Chapter 93 Attracting Butterflies This year, the Emperor stayed at Changchun Garden until the twelfth lunar month…
This year, the Emperor stayed at Changchun Garden until the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, only returning to the Forbidden City on the 24th. However, after spending New Year's Day and the Lantern Festival in the Forbidden City, he returned to Changchun Garden again just a few days later. Wow, in less than a month, he's already made two trips back and forth.
Cheng Qianyue sat in the carriage on her way to the West Garden of Changchun Garden, utterly bewildered. To be honest, she even suspected that the Emperor was doing this on purpose. Did people become more fond of excitement and grandeur as they got older? However, the imperial procession was indeed magnificent; guards lined up and officials saw them off, and a vast crowd kowtowed and shouted in the square—the sound could be heard all the way to the Arrow Pavilion.
Cheng Qianyue could understand this mentality. After all, it wasn't the emperor who was worrying and making trouble; he only needed to say a few words, and his subordinates would handle everything. In the end, all he needed to do was show up and display the imperial pomp and circumstance. For the emperor, this was a hassle-free process, yet he could experience the feeling of stirring up a storm with a single word—wasn't that incredibly satisfying?
Tsk!
Fine, what can you do when he's the emperor? Even if the emperor isn't the sun, he's at least a torch. As for the people below, they're like moths. Wherever the torch goes, the moths swarm to it. And to put it bluntly, let alone the ministers and concubines, even the princes are just bigger moths.
Cheng Qianyue smiled as she thought about it, but quickly sighed. What was there to be happy about? Perhaps in other people's eyes, she was just a little moth drawn to a flame.
"Mother, Guoguo." Moyaqi called out to her, tilting her head.
Cheng Qianyue snapped out of her daze, quickly finished peeling the half-peeled walnut in her hand, then smashed the walnut kernel flat and crushed with a hammer before putting it in a small plate and handing it to her, while patting her head and saying, "Eat slowly."
A whole walnut kernel is too big for a child; it could easily get stuck in their throat. In ancient times, there were no surgeons, so it's best to crack it open before feeding it to them. The reason Cheng Qianyue fed Moyaqi something was mainly because she was bored in the car and was worried she would cry. However, the child was quite obedient; given a little something unusual, she would concentrate on eating it.
Moyaqi nodded happily, then reached out and pinched off small pieces of walnut, sipping them one by one.
The carriage wasn't large, only able to seat three adults: Cheng Qianyue, Ruoyun, and the nanny who cared for Moyaqi. Hongyan and Hongchao sat in the carriage behind. After feeding Moyaqi, Cheng Qianyue said to Ruoyun, "Send someone to the back to see if the Fourth Prince is crying, and tell the Third Prince that we'll be at the garden soon, and to ask him to wait a little longer."
Ruoyun agreed and half-lifted the carriage curtain to pass on a message to Lin Quan'an. A short while later, someone came to report that Hongyan was leading Hongchao in reading, and the two brothers were singing and chanting together, looking very happy.
Cheng Qianyue was relieved. She thought to herself, "It doesn't matter if it's a little moth or not, as long as she and her children are safe and happy, that's all that matters."
After spring arrived, all the flowers and plants in the garden bloomed, and recently the children have been particularly fond of running outside. Especially the Fourth Prince and the Second Princess, who were only a little older than usual, had never seen such a scene before, so they kept wandering around outside and didn't want to stay in the room at all.
Cheng Qianyue was a little worried about them. The two children were only a little over a year old. Although they could walk and talk quite well, they couldn't run. They would fall down after only a few steps. Hongyan felt that they weren't running enough, so he would always hook them up and make them jump around.
This time was no different. Hongyan was leading them ahead with a few peach blossoms, saying, "Hongchao, hurry up, catch up and I'll give you this." Not content with just one, he turned to Moya and said curiously, "Little sister, come here quickly, brother will give you a flower to wear."
The two children laughed and ran towards him, taking one or two steps, but within five or six steps, the brother and sister both tripped and fell. They didn't hurt themselves, though, because the eunuchs were watching. A group of them had been following the children, half-bent over, and quickly caught them as they were about to fall.
The nanny rushed over to comfort them, but the two children were brave and weren't frightened. They kept waving at Hongyan and calling out, "Brother, Huahua."
After Cheng Qianyue came out of the pavilion, she said to Hongyan, "Your younger brother and sister are still not very good at running. If someone hadn't been watching them, they would have fallen." As she spoke, she rewarded the two eunuchs who had carried them and told them to take good care of them in the future.
Hongyan picked a flower and pinned it to the little bun on Moyaqi's head. Then she took a small peach branch and handed it to Hongchao, looking up and asking in confusion, "Mother, when I was their age, could I not run fast either?"
Cheng Qianyue thought for a moment and said, "No, they're more agile than the others. They can run seven or eight steps in a row and stand steadily when they stop." As soon as she said it, she felt something was wrong. Could these two children have flat feet? When she returned to Donglizhai, she took off the children's shoes and socks and carefully examined their feet.
Moyaqi seemed to be very ticklish. When Cheng Qianyue touched her little feet, she giggled and couldn't help but kick and stomp. When she laughed, Hongchao, who was standing next to her, also started to laugh.
