then place one of those wire meshes used for roasting meat on top of the charcoal basin.
When Yao Huang was at her maiden home, she would directly bury the sweet potatoes in the stove to roast, but the skins of the ones roasted that way were too dirty. Later, after marrying into the royal family and eating many royal banquets, Yao Huang found out that the princely estates and the palace actually had a special wire mesh used for roasting meat.
Madam Gao understood and asked: Our charcoal basin and roasting mesh here can roast four or five at a time. Shall I roast four for Your Highness first?
Yao Huang calculated for a moment and said: Squeeze them in and roast five. Jun-ge'er and I will eat two, and then send one each to the Emperor, the Empress, and the Crown Prince.
Madam Gao agreed with a calm expression, but when she took her leave, her palms were sweating. She absolutely had to roast this batch of sweet potatoes well!
Half an hour later, Madam Gao brought the roasted sweet potatoes over. The two for the Crown Princess and the little young master were placed directly on a plate, while the other three were packed into separate food boxes. The outside of the food boxes was also wrapped in thick silk covers to ensure they wouldn't be cooled by the cold wind on the way.
Yao Huang arranged for three young eunuchs to run the errands.
It was around the Shen hour in the afternoon. The young eunuch from the Eastern Palace arrived outside the Crown Prince's office at the Ministry of Works, just in time to bump into the Minister, Lord Yan Lun, who was walking out backward.
Yan Lun curiously glanced at the tightly wrapped food box in the young eunuch's hands, sniffed, and faintly smelled a wisp of sweet fragrance.
Qingai took the food box and brought it inside.
When he opened the food box and took out the roasted sweet potato, which was still steaming on the plate, the rich, sweet fragrance instantly and domineeringly filled the entire office.
Zhao Sui: ...
He asked Qingai to withdraw, carried the roasted sweet potato sent by the Crown Princess over to the guest chair, and methodically tore open the scorched yellow, sugar-oozing sweet potato skin.
In the Imperial Study, Emperor Yongchang stared at another seemingly cheap snack sent by his filial daughter-in-law and had Eunuch Wang peel it for him.
Eunuch Wang held back his saliva and sighed with emotion: This old servant also ate this when I was young. It's very sweet.
Emperor Yongchang: I do not like to eat these overly sweet things.
Since he was a child, he hadn't liked drinking sweet potato porridge or red date porridge. After he ascended the throne, the Imperial Kitchen never made sweet porridge for him again.
Eunuch Wang did not defend the roasted sweet potato any further; he only revealed the golden-red roasted flesh inside for the Emperor to see.
There were chopsticks and a spoon nearby. Emperor Yongchang picked up the chopsticks, took a bite, and put it in his mouth. After exchanging a glance with Eunuch Wang, Emperor Yongchang ate more than half of it in one breath and rewarded the rest to Eunuch Wang.
At night, he mentioned this matter to Empress Zhou: I have lived for most of my life, but if my second son's wife hadn't sent this bite over, I wouldn't have known that roasted sweet potatoes and boiled sweet potatoes don't share the same sweetness at all.
Empress Zhou smiled and said: I actually ate roasted ones a long time ago. It's just that this snack's appearance is unrefined, so I never thought of having the Imperial Kitchen make it for Your Majesty to eat.
As for the food in the palace, even simple steamed cabbage could be arranged like a flower. A grayish, dingy roasted sweet potato was truly out of place.
Emperor Yongchang patted Empress Zhou's hand.
They were all people living within rules and etiquette. He could indulge his daughter-in-law's true nature, but he wouldn't necessarily be able to stand marrying an Empress with that kind of temperament. His second son was different; since childhood, he had never received a shred of affection that overstepped the rules. Marrying a straightforward and passionate Crown Princess was like suddenly encountering a blazing fire in the middle of a freezing winter, so naturally, he treated her as a treasure.
The winter days were short. By the time the Crown Prince returned to the Eastern Palace, night had already fallen.
Yao Huang sat on the warm couch playing with Jun-ge'er, waiting for the Crown Prince to return so they could eat together. Seeing the Crown Prince who had changed into his casual clothes, Yao Huang smiled and asked: Was the roasted sweet potato delicious? Even someone as small as Jun-ge'er ate more than half of one.
The little imperial grandson, who was held in the palm of Emperor Yongchang's hand, had his eyes light up after eating a bite of roasted sweet potato, just like a child from a poor commoner family eating meat for the first time.
Zhao Sui nodded slightly.
At night, when they got into bed and it was just the husband and wife, Zhao Sui reminded the Crown Princess: In the future, if there is any food, you can wait for me to come back to eat it. You don't need to send it to the duty room. The outer court has many people and mixed eyes; I'm afraid it will invite discussion.
Yao Huang: Discuss what? Discuss that the Crown Princess is thinking of the Crown Prince and sends him any delicious food at the first opportunity?
Zhao Sui: No, they might discuss that you don't distinguish between what's important and what's not, and that you disturb me while I'm on duty.
Yao Huang: How much time can eating a roasted sweet potato take up? It's not like I picked a grand occasion like a court assembly to send it. If it happens when Your Highness is busy, Your Highness can put it aside and not eat it. If you're not busy, you can just eat it in passing... Or is it that Your Highness doesn't like me sending things, and you're deliberately using the ministers to fob me off? If that's truly the case, Your Highness doesn't need to beat around the bush so much. In the future, even if I pick up two immortal elixirs, I won't share them with you; I'll just eat them myself and ascend to heaven.
Zhao Sui: ...I don't dislike it. I'm just afraid that your good intentions in taking care of me will unintentionally attract gossip from the outer ministers.
