Considering Prince Hui's usually bland diet, Yao Huang ordered ten savory roasted skewers for him, asking the stall owner to wrap them in two layers of oiled paper.
The weather was warm, so the outside of the oiled paper was still hot when she returned to the prince's manor.
The main gate was too far from the Bamboo Courtyard. In order to deliver the skewers to the prince as quickly as possible, Yao Huang asked Zhang Yue to go ahead to the stables and fetch her horse, Ni Guang. As soon as she got out of the carriage, Yao Huang mounted the horse directly, holding the reins in one hand and clutching the oiled paper package to her chest with the other. The stone-paved main roads and small paths were all smooth and even, and Yao Huang soon arrived outside the Bamboo Courtyard.
Hearing the sound of hooves, Feiquan peered out through the crack in the door. He saw that on the dim, quiet path shaded from the setting sun by the emerald bamboo on both sides, a jujube-red steed was already close at hand. The princess consort, dressed in a white top and green skirt, sat on horseback with a smile. Her full cheeks looked exactly like the bright moon on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, illuminating her surroundings a little.
Feiquan was actually stunned. It wasn't until the princess consort, who seemed to have noticed him, tilted her head to look at the crack in the door that he snapped back to his senses. He quietly opened the door and slipped out like a loach.
Yao Huang halted her horse and raised her chin toward the courtyard. "Has the prince eaten?"
"He ate a little while ago," Feiquan replied.
"Has he gone to sleep?" Yao Huang asked.
"Not yet. He might be reading," Feiquan said.
After Qingai cleared away the dinner, the prince would have half an hour to digest his food. They couldn't see what he did during that time. Then, Doctor Liao would come over to massage the prince's legs. After the massage, the prince would clean himself up, and only then would he go to sleep.
"Does the princess consort need anything?"
"I brought some food for the prince. Should I give it to him in person, or is it fine to just give it to you?"
From the way Feiquan slipped out the door and his deliberately lowered voice when replying, Yao Huang judged that the prince strongly disliked being disturbed. She figured she probably wouldn't be able to see the prince tonight.
Feiquan looked at the oiled paper package in the princess consort's hand and carefully considered his words. "Please wait a moment, Princess Consort. Your servant will go in and inform the prince."
Yao Huang smiled and nodded, thinking to herself how mysterious this Bamboo Courtyard was. Even when she came, she could only wait outside and wasn't even allowed into the courtyard.
In the backyard, Zhao Sui sat on a rattan chair placed in the middle of the eastern railing, watching the warm glow of the setting sun dancing on the tips of the bamboo grove opposite him.
Feiquan called out for the prince under the eaves of both the east and west rooms. Receiving no response, he guessed the prince was in the backyard, so he raised his voice. "Your Highness, the princess consort requests an audience!"
Zhao Sui looked toward the back door of the main hall. He paused for a moment before saying, "Come in."
Feiquan pushed the door open, closed it, and then went to the backyard. Looking at his master, who was no longer bathed in the setting sun, he said softly, "The princess consort brought some food for you. Perhaps fearing it would get cold, she specially rode Ni Guang over. What do you think?"
"Wheelchair," Zhao Sui said.
Feiquan called Qingai to help lift the heavy wheelchair over, and then they supported the prince into it.
Yao Huang stood by the path observing the bamboo. After waiting for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, Feiquan came to open the door and smilingly invited her in.
For some reason, Yao Huang thought of her mother's loud voice. Whenever her father spent too long visiting neighbors and her mother happened to need him for something, her mother would stand in the courtyard and shout directly, "Old Yao, come back!" Once her voice carried over, her father would run back as fast as he could, as obedient as could be.
The prince was indeed different. Even the princess consort requesting an audience was so troublesome.
Walking up to the courtyard gate, Yao Huang saw Prince Hui sitting by a square stone table, on which a tea set was placed.
Yao Huang looked around. To the north were three main rooms, with the door to the central hall tightly shut. The rooms on the east and west sides, whose purposes were unknown, also had their doors closed.
The bamboo grove blocked the light from outside, making the courtyard only slightly brighter than the bamboo path outside. Coupled with a lifeless, pale-faced male master and two eunuchs who didn't even dare to breathe loudly, Yao Huang, who had just left the bustling main street, had the illusion of having accidentally wandered into a land of demons and ghosts from a storybook.
