Chapter 100: Qi Buchen receives a reply from Yinzhen, the content is...
Qi Buchen received Yinzhen's reply letter. The content was not as straightforward as hers, but the tactful words showed the affection. She read it several times before putting it away with a sweet smile.
I haven't received many love letters in my entire life, so this feels pretty good.
On the eighth day of September, Consort Wenxi was formally buried in the concubines' mausoleum of Jingling Mausoleum. Qi Buchen went to see her off for the last time. Thinking of Yin'e who was taken to the frontier, he couldn't help but sigh. Sometimes one has to say that Kangxi was really not up to the mark in some aspects. For example, last time when the eldest wife was about to give birth, he took the eldest prince away. This time, Yin'e was taken away when his own mother was buried. He was really cruel in terms of human emotions.
Before the Empress Dowager's birthday, Kangxi returned to Beijing.
Qi Buchen was a little anxious when she woke up in the morning. She found herself looking forward to seeing Yinzhen so much. She tried to hold back but couldn't help it. She sent people out of the city to find out where the large group was. She asked about Yinzhen's location every once in a while until she welcomed him into the gate.
She didn't wait in the main courtyard, but went directly to the study in the front yard.
When Yinzhen learned the location of his wife, his heart was filled with warmth. She missed him as much as I missed her. This realization made him quicken his pace, and he finally saw the figure he had been thinking about day and night.
"Fujin, I'm back." He couldn't help showing his big white teeth.
Qi Buchen looked at the person coming straight towards her, her eyes a little blurred, and she couldn't help thinking, I finally got a little whiter after almost a year of cultivation, but after this trip to the frontier, I got darker again and lost a lot of weight.
Yinzhen strode to the front of Fu Jin and stood still. He wanted to hug her directly in his arms, but remembering what he had said before, his fingers moved slightly, but he still did not reach out his hand.
"Fujin." He looked at the jade-like little face in front of him with sparkling eyes. Well, the chubby cheeks were finally back, and he wanted to pinch them.
Qi Buchen looked up at him: "Yeah."
"Fujin." He called again, his voice low and hoarse, his chest trembling slightly, tingling and numb.
"You say." Qi Buchen's face burned when he called her, and he lowered his eyes shyly to avoid his fiery gaze.
"Fujin." Yinzhen still used these two words, but with a lingering meaning.
Qi Buchen suddenly felt that he had connected with his brain waves, and couldn't help but chuckled. Then he put his arms around the boy's waist, buried his face in his arms, and said sullenly: "Is this what you want?"
Yinzhen grinned widely, his arms tightly wrapped around the person in his arms, his voice filled with unconcealed excitement: "Hmm!"
The two hugged each other quietly for a while. Qi Buchen woke up from the sweetness of love and gradually couldn't stand the smell on his body. He let go of his hand and pushed him away: "Okay, there are people waiting outside, you should go wash up."
Yinzhen reluctantly let go and shamelessly leaned close to Fu Jin's ear and asked, "Now that you're done washing up..."
"Have dinner after washing up! After dinner, you should take a rest quickly. Aren't you tired after running all the way?" Qi Buchen pushed the boy who was getting too demanding away without mercy and glared at him with shame and anger.
Yinzhen was dissatisfied, but was pushed and shoved by Qi Buchen to go out. When he came out after washing up, Qi Buchen had already returned to the main courtyard.
The two people, who were so happy after a short separation, spent a few days happily together. Unfortunately, except for the time when he just came back, Yinzhen never met his wife again. Apart from that, there was no regret.
After the Emperor's Birthday Festival was Yinzhen's birthday. Because of the upcoming war, there was no banquet for guests this time. The couple just celebrated happily at home. Yinzhen finally got a loving hug again.
The Spring Festival of the thirty-fourth year was spent in tension. Every day, new military orders were issued from the Imperial Study, and new memorials requesting war were sent into the Imperial Study.
It is also a fact that the emperor will lead the army in person.
"Will you go to the front line?" Qi Buchen knew that Yinzhen had to go, and this was the only thing she was worried about.
Yinzhen comforted him, "No, all of us brothers want to stay with the emperor."
This time, Kangxi personally led Yinsi to the army, leaving only the crown prince as regent.
"But aren't you going to be in charge of the Zhenghongqi Camp?" Qi Buchen was still very worried.
Yinzhen said patiently, "Except for the eighth brother, each of us brothers commands a battalion. It's just a title. Aside from my eldest brother, who has been on the battlefield, none of us have experience. The Emperor is leading the army personally, so how could he allow us to play around? You really don't have to worry."
After all, Qi Buchen didn't want him to be distracted because of himself, so he reluctantly agreed.
The closer it got to the day of the expedition, the busier Yinzhen became and he was nowhere to be seen. He said it was just a title, but with Yinzhen's serious nature, he almost lived in the Red Banner Camp these days.
Qi Buchen was not idle either. She had organized the gifts that Yinzhen was going to bring eight hundred times. One day, she was still rummaging through the warehouse when she suddenly felt that everything in front of her began to shake, and some things that she had just found and put away fell to the ground with a bang.
Baozhu was the first to react: "The ground is shaking! Fujin, hurry up and leave!"
He didn't care about etiquette and ran out, pulling people away, and didn't stop until he reached an open area.
