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◎When writing letters, look south.
Zhang Su was a man of courtesy. Since the third prince had written him a letter, he would definitely write back.
The postman traveled diligently back and forth between Yunzhou and the capital. In early August, Qin Ren successfully received Zhang Su's letter.
Knowing that his father did not like him skipping classes, Qin Ren did not dare to go to the palace often. He waited until the fifth day of August when his sister was supposed to leave the palace to visit government offices. Qin Ren went to wait outside the Donghua Gate early, but he waited for half an hour but did not see his sister.
Qin Ren was very confused. It was a beautiful day today, and given his sister's personality, she would never miss it. Could it be that his sister was sick?
Qin Ren was anxious and didn't care what his father would think. He told the guards at the gate that he wanted to go to the palace to pay his respects to the second concubine.
The imperial guards then sent a palace servant who was specially assigned to run errands to pass on the message.
The imperial concubine was about to take a nap. When she heard that the third prince wanted to pay her respects, she smiled and agreed. She then told the palace maids around her to wait outside the West Palace. When they saw the third prince, they should tell him that she was asleep and he could go directly to pay his respects to Concubine Li.
So, Qin Ren took a shorter trip and went to his mother's place first to pretend to be there.
When Concubine Li learned that her son had come in because he hadn't waited for his sister to come in, she smiled and said, "Your sister is feeling a little unwell, but she's not sick. She'll be fine after a day or two of rest."
Qin Ren didn't understand: "Where do you feel uncomfortable? Have you asked the imperial physician to see you?"
Concubine Li looked at her eighteen-year-old son, who would be married off by the Emperor in two years, and said disdainfully, "How can you be so stupid? Your sister has truly grown up."
Qin Ren's eyes were still blank.
Concubine Li had no choice but to give a simple explanation to her son to prevent him from saying stupid things in front of his daughter or embarrassing himself in front of his daughter-in-law in the future.
Qin Ren understood, and then he felt embarrassed: "Then should I still go to see my sister?"
Concubine Li: "Why, your sister is your sister when she is young, but not when she grows up? Just don't say stupid things to upset your sister."
Qin Ren really wanted to see what was wrong with his sister, so he carefully bypassed his father's Qianyuan Hall and sneaked into Jiuhua Palace.
Qingyang has a stomachache and is lying in bed to rest.
She suddenly discovered that her panties were stained red when she woke up this morning. Because there were several palace maids such as Qinfang and Fuliu around her, and her mother had been concerned about her from time to time in the past two years, Qingyang had already understood about menstruation. When this really happened, Qingyang was not panicked or afraid, but only felt curious, and at the same time had some slight pain in her lower abdomen.
My mother said that it may take a while for a girl to adapt when she first gets her period, but it won’t be so uncomfortable once it settles.
Qingyang read more than her mother, and her mother was more experienced in this area, so she asked Mr. Guo for leave from today's literature class, and also went to say hello to the Imperial Guards, preparing to rest in bed for a day.
In the morning, her mother, the imperial concubine, and her elder sister-in-law came to see her one after another. After reviewing the memorials, her father came over and sat for a while. The emperor, whom Qingyang was familiar with, became tongue-tied for a rare time. He looked evasive and spoke hesitantly, which made Qingyang laugh. Her father also laughed. Finally, he told her to take good care of herself and to call the imperial physician immediately if she felt unwell.
The changes in his body, the relief and teasing from his mother, the imperial concubine, and his sister-in-law, as well as his father's slightly embarrassed concern, all made Qingyang feel fresh.
"Your Highness, the Third Prince is here to visit you."
Qingyang: “…”
She knew that her mother was very happy. The news to the imperial concubine and the eldest sister-in-law was leaked by her mother, but did her mother go out of her way to inform her third brother?
Since the third brother is here, Qingyang must see him. So he leans on the couch in the second room and lets Qinfang go to take him away.
Qin Ren ran around the palace for a long time, his handsome face flushed from the sun. When he came in and met his sister's eyes, his face became even redder: "You..."
