Men always like new things and dislike old things, while women always like old things, so when these two kinds of creatures are together, real life is more like an ethical drama than a fairy tale.

Zhuang Yuyan personally hung a jade pendant on the emperor's head, and looked up at him from a half-squatting position. "Your Majesty, it's still cold, please be careful on the road."

"I know you've been weak lately, so you should be more careful," Feng Jin stretched out his hand to help Zhuang Yuyan up, stroking her long black hair that fell behind her shoulders, "I had the people from the Palace Department clean up the lotus pond a few days ago. I'm sure the lotus flowers will still be as beautiful as ever this year."

"Your Majesty!" Zhuang Luoyan's eyes widened, and then she looked away, "I always cause trouble for Your Majesty."

"My beloved concubine, how could you think like this? In my heart, you are not a problem at all," Feng Jin held her in his arms, "You are my beloved. Don't say such things again. There are many women in the harem, and you are kind-hearted. It is inevitable that some people will be jealous of you. I believe in your temper, so you don't have to worry too much."

Releasing the woman in his arms and wiping away the tears from her eyes, Feng Jin smiled and said, "It's getting late. I should go to court. You should rest for a while."

"Farewell, Your Majesty," Zhuang Yuyan leaned against the door, looking at the emperor's back reluctantly.

Feng Jian turned around and saw Zhuang Yuyan still looking at his back reluctantly. With a slight smile on his face, he turned around and left Xihe Palace.

The Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month is the first lively festival after the New Year. Each master in the harem would ask his servants to make a beautiful lantern, which they would light and hang on tree branches at night to express their prayers to God for blessings.

The concubines in the harem put a lot of thought into the lanterns, hoping to make them outstanding and attract the emperor's attention, because on the night of the Lantern Festival, the emperor would select the most beautiful lanterns and award them.

In the Yu Garden, there were beautiful women in elegant clothes, and the concubines and their personal maids were chatting and laughing happily, making it like a fairyland on earth.

The Emperor and the Empress walked together in the garden, looking at the lanterns hung everywhere and admiring them one by one.

"This year's lanterns are more beautiful than in previous years," the Queen pointed to a delicate lantern with a fairy holding a peach, "It is so lifelike, who made it?"

The eunuch standing by stepped forward and looked at the name tag on the lantern, then said, "Your Majesty, this lantern was made by Su Xiuyi."

"Su Xiuyi really put in a lot of effort," the queen's smile faded a little, "reward."

Feng Jian glanced at the lamp without making any comment. He then looked around and suddenly pointed at a round lamp and said, "Take that lamp down and let me see it."

The young eunuch hurried forward to take down the lamp. Feng Jin took it and looked at it. He was neither happy nor angry at the same time.

This lamp was made to look like a pig. It was not as ugly as the ones on farmyards, but round and cute. There were two lines of poetry written on the pig's belly. The handwriting was nice, but the poem looked a bit out of place.

"This pig should know that it exists in heaven, how can it be heard of in the human world?" Feng Jin coughed and looked at the name tag hanging below, "Zhao Xianrong, how come such a good poem has been ruined into this state in your hands?"

When Zhuang Luyan, who was among the concubines, saw the lamp she made being picked out by the emperor, her mouth twitched. With everyone's mocking eyes looking at her as if she had "weird taste", she bowed to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, I think this pig is adorable. No other pig can compare to it, so after much thought, only this poem is worthy of this pig."

"It turns out that ordinary poetry is not worthy of this pig lantern." Feng Jin picked up the lantern and looked at it again. "It is quite innovative. Gao Dezhong, put this lantern away and don't scare others."

The Queen glanced at the strange looking lamp, and then looked at Gao Dezhong's leaving back. Wasn't that the direction to Qianzheng Palace?

"Zhao Xianrong's lights are indeed special," Su Xiuyi glanced at Zhuang Yuyan with a smile, and before Zhuang Yuyan could say anything, she quickly walked behind Concubine Shugui.

