Li Yannian stepped forward to take his beautiful bride, but Di Jingyuan dodged him. Seeing this, the palace servants swarmed forward to block him, pushing him towards the door. Di Jingyuan carried his bride and ran ahead, with Li Yannian chasing after him.
After running for a while, Di Jingyuan stopped. He couldn't let the groom fall behind, or Di Jinghan would get angry with him! Li Yannian took Di Jinghan from Di Jingyuan's arms, still a little out of breath: "Your Highness, rest assured, I will take good care of the princess!"
Di Jingyuan patted him on the shoulder: "Go ahead."
Li Yannian carefully helped Jinghan into the eight-bearer sedan chair. From the palace to the princess's residence, the procession was a grand affair, with Li Yannian riding a tall horse, a moment of great pride in his life.
At the Princess's residence, Azi and Di Jingcheng personally witnessed the couple's wedding ceremony, their hearts filled with blessings. This was Azi's first time witnessing such a grand wedding in the Central Plains, and she couldn't help but feel longing and anticipation. To be honest, she and Di Jingcheng had held their own ethnic wedding in their tribe, but they had never experienced such a ceremonial ceremony.
Di Jingcheng naturally noticed the envy and anticipation, tinged with a hint of regret, in Azi's eyes as she watched the two perform the wedding ceremony. He silently tightened his grip on Azi's small hand. He had been preparing for the coronation ceremony for a long time, but he had been thinking about Azi's pregnancy and the fact that her body had not yet fully recovered.
Who knew that a series of unpleasant things would happen later, and with the arrival of winter, everything would be difficult to manage. Now that spring has arrived, it is a vibrant and wonderful season, and it is time to put it on the agenda.
Azi longed for him immensely, but she couldn't bring it up herself, since their identities weren't something that could be decided so easily. And most importantly, Azi thought of Emperor Jingcheng's Empress, Nalan Yun'er. In the Central Plains, there's a saying about "a couple bound by marriage," and they were truly a couple bound by marriage.
Thinking about this, Azi couldn't be happy at all. She wasn't in a very good mood when she returned to the palace and didn't pay much attention to Emperor Jingcheng.
Di Jingcheng had been observing her emotions and knew that she was unhappy because of it. He assumed that she was just feeling regretful and did not think about what Azi was thinking.
When Azi arrived at the side hall, the wet nurse was sleeping with Hong Chu'er. She quickly got up to greet the Emperor and Empress. Azi only realized that Di Jingcheng had come with her when she heard the wet nurse's address. She silently sat down by the bed and coaxed the drowsy Chu'er to sleep, rubbing her head affectionately against his soft little face, feeling very comforted.
Di Jingcheng sat to the side watching the mother and son. Only after his son had fallen asleep did he go forward and carry Azi back to his room. Azi gently nudged him, glancing at the sleeping Chu'er who hadn't been woken, and whispered, "What are you doing?"
"Chu'er is asleep, let's go back and rest." Di Jingcheng said, carrying her out the door and instructing the wet nurse and palace servants to take good care of the little prince.
The two lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. Azi turned her back to Di Jingcheng and pretended to doze off. Once the grudge in her heart was stirred up, it wouldn't go away for a while.
"We became husband and wife, our love unwavering." Azi murmured these words to herself. She had read them in a book. Had he treated his wife well before, only to be disliked and deposed because she made a mistake? (This line is from "Farewell to My Wife" by Su Shi, a famous poet of the Song Dynasty.)
Di Jingcheng held Azi, who was preoccupied with her thoughts, from behind. He watched her feigned sleep but her expression kept changing, and he knew she was troubled. He immediately turned her body to face him: "Baby, I know you're not asleep. What's wrong? Tell your husband."
Azi opened her beautiful eyes and met his gaze. The words reached her throat but she couldn't say them. She sighed softly and shook her head.
When Di Jingcheng saw her lower her eyelids again, he quickly cupped her small face in his hands, his eyes full of affection: "Baby, Jinghan and Li Yannian have already gotten married. I have always owed you a solemn and grand wedding, but I have been preparing for it for a long time. The people from the Ministry of Rites have been preparing it. I wanted to give you a surprise after these few days, but I didn't expect to make my baby sad."
After he finished speaking, he kissed her small lips affectionately. A hint of joy flashed in A Zi's eyes, but it was quickly suppressed by the thought. She stammered, "You...you...you must have been married countless times, right? You had so many wives and concubines before." After A Zi finished speaking, she quickly lowered her head, not daring to look at the man's gaze, feeling a little uneasy.
Di Jingcheng was stunned for a moment. So this was what his darling cared about. He was suddenly very glad that he had never been interested in women and had always been chaste, and that his heart had always belonged to A Zi.
“My dear, those concubines did have a ceremony to be made a concubine, but it was all presided over by the former deposed empress. I never appeared. Moreover, I only briefly appeared during the sacrificial ceremony at the deposed empress's coronation ceremony. On the night of the wedding, I remained chaste and slept on the ground by myself.”
Emperor Jingcheng recalled the past, realizing that he would never have bothered to step into those women's rooms if it weren't to silence gossip. The later "favors" were also achieved through drugs. The concubines, believing they had all been favored by the emperor, dared not utter a word of it to avoid losing face in front of others.
Listening to his explanation, Azi couldn't help but find it hard to believe. Although he repeatedly emphasized that he had never touched those women, this wasn't something he could just say. She loved him, and she was willing to believe it. Now, hearing the man's self-justification, she found it completely believable.
"So... you just fooled those ministers like that?" Azi's eyes were somewhat conflicted.
Di Jingcheng chuckled: "I deceived them with drugs, and they thought they had really been favored."
Azi nodded. This man was truly cunning! Her mood improved considerably, and she gently touched his chest with her small hand: "Then, will you tie our hair together? I've heard that in the Central Plains, men and women tie their hair together when they get married, so that their marriage will last a long time!"
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