"I'm fine. I appreciate Third Brother's kindness. You don't have to say it." Qingyang interrupted Third Brother's possible words that would embarrass both the brother and sister.
Qin Ren breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the edge of the couch at his sister's feet. He looked at her and said, "Actually, I came to pick you up outside the palace. I came in to check on you because you didn't leave the palace for a long time. I didn't expect..."
Qingyang asked curiously, "Why are you picking me up?" She was the only one who could use the badge to go to the government office. She would not bring her third brother with her, and her third brother had no interest in doing so.
Qin Ren stood up again in anger, took out Zhang Su's letter from his arms and handed it to his sister: "Look, I wrote more than 20 pages to Zhang Su, and he only wrote one page to me!"
Qingyang smiled first, pulled out a thin piece of letter paper, and saw the familiar sparse handwriting on it. Zhang Suruyu's handsome yet cold and reserved face naturally emerged in his mind.
The letter, a half-full page, said he'd had some difficulty adjusting to the weather in Yunzhou upon arriving, but had quickly gotten used to it, and was well and healthy. He also said he often recalled the time he'd spent with his third brother, and hoped he could study and take care of himself without him. Finally, Zhang Su explained that while accompanying Duke Dingguo and the Yunzhou governor on a tour, he'd seen tea farmers selling fresh Pu'er tea and had bought four cans. He asked his third brother to accept this small gift.
Qingyang placed the letter against his nose, sniffing the faint scent of ink. He then said to his third brother, "It's true that there aren't many words, but they're enough to represent the affectionate words he's exchanged with you over the years. Besides, he even gave you some famous Pu'er tea. Unlike me, I always take him with me when I leave the palace, yet he never mentions me in his letters, nor does he give me any tea."
Qin Ren quickly tried to smooth things over for Zhang Su: "He's always been polite. He wouldn't dare to even look at you, let alone write down his thoughts on paper. What if I misunderstand him, or if the letter gets lost and others misunderstand him?"
The three of them grew up together. Qin Ren didn't believe that Zhang Suguang missed him or his sister, but he just had the word "etiquette" deeply engraved in his bones.
The little princess still looked unhappy.
Qin Ren continued to coax: "Four cans of tea, how can I drink so much by myself? He must have prepared two cans for you. I will bring them to my sister when I enter the palace during the Mid-Autumn Festival."
Qingyang scoffed, "If it's a gift to Third Brother, it's a gift to Third Brother. I don't want it."
Qin Ren sighed that his trip to the palace had made his sister angry. After returning home, he picked up his pen to write a reply to Zhang Su and asked Fuquan to prepare a Mid-Autumn Festival gift.
Zhang Su didn't receive the Mid-Autumn Festival gift until early October.
He read the letter first.
Perhaps the Third Prince had already expressed enough of his separation and longing in his first letter, so this time he only wrote five pages, mentioning the little princess twice. The first time was when he said that the little princess could hit the center of the yellow arrow with eight out of ten arrows at a sixty-pace target, and had begun practicing with a hundred-pace target, and could even defeat him with a sword, which earned him another severe scolding from the Emperor.
Upon seeing this, Zhang Su smiled. The Third Prince liked to be lazy when practicing martial arts, and had no fighting spirit when sparring with others. He would avoid them whenever possible. Of course, he would be defeated by the little princess, whose arm strength was growing stronger and her swordsmanship was becoming more and more proficient.
The second time was when the little princess was angry because he didn't give her a tea gift. The third prince reminded him to prepare a special gift next time that was obviously for the little princess.
Zhang Su looked out the window. Four cans of tea...
A pair of mischievous and domineering eyes appeared in his mind. Zhang Su shook his head and put away the letter.
.
In view of his third son's lack of promise, Emperor Xingwu did not arrange a new study partner for Qin Ren after Zhang Su left Beijing.
Qin Ren didn't need a study companion. He studied diligently and practiced martial arts whenever he could. Besides making friends through literature, he would spend his days off accompanying his sister on strolls and looking forward to receiving letters from his good brother Zhang Su from the distant Yunzhou.