Soon, Feiquan and Qingai hid in the blind spots outside the side rooms, one to the south and one to the north, looking exactly like little imps helping a great ghost block the escape routes of the living.
Zhao Sui watched his princess consort look left and right, front and back. The small movements she made alone were more than those of Feiquan and Qingai combined. During this process, Zhao Sui scrutinized the princess consort from top to bottom twice. A few days ago, she had dressed with elegant grandeur, but her plain and simple appearance at this moment actually possessed the beauty of a lotus rising from the water.
The twilight failed to dim her face; instead, it made her exude a soft, mist-like radiance.
Zhao Sui's gaze returned to the stone table. It was only after marrying the princess consort that he realized such a woman actually existed in the world. By day, she was like a bright pearl; by night, she reflected a rosy hue in the candlelight. Wherever his palm passed, her skin was like congealed fat, round and plump, making Zhao Sui unable to distinguish whether his self-control was too poor or her beauty was too stunning.
"Take a seat."
The stone table only had stone stools on its east and west sides. Prince Hui sat to the north, and Yao Huang sat on the east side, so that at least when she looked up, she could see the afterglow of the setting sun in the western sky.
"Look, these are the roasted mutton skewers I brought for you."
As Yao Huang unwrapped the oiled paper, she introduced them to him. "They're from that stall on South Street. It's said that the stall has been there since my father was a child. It's a famous old brand in the entire capital. The mutton is freshly slaughtered on the same day, guaranteed to be fresh, and they use their family's ancestral secret sauce recipe. Put it this way: every year on my birthday, I must go to Wangxian Restaurant at noon, and I must eat roasted meat skewers at dusk. That tells you how delicious they are."
Hiding in the shadows of the north side room, Qingai grew anxious again. For the past year, the prince hadn't eaten anything heavily seasoned, let alone street food. What if it upset his stomach?
What Zhao Sui faced was the skewer the princess consort smilingly held up in front of him.
Yao Huang also took one for herself, took a bite to taste it, and said with satisfaction, "It's still hot, and the taste hasn't changed much."
Zhao Sui took the skewer and began to eat it himself.
The roasted mutton had alternating layers of fat and lean meat. The outside was charred and fragrant, while the inside was tender, showing the stall owner's mastery of heat control.
As soon as Zhao Sui finished one skewer, Yao Huang immediately handed him a second one.
"You eat some too," Zhao Sui said.
Yao Huang smiled and said, "I ate my fill at Wangxian Restaurant. That skewer just now was purely to satisfy my craving. Please go ahead and eat, Your Highness. Although I gave you nine skewers, the meat altogether isn't even enough to fill two steamed buns. With your tall build, if I hadn't been unsure of your taste, I would have wanted to bring you twenty skewers. Once, someone treated my brother, and he ate fifty skewers in one sitting!"
Zhao Sui looked at the two hands the princess consort had stretched out and gave a small smile, as if playing along with her amazement.
"Did you only stroll around South Street?"
"Yes, there are countless shops for food, clothing, and daily necessities. Today, I only visited a few jewelry stores; I'll go again tomorrow."
Zhao Sui looked at the top of her head. "Did you buy any jewelry?"
Yao Huang: "I picked out two pieces for my mother that she was always reluctant to buy before. The ones I had my eye on were all expensive, and I didn't bring enough silver, so I will go buy them tomorrow. Oh, my five pieces cost a little over a hundred taels altogether. Jewelry worth twenty or thirty taels should be fitting enough for my status as a princess consort when I wear it out, right?"
She didn't want the prince to misunderstand that she had spent too much silver on jewelry.
Zhao Sui: "As a main piece, it is extremely shabby; as an accessory, it is slightly shabby."
Yao Huang: "..."
Zhao Sui: "Next time you go out, you don't need to bring silver. Pick out the expensive jewelry, and once you have made your choices, have the shop deliver them directly to the prince's manor."
Yao Huang: "...Wouldn't that expose my identity? I don't want people to give me special treatment. Besides, I just like the twenty or thirty tael ones. As long as they look good, that is all that matters. If they are too expensive, I don't think it is worth the cost."
Zhao Sui: "Of course you can wear them when you are out having fun incognito. But if you attend banquets, it will inevitably make people mistakenly think that you are unhappy with your life as a princess consort."
