T/N: Sorry for the long hiatus. There had been back-to-back projects in my job so I hadn’t had the time to translate. Hopefully, they’ll give it a rest for now 🙂
“Xianzhu, His Highness said that he will not be able to leave the palace in the coming few days. If you wish to tell him anything, you can write to him.” The blue-robed eunuch carefully glanced at the future Chen Wangfei: “This is a letter for you from His Highness. Please have a look.”
Jiuzhu took the letter. She was about to open the letter but paused upon noticing her elder brother and mother looking at her.
“I’ll go to the kitchen. I have to attend to some things.” Shen-shi stood up, giving her daughter some space.
Ming Jiyuan also stood up reluctantly. “I’ll go to the study and read a book.”
They had strolled around till late last night, so it had only been five-six shichen since they saw last each other. Was writing a letter that necessary?
Jiuzhu opened the letter and read everything minutely. She asked the eunuch: “His Highness cannot leave the Palace until the second day of the second month?”
The blue-robed eunuch respectfully replied, “Please rest assured, Xianzhu. His Highness will frequently write to you. If you wish to give him a reply now, this slave will wait until you finish writing and deliver it to him.”
He silently prayed in his heart for Ming Xianzhu to write a reply. Otherwise, he would not be able to give any explanation to His Highness.
“Then please wait a moment, gonggong.” Jiuzhu stood up and called a maid. When the blue-robed eunuch was led away to have tea, she hurriedly returned to her room to write a reply.
She did not know what to write about in the reply but she did have many things she wanted to tell His Highness.
For example, the spring orchids in the courtyard had bloomed, the nanny sent by the Ministry of Rites praised her and that she found a few interesting travel notes in her elder brother’s study.
She wrote a whole lot of things and finally, at the end of the letter, added a few words.
【Everything will be fine. Your Highness need not worry.】
After drying the ink on the paper, she folded the letter and put it into the envelope. After some thought, she took another piece of paper and drew a spring orchid on it before putting it in the envelope too.
With the arrival of the new year, everything would be renewed and things would take on a new look. The blooming spring orchids represented a new beginning.
“Huangzifei, Bai Shao gugu has arrived.”
Sun Caiyao put down the book in her hand and looked at the woman who came and stood in front of her. She looked delicate and pretty but from her demeanor, she seemed to an earnest person.
“This slave, Bai Shao, greets Huangzifei.” Bai Shao bowed like any other servant did before their masters.
“No need for such courtesies.” Sun Caiyao reached out and held her hand. It was rough and strong, most likely from doing heavy labor during her time at Qianyi Pavilion. Her smile deepened. “Gugu used to serve Mother Consort before. Very few in the Palace can compare to gugu.”
“His Highness and my situation is not very good these days, so we will have to trouble you for some time.” Sun Caiyao returned to her chair and sat down. “Gugu is a registered first-class palace maid of the inner palace. You’ll remain in the same position with me.”
“Thank you, Huangzifei.” Bai Shao expressed her gratitude with a deep bow.
“You can go take some rest now. If His Highness summons you, you can go and greet him.” Sun Caiyao had mixed feelings toward Bai Shao. Logically, there was nothing wrong about the latter, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel close to her.
Bai Shao waited in the room for several hours, but there was no summon from the Fourth Prince. The servants of the Zhangliu Palace were all assigned by the Department of the Palace. Now that she was here, she felt restless as she had nowhere to go.
“Did you hear? Last night, a palace maid from Shangyi Bureau ate something wrong and died after a long period of agony. At the time of death, all her facial features were all contorted in pain.”
“Shh, keep your voice down. Don’t let His Highness and Fourth Huangzifei hear this. It’s been said that the palace maid who died used to serve the birth mother of the Fourth Prince.”
“Zheng-shi offended Her Majesty while she was still alive. How could anyone close to her have any benefit?”
Bai Shao, who was about to push the door open, stiffened.
Hong Mei was dead?
Naturally, she didn’t believe that hearing these words was just some coincidence.
There were no such coincidences in the Palace, only intentional actions.
The palace maids whispering outside had already left. Bai Shao washed cold water on her face and tidied her clothes before calmly walking out of the room.
“Bai Shao gugu, I have been looking for you.” A young palace maid with a tender face hurriedly walked up to her. “His Highness has summoned you. Please come with me.”
When she eventually met the Fourth Prince, he didn’t say anything to her. She bowed to him and left the courtyard.
