When she woke up, it was already bright out, no, wrong, the sun was practically setting.
Zhao Xiaojin blinked her eyes open in a daze, in truth, it was hunger that had woken her, or more precisely, the smell of good food.
“Secondary consort, you’re awake?” The moment Ajiu noticed movement on the bed, she sprang into action.
After a quick wash-up, Zhao Xiaojin was already being helped to sit on the couch. In front of it now stood a large square table, covered with dishes that looked absolutely delicious, all of it still steaming hot.
“What happened to me earlier?” Zhao Xiaojin recalled the moments right before she’d lost consciousness.
“The physician says you weren’t adjusting well to the climate here, and that you hadn’t been eating enough for far too long, your body grew weak, and you fainted.” Unlike his secondary consort, Yin Cheng was currently just lying face-down on the soft, thick blanket, in no position to enjoy any of this specially prepared feast.
During the time his secondary consort had been unconscious, Ajiu had gotten a great deal done, this table of dishes being just one small part of it.
“Not adjusting to the climate? Not eating enough?” Was that really about her?
Zhao Xiaojin, unable to quite believe it, touched her own face, then looked down at her hands. She’d thought she’d already grown used to just two meals a day, turns out her body had been quietly protesting the whole time.
“It’s already been weeks, I nearly forgot, I used to eat three meals a day.” Only after arriving here had she realized that people here only ate breakfast and lunch. In the evening, if she was lucky, there might be a small snack, but most of the time, it was straight to washing up and bed.
She hadn’t mentioned it, choosing instead to just adapt, not wanting to stand out as different.
“Three meals a day?” Wang Xiaohai blurted this out in astonishment, right in front of Zhao Xiaojin.
Present in the room, besides Yin Cheng and Zhao Xiaojin herself, were also Ajiu and an unfamiliar man dressed as a eunuch.
“Don’t mind him, since you were hungry, then starting with this meal, eat well.” Yin Cheng thought Wang Xiaohai had gotten a bit too comfortable, daring to show his secondary consort so little respect right in front of him, if he’d dare do that openly, there was probably even less genuine respect hiding behind it.
While his secondary consort wasn’t looking, he shot Wang Xiaohai a sharp glare.
“Actually, I was almost used to eating this way.” Zhao Xiaojin, feeling a bit embarrassed at being called out, spoke in a noticeably quieter voice. Her face, having only just woken, turned a bit pink too.
“All right, eat up, the food’s getting cold.”
With one look from Yin Cheng, the other three finally stepped back a little, no longer staring straight at his secondary consort.
The meal, all things considered, turned out to be a rather difficult one, though Zhao Xiaojin wouldn’t say so out loud. Of the whole table full of dishes, she touched no more than a third of them with her chopsticks. Too many of them were unfamiliar, and the ones she did recognize, she mostly didn’t care for. She hadn’t realized until now just how picky an eater she actually was.
She didn’t say anything, but the others were all sharp enough to read the situation at a glance.
“Secondary consort, just tell us what you like to eat, and it’ll be prepared for you tomorrow.” Ajiu took this task upon herself.
At those words, Zhao Xiaojin’s mind unconsciously drifted to her favorite foods. What ultimately settled in her thoughts, though, was the most homely of them all, potato and beef stew. Beef with tendon, stewed until soft and falling apart, tender enough to break at the slightest poke. Biting into it took no effort at all. Paired with a mouthful of the rich broth, half beefy richness, half potato’s earthy sweetness, every sip left her feeling warm and thoroughly satisfied.
“No need, no need, no need to prepare anything special for me.” Zhao Xiaojin quickly shook her head at the thought. “Really, a mix of meat and vegetables is fine, anything more than that, I couldn’t even finish, it’d just be a waste.” Three or four dishes would be more than enough.
Hearing this, Ajiu neither nodded nor shook her head, simply signaling for people to come clear the table.
“Secondary consort, now that you’ve eaten, shall we take a walk in the courtyard to help settle your meal?” She positioned herself right beside Zhao Xiaojin.