Zhuang Luoyan sighed in her heart. Other time travelers would always get a lot of applause when they used cute Q-version creatures, but why was it so tragic for her?

As expected, reality is different from time-travel novels. The aesthetics of ancient people and modern people are completely different.

"Who made this lamp? A beauty holding the lamp is very suitable for the Lantern Festival." Feng Jian pointed at a beauty lamp and a palace maid immediately brought it to him.

"White dew forms on the jade steps, which wets the silk stockings after a long night. But the crystal curtain is lowered, so the bright autumn moon can be seen." Feng Jin recited the poem on the lamp, glanced at the concubines behind him, and did not say much, but asked the eunuch beside him to put away the lamp.

Concubine Shugui glanced at the beauty lamp, then looked back with a look of contempt.

"This is such a sour performance." Su Xiuyi sneered, but ultimately did not dare to speak too loudly.

The Queen seemed to have heard what Su Xiuyi said, and turned her head to look in the direction of Concubine Shu Gui. Concubine Shu Gui raised her head and looked at the Queen, without any intention of avoiding her.

The two of them quickly looked away, but Zhuang Weiyan, who happened to see this scene, felt a little emotional. These two people could fight a battle with just their eyes.

On the second day after the Lantern Festival, everyone in the harem heard the latest news from Qianzheng Palace. The emperor flipped over the name card of Xu Zhaorong in Changtian Tower.

After hearing this news, Zhuang Yuyan couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. Was Xu Zhaorong regaining favor or was it just a whim of the emperor? If it was the former, it would not be good, after all, this person seemed to have an unspeakable hostility towards her.

When he woke up in the morning, Feng Jin opened his arms and let Xu Zhaorong help him to tidy up his clothes. Seeing Xu Zhaorong kneeling on the ground to tidy up his shoes, Feng Jin reached out and helped her up, "The ground is cool, just let the palace maids do these things."

"I am willing to do anything for the emperor," Xu Zhaorong adjusted her shoes, put her hand in Feng Jian's, and slowly stood up.

"If I treat you coldly, I will feel bad too." Feng Jin reached out to touch her hair, but found that her black hair was not as smooth as Zhao Xianrong's, so he withdrew his hand, "I should go now."

When he reached the door, Feng Jin turned around, only to see Xu Zhaorong bowing respectfully with her head lowered. Although she was respectful enough, she seemed a little boring.

After the emperor left, Xu Zhaorong raised her head with reluctance in her eyes, but she could do nothing.

Walking on the bluestone road in the morning, the cold air invaded her face, making Zhuang Yuyan take a breath. Although it was no longer snowing, it was still chilly in the spring, and it was still unbearably cold in the morning.

"My queen, it's so cold, you should have come out on a sedan chair," Tingzhu said as he helped Zhuang Yuyan tighten her cloak, "Don't freeze yourself."

"How can it be so expensive?" Zhuang Yuyan smiled, and when she looked up, she saw the bright yellow imperial procession passing by in the distance. She watched the group of people gradually walk away with an expressionless face, and only spoke lightly when they disappeared from view, "Let's go."

Ting Zhu glanced at his master anxiously and carefully held her hand, "My lady, be careful where you step."

After the first month of the lunar calendar, the Flower Festival on February 2nd arrived, and the official enthronement ceremony for the concubines was also scheduled for that day.

Zhuang Yuyan wore the formal Begonia red Xianrong costume, accepted the Xianrong seal bestowed by the empress herself, performed the ceremony of three bows and nine kowtows to the empress, and the historian recorded this scene. Only then could she be considered the true Xianrong Empress.

The Queen saw that when Zhuang Luoyan knelt down, the ear tassels and golden hairpins in her hair only swayed slightly, and her demeanor was very appropriate. She smiled and said, "I hope you will pay attention to the Holy Body and not slack off."

