Chapter Thirteen
After dinner, Li Heng and Gu Leyao returned to their room and changed into their formal attire. Outside the palace gates, Li Qi had prepared a carriage, and Gu Leyao and Li Heng rode together to the palace.
According to royal custom, on the morning of the second day after their wedding, they had to go to the palace to pay their respects to the Emperor and Empress.
They disembarked from the carriage at the palace gate, and Gu Leyao pushed Li Heng to the emperor's palace.
The Empress and the Emperor were already waiting there, and the young Crown Prince stood beside the Empress, staring at Gu Leyao with wide, curious eyes.
When the Empress saw them arrive, she smiled and reached out to them, "You've arrived? You must have gotten up early today."
Gu Leyao smiled and nodded, then addressed Li Heng as "Imperial Brother" and "Imperial Sister-in-law."
The group entered the inner hall together. The Emperor and Empress sat on the chairs in the main hall, while the young Crown Prince stood to the side.
Gu Leyao first offered tea to the emperor, who smiled and accepted it. Then, he asked the chief eunuch beside him to bring her a jade ruyi made of Hetian warm jade, saying, "You should treat each other with respect and live in harmony."
Gu Leyao accepted the gift and then served tea to the Empress.
The Empress also served tea and gave Gu Leyao a pink hibiscus stone headdress. The hibiscus stone headdress was exquisitely crafted, using techniques such as lacquer carving, kingfisher feather inlay, and lacquer filling. It was clearly made by a court craftsman.
The young prince was a chubby child. As a junior, he bowed to Gu Leyao.
The young prince looked like a very lively child, with a small dimple at the corner of his mouth. "Auntie, hello! My name is Li Chong, you can call me Chong'er."
"Okay, little Chong'er." Gu Leyao patted the prince's little head.
The little prince's eyes widened. "Auntie, I'm a big bug! Not a little bug!"
"Alright, alright, you're a big worm, not a little worm!"
Gu Leyao presented the young prince with a set of writing implements: a Huzhou wolf-hair brush, strong and durable; Huizhou ink, which applied like lacquer and remained vibrant for a long time; Xuan paper, soft yet resilient, smooth as jade; and a Duan inkstone, with a deep blue-green center, producing incredibly smooth ink. [1]
These four stationery items are all rare and exquisite pieces.
The young prince pouted, "Auntie, I'm paying my respects to you, but you're trying to harm me. If I accept these stationery items, Mother will definitely make me study more when she gets back, and I'll be exhausted."
The adults all laughed, but the young prince alone sighed with a worried expression.
After serving tea, the emperor took Li Heng to the study to talk, while the empress took Gu Leyao back to her palace to talk.
The Empress took Gu Leyao to Fengyi Palace. Gu Leyao carefully observed Fengyi Palace and felt that this palace truly lived up to its reputation as the Empress's bedroom.
The floor is paved with white marble bricks, and beaded curtains hang in layers. The air carries a faint scent of pepper. In ancient times, pepper was a very precious spice that only people of extremely high status could afford to use.
The Empress led Gu Leyao into the bedchamber, and the two sisters-in-law sat down.
The Empress dismissed the palace servants around her and quietly said to Gu Leyao, "How did you get along with Aheng last night? If there's anything uncomfortable between husband and wife, they should speak up in time. When two people get married suddenly, there are many things they need to work out together. The Emperor and I were childhood sweethearts, but when we first got married, it took us quite a while to adjust to each other."
When Gu Leyao first met the Empress, she thought she was a dignified and aloof beauty.
I never expected that after becoming her sister-in-law, the Empress would consider things so carefully, almost whispering in her ear about how to get along in marriage.
Gu Leyao was grateful. "Sister-in-law, don't worry. The Prince is an extremely good person. To be honest, I met him once before the flower-viewing banquet. At that time, I had just arrived in the capital and didn't know many of the rules. I went out alone and was unfortunately targeted by a kidnapper. Just when I was about to despair, the Prince saved me. From then on, I tried to understand him and knew that he was an extremely good person. I feel that after I left the Marquis of Zhongqin's mansion and married into the Prince's mansion, my future will only get better and better."