As Qin Ren expected, Zhang Su's second reply letter was delivered to the capital in mid-December. The letter was still a simple one-page letter, and even the advance New Year's greetings were bland. However, there were more gifts accompanying the letter, including four cans of Pu'er tea, four boxes of local flower cakes, four boxes of dried matsutake mushrooms, and four pieces of colorful and patterned Sala brocade.
Both men and women can eat tea, cakes, and matsutake mushrooms, but the four pieces of Sala brocade, one with a red and orange background and one divided into several grids with bright colors like a rainbow, are obviously gifts for my younger sister.
There are four portions of each, two for him and two for his sister, just right for sharing!
Qin Ren picked a day and brought four gifts to go to the palace to find his sister.
The maids around Qingyang gathered around the two pieces of sala brocade and were surprised: "There is such brocade?"
This year, the little princess, who often read books related to Yunzhou's customs and folkways, smiled and explained to them the clothing customs of some local tribes, including what kind of clothes such Sala brocade should be made into to look good.
"Put it away first, we won't need it for now." Qingyang instructed after they had admired it enough.
The tea and matsutake mushrooms were put away. Qingyang kept one box of the flower cakes and asked Qinfang to take one box out to share with Fuliu and the other three.
Qin Ren smiled and said, "Is my sister happy this time?"
Qingyang glared at his third brother: "Why are you so happy? It must be you who asked him to prepare it for me. If you didn't remind him, he would never have thought of it."
Qin Ren: “…”
.
After several exchanges of letters, the fifteenth year of Xingwu had arrived after New Year's Eve.
On the second day of April, the little princess, who was celebrating her fourteenth birthday, received a small wooden figurine from her third brother Zhang Su.
Every year, Zhang Su carved the little wooden figure based on her appearance from the previous year. However, throughout the whole of last year, Zhang Su only saw her briefly at dawn on the sixth day of the first lunar month.
That day, Qingyang wore a cloak to protect him from the cold, and this time, the little wooden figurine wore one too. Jie Yu had carried the lantern that day, and now the little wooden figurine held a palace lantern. Qingyang had gone to see him off that day, and while waiting, she turned her back to Qianyuan Hall and gazed up at the stars in the night sky. The little wooden figurine, too, tilted its head high, as if gazing at the stars, instead of the slight tilt it had shown when Zhang Su passed by her.
Therefore, Zhang Su was telling her that what he carved was not the scene of the little princess sending him off from the capital. If it was not that scene, the little princess might not remember the slightly rude glance he gave her. It also meant that as a minister, he did not want the little princess to remember that glance. Then the third son of the Zhang family still abided by his duty. Sending the little wooden man was simply to celebrate the little princess' birthday, not to express his feelings through objects.
Qingyang touched the eyes of the little wooden man.
Zhang Su was indeed polite, but when he held these little wooden figures in his hands, and carefully carved out her eyebrows and eyes with a knife and a chisel, was all he saw just a piece of wood the length of a palm?
And on the day she went to Qianyuan Hall to see her off, he, Zhang Su, was clearly walking at the end, and she clearly turned around when Deng Chong approached. If Zhang Su had not recognized her early on and had not been staring at her, how would he have known that she was gazing at the stars?
Is it because he thinks she is still young and cannot see through his hidden thoughts, or is it because he is afraid that she has really grown up and has forgotten because of the long separation, so he dare not overstep his bounds when giving gifts?
Qingyang walked into the study and opened the cabinet that was specially used to collect the little wooden figures.
There are five floors in total, and the middle floor is already full. Qingyang thought about it and placed the little wooden man wearing a cloak on the upper floor.
Alone, looking towards the south.
【Author’s words】
Here it comes! The second update will be about the battlefield of the expedition against the Pyu Kingdom. We will definitely be reunited tomorrow. You can read it tomorrow morning. Don’t stay up late for the reunion!
100 little red envelopes, see you tonight [poor]
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