After taking it, he began to examine the first peony painting: "It is smooth and dense, even and smooth, and has a bright luster. It looks like Suzhou embroidery."
You know that too? I'm such a wimp.
He seemed to notice my surprised expression and said softly, "My mother is skilled in embroidery. I heard her talk about it when I was a child."
I nodded, wanting to compliment the Empress Dowager, but I couldn't think of anything—Is the Empress Dowager truly exceptionally talented? A heroine?
After thinking about it, I decided to talk less...
He placed the first embroidery on the table, only to see that the second one was not a flower picture, but a figure picture.
A man in a blue robe stood sideways beside an open wooden window. He had a handsome face and a book in his hand, seemingly reciting poems facing the blue sky outside the window.
After reading it, Song Heng put the embroidered mask on the table without saying a word.
The third picture was still a portrait, still of a young man—
He rested his head on a big rock, lay on his back with his legs crossed on the green grass, held the wine jug high in one hand and poured wine into his mouth, looking quite carefree and unrestrained.
I have a vague sense of foreboding. These young ladies from wealthy families...
Song Heng had already seen the fourth picture. When I saw it, my body froze—
I saw a man in only his underwear, lying on the bed with his side, one arm supporting his ear, his chest slightly exposed, his long hair disheveled, looking straight at me as if through his embroidered face.
The embroidery is really good.
but……
Song Heng remained silent as he slowly placed the picture on the table as before.
According to this advanced picture, I dare not even think about the fifth one. Sure enough—
The fifth picture is a picture of a woman coming out of the bath.
The man in the embroidery is leaning on the bathtub with his strong and slender arms, as if he is about to stand up. The water droplets dripping from his hair are outlined vividly, as if he is about to fall in the next second.
Good embroidery!
What a great figure!
I can……
Bah, I immediately slapped myself in my heart. Am I still thinking about peaches when I’m about to die?
As expected, Song Heng's calm voice rang out: "All of you step aside. I have something to say to Consort Mu."
Ahhhhhhhh, what kind of fierce and fierce teachers are those daughters of wealthy families! I thought they were just some flowers and grass, that would be fine, this, this, this, one by one——
I really want to find a hole in the ground to crawl into and explode on the spot.
They retreated much faster than I had imagined. Before I could even curse in my heart, Song Heng and I were the only ones left in Chengqing Hall, staring at each other in silence.
He placed the fifth embroidery pattern on the table and turned to look at me: "Mu Zhaoyi—do you have any misunderstandings about me?"
Didn’t we say that when we are alone we should call each other “嘤嘤嘤”?
Before I could answer, he continued, "I... although I didn't come to the harem often before, I also..."
He paused. "I rarely go to the Opera House. When I do go, it's just to accompany my mother to watch opera."
Actor's Hall! I learned this from playing games before—building an Actor's Hall gives you a chance to have a male concubine in your harem! So—?
! ?
My eyes widened and I quickly explained, "I, I, I, I, I, I have absolutely no such intention!"
"Then why did you give me these embroidered paintings?" He casually picked one up from the table. "Or—are you trying to instigate me to do something?"
Encouraging him to take in a male favorite? The scene of all the concubines in the harem chasing me with swords has already emerged vividly in my mind.
"Your Majesty, you have misunderstood. How dare I overstep my bounds?" I spoke quickly, fearing he would ask me something next. "Your Majesty's preferences are naturally entirely up to you."
He lowered his head and held an embroidered picture, his expression dark and unclear. It was vaguely visible that it was the picture of the bed: "Then——"
"Is it Consort Mu who likes this...? Is she hinting at me? Hmm?"
It would be better to say that I wanted to encourage you to take on a male lover...
I want to cry but I have no tears.
"I dare not!" I argued weakly, my face flushed.
"Don't dare..." He repeated these two words: "So I like you, but I don't dare. Hmm?"
Do you have to be so picky with words?
"No..." I felt like my legs were so weak that I was about to kneel down.
Saying that he didn't have time to read and didn't know anything about these things? Wouldn't it be worse to choose a gift for the emperor so perfunctorily?
I'm in a dilemma. I'm dead whether I go horizontally or vertically.
After weighing the pros and cons, I finally took a deep breath and said slowly, "Your Majesty, I was just judging others by my own standards and was confused for a moment."
"I do prefer... well, this kind of embroidery." I lied with my eyes open. "I thought I wanted to give the best to Your Majesty, and I actually thought that what I liked was the best, so I chose this embroidery."
This is the least culpable explanation I can think of right now. Firstly, it demonstrates my immense respect for His Majesty, and secondly, it shows that I have absolutely no intention of influencing the Emperor's preferences. It's just that I was foolish enough to judge others by my own standards, and to admit that I share the same tastes as those daughters of wealthy families...
But as soon as I finished speaking, I realized that there was a bigger pitfall in thinking about this sentence! As expected——
"As my concubine, Concubine Mu really likes the embroidery of... these men." He glanced at the embroidery on the table indifferently.
...Please give me a quick death. I wrote a letter in blood online asking someone to kill me with a knife.
He didn't continue to question me, but suddenly waved me to sit back down: "Come, sit here."
I sat back on the round stool with some trembling. The faint scent of ambergris wafted over me, and there was no emotion on his face.
He leisurely spread out four embroidered pictures of men on my desk. "In that case, which one does Zhaoyi Mu like best?"
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