Chapter 163 He is in Wangjing Tower
After the palace maids expressed their gratitude, Pei Tingyue asked them to prepare breakfast.
She did not wait for the emperor.
It's because today is a very special day. It is not only New Year's Eve and her birthday, but also the death anniversary of the late emperor.
This is also the reason why there was no New Year's Eve palace banquet during the Xining period. Instead, the banquet was specially held in advance on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. After the banquet was over, it would not be held today.
The emperor told her last night that he had to pay homage at the imperial mausoleum today and would only be free to accompany her in the evening.
So Pei Tingyue never looked for him.
After breakfast, Pei Tingyue wanted to go out, so she sent the little palace maid to Fenghe Palace to look for a letter from home.
She specially sent the letters home early this year in order to receive them before the New Year.
Sending letters home at the end of the year is different from usual times. In addition to letters, you can also bring other things.
A few days ago, Pei Tingyue thought for a long time and prepared six pieces of high-quality fabrics and two jade ruyi for Pei's father and mother, and the best Hui ink and chengni inkstone for his three brothers. There were fewer things for his three sisters-in-law, so he prepared three sets of red gold head ornaments.
In fact, Pei Tingyue had no shortage of jewelry and head ornaments, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to give her more. However, most of these jewelry were palace styles and couldn't be used outside. Therefore, she only found these three sets of head ornaments.
In addition, she also took out two hundred taels of gold that Xie Chen had rewarded her with last time, put it in a small box, and planned to send it back home.
This is just a small part of what Pei Tingyue has accumulated over the past six months, and it adds up to quite a bit.
As for those decorations, Pei Tingyue did not give them as gifts. It would be an overreach for the family to use these things from the palace, which would only add to the trouble. It would be better not to give them as gifts.
When Xie Chen saw her, he asked about it. After learning that she was sending something to her home, he remained silent for a long time.
Compared with the rewards given to the family by other concubines in previous years, this little thing is really insignificant.
He added some things.
A set of jade bi ornaments, sinking water spices, and several sets of gold and jade head ornaments were given to Pei's father and mother, all of which were of styles that could be used outside the palace. The most important thing was that an imperial edict was issued to confer an imperial decree on Pei's mother.
Since the founding of the Great Qi Dynasty, generally speaking, the husband's official rank was several, and his wife was a lady of the same rank. However, this only applied to officials in the capital, who could submit memorials to request titles. As for local officials, there was no such thing as requesting titles.
This imperial edict gave the Pei family face, not to mention that Xie Chen had granted the title to Pei's mother, even though Pei's father was a seventh-rank official. Logically, Pei's mother should have been granted a seventh-rank imperial edict, but the imperial edict stated a fifth-rank imperial edict.
This is a great honor.
Xie Chen also added some things to the remaining people of the Pei family.
He gave the three brothers of the Pei family calligraphy and paintings, as well as rare books, and even gave gifts to his three sisters-in-law.
These things were sent out half a month ago. They will arrive at Lin'an Prefecture in about seven days and return to Beijing in another seven days. So today, the letters and things she brought with her should have arrived at the palace.
Pei Tingyue was looking forward to what would happen.
The palace maid who was sent out came back soon and presented the things on a mahogany tray.
"These things are all placed in Fenghe Palace. As soon as the servants asked for them, they were found immediately."
Pei Tingyue looked at them one by one.
The first thing was naturally the letter, followed by two palace dresses, one cloud pink dress embroidered with auspicious plum blossoms, and the other an evergreen dress with twined branches.
The color was one she had always liked, but the style was no longer popular in the palace. Pei Tingyue looked at it and felt like crying.
Pei's mother's embroidery skills are among the best in Lin'an Prefecture. Since she married Pei's father, she has been sewing all the clothes in the family herself. Over time, her eyesight has become very poor.
Later on, he could no longer use his eyes for long periods of time, so from then on, the clothes for the Pei Mansion were either made by embroiderers or bought in clothing stores.
Palace dresses are more than ten times more difficult to make than ordinary clothes. Moreover, these two sets of palace dresses have fine stitches and are meticulously crafted. I wonder how many nights Pei's mother spent and how many tears she shed to embroider them stitch by stitch.
There is also this style, although it is a bit old, but I don’t know how many places Pei’s mother searched before she got the palace style.
Pei Tingyue finally managed to suppress the bitterness in her eyes and continued reading.
Next were some small items for the baby in her belly, and finally there was a small box that looked very familiar to Pei Tingyue. It was where she stored her gold ingots back then. When she opened it, she saw that two hundred taels of gold had been returned intact, with three hundred and fifty taels of silver notes underneath.
There is even fifty taels of silver. All the family savings should be here.
For a moment, Pei Tingyue couldn't describe the feeling in her heart. It was numb, sour, and wooden, and she wanted to cry.
The leading maid thought she was homesick and consoled her by saying, "Empress Zhaoyi is pregnant now. In just over a month, when the baby is eight months old, your wife can come into the palace to look after you. In fact, Empress Zhaoyi is so favored now. If you tell the emperor about it, he will let his wife into the palace after the New Year."
Pei Tingyue shook his head and didn't respond.
She had discussed this matter with the emperor before. Pei Tingyue originally had this idea, but then she heard from the emperor that after the beginning of next spring, when she gave birth to the child, she would go on a southern tour and would pass by Lin'an Prefecture and stay there for a while.
So Pei Tingyue didn't let the emperor bring Pei's mother over.
After she raised her head and held back her tears, she took the letter back to her bedroom to read it. The nearly ten pages of rice paper were filled with thousands of thoughts and instructions.
After staying in the cold palace for a long time, Pei Tingyue's heart became a little cold and hard, but when she saw these words, her heart softened like a pool of spring water.
It took her a long time to calm down her sour emotions.
When the palace attendant saw her leaving the bedroom, she cautiously asked her, "Does Empress Zhaoyi want to go to Wangjing Tower?"
Pei Tingyue was puzzled: "What is Wangjing Tower? What are we going there for?"
She had never heard of such a place in the palace.
The maid explained,
“This building is located in the outer court of the Imperial Palace and is a terrace on the city wall. Because it is higher than the city wall and one can take in the entire scenery of Kyoto from the third floor, it is named Wangjing Tower.
Today is the anniversary of the late emperor's death. The emperor is kind and filial. After paying homage to the emperor in the morning, he will go to Wangjing Tower to commemorate and mourn. Why don't you go and offer some advice, Your Majesty?"
Pei Tingyue had some ideas.
Go and persuade the emperor?
This seems to further enhance the relationship between the two.
"Has anyone ever tried to persuade the Emperor before?"
"Yes." The maid lowered her voice, "The Empress goes there every year, but the Emperor never sees her."
After hearing this, Pei Tingyue completely gave up the idea of going.
If she went there and saw the queen, she would slap her in the face. If she didn't see the queen, she would have made a wasted trip and only made herself a laughing stock.
It would be better for her to stay in the palace and wait for the emperor to come and accompany her at night.
But this is a little strange.
Is the emperor so sad?
Even the Queen didn’t come to see him. Wouldn’t she be unhappy to be with him at night?
Thoughts flooded into my heart like a tide.
It was not until Concubine Song came in the afternoon that she was freed from all her doubts.
Concubine Song was very generous and handed the ball in her hand over, "Birthday gift."
Pei Tingyue and Tuantuan stared at each other for a moment, then she chuckled and pinched Tuantuan's cheek. "What should I do? Your mother thinks you're too much of a eater, so she gave me this hot potato. Should I take you or not?"
Tuan Tuan shouted.
Pei Tingyue smiled and said, "Yes!"
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