Yao Huang: "Let them misunderstand. It is enough that I know I am perfectly content. I buy jewelry to make myself happy. As long as it makes me look prettier, it is good jewelry. I couldn't care less about what they think, unless Your Highness also feels that me wearing twenty-tael jewelry would cause you to lose face."
Zhao Sui twirled a skewer he had just picked up. Looking at the princess consort, he asked, "Are you truly content in the prince's manor?"
Yao Huang answered without a second thought, "Of course."
She didn't have to serve parents-in-law, and she only had to deal with her taciturn, mobility-impaired husband for six days a month. Being so leisurely and yet receiving two generous monthly allowances—if Yao Huang were not satisfied with this, it would simply be an affront to heaven and her own conscience.
Zhao Sui could tell she was speaking from the heart. That was why, when he treated her that way last night, even though she was full of complaints at the time, she didn't hold a grudge about it afterward.
Accompanied by the princess consort's cheerful chatter, Zhao Sui slowly and methodically finished the nine thin skewers of grilled meat.
The light in the Bamboo Courtyard dimmed a fraction more. Yao Huang looked at the tightly closed doors of the main hall and asked tactfully, "Then Your Highness should rest early, and I will head back first?"
Before Zhao Sui could reply, someone knocked softly on the door outside.
Yao Huang turned her head in confusion, only to see Feiquan flash out from the shadows like a phantom. He went to the door and opened it just a crack. Before Yao Huang could even see who the visitor was, Feiquan closed the door again, turned around, and reported, "It is Master Kong. He left something behind and asked this servant to help him check the kitchen to see if it is there."
Zhao Sui knew it was Doctor Liao and instructed, "Escort the princess consort back to Ming'an Hall."
Yao Huang: "No need to escort me, I am very fast on horseback."
Smiling at her prince husband in the wheelchair, Yao Huang got up and left. Once outside the door, apart from Ni Guang, she did not see a single soul.
As the sound of hoofbeats disappeared down the stone-paved path outside the bamboo forest, Doctor Liao, carrying a medicine box, poked his head out from one side of the courtyard wall. He exchanged a glance with Eunuch Feiquan, who seemed to be waiting for him, and stepped out with peace of mind.
Feiquan complained to him in a low voice, "Didn't you see the princess consort's horse?"
Doctor Liao felt very wronged. How would he recognize the princess consort's horse? It was almost time for the prince's massage, and he dared not make the prince wait.
Feiquan reminded him to be sharper next time and invited him inside.
Zhao Sui was still by the stone table.
Doctor Liao saw the oiled paper on the table and also smelled the enticing aroma of roasted meat.
Qingai was a bit worried: "This is what the princess consort brought back from South Street. Will the prince have a bad reaction to eating it?"
Doctor Liao thought to himself that it wasn't as if he could see inside the prince's stomach, so how could he say for sure?
"As long as the meat is fresh and the ingredients are clean, there shouldn't be any major issue."
Qingai: "The prince just finished eating. Shall we begin now, or rest for another half an hour?"
Doctor Liao bowed and said, "It is best to rest for a while."
From beginning to end, Prince Hui did not utter a single word.
.
After taking a bath, Yao Huang lay down on the bed, feeling as if every bone in her body was crying out in comfort. Ever since she married, she had been sleeping with another person, but tonight, this large bed finally belonged to her alone.
Having been very active during the day, Yao Huang rolled around on the bed a few times. After settling down, she fell asleep in no time.
Back in the Bamboo Courtyard, Doctor Liao left with his medicine box. Zhao Sui, leaning on the handrails, made his way steadily and unhurriedly to the washstand. He untied his inner robe, took off his under-trousers, and fished out a cloth from the bucket to wipe his entire body.
The room was so quiet that the only sounds were the friction of the cloth against his muscles and the splashing of water.
After wiping himself clean, he put on the inner robe draped to the side and leaned on the handrails to return the way he came. His movements looked practiced, but in reality, every shift of his body consumed a tremendous amount of strength, and any movement that required such exertion was never very graceful.
Extinguishing the lamp placed to the side, Zhao Sui shifted into the covers.
The croaking of frogs sounded from the pond, harmonizing with the water frogs in the lake to the west of the garden.
The ceiling was pitch black. Zhao Sui closed his eyes.