"I will remember the Empress's teachings," Zhuang Yuyan bowed again.

"Well," the queen nodded, "you can leave now."

Zhuang Yuyan quietly retreated to the side. When she heard about the next concubine to be canonized, she thought absentmindedly that the higher the position in the harem, the more quotas there were. There were already quite a few women in high positions. She wondered how many would fall and how many would take the position in the future.

After the enthronement ceremony, the Queen brought her concubines to the Yu Garden to appreciate the flowers. The branches in the Yu Garden were already hung with exquisite cut flowers, making people look as if the flowers blooming on the branches were real.

The Queen took the five-colored ribbon handed to her by the palace maid, tied it with a red string, and said with emotion: "Since I can remember, I would hang a colorful ribbon on the branches of flowers every time the Flower Festival. Now, so many years have passed, the flowers are still beautiful, but I am losing my luster day by day." After saying this, she glanced at the concubines behind her and said, "You should hang one too."

Concubine Shugui took the things handed to her by the palace maid and said with a smile: "If the Empress has lost her beauty, wouldn't we have lost our beauty long ago?" Her white fingers like scallions tied the red rope into a beautiful knot, and the colorful ribbon was hung on the flower branch.

Zhuang Yuyan felt that the Queen's words were hinting that they would eventually lose their beauty. However, women would grow old one day, and those who used their beauty to please men would eventually lose their beauty and love. If she wanted to live a good and comfortable life in the second half of her life, she would have to put in more effort.

After tying the red rope into a knot casually, Zhuang Yuyan took the handkerchief handed by Ting Zhu to wipe her hands, and then began to admire these lifelike paper-cut flowers.

It has to be said that the talents of the ancients were amazing. She had never seen such beautiful paper-cutting in her previous life.

"Today is the Flower Festival. I will take the sisters to worship the Flower God later. Concubine Shugui must burn an extra stick of incense," the Queen said slowly. "Sincerity can move mountains and open rocks. Concubine Shugui must not waste today's good opportunity."

"The Empress cares so much about me, which really makes me feel flattered. Why don't I burn an extra stick of incense for the Empress?" Concubine Shugui replied with a smile.

"I am different from Concubine Shugui. Concubine Shugui should pray more for herself." The Queen looked at a tuft of faint green grass with a smile, her movements were indescribably elegant.

The corners of Zhuang Yuyan's mouth twitched. She didn't understand what the Queen meant at first, and it took her a long time to figure it out.

In the minds of the ancients, the Flower Festival was also the Flower God Festival, and flowers were reproductive organs, so the Flower God could bless fertility, and married women could give birth to children by kneeling down to worship the Flower God. The Queen's words were clearly mocking Concubine Shugui as a hen that didn't lay eggs.

I looked at Concubine Shugui's somewhat stiff smile with sympathy. A beauty is a beauty. Even with such a stiff smile, she is still so beautiful.

"The Emperor has arrived."

Hearing this report, Zhuang Yuyan knelt down with the others and said that the emperor would not miss the opportunity to appreciate the flowers and beauties today.

Feng Jin called out, looked at the concubines and said, "Today is a good day to enjoy flowers. I have asked someone to pick the flowers. You can choose the hairpins you like."

Several palace maids came up with plates of flowers. Zhuang Yuyan saw clearly that there were flowers of various colors in the plates, but they were not real. Instead, they were made of colored paper. If you didn't look carefully, you couldn't tell that they were fake at all.

After the Emperor personally selected the peony for the Empress's hairpin, the rest of the people began to choose, but they all avoided the peony.

Zhuang Yuyan picked up a pink lily at random and just put it on her temples when she heard a voice coming from behind her.

"So Hyun's face is indeed pure and elegant, and the pink lily is the perfect choice for her."

Zhuang Yuyan turned around and saw that the person who was talking to her was Concubine Zhuang, whom she hadn't seen for a long time.