Jiuzhu had seen children cry and old people cry, but she had never seen anyone cry so...beautifully?
She wanted to go forward to comfort him, but the other person cried so sweetly that she could not help but stand on the steps outside the pavilion and listen for a while longer.
Liu Cairen thought Jiuzhu would come forward to comfort her, but after waiting for a long time, the other party did not move. The atmosphere gradually became awkward. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, as if she had just noticed Jiuzhu, and smiled strongly: "Miss Ming."
Jiuzhu looked at the woman, guessing which low-ranking concubine she was in the palace. She bowed to her and walked into the pavilion with her skirt lifted: "It's cold, please take care of yourself."
"I am just an unfavored talent in the palace. I dare not let Miss Ming address me as a noble lady." Liu Cairen stood up, "Miss Ming, please sit down."
She noticed that Ming Jiuzhu's cloak embroidered with red plum blossoms looked very familiar.
Noticing Liu Cairen's gaze, Jiuzhu touched the embroidery on the cloak and asked impatiently, "Isn't the embroidery on it beautiful?"
"Very beautiful." Liu Cairen nodded, feeling vaguely that the other party was deliberately showing off the cloak.
"You have good taste, I think she's beautiful too." Jiuzhu smiled with her eyebrows curved: "The noble concubine gave it to me."
Liu Cairen: “…”
"Her Majesty said that this cloak is warm but not heavy, and it looks good without being frivolous, so she gave it to me." After finally finding someone to show off to, Jiuzhu immediately became interested: "Her Majesty is always so gentle, and I don't know how to repay her love and care."
"Although the winter wind is cold, as a woman in the harem, there are many things I can't do anything about. I didn't mean to disturb you and make you embarrassed." Hearing the word "gentle", Liu Cairen felt extremely uncomfortable both physically and mentally.
How could a human being praise the concubine in front of a poor woman who had just cried?
No wonder he could win the favor of Concubine Su, it turns out they are birds of a feather.
After saying this intriguing sentence, Liu Cairen stopped talking. She was waiting for Jiuzhu's follow-up question.
“Oh.” Jiuzhu remembered the teachings of her masters: if you meet someone who is sad and crying, don’t ask the reason, which is a kind of gentleness.
Liu Cairen looked at Jiuzhu, and Jiuzhu looked at Liu Cairen. After a brief silence, Liu Cairen saw that Jiuzhu had no intention of continuing to ask questions, so she bit the bullet and said, "Miss, do you know who is the most beloved lady in the harem by His Majesty?"
"It's Concubine Su." Jiuzhu said as a matter of course: "Concubine Su is so beautiful, kind-hearted, and has a nice voice. Your Majesty must like her the most."
Liu Cairen fell silent again. Will the Ming family really teach their daughter a lesson? Why are the words they say so unpleasant to listen to?
"Yes, His Majesty has favored Concubine Su for many years." Liu Cairen smiled bitterly: "Since His Majesty ascended the throne, there has been no newcomer in the palace, and we, the old men in the hidden palace, are even less worthy of His Majesty's eyes."
"Miss Ming probably doesn't know that in such a huge harem, concubines who are not favored and have no children are even more worthless than the grass on the ground."
"You mean..." Jiuzhu lowered her voice and asked in shock, "Your Majesty doesn't give you money?"
Your Majesty doesn't look like someone who would be stingy with his concubines.
"No, no, you misunderstood." How could Liu Cairen dare to say anything bad about the emperor? "Your Majesty is kind and generous to the concubines. The Palace Department sends cloth and silver every month."
Concubine Liu did not lie. No one dared to embezzle the expenses of the concubines in the harem. Their lives were much better than those of the unfavored concubines in the harem of the previous emperor.
"Young lady, do you know how many days the noble concubine has been asking the concubines to copy scriptures?"
Jiuzhu nodded: "It seems that it is less than ten days? In fact, according to the great etiquette, it must be copied for at least 49 days to be solemn. If it is hard practice, copying for 81 days is also normal. However, the ladies are not practitioners, so there is no need to be so particular."
