Yao Huang slept once again until the sun was high in the sky.
After Prince Hui left in the early morning, no maidservants dared come in to disturb the Princess Consort’s good sleep. The southern window remained closed, blocking out most of the light.
Yao Huang wasn’t in a hurry to get up and wash. Her sore waist and legs wouldn’t allow her to be that energetic anyway.
Staring blankly at the bed curtains for a while, Yao Huang changed to lying flat on her back and raised her right hand, slowly extending four fingers.
Had this Prince advanced several nights’ worth all at once? With his legs disabled he could still be so vigorous—if he weren’t disabled…
Yao Huang didn’t dare think further. At the same time, she felt increasingly grateful for Prince Hui’s arrangement of only coming on days ending in five or zero. If he really came every day, Yao Huang would be done for too.
She was terribly thirsty. Yao Huang called A’Ji in to pour her water.
As the Princess Consort drank water, A’Ji glanced at the lotus-pink plain damask underclothes the Princess Consort was wearing and asked curiously, “Didn’t the Princess Consort put on the newly made nightgown after bathing last night?”
Bringing up exactly what shouldn’t be mentioned, Yao Huang glared at her irritably.
A’Ji thought of something and sneaked a glance at the bamboo basket placed outside the step-up bed. Sure enough, she discovered a familiar color bundled inside.
A’Ji wasn’t shocked by how many times the Prince and Princess Consort were intimate. What she felt heartache for was that fine gauze—precious fabric she had to touch so carefully—how could it be wadded up like coarse cloth?
A’Ji walked over as if rescuing someone. Yao Huang was looking down drinking water and didn’t notice. When she raised her head, she saw A’Ji holding the nightgown’s neckline with one hand while the other gently shook out the wrinkled hem, muttering, “If His Highness doesn’t know how to cherish things, how can the Princess Consort also bear to… look how wrinkled…”
Halfway through speaking, the words got stuck, because A’Ji finally saw the torn upper skirt edge.
A’Ji’s hands held the dress shoulders high up, making the two halves of gauze in the middle hang down limply. If this were still hanging on the Princess Consort’s body…
A’Ji dropped the nightgown back into the bamboo basket as if scalded. Her watery almond eyes looked guiltily toward her Princess Consort.
Yao Huang said, “…This is good fabric. Don’t send it to the laundry room. You take it back to wash. After washing, mend it and wear it yourself—it’ll be much cooler at night.”
A’Ji still wasn’t accustomed to such wastefulness and advised, “Chun Yan is good at needlework. I’ll wash it, she’ll mend it, and after it’s mended the Princess Consort can continue wearing it.”
Yao Huang said, “I don’t want to see this one again.”
If possible, she didn’t want to see the Prince’s purple sandalwood grand wheelchair ever again either.
A’Ji understood. Thinking that there were still four or five gauze nightgowns hanging in the Princess Consort’s wardrobe, A’Ji said happily, “Then I’m getting a bargain. Just right—I’m much smaller than the Princess Consort, so after cutting off the torn part and altering it, it should fit me.”
Yao Huang secretly gritted her teeth. Perhaps it was precisely because hers were not small enough that she attracted Prince Hui’s favor. Mother was right after all—even someone as noble as a prince would have difficulty looking away after seeing her.
Shaking off those images from her mind—things that if spoken aloud no one would ever believe Prince Hui could do—Yao Huang wanted to bathe.
After washing, her whole body refreshed, and after eating “breakfast,” Yao Huang also had energy. She called Guo Shu, Eunuch Cao, and Nanny Liu over, having Guo Shu send people to buy dried rush grass and having Eunuch Cao send people to invite Master Deng.
“Rush grass may not be sold much in the city. You can look in nearby villages and towns.”
“As for Master Deng, if he has something to attend to, having him come tomorrow is also fine. It’s not any great urgent matter.”
After Guo Shu and Eunuch Cao both left, only then did Yao Huang say somewhat embarrassedly to Nanny Liu, “Please tell the embroidery room that the gauze nightgowns sent previously are enough. When making more nightgowns, switch to using damask instead.”
After last night, Yao Huang decided to save those gauze nightgowns for when the Prince didn’t come to Mingan Hall. When he came, she would only wear damask clothing for him to see.
Nanny Liu smiled and said, “Yes. Recently the embroidery room has been rushing to make outer gauze jackets and skirts for the Princess Consort. In another two days they can be delivered for the Princess Consort to try on.”
Single-layer gauze was too thin and transparent. Adding several more layers created a misty, hazy effect—sufficiently modest yet cool, comfortable, magnificent, and noble.
Of the four types—damask, gauze, silk, and satin—gauze was the most expensive. For the capital’s top noblewomen, if they didn’t have several sets of gauze skirts in summer, they would lose face when going out to visit.
