With Prince Hui’s cold and indifferent attitude showing no interest in entertaining guests, and having found out where the cowhide chairs came from, Prince Qing tactfully proposed to take their leave.

Yao Huang first helped Prince Hui change to a small shovel with a wooden handle, then smiled at the couple: “Since you’ve come all this way, let me accompany Third Brother and Third Sister-in-law to the front for a bowl of tea, and let your Second Brother build his snowman here by himself.”

Prince Qing knew this was just politeness and urged: “No need, Second Sister-in-law, please stay. We’ll go visit the Elegant Pavilion right away.”

Yao Huang then only helped escort Zheng Yuanzhen to the shore and warmly invited the couple to visit again when they had time.

Prince Qing and Zheng Yuanzhen walked in the icy, snowy conditions for over a quarter hour before finally boarding their own carriage again.

Only then did Zheng Yuanzhen remove the faint smile from her face, revealing her displeasure.

The carriage had a small hand warmer prepared. Prince Qing handed it to Zheng Yuanzhen. Seeing her stern face, he laughed: “You couldn’t be unhappy because I used you as an excuse, could you?”

Zheng Yuanzhen looked at her boots with their snow-covered soles and said: “No, I just don’t like walking such a long distance in the snow.”

Prince Qing: “Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law don’t seem to have deliberately slighted us. Second Brother sits in a wheelchair and has difficulty moving, and he’s also the elder brother—we couldn’t very well have him go back and forth between the front and back courtyards.”

Zheng Yuanzhen gave a faint “mm” of acknowledgment.

Prince Qing kept staring at her, suddenly lifting her chin with a half-smile: “Or are you envious of Second Sister-in-law? Envious that she has an elegant husband who can carve beauty snowmen?”

Zheng Yuanzhen’s heart jumped in alarm, but her face showed nothing. She angrily slapped away Prince Qing’s hand and glared at him: “Stop talking nonsense. It’s just a lifeless object. If I wanted one, I could have several craftsmen skilled in this make me even better ones.”

Prince Qing: “Craftsmen are craftsmen, but when a husband carves it, it represents affection. I never imagined Second Brother was so good at doting on people. When I first heard about Second Sister-in-law’s family background, I thought Second Brother had completely given up on himself and was just casually going through the motions even with choosing a princess consort.”

Zheng Yuanzhen followed his words: “Although Madam Yao’s family background is lowly, she’s beautiful and alluring. Never mind Second Brother—don’t you also like that type?”

These words carried a few notes of sourness, but successfully made Prince Qing put away his suspicions. He pulled Zheng Yuanzhen into his arms in one motion and said close to her face: “There are plenty of beautiful and alluring wildflowers, but Cousin is a peony of national beauty. In my eyes, no one can surpass Cousin.”

Zheng Yuanzhen gave him a chiding glance.

At this point, neither of them mentioned again what had happened at Prince Hui’s residence, and they went off to the Elegant Pavilion to look at cowhide chairs.

Yao Huang understood clearly—Prince Hui didn’t want to build a snowman, he wanted to sculpt a snowman. They worked until it was time to return to Ming’an Hall for lunch, and the snowman’s cloak had only just been carved to ninety percent completion, carved so that even the corner appearing to be lifted by the wind looked just like a real cloak.

Only after Prince Hui finally put down the flat knife did Yao Huang quickly help him don his cape, fasten the ties, and sit on it, first warming Prince Hui’s ice-cold hands in her bosom: “They’ve almost frozen into ice. I told you to wear the leather protectors but you wouldn’t.”

Only when wrapped by the princess consort’s warm hands did Zhao Sui belatedly feel the cold.

Yao Huang pushed Prince Hui running to the shore, then pushed Prince Hui running all the way to Ming’an Hall’s back courtyard, calling for the maids to prepare foot-washing water for Prince Hui. As for the ginger soup to ward off cold, she had intermittently fed Prince Hui two large bowls already on the ice surface.

Before the hot water arrived, Yao Huang had Prince Hui sit on the heated kang in the secondary room, went inside to fetch a quilt, and had him cover himself with it.

Zhao Sui: “Not cold.”

Yao Huang then pressed down on one of his legs, her hand about to burrow into his pant leg.

Zhao Sui blocked the princess consort’s hand and explained with lowered eyes: “The cold that hands can feel, this place can only feel five or six parts of. So I truly don’t feel cold.”

Yao Huang: “But it still endures ten parts of the cold after all. Since I’ve already warmed the prince’s hands, I must also warm the prince’s feet thoroughly.”

Zhao Sui had no choice but to cooperatively cover his legs with the quilt.

A’Ji brought in a basin of hot water. Yao Huang moved a chair in front of the kang. A’Ji set down the water basin and withdrew.

Yao Huang told Prince Hui to move over to soak his feet.

Prince Hui didn’t move.

Yao Huang: “Should I leave so the prince can soak them himself?”

Prince Hui nodded.

Yao Huang thought to herself that this Prince Hui was like an imperial young gentleman who had just married her—his face was extraordinarily thin-skinned.

After lunch, Zhao Sui had the princess consort stay at Ming’an Hall while he took Qing Ai and Fei Quan to continue sculpting the remaining parts of the snowman. Once finished, he would invite the princess consort over to admire it.

Yao Huang indeed didn’t want to stand there for another half day. Prince Hui enjoyed his meticulous carving and sculpting, but watching from the side, she couldn’t help feeling anxious!

After Prince Hui left, Yao Huang thought for a moment and had Chun Yan bring out the needlework basket. When Prince Hui finished sculpting the snowman to give her, she would also give Prince Hui a gift.

The secondary room heated by underfloor heating was toasty warm. Yao Huang patiently embroidered stitch by stitch according to the technique she had practiced last time.

After embroidering for over an hour, around the second quarter of the hour of the Monkey, Yao Huang finished. She had A’Ji come look. A’Ji exclaimed in delight: “I dare say this is the princess consort’s finest piece of embroidery work!”

Yao Huang thought so too. After all, she had received guidance from Master Chun Yan, who was proficient in twenty-four kinds of needlework techniques including Shu embroidery and Su embroidery.

Putting away the handkerchief and donning her cape, Yao Huang ran toward the back garden holding a small hand warmer, this time bringing Jinbao along too.

Prince Hui still hadn’t finished. Yao Huang stood on the shore and asked him approximately how much longer. Prince Hui thought for a moment and answered: “Two quarters of an hour.”

Yao Huang went to play with Jinbao on the side.

When Fei Quan came to invite her, Yao Huang ran over excitedly and discovered that Prince Hui hadn’t used those bamboo leaves, black agate, or red agate at all—everything was still carved with those small knives: the hair bun, the facial features. This snowman was clearly modeled after her, even the height was the same as hers. The discarded snow blocks around it had all been cleared away cleanly. Just this one snowman princess consort in a cloak stood quietly before her and Prince Hui.

Yao Huang couldn’t help but circle around the snowman again and again.

Qing Ai and Fei Quan had long since left. The sunset on the horizon was obscured by clouds, yet the pure white snow carried its own luminous glow.

Yao Huang threw herself into Prince Hui’s arms and told him very earnestly: “This is the most beautiful snowman I’ve ever seen. Just thinking that it will melt when the weather warms up makes me reluctant to let it go.”

Zhao Sui smiled slightly: “When it snows again next year, I’ll sculpt another one.”

Yao Huang was satisfied. She raised her left hand, having Prince Hui reach into her sleeve.

Zhao Sui glanced at the shore to confirm Qing Ai and Fei Quan weren’t peeking around, then reached into the princess consort’s sleeve and soon pulled out a handkerchief.

Bamboo-green plain silk with a bamboo branch embroidered in the lower left corner, along with two black swallows, one large and one small, one still and one in motion.

Zhao Sui looked at those two black swallows for a very long time.

Yao Huang urged him softly: “How is it?”

Zhao Sui, looking at the black swallow flying outside the bamboo branch, said: “Very good. It’s the most beautiful handkerchief I’ve ever seen.”

Yao Huang’s face heated from Prince Hui’s praise. She tilted her head to look at the snowman, changing the subject: “Hey, while it’s not dark yet, let me build a snowman prince too. Otherwise tonight there will just be one snowman princess consort standing here alone without any companion.”

Removing her cape and handing it to Prince Hui, telling him to sit still, Yao Huang quickly used the leftover snow pushed to the side to build a sturdy, crude snowman body, then went to the distance to roll a round snowman head and place it on top. She stuck in the bamboo leaf eyebrows, black agate eyes, and red agate mouth that Fei Quan had prepared, clapped her hands together—mission accomplished!