Seeing that Liu Cairen was silent, Jiuzhu looked at her in confusion: "Why is Cairen not talking?"
Liu Cairen was speechless. She had not expected that Ming Jiuzhu, at such a young age, could be even more cruel than Concubine Su Guifei when she spoke.
Forty-nine days?
Ninety-nine and eighty-one days?
Is this copying scriptures or observing mourning?
"No, nothing." Liu Cairen stood up and said, "I suddenly remembered that I haven't finished copying the scriptures for today, and I feel a little uneasy."
She was afraid that if she continued talking, she would really have to copy the scriptures for 81 days.
"That's true. When copying scriptures, one should avoid being dishonest." Jiuzhu believed it deeply: "Copying scriptures is to accumulate virtue and blessings for oneself. The noble concubine is kind-hearted. Not only did she provide pens and ink for the ladies, she also carefully prepared a meditation room for them. The ladies must be very grateful to her, right?"
"Haha." Liu Cairen laughed with gritted teeth: "Of course I am grateful."
She covered her chest, which was a little short of breath, and took two deep breaths. "Thank you Miss Ming for chatting with me. I have to go back now."
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt his vision go dark and his feet started to stagger.
"Is Cairen okay?" Jiuzhu held Liu Cairen's arm and said, "I'll take you home."
"No, thank you Miss Ming." Liu Cairen was as if struck by lightning. He took two steps to the side and wanted to jump out of the pavilion immediately and stay away from Jiuzhu: "Goodbye."
Jiuzhu looked at Liu Cairen, who was walking away in a hurry, and sighed: "The sincerity of the Queen Mother in the Palace when she copied the scriptures was really touching."
Even she, who grew up in a Taoist temple, could not compare to their sincerity. She felt so ashamed, so ashamed.
After witnessing everything that happened, Liu Zhongbao smiled and saluted to Prince Chen: "Your Highness, I will go to the harem to announce the emperor's oral order. I will take my leave first."
Prince Chen raised his hand to signal Liu Zhongbao to do as he pleased. He broke off a leaf and walked behind Jiuzhu, preparing to scare her with the leaf.
"Ha!" Jiuzhu suddenly turned around, and her cloak lightly hit King Chen's calf. It didn't hurt, but it was a little itchy.
"It is indeed His Highness." Jiuzhu laughed softly.
Looking down at his calf, Prince Chen threw the leaf aside and asked, "When did you find mine?"
"I heard footsteps." Jiuzhu smiled proudly: "Your Highness's footsteps are different from others. I recognized them immediately."
Prince Chen was slightly startled: "What's the difference in the footsteps?"
"It's just different." Jiuzhu thought for a moment and said, "I don't know how to describe it, but I can tell it anyway."
"You have such sharp ears. Are you born in the year of the dog?"
"Your Highness is so smart. How do you know I was born in the year of the dog?" Jiuzhu rummaged in her purse, took out two mints and gave one to Prince Chen.
Smelling the minty scent of the candy, the Prince of Chen remembered that he loved eating candy when he was a child. When he was thirteen, he had a severe toothache and gave up eating candy. He didn't expect that after so many years, there would still be people who shared candy with him like a child.
"Your Highness... don't you like it?" Jiuzhu found that the candy was still in the palm of the King Chen. With the candy in her mouth and her cheeks puffed up, she said vaguely: "It tastes like mint."
Eight years ago, when His Highness rescued her from the river, he gave her mint candy. She still remembered that the little sister next to His Highness said that it was His Highness' favorite candy.
"I haven't eaten candy for a long time." The King of Chen returned the candy to Jiuzhu: "Keep it for yourself."
"Oh." Jiuzhu lowered her head and looked at the mint candy that King Chen returned to her. She sucked the sweetness of the candy in her mouth from time to time, as if even the dragonfly pin on her handbag had become powerless.
"But it's okay to taste it occasionally." Prince Chen took the candy back and put it in his mouth.