In the outer courtyard, An Wang and Jing Wang were appreciating paintings. An Wang glanced at Chen Wang, who was sitting in a corner. Curiosity took over his mind. “Fifth younger brother, you said you would let us appreciate fifth younger sister-in-law’s paintings. We were wondering if it would be possible today…”
“Today’s weather is not suitable for appreciating paintings.” Chen Wang bluntly refused, “If second Brother and third Brother are bored, you can go to the Imperial Garden.”
“Go there for what?”
“It is spring. All kinds of plants are growing now. You can go there and pull out some of the weeds.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the eunuch who went to deliver his letter returning. He stood up and lifted his chin. “Imperial elder brothers can continue appreciating the paintings. I have to go back first.”
An Wang looked up at the sun. Wasn’t the weather good enough today?
“Never mind, second brother.” Jing Wang smiled gently. “I suppose our fifth younger brother is reluctant to show fifth younger sister-in-law’s paintings.”
“The more he refuses, the more curious I become.” An Wang sighed. “After fifth younger sister-in-law marries over, I’ll find a chance to ask to her myself.”
Jing Wang smiled. He was a person who enjoyed peace, just as his title suggested1T/N: Jing Wang’s title is ‘Jing’ (静) which means calm or quiet or peace. His actual name is not ‘Jing’. This is like how Chen Wang’s and the former Qi Wang’s actual names are Yun Duqing and Yun Yanze respectively. The adult princes were usually given titles along with their positions of ‘Wang’. These titles were basically a form of the Emperor’s favor. Interestingly, the combination of both An Wang and Jing Wang’s titles (ānjìng or 安静) mean quiet or peaceful too..
“By the way, since our fifth younger brother is marrying Ming Xianzhu, should we send some gifts to the Ming family?” An Wang pondered. Fifth younger brother’s birth mother was the Empress, so he would likely become the Crown Prince in the future. Ming Jiuzhu would then become the Crown Princess. As an elder brother, shouldn’t he seize this opportunity and latch on to the thighs of the Crown Princess’ natal family?
However, he was a little apprehensive about Ming Jinghai. That was a formidable person who could chop down bandits with just a sword.
“We should wait and see what eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law do.” Jing Wang calmly put away the book on the table. “If eldest brother decides to send gifts, we will send too.”
An Wang silently cried out in his heart. If he merely followed eldest brother’s lead in sending gifts, how could he latch on to the thighs of the Crown Princess’ natal family?
At this time, the Ming family was almost drowned by all the gifts sent by various families of the capital to be added to Jiuzhu’s dowry. The imperial relatives, who were actually from the groom’s side, also sent many gifts to add to the bride’s dowry.
And that was not all. The Emperor and the Empress also bestowed many rewards under various pretexts, sending things from their private treasuries to the Ming family in an unending stream. People from the Department of the Palace and the Ministry of Rites ran to the Ming family every day, nearly breaking the threshold of the Ming residence.
Everyone could see the Emperor’s obvious favoritism towards Chen Wang. They even suspected that the scale of his wedding was almost equivalent to that of a Crown Prince’s.
However, no one in the Ministry of Rites raised any objections and none of the other princes’ in-laws dared to speak up. The grand wedding slowly approached amidst an atmosphere where everyone felt that something was not quite right but dared not say anything.
On the first day of the second month, the Ministry of Rites delivered the bride’s dress, which had been adjusted multiple times, to the Ming family.
The dragon and phoenix bridal head ornament2T/N: Here’s a picture for you~ 
was adorned with embedded pearls and jade. The bridal dress, too, was filled with auspicious dragon and phoenix symbols. The tuanshan3Tuanshan [团扇] – The tuanshan fan was used as part of the traditional Chinese wedding. The bride would hold the fan in front of her face to signify her shyness, remain mysterious and exorcise evil spirits. On a side note, these fans look damn gorgeous! 
fan had blooming flowers on it. There were several other accessories, all in pairs.
“Mother,” Ming Jiyuan looked at these items, his face devoid of much joy. “These wedding items prepared for meimei are a higher grade than the ones initially sent for her to try before.”
Usually for a prince’s wedding, the bride’s crown should have six dragons and six phoenixes, but the head ornament prepared for Jiuzhu had eight dragons and eight phoenixes.
“Your father is an Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Rites. If anyone had tampered with these items, they would not have been delivered to our Ming family,” Shen-shi remarked as she looked at the phoenix head ornament on the salver. “So, this can only be the intention of His and Her Majesties.”
