Chapter 75 Bonus Chapter with 7000 Nutrient Solution: "Suddenly I wanted to see him..."
Ying Zheng did not accept the rolled-up copy of "Lüshi Chunqiu".
He reached over her body and pulled her into his embrace with his long arms. This was a familiar and intimate pose for them. During most of their intimate moments together, she would sit sideways in his lap like this. He was tall and could completely envelop her in his shadow.
Like a tiny white flower growing from a crack in a boulder, it is firmly embedded in the place it is willing to leave for the sun to invade.
The next day, Banban went to the study to retrieve his medical books. As he passed the desk, he discovered that the copy of "Lüshi Chunqiu" that he had asked Congyun to place there the day before was missing.
She suddenly laughed, and while laughing, she complained that he valued his reputation more than anything.
Or perhaps, after a night of tossing and turning and pondering, he, like Ji Changyue, with his stingy desire to find fault, wanted to flip through and critique that book.
A book may not be able to change the deeply ingrained ideas of a Qin king, but it can at least pry open a small corner of them.
Now that she was here, she planned to stay in the study for a while.
After their wedding, all of Banban's belongings from the Taxuexuan study were moved over.
Chaoyang Palace was spacious, and her musical instruments and dance costumes had special storage rooms. None of her books, inkstones, or painted decorations were missing.
This antique shelf could almost cover an entire wall, with all sorts of novel ornaments arranged in a staggered manner. Behind it were several large boxes containing the silk paintings she had seen after entering the palace.
These sketchbooks were fixed in place with thin wooden pieces and covered with a special cloth on both sides, making it easy to paint and draw on them. Some talented people even drew some delightful little stories on them.
Back then, there was no paper, and the production cost of sketchbooks was high and expensive. It was not easy to find even one. In Handan, she could only save up some pocket money during holidays to buy a few more.
Things changed after entering the Qin Palace.
Although her cousin always said that she was wasting her time reading picture books, she loved them, so he still secretly collected them and gave them to her. These picture books were sent to Taxuexuan in boxes and boxes, and she had the choice to pick and choose. If she didn't like a story, she would put it away and leave it aside after reading half of it.
The items that remain in her study now are all her prized possessions that she has looked through two or three times or more.
Yun was busy beside her, and whenever Banban asked what she wanted to see, she would kneel down next to the box and rummage through it.
He found a few books and opened them to look at them. Yun let out a low "Huh?" and said, "These are the king's annotations."
Qian Yin is illiterate, but Cong Yun is somewhat cultured.
When she was young, she served by Banban's side. At that time, Banban followed Ying Zheng to study and learn to read, so she also learned some characters.
I turned to a story about a woman who ran away with a down-on-his-luck, impoverished scholar, abandoning her mother and father. Next to it were four big characters: "utter nonsense."
It was Ying Zheng's handwriting when he was a teenager. At that time, his writing was a little immature, but it was still green and lush enough. Using the characters to describe people, Banban could still recall his cousin's smiling face back then.
Although he didn't talk much when he was in Handan, he wasn't a cold-hearted person at heart.
On the contrary, he sometimes has a lot of expressions. He can play pranks, look down on others, and insult others with contempt. He can also laugh heartily when he is happy, and show off his good deeds with pride.
After returning to the Qin Palace, he became much more reserved, concealing many of his emotions. Only his writings revealed some of his true self at that time.
After he grew up, it became even more exaggerated. Except when he was in front of her, he was always preoccupied and wary.
She wasn't sure if it was because she had informed him beforehand that 'his prime minister had colluded with Zhao Gao to forge an imperial edict and usurp the throne,' but even when facing Li Si, his most favored minister, he remained wary and never let his guard down for a moment.
Thinking about this, she felt a little melancholy for no apparent reason.
Banban's thoughts were interrupted by Yun's desperate attempt to suppress laughter.
She chuckled and said, "This servant also thinks it's utter nonsense. What good end can this young lady possibly have? If she were to follow a young general, she might have some future." A man who only studies doesn't have a good future unless he studies to the extreme; he has to become a military general. "Moreover, the fact that he can deceive people into abandoning their families shows that this man is of bad character and is not a good person."
Banban praised her, saying, "Her comments are sharp!"
"Is the Queen praising me for resembling a dogwood berry?"
"yes."
Cong Yun was delighted to hear this and smiled, pursing her lips.
After flipping through the sketchbook with Ying Zheng's annotations for a while, I realized that every sentence he left behind was an insult, and I could almost imagine the bewilderment he must have felt at the time.
One of the books tells the story of a monarch who had homosexual tendencies and was deeply in love with his general.
Unexpectedly, the last page of this book also contained Ying Zheng's annotations, in which he left only a single admiring exclamation: "Divine skill."
The first word was left blank, just like a straight man who had been tricked into reading a BL novel for female readers, leaving him dumbfounded and finally leaving with a "666 awesome".
Banban remembers that she flipped through this book several times back then. When she was young and didn't understand things, she just liked to read novel things. But she doesn't read it as much now that she's grown up.
She rummaged through the clouds and found something, saying, "Your Majesty, there are also the little notes you used to write every day, they're in this box too."
"Huh?" (Note: This appears to be a question from a reporter.)
When she saw the rolls of bamboo slips in Yun's hands, she was stunned and didn't react.
She opened it and saw the words "Summer of the Second Year," which immediately shocked her. Wasn't this her diary from when she was a child? "What? How many more are there? Bring them all here. How did they end up in this box? Who packed them?"
