A crisp sound of porcelain clashing rang in his ears. Jiang Wang looked up and saw the girl's graceful figure. Her head was lowered, and she was gently stirring the soup with a silver spoon in her fingertips. Just standing there, she brought a sense of tranquility to his heart.
The lanterns hanging outside the hall were spinning, and the wind made the windows creak. In the darkness of the night, a deep sense of loneliness permeated the air. Jiang Wang had never felt such peace in his heart before.
"Meiling." He murmured the name etched in his heart, and each time he repeated it, his heart stirred... It turned out that the joy of his youth could be so profound.
Shen Mingzhuang heard someone whispering in her ear. She turned her head slightly and met a pair of eyes filled with doting tenderness and endless joy. Her fingertips curled up involuntarily. She suddenly felt a little afraid to face such intense joy.
She had always thought that Jiang Wang only liked this physical appearance, but his caring yet distant interactions told her that this was not the case. It seemed that she had only seen the tip of the iceberg when it came to Jiang Wang.
"Bitch maid!"
Shen Mingxi and Shen Mingshu knelt on the ground, not daring to say a word. "Your Highness, please don't upset yourself."
Jiang Yanxin's face turned ashen. She had never encountered anything like this before. How dare Jiang Wang treat her like this? Didn't he realize that without her mother, the Empress Dowager, could he have ascended to the throne of the Taiji Palace? She respected him as her elder brother, yet he disregarded her for the sake of a mere female official!
If Jiang Yanxin swallowed this insult, she wouldn't be Princess Jiayuan!
Upon seeing Shen Mingxi and Shen Mingshu, Jiang Yanxin paused, a thought suddenly flashing through her mind.
Three days after entering the palace, Shen Mingzhuang had her own palace robe. Female officials were all required to wear gauze hats and tie their hair up. Normally, they had a variety of fancy hairstyles like young girls, but now they simply swept all their hair up, which made them look neat and tidy.
Apart from showing some abnormality on the first day, Jiang Wang was very composed in the following days. Even when he was with his wife, he did not make any explicit moves.
This reassured Shen Mingzhuang somewhat, but there was one thing she was not quite used to.
The female officials in charge of writing brushes and ink were supposed to live in the side rooms behind the Imperial Study, but Jiang Wang said that he needed someone to serve him with writing brushes and ink at all times, so he asked his maids and servants to live there and told her to serve him at all times.
Needless to say, her special status quickly attracted the attention of the various palaces. Fortunately, everyone was still somewhat wary, and after the incidents involving Consort Song and Princess Jiayuan, everyone just watched from the sidelines.
This gave Shen Mingzhuang a chance to catch his breath.
For several days in a row, Shen Mingxi came to wait for her outside the study, saying that the sisters were catching up. Shen Mingzhuang didn't like Shen Mingxi very much, and since she was with Princess Jiayuan, she refused to come, saying that she had to serve the writing brush and ink and was too busy to attend to her.
Unexpectedly, Shen Mingxi's perseverance was touching. She waited outside for seven or eight days every day, and even Jiang Wang found out about it.
"If you want to go, then go ahead and take a look. It's in the palace anyway, so nothing bad will happen."
It's unclear whether Shen Mingzhuang was speaking to him or to himself, but he still went to see Shen Mingxi.
In the serene mountain retreat behind the study, Shen Mingxi gazed quietly at the girl before her. She had underestimated this Ninth Sister before, never expecting that she could win the Emperor's favor. The Emperor was in his prime, and she must have used her appearance to bewitch his heart.
"Smack—"
Just as Shen Mingxi was sizing up the person in front of her, Shen Mingzhuang suddenly slapped her.
She froze, touching her face. Before she could even speak, Shen Mingzhuang had already hit her.
"Shen Mingzhuang, have you gone mad?!" Shen Mingxi snapped out of her daze and demanded an answer.
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