“Be it thunder and lightning or rain and dew, all are the grace of the monarch4T/N: This phrase (雷霆雨露, 皆是君恩 / léitíng yǔlù, jiē shì jūn ēn) means both punishment (thunder and lightning) and reward (rain and dew) are a form of favour from those in power. So one should be grateful no matter what happens. The original phrase, however, refers to God and not any ruler. The phrase (雷霆雨露, 莫非天恩 / léitíng yǔlù, mòfēi tiān ēn) translates to ‘Be it thunder and lightning or rain and dew, could they be the grace of the Heavens?’. It was written by Yang Lian, the head of the Donglin Academy. He was tortured and executed by Wei Zhongxian, a eunuch who gained immense power during Emperor Tianqi’s reign.,” Shen-shi picked up the red satin cloth and covered the phoenix head ornament. “Go and call Jiuzhu, I have something to say to her.”
Ming Jiyuan turned and went to his meimei’s courtyard.
As the bride-to-be, Jiuzhu was not at all nervous. Instead, she was playing with her white pony in the yard. She had been raising the pony for over half a year, but it hadn’t grown much.
“Brother?” Seeing Ming Jiyuan come in, Jiuzhu handed the reins over to Chunfen. “Why are you here?”
“Mother asked me to bring you over,” Ming Jiyuan saw his meimei’s simple double bun hairstyle without much hair accessories. He recalled all those hairpins and jewelry sent by the Ministry of Rites and started to worry about her thick hair.
“Have all the madams who came to visit left?” Jiuzhu leaned against the door and peeked inside the main courtyard.
“They knew we are busy today. How could they stay for long? Don’t worry, they have all left.” Seeing his meimei’s wary expression, Ming Jiyuan couldn’t help but sigh. “Given your aversion to socializing, what will you do after marrying Chen Wang?”
“His Highness said that I need not pay attention to those people.” Jiuzhu asked in confusion, “What do I need to do?”
“Silly meimei, you still don’t understand men,” Ming Jiyuan patted her head. “In any case, Brother hopes that everything His Highness said is true.”
“His Highness won’t lie to me,” Jiuzhu said firmly. “His Highness also said that he will often accompany me back home in the future.”
Ming Jiyuan couldn’t help laughing. His meimei grew up in a Daoist temple and had little understanding of this world’s harsh treatment of women. The moment a girl stepped out of her natal family’s gate on her wedding day, in the eyes of the world, she would no longer be a member of her natal family but a member of her husband’s family.
He believed that Chen Wang’s words at this moment were not lies. However, life was too long and people’s hearts were too fickle. Not everyone was like their father and mother, who were as loving and understanding of each other as before.
“What if His Highness does lie to you?” Ming Jiyuan looked at his meimei. “Jiuzhu, Brother hopes you can be a little selfish and love yourself more. As long as you’re well, nothing else matters.”
Jiuzhu stepped inside the main courtyard, remained silent for a moment and looked back at her brother earnestly. “If he really lies to me, then so be it.”
Her Master had said that the hardest thing in life was conducting oneself with integrity and being happy with it.
But she didn’t find it hard at all.
There were many things in this world that could make one wish to start over again, but life gave only one chance to all.
His Highness saved her from drowning in the Huaxi River, accompanied her all through the capital and enjoyed the beautiful moonlit night of the Lantern Festival with her.
“Brother,” Jiuzhu smiled. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I choose to believe in His Highness.”
“All people in the world can change, but to me, His Highness is the most special,” Jiuzhu tugged at Ming Jiyuan’s sleeve. “So, Brother, don’t worry about me. There are countless men in the world and each one is the beloved of a woman.”
“Is Chen Wang your beloved?” Ming Jiyuan had always thought that his meimei, raised in a Daoist temple, was innocent and unaware of worldly matters. But at this moment, he felt that his meimei was aware of everything, understood everything and unlike many others, peacefully embraced her destiny.
Chen Wang, was her destiny.
“Brother, His Highness is not only the beloved one in my heart,” Jiuzhu beamed and bounced forward cheerfully, her lively and vivacious figure still the same innocent young girl as before.
Pushing open the door, Jiuzhu looked at the neatly stacked wedding clothes with auspicious patterns and exclaimed softly, “So beautiful!”
“Do you like them?” Shen-shi smiled at her.
Jiuzhu nodded.
“As long as you like them.” Shen-shi picked up the wooden comb from the table. “Jiuzhu, come here, let me comb your hair.”
Usually, when a young girl got married, her birth mother would comb her hair and pray for a smooth and happy married life for her.
Imperial weddings may not follow the customs of the common people, but as a mother, she still wanted to give her daughter the blessings that other families’ daughters had.
Thanks for reading ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶! If you found any typo or want to suggest some corrections, feel free to do so in the comment section or on our discord server. And if you like my translation, please consider rating it on NU and supporting me on:
