New Year’s Eve—bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new!
During the days before the new year, aside from riding horses outside the city, the Crown Prince spent most of his daylight hours in the deer garden or flower garden of the Eastern Palace.
Yao Huang had never gone to watch the Crown Prince practice walking specifically, but in the inner chambers, the Crown Prince was standing up more and more frequently. From this, Yao Huang knew his progress these past few days could be described as remarkably swift.
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month, Emperor Yongchang came to the Eastern Palace once more. He personally pushed the Crown Prince to the deer garden without having Yao Huang accompany them. Thus, Yao Huang did not know what father and son discussed. When Emperor Yongchang left and she wanted to extract information from the Crown Prince, not only would he not speak, but he also revealed an expression that was quite complex.
The next day was New Year’s Eve.
Emperor Yongchang had made it clear early on that this year’s New Year’s Eve palace banquet would be a grand affair. All capital officials of the fifth rank and above could bring their wives to the feast, and imperial relatives and families of meritorious nobles were naturally also on the invitation list.
Even Prince Qing and his wife, who had been punished with confinement at home for three years, received an oral decree from Emperor Yongchang to attend the banquet.
Prince Qing was so happy he almost wanted to cry. It was not that he cared too much about whether the Emperor still had him in his heart—it was truly that the days of confinement were too difficult to endure. During the first two months of confinement, he had felt relaxed and carefree, but as time dragged on, it became like being imprisoned. Sometimes, standing at the base of the back garden wall, Prince Qing would even have the absurd notion of climbing over the wall to sneak out and play.
Zheng Yuanzhen was also very pleasantly surprised. After only half a year of confinement, her uncle was missing Prince Qing. At the palace banquet, if Prince Qing performed well, combined with the increasingly adorable Sanlang, the father and son pair might delight her uncle enough that perhaps he would show special mercy and lift their confinement?
When Zheng Yuanzhen had still been preoccupied with the honor of being Crown Princess and future Empress, she could not even let go of the old matter of breaking her engagement with Prince Hui. She always felt that people around her would secretly mock her for it. Now, Zheng Yuanzhen’s dignity had long been thoroughly lost, and the honor of being a princess consort had also fallen to that of a commandery prince’s consort—fallen so harshly. After being confined for over half a year, Zheng Yuanzhen no longer cared about those idle gossips and only hoped to be able to go out and about sooner.
The Prince Qing couple, both longing for their confinement to be lifted, prepared carefully. The couple dressed plainly, only dressing up Sanlang festively and adorably. On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, they entered the palace ahead of the officials.
Emperor Yongchang was in Empress Zhou’s central palace. Consort Du, Consort Liu, and Consort Shen were all present. The Crown Prince’s family and Prince Kang’s family had also arrived.
Princess Kang, Chen Ying, had already completed her month of postpartum confinement. The little commandery princess was too young to be brought to the palace, but Prince Kang still had three other children. These three were now sitting on the heated platform surrounding Jun’er in a circle, each holding a toy to attract their younger brother to crawl toward them.
When young children laughed in such a lively manner, the elders watching from the side would also be in good spirits.
“Your Majesty, Prince Qing and the Princess Consort seek an audience with the Third Imperial Grandson.”
Everyone looked toward Emperor Yongchang.
Emperor Yongchang was still watching the grandchildren on the platform, his face bearing a smile. He said rather indifferently, “Lead them in.”
This kind of indifference could be understood either as the Emperor not taking Prince Qing’s family to heart at all, or as him having already forgiven Prince Qing’s mistakes—in which case, having his son and daughter-in-law come to the palace for the new year was perfectly normal and required no special treatment.
Consort Shen nervously clutched her sleeves.
Finally, the family of three from Prince Qing’s household appeared before everyone after such a long time.
“This unfilial son and subject kowtows before Father Emperor. May Father Emperor’s dragon body remain healthy and prosperous for ten thousand years.”
Prince Qing, bringing Zheng Yuanzhen with him, knelt down firmly.
The warm pavilion fell silent. Prince Kang quietly gestured for the young heir apparent on the platform to bring his younger siblings down. In a moment, they would need to pay their respects to Third Uncle and Third Aunt.
As the three older children put on their shoes, Emperor Yongchang raised his head. His gaze swept over Prince Qing, who had grown pale and plump after over half a year of confinement, and his niece, whose appearance remained refined and beautiful but whose bearing no longer held its former pride. His eyes quickly settled on Sanlang, who was being held in his wet nurse’s arms.