The Empress never imagined that they had this connection.
The Empress pondered Gu Leyao's words carefully and felt that this was a match made in heaven.
Back when Aheng was still at the border, she said, "I will never get married until the Northern Liang is destroyed." She never looked at the candidates they recommended, only saying that she didn't want to delay those young girls.
At the flower-viewing banquet, the Empress had not held out much hope, but to her surprise, Ah Heng agreed to marry Gu Leyao.
It is clear that fate is predetermined, whether it comes sooner or later, it cannot be forced, everything is just right.
If Aheng hadn't injured her leg, the Empress would know that she and the Emperor would definitely arrange for Aheng to marry someone of equal social standing.
If Gu Leyao hadn't been switched at birth, her personality probably wouldn't be as resilient and open-minded as it is now.
Both of them have been hurt, and they will cherish their relationship even more.
*
The Hall of Diligent Governance.
The emperor pulled Li Heng aside and asked him, like an old father, how he felt after getting married.
The Emperor said earnestly, "There is a great deal to learn about getting along with your wife."
The emperor's full name was Li Zhao, but he was actually only five years older than Li Heng.
However, because their father, the late emperor, treated the two brothers badly, the emperor, as the elder brother, always tried to create a reliable feeling for Li Heng that he was like a father to him.
Li Heng thought for a moment, "Le Yao is very good. She is a very good woman. She is lively, cheerful, open-minded, and dares to love and hate. She is neither arrogant nor humble. She is like the 'Cold Flower' I saw in the Northern Frontier. Even in the crevices of cliffs, she can live well."
Lively and cheerful, open-minded and generous, passionate and straightforward, neither humble nor arrogant... How come there are so many good words to describe her?
The emperor's face went blank as he listened. How could there be so many words of praise?
"Once you marry a wife, you forget your mother." No wonder there's an old saying in China.
He felt a pang of sadness. His younger brother had grown up and would be living with his sister-in-law for a long time. Ah Heng had finally found happiness, and he couldn't afford to be petty.
The emperor waved his hand and sent Li Heng away.
Li Heng was pushed by the guards to the Empress's Phoenix Palace.
Gu Leyao got along very well with the Empress, and when she was about to leave, the Empress reportedly gave her various spices.
It turned out that the Empress had heard that Gu Leyao liked to cook, so she specially gifted Gu Leyao spices that had been presented as tribute from foreign lands.
Pepper, cinnamon, angelica, fennel, evodia, cumin... a whole bag full, I don't know when I'll be able to finish eating it.
If these spices were sold on the market, they could fetch several hundred or even a thousand taels of silver.
Gu Leyao happily took all the spices. On the way back, she kept telling Li Heng, "I can make lots and lots of delicious food in the future, like crispy and fragrant spicy chicken, lamb skewers sprinkled with cumin and sesame seeds, sizzling and dripping with oil from the charcoal fire, the lamb fat dripping onto the embers making a crackling sound..."
Thinking of all the delicious food available in modern times, Gu Leyao couldn't help but salivate.
The food made by ancient chefs was actually quite delicious, but she still really wanted to eat barbecue, hot pot, and milk tea!
After Gu Leyao returned, she instructed Chuntao to store the spices properly. These spices were all dry and could not be stored in damp places; they had to be placed in a cool, dry place.
She got up too early this morning, said goodbye to Li Heng, and went back to her own courtyard to catch up on sleep.
Gu Leyao slept until the next morning. Last night, Li Heng had someone invite her to dinner, but Gu Leyao was too sleepy, so she told the person who came that she didn't want to eat and that she wanted to sleep.
Gu Leyao made beef balls, honey-glazed char siu buns, and glutinous rice chicken this morning.
She thought Li Heng really enjoyed yesterday's Cantonese dim sum, and she herself hadn't had enough, so she decided to make the same light and refreshing dishes again today.
Sticky rice chicken is a bit more complicated. Gu Leyao made this dish first. The sticky rice needs to be soaked for two hours in advance. Then, fresh chicken thigh meat needs to be deboned and cut into cubes. Stir-fry it in a pot until it changes color slightly. Then add garlic, salt, shiitake mushrooms, and chestnuts. Continue to stir-fry for a while and set aside.
