Appear Like Treasure, But In Reality Grass (2)
Pulling in the relationship little by little, letting their hearts lean even closer, this kind of feeling was actually not bad either. Li Hong Yuan felt, towards thoroughly grasping Jing Wan’s heart, he has remarkable patience.
Speaking of which, the Empress as the master of the inner palace, Le Cheng Emperor’s officially wedded legal wife, if switched with an ordinary family, even if it’s the shu son getting married, all don’t have the right to serve one’s own yiniang tea. The imperial harem in the end was a special place, those that were able to receive a cup of tea from the new bride weren’t in the minority. As the ‘shu son’, as long as one’s birth mother or foster mother’s status was high enough, this first person to serve tea to may not necessarily be the Empress. Of course, starting from the Empress was actually further fitting with the rules.
Li Hong Yuan taking Jing Wan to Yucui Palace was completely within expectation.
However, seeing Jing Wan in the formal gown, the people of Yucui Palace, including Noble Consort Su all blanked.
Especially Rui Wangfei, feeling having greatly miscalculated for entering the palace wearing the qin-wangfei formal gown today, forget wanting to imperceptibly suppress the other party, in reality, having been a wangfei for several years, yet in terms of bearing, still unable to suppress a girl that just married, this was practically getting slapped in the face, a burning pain.
Regardless of which rank’s formal gown, what it paid attention to the most was just being dignified and imposing. But such clothes relied on the person’s bearing to support. For some people, even if they put on the dragon robe, they still won’t be like a crown prince. All the same reasoning. Reasonably speaking, Jing Wan was one, having yet to completely grow out, thus unfitting of these kinds of clothes, and two, having not experienced the corresponding position’s training, thus very difficult to have a bearing matching of her status. That’s why, when having just married, to want to completely suppress the clothes, letting the clothes set off one’s bearing was very difficult, yet Jing Wan at such a young age was able to suppress it. Her every word and conduct completely didn’t have any immaturity, as if she was just naturally born this way.
It was the exact same set of clothes after all, so naturally would get subconsciously compared. That’s why, which one present couldn’t tell. Afterwards, the irrelevant people all quietly lowered their heads. What was that, prior to Jing Wan entering, no one felt Rui Wangfei dressing like this was anything wrong, and further didn’t feel wanting to give her zhouli a ‘initial show of might’ was anything inappropriate either. Just, when this outcome was the complete opposite of what they’d expected, it was just awkward.
Noble Consort Su also approved of Liu-shi pressuring Jing Wan. Having stolen her son, it more or less made one annoyed. But now, she indifferently shot a glance at Liu-shi, a streak of discontent flashing through her eyes. However, when looking towards Li Hong Yuan and Jing Wan, she carried a natural and sincere smile, “You’re here. Still not quickly giving Yuan’er and his wangfei a seat.”
“Consort mother, have the tea served first. It’s still early today, so there are still the other palaces to go to, and shortly after, need to offer sacrifices at the ancestral shrine. And in the afternoon, also need to meet with the imperial relatives. This son knows that consort mother likes Jing Wan, so after today, just frequently call her into the palace to chat with you.”
Noble Consort Su practically felt her liver aching, but this son’s words, one was unable to pick out any mistakes either, “Yuan’er is right, the future is long.”
She called for someone to quickly have the prepared tea brought over.
Jing Wan kneeled before Noble Consort Su, “Consort mother please have some tea.”
The old palace maid to the side took it and sent it to Noble Consort Su’s hand. Noble Consort Su perfunctorily took a sip, then spoke of some things such as needing to be virtuous and considerate, quickly spread the branches and leaves for the imperial family, and so on, even talking longwindedly for quite a while, seemingly as if sinking into some inescapable memories, even uncontrollably reddening her eyes. In short, it was just ‘Yuan’er this, Yuan’er that’ every other line. In any case, that was just like her lifeblood, and must have him taken care of well.
No matter how much she said, Li Hong Yuan didn’t care, all he knew was that his wife has been kneeling for a long time. As expected, it was still Li Hong Ming’s wife that was too good, letting her have the leisure mood to make things difficult for his darling.
“Aiyaa, this child, how come you’re still kneeling. It’s all consort mother’s fault, temporarily forgetting, quickly get up.”
The palace maid also very perceptively went forward to lend an arm.
“Many thanks consort mother.” Jing Wan took the opportunity to stand up. Some things have already been done to the extreme, yet when speaking, she was able to be like as if she didn’t know anything at all, sincere and genuine. Jing Wan felt, in this lifetime, she was all unable to reach this kind of high level.
TN: All
Noble Consort Su similarly gave a generous amount of bestowments, and just as Li Hong Yuan said, she was a very good mother-in-law. Even if letting Jing Wan kneel for a while longer, it definitely still won’t make others feel she was getting troubled.
