After more than three years of marriage, Yao Huang had been made to cry by her disabled husband many times, but never because of his legs.
She hadn’t seen the pitiful Second Prince raised in Noble Consort Du’s palace, hadn’t seen Prince Hui campaigning north and south in the prime of his youth. From the day of the selection when their eyes first met, what Yao Huang had seen was Prince Hui sitting in a wheelchair—that Prince Hui shrouded in deathly air, as if whether he married or not, whether he lived or not, made little difference.
Of course Yao Huang knew that a perfectly fine prince suddenly breaking his legs was pitiable and deserving of sympathy, but she and Prince Hui had essentially had a blind marriage. At most Yao Huang would sigh in her heart about this princely husband’s tragic fate, but she wasn’t so affected that she would shed tears of heartache for him right after marrying.
As the couple gradually grew affectionate, Yao Huang had already grown accustomed to Prince Hui in his wheelchair. Prince Hui always maintained an indifferent attitude as if he himself didn’t care about his crippled legs, so Yao Huang wouldn’t feel heartbroken to tears over his broken legs.
In the vast prince’s residence, Yao Huang had never entered the three rooms of the bamboo courtyard, had never entered the inner chamber, bathing room, or study in the front courtyard of Ming’an Hall where her husband lived alone. Yao Huang had guessed that these places should have some items prepared to facilitate a person with crippled legs in handling certain daily matters, but she never imagined he would install such a long circuit of handrails out of his desire to be self-reliant, and use such a difficult method to develop a pair of strong, powerful arms.
Some images, if you don’t understand them, you won’t think about them. Now that she stood before these two rows of handrails and had even tried them herself, Yao Huang couldn’t help but imagine how Prince Hui, having just recovered from his injuries, had supported himself to move along them. She wondered if he had fallen from the handrails due to unfamiliarity, which was why he reminded her to be careful not to fall.
Three years ago, Prince Hui wouldn’t invite the princess consort into the rooms of the bamboo courtyard because he didn’t want her to see these handrails, didn’t want her to imagine his awkward figure supporting himself to move.
Three years later, the Crown Prince personally brought the Crown Princess inside, simply because of an offhand teasing remark she’d made some time ago.
Yao Huang tilted her head high, but it was completely useless. Tears poured out like rain, one after another.
When she heard behind her the gradually approaching sound of the large golden wheels crushing the stone floor, Yao Huang wanted to hide somewhere else again, to prevent the Crown Prince from discovering she was crying. However, thinking that the Crown Prince had already pushed the four-wheeled rosewood wheelchair from the north door of the main hall all the way here, if she hid again, would that mean he’d have to laboriously push the wheelchair to continue chasing her?
Unable to hide and unwilling to hide, Yao Huang turned around, lowered her head and threw herself onto the wheelchair, her forehead pressed against the Crown Prince’s shoulder.
Zhao Sui held the Crown Princess with one hand and placed a handkerchief he’d prepared long ago into her hand with the other.
Yao Huang wiped her eyes, then covered her face with the half-wet handkerchief and asked him between sobs, “Will Your Highness be unhappy with me like this?”
Prince Hui didn’t need others’ pity, and the Crown Prince certainly needed it even less.
Zhao Sui looked at the Crown Princess in his embrace and said, “No.”
He indeed didn’t need others’ pity, but she wasn’t “others.” Having someone who felt heartache over the suffering he’d endured, Zhao Sui only felt warmth.
Yao Huang pulled down the handkerchief a bit to reveal her eyes, and met the gentle eyes of the Crown Prince above her looking at her.
The Crown Prince lowered himself, his lips falling gently on her newly closed eyes.
Yao Huang heard the fine, dense rustling sound of bamboo leaves swaying in the wind, and her mind conjured up the image of Prince Hui from three years ago, sitting here alone, using a pair of lifeless eyes to woodenly gaze at the equally secluded bamboo groves around him—that lonely figure.