Emperor Yongchang excused the three from their courtesies and beckoned to the wet nurse.
The wet nurse quickly brought Sanlang to Emperor Yongchang’s embrace.
Sanlang had been born premature. As an older brother, at his full-month celebration he was not as large as Jun’er. Now, however, they appeared about the same size, and holding him felt like about twenty pounds.
However, since Sanlang could barely remember things, this was his first time seeing so many people. The little fellow was obviously shy with strangers and could not warm up to his Imperial Grandfather. He twisted his body, wanting his mother consort to hold him.
Prince Qing and Zheng Yuanzhen’s hearts, which had hoped to use their son to lift their confinement, instantly cooled by half.
Emperor Yongchang patted Sanlang’s head and had the wet nurse carry Sanlang to the platform to play with Jun’er.
Consort Shen: “…” She had still wanted to hold her own grandson.
Emperor Yongchang asked Prince Qing a few simple questions. When he was finished with them, the Prince Qing couple went to pay their respects to Empress Zhou, then immediately afterward to the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, who held the honor of being half-sovereign.
Zhao Sui was still seated in his wheelchair. Apart from Emperor Yongchang, Empress Zhou, the Crown Princess, and Prince Kang, no one else present knew that his legs were slowly recovering.
Zheng Yuanzhen’s gaze swept over the Crown Prince’s legs. At this point, she no longer thought about those things that were useless to regret and would only worsen her mood. Instead, she focused on thinking about things that could make her feel better—for instance, although the Prince Qing she married had not become Crown Prince, he still held the honor of being a commandery prince and had a strong, healthy body. The Crown Prince? Even if he became Emperor in the future, he would be an emperor sitting in a wheelchair, ultimately lacking in some respect.
After paying all the proper respects, Empress Zhou granted Prince Qing and his wife seats.
Yao Huang did not pay much attention to these two. Prince Qing had often shown disrespect to his second brother in the wheelchair before, but from now on he should no longer dare to do so. Therefore, Yao Huang simply regarded the Prince Qing couple as imperial relatives with whom she had no particular affection—she only needed to maintain surface cordiality.
She was more curious about whether Jun’er and Sanlang on the platform could play together.
Jun’er was still very enthusiastic. With one more playmate about his size, the little fellow grabbed a gold bracelet hung with gold bells and crawled toward Sanlang energetically. Unfortunately, he crawled too quickly. Unable to discern his intentions, Sanlang felt more fear than anything and turned to crawl away as well, quickly reaching his own wet nurse’s arms at the edge of the platform.
Jun’er chased all the way to the platform’s edge, supporting himself with one hand while raising the gold bracelet high toward Sanlang with the other.
Sanlang lay on his wet nurse’s shoulder, presenting his bottom to his younger brother.
Emperor Yongchang laughed and walked to the platform’s edge, extending his hand toward Jun’er. “Give it to Imperial Grandfather. Imperial Grandfather likes it.”
Jun’er happily placed the gold bracelet in his Imperial Grandfather’s hand.
Prince Qing and Zheng Yuanzhen: “…”
After dusk darkened the sky, the palace banquet began. Emperor Yongchang hosted the male guests in Qianyuan Hall, while the empress and consorts entertained the female guests in the central palace.
On the sovereign and subjects’ side, where there was a banquet, there was inevitably wine. Emperor Yongchang was in good spirits and drank several large bowls in succession. By the time the banquet had progressed halfway, Emperor Yongchang’s dragon face was flushed, clearly showing some intoxication.
When Emperor Yongchang raised his wine bowl again to drink together with his assembled subjects, Prince Kang left his seat to advise, “Father Emperor is drunk. Please drink this bowl sparingly. We subjects will drink it all.”
Emperor Yongchang waved for him to sit down and snorted, “We know our own alcohol tolerance. What are these few bowls of wine? After We finish this bowl, We will personally come down to perform a sword dance for your entertainment.”
The assembled subjects: “…”
Drunk to this extent and still sword dancing? What if he accidentally injured the dragon body? What if he accidentally injured them?
The assembled subjects began urging him otherwise in succession.
The more they urged, the less Emperor Yongchang listened. He tilted his head back and drained a bowl, placing the wine bowl heavily on the imperial table. Emperor Yongchang walked around to the front of the high platform, shook his sleeves, and called out loudly, “Bring Us Our sword!”
