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◎The Little Princess of Emperor Xingwu◎

It was almost June and the sun was scorching.

In Xianfu Palace, the little princess finally woke up after taking a nap for a full hour.

Qingyang rubbed his eyes, put down his hands, and saw clearly the bed railings opposite, which were made of hollow wood carvings of crabapple flowers.

The bed in her room was not like that.

Her gaze drifted back along the carved crabapple blossoms, and Qingyang remembered how, after lunch, she had clung to her mother, who had carried her to her large bed to coax her to sleep. Her mother's voice was gentle and soft, her hand patting her shoulder softly, and her mother's embrace held the delicate fragrance she loved...

Where is my mother?

Qingyang turned over and found that most of the bed next to him, which was covered with a light green brocade mattress, was empty.

Just as Qingyang was about to call for help, she suddenly noticed a familiar and graceful figure emerging from behind the screen a few steps away through the white gauze curtain embroidered with green leaves and pink lotus flowers. It was her mother.

Seeing his mother, Qingyang was no longer anxious. He lay there obediently, watching his mother raise her slender arms high, spinning her body on tiptoe while raising them. The hem of her skirt rose slightly, like ripples on the lake. Even the sound of his mother's footsteps was as light as the ripples.

Qingyang had seen dancers perform at palace banquets. They moved so fast, twirling around like colorful butterflies that she always lost track, always finding herself in a flash. But her mother danced very slowly, pausing at the door to the inner chamber, staring down at her hands, lost in thought.

After a while, my mother jumped back again, her figure disappeared behind the screen, and then emerged from the other side of the screen.

Qingyang felt that the gauze curtain was blocking his view and he couldn't see clearly enough, so he crawled to the edge of the bed and sat down. He first stretched his legs out of the gauze curtain, then used one hand to pull one side of the gauze curtain apart.

When Concubine Li, who was practicing dance steps, came out from behind the screen again, she looked up and saw her daughter who had woken up at some point. A small baby was sitting in the middle of the bed. The elegant white gauze curtain surrounded her daughter from head to toe, and her rosy little face made her look like a baby animal that had quietly crawled out of its nest.

Still a very beautiful and cute cub.

Forgetting her dance steps and lowering her hands, Concubine Li, dressed in a snow-white nightgown, swiftly and lightly approached her daughter. She took over half of the gauze curtain and hung it on the high jade crescent hook while looking at her daughter lovingly. "Lin'er, you're awake! Why didn't you call me, Mother?"

The little princess was born three years ago on the day of the coronation ceremony of Emperor Xingwu, the founding emperor of the Great Qi Dynasty. When the good news reached the hall, all the ministers congratulated the emperor on the birth of his son. Emperor Xingwu was also very happy. When he came to see his daughter after finishing his work, he directly gave her the nickname "Lin'er".

Qingyang tilted his head and looked at his mother: "I'm watching my mother dance."

Concubine Li's face flushed. She ignored the other half of the gauze curtain and knelt down in front of her daughter, whispering, "Mother is just practicing casually. She hasn't mastered it yet. Lin'er, you must keep it a secret for mother. You must not tell anyone, not even when father returns."

Qingyang had long forgotten her father, the emperor, who had been away on the battlefield for over a year but was often mentioned by her mother and was said to love her very much. She was only curious about the question at hand: "Why can't I say it?"

Children aged three or four tend to ask lots of questions. Among Concubine Li's only two children, Qingyang is particularly curious, and it seems that he has made up for the little brain that his brother, the Third Prince, was too lazy to use.

Concubine Li considered carefully and said, "It's only appropriate to learn dancing at the age of seven or eight. Mother is already in her twenties and can no longer learn well. If it gets out, people will laugh at her. Mother doesn't want to be laughed at."

There are two kinds of women in this world who learn to dance. One kind are the dancers of all sizes who have a miserable life and have no choice but to learn singing and dancing to make a living. The other kind are the daughters of officials and wealthy families. They learn to dance purely to add a talent, and at most show it to nobles of higher status to gain praise and reputation, not to make a living.

Concubine Li's father was the magistrate of a small county in Jiangnan, and her mother was merely one of his concubines. Her father was a relatively honest official, lacking a penchant for watching dancers and neither the desire nor the financial resources to cultivate his daughters into talented individuals. Consequently, Concubine Li never encountered a dancer during her teenage years, much less developed an interest in practicing them.

In the first few years after being taken in as a concubine by Emperor Xingwu, her husband was still a folk rebel king who fought wars all year round and planned to achieve great things. Concubine Li and other family members of Emperor Xingwu hid behind the battlefield and lived the life of an ordinary wealthy family. They were only worried about Emperor Xingwu, and no one regarded themselves as nobles early on. After Emperor Xingwu ascended the throne smoothly and without any danger, the whole family was brought to the palace, and their royal and noble days really began.

