Next, the palace underwent a major purge. After the emperor appointed Song Chengze as the crown prince, his health deteriorated and he died of 56 years in that winter.
Before his death, he exterminated the entire family of the Crown Prince, the Crown Princess, and the family of the late Queen, and named Qingning the King of Zhen.
In the first year of the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns of the Great Xia Dynasty, the first imperial decree issued by Emperor Kangxi was to confer the title of Empress Zhaocheng Zhichunsi on Princess Meng of Rui.
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"Your Majesty, please look." Xiao Shunzi led the way with his back bent, pointing to an open space in front.
"Was it the princess's decision at that time?" Song Chengze said.
"Yes, Miss Yuandong told Eunuch Wang at the time. Eunuch Wang was afraid that he would forget, so he told me early on. The princess ordered that the pond be filled in."
Song Chengze looked at the half-filled pond with his brows furrowed. This girl always had things in her head that he couldn't figure out. It seemed like she could come up with a bunch of ideas in the blink of an eye.
He looked up; the early spring breeze still carried a chill. Ever since he took this position, he hadn't had a moment's leisure. When Emperor Jing'an was seriously ill and the Crown Prince was regent, many messes had been left behind. Especially since the Crown Prince appointed people based on merit and for his own purposes, patching up those holes was a real struggle.
Thanks to the calming soup Qingning prepared for him, he was able to go to Qionghua Palace to sit down when he had some free time.
Concubine Lian, now the Empress Dowager, looked at her son's haggard face and sighed, "No one wants this, and I feel very sad too. She was so young, yet she had such a broad mind. If it weren't for her, if it weren't for her..." The Empress Dowager wiped her tears, "This child, he died like that without even giving me a chance to thank you."
Song Chengze stood up suddenly and walked to the window, clasping his hands tightly on the windowsill. The Queen Mother looked at her son's shaking shoulders and said softly, "It's just that the dead cannot be resurrected. Even if she were in heaven, she wouldn't want you to be like this. I'm not pushing you for the position of Queen. It's just that the servants in Prince Rui's Palace are gone. It's not good to leave the harem empty like this."
Seeing her son didn't respond, the Queen Mother continued, "I know what you're thinking. It's not the right time for us to organize a beauty pageant. Why don't we first select a few from the noble families to serve you? If you're not satisfied, you can change your status with Yunying."
"Mother, there's no need." Song Chengze turned around, his eyes moist, "I will wait for her for a year."
Then he continued, "Please ask your mother to speak to Concubine Xiu about her matter. If she wishes to stay in the palace, she will be given the title of Grand Concubine. If she wishes to leave and change her status, whether it's to go back home or somewhere else, as long as she wishes, I will definitely satisfy her."
The Queen Mother opened her mouth, but finally sighed and said nothing.
After leaving Qionghua Palace, Song Chengze returned to his former residence, Prince Rui's Mansion. He went directly to Jing'an Garden. This was his first time back since bringing Qingning to the palace last year. Grass was growing out of the cracks in the corner of the Jing'an Garden wall, and the wind chimes she had made by hand were tinkling in the corridor.
Song Chengze went over and held the wind chime, "I haven't told you the truth, this wind chime is so ugly." After saying that, he smiled slightly and said to Zhang Decheng, "Take it down and hang it in Chengtian Hall."
Zhang Decheng wiped his eyes and bowed in response. He watched the emperor walk into the house with his hands behind his back, turned around and waved to the people following him, and went to pick the wind chime.
When Song Chengze entered the house, the central hall was clean and the door curtain had been replaced with a light green gauze curtain. As the wind blew up a corner of the curtain, the crisp sound of a bell under the curtain was heard.
Song Chengze smiled as he entered the east room. This girl loved little gadgets like this. I'd heard her say before that back in the Huainan Marquis's mansion, she had even more things to do with them than this. Yuan Dong had been gone for quite some time, and I didn't know how the tidying up was going. After repainting and tidying up Kunning Palace, I'd move all of Meng Qi's belongings from the Huainan Marquis's Qinyuan Garden there. Then, I'd decorate the east side hall according to her original design, including the tortoise she mentioned.
The east room remained the same as before; even the teacup Meng Qi had placed on the table when she left that morning remained untouched. Song Chengze walked toward the inner room. On the dressing table sat her usual comb. He picked it up and unexpectedly found a single hair. He carefully removed it from the comb as if it were a treasure, carefully wrapped it around his finger, and brought it close to his nose to smell it.
He turned his head again and looked at the neatly folded quilt on the kang.
Song Chengze walked over and pulled down the two quilts, remembering that they slept on the same kang. One night, Meng Qi buried her head in the crook of his neck and slept soundly, with the tears from the corners of her mouth dripping onto his underwear... He slept very poorly that night. On the one hand, he was thinking about the prince, and on the other hand, he didn't dare to move too much, for fear of waking her up and making her shrink back into her quilt.
Song Chengze held Meng Qi's quilt in his arms, and the bright red quilt cover became wet little by little. He put his face on the quilt, "Qi'er, Qi'er..." He called softly, as if she was held in his arms.
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A beautiful mountain villa on the outskirts of Beijing.
Meng Zhi looked at someone lying in a rocking chair, waving a shovel and shouting, "Hey, the doctor said your leg has healed a long time ago. Don't just sit there and watch the fun. He forced me to go out alone so you can enjoy the scenery together."
The woman lying in the rocking chair, with a rosy face and white teeth, two long braids hanging down in front of her chest, and wearing a short blouse like a peasant girl, smiled coquettishly and said, "As the saying goes, those who are capable should do more work. Your hard work has earned my praise, so it's worth it. Besides, a broken bone should take a hundred days to heal, so it should be healed properly."
Meng Zhi stood up, threw the sapling to Yuan Yue, and walked towards the woman. "Don't come on, it's been almost 120 days. When we went to the peach forest to catch peach blossom fish yesterday, you ran so fast."
The woman sat up and looked at the person who was planting flowers with Meng Zhi with displeasure. "Who was it? Who was so quick to tell her?"
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