Cong Yun thought for a moment, "It was Your Majesty. After you and Your Majesty got married, you moved to a different place. Your Majesty was afraid that the palace servants would not do their best to damage the items in the study, so he moved them himself."
Could it be that her cousin read and annotated her diary? How could someone sneak a peek at her diary?
Banban suddenly had a bad feeling and hurriedly untied all the bamboo slips, preparing to look at them all again.
[Summer of the second year, May 13th, sunny.]
[I overslept today, all because of Qianyin and Congyun. Why didn't they wake me up when I said I wanted to sleep? I got scolded by the Grand Tutor, and I'm going to make them finish all their iced drinks today.]
[Sigh, my cousin is getting more and more handsome! I really like him. Thinking about him kept me awake in class today.]
Annotation: My cousin's words should not be trusted lightly; they are mostly deceitful. Last night, she was still talking to me, but before she finished, she was already snoring. I'm afraid she was seeing that I look old and frail.
Banban: "..." Slander! This is all slander!
How could they even implicate her in a scandal?!
But you can't talk all night long. It's perfectly normal to fall asleep while talking!
She continued flipping through other volumes.
[Three years, spring, March 7th, rain.]
I fell and got covered in mud today. My cousin teased me for a long time before taking me back to change my clothes.
[I'm never talking to him again. If I talk to him, I'm a dog.]
Annotation: Before half an hour had passed, who was it that asked to take me on a tour of Xianyang? It turned out to be Ji Xiaogou.
Banban: Ahhhhh!
She threw the bamboo scroll aside angrily.
Seeing the Queen's shame and indignation, Yun selected what she thought was the best scroll and handed it to her, saying, "Your Majesty, take a look at this scroll."
[Fourth year, autumn/winter, October 23rd, overcast.]
[I thought it was snowing, but it turned out to be sleet. My favorite clothes are soaked and dirty. I should have listened to the palace servants; after all, they've seen more of life than I have.]
[The sentence above wasn't written by me; I was possessed by a ghost just now.]
My cousin helped me dry my hair and change my clothes, saying he'd find better fabric to tailor something new. He heard there's a type of fabric in the South called "Rain Silk Brocade," which looks like a spring rain falling on your body when you walk in it—it's so beautiful! I want it.
[Sigh, never mind. Actually, walking like raindrops must be embroidered with silver thread, right? Silver thread isn't worth much, gold thread is much more precious. How glamorous it would be to wear a dance costume made of gold!]
"A dance costume made of gold?" Banban murmured, as if remembering something.
After the two got married, there was a locust plague one year, so her birthday celebration was not held in a big way. Her cousin ordered someone to weave a dance dress with gold thread. The dance dress was made of pure gold and could shine even in winter.
That night, she danced under the moon wearing a dance costume, which her cousin named "Golden Silk Chasing the Moon."
The cloth that "Golden Silk Chases the Moon" is called Xihe Fu. This name also has an origin. The names he personally chose were either artistic or unconventional. Xihe Fu means to bind the sun in the palm of one's hand.
It turned out that he had found a way to give her everything she had written in her diary about what she wanted.
Looking at the annotation: "My beloved is in the prime of her life, her hair tied up in the cold frost, we gaze at each other without ever growing tired of each other, why should we envy the immortals?"
My darling is so young, she cries when her hair and clothes are wet. I gently lift her wet hair and soothe the frost on her fair face. What a pleasant life this is! We never tire of looking at each other like this. Why envy a couple like immortals?
What's wrong? Her eyes are raining.
My cousin rarely says sweet words. At most, he'll say things like "I love you" or "You're the only one for me, and it doesn't matter who else is there"... He won't say a single cheesy word.
I never expected to find such restrained yet tender sentences on bamboo slips.
She wiped it all away haphazardly, and after crying, she touched the bamboo slip and was speechless at her own words.
Why is it uneven...?
Yes, she made quite a few spelling mistakes. When she wrote something wrong, she had to use a knife to scrape off the wood chips from the wrong part of the bamboo slip, clean it up, and rewrite it.
It can only be said that people are very leisurely when they want to be lazy. She even found it extremely interesting to scratch off the wrong words. When she had nothing to do, she could take out all the books and scrape off all the wrong words.
No, she can't say she was lazy. She didn't understand when she was young, but looking back now, she was incredibly diligent. What child could be studying, singing, dancing, and mastering all kinds of musical instruments at such a young age? In modern times, she would be a super hard worker and could even become a star.
She was only made to look good by her cousin.
Even so, they have walked hand in hand since childhood, step by step, to this day.
After putting away the letter, she suddenly felt like going to see him.
Upon arriving at Chengzhang Hall, Changwenjun and Wang Wan's figures slowly receded into the distance below the thousand steps as they left hand in hand. Banban lifted the curtain and went inside.
Ying Zheng was playing with a long sword in his hand, looking majestic and extraordinary. At this time, there were no long swords. Presumably, this was an idea he came up with himself from steel. The arrows and crossbows of the Qin state had also been improved one by one, and now there were long swords.
Upon seeing her arrive, he immediately gave a slight smile.
He was extremely fair-skinned, like a clean canvas. The aloofness in his eyes was gradually dispelled, and a gentle warmth emerged from the surface, a breathtaking tenderness. Yet, his tone was languid and teasing, "Why are you here? Were you dreaming about me?"
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