Eunuch Wang immediately presented Emperor Yongchang’s sheathed precious sword with both hands.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Emperor Yongchang took the precious sword and descended the high platform step by step. As he walked, he urged the subjects who were all staring at him, laughing, “Drink! Why are you all watching Us…”
Before his words fell, Emperor Yongchang’s foot stumbled!
The military officials reacted fastest. Sitting at the very front, Duke Yingguo Li Qian and the specially summoned Marquis Weiyuan Cen Lianshan, who had returned to the capital to report on his duties, both left their seats and rose like two tigers and leopards charging toward the platform. Just as they had charged halfway, two more figures rushed toward the high platform from the opposite side. Running at the very front was Prince Kang, and the other figure who ran a few steps before slowly kneeling on the ground was…
Emperor Yongchang, whose upper body had swayed left and right for quite some time without actually falling, steadied himself and looked with disbelief toward the person kneeling in the hall.
The two marquises, who had nearly reached Emperor Yongchang to support him, saw that the Emperor had steadied himself and instinctively looked in the direction Emperor Yongchang was looking.
Seeing them do this, Prince Kang, who had run halfway, also looked back.
Prince Qing, whose reactions had slowed from having grown lazy during over half a year of confinement and who was only now supporting himself on the table to stand up, widened his eyes even more. Like the two prime ministers and six ministers behind him, he froze in the posture of having just risen or lifted his foot to go support Emperor Yongchang, all staring dumbfounded at the Crown Prince who had fallen to his knees on the ground.
Were their eyes playing tricks on them? The Crown Prince had actually stood up and even run a few steps?
The officials of lower rank sitting further back still did not know what Emperor Yongchang and the others were so shocked about. For instance, Yao Zhenhu, who had been ennobled as an earl through his daughter, and Yao Lin, who had just been appointed to the fifth-rank position of battalion commander—the father and son sat far away, and it would not be their turn to support Emperor Yongchang. While others were shocked, the father and son exchanged glances, both feeling that imperial palace banquets had too many rules. After drinking for a while, one had to respectfully listen to His Majesty’s speech, and now who knew what had happened…
Before the father and son’s eye contact ended, they heard Emperor Yongchang shout “Sui’er” loudly, then, as if the Crown Prince had contracted some acute illness, he dropped his precious sword and charged toward the Crown Prince’s location.
Sui’er, Zhao Sui, the Crown Prince?
This time, Yao Zhenhu and Yao Lin competed to spring up from the ground, rushing impetuously to the very front. They arrived just in time to see Emperor Yongchang supporting the Crown Prince’s shoulders with both hands as the Crown Prince slowly straightened his legs.
Yao Zhenhu and Yao Lin: “…”
Emperor Yongchang continued to be shocked. “Sui’er, how, how did you suddenly become able to stand up?”
The Crown Prince lowered his eyes. Perhaps too agitated, his voice was much lower than usual, but at this moment the great hall was quiet enough that the assembled subjects still heard the Crown Prince’s words clearly: “This son… this son also does not know. Just now, seeing Father Emperor in danger, this son in urgent desperation just…”
Emperor Yongchang suddenly embraced the reserved Crown Prince in his arms and looked up, laughing loudly. “Excellent! Our son’s filial heart has moved heaven and earth! The Heavenly Emperor has bestowed his blessing, helping Our son break through the shackles of his crippled legs and stand up!”
The Crown Prince had long since closed his eyes.
Prince Kang, who only knew that Second Brother’s legs could move but did not know Second Brother had been able to walk a few steps for some time, deeply believed Father Emperor’s words. Tears burst from his eyes.
Seeing this, the civil and military officials all knelt on the ground. Led by the left and right prime ministers, they highly praised the Crown Prince’s filial piety. After finishing their praise, they all raised their sleeves to wipe their tears.
Yao Zhenhu and Yao Lin, who stood frozen in the middle looking particularly conspicuous: “…”
Emperor Yongchang paid no attention to the father and son. When the assembled subjects finished responding, Emperor Yongchang said with some concern, “Sui’er, try again. See if you can walk a few more steps?”
The Crown Prince, eyes lowered, slowly turned around and walked step by step back to his wheelchair, sitting down.
This time, the civil and military officials kneeling in masses all saw clearly—the Crown Prince of the Great Qi Dynasty could truly walk!