"How is it?" Jiuzhu raised her head and looked at him with sparkling eyes.
"Not bad." Seeing the little girl looking up at him, Prince Chen's heart moved slightly: "It looks like a kind of candy I ate when I was a child."
Jiuzhu smiled happily.
"What are you laughing at?" Prince Chen poked the dragonfly clip on Jiuzhu's hair bag. The dragonfly's wings fluttered, looking very energetic.
Jiuzhu took the small bag of candy from her waist and said, "Your Highness, all of this is for you."
Prince Chen wanted to tell her that just because she ate something when she was a child, it didn't mean she would still like it when she grew up. But thinking that if he told her the truth, she might give him a wronged puppy look, he still reached out and took the purse.
It's not that he is soft-hearted, he just doesn't want to coax a child.
"Why did you come here alone without asking the maids to follow you?" The Prince looked around and found two maids standing outside the pavilion. He frowned and said, "In the future, when you are in the palace, you must have servants follow you closely."
Although Jiuzhu was confused, she nodded.
Tying the purse of sugar around his waist, the Prince looked at the embroidery on it, disdainfully pulled his cloak to his chest to cover the purse, and said with a half-smile: "Some women in the harem like to fall down when they walk. The palace maids are here to help you hold them up."
"The ladies in the palace are all very thin." Jiuzhu waved her little arms. She could lift them up with her bare hands.
Seeing her white wrists exposed, Prince Chen grabbed her sleeves and pulled them down: "The wind is strong, your hands are frozen."
"Your Highness, is it going to snow soon?" Jiuzhu put her hands back into her sleeves: "It's snowing in the capital, isn't it beautiful?"
It rarely snows in Lingzhou in winter. Even if it snows, it is only a thin layer that melts before you can appreciate it.
Prince Chen looked up at the sky, but couldn't see anything, so he could only vaguely respond, "It should be...soon?"
It snows in Beijing every winter, what is there to look forward to?
The cold wind was howling. The maid of the Sun Mansion saw that the young lady had fallen asleep, blew out the candles in the room, and quietly left. I don't know what happened recently, the young lady always wanted candles to be lit in the room before she could fall asleep.
The bedroom was dim. Sun Caiyao pushed open the door and found Ming Jiuzhu sitting under the candlestick with a cold expression.
"You colluded with Su Shi and ruined all my plans?!" King Qi pushed the door open and said, "Why did you do this?"
The candlelight flickered. Ming Jiuzhu stood up and closed the doors and windows. Her eyes were darker than the night. "Did the prince harm His Royal Highness?"
"What?"
"Let me ask you, who murdered Prince Chen?!" She walked to the incense burner and lit the incense with a fire stick: "Was it you, or Concubine Ning, or... Prince Huai who was demoted to a commoner?"
The King of Qi seemed to have heard something absurd: "You and the King of Chen are strangers. What does his life or death have to do with you?"
"Your Highness." Ming Jiuzhu stared at the smoke lingering above the incense burner. "Tell me, if you and I were poisoned and died in this room at the same time, which prince would the emperor suspect?"
"Prince An, Prince Jing?"
"You want to kill me?"
"ah!"
Sun Caiyao woke up from her dream, rushed to the window, and pushed it open with trembling hands.
The crystal snowflakes fell on her trembling face, turned into mist, mixed with cold sweat, and dripped to the ground.
"It's snowing." Jiuzhu opened the window and saw the yard covered in white. She happily put on her socks, climbed over the window, jumped onto the thick snow, leaving a pair of deep footprints.
Carefully pulling her legs out, she bent down and scooped up a handful of snow, looking at it curiously.
His Royal Highness the Prince is so amazing. He said yesterday that it was going to snow, and it snowed today.
"I forgot to ask His Highness whether he likes the painting of brocade carp playing with lotus that I drew for him." Jiuzhu sighed to herself. She was so busy giving peppermint candies to His Highness yesterday that she forgot about this matter.
I heard from my father that the Ministry of Rites is closed today, so His Highness... should be at home too?
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