Wang Daxia was underwater when he saw Lu Ying. He hastily grabbed a basin-sized lotus leaf to cover his indescribable parts below the navel. “Commander Lu? How did you get in here?”
Wei Caiwei swam behind Wang Daxia, using him as a modesty screen.
For convenient boat punting, Wang Daxia wore only a sleeveless crossed-collar vest and shorts that reached mid-thigh. Wei Caiwei was dressed similarly. Their clothes clung tightly to their bodies, making it almost as if they wore nothing at all.
The lotus leaf in Wang Daxia’s hands could only cover Little Wang, while his chest and abdomen displayed blocks of muscle that were barely concealed, almost bursting through his clothes.
A friend’s wife should not be trifled with.
Lu Ying snapped open his fan with a “pa” sound, covering his eyes. “There’s urgent military intelligence from the northwest, so I came to find you. Your servants said you were fishing in the pond, so I came in.”
Turned out it wasn’t fishing—had he arrived a moment later, it would have been the pleasures of fish and water.
Upon hearing this, Wang Daxia’s heart skipped a beat. “Commander Lu, didn’t we agree that after my wedding you’d give me a long vacation to rest properly? It’s been less than half a month! How can you go back on your word?”
Lu Ying said, “Ding Wu has sent intelligence that there’s a great drought in the northwest—no rain for a month. This year will likely be a famine year. The Mongol Khan An Da will certainly raise troops to raid the border. The Emperor wants us to go to the northwest frontier to cooperate with Ding Wu in monitoring An Da’s army and resolve the situation midway. We cannot let them attack the capital again.”
Upon hearing it involved Ding Wu, Wei Caiwei swam out from behind Wang Daxia and volunteered, “I want to go too.”
It had been four years since parting with her sworn brother in Linqing City. Wei Caiwei missed Ding Wu dearly.
Wang Daxia and Lu Ying exchanged glances—both felt the frontier was dangerous and didn’t want Wei Caiwei to follow.
Wei Caiwei went ashore and put on her outer robe. “It’s decided then. I’ll go pack. This time I want to open a medicine shop at the border, so I’ll need to load several carts of supplies.”
There was no room for refusal or negotiation—this lady was determined to go!
Wang Daxia looked at the spirited Wei Caiwei and glared at Lu Ying. “What about the promised honeymoon leave? Now I’m even losing my wife!”
Lu Ying turned to leave, playing deaf and dumb. “Tomorrow at Shichahai, rent a pleasure boat to discuss how to fight this tough battle in the northwest. Don’t be late—lateness means pay deductions.”
Wang Daxia looked up to the sky and wailed, “Once you enter the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it’s as deep as the sea. From then on, vacation becomes a stranger!”
While people’s joys and sorrows aren’t all the same, the joys and sorrows of corporate slaves throughout history are identical. Wang Daxia’s honeymoon ended early, and he had to go on a business trip with his wife.
Before leaving, Wei Caiwei entered the palace to bid farewell to Shang Qinglan. After Emperor Jiajing’s death, Shang Qinglan was enfeoffed as Dowager Consort by Emperor Longqing and moved to Wanshou Palace, living a peaceful life.
Initially, some ministers demanded severe punishment for Dowager Consort Shang, this femme fatale, to settle accounts for her and the old emperor’s bedroom fireworks that burned down Yude Palace.
Emperor Longqing knew how to repay kindness. He remembered Shang Qinglan’s merit in using spirit writing to remind the old emperor two months after the crown prince’s birth that he had a grandson who hadn’t received his hair-cutting ceremony. He ignored these memorials and treated Shang Qinglan with great respect. The Empress also treated this young stepmother well, providing the best of everything.
Thus, at only eighteen years old, Shang Qinglan lived the leisurely retirement life that Wang Daxia envied—tending flowers and plants daily, keeping several cats and dogs, achieving the perfect life of having both cats and dogs.
