Yao Huang slept until the sun was high in the sky.
After Prince Hui left in the early morning, none of the maidservants dared to come in and disturb the Princess Consort's good sleep. The south window remained closed, blocking out most of the light.
Yao Huang was in no rush to get up and wash. Her aching waist and legs wouldn't allow her to be so energetic anyway.
Staring blankly at the bed curtains for a while, Yao Huang shifted to lie flat on her back, raised her right hand, and slowly held up four fingers.
Did this Prince sleep with her for the next few nights in advance? His legs were crippled, yet he could still toss her around like this. If he wasn't crippled...
Yao Huang didn't even dare to think further. At the same time, she felt increasingly glad for the arrangement where Prince Hui only came on the fifth and tenth days of the month. If he really came every day, Yao Huang would be ruined too.
Feeling terribly thirsty, Yao Huang called Aji in to pour her some water.
As the Princess Consort drank water, Aji glanced at the pale lotus-colored plain silk inner garment she was wearing and asked curiously, "Didn't Your Highness put on the newly made nightdress after bathing last night?"
She just had to bring up the most awkward topic. Yao Huang glared at her in annoyance.
Realizing something, Aji peeked at the bamboo basket placed outside the canopy bed and sure enough, found a wad of familiar color inside.
Aji wasn't shocked by how many times the Prince and Princess Consort had been intimate; what broke her heart was the fine gossamer silk. It was such a precious material that she had to be careful even when touching it. How could it be rolled up like coarse cloth?
Aji walked over as if to rescue someone. Yao Huang was looking down to drink water and didn't notice. When she looked up, she saw Aji holding the collar of the nightdress with one hand, gently shaking the wrinkled hem with the other, and muttering, "The Prince doesn't know how to cherish things, but how could Your Highness be so willing to part with it? Look at how wrinkled it is..."
Halfway through her sentence, the words got stuck in her throat because Aji finally saw the torn upper hem of the dress.
Aji's hands held the shoulders of the dress high, causing the torn halves of the silk in the middle to droop limply. If this had still been hanging on the Princess Consort's body...
As if burned, Aji dropped the nightdress back into the bamboo basket, her watery almond eyes looking guiltily at her Princess Consort.
Yao Huang: "...This is good material. Don't send it to the laundry room. Take it back, wash it, sew it up, and wear it yourself. It'll keep you quite cool at night."
Aji still wasn't used to such waste and advised, "Chunyan is good at needlework. I'll wash it and she'll sew it. Once it's mended, Your Highness can continue wearing it."
Yao Huang: "I don't want to see this dress ever again."
If possible, she didn't want to see the Prince's large red sandalwood wheelchair ever again either.
Aji understood. Thinking of the four or five other gossamer silk nightdresses hanging in the Princess Consort's wardrobe, Aji said happily, "Then I'll take advantage of this. It just so happens that I am much smaller than Your Highness right here. If I cut off the torn parts and alter it, it should fit perfectly."
Yao Huang secretly gritted her teeth. It was probably because she wasn't small enough that she had attracted Prince Hui's favor. Indeed, her mother was right; even someone as noble as a Prince would find it hard to look away when he saw her.
Shaking off the images in her mind—images of Prince Hui doing things that no one would ever believe if she told them—Yao Huang prepared to bathe.
After taking a bath, feeling refreshed all over, and finishing her early meal, Yao Huang regained her strength. She called Guo Shu, Eunuch Cao, and Nanny Liu over, instructing Guo Shu to send someone to buy dried cattail grass, and Eunuch Cao to send someone to invite Master Deng.
"There might not be much cattail grass sold in the city, so you can check the nearby villages and towns."
"As for Master Deng, if he is busy, it's fine for him to come tomorrow. It's not a pressing matter."
After Guo Shu and Eunuch Cao left, Yao Huang said to Nanny Liu with some embarrassment, "Please go to the embroidery room and tell them that the gossamer silk nightdresses sent over previously are enough. For future nightdresses, they should switch back to using plain silk."
After last night, Yao Huang decided to save those gossamer silk nightdresses for when the Prince didn't visit Ming'an Hall. When he came, she would only wear plain silk for him to see.
Nanny Liu smiled and said, "Yes. Recently, the embroidery room has been rushing to make gossamer silk ruqun for Your Highness to wear outside. They will be delivered for you to try on in a couple of days."
A single layer of gossamer silk was too sheer and transparent, but adding a few more layers created a hazy, smoke-like feeling that was enough to cover the body while remaining cool, comfortable, gorgeous, and noble.
