Yao Huang had finished washing up for a good while now, yet His Highness Prince Hui had still not come over from the front courtyard. Was he reading again?
Taking advantage of his absence, Yao Huang lay on the arhat bed by the window, pondering over the matter of the rush cushion.
Did her running around making a rush cushion and then going over to the Bamboo Courtyard to deliver it really look like a princess consort trying to curry favor with her prince husband?
Yao Huang had no such intention at all. If the prince hadn't brought it up, Yao Huang wouldn't have even thought about it.
On the way back while pushing the prince, Yao Huang suspected whether he wanted to be intimate with her and deliberately used the rush cushion as an excuse, but this suspicion was dismissed by Yao Huang as soon as it popped up. He was the prince, after all. If he really wanted to sleep with his princess consort, he didn't need an excuse. As long as he came, Yao Huang had to serve him well. Even if he insisted on tossing her around three or four times every night, as long as no bones were broken or muscles torn, Yao Huang wouldn't dare to disobey, at most trying to negotiate with him to do it a little less.
Thinking about it, Yao Huang felt that His Highness Prince Hui might have grown up in the palace and been influenced by the way Emperor Yongchang interacted with his concubines, thus viewing a man staying in his wife's or concubine's room as the basis for whether he favored them or not. However, he forgot that in the entire Prince Hui's Manor, there were only the two of them as husband and wife. He even gave her the ivory mat. With this ivory mat alone, Yao Huang dared to say that if the prince didn't favor her, Aji would dare to point at her nose and teach her not to be so ungrateful!
Never mind, the thoughts of a prince must be different from those of commoners. If the prince wanted to come, it was also out of good intentions to look after her dignity, and Yao Huang should be happy.
After waiting for more than a quarter of an hour, Prince Hui finally arrived.
Yao Huang received him at the door of the main room, pushed him into the inner chamber, and turned into the canopy bed.
As soon as Prince Hui propped himself up on the bed, he ordered, "Put out the lamp."
If it were the first few nights when Yao Huang had just married over, Yao Huang would have thought it perfectly normal for Prince Hui to say this. But after the two rounds of intimacy on the arhat bed and the wheelchair, Prince Hui's cold tone of asking to put out the lamp sounded more like he was throwing a tantrum at her: I kindly wanted to give you face, and you actually worried that I wouldn't let you sleep. Then I will prove it to you now that I am not the kind of lecherous person you suspected!
Yao Huang stood still, carefully observing Prince Hui's expression.
Prince Hui seemed not to notice her standing there in a daze, lifted the quilt and lay down on his own, only glancing at her after he was settled.
Yao Huang was currently wearing a set of silk undergarments, not afraid of him looking. But Prince Hui's unrippled gaze was full of deterrence, and Yao Huang admitted defeat, obediently going to put out all the large and small lamps, leaving only one by the door of the washroom.
Getting onto the bed, relying on the darkness, Yao Huang directly lay on top of Prince Hui, her face pressed against his chest, her left hand touching his right arm hanging on one side and stroking it back and forth: "Why did Your Highness look a little unhappy just now?"
Zhao Sui closed his eyes: "Did I?"
Yao Huang: "Yes, Your Highness hardly looked at me. It wasn't like this last time you came over."
Zhao Sui: "...I didn't want you to misunderstand."
Yao Huang: "Misunderstand what?"
Zhao Sui was silent. After a moment, he grabbed her restless wrist and said, "Since there's no misunderstanding, let's sleep early."
Yao Huang bit the edge of his undergarment collar: "I didn't misunderstand Your Highness, but Your Highness has a misunderstanding about me. If this isn't clarified, I won't sleep well."
She bit inch by inch along the edge of the collar. First, the tips of her teeth lightly touched Prince Hui's chest, then she bit the edge of the white silk collar. When she released her teeth and moved up, the slightly warm and wet edge of the white silk collar that had just been bitten fell back and stuck to Prince Hui's skin, eventually forming a line extending to Prince Hui's collarbone.
Zhao Sui tried his best to restrain himself from tightening his grip on her wrist. When she stopped messing around, he asked, "What misunderstanding do I have?"
