The official documents proclaiming the Crown Prince’s investiture would be announced throughout the realm, and as the capital lay at the feet of the Son of Heaven, the common people here were the first to catch wind of it.

Princess Consort Kang Chen Ying, the Eldest Princess, and other imperial relatives living outside the palace, as well as close friends like Yao Zhenhu and Luo Jinhua, came one after another to pay their respects and offer congratulations to the Crown Princess.

In front of others, Yao Huang had to restrain her joy, but when alone with her mother Luo Jinhua, the two of them smiled even more broadly than when Yao Huang had earned five thousand taels of silver from her reclining chairs.

Luo Jinhua held her daughter’s delicate, tender hand, grinning from ear to ear as she recounted the various shocked, stunned, and delighted reactions she, her husband, and son had when they first heard the news: “I was fine—Duke Zhenguo sent someone to deliver the happy news after court, so only your sister-in-law saw my foolish expression. Your father was told directly by Duke Zhenguo himself. Fortunately, Duke Zhenguo is approachable and not only didn’t mind your father’s foolishness but gave him all sorts of advice and guidance.”

Yao Huang asked, “What about my brother?”

Luo Jinhua replied, “The heir apparent went to tell your brother. Ai, everyone knows what sort of people your father and brother are—your sister-in-law’s family has been even more concerned than I have.”

She was happy, to be sure, but she would never speak foolishly. However, her husband and son might blurt out something like “How is this possible?” in their extreme shock. Family members hearing it would know the two men meant nothing by it, but she feared someone with ulterior motives might relay it to her son-in-law, making him think his father-in-law and brother-in-law looked down on him because of his legs.

Accompanying the Emperor was like accompanying a tiger. Now that her son-in-law had been invested as Crown Prince, he would be the future sovereign. From now on, their family would need to be even more cautious and respectful toward him. They didn’t seek to flatter or curry favor with him, but at the very least they couldn’t be so clumsy with their words as to rush forward and create problems for him, ultimately affecting the relationship between him and their daughter.

Yao Huang smiled and said, “Now that brother has married, it’s as if he’s gained three famous teachers. Mother can finally relax a bit.”

Luo Jinhua looked at her daughter, feeling an inexplicable pang of heartache: “What Mother worries about most is still you. Nominally your status keeps rising higher and higher, and countless people outside envy you, but what kind of place is the imperial family? When you lived at the prince’s residence, you could still manage your own household. But once you move into the Eastern Palace, you’ll be close to His Majesty, Her Majesty the Empress, and other noble personages, seeing them every day. How careful will you need to be with your words?”

Yao Huang smoothed out the furrows on her mother’s brow, her expression as relaxed as ever: “Mother, don’t think of palace life as too complicated. His Majesty handles ten thousand affairs daily and doesn’t have much time to see this daughter-in-law of his. Her Majesty the Empress is gentle as water—being close to her is perfect for me to learn from her how to manage the inner palace, just like how daughters of great families learn household management from their elders.”

“The Noble Consort changed her ways long ago and hasn’t targeted me or the Crown Prince since. Now that the heir apparent has been established, she definitely won’t be foolish enough to try anything. Besides, she’s never gotten the better of me.”

“Consort Xian is dignified and reasonable. The Crown Prince and the First Prince get along fairly well, so she has no reason to target me.”

“As for Consort Rou… Prince Qing committed such an offense, and it’s already her good fortune that His Majesty didn’t hold it against her. She has even less reason to cause me trouble.”

Naturally Yao Huang held the imperial family in reverence, but she didn’t want to live as cautiously as Chen Ying did, nor did she want to become arrogant and domineering like the Noble Consort just because her status was now elevated. She also didn’t want to emulate Empress Zhou’s utterly impeccable bearing as the nation’s mother. She preferred to live according to her heart. As the saying goes, “An upright person need not fear a crooked shadow.” She would neither violate imperial protocols nor break the law—so why should she be timid and hesitant in everything she did?

Besides, Yao Huang knew how to be flexible. If one day she truly did something that displeased Emperor Yongchang or the Crown Prince, it would only be some trivial matter—like Emperor Yongchang not actually liking the inexpensive cucumbers she sent him, or the Crown Prince not liking her grabbing and scolding him in bed. If that happened, Yao Huang could still change in time.