Yao Huang: Those who gossip over such trivial matters are definitely not good ministers. Why should I care about them? As long as Your Highness's heart felt a bit of sweetness when receiving the food, then my intentions were not wasted.
She leaned over the Crown Prince's body, looked at his handsome face, and asked: Tell the truth, Your Highness, did your heart feel sweet or not?
Zhao Sui lowered his eyes.
Yao Huang then went to prop open the Crown Prince's thin eyelids.
Zhao Sui was already familiar with the Crown Princess's little habits. Rolling over, he pinned her beneath him and whispered in her ear, "Seeing the food box is like seeing you."
Yao Huang snorted, "I'm not as sweet as roasted sweet potatoes."
Zhao Sui kissed the side of her neck, kissing her until the Crown Princess unconsciously gripped the brocade bedding. Only then did Zhao Sui interlock his fingers with one of her hands. "Eating too much of that makes one sick of it."
The Crown Princess was different. Married for nearly four years, he still craved her just as he did when they were newlyweds.
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, a heavy snow fell on the capital. The previous few times had only been scattered flurries, failing to completely blanket the ground in white.
Early the next morning, before the sky was fully bright, the Crown Prince was about to get up again.
Yao Huang wrapped her arms around him, refusing to let him go. "Your Highness has been practicing martial arts for almost a year. Take a break for these few days before the New Year."
The Crown Prince didn't mind the hardship of waking up early, but her heart ached for him.
Zhao Sui said, "I'm used to waking up early. If you don't let me practice martial arts, what am I supposed to do staying in bed when I'm already awake?"
Yao Huang: "..."
The Crown Princess immediately wrapped herself in the quilt and rolled to the inner side of the bed. She would rather let the Crown Prince freeze than sweat with him on a cold winter morning.
Once the Crown Prince left, he practiced until Yao Huang finished washing and dressing, right up to the time she could order the kitchen to serve breakfast.
Yao Huang and Jun-ge'er were both on the couch in the side room. Later, a low table would be placed on it, and the family of three would sit there to eat.
When the Crown Prince entered, Jun-ge'er smiled and looked at his royal father's face. Yao Huang first looked the Crown Prince up and down. Noticing his frozen, bright red earlobes, Yao Huang glared at him and pulled him onto the couch. She first touched his hands and then his ankles. His hands were reasonably warm, but his ankles were icy cold.
Yao Huang found it strange. "When Your Highness practices martial arts, shouldn't your whole body become warm?"
Zhao Sui looked at Jun-ge'er and said, "I was building a snowman for Jun-ge'er. I haven't finished it yet."
Yao Huang: "..."
She couldn't say anything more. She pulled a quilt folded by the window and draped it over the Crown Prince's legs.
The kitchen brought breakfast, which was steaming boiled dumplings. The Crown Prince, who had already warmed up, held Jun-ge'er and sat at the low table, personally feeding him.
Yao Huang sat next to the father and son. Before starting to eat, she reached out to feel the Crown Prince's ankle again.
Zhao Sui looked at the Crown Princess with a complex gaze.
Yao Huang said, "Your Highness deliberately torments yourself just to make my heart ache for you, don't you?"
The Crown Prince focused entirely on taking care of Jun-ge'er.
After the meal, the Crown Prince wanted to go back to the deer park to build the snowman. Yao Huang told him to go first. She wrapped Jun-ge'er tightly in a cloak, put two small leather mittens on his hands to keep them warm, placed him in a stroller, and pushed him to the deer park by herself.
The Crown Prince, now able to walk freely, built snowmen much faster than when he had been confined to a wheelchair. Perhaps with experience, his skills had become more proficient. After busying himself in the deer park for about two hours, he had already sculpted the smooth head, neck, and figure of a snowman resembling the cloaked Crown Princess, and was currently meticulously carving out the facial features.
Yao Huang pushed Jun-ge'er in a circle around the Crown Prince and the snowman. After stopping, she pointed at the snowman and said to Jun-ge'er, "This is the snowman your royal father built for you. Let's build a snowman for your royal father too, okay?"
Jun-ge'er nodded.
Yao Huang carried Jun-ge'er down and took him to roll a snowball. By the time the Crown Prince had finished carving the facial features of the Crown Princess snowman, Yao Huang and Jun-ge'er had also built a round snowman over four feet tall next to it.
After taking a nap in the afternoon, Yao Huang strolled back to the deer park, only to find that the round snowman she had built had been sculpted by the Crown Prince into a little Jun-ge'er wearing a small cloak.
How could there only be the mother and son? Yao Huang deliberately shoveled a pile of snow, preparing to build a Crown Prince snowman.
Footsteps sounded from behind. Yao Huang turned her head and saw the Crown Prince wearing a bamboo-green brocade robe.
Yao Huang ignored him and continued to build the body of her large snowman.
Zhao Sui squatted down to help.
Yao Huang asked, "Are we building an ugly one or a handsome one?"
The Crown Prince did not answer, but merely took out a few sheathed small knives used for sculpting snow from his sleeve.
When dusk fell, fine snow fluttered up again with the light breeze. The deer park in the Eastern Palace now had a family of three snowmen. On the cozy, warm couch in the rear hall, the Crown Prince sat at the low table writing the character for fortune. The Crown Princess held Jun-ge'er nearby, watching the character take shape stroke by stroke on the red paper. Occasionally, Jun-ge'er would try to snatch the brush from his royal father, and occasionally, the Crown Princess would secretly feel the Crown Prince's ankle underneath the table.
The Crown Prince patiently pressed down Jun-ge'er's little hands time and time again. As for the Crown Princess, he would pay her back at night.