Choose fresh, large lotus leaves, wrap the glutinous rice and stir-fried chicken pieces inside, tie the lotus leaves with string, put them in a pot, and steam them slowly over low heat until cooked.
Gu Leyao asked the cook to prepare a piece of fresh beef hind leg with a good balance of fat and lean meat, mince it into a fine paste, add chopped water chestnuts, a small amount of scallions, ginger, and pepper to remove any fishy smell, add an egg white and a little starch, and stir the meat filling in one direction.
Place the mixed minced meat in the freezer for half an hour, then take it out, shape it into small meatballs, put them on a plate, and then put them in a steamer.
Gu Leyao selected pork shoulder with a ratio of seven parts lean to three parts fat to make char siu pork. She cut it into small pieces, added honey, sugar, and sesame oil, and simmered it in a pot to make a thick sauce. The filling for the honey-glazed char siu buns was now ready.
The cook let the dough rise, cut it into small pieces, and then rolled them into round shapes. Gu Leyao was in charge of wrapping the buns, while the cook was in charge of rolling out the wrappers. In no time, about a dozen honey-glazed char siu buns were wrapped and placed in a steamer. They were then steamed over high heat along with the beef balls from earlier.
The food was ready. Gu Leyao removed the lid of the steamer and smelled a sweet and delicious aroma of honey-glazed char siu. She then opened the lid of the pot containing the sticky rice chicken, and the aroma of lotus leaves had completely permeated the sticky rice chicken.
Gu Leyao couldn't hold back any longer, so she ran to call Li Heng for dinner.
When Li Heng saw Gu Leyao running over, she still smelled of lotus leaves and glutinous rice, so he guessed she had made something delicious and wanted to take him to eat it.
He didn't resist and let Gu Leyao push him to eat.
Gu Leyao placed the beef balls, honey-glazed char siu buns, and glutinous rice chicken in front of Li Heng, introduced them to him one by one, and then said, "Try them quickly, they just came out of the pot not long ago, this is the best time to eat them!"
Li Heng first ate the beef balls. They were bouncy and chewy, and although they were meatballs, they were very crisp. "They added water chestnuts inside? No wonder they're not greasy."
Gu Leyao thought Li Heng was really good with words. She got Li Heng another sticky rice chicken, untied the thin thread wrapping the lotus leaf, and handed it to him.
Li Heng took a bite and thought it tasted excellent. It had the soft and sticky texture of glutinous rice and the refreshing aroma of lotus leaves. "The fragrance of lotus leaves has all come into the glutinous rice. This dish is delicious!"
Finally, Li Heng took a honey-glazed char siu bun for himself. The sweet honey glaze almost dripped from the bun's skin, and Li Heng ate two in a row.
Gu Leyao also ate quite a bit. After the meal, to help digestion, she pushed Li Heng's wheelchair around the palace.
Li Heng explained the general layout of the Prince's Mansion to her.
Li Heng's palace was built for him by order of the Minister of Works in the year he was enfeoffed as a prince.
Unfortunately, Li Heng was at the border at the time and had no time to manage the residence. So, although the Dingbei Prince's Mansion was spacious and grand, the courtyard seemed quite empty.
Gu Leyao felt that something should be added, so she suggested to Li Heng, "How about we plant some fruit trees in the yard?"
She thought of the century-old jujube tree in the Gu family home. When she got married, that jujube tree was already in bloom, and she figured it would bear fruit soon. In a few months, she would see the tree laden with red jujubes.
Gu Leyao didn't want to plant those precious flowers and trees in the palace. She wanted to plant some fruit trees so that when the flowers bloomed in autumn, she could pick the fruit and eat it as soon as she went out.
Isn't this the kind of idyllic rural life that's advocated in modern times?
Just thinking about it makes me feel that kind of life is wonderful!
The Prince's mansion has such a large open space; peach trees, plum trees, pear trees, apricot trees, cherry trees...
When Gu Leyao wants to eat something, she only needs to step out of the house and reach out to pick it.
This is much better than those expensive flowers and trees; it's edible and beautiful, a win-win situation!
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