“Mother, just set your mind at ease. I can manage my own life well.”

For Emperor Yongchang, establishing the Crown Prince required only an imperial edict, but for the Ministry of Rites to prepare the investiture ceremony for the Crown Prince and Crown Princess was no simple matter. At the same time, the Ministry of Works also had tasks—they needed to renovate the Eastern Palace, which had been uninhabited for over thirty years, inside and out. The current Crown Prince’s leg condition added the work of modifying the thresholds throughout the Eastern Palace, including summoning back into the palace those craftsmen the Crown Prince had grown accustomed to using at his former residence, to have them handle some of the bedchamber modifications the Crown Prince required.

The Eastern Palace was part of the imperial palace, so logically any modifications would require Emperor Yongchang’s prior approval. However, Emperor Yongchang had given verbal permission early on that the Crown Prince could decide everything regarding the Eastern Palace’s renovation—Emperor Yongchang would simply provide the silver.

Thus the Eastern Palace’s layout plans were delivered into the Crown Prince’s hands.

Zhao Sui brought the plans back to the prince’s residence to review them together with the Crown Princess.

Prince Hui’s residence was a grand mansion with three sections, five courtyards, and an enormous garden. The Eastern Palace had only one section with three courtyards, though it was spacious enough—each courtyard followed the layout of a main hall with five rooms and eastern and western side halls with three rooms each.

Just as Zhao Sui was secretly worried that the Crown Princess might find the Eastern Palace smaller than the prince’s residence, he heard the Crown Princess’s delighted voice beside him: “There are actually three courtyards! I saw that the Noble Consort’s Yikun Palace only has two.”

How could Yao Huang possibly think it was small?

The prince’s residence was built large because their emperor father had separated the princes out—from then on, the residence would be the princes’ home for life, so naturally it needed a large garden for the prince’s family to stroll and enjoy the scenery.

Now look at the Crown Prince—the Eastern Palace might not be as large as the prince’s residence, but their emperor father was leaving the entire realm’s inheritance to the Crown Prince! Having received such an enormous benefit, if they still complained about the Eastern Palace being small, were they planning to move back to the prince’s residence and let all that inheritance, including the entire realm, go to another brother?

Yao Huang would rather live steadily for a period in the “small” three-courtyard Eastern Palace than, though living in a spacious prince’s residence, constantly worry whether some future emperor might make things difficult for her princely husband or whether a future empress might trouble her. Moreover, though the Eastern Palace had no garden, their family of three could still enjoy the Imperial Garden.

“The front hall is where Your Highness receives guests, reads, and conducts business. The middle hall is Your Highness’s bedchamber. In the rear hall, I’ll live in the main rooms and let Jun’er stay in the side rooms with his wet nurse. When he needs to begin his education, we’ll have him move to the side halls on Your Highness’s side, shall we?”

Zhao Sui nodded. After all, he rarely slept alone—most of the time he stayed together with the Crown Princess.

Yao Huang pointed to the attached courtyards on either side of the rear hall and asked the Crown Prince beside her, “These two places—are they to be left for Your Highness’s future secondary consorts and concubines to live in?”

Zhao Sui replied, “They can be converted into two small gardens. When the weather is sweltering or when it’s raining or snowing and we don’t want to walk far, we can stroll in these two small gardens.”

Yao Huang said, “Never mind that—demolishing buildings would cost a lot of silver. We shouldn’t make His Majesty think you and I are overly pursuing pleasure.”

Zhao Sui countered, “What does this have to do with pursuing pleasure? My mobility is limited, and sitting in a wheelchair for long periods easily makes me irritable. Having two small gardens in the Eastern Palace will help me cultivate my character.”

Zhao Sui pointed to a building in the northeast corner of the eastern attached courtyard: “This can be converted into a deer enclosure.”

He then pointed to the western attached courtyard: “This side can have a dog kennel built for Jinbao.”

Yao Huang asked in delight, “We can bring Jinbao along too?”

Some of the consorts kept dogs, but they raised smaller Chow Chows that, even if they went mad and bit someone, could easily be subdued. Jinbao’s appearance was rather intimidating.

Crown Prince Zhao Sui was silent for a moment before saying to the layout plan on the table, “It’s possible, but it would need to undergo the procedure first.”

Yao Huang heard an unfamiliar term: “Which character? What does it mean?”

