Hibiscus flowers always meet her old friend in her dreams, her old friend...
An hour earlier, outside the side gate of Xiaguang Peak, Ding Wei, the chief eunuch of Cining Palace, stood upright in the shade, whisk in hand, lecturing incessantly. Under the bright sun, a young eunuch of about seventeen or eighteen years old was slumped over, receiving a lecture.
The Empress Dowager has been suffering from a poor appetite lately, and this morning she only drank a bowl of almond tea after getting up. Her stomach has been upset lately, and she often experiences indigestion. Her maid, Baozhu, at the Cining Palace, advised her against eating much, as advised by the imperial physician. However, the Empress Dowager drank the entire bowl of almond tea and ate a plate of jujube paste pastries.
Finally, Baozhu had no choice but to have a group of palace maids accompany her. She helped the Empress Dowager take a walk in the large garden in front of Wansong Pavilion. There was a commotion at the side gate, and the chief eunuch Ding Wei tiptoed out.
The Empress Dowager was quite lucid at the time and asked Baozhu, "Isn't that Ding Wei? What happened? Why haven't I seen him these past few days?"
Baozhu was also somewhat surprised and replied, "It must be that the servants did not perform their duties well, and Eunuch Ding is punishing them."
The Empress Dowager sighed: "Didn't I say that these children are all in their teens and twenties, and they were all raised with the love of their parents? How can you punish them so easily?"
Baozhu quickly replied, "Yes. I'll go find Eunuch Ding right away."
The Empress Dowager, however, felt this was inappropriate: "I will go myself!" She then walked to the side gate as if on air, leaning on her cane, leaving a group of palace maids and Baozhu behind.
Upon seeing that it was the Empress Dowager, Ding Wei hurriedly said respectfully, "Your Majesty, he said he is a new flower grower in the garden, and this servant has never seen him before. How dare he try to barge in!"
The young eunuch saw the Empress Dowager as if she were his savior. He ignored Ding Wei and rushed over, kneeling down in front of the Empress Dowager with a thud, saying, "Your Majesty, something has happened."
Ten years ago, after the Qin family matter was settled, the Empress Dowager chose to leave the palace and live in Xiaguang Peak. Before leaving, she privately summoned Cui Lü, the young eunuch who was carefully tending the flowers and plants in the small flower room behind Cining Palace, and said to him: "I am leaving today. From now on, I will have nothing to do with palace affairs. But if it concerns these children, would you be willing to come to my place?"
Cui Lu nodded repeatedly, then knelt down and kowtowed to the Empress Dowager, saying, "Your Majesty, from now on, this servant will be your eyes and ears!"
Under the blazing sun, Cui Lu wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and recounted Gao Jian's death before his execution and the case of the three bones of the Li family in a rambling manner.
The Empress Dowager remained silent for a long time, leaning on her cane, until Baozhu noticed something was wrong and called out, "Grand Ancestor."
Then, the Empress Dowager immediately opened her mouth, and blood gushed out instantly.
Everyone was shocked. Baozhu's face turned pale, and she shouted, "Quickly, go and fetch the imperial physician!" Before she finished speaking, Ding Wei had already carried the Empress Dowager on his back, with Cui Lü guarding him, and ran towards Wansong Pavilion.
When the Jiang siblings arrived at Xiaguang Peak, the Empress Dowager had already fallen asleep after receiving acupuncture and taking medicine from the imperial physician.
Aunt Baozhu, surprised, came out to greet them. Seeing the brother and sister from the Di family, she felt as if she had found her pillar of support. After bowing, she immediately said, "Her Majesty has not been feeling well lately, but she wouldn't allow us to report it to the palace. She's been brewing medicine for days, and only recently has she begun to improve. Who would have thought we'd run into that young eunuch?"
Jiang Yuanjun turned around and looked at the figure kneeling on the ground in front of Wansong Pavilion.
Jiang Yuanfu's eyes were red and swollen from crying, and she quickly said, "It's alright, it's alright. With the protection of the merciful Bodhisattva, Grandmother will surely be safe and sound."
Baozhu patted her hand affectionately: "Princess, don't be sad. If Her Majesty sees you like this, she will be heartbroken."
Jiang Yuanfu nodded absentmindedly, when she suddenly heard footsteps behind her. She was surprised for a moment: "So fast?" Then she couldn't help but say to Baozhu: "Aunt, look, who's back?" She turned around, pushed aside the palace maids who were attending her, and pointed to the person behind her.