As a princess consort of a prince of the first rank, Yao Huang not only received an annual stipend for her title each year, but also had fixed allocations of damask, gauze, silk, satin, rouge, and face powder—more than enough for one person’s use.
Yao Huang wasn’t skilled at needlework and didn’t know how those precious fabrics should be made into clothing and skirts to look better, so she had Nanny Liu, who came from the palace, take extra care with it.
By afternoon, the rush grass Yao Huang wanted was prepared, and Master Deng also arrived at the manor.
Yao Huang mentioned to him the two matters of a self-propelling wheelchair and crafting a lightweight wheelchair.
Master Deng looked at the simple wheelchair the Princess Consort had bought from outside and said, “Making a few lightweight wheelchairs like this isn’t difficult, but one that can push itself—this commoner’s family has dealt with wood for generations, and we’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Seeing Master Deng’s worried expression, Yao Huang smiled and said, “I’m just suggesting an idea. I’m not saying you absolutely must make it. When you have free time, think about it more. It would be best if you can make it, but if not, that’s also fine. Oh right, I’ve pushed wheelchairs before and know that even we outsiders pushing them takes effort. Having you think about one that pushes itself doesn’t mean I want you to make one that moves as easily as being pushed by someone else. Actually, as long as it can push around simply inside a room, that’s enough.”
She patted the elm wood wheelchair before her. “The manor’s guards can push this one themselves, but it’s too strenuous. See if you can improve it. Best would be to add a handle by the wheel that His Highness can push, just like a spinning wheel. As long as I turn the handle, the connected wheel will naturally turn along with it. That way His Highness’s hands won’t get dirtied by the wheels.”
Master Deng hadn’t used a spinning wheel, but the Princess Consort explained clearly enough that he immediately had several ideas for making handles.
Self-propelling, self-propelling—first there had to be something to push, and second was figuring out how to save effort. The Princess Consort had already thought of one thing. Master Deng suddenly felt that as an old carpenter, if he put more thought into it, he would definitely be able to come up with labor-saving methods.
“Princess Consort, rest assured. This commoner will start on this matter as soon as I return home. When there’s progress, I’ll come report to the Princess Consort.”
Yao Huang said, “Go ahead. After you’ve made the finished product, I’ll mention it to His Highness. You don’t need to feel burdened—just think more about the reward money I’m preparing for you.”
Upon hearing this, Master Deng’s shoulders indeed lightened by half. What he feared was the Prince thinking about this day and night, blaming him for being useless!
After seeing Master Deng off, Yao Huang, who had returned to Mingan Hall, suddenly remembered something. “Where’s that elm wood wheelchair I sat in last night?”
A’Ji replied, “This morning when His Highness left, Eunuch Fei Quan pushed it away.”
Yao Huang guessed it was Prince Hui’s idea. It seemed the Prince also liked this lightweight wheelchair, so he took it back to use.
Bamboo Courtyard.
Qing Ai and Fei Quan remained in the front courtyard on standby as usual. Inside, after Zhao Sui read for a while, he braced himself on the two rows of handrails extending to the back courtyard and moved to the elm wood wheelchair he’d had Fei Quan place here.
He had wanted to try yesterday, but with the Princess Consort present, he hadn’t had a suitable opportunity.
After sitting properly, Zhao Sui gripped the large wheels on both sides of the chair body and pushed forward with force.
The wheels rolled forward with difficulty, taking Zhao Sui’s hands forward with them. When they moved to positions where it was difficult to apply force, Zhao Sui re-gripped the wheel positions above and pushed forward again.
Repeating this stop-and-start motion, by the time Zhao Sui’s forehead was sweating and both arms were sore, he had successfully pushed himself forward about ten steps.
He looked back, then looked at his palms.
Both the front and back courtyards of the Bamboo Courtyard were paved with stone slabs. Although Qing Ai and Fei Quan would frequently sweep them, there were still some fine sand particles on the stone slabs that brooms couldn’t sweep away. When the wooden wheels rolled over the stone slabs, sand particles were pressed into the wooden wheels. As his hands pushed the wooden wheels, some sand particles also pressed into his palms.
These were hands with thick calluses worn from palm heel to fingertip—so thick that when Zhao Sui held a brush to paint a few days ago he felt his hand was rusty, so thick that when he merely lightly brushed past the Princess Consort’s shoulders and back, she would tremble uncontrollably.
The Princess Consort only felt it but had never seen it. If she saw it, she would surely dislike it.
Zhao Sui flicked away those sand particles one by one. After resting a moment and failing at attempting to turn, he continued slowly pushing the wheelchair toward the two rows of handrails at the base of the opposite wall.
