The wintersweets of the Forbidden City blossomed profusely beneath the leaden sky. Their petals, like crushed jade, clung to the glazed tiles, where a thin layer of ice formed from the morning frost. Jiang Yan trudged through Yongxiang on the crunching snow, the hem of his dark official robe brushing against the snow on the steps, his cuffs still stained with the lingering scent of ink from his study. As he passed the corridors of Chuxiu Palace, he saw Eunuch Li, hunched over, waiting at the palace gates. The bright yellow imperial edict on the gilded tray in his hand rustled in the wind.
"Master Jiang is finally here!" Eunuch Li rubbed his red, frozen hands, his breath forming a cloud of white mist in the cold air. "The Emperor is waiting in the warm room of the Imperial Garden. He just smashed the teacup and said that if he can't wait any longer, he will go to the Prime Minister's residence to arrest you."
Jiang Yan's heart skipped a beat. The emperor was always impulsive, but he was rarely so impatient. He tightened the jade belt around his waist, the icicles on the soles of his boots scraping against the blue bricks with a harsh sound. Passing by the Imperial Garden, he saw a twisted snowman piled under a wintersweet tree, a small crown affixed to its head—it must be Princess Shou'an's masterpiece. Remembering his own daughter Nianli's clamor for a snowman yesterday, Jiang Yan's tense mouth relaxed slightly.
The heater in Lanyue Pavilion burned brightly, and Su Jinli squatted before a low couch, combing Nianli's pigtails. The three-year-old girl, wearing a pomegranate-red brocade jacket, twisted and turned, refusing to settle. A freshly picked red plum blossom, its petals still wet with dew, was pinned to her hair. "Daddy!" Nianli's eyes lit up, and she broke free from the comb and rushed over, clutching a half-eaten candy cake in her tiny hands, leaving crumbs all over Jiang Yan's official robes.
"Run slower." Jiang Yan bent down and picked up his daughter. His fingertips touched the cold tip of her nose and he quickly warmed it with a hand warmer. "Why are you secretly picking flowers again?"
"Mom said Hongmei looks good on me!" Nianli shook her little hairpin and suddenly pointed at Jiang Yan's glasses and laughed, "Daddy is wearing foggy glasses!"
Su Jinli pulled Siyan into her arms. The four-year-old was nibbling at the corner of a copy of the Three Character Classic, his saliva wrinkling the three characters "人之初" (Ren Zhi Chu). "What does the Emperor want to see you about?" she asked, accepting the hot cocoa Lingge handed her. Water droplets from the cup dripped onto the tablecloth embroidered with twin lotus flowers.
Jiang Yan took a sip of cocoa. The scalding liquid soothed his frozen throat, but it couldn't smooth out the wrinkles in his heart. He watched Si Yan stuff abacus beads into his mouth as if they were candy, while Nian Li tugged at his beard and yelled, "Daddy's become a eunuch!" Suddenly, he remembered the Emperor's words in the warm room. His fingertips tightened sharply, and the porcelain cup made a subtle crackling sound.
The warm room in the Imperial Garden was filled with the scent of ambergris and roasted charcoal. The emperor, wearing a half-worn ochre-colored formal attire, sighed deeply as he gazed at the painting of a hundred children on the wall. A few crumpled pieces of rice paper lay at his feet. "Jiang Yan," he pointed at the child holding a golden melon in the painting, his fingernail poking a hole in the paper. "Your Nianli...is she three years old now, right?"
"Your Majesty, I just celebrated my birthday the day before yesterday and even got my wedding day." Jiang Yan stood with his hands hanging down, his eyes sweeping over the scraps of paper at the emperor's feet - the three words "child bride" were written crookedly on it, the ink showing through the back of the paper.
"Three years old is great!" The emperor spun around abruptly, sending sparks flying from the charcoal basin. "Yesterday I saw the Crown Prince chasing Nianli in the Imperial Garden. The two children were so close!" He rubbed his hands, his dragon-patterned boots rubbing a dent in the blue bricks. "How about... let Nianli be the Crown Prince's child bride? It would be a perfect match, a perfect match!"
Jiang Yan's hand, holding the teacup, trembled suddenly, and the scalding tea splashed onto his stone-blue cuffs, leaving dark stains. His eyes flashed before his eyes—last month in the Imperial Garden, the chubby little boy had been pulled by Nian Li's hair and cried for half an hour while trying to steal her wooden horse, his eyes still bruised. Thinking of his own Nian Li, who could eat chilies like candy, his scalp tingled.
"Your Majesty, Nianli is still young and naive..." He carefully chose his words, his gaze fixed on the boy in the "Hundred Children Picture" who was bent over by the golden melon. "Your Highness the Crown Prince is only five years old, and is at the age of mischief. I'm afraid... I'm afraid that Nianli will be wronged."
"Not little anymore!" the emperor interrupted him, picked up the red pen on the table and circled the imperial edict, "Thinking back to when I was three years old, I could recite half of The Analects of Confucius! It's settled. Tomorrow I will ask the Ministry of Rites to draft an edict to bring Nianli to the Eastern Palace for education and to cultivate her relationship with the crown prince." He circled the three words "child bride" with a red pen, and the ink dripped on the "zi" in "bai zi" like a drop of blood.
Jiang Yan looked into the Emperor's eyes, ablaze with excitement, and suddenly remembered what Su Jinli had said: the Empress Dowager had been constantly nagging the Emperor about wanting a "great-grandson." He took a deep breath, and was about to offer further advice when the Emperor rolled up the imperial edict and shoved it into his arms. "It's settled. Go back and tell Jinli I'll prepare a beautiful wedding for Nianli!"
As they left the warm room, snowflakes finally fell from the leaden sky. Jiang Yan clutched the burning imperial edict in his arms, feeling the burn of the bright yellow satin ache in his heart. As they passed a wintersweet tree, a petal landed on the edict, reminiscent of the red plum blossom at Nian Li's temple. He remembered Nian Li munching on chili peppers and smiling at him, and the scene of the prince drooling as he tugged at Nian Li's braids. He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks—this child bride, no matter what, was unacceptable!
When they returned to the Xiangfu, Su Jinli was teaching Siyan how to use an abacus. Nianli was crouched on the corner of the table, dressing Dolls. Seeing Jiang Yan return, she held up a small jacket and shouted, "Daddy, look! I made a new dress for my sister!"
Jiang Yan hid the imperial edict in his sleeve, squatted down and pinched his daughter's face: "Nianli, do you want to live in the palace?"
"No!" Nian Li immediately shook her head, pointing her little hand out the window, "The palace maids don't allow us to eat chili peppers!"
Siyan suddenly pushed the abacus towards him and said in a baby voice, "Daddy, the abacus is sweet."
Su Jinli put down the abacus and looked at Jiang Yan's tense jawline: "What did the emperor say?"
Jiang Yan pulled the imperial edict from his sleeve. Unfolding it, the bright yellow satin shone coldly in the candlelight. Su Jinli was startled at first after reading the inscription, then burst into laughter, causing Si Yan to drop her abacus beads on the floor. "Let Nianli be the Crown Prince's child bride?" She clutched her stomach and laughed until tears streamed down her face. "The Emperor must have been bewildered by the Empress Dowager's calming incense. He didn't even consider Nianli's personality."
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