Baozhu followed her gaze.
A man in brocade robes with black hair, bright eyes, and sparse eyebrows.
A person dressed in a light blue dress, with a slight frown between their brows, yet their eyes remained as clear as autumn water.
When they arrived at Wansong Pavilion, they saw the young eunuch kneeling under the blazing sun, dressed in the robes of a palace eunuch. Cui Lu also saw them, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes before he quickly lowered his head.
It was indeed Cui Lu. Qin Weixi was startled.
For a moment, Jiang Yuanfu was lost in thought, recalling his childhood in Penglai, where the girls picked lotus flowers in the Jade Pond, and the boys acted as their guards. His seventh sister stood with him, and his grandmother had once smiled and said, "A perfect couple, very good. Very good."
When the Emperor first ascended the throne, he mentioned at a family banquet that his grandfather had intended to arrange a marriage between his seventh sister and his elder brother. After the seventh sister came of age, she would either become the Emperor's grandson's wife or enter the Eastern Palace as the Crown Prince's wife.
When I heard that my grandfather had this idea, I was full of fighting spirit and energy.
However, when she heard this, her grandmother immediately refused, saying, "Xi-ya is not suitable to enter the royal family. If that day comes, she will be just a bird flying over the palace wall."
"Being a royal descendant is also not suitable. One must find a husband who is harmonious at home, capable of shouldering great responsibilities, and who is not blindly filial, so that they can live in harmony and grow old together."
The Empress Dowager also said, "The way of marriage cannot be judged by appearances alone. What they want you to see is only what they want you to know. You also need to look at it from another perspective. If you observe carefully, and find that the male and female heads of the family get along well, then it is definitely good. If the female head of the family is too domineering and blindly spoils the children, and the husband is weak and indecisive, then that is also not good. What kind of temperament will the children raised in such a family have? If the male head of the family has a bad temper and his heart is not on the same page as his wife, then that is also not good."
I heard my mother jokingly say back then, "Then, according to your advice, what should Miss Xi do?"
The Empress Dowager sighed, "Husband and wife should be of one mind and one heart, think in the same direction, do things in the same direction, and face problems together. That is what makes a couple."
Jiang Yuanfu was filled with mixed emotions, thinking that if she were still alive, she would be eighteen years old now.
She glanced at Qin Weixi and noticed faint bruises and signs of crying under her eyes, which even makeup couldn't conceal.
"Eighth Sister, why are you crying?"
Qin Weixi forced a smile: "It's nothing. I'm just worried about Your Highness."
With tears in her eyes, Baozhu smiled and said, "I didn't dare to recognize you when we were far away, which is good. When Her Majesty wakes up and sees everyone, nine-tenths of your illness will surely be gone."
She sighed inwardly. Xiaguang Peak was not an impenetrable wall. In recent years, the Empress had lived here as a widow, detached from worldly affairs, but those below could not remain oblivious to what was happening outside.
She knew all of this, but when the words came to her lips, she didn't know how to ask anyone to bring them up, so that the Empress would inexplicably recall those years.
Luo Ling asked, "Aunt Baozhu, what did the imperial physician say?"
Baozhu replied, "It's a case of qi and blood attacking the heart. Imperial Physician Qian said that the Empress must not be subjected to any more stimulation in the future. If this continues, the Empress may fall into a prolonged coma, which could endanger her life."
Upon hearing this, Qin Weixi quickly swept away the tightly closed inner chamber door.
Baozhu immediately instructed the palace maids inside, "Quickly serve the young ladies almond tea. The spring breeze is still chilly; they shouldn't catch a cold."
The palace maids agreed and gracefully withdrew.
Only a few of them remained in the room. Baozhu said to them, "I'll go and see how Her Highness is."
As soon as he finished speaking, a series of intermittent, soft coughs echoed from inside the room.
Immediately afterwards, they heard a voice coming from inside: "Is he my imperial grandson?"
The voice sounded as if it had weathered the storms of time, heavy and powerless.
Qin Weixi's eyelashes trembled slightly.
Her elder brother and third brother both told her that Grandma Zhao had become increasingly senile in recent years.
Over the course of ten years, she hated the ruthlessness of the royal family. Her kind father committed suicide in the palace, her gentle mother abandoned her and died under the drum of petition, and her brother died with a spear in his back, kneeling in the snow with his eyes wide open in death.