Zhao Sui: “…”

If the snowman princess consort could move, wouldn’t she be scared away by such an ugly snowman prince?

Yao Huang didn’t care what Prince Hui thought. Humming a little tune, she pushed Prince Hui away. Jinbao barked twice at the large snowman the princess consort had built and trotted along behind the masters.

After dinner, night had already fallen.

Zhao Sui, as usual, came to the back courtyard only after massage and bathing in the front courtyard.

There would be a court assembly tomorrow. Tonight Zhao Sui had no plans to do anything. Now that he slept with the princess consort every night, Zhao Sui wasn’t so far gone as to make the princess consort cry every single night.

However, after the princess consort extinguished the lamp and came to bed, she actually took the initiative to embrace him. Her arms were well-behaved, her head pillowed on his waist, but she stretched out her feet to play with his feet.

Zhao Sui: “…What are you doing?”

Yao Huang laughed: “I’m checking to see if flowers have grown on the prince’s feet—otherwise why would you hide and cover them, not letting me see?”

Zhao Sui: “…”

Unable to control his legs and feet, he also couldn’t avoid the princess consort’s mischievous toes. He could only let the princess consort use her feet like hands, rubbing and scraping back and forth against the soles and tops of his feet, occasionally deliberately poking her toes between his toes.

The flesh and skin of Zhao Sui’s legs and feet did indeed only retain about fifty percent sensation, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be affected by the princess consort teasing him like this.

Not knowing how much time had passed, Zhao Sui pinched the princess consort’s armpits and lifted her entire body up, then pushed her diagonally into the inner corner. With one hand gripping the princess consort’s feet, he used the other hand to pull up the quilt to cover her upper body that had just been exposed.

Yao Huang kicked her legs in embarrassment, trying to kick Prince Hui’s hand away: “The prince doesn’t even mind it being dirty.”

Prince Hui said nothing, only mimicked the little movements she had done with her feet.

Prince Hui’s palms had grown a layer of hard calluses. It tickled the princess consort into kicking and twisting wildly, softly begging the prince to let go quickly.

When a fine layer of sweat appeared on the princess consort’s ankles, Zhao Sui pulled her back into his arms.

The princess consort had already softened into a ball of warm snow.

Emperor Yongchang in the palace received the leather chair his son Prince Hui had presented. After trying it, he was very pleased and handed it over to the palace craftsmen for improvement. The final product had to conform to his dignity as emperor.

The imperial palace craftsmen were only responsible for creating comfortable leather chairs for the emperor and imperial consorts, which didn’t affect Owner Fu’s Elegant Pavilion business. And as Prince Qing and his wife ordered a set of leather chairs at the Elegant Pavilion, as Owner Fu spread this news, in just over half a month, leather chairs became the new favorite that the capital’s dignitaries eagerly ordered this winter. Top-tier noblewomen like Princess Imperial Fucheng directly provided their own fox fur, sable fur, and tribute silk for the Elegant Pavilion to make chairs for them. Some minor officials’ wives who received the news late but wanted to follow the fashion before the New Year could only buy chairs made of sheepskin, pigskin, or rabbit skin.

At the end of November, Li Tingwang returned from the military academy and discovered the family had acquired a set of sheepskin chairs that looked peculiar but were quite comfortable to sit on.

The martial imperial examination would be held next spring. Li Tingwang, Yao Lin, and other young men were all working hard studying and practicing martial arts. Items like leather chairs weren’t worth discussing or comparing among them, so Li Tingwang hadn’t heard any news about them before. He casually asked: “When did the capital start selling these kinds of leather chairs?”

His mother, Madam Wang, glanced at her son’s gaunt face that had finally gained back some weight over the past half year and replied vaguely: “I don’t know either. I saw them when visiting someone else’s home, then went to buy a set too.”

Li Tingwang didn’t think much of it. He lowered his head and pressed on the sheepskin chair surface a couple of times. As he pressed, his heart ached.

If Yao Huang were still at Longevity Lane, he would definitely give her a chair like this to make her happy. If Yao Huang were still at Longevity Lane, he would definitely tell her that once he passed the martial imperial examination, he would go to her family to propose marriage.

She simply didn’t know yet how much he liked her.