Chapter 1098 Treasures of the Whole World
Xiao Zhan looked at the water marks on the table that were almost dry and suddenly laughed softly.
The ghost-faced totem had turned into a winding stream, flowing over their tangled sleeves, and evaporating into a mist that no one could see through in the candlelight.
"Xiaoxue!"
"how?"
"I'm so glad you're taking me with you in every plan."
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, Feng Zhige and Lan Zheng’s hundred-day banquet is just around the corner.
Jiang Heng issued another amnesty order and lit nine eternal lamps in front of the Golden Palace for his cousin.
When the news reached the princess's residence, Jiang Xue was changing Lan Zheng's swaddling clothes.
The fingertips paused on the baby's delicate skin, and warm drops of water suddenly fell on the brocade quilt embroidered with cloud patterns.
The bronze mirror reflected her slightly trembling fingertips. The scar that ran across her lower abdomen had now faded to light pink.
After packing up, she took the twins and headed straight for the palace gate. When the gilded sedan passed through Zhuque Street, she could clearly hear whispers from the streets that "the evil star has come to the world", which frightened the wet nurse so much that she hurriedly lowered the curtain of the sedan.
The imperial study was filled with the scent of ambergris. When Jiang Heng took the swaddling clothes, he suddenly froze: "Aunt, Yaoyao should have a cinnabar mole on his forehead."
"The one in your majesty's arms is Zheng'er."
Jiang Xue handed over another swaddling cloth: "Yaoyao was fussy last night and is feeling sleepy now."
The young emperor was in a hurry to exchange the baby and was completely unaware that his black dragon robe was stained with milk.
Looking at my niece's misty sleepy eyes, I suddenly remembered the secret report from the secret guard this morning - someone from the Ministry of Rites had jointly written a letter to the emperor, advising that pardoning the twins for 100 days might damage the country's fortunes.
"From now on, all the night-shining pearls in my private storehouse will be used to string curtains for Yaoyao, okay?"
He teased the little princess who had just woken up. The light reflected by the glass lamp danced in the baby's pupils: "Ask the clothing department to cut a hundred skirts out of shark silk gauze. When she can run away..."
As the dusk dyed the window frames red, Xiao Zhan's hand holding the red brush paused.
Across the table, the wife looked at the clock for the fifth time, and the apricot-colored ribbon was wrapped around her fingertips and then loosened.
When Jiang Heng suggested staying overnight in the palace, he almost clapped his hands in joy - since the twins were born, the crisp sound of jade hairpins falling to the ground was no longer heard after the twelve-panel screen in the bedroom.
"Your Majesty's bedroom is covered with camel-hair carpets that were tributed from the Western Regions..."
Xiao Zhan blocked his wife's sight calmly, and quietly hooked his fingertips around her fluttering shawl: "The wet nurse is sleeping in the green gauze cabinet."
When Jiang Heng stepped out of the door with two babies in his arms, the night wind brought sporadic crying.
The young emperor lowered his head and chuckled, freeing his hand to put the jade pendant into Yaoyao's palm: "Be good, cousin will tell you the story of Emperor Gaozu taming the white tiger..."
Jiang Xue wanted to say that she could let Yaoyao come to the palace to meet her at any time in the future, but before she could finish her words, Xiao Zhan responded first: "Your Majesty, please take care of the children."
He squeezed his wife's palm. How could he miss such an opportunity?
"Cousin, don't worry."
Jiang Heng immediately signaled the palace servants to take the child away.
Seeing that his wife was still about to speak, Xiao Zhan quietly hooked her fingertips: "Xiaoxue, do you remember when was the last time you were alone with me?"
"Didn't we admire the Epiphyllum together the other day?"
"You were always thinking about making sachets for your children."
"We drank plum wine together last night..."
"Yaoyao cried for her mother halfway through."
Jiang Xue was slightly startled when she heard this, and looked up into her husband's smiling eyes. He took her hand and kissed it gently: "Look at these bright eyes, can you still see my shadow?"
"Not just reflecting."
She reached out and traced his brow bone: "Even the scar at the corner of his eye is clearly visible."
Those were the marks left behind to protect her three years ago.
Xiao Zhan held her in his arms, his chin resting lightly on the top of her head: "Can I have these eyes all to myself tonight? Just like that year when you disguised yourself as a female doctor and treated my injuries in Yan Hui Valley..."