Yao Huang first pulled her wrist out, left his chest, and turned her back to him, but her shoulders and back were still tightly pressed against his left arm. She whispered, "Your Highness is really forgetful. You said it yourself in the garden, misunderstanding that I didn't want you to come over."
Zhao Sui opened his eyes and said to the top of the bed, "You hesitated at the time, you can't blame me for overthinking."
Yao Huang: "But I explained it. It's not that I don't want you to come, it's that I'm afraid you will again..."
She didn't continue, but the drawn-out trailing note left much to the imagination.
Zhao Sui: "...I also said I won't touch you tonight."
Yao Huang: "I only said I was afraid you would do that, I didn't say I was afraid you would touch me. Once or twice, when have I ever refused Your Highness? The past few nights were all sticky and sweet, and tonight you asked to put out the lamp as soon as you came up. You're clearly throwing a temper tantrum at me."
After complaining, Yao Huang completely pulled away and lay alone on the inside of the bed.
Zhao Sui: "..."
If he just said he wasn't angry, she probably wouldn't believe it. Zhao Sui could only move over, pull her into his arms, and then touch her face.
Yao Huang didn't have any tears for him to touch, so she simply grabbed his hand and pretended to be very angry, biting his index finger.
She was waiting here for His Highness Prince Hui to open his mouth and coax her, but she didn't expect that this bite would directly arouse Prince Hui's ferocity.
Her body stiffened, and Yao Huang subconsciously shook off Prince Hui's hand. The next moment, that hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her over.
The next day, Yao Huang got up quite early, feeling refreshed. Prince Hui didn't have breakfast here, and Yao Huang didn't mind.
After breakfast, Yao Huang sat on the beauty spot of the veranda, weaving the rush cushion for the study chair for Prince Hui. She was about to call her four senior maids over to chat when Nanny Liu actually came.
Since they were all familiar with each other, Yao Huang didn't get up, but smiled and asked, "Why are you here?"
Eunuch Cao and Nanny Liu were both elders who had watched Prince Hui grow up, and Yao Huang had always used honorifics for both of them.
Nanny Liu smiled and said, "On the orders of the prince, I have come to accompany the princess consort for a chat."
Yao Huang: "..."
Nanny Liu blinked at her.
Yao Huang then asked Aji and the other three to step down, and invited Nanny Liu to sit on the beauty spot next to her.
Nanny Liu, afraid of hindering the princess consort from weaving the rush cushion, sat on the small stool left by Aji next to her, and said softly, "The day before yesterday, Feiquan passed on a message for the prince, saying that the princess consort wanted to familiarize herself with the situation in the Prince Kang and Prince Qing manors. This old servant originally knew a little, and yesterday I sent someone out to inquire around. I've understood it pretty well before coming to report to the princess consort."
Yao Huang completely stopped the movements of her hands.
The prince must have seen that she despised him for knowing nothing when asked, so he made such an arrangement.
But thinking about it carefully, when Princess Consort Kang passed away from illness, the prince was far away at the border. What could he know? As for the relationship between Prince Kang and the former princess consort, how could he, a younger brother-in-law living in a separate manor, know about it?
The better the prince was, the worse Yao Huang, who had made an excuse to leave, appeared. Yao Huang felt ashamed, but at the same time, she was glad that last night, because she didn't want to be at odds with the prince, she had enticed the prince to enjoy himself thoroughly.
Suppressing the various thoughts in her mind, Yao Huang looked at Nanny Liu expectantly: "Please tell me everything you know."
Nanny Liu was indeed more suitable for chatting than His Highness Prince Hui. She actually started from when Prince Kang was young. At that time, Prince Kang was still living in the imperial palace, and inevitably mentioned Consort Liu Xian, including how Consort Liu Xian raised Prince Kang, and how highly regarded Prince Kang was by the emperor and empress when he was still the only prince in his early years.
"His Highness the Prince of Kang was granted his title and established his own estate at the age of twenty. In that same year, his primary princess consort and two secondary consorts were to be chosen."
"The Emperor highly valued his eldest son's marriage. He personally appointed the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's estate as the Prince of Kang's primary consort, while the two secondary consorts were jointly selected by Her Grace Consort Liu Xian and Her Majesty the Empress."