Help digest the meal? That was usually something the little monk took her to do. With him currently lying there unable to move, going out on her own alone felt somehow wrong. Besides, he was lying there in the first place because of her.
Zhao Xiaojin glanced over, and sure enough, the little monk was watching, waiting for her answer.
“Let’s skip it for today. Actually, didn’t you bring those new shoes earlier? I should try them on.” She’d just pace around the room a bit, practicing walking in the raised-sole shoes.
Hearing this reasoning from his secondary consort left Yin Cheng feeling both touched and a little pained inside.
She really did always think of him, even going to the end room, she’d let him know first. Seeing him lying there unable to move, she’d decided against going out at all. And here he was, having shared every single meal with her all this time, and he’d never once noticed she’d been going hungry.
And yet he couldn’t bring himself to say, “Go on ahead, on your own.”
Perhaps, Yin Cheng thought, he’d simply been alone for too long, and it had left him a little obsessed. Ever since that first moment he’d come back to life and seen his secondary consort sitting at the foot of his bed, he’d probably already grown attached to her, one way or another.
His secondary consort was different from everyone else, she belonged only to him.
Unlike his father, who had a whole crowd of sons and daughters and wouldn’t miss one more, and unlike his own mother, who had three sons and couldn’t focus solely on him either. Others, like Wang Xiaohai, only ever saw him as their master. As for Ajiu, sent by his father, and the newly-arrived Le’a, both of them likely answered to no one but his father in the end.
Only his secondary consort had no one else to lean on, unloved back at her own home, and here, with no choice but to rely on him alone.
With Ajiu’s help, Zhao Xiaojin stood up.
Unlike the dance shoes she’d worn before, where the heel sat at the back with weight resting on the ball of the foot, these raised-sole shoes she was wearing now left her feeling like she had no support at either the front or back of her foot, even though she was clearly standing taller now, it left her feeling rather uneasy.
She took a small step forward, not quite daring to put her full weight down, as though the shoe had touched the ground but her foot itself was still hovering. Zhao Xiaojin took a deep breath, then finally resolved to press her foot down firmly.
Good, good, she hadn’t fallen.
She tried moving the other foot the same way, and that worked too.
Seeing his secondary consort stand steadily on her feet, Yin Cheng, watching from the side with his head tilted, also let out a breath of relief. A start like this was already good, with more practice, she’d walk even more steadily. The only downside was that, standing beside his secondary consort now, he looked even shorter.
Over the next couple of days, besides practicing walking in the raised-sole shoes every day, Zhao Xiaojin also had to wear a white sash draped around her neck. Just like everything else, it was embroidered with the characters for “blessing” and “longevity.” On top of that, she now carried a handkerchief in her hand as well.
Ajiu had even wanted to pierce a few more holes in her ears, saying that proper fashion called for three earrings on each side. Since she already had one on each ear, Zhao Xiaojin shook her head and refused.
As for her new hairstyle, though, Zhao Xiaojin did have her own requests.
“I have a lot of hair, tying it all up on top of my head would be too heavy.” Back home, everyone used to do the bun hairstyle, simple and cute, but if she did the whole thing, it’d end up so thick and heavy it wouldn’t look cute at all, quite the opposite.
“How would the secondary consort like it done?” By custom, women of formal rank had their hair braided and coiled up on top of the head. That she hadn’t been doing so until now was simply because the rules had been relaxed a bit.
Ajiu held a thick handful of freshly combed-through hair, more than a little envious of its volume.
“Let’s split it half and half.” Zhao Xiaojin was thinking of something like her old bun hairstyle, but, “Wait, I’ve got an idea.” Those period dramas always had specific hairstyles, she could borrow from those.
Explaining what she had in mind seemed like it would be more trouble than it was worth, so she decided to just do it herself.
Ajiu clearly had no interest in being the one experimented on, and simply called in Acai from outside instead. Back and forth for nearly an hour, styling it, undoing it, restyling it again, finally, it all came together.
This palace maid Acai was around the same age as Ajiu, with similarly delicate features. Now sporting this as