No matter what situation she found herself in, she had the ability to make her small life pleasant, going with the flow and adapting to circumstances.
Learning that Wei Caiwei would leave the capital for some time, Shang Qinglan sat swaying on a swing, stroking a dozing Persian cat in her arms. “I can never leave the Forbidden City in this lifetime. You go outside and be my eyes, see the outside world. I’ll wait for you to return and hear your stories of the outside.”
After bidding farewell to Shang Qinglan, Wei Caiwei came to Chenggan Palace. Chenggan Palace was the head of the Eastern Six Palaces. The mistress of Chenggan Palace was also commonly called the Eastern Palace Lady. Li Jiubao was enfeoffed as Noble Consort and took charge of Chenggan Palace, ranking second in the harem only to Empress Chen.
Li Jiubao had been continuously pregnant, giving birth to a second princess—also Emperor Longqing’s first child since ascending the throne—naturally receiving special favor.
However, having two children in three years had nearly drained her body. After giving birth to her second daughter, she took double confinement before recovering.
Yet when Wei Caiwei came to bid farewell, Li Jiubao was hugging a spittoon and vomiting.
After finishing her double confinement, she had immediately conceived her fourth child.
Wei Caiwei’s heart turned cold as she said in a low voice, “What’s going on? This subject said you needed to wait at least a year—Your Majesty’s body cannot withstand this.”
The Emperor was the Son of Heaven, needing to spread the imperial seed for the royal family, branching out and multiplying. He didn’t need to observe three years of abstinence during mourning like Wang Daxia.
Li Jiubao rinsed her mouth with fragrant tea. “This consort didn’t want to either, but that day, His Majesty ate this thing—”
Li Jiubao produced a red pill from her brocade pouch. “After His Majesty ate it, he became extremely excited and completely ignored this consort’s repeated refusals… That one time resulted in this. Doctor Wei, what is this thing? Why is it so wicked?”
Wei Caiwei cut off a portion of the pill, ground it to powder, and sniffed it carefully at her nose tip. She immediately felt heat throughout her body and quickly washed her nose with clear water. “This is common spring medicine that men take to treat impotence, but the potency is too strong. Which imperial physician made this medicine? It’s truly a medicine of tigers and wolves!”
Li Jiubao’s gaze was bewildered. Since moving into the Forbidden City, she had given birth to her second daughter, then taken double confinement without stepping out of Chenggan Palace. She knew nothing of palace affairs. Now pregnant again, she would have to live in seclusion in Chenggan Palace for another year, staying in to nurture the pregnancy.
Everything in the harem was decided by Empress Chen—she was just a breeding machine.
The childbearing she had once eagerly anticipated had now become shackles that bound her immobile. Except for bearing children, she could do nothing.
Chen Jingji, who was serving at the side, had long kept a watchful eye and secretly investigated the matter. He said, “Doctor Wei, this was presented by Meng Chong, the head eunuch of the Imperial Kitchen Bureau.”
In the previous life, after Emperor Jiajing’s death, with each new emperor came new ministers. The once infinitely glorious head eunuch of the Ceremonial Directorate, Huang Jin, retreated intact and voluntarily went to Nanjing as a garrison eunuch to retire.
After Shang Qinglan became Dowager Consort, Wei Caiwei faded from court with her, staying in Wanshou Palace living a leisurely life, deliberately avoiding palace power struggles to prevent getting burned. Thus Wei Caiwei was unaware of these palace secrets.
The Imperial Kitchen Bureau was one of the twenty-four bureaus, managing palace cuisine. Wei Caiwei found it incredible. “A eunuch from a cook background understands medicine? His Majesty dares to eat medicine he presents? No one stops this? Doesn’t head eunuch Li Fang advise? Doesn’t the Empress intervene?”
