Li Chenjiao has been busy lately and has no time to deal with the trivial matters in the backyard.
On the first day of the ninth lunar month, the formal greetings at the main courtyard were also cancelled, reportedly because the Second Prince had fallen ill again.
Li Chenjiao had hardly ever met the Second Prince, but she still felt somewhat indifferent when Yu Ru came to deliver the message from the main courtyard.
Since it was the first day of the lunar new year, Li Chenjiao was relieved not to have to wait for the Fourth Master to come for dinner and stay overnight.
He played with the Second Princess with peace of mind. The Second Princess couldn't stop laughing whenever she saw Li Chen, and the whole room was filled with her silvery laughter.
When Li Chenjiao was still a young girl, she heard her mother say that her laughter sounded like a copper bell when she was a child, but she didn't quite believe it.
Now that Li Chenjiao has her own child, she realizes that a child's soft voice really is like a silver bell.
Li Chenjiao had already finished making several silk flowers for the eldest princess, but her skills were not good, so in the end she had two maids finish them.
Otherwise, even if the eldest princess received it, she might be too embarrassed to wear it out.
However, the different fragrances on the silk flowers of different colors were personally blended by Li Chenjiao.
Li Chenjiao has a lot of dried flower petals from different seasons, but she is missing some plum blossoms from winter.
Last winter, when Li Chenjiao was pregnant with the second princess, and since Li Chenjiao was always afraid of the cold in winter, it was always her two maids who went to the garden to pick some plum blossoms.
In addition, there were few sunny days in winter, so most of the plum blossoms that the two girls picked eventually withered.
Li Chenjiao thought for a moment: "The fragrance on these silk flowers will eventually dissipate. In winter, we can make some silk flowers with plum blossom fragrance for the eldest princess. Let's use these for now."
She was so focused on doing it that she forgot that the fragrance of flowers doesn't last long, and if you wear it often, the fragrance on the silk flowers will dissipate quickly.
In this way, Li Chenjiao was no longer in a hurry to make silk flowers for the Second Princess. She would wait until the Second Princess was older before making them.
Who told the Second Princess to have a lazy mother?
Although it was already September and the hottest time of summer had passed, and the sun was indeed not so intense, Li Chenjiao still felt unbearably hot and humid once she stepped outside and away from the ice mirror.
So she was too lazy to go for a stroll in the garden.
Lately, only Consort Wu has been taking the eldest prince to the garden more often. That's because Consort Wu's south courtyard leads directly into the garden, where the eldest prince is shaded by trees and doesn't get sunburned.
Because of the recent first birthday banquet of the eldest prince, Princess Wu of the Southern Courtyard has been quite the center of attention.
The eldest princess, whose birthday was also approaching, didn't attract as much attention, which made Madam Song unhappy once.
However, Madam Song had seen the eldest princess less often in the past, because she didn't want to see her back then. Later, because of so many things, Madam Song was confined to her quarters by the Fourth Prince, so she no longer needed to see the eldest princess.
So nowadays, whenever she sees the eldest princess, she timidly grabs Wang's sleeve and hides behind her.
Upon seeing this, Song had nowhere to vent her pent-up complaints.
Song was dissatisfied with this arrangement. It was alright for the eldest princess to be treated poorly, since she was just a young princess and could not compare to the princes.
However, placing it together with the South Courtyard made Song very unhappy.
However, the one in the South Courtyard was the eldest son of the family. Although Madam Song was feeling frustrated, she had no way to vent her anger. She could only stay in her own courtyard and pray that when the eldest prince had his first birthday celebration on the Double Ninth Festival, he would be able to grab some gold or silver.
However, after returning to her courtyard in a huff, Song suddenly remembered something.
What did the eldest princess pick up during her first birthday celebration last year?
Ms. Song herself had truly forgotten, or perhaps she simply hadn't paid any attention to the matter at the time.
Madam Song paused for a moment, then asked if the medicinal soup Liu Xu had asked her to prepare was ready.
Ever since she received the beauty-enhancing formula from the East Courtyard, Madam Song has been diligently following the imperial physician's instructions to drink the medicine every day without fail.
She noticed that her complexion had improved considerably recently; at least she looked healthier.
After asking this question, Madam Song awkwardly added, "What did the eldest princess grab when she turned one year old last year?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Xu replied with a helpless expression, "It's about poetry and books. Back then, the nannies even said that the eldest princess would grow up to be a sensible and well-mannered girl."
Upon hearing this, Madam Song was stunned for a long time. A strange emotion seemed to appear in her almond-shaped eyes, but in the end, she spoke in a mocking tone.
"It is said that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent. So what if she picks a book of poems during her first birthday celebration? It's enough if she knows a little about the rules of womanhood and the proper conduct for women."
The willow catkins rustled, and the line "In the past, princesses loved reading poetry and prose in their boudoirs" remained unspoken.
That was all in the past.
The weather was perfect on the Double Ninth Festival. The sun wasn't too scorching, and a cool breeze blew by from time to time, which put Li Chenjiao in a good mood when she went out.
"Isn't Your Highness coming to see the eldest prince's first birthday celebration today?"
As Li Chenjiao spoke, she raised her hand and smelled the milky scent on her clothes, which she could only vaguely identify as the smell of milk she had picked up while holding the Second Princess earlier.
Normally, the eldest prince's first birthday celebration is a significant event, and the front courtyard was bustling with activity today. However, it was quite unusual that the Fourth Prince left the mansion early in the morning.
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