Chapter 56 Dealing with Leeches
Concubine Shu held the emperor's warm hand, her heart warmed, and she shook her head: "I'm fine. Maybe I didn't have breakfast and I'm a little tired, so I feel dizzy."
This is a good reason.
Although Emperor Xuanwu's eyes were looking at the rice seedlings underground, the figure of Concubine Shu was all in his peripheral vision. Jiang Xinyue relied on herself to walk at the end and used the crowd as a cover to observe them.
From a psychological point of view, the emperor's subtle expressions, eyes and movements have betrayed him.
He hid it well, but who made Jiang Xinyue professional?
The intimacy between people can be inferred from the eyes they look at each other.
She couldn't help but show concern and wanted to get closer, but she was afraid of being discovered. She could only do some small actions secretly, deceiving herself into thinking that no one would discover.
Others would not discover, but Jiang Xinyue is not someone else, she is herself, a different kind of firework.
Her eyes fell on Concubine Shu's face again, and she saw that although she did not resist, her eyes were separated from her actions, painful and tormented.
It's not too late, Concubine Shu didn't seem to open her heart to the emperor, and the emperor was too enthusiastic!
Good job to Concubine Shu, torture him to death.
The dog emperor pretended to be affectionate in front of her, and pretended to be the only favorite in front of Concubine Li Gui, but the person he really cared about was Concubine Shu, his little cousin who grew up with him as a childhood sweetheart.
The Wu family was hateful, but he did not transfer his anger to the Wu family's daughter. The two legitimate girls of the Wu family entered the palace as concubines.
Jiang Xinyue was not upset. There are many childhood sweethearts in the world, but they are not as good as the one who fell from heaven. This one who fell from heaven would squeeze Concubine Shu out of Emperor Xuanwu's heart.
Anyway, she refused to accept the emperor, so he shouldn't mind her picking up leaks, right?
It doesn't matter if he minds. We are all the emperor's women. We all achieve our goals with our own abilities. Jiang Xinyue can accept healthy competition in the workplace.
As long as she doesn't love the emperor and treats him as her boss, Jiang Xinyue doesn't feel anything about who he loves or cares about.
The only thing she is afraid of is that Emperor Xuanwu does not have martial ethics. When she and Concubine Shu run into each other in the future, he will side with Concubine Shu.
Then when she gets promoted...oh no...when she gets promoted, she will have a strong opponent.
Is Concubine Shu a good person?
Not sure, let's wait and see.
"Ah!"
Just as Jiang Xinyue was looking at Concubine Shu in a trance, Empress Zhu suddenly screamed and fell into the mud.
The emperor's hand was holding Concubine Shu in his wide sleeves. He didn't have time to hug Empress Zhu and could only watch her fall.
The two intertwined sleeves came apart. Empress Zhu thought she was dazzled and didn't care. She looked down at the crawling, blood-red insect on her calf and almost fainted.
She was the mother of the country, and she was allowed to go to the fields and farm side by side with the emperor. This was a privilege only the Empress of the Central Palace had.
She always valued it, so she could remain calm when dealing with the same noble lady, but Concubine Shu couldn't.
But the sight of these disgusting insects burrowing into her skin made her shudder. She couldn't stand it any longer and crawled to the shore, trying to pull the blood-red insects out with her hands as she crawled.
"Don't move!"
Jiang Xinyue rushed over and grabbed Empress Zhu's hand: "This is a leech, it's specially made for sucking blood. If you use your hands to pull it out forcibly, it will aggravate the bleeding."
As she spoke, she quickly picked up the shoes placed on the shore and said to Empress Zhu: "My Queen, I'm sorry."
The soles of her shoes slapped quickly on the place where the leech was sucking, making a "pa pa" sound. Empress Zhu's calves were slapped red. She couldn't help but want to lose her temper, but when her calves were numb, she heard the surprised voices of Fenyun: "Master, it really fell down."
And because it was not pulled out forcibly, Empress Zhu only had a very small wound on her calf.
A farmer brought clean water to rinse her and did not forget to praise Jiang Xinyue: "This lady seems to know a lot about farming. She is good at planting rice and even knows how to deal with leeches. It's really rare."
Jiang Xinyue waved her hands embarrassedly: "My father is the Shaoqing of Honglu Temple. There is not much other things in the family, but the whole study is piled with miscellaneous books. I learned all this from books." She
said in a hurry that she learned it from books, but she couldn't explain how she, a rich lady who never left the house and never went out of the house, could know these things?
Emperor Xuanwu looked at her with a softer look, and he helped Empress Zhu up with her: "Zhen Zhaoyi was also eager to save people, the Empress won't blame her, right?" Empress Zhu
felt ashamed, but Jiang Xinyue did save her. During the spring plowing, she also saw officials bitten by leeches. That person was not as lucky as her. After being manipulated by others, the wound bled profusely and almost lost his life due to infection.
She shook her head and smiled at Jiang Xinyue: "It's too late to thank you, how can you blame me?"
After a brief interlude, the spring plowing continued.
When the plowing was finished, it was almost Si time.
The plow and whip were handed over to the Minister of Revenue and the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture. The emperor went to the Guangeng Terrace and sat facing south, and the kings and others stood in order.
After that, the king and others ploughed the fields, the king pushed five times, the nine ministers pushed nine times, the prefectural officials carried green boxes to sow seeds, and the elders followed to cover the soil.
After the ceremony, the emperor went to the Zhai Palace, and the prefects and elders saluted. Thirty farmers followed with farm tools. After the farmers had cultivated all the remaining uncultivated fields, the Minister of the Honglu Temple praised the ceremony, and all officials celebrated and gave banquets to the kings, nobles, elders, etc., and rewarded the farmers with cloth.
It should have been the Minister of the Honglu Temple who came to praise the ceremony, but he was very tactful and gave this job to Jiang Shaoqing, so that he could show his face in front of Emperor Xuanwu and Zhen Zhaoyi. He
only blamed himself for being too old and not being able to give birth to a beautiful daughter to enter the palace and be favored by the emperor.
His daughters have been married for many years, and his granddaughters have all been engaged. The youngest granddaughter is sixteen years old and got married last year.
He is now fifty-one years old, and even if he wants to give birth to a concubine for the emperor, he is powerless.
When Jiang Xinyue was having a meal, she was arranged to sit on the left hand side of the emperor, and the seat on the right hand side was for Empress Zhu.
This time, she relied on her own strength to make Emperor Xuanwu take notice of her, and Concubine Shu had to stand aside.
If Emperor Xuanwu did not show his closeness to her, then those farmers would think in their hearts that the emperor did not favor a concubine who knew everything about farming, but cared about a concubine who disliked farming as dirty. The emperor must not really value farming, but was just pretending.
Jiang Xinyue, who knew the twists and turns of these things, ate the food the emperor picked for her with a happy face, without any turmoil in her heart.
Concubine Shu had a small appetite and didn't eat much in the palace. She only tasted the two dishes in front of her that the maid brought, and said she was full after just two bites.
Jiang Xinyue, who was chewing a big chicken leg, was embarrassed.
Was she eating? Or was she eating?
Wouldn't the dog emperor Xuanwu think that she was just a pig compared to his white moonlight?