"Your Highness must have gathered by now that in terms of literary talent and martial prowess, the Prince of Kang falls slightly short compared to our Prince. However, the Prince of Kang is diligent and upright. After his marriage, he left early and returned late to handle affairs for the Emperor. He got along harmoniously with his primary and secondary consorts, and there were never any rumors of inner-court disputes. It is just a pity that the former primary consort had a very difficult labor when giving birth to the little heir. She remained frail and sickly ever since, eventually succumbing to a lingering illness brought on by a chill, sigh..."
Yao Huang understood. The Prince of Kang was not a man given to lust. Aside from the three consorts chosen for him by his elders, he had no other bed-chamber maids in his estate. The three ladies from noble families had never caused any scandals fighting for his favor either. After Chen Ying married into the estate, her situation would not be too difficult.
Nanny Liu said, "If Lady Chen were this old servant's master, I would advise her to serve the Prince wholeheartedly. The little heir already has the dowry nannies and maids that the Duchess of Zhenguo originally arranged for the former consort, so Lady Chen wouldn't need to worry too much about his daily life. She would only need to show care and ask after his well-being when appropriate. As for the two secondary consorts, Lady Chen holds the superior position. If they get along, she can chat with them more; if not, she simply needs to maintain a superficial harmony, without competing or showing jealousy."
Yao Huang smiled and said, "Nanny, you and I think alike. For someone with a background like Lady Chen's and mine, becoming a princess consort is already a tremendous stroke of good fortune. As long as we follow our princes and are well-fed and well-provided for, there is no need to care too much about other matters."
Nanny Liu beamed, "In this old servant's eyes, Your Highness is even more blessed than Lady Chen. Our Prince may look cold, but he actually knows how to dote on someone much better than the Prince of Kang."
Faced with Nanny Liu, a living witness to this, Yao Huang's face gradually flushed red.
Nanny Liu then went on to tell her about the Prince of Qing and Consort Shen Rou. This also involved Princess Fucheng: "Speaking of this, there was a time when rumors circulated in the palace that Princess Fucheng intended to play matchmaker between our Prince and her beloved daughter. Did Your Highness hear of this when you entered the palace?"
Yao Huang tactfully replied, "The Second Princess did mention it in passing."
Nanny Liu looked displeased. She first listed the various harsh and mean ways Noble Consort Du and the Second Princess had treated their Prince, and then said, "At that time, our Prince enjoyed the Emperor's greatest favor, so it was only human nature for Princess Fucheng to have such intentions. Your Highness only needs to remember one thing: our Prince has never had any illicit affairs with Lady Zheng. They never even saw each other normally, except at palace banquets. As for the Prince, whenever he is not studying, practicing martial arts, or running errands, he stays cooped up in his own courtyard or the royal estate. Let alone girls from the outside, even by the Prince's side, only Feiquan and Qingai have ever served him closely."
Thinking of the passion the Prince of Hui showed her at night, Yao Huang had long guessed that he had no thoughts about Zheng Yuanzhen. Furthermore, a girl who wanted to marry him when he was riding high on success, only to shift her marriage prospects to someone else after his legs were crippled—how lowly would the Prince of Hui have to be to continue pining over her? If he were to remember her at all, it would only be with resentment and hatred.
Listening to Nanny Liu recount the tales of various imperial relatives like this, Yao Huang easily finished weaving the cushion for the study chair in her hands.
After letting it dry in the sun for an afternoon, Chunyan skillfully sewed coarse cloth and a silk cover onto it.
Yao Huang turned it around to inspect it thoroughly, then called for Aji. She asked Aji to deliver it to the Bamboo Courtyard, saving herself from eagerly running over there only to have the Prince of Hui mistake it as an attempt to curry favor.
At the Bamboo Courtyard, Feiquan saw Aji and asked in disappointment, "Why didn't the Princess Consort come?"
Aji retorted, "Does the Princess Consort have to come personally? What use would we maids be then?"
Feiquan: "..."
That brat Aji had no idea how difficult it was for them to serve the Prince!
Carrying the bare cushion, Feiquan went to see the Prince with trepidation.
He thought the Prince would be disappointed, but unexpectedly, the Prince obligingly tried out the new cushion and had just as good an appetite at dinner as he did this morning and at noon.