Yao Huang raised her hand and tightly embraced the Crown Prince’s shoulders. The first time the Crown Prince was about to pull away, Yao Huang greedily pursued him, wanting to keep kissing and kissing.
The Crown Princess’s heartache was pure—because she felt heartache, she wanted to treat him even better.
The warmth in the Crown Prince’s heart quickly turned into a ball of fire. When he could no longer conceal his fire, the Crown Princess who had been holding his face and kissing him so tenderly suddenly stopped kissing.
Zhao Sui raised his head and pressed the Crown Princess’s head onto his shoulder, not wanting her to see his embarrassment.
Yao Huang surveyed the circuit of handrails around the rear courtyard. Her cheeks immediately became redder than the evening glow on the horizon. She stammered and asked, “Do, do we have to do it here?”
The handrails were much higher than the vanity table surface, but the Crown Prince had persisted through the even more difficult task of supporting himself to move along them. What did it matter if she stood with bent knees for a while?
Zhao Sui was speechless.
He really wasn’t as lustful as the Crown Princess thought, nor as improper as she believed. That time at the Secluded Pool was because the Crown Princess had dressed too daringly.
“The kitchen has dough that Master Kong has prepared and filling he’s mixed. You’ll have to work hard tonight—let’s eat here.”
The Crown Prince spoke in a calm voice.
Yao Huang replied, “…Mm, I was asking whether we should eat here.”
Having said this, she broke free from the Crown Prince’s hands and ran off with a red face.
Running in one breath to the south door of the main hall, Yao Huang looked back and saw the Crown Prince still motionless in the same place, just tilting his head slightly upward as if concentrating on admiring the bamboo.
Yao Huang knew the Crown Prince still needed to calm his heart a bit more.
When the Crown Prince finally pushed himself at an unhurried pace to outside the kitchen door in the front courtyard, the Crown Princess inside had already wrapped three white flour buns. The flour used by the imperial family was even finer than the most expensive flour available to commoners. Even the raw dough smelled richly of wheat, while the bun filling was the freshest pork and the tenderest cabbage hearts from the prince’s residence vegetable garden.
Glancing at the Crown Prince stopped at the doorway, Yao Huang waved the fourth bun she’d just wrapped and said nonchalantly, “I can eat three. How many will Your Highness eat?”
Zhao Sui asked, “…About how many can be made?”
Yao Huang estimated, “Ten, I suppose.”
Knowing both masters disliked extravagance and waste, Master Kong had prepared neither too much dough nor too much filling.
Zhao Sui turned the wheelchair. Only when facing sideways to the Crown Princess did he say, “Make them all.”
During the day when the Crown Prince was on duty, his energy consumption was mainly mental, but at night when accompanying the princess consort, he had to expend at least one session’s worth of great physical effort.
Ten buns—the Crown Prince and Crown Princess ate them all. The Crown Princess, who also needed to expend physical effort, ultimately ate four.
After the meal, Yao Huang first pushed the Crown Prince for a stroll around the garden. After strolling, they returned to the bamboo courtyard. The water cooling in the two wooden buckets north of the main hall and the water in the bathing tub in the bedchamber were all at just the right temperature.
With the south and north doors of the main hall tightly closed, Yao Huang glanced at the Crown Prince sitting beside the two wooden buckets, bit her lip and said, “After Your Highness finishes bathing, wait outside. Don’t come peeking until I say it’s okay.”
This wasn’t about her being thin-skinned—it was the Crown Prince who insisted on bathing separately. Come to think of it, Yao Huang really had never seen what the Crown Prince looked like with his long pants completely removed.
Zhao Sui was speechless.
He lowered his eyes and heard the Crown Princess close the door, but there was no sound of the bolt being fastened.
Even so, Zhao Sui wouldn’t do anything like peek at the Crown Princess bathing. That time at the Secluded Pool was out of concern about whether the Crown Princess was skilled at swimming.
Yao Huang was quick and efficient. After wiping herself down and sitting in the bathing tub to relax, she could still hear the water sounds of the Crown Prince scooping a cloth from the bucket outside.