Among plain silk, gossamer silk, satin, and brocade, gossamer silk was the most expensive. If the top noble ladies in the capital didn't have a few gossamer silk dresses in the summer, they would lose face when going out to visit others.
As a Princess Consort, Yao Huang not only received an annual stipend fitting her rank but also had a fixed quota of silks, satins, rouge, and powder. It was more than enough for one person to use.
Yao Huang was not good at needlework, nor did she know how to make those precious fabrics into beautiful dresses, so she asked Nanny Liu, who came from the palace, to take care of it.
By the afternoon, the cattail grass Yao Huang requested was ready, and Master Deng had also arrived at the Prince's estate.
Yao Huang brought up the two matters of a self-propelled wheelchair and building a lightweight wheelchair to him.
Looking at the simple wheelchair the Princess Consort had bought from outside, Master Deng said, "It's not difficult to make a few lightweight wheelchairs like this. But as for one that can be pushed by oneself, my family has been dealing with wood for generations, and I've never heard of such a thing."
Seeing the worried look on Master Deng's face, Yao Huang smiled and said, "I'm just suggesting an idea; I'm not forcing you to make it. Just ponder over it when you have free time. It would be best if you can make it, but it doesn't matter if you can't. By the way, I've pushed a wheelchair before, so I know it takes a lot of effort for an outsider to push it. Asking you to figure out a self-propelled one doesn't mean it has to move as easily as being pushed by someone else. In fact, as long as he can push himself around the room simply, it will be fine."
She patted the elm wood wheelchair in front of her. "The estate guards can push this themselves, but it's too strenuous. See if you can improve it. It would be best to add a handle by the wheels for the Prince to push, just like a spinning wheel. If I just turn the handle, the connected wheels will naturally turn along with it. This way, the Prince's hands won't get dirty from the wheels."
Master Deng had never used a spinning wheel, but the Princess Consort explained it clearly enough that he immediately had several ideas for making a handle.
Self-propelled meant, first, there had to be something to push, and second, figuring out how to save effort. The Princess Consort had already thought of one aspect. Master Deng suddenly felt that as an old carpenter, if he put more thought into it, he could definitely come up with a way to save effort.
"Rest assured, Your Highness. I will start on this matter as soon as I go back, and I will report to you when there is progress."
Yao Huang: "Go ahead. I won't mention it to the Prince until you've made a finished product. You don't need to feel burdened; just think about the reward money I've prepared for you."
Hearing this, the weight on Master Deng's shoulders immediately lightened by half. He had been afraid that the Prince would be thinking about this day and night, blaming him for being useless!
After seeing Master Deng off, Yao Huang, who had returned to Ming'an Hall, suddenly remembered something: "Where is the elm wood wheelchair I sat in last night?"
Aji: "When the Prince left this morning, Eunuch Feiquan pushed it away."
Yao Huang immediately guessed it was Prince Hui's idea. It seemed the Prince also liked this lightweight wheelchair, so he took it back to use.
Bamboo Courtyard.
Qingai and Feiquan stayed in the front courtyard on standby as usual. Inside, after reading a book for a while, Zhao Sui supported himself on the two rows of handrails extending to the backyard and moved to the elm wood wheelchair he had ordered Feiquan to place there.
He had wanted to try it yesterday, but the Princess Consort had been there, so he didn't have a suitable opportunity.
Once seated properly, Zhao Sui grasped the large wheels on both sides of the chair and pushed forward with force.
The wheels rolled forward with great difficulty, carrying Zhao Sui's hands along with them until they reached an awkward angle where he could no longer apply force. He adjusted his grip on the top of the wheels and pushed forward once more.
Repeating this start-and-stop process, he managed to push himself forward about ten paces by the time his forehead broke out in a sweat and his arms grew sore.
He looked back, then down at his palms.
The front and back yards of the bamboo courtyard were paved with stone slabs. Although Qingai and Feiquan cleaned them regularly, there were always tiny grains of sand that the brooms missed. As the wooden wheels rolled over the stone slabs, the sand was pressed into the wood, and as his hands pushed the wheels, some of those grains dug into his palms.
It was a pair of hands covered in a thick layer of calluses from the base of the palms to the fingertips. The calluses were so thick that a few days ago, when Zhao Sui held a brush to paint, his hands had felt clumsy; they were so thick that when he had merely brushed his fingers lightly over the Princess's back, she had trembled uncontrollably.
The Princess had only felt them, but had never seen them. If she ever did, she would surely be repulsed.
Zhao Sui picked the grains of sand off his palms one by one. After resting for a moment, he attempted to make a turn. When that failed, he continued to slowly push the wheelchair toward the two rows of guardrails at the base of the opposite wall.
