This was Lanqin's first time attending such a large-scale royal festival. Although she had attended palace banquets a few times, none of them could compare to this scene.
When she and her wife arrived at Jingren Gate, they looked at the square in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony and saw that all the officials of the fifth rank or above in the capital, as well as the ladies with imperial titles, were dressed neatly according to their official ranks.
The princes and imperial relatives had their own special seats, located on the right side of Taihe Square. The women from all the mansions had come out of the inner palace, and now they were all bowing their heads, preparing to walk along the right corner of the wall to their husbands.
"Consort, please tuck these two small cushions into your sleeves so no one can see them," Cui Niang whispered in Lanqin's ear, naturally keeping them out of sight. They could only wait here; they couldn't follow their mistress inside.
Lanqin nodded, and discreetly took the two small soft pillows, big enough to cover her knees, from Cui Niang's hand and stuffed them into her sleeve.
Fortunately, the sleeves of the cheongsam are wide enough!
"Oh, isn't this Consort Niu? You've been promoted, and we haven't come to congratulate you yet." The speaker was from Guarjia clan, who had indeed been selected for the imperial concubine selection along with Lanqin. She had just given birth to a son for the Third Prince and was thus promoted to Consort Niu.
"Congratulations! My sister also got promoted." Lanqin ignored her.
“However, I gave birth to a prince, while my sister gave birth to a princess,” Guarjia added.
Lanqin really didn't want to pay attention to her, but since the Third and Fourth Consorts were talking, and she and Guarjia were both secondary consorts, she naturally had to say a few words.
Seeing her say that, Lanqin, who was not one to be bullied, retorted, "I was born a princess, but our master doted on me and promoted me anyway."
Upon hearing this, Lady Guarjia blushed slightly and fell silent. "Yes, others who give birth to daughters are promoted, aren't they more favored than you who gave birth to sons?!"
Fortunately, it seemed that the Third and Fourth Princess Consorts had finished speaking, so she rolled her eyes and immediately followed the Third Princess Consort away.
Lanqin followed the Fourth Prince's wife along the edge of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and finally arrived at the place where the princes' wives were standing. The Fourth Prince was still very conspicuous in the crowd. He stood tall and elegant, wearing a dark blue brocade robe, with his hands behind his back, silently standing behind the Third Prince.
The Fujin (principal wife) led Lanqin over with her head bowed and stood behind him. The Fourth Prince turned back and glanced at the two of them, then gave Lanqin a few more looks before turning away. The Fujins of each household stood behind their respective masters, and the secondary Fujins naturally stood behind their respective Fujins. Unfortunately, Lanqin happened to be standing in the same line as Lady Guarjia.
Is this what they call "enemies meeting on a narrow road"?
Because they had to listen to the emperor's instructions, they all took off their outer cloaks and were wrapped up like bears, making it inconvenient for them to move around.
Lanqin wasn't cold, but the howling north wind felt like razor blades scraping her face.
By the time Kangxi emerged, they had all been standing for half an hour, and those who were weak were starting to feel the strain. However, such occasions only occurred a few times a year, and even if they couldn't hold on any longer, they had to persevere.
Lanqin looked around and saw the concubines of the Fifth Prince, the Seventh Prince, the Ninth Prince, and the Tenth Prince.
Emperor Kangxi stood on the steps of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, wearing a bright yellow dragon robe embroidered with nine dragons in gold thread.
Lanqin couldn't understand what the emperor was saying. She simply knelt down when she heard "Kneel!" and stood up when she heard "Rise!", repeating this several times.
The hard bluestone slabs were simply too hard; after kneeling for ten minutes, she could barely stand it. Let alone kneeling for half an hour. This time, after kneeling and listening for ten minutes, before she could even begin to speak, Lanqin decided to use the soft cushions that Cui Niang had prepared. She secretly pulled a small cushion from her sleeve and slowly tucked it under her knees from the side of her qipao.
It's like a long-awaited rain after a drought. My knees were just aching, but now that I'm resting on this soft pillow, they feel so much better.
After doing all this, Lanqin thought she hadn't been seen, but Guarjia had been watching her the whole time and had naturally seen her using the cushion. However, now was not the time for her to expose her; it would be better to wait for the right moment.
Kangxi's admonition lasted for most of the day. Lanqin saw that some of the old ministers with white hair and beards in front of her could no longer hold on and basically collapsed to the ground.
Sigh, these old family rules are just too much of a hassle.
Fortunately, Lanqin had a cushion under her. Seeing that others around her were also starting to give up, she realized that women who were used to being pampered would really not be able to endure kneeling on the bluestone slab in the cold wind for an hour.
However, even the most difficult times eventually come to an end. Although Lanqin was using mats, her legs were so numb that she could barely feel them when she got up. She still managed to push herself up, naturally putting away the two small mats first.
"You should go back to Mother's first and have her have someone massage it; it's probably going to get bruised. The Prince and the others still need to go to the Jiaotai Hall to pay respects to the gods," the Fourth Prince said to his wife and Lanqin.
Therefore, a large group of women walked towards Jingren Gate, but they all walked out of the square in an orderly manner first, and then walked along the corner of the wall.
"Consort, you must be cold, please put this on." As soon as Cui Niang saw Lan Qin come out, she quickly took the snow fox fur cloak and went up to her to put it on her.
“Sister Niu, I think your qipao is really beautiful. Let me see.” Guarjia glanced at Lanqin and suddenly had an idea. She walked directly to her side, grabbed Lanqin’s arm and said suddenly.
Her voice immediately drew everyone's attention. The Fourth Princess Consort, who was being dressed in her cloak with Lingxiu's help, couldn't help but turn around to look when she heard this.
"Consort Guarjia, you've already seen it, what else do you want to see?" Lanqin frowned at her, thankfully the small pouch inside was being propped up by her elbow. Although she didn't necessarily use this thing alone, it wouldn't be good for it to be seen in public. She bent her arm and forcefully shook off Guarjia's hand.
“What’s wrong with Niu’s arm? Is there something stuck in it? It looks like it no matter how you look at it,” Guarjia said, looking at Lanqin with schadenfreude.
"Roujia, what's wrong?" Third Princess Consort Dong'e asked as she walked over.
"My lady, it's nothing. I just thought Consort Niu looked beautiful in her qipao, so I couldn't help but come over to take a look. Who would have thought that Sister Niu seemed afraid of me touching her arm? Could she be hiding something inside?" Guarjia insisted.
"I was just feeling cold in my elbows, so I wrapped them up inside. I don't know if that bothered Consort Gua?" Lanqin said coldly.
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