Concubine Li was cautious and prudent, and her only problem was her face was that it was too eye-catching. After being made a concubine, she continued to maintain her weak nature of not causing trouble and was very afraid of it. She only became interested in dancing after attending a few palace banquets.

She wanted to practice dancing simply because she enjoyed it, but Concubine Li was afraid that others would suspect that she had the ambition to please Emperor Xingwu by dancing and gain more favor, so she always practiced secretly when there was no one around to serve her. Even if one day she danced smoothly, she would never dance for Emperor Xingwu to see.

The emperor is like a real dragon, and he is majestic enough in normal times. But she dances to seduce him. Is it because her waist is not sore enough or her legs are not soft enough?

Qingyang didn't know his mother's true concerns, so he said with a stern face, "Anyone who dares to laugh at me will be punished by copying thirty characters!"

The eldest sister was very fierce. She once slapped a palace maid who made a mistake. The little palace maid who was beaten had a swollen face and was crying with tears all over her face. She looked very pitiful.

The imperial concubine would occasionally be angry and punish my second brother by making him copy books and write characters, which made him so worried that he couldn't even eat.

Qingyang didn't want to hit anyone, but anyone who dared to laugh at his mother would be a bad person and must be punished by copying a lot of words.

The little princess was so serious that Concubine Li's heart melted. She hugged her daughter and kissed her fiercely, then said, "It's better to have less trouble than more. Mother just doesn't want others to know, including your third brother. Lin'er, be good and keep it a secret for Mother, okay?"

Qingyang: "Why is it better to have less trouble than more?"

Concubine Li: “…”

A quarter of an hour later, after promising her daughter that she would be the first to dance in front of her when she learned how to dance, Concubine Li finally brought up the subject.

The wet nurse and the palace maid were called in, and the mother and daughter washed and changed their clothes separately.

It was just three quarters past three in the afternoon when Qingyang finished his simple yet exquisite meal of pastries.

Qingyang missed his third brother and wanted to go to the martial arts hall to play with him.

She knew that her brothers would study in the Chongwen Pavilion of the Eastern Palace in the morning and practice martial arts in the Yanwu Hall of the Eastern Palace in the afternoon.

Concubine Li: "No, my brothers are all studying martial arts seriously with the master, you can't go and disrupt it."

Qingyang: "I won't make trouble. I'll just watch them practice martial arts."

Concubine Li: "That won't do. Your father values your brothers' studies very much. Even if you don't cause trouble, you will distract them. He will be unhappy if he knows. Besides, the teachers are strict. It's against the rules of respecting teachers and education for a child like you to go play over there."

Qingyang glanced at his mother's serious face and gave up the idea of going to the martial arts hall for the time being.

To make amends, Concubine Li personally accompanied her daughter to the Imperial Garden. Even when her daughter wanted to take a boat ride, Concubine Li had the palace maids arrange a small, single-awned boat. She was cautious, but her daughter was a princess, the emperor's beloved daughter. How could a boat trip on her own lake be considered extraordinary?

After swimming around, when the boat was about to go ashore, Qingyang walked to the brass clepsydra placed in the corner of the awning and looked at the scale displayed on the arrows in the quiver.

Concubine Li smiled and said, "Lin'er, do you understand?"

Qingyang said to Loujian, "I understand. Zhang Su taught me."

Zhang Su is the youngest son of the Duke of Weiguo and also the study partner of the third brother. Qingyang likes to play with the third brother, and the third brother also likes to accompany her, but whenever Qingyang asks too many questions, the third brother will become impatient and pull Zhang Su to help her answer them.

The clepsydra was what Zhang Su taught Qingyang to read when his third brother was busy finishing the homework assigned by the teacher. Of course, it was Qingyang who asked him first. If Qingyang and his brother didn't speak, Zhang Su could go the whole day without saying a single word, as dull as a tree that only followed his third brother around.

Concubine Li was surprised by her daughter's answer and walked over to wait for her daughter to tell her the time.

Qingyang wasn't very skilled at distinguishing the time, so he pointed at the clepsydra scale and asked, "Is it 6:00 PM, or 7:00 PM?"

She knew all the characters for the twelve hours.

Concubine Li proudly kissed her daughter again and said, "Our Lin'er actually learned it. This means six and a half minutes. In another quarter, Third Brother and the others will be out of school."