Cheng Qianyue said, "Be good and don't move, let your mother take a good look." She placed Moyaqi's foot in her palm and examined it carefully. She only breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the sole of her foot had a curved shape. She let go of Moyaqi and said, "Alright, you lively little girl." The nanny next to her came forward, picked up Moyaqi and put her on the chair opposite her, and then put on her socks and shoes.
Cheng Qianyue waved to Hong Chao: "Now that you've seen your sister's feet, it's your turn."
Hong Chao laughed and dodged left and right behind Hong Yan, but was eventually grabbed by the collar and pulled over by Hong Yan. Cheng Qianyue carried Hong Chao onto the bed just like she had examined Mo Yaqi, took off his shoes and socks to examine his feet, and was only relieved to see that his feet had an arch and were not flat.
It's wonderful that neither of the children has flat feet.
Hongyan had been frowning since earlier, and now he hurriedly asked, "Mother, what's wrong with my younger brother and sister's feet?"
Cheng Qianyue said with a smile, "It's nothing, Mother just wanted to check how their feet are growing. Maybe their toes and leg bones haven't fully healed yet, which is why they fall easily when running."
Hearing her say that, Hongyan smiled and couldn't help but touch Hongchao and Moyaqi's heads.
After that, Cheng Qianyue let Hongyan take the two children out to play. Everything requires practice, and running is no exception; the more you run, the stronger your legs will become.
A few days later, at lunchtime, Hongyan brought Hongchao and Moyaqi back. After returning, he said to Cheng Qianyue, "Mother, there are many butterflies in the flower garden outside!" He then said that he had led his younger siblings to catch butterflies, but they hadn't caught a single one.
Cheng Qianyue said to him, "All things have a spirit. Just look at the butterflies and don't touch them, or there will be fewer butterflies next year."
Hongyan nodded in agreement, seemingly understanding, and the two younger children followed suit.
Cheng Qianyue wanted to find some other amusement for them, so she asked softly, "What color is a butterfly?"
Hongyan replied, "There are mostly white ones, as well as yellow ones and black and white ones."
After Cheng Qianyue found out, she asked someone to fetch paper of the corresponding color and cut it into several small pieces. Then she strung the paper pieces onto a rope and tied them together with a small wooden stick.
Hongyan didn't know what it was for, so he tilted his head and stared at it. Cheng Qianyue then said, "This can attract butterflies."
Attracting butterflies? Hongyan was skeptical and asked in surprise, "Really?"
Cheng Qianyue laughed inscrutably: Hehe, why don't you try and see?
The next day, Cheng Qianyue took her butterfly-taming stick to the flower garden. It wasn't far from Donglizhai, and a few steps northwest was Duanbentang, the residence of the Crown Princess. Spring was in full bloom, and the gardeners had cultivated many flowers there—roses, forsythia, and camellias—each pot clustered together, blooming beautifully. With so many flowers came so many butterflies; she had seen seven or eight on the way there, and even more here.
Cheng Qianyue told the children, "Watch carefully." As she said this, she raised the wooden stick and waved it among the flowerbeds. The pieces of paper on the rope flew back and forth, and if you didn't look closely, you might mistake them for real butterflies! In just the blink of an eye, several butterflies flew over, fluttering their wings behind the pieces of paper.
Hongyan, watching from the side, widened his eyes in astonishment: "Just a stick, a rope, and a pile of paper scraps, and they can actually attract butterflies!"
Hongchao and Moyaqi also started wailing, shouting, "Mother, I want some too!"
Cheng Qianyue was overjoyed by their support and immediately handed the wooden stick she was holding to Hongyan. She had also prepared sticks for Hongchao and Moyaqi, though hers was thinner and lighter than Hongyan's, and the ropes were shorter. She had no choice; the Second Princess and the Fourth Prince were still quite young, and she was afraid they might accidentally hit her or get tangled in the ropes.
Soon, Cheng Qianyue handed out the sticks one by one, then waved her hand like she was releasing dogs and said, "Alright, take them and play with them."
Hongyan couldn't wait to swing the stick around. He was overjoyed to see several butterflies following behind the paper. After standing at the back for a while, he started running with the stick, like flying a kite. Hongchao and Moyaqi saw their brother running so fast, so they ran after him. If they couldn't keep up, they would stop to rest for a bit, and then continue running.
The three children ran off nearby, circling the flowerbed. They laughed and played so loudly they almost knocked the flowerbed over.
Seeing them so happy made her happy too.
Cheng Qianyue couldn't help but sigh inwardly: People say that a lucky childhood can heal a lifetime, while an unhappy childhood takes a lifetime to heal. What she's doing now is ensuring they have a happy childhood; as for the storms and setbacks, those are for them when they grow up.
However, as the saying goes, extreme joy begets sorrow, and fortune and misfortune go hand in hand. The happy days did not last long before Yinreng brought bad news. He said that the imperial physicians of the Imperial Hospital reported that a mild smallpox vaccine had been found this year, and the emperor decreed that all children over two years old in the Eastern Palace and the residences of the princes who had not yet had smallpox should be vaccinated.
Cheng Qianyue's face changed instantly. Her rosy cheeks turned as white as paper in a flash, and a strong sense of fear surged into her heart.
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