There was a commotion in the mansion, and from a distance, it seemed like there was a lot of activity outside. Fortunately, the tremor didn't last long, and the magnitude wasn't high, so the house didn't seem to be collapsing.
Qi Buchen calmed down and the first thing he did was to have the servants gather in the front yard. It was large and open there, so it would be safer if there were further tremors. As for the fragile items in the house, they were to leave them alone; people were more important.
The people of the whole prefecture were crowded in the parade ground. There were three or four aftershocks afterwards, but they were all milder than the first one. After that, they waited for another quarter of an hour but there was no aftershock.
Just as Qi Buchen was about to order his servants to go out and find out what was going on, Yinzhen hurried back with his men. The first thing he did was to look Qi Buchen up and down: "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." Qi Buchen was also looking at him, with a reproachful tone, "Are you okay? Why are you still running around at a time like this? The important thing is to find an open place to stay."
Yinzhen breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she was indeed fine. Seeing the servants in the training grounds doing things in an orderly manner, his heart softened: "I'm fine. I'm just worried that you haven't experienced this before and won't be able to handle it well. Now it seems that Fu Jin is much more capable and braver than I thought."
He ran back as soon as he felt the tremor. One reason was that he was worried that his wife would get hurt, and the other was that his wife was so timid that she wouldn't even know how scared she would be if there was an earthquake, and the whole house would be in chaos.
Qi Buchen had indeed not experienced many earthquakes, but the magnitude of this earthquake was not large, so she was not scared. Besides, she had read countless popular science books, and when it came to earthquake avoidance knowledge, she probably knew more than all of them combined.
"I don't know where the epicenter of the earthquake is. The tremors in the capital were so strong, it must be even more serious there." Qi Buchen said worriedly.
Yinzhen was able to think about business: "Yes." What's more important is that the earthquake happened just before the army set out, and who knows what rumors will spread.
Thinking of this, Yinzhen couldn't stay at home any longer. He had to go out to help control the situation: "I have something else to do. You stay at home. Don't rush back to your room. If you can't stay at night, set up a tent in the training ground first."
"Okay, be careful too." Qi Buchen knew that he must be going out to deal with the earthquake, so he didn't stop him. He just reminded him, "Whatever you do, stay away from the buildings."
Yinzhen agreed and left, and Qi Buchen took his men to stay on the parade ground. During this time, he sent people to the warehouse to take out tents, firewood and other items. The kitchen staff also carefully prepared a simple meal for everyone in the mansion.
Yinzhen did not come back all night, but fortunately there were no aftershocks that night. At noon the next day, Yinzhen sent someone back to say that they could go back to their rooms, and Qi Buchen began to clean up the mess.
The mess in the mansion was easy to clean up, but the mess in the capital was difficult to clean up. There were not many casualties, and the houses were basically fine except for those that were dilapidated, but people were in panic. Although Kangxi sent people to control public opinion as soon as possible, rumors still began to spread in the streets and alleys.
Although it was widely announced that the center of the earthquake was in Yongping Prefecture, rumors still spread that the earthquake was a warning from God to the imperial court, because the imperial court had been waging war against Galdan repeatedly in recent years, and its excessive military spending had led to the people's suffering.
There is no way to dispel this rumor, especially since the timing of this earthquake is such a coincidence.
Yinzhen traveled outside for two days before returning home.
Qi Buchen didn't care about the rumors he spread, so he just asked, "Are we still leaving at the scheduled time?"
"Yeah." Yinzhen sat down exhausted. "If it's changed, they'll have more to say."
The army set out at the scheduled time.
After they left, the capital city became much quieter. Apart from paying respects to the palace, Qi Buchen basically stayed indoors. He only visited the first and third wives to congratulate them when they announced their pregnancy.
As the weather gradually warmed up, good news came from the front line. Galdan was killed. The rebellion that lasted for several years and involved three imperial expeditions finally came to an end.
After the news of the great victory came back, the court was busy with one thing: how to welcome the victorious Kangxi with what ceremony.
It was also at this time that Qi Buchen held his coming-of-age ceremony.
The coming-of-age ceremony was very lively, and the entire ceremony was organized by the Imperial Household Department. She didn't have to worry about the main guest or the hairpin-maker, as the Imperial Household Department took care of it all.
Qi Buchen wasn't dissatisfied; on the contrary, she was quite happy. After all, most of the guests this time were wearing clothing styles she had promoted. However, not all of them bought their clothes in her shop. After all, this kind of modification was very simple. Nowadays, almost all the clothing stores in the capital knew how to do it, and every embroiderer could do it themselves. Therefore, her clothing shop didn't make as much money as she had originally expected.
But Qi Buchen didn't care. The revision was just a test, and she had a lot of plans ahead.
The only thing that made Qi Buchen regretful about this coming-of-age ceremony was that Yinzhen was not there.
But her regret did not last long. One evening, Nanny Ham and Nanny Yue came to her together and drove away Baozhu and others.
Facing Qi Buchen's puzzled gaze, the two maids looked serious.
"Fu Jin has already held her coming-of-age ceremony, and the day of consummating her marriage with the Fourth Prince will soon arrive. Today, the two servants will discuss with Fu Jin the precautions for the consummation of the marriage."
-----------------------
Author's Comment: Yinzhen: Is this the next chapter?! So excited...!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