Chen Jingji said, “Meng Chong came from imperial kitchen background and never attended the Inner Academy for education—he’s crude in manner. But he excels at flattery and pleasing superiors, making some highly nutritious foods to present to His Majesty, earning the Emperor’s favor. His Majesty is now past thirty and, with daily state affairs, his physical strength is much diminished from before. The palace currently has only the Crown Prince as a son. Anxious about reproduction and wanting to add more heirs, the imperial physicians use medicine cautiously, which His Majesty finds largely useless. Meng Chong took this opportunity to present this medicine, greatly pleasing the Dragon’s heart. Both the Empress and Li Fang dare not interfere, fearing loss of imperial favor.”
Li Jiubao had finally returned to the Forbidden City. When the childhood sweethearts met again, one was a favored consort, the other a eunuch of the Ceremonial Directorate—finally able to watch over each other. Chen Jingji was Li Jiubao’s helper.
Chen Jingji pitied Li Jiubao, whose body was being ravaged by continuous childbearing, and naturally detested Meng Chong who presented tiger-and-wolf medicine.
Wei Caiwei was about to leave for the northwest and couldn’t reach palace affairs. She instructed Li Jiubao and Chen Jingji, “With the new emperor’s ascension, all sorts of demons and monsters compete to please the Emperor and vie for favor. Now that Noble Consort is pregnant again, take advantage of the pregnancy to live in seclusion in Chenggan Palace, focusing on nurturing the pregnancy without minding outside storms. Whatever His Majesty wants to do, don’t interfere.”
“Even the Empress and Li Fang don’t advise, protecting themselves. Who among you has greater influence than them? It’s like an egg hitting a stone. Let them bite each other like dogs fighting for imperial favor. If something happens, it’s unrelated to you. Take good care of Noble Consort’s body—nothing is more important than Your Majesty’s health.”
Wei Caiwei’s thinking was practical. If Emperor Longqing didn’t cherish Li Jiubao’s body, then Li Jiubao had no need to care about Emperor Longqing who took tiger-and-wolf medicine recklessly for childbearing.
Li Jiubao was already pregnant anyway. Emperor Longqing could torment his own body without harming Li Jiubao—let him eat whatever he wanted.
Emperor Longqing had been on the throne only a few months but unknowingly became the person he once most detested. As Prince Yu, he extremely despised his pill-refining, immortality-seeking father, thinking his father foolish and laughable for believing eating immortality pills could make him immortal.
Now as emperor, he had smashed all the pill furnaces, but when someone presented ready-made spring medicine for his consumption to satisfy his worship of reproduction, the toxicity of spring medicine was more severe than pills and more harmful to the body! Yet he couldn’t stop—mocking his father was truly a case of fifty steps laughing at a hundred steps. He wasn’t even as good as his father.
Chen Jingji kept Wei Caiwei’s instructions in mind, guarding Chenggan Palace so tightly that not even water could splash in. He ignored outside affairs entirely, wholeheartedly helping Li Jiubao with health maintenance and pregnancy care.
Early autumn, Fengcheng.
A rouge shop had a grand opening. The proprietress was a woman. Business was slow at opening, so the bored proprietress sat at the doorway cracking sunflower seeds, getting a lapful of shells. She looked both fierce and flirtatious—full-bosomed, narrow-waisted, and long-legged—not like any proper respectable woman, but rather like a weathered courtesan who had reformed.
Therefore, passing women didn’t dare enter to look at goods, but it attracted some men who, under the pretense of buying rouge for their wives, went in to look at cosmetics and powders, hoping to take small advantages.
However, the proprietress was an impatient, fierce woman. If customers looked at too many items, she’d become irritated, throwing the rouge on the counter with wide-opened apricot eyes:
“Are you done or not? Everything here is quality goods. Buy anything and take it home—your wife will like it. If you’re not buying, don’t look. This lady is a respectable person. If you want to flirt and banter, go out and turn left—next intersection.”
This day, Ding Wu entered the rouge shop. The proprietress immediately changed from her “seen-through-the-world” weary expression to a smiling face, warmly calling out, “Big brother-in-law is here!”