Memories flooded through her mind. Jiang Xue smiled and took off the sachet from her waist: "Then I have to burn this calming incense first, so that Yaoyao won't come looking for her mother again."
His fingertips were suddenly grasped, and the candlelight reflected in Xiao Zhan's eyes: "No need to burn incense, the scent of cedar on you at this moment is better than any soothing incense in the world."
The moonlight streamed through the carved windows, turning the entangled figures into double silhouettes.
The sound of a night watchman's drum was heard in the distance, startling the copper bells on the eaves to ring softly, but was quickly drowned out by the whispers in the warm room.
As dusk stained the palace walls, Xiao Zhan lightly scratched the tip of Jiang Xue's nose with his fingers, and gentle lines appeared at the corners of his eyes: "Xiaoxue, do you want some advance payment?" His fingertips lightly dotted her cheek, creating tiny spots of light.
Jiang Xue suddenly stood on tiptoe, and the tassels in her hair brushed across his chin.
The warm touch spread over the man's face one after another, and he was kissed more than ten times like a dragonfly touching the water, until the tip of his ear was covered with crimson.
"Is this interest enough?" There were stars in her eyes, and her fingertips were still hooked on the buttons of his clothes.
Xiao Zhan stroked the cheek that still had the scent of rouge, and his heart felt like a candy soaked in warm water, emitting a hint of sweetness.
When leading people through the nine-turn corridor, the hotel deliberately avoids the stuffy alleys. The residual heat from the sun on the bluestone railings shines through the gauze clothes and interweaves with the lotus breeze from the lotus pond to form a whisper on the summer night.
The copper bell at the corner of the pavilion was rang by the evening breeze, and Jiang Xue suddenly pressed her forehead against his spine.
Through the brocade material, one could clearly feel his suddenly tense shoulders, like a fully drawn bowstring.
"Let me lean on you for a moment."
Her voice was muffled by the fabric of her clothes, and her fingertips unconsciously grabbed the jade belt around his waist: "Just like that snowy night when you carried me, who had a high fever, to go to the imperial physician."
Xiao Zhan raised his hand and covered the back of her hands that were folded on her waist and abdomen. The warmth from his palm penetrated through her skin and into her blood vessels.
The sound of a night watch came from afar, startling the egrets resting among the lotus leaves. He looked at the feathered shadows flying across the sky and sighed: "Back then, I carried the fifteen-year-old Xiaoxue on my back, but now..."
"How are you now?" A smiling nasal voice came from behind his ear, and the hair tickled the side of his neck.
"Now it's as heavy as a thousand pounds."
He suddenly turned around and picked the person up horizontally, shocking Jiang Xue so much that she grabbed the front of his collar tightly, but when she saw the cunning in his eyes, she angrily hit his shoulder.
In the warm light of the palace lanterns, her pale face turned pale pink, like peach rouge spread on rice paper.
When passing through the moon-shaped gate, Xiao Zhan suddenly felt his shoulders sink.
Jiang Xue's even breathing brushed across his neck, and her curled-up posture was like a bird returning to its nest.
He deliberately slowed down his pace, letting the night watch palace lanterns stretch the overlapping shadows very long, as if this road would never end.
“Yun Che!”
When the corner of the palace eaves came into view, the person on his back rubbed his earlobe in a daze: "Do you think you are a perpetual motion machine?"
Xiao Zhan held her hand tighter, stepped on the shadows of trumpet creepers all over the ground and chuckled, "It's like I'm carrying all the treasures in the world on my back."
The night wind carried the whisper toward the starry sky, startling the poinciana trees perched on the branches of the paulownia trees, causing their scarlet petals to flutter and fall all over the steps.
The moonlight shines through the scarlet gauze window lattice onto the green jade table, and the candlelight flickers gently in the gilded lamp.
Xiao Zhan placed the porcelain bowl of Tremella Soup on the table and raised his hand to wipe the soup stains from the corners of Jiang Xue's mouth:
"The tonic prescribed by the imperial physician must be taken on time. I heard from Ah Bi that you secretly poured out half a bowl today?"
Jiang Xue lowered her eyes to look at the loose silk ribbon around her waist, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the tassels on the pillow.
She deliberately changed her pajamas into newly made cloud gauze, and the pearls adorning the collar cast tiny spots of light on her collarbone.
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