When the water sounds from the Crown Prince’s side stopped, Yao Huang didn’t hear the sound of the wheelchair turning. Knowing the Crown Prince was a gentleman, Yao Huang didn’t delay too long. She quickly left the bathing tub, dried herself, and changed into the set of undergarments Nanny Liu had placed in advance in the bamboo courtyard wardrobe—white silk fabric with bamboo-green collar and sleeve edges.
After simply tidying up the room, Yao Huang went to push the Crown Prince, who had changed into a set of bamboo-green silk garments, inside.
With the lights extinguished, the bamboo courtyard area was pitch black. Even the moonlight that could shine through the windows wasn’t as much as on the Ming’an Hall side.
Yao Huang lay in the same quilt with the Crown Prince. Raising her head to look around, she shrank into the Crown Prince’s embrace and asked, “When Your Highness slept here alone before, were you really not scared at all?”
If you listened carefully, you could even hear the bamboo branches outside swaying. This was still late summer—when autumn came and the wind grew stronger, wouldn’t the surrounding bamboo be even more disturbing?
Zhao Sui stroked the Crown Princess’s shoulder: “Scared of what?”
Yao Huang replied, “Demons and ghosts. They say places with excessive dark energy are prone to these.”
Zhao Sui asked, “Are you very afraid?”
Yao Huang said, “With Your Highness accompanying me it’s fine, but if it were just me, I wouldn’t want to sleep here.”
Not wanting the Crown Princess to overthink, Zhao Sui pulled her up higher.
The Crown Princess was thoroughly serviced by the Crown Prince and fell asleep contentedly.
Deep in the night when all was quiet, a pair of slightly cool legs pressed against her.
Yao Huang wasn’t awakened by these cool legs, but was disturbed awake by those rough yet hot palms. While dodging, she complained hazily, “Why does Your Highness always like to make trouble in the middle of the night?”
Those hands stopped moving, and someone asked in her ear, “Who is Your Highness?”
Yao Huang jabbed him with her elbow: “You.”
The very familiar voice denied it: “I’m not him.”
Yao Huang became completely awake. She first pinched the palm in front of her that had a layer of thick calluses, then touched the familiar slightly cool leg behind her, and said through gritted teeth, “Just because you say you’re not him means you’re not? How can you prove you’re not him?”
After a very long silence, that voice called out “Huang Huang.”
Yao Huang was speechless.
The gentle and courteous Prince Hui or Crown Prince indeed wouldn’t deliberately call her like this.
Since it wasn’t the Crown Prince, Yao Huang struggled even more. Unfortunately, her two slender arms weren’t as strong as the other’s thick arms. Before long, Yao Huang was pinned tightly against the inner wall by the other party.
At this point anything could be said. Yao Huang cried a bit and scolded a bit, saying, “You’re already a bamboo spirit, so why are you learning these old tricks from my Crown Prince?”
That person shifted outward a bit, scooped her away from the wall, and pressed her beneath him.
While supporting himself with his arms to adjust his position, that person issued brief commands to the Crown Princess.
The bamboo spirit who possessed two strong arms but not a bit of magic had the good fortune to catch a soft-hearted Crown Princess willing to cooperate. Stumbling along, he actually succeeded.
When the room returned to quietness with only the bamboo groves outside swaying, Yao Huang climbed onto that person’s shoulders and praised shyly in his ear, “What a formidable bamboo spirit.”
Zhao Sui asked, “…What bamboo spirit?”
Yao Huang was speechless.
She bit him and turned away.
The Crown Prince pursued her, searching for more unusual clues on the Crown Princess’s body while interrogating, “Why is it like this?”
Yao Huang went to cover his mouth. After fooling around for a while, she was pinned against the wall again by the Crown Prince.
The words the Crown Princess had used earlier to complain about the bamboo spirit couldn’t be used on the Crown Prince. Since she couldn’t complain, she could only cooperate with the Crown Prince one more time.