But the letters she sent to the capital over the past ten years, just as her brother had described to her, said, "Home is where my heart is at peace."
She also invariably ended each letter with the words: "Greetings, Grandmother?"
When she finally reached the summit of Xiaguang Peak ten years later and saw her beloved grandmother, she began to feel uneasy.
She stood among the group with her eyes lowered, but her ears were constantly listening to the sounds coming from inside the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a gaze secretly observing her.
Qin Weixi looked up.
Just like that day at Chengxin Nunnery, their eyes met. But this time, Chu Yening's eyes held a hint of inquiry.
She was taken aback.
"What is it, Little Eight? Is something wrong? Or do you have something to say to me?" He raised an eyebrow, smiled faintly, and looked at her.
Qin Weixi looked at his starry, peach-blossom eyes, which seemed to gaze with deep affection even at a sudden gust of wind.
"You're the one watching me." The words were spoken lightly, yet with a chilling indifference.
Chu Yening was slightly taken aback.
Jiang Yuanjun pushed open the door first and went in, saying, "Greetings, Grandmother?"
Luo Ling and Tao Qingyun followed them into the inner room, and said together, "Greetings, Grandmother?"
The Empress Dowager chuckled and said softly, "All is well, all is well."
Baozhu and Jiang Yuanfu helped her up and let her lean against the soft pillows on the small couch. The Empress Dowager was only wearing a plain-colored nightgown. It was almost May, but she had a rabbit made of otter fur wrapped around her forehead and held a copper wire stove in her hand.
Now he is thin, his temples are gray, his face is covered with wrinkles, and his eyes are deeply sunken.
Years ago, this now white-haired old woman was a graceful and dignified mother of the nation. She once told several young children, "My original surname was Zhao, and my parents named me Zhao Shi Fucheng. On the day I was born, the hibiscus was in full bloom, and the flowers were blooming all over the fields."
But over the years, she has always met her old friends in her dreams. Her old friends never look at her, but only turn their backs to her coldly, saying with hatred, "Zhao Fucheng, we don't want to see you."
She also had sweet dreams, enjoying tea and meals with old friends, her husband serving her chicken legs, amidst laughter and joy.
Baozhu said this was a knot in her heart, and her old friends never blamed her.
Chu Yening stepped out from behind the group, lifted his robes, knelt down, and performed a kneeling bow. His voice was steady and powerful as he said, "Yening greets Grandmother."
A lonely young man who returned after ten years. If he went elsewhere, none of them dared to guarantee it now, but he would definitely come to Xiaguang Peak.
The Empress Dowager was taken aback, then her eyes searched the room for the source of the sound.
His eyes were vacant.
Qin Weixi froze on the spot, her fingernails digging deeply into her palms. She then took a few steps forward and said softly, "Grandmother."
Tears suddenly welled up in her eyes. The tears flowed like a burst dam, blurring her vision.
The Empress Dowager was taken aback again. After a moment, she smiled kindly and raised her hand to wipe away the girl's tears, but her empty eyes could not find the girl's tear-stained face anywhere.
She said, "I'm getting old, and I can't see as clearly as I have in recent years."
But she knew that she had cried herself blind.
“I’m getting old, and there have been times when I haven’t even remembered you children. Zhongting is also almost forgotten. Lately, I keep dreaming about Zhongting, dreaming that he is wearing the white shirt he wore when we first met, standing with me under the magnolia tree.”
He said, "Fucheng, come quickly, I'll make you some braised chicken legs."
Zhongting was the late emperor's courtesy name. He was like an ordinary grandmother, telling ordinary stories, with a group of children listening quietly.
She spoke slowly, but made no mention of the reason for her fainting spell that day. The others tacitly kept quiet as well.
Jiang Yuanfu choked up and said, "You miss your grandfather!"
Qin Weixi held her hand and repeatedly touched her aged hands and the veins and wrinkles on the back of her hands.
The Empress Dowager wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and then gently stroked her face.
The Empress Dowager coughed again.
"Are you feeling unwell? Granddaughter, please bring your grandmother another soft pillow to rest on." Jiang Yuanfu said as she went to get a soft pillow from the canopy bed.
But then a loud crash was heard, and a round object fell out from under the soft pillow, crashing to the ground and breaking into several pieces.
Even so, the few people inside could still tell that it was a Huishan clay figurine—Da Afu—covered in colorful clothes and smiling extremely kindly.
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