Jing Wan and them also headed to Kunyi palace. When the Empress saw Jing Wan, she inwardly sighed in pity. The Head Minister of Works’s daughter, compared to her, was still lacking very much. However, she was unable to find a better candidate. But the Empress wasn’t someone who will cling onto this matter and not let go either. Going through the motions and giving the bestowments, she smilingly had the couple sent away.
Then it was going to Shu Consort Qin’s Ganlu Palace. Jing Wan could sense that Shu Consort Qin, towards her, was far more sincere than Empress Sun and Noble Consort Su, in fact, not even containing any ulterior thoughts, making Jing Wan more or less a bit surprised.
As for the other imperial concubines, they all weren’t qualified enough.
After this, it was just offering sacrifices at the ancestral shrine, telling the ancestors, their Li imperial clan has become a bit more prosperous.
Of course, the inside of the ancestral shrine, Jing Wan can’t enter. There was only one woman that can enter and that was the Empress. Even for the Empress Dowager, if not having been promoted up from an Empress, probably in their lifetime, have never once entered before.
When they entered the palace, it was already late to begin with, so after they finished taking care of business, it was already time for the afternoon meal. Noble Consort Su kept them for the meal, and Le Cheng Emperor also came over.
Facing the need to test each dish for poison one by one, by the time they can start eating, the hot dishes were already cold. And those dishes that need to be eaten hot for it to be good, ninety-nine percent of it all needed to be wasted. Also there were the various rules and etiquette, practically getting a stomachache from eating.
Li Hong Yuan didn’t care for himself, but he knew how much Jing Wan normally eats, and also knew when eating with very strict rules, one clearly won’t be able to eat one’s fill. Thus, his complexion was a bit unsightly. As a result, once Le Cheng Emperor’s chopsticks were put down, he just directly got up and left.
After exiting the palace, Li Hong Yuan originally planned on taking Jing Wan directly to a restaurant outside to have an extra meal. Jing Wan was speechless. The qinwang and qin-wangfei dressed in the formal court attire and formal gown, taking the qinwang procession to a restaurant, what do you want to do?!
Jing Wan unhesitantly had the person ‘dragged’ back to the manor.
As the servants, one naturally needed to be clever enough. When Jing Wan and them reached the manor and changed their clothes, the meal was already on the table.
Jing Wan also didn’t hold back, and cheerfully began eating, from time to time even adding food for Li Hong Yuan, but majority of the time, it was actually him serving Jing Wan in her meal. Towards Jing Wan’s preferences, he similarly understood very well.
Actually, watching a person eating this happily was also a kind of pleasure.
Carrying a happy expression, enjoying the process of the meal, in his past life, wasn’t something that could be seen. The Jing Wan at the time, her appetite also wasn’t bad, but eating seemingly was just for the sake of surviving, that’s all. There was no further meaning.
Seeing such a lively her, as expected, still made one even happier.
After filling her stomach, Jing Wan finally realized in hindsight, her lord husband seemingly didn’t eat that much. Such a strong and sturdy man like him couldn’t have gotten such a body from eating kitten food. Oh, as the wife, wasn’t this a bit failing one’s duties? However, on the table were all her leftovers, should they change out the dishes? A bit at a loss.
Li Hong Yuan smiled and began eating himself.
Li Hong Yuan’s movement in eating was very quick, really, very quick. Of course, even if so, he completely didn’t lose his bearing either.
His appetite was also very good, very very good, and at the same time, also clearly demonstrated that he was actually just a carnivore. The vegetable dishes on the table, one just didn’t see him touch with the chopsticks. This won’t do. Jing Wan began specifically picking vegetables for him. Facing Li Hong Yuan’s raised eyebrow, she just hooked her lips into a smile, “Eat more vegetables, that way the body can be healthier. Moreover, this wife suggest that wangye can eat slower.” Eating slowly was beneficial for the digestion and absorption.
“Currying favor with someone, shouldn’t it be fully focusing on the other party’s preference?”
“Wangye is wishing for this wife to curry favor with you, just this?”
“Pretend I didn’t say.” Although he further liked meat, it didn’t mean that he won’t eat vegetables.
Thus, this afternoon meal ended under the two masters’ very satisfied atmosphere.
Li Hong Yuan held Jing Wan and sat for an hour. Since the spring sun was not bad, he just let someone prop up a recliner in the courtyard, holding Jing Wan and lying on there for an afternoon nap.
Jing Wan didn’t know if it was just her misconception, but she kept feeling that a certain someone was seemingly a bit clingy, and moreover, the tendency even intensifying. Especially after falling asleep, when holding her, he definitely won’t let go. In fact, needless to doubt, if when he’s sleeping, someone tries to ‘steal the person’ from him, he will immediately kill.
T/N: So I went back and edited some old chapters, just fixing some terms, for example retranslated ‘temporary imperial residence’ to ‘imperial summer residence’. Although now I’m wondering if there’s a find+replace extension for chrome because it takes forever to manually edit each chapter. I still want to redo some of the earlier chapters.