The Crown Prince couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.

Yao Huang stared at the Crown Prince, who refused to meet her eyes or explain. Thinking of how some people in Longevity Lane cursed at dogs, her expression changed several times before finally settling into a helpless sigh: “Too bad Jinbao can’t speak. We don’t know whether it would prefer to follow us into the palace as Eunuch Jinbao or would rather part from us and continue being Young Master Jinbao here.”

Zhao Sui was speechless.

How exactly to modify the gardens was the Crown Prince’s task. Yao Huang went to the rear courtyard and drew two circles in the yard. In one circle she placed the small cart where Jun’er lay; in the other she placed a basin of meat bones that Jinbao loved most.

Yao Huang decided to let Jinbao choose for itself. When Jinbao arrived, whichever circle it entered first would be its choice.

Qing Ai, who had no idea what the Crown Prince and Crown Princess had discussed, went to fetch Jinbao. Jinbao came bounding joyfully into the courtyard and first came to nuzzle against the Crown Princess.

Yao Huang stroked Jinbao’s large head and pointed to the two circles to explain.

Qing Ai remained silent.

No one knew whether Jinbao actually understood, but it went without hesitation to the cart to see its little master.

When the Crown Prince emerged from the study, Yao Huang sighed, “I told Guo Shu to make absolutely sure to find Jinbao the most skilled master craftsman, and to have Doctor Liao prepare the strongest anesthetic.”

Zhao Sui was speechless.

When Jinbao lay in its kennel with large, moist eyes, recuperating while eating the finest nourishing dog food, Zhao Sui brought his revised Eastern Palace layout plan to seek an audience with his father emperor.

Emperor Yongchang’s only requirement for the Eastern Palace was that his second son be comfortable living there after moving in. He hadn’t intended to manage anything else, but since his son had made this trip, Emperor Yongchang opened the plans to examine them carefully.

The modifications to the three courtyards involved the interior furnishings, which couldn’t be seen on the layout plan. Zhao Sui didn’t think his father emperor would mind him installing several rows of hardwood handrails in the middle hall’s inner chamber and bathing room. The most obvious changes on the plan were the two small gardens converted from the attached courtyards.

Emperor Yongchang indeed noticed and frowned, looking toward his son: “Does the Crown Princess not want you to take secondary consorts and concubines?”

Zhao Sui replied, “It is this son who needs these two gardens more, to cultivate my character.”

He explained that sitting in a wheelchair for long periods easily made him irritable, and returning to the Eastern Palace in the evening to enjoy the garden scenery would make it easier to calm his restless fire.

Emperor Yongchang immediately regretted touching on his son’s sore spot.

Just as he was about to speak, he heard his son continue: “Father Emperor, this son is not as magnanimous as you think. This son remembers very clearly—during the selection two years ago, of the fifty beauties of distinguished appearance and character, only the Crown Princess dared to look directly at this son. The other forty-nine all avoided this son as if I were a calamity. And even if they didn’t mind this son, this son cannot bring himself to calmly display all my current inconveniences before each woman. Therefore, having the Crown Princess alone is sufficient for this son.”

Having heard these words, Emperor Yongchang regretted it even more. If his second son wanted to modify the gardens, let him modify them—why had he added that unnecessary comment?

He picked up his tea bowl, using the motion of drinking to compose his expression. Emperor Yongchang then said, “I understand. Very well, modify them according to your wishes.”

Zhao Sui said, “Thank you, Father Emperor. Furthermore, these two gardens are this son’s private construction. The silver required for the modifications as well as the future costs for maintaining the flowers and plants and what’s needed for the deer enclosure will all come from this son’s private treasury…”

Emperor Yongchang was displeased. He glared at his son: “Does this mean I would be stingy with this bit of silver?”

Zhao Sui replied, “…This was the Crown Princess’s idea. She said the silver for maintaining the gardens over several decades would add up to no small sum. Since she and this son both receive salaries and stipends, we shouldn’t make Father Emperor pay silver to maintain gardens for us.”

Emperor Yongchang was speechless.

Several decades—he was already fifty-six. Did his daughter-in-law really think he could live to a hundred?

Emperor Yongchang glared at his son with a mixture of anger and amusement: “You just keep protecting her!”

Having married such an eloquent daughter-in-law, his son had even learned to sweet-talk him.