Qingyang liked to hear her mother praise her. She leaned in her mother's arms and smiled for a while, then said, "I'm going to pick up my third brother in front of the West Palace."

The three brothers lived in several palaces in the East Palace, but after school in the evening they would come to the West Palace to pay their respects to their respective mothers.

Concubine Li didn't want the eldest and second princes to see her feeling restrained, so she only let her daughter's wet nurse and the eunuch who served her daughter accompany her.

.

The third prince is named Qin Ren. He is only eight years old. He is a handsome and very quiet prince.

Ever since Qin Ren could remember, he knew he had two older brothers. The eldest was the son of his father's legal wife, holding the highest status, and he had to respect him. The second was the son of his father's concubine, whom he had married after his mother's death. His status was also very high, and he had to respect him as well. Later, when his father ascended the throne, all three brothers became princes. His mother was posthumously crowned Empress, his concubine was crowned Imperial Consort, and his biological mother's concubine was crowned Imperial Consort. As his mother had instructed, he still had to respect his two older brothers.

Just pay your respects, Qin Ren, who has no worries about food and clothing, has never thought of going beyond his two brothers.

Because of the age difference, Qin Ren and his two royal brothers seldom played together. The three brothers had to meet each other when studying or practicing martial arts, but they were all busy with their studies. After school, the three brothers would appear on the long palace road, each with his own study partner, walking in three rows in order of seniority.

After all, they are brothers, and the distance between them is not far. They can chat anytime they want.

Qin Ren walked at the end with Zhang Su, silently listening to his second brother Qin Bing and his eldest brother Qin Hong complain about the heavy workload today.

Qin Ren nodded subconsciously. It was indeed a lot, and he would probably have to work until midnight to finish writing.

Fourteen-year-old Qin Hong turned around, his mature face tinged with fatigue as he comforted his two younger brothers behind him: "A strict teacher produces excellent students. The more we learn, the more we will learn. The more we practice, the faster we will learn. Don't complain. After dinner, go back and start writing."

Eleven-year-old Qin Bing stared at his older brother's face and asked suspiciously, "Big brother doesn't really like doing homework, does he?"

Qin Hong: "...Nonsense, I don't like it. Can I complete it every time?"

Qin Bing: "You are afraid that the master will complain to the emperor. Among us, you are the most afraid of the emperor."

Qin Hong: "...If you're not afraid, then don't write it."

After saying that, Qin Hong turned around. He was exhausted after practicing martial arts for an entire afternoon in such hot weather. He had taken care of his younger brothers and didn't want to say anything more.

Just when the three princes were worrying about their homework, either openly or secretly, three figures suddenly turned up from the palace road in front. The girl walking in front was wearing a new green dress. She was their only imperial sister, Princess Qingyang.

The brother and sister met each other from a distance. Qingyang paused, then left the wet nurse and the eunuch behind him and ran happily towards his royal brothers.

The eldest prince Qin Hong smiled. Among so many people in the palace, only the little imperial sister did not have any heavy expectations or scrutiny of him. She was also the only person who did not bring him any pressure when they were together. So whenever he saw the imperial sister, his mood would lighten up.

The second prince Qin Bing ran straight towards Qingyang. He liked pinching the little girl's face, and he liked it even more when his sister looked like a little bunny who didn't want to be pinched and ran around hiding.

Qin Hong saw what his second brother was planning and grabbed Qin Bing's arm. As the two brothers were pulling each other, Qingyang carefully and happily brushed past them along the side of the palace wall and threw himself into his third brother's arms.

Qin Ren opened his arms to catch his sister, but he forgot that his legs were weak from training, and was knocked backwards by his sister.

Zhang Su, who was only one year older than him, quickly used his body to press against the third prince's back.

The Third Prince regained his footing, and Qingyang also held on firmly. She looked up and saw her Third Brother's smiling face, and also saw Zhang Su's expressionless face, which was slightly taller than her Third Brother.

Zhang Su and his third brother were so close that Qingyang tilted his head, trying to see Zhang Su's eyes, which were covered by his long eyelashes. "Do you want me to hug you too?"

Otherwise, why would you come over here?

Upon hearing this, Zhang Su quickly took a step back and whispered, "I dare not."

Before entering the palace, his father repeatedly warned him that no matter how young the Third Prince was, he was still a prince and he must treat him as a subject.

Since the third prince is like this, the little princess should keep her distance.

【Author’s words】

Here I come, writing a story about a little princess growing up in the bright summer. It’s a new attempt, with a familiar daily tone. I hope you like it. [shy]

100 small red envelopes (sent in the front row for odd-numbered chapters, randomly for even-numbered chapters), see you tomorrow at noon, [milk tea]