Before he knew it, dusk had fallen, and no one had knocked on the wooden door of the bamboo courtyard even once today.
Zhao Sui could have ordered Guo Shu to report the Princess's every move to him—whether she had bought the cattails, whether she had discussed the design of the new wheelchair with Master Deng, or whether she had forgotten all about it and gone out to play. But Zhao Sui did not want to do that.
If the Princess came, he would see her; if she did not, he would not ask or interfere.
Yesterday afternoon, Yao Huang had seen the cattails Guo Shu's men had bought. Four massive bundles of dried grass filled a flatbed mule cart, enough for her to weave two large sleeping mats for His Highness!
His Highness did not need them, and Yao Huang did not have the patience for that anyway. She only planned to weave a cushion for his wheelchair first. If it turned out well, she would weave another for his study chair.
At the time, Yao Huang had someone take a portion of the cattails, wash away the seeds and dirt, and soak them in cold water overnight. After breakfast, she had someone bring them over, and upon inspection, found the flexibility to be just right.
After preparing scissors, bamboo knives, silk threads, fine strings, and felt mats, Yao Huang took Aji with her to carry the pile of items to the bamboo grove. She laid a large felt mat on the path near the entrance to the bamboo courtyard. Once everything was set up, Yao Huang told Aji to go back first while she went to knock on the door.
When Feiquan came over, Yao Huang didn't need him to open the door. She simply said, Tell His Highness that I brought the cattails over. I'll be weaving right outside at the intersection, and he can come out to watch whenever he likes.
With that, Yao Huang returned to the felt mat, took off her shoes, and sat cross-legged on it. She began picking out the overly wide cattails and cutting them into thinner strips.
Weaving these things indoors would make a huge mess, and the courtyard of Ming'an Hall wasn't as cool as the bamboo grove, so Yao Huang was more than willing to go along with His Highness's suggestion.
She had only cut a few wide cattails when Qingai pushed His Highness out in that large rosewood wheelchair.
Catching sight of his shadow, Yao Huang quickly averted her gaze.
The wheelchair stopped opposite the felt mat, separated from the seated Princess by a pile of cattails. Zhao Sui looked at the amount of grass, gestured for Qingai to stay, and asked the Princess, About how long will it take to weave?
Without looking up, Yao Huang replied, My hands aren't as fast as my grandmother's. It will probably take two or three hours. After all, his wheelchair was so massive!
Understanding the situation, Zhao Sui turned to Qingai and said, Bring me the book from my desk.
Qingai made a quick trip and handed the book to the Prince. Seeing that His Highness had no other orders, he went to stand guard outside the bamboo grove, while Feiquan left the courtyard door slightly ajar and waited inside.
Yao Huang looked around, thinking to herself that His Highness really did prefer peace and quiet. Little did she know that all the servants in the Prince's estate were terrified of him, and no one dared to wander over here without good reason.
Glancing at her own hands doing rough labor, and then up at the Prince, who was leaning back in his grand wheelchair and staring down at her, Yao Huang muttered, You look just like a wealthy landlord in town.
Zhao Sui said, I couldn't hear you.
Yao Huang spoke up, I was asking, what book is Your Highness holding?
Zhao Sui held up the cover for her to see.
It was a blue cover with small characters. It was a long string of words, and Yao Huang stretched her neck to study it for a moment before recognizing the characters for Buddha and Bodhisattva in the middle, concluding that it was a Buddhist sutra.
Curious, Yao Huang asked, Why is Your Highness reading this?
His Highness fell silent for a moment before answering, My killing karma from past years is too heavy.
Yao Huang was taken aback for a second before she realized he was referring to the lives he had taken on the battlefield. She couldn't help but say, Your Highness was protecting the country and its people. You were shielding the citizens at the borders of our Great Qi Dynasty from being plundered and slaughtered by enemy soldiers. That is a great deed of merit worthy of ascending to heaven. The people all praise Your Highness. Only the indiscriminate killing of innocents is considered a sin.
Zhao Sui naturally understood this reasoning. He was actually reading the scriptures to cultivate his mind and suppress the restless, violent temper brought on by his leg injury.
Yao Huang asked, What is this Buddhist sutra of yours about?
Zhao Sui tried his best to explain it to her in simple terms.
Before he could finish his explanation, Yao Huang shook her head repeatedly and said, Never mind, Your Highness can read it yourself. I'm just a vulgar person; listening to this makes me want to sleep.
Zhao Sui was left speechless.