Before he knew it, it was already dusk, and today the wooden door of the Bamboo Courtyard hadn’t been knocked on even once.
Zhao Sui could have Guo Shu report all of the Princess Consort’s movements to him—to see if she bought rush grass, if she discussed the new wheelchair’s construction with Master Deng, if she forgot about these things and went out to play instead. But Zhao Sui didn’t want to do this.
If the Princess Consort came, he would see her. If the Princess Consort didn’t come, he wouldn’t inquire or interfere.
Yesterday afternoon, Yao Huang had seen the rush grass Guo Shu sent people to buy back—four large bundles of dry grass filling a flatbed mule cart, enough for her to weave two large mats for Prince Hui!
Prince Hui didn’t need that much, and Yao Huang didn’t have that patience either. She only planned to first weave a rush cushion for the Prince to use on his wheelchair. After trying it and finding it useful, she would weave him another for his study chair.
At that time, Yao Huang had someone take a portion of the rush grass to wash off the grass seeds and mud and sand, then soak it in cold water overnight. After eating breakfast the next day, she had someone bring it over to look—the toughness was just right.
After also preparing scissors, splitting knives, silk thread, thin rope, felt pads, and other items, Yao Huang, taking A’Ji along, carried a pile of things to the bamboo grove. The large felt pad was spread on the bamboo grove path near the Bamboo Courtyard end. After finishing the preparations, Yao Huang had A’Ji return first while she went to knock on the door herself.
After Fei Quan came over, Yao Huang didn’t have him open the door but said, “Tell His Highness that I’ve brought the rush grass and am weaving at the path entrance outside. He can come out to look whenever he wants.”
After saying this, Yao Huang retreated to the side of the felt pad, took off her shoes, sat cross-legged on the felt pad, and picked out those rush grasses that were too wide to first cut into strips.
Weaving these things inside a room would be messy, and the courtyard at Mingan Hall wasn’t as cool as here by the bamboo grove, so Yao Huang was quite willing to cooperate with Prince Hui’s suggestion.
She had only cut a few wide rush grasses when Qing Ai pushed Prince Hui out. He was sitting in that purple sandalwood grand wheelchair.
As soon as Yao Huang glimpsed a shadow, she quickly withdrew her gaze.
The wheelchair stopped opposite the felt pad, separated from the Princess Consort sitting on the ground by a pile of rush grass. Zhao Sui looked at the quantity of rush grass and, signaling Qing Ai not to leave yet, asked the Princess Consort, “About how long will the weaving take?”
Without raising her head, Yao Huang said, “My hands aren’t as fast as my maternal grandmother’s. It’ll probably take two or three hours.” Who told him to have such a big wheelchair!
Zhao Sui understood and said to Qing Ai, “Bring the book from my desk.”
Qing Ai made a round trip and handed the book to the Prince. Seeing the Prince had no other instructions, he went to stand guard outside the bamboo grove. Fei Quan half-closed the Bamboo Courtyard door and waited inside.
Yao Huang looked around and thought Prince Hui really did like peace and quiet. Little did she know that all the manor’s servants feared him—who would dare run this way without reason?
Looking at herself doing rough work with her hands, then glancing at the Prince sitting high up in his grand wheelchair looking down at her, Yao Huang muttered, “Like a landlord master in town.”
Zhao Sui said, “Can’t hear clearly.”
Yao Huang said, “I was asking what book His Highness is holding?”
Zhao Sui lifted the book cover to show her.
Blue cover, with characters that weren’t large—a long string of them. Yao Huang craned her neck to make them out for a while, finally determining through the characters “Buddha” and “Bodhisattva” in the middle that this was a Buddhist scripture.
Yao Huang asked curiously, “Why is Your Highness reading this?”
After a moment of silence, Prince Hui answered, “I committed too many killings in previous years.”
Yao Huang was startled, then understood he was referring to the killing karma he incurred from slaying enemies on the battlefield. She couldn’t help saying, “Your Highness was protecting our country and homes, sheltering the common people at our Great Qi Dynasty’s borders from being plundered and slaughtered by enemy soldiers. This is great meritorious virtue worthy of becoming an immortal. The common people all praise Your Highness. Only indiscriminate killing of innocents is creating evil karma.”
Zhao Sui naturally understood this principle. He read scriptures actually to cultivate his character and restrain the irritable hostility caused by his leg disability.
Yao Huang asked, “What does this Buddhist scripture of yours discuss?”
Zhao Sui tried to explain it to her as simply as possible.
Before he could explain clearly, Yao Huang shook her head repeatedly and said, “Never mind. Your Highness can read it yourself. I’m a complete philistine—listening to it makes me want to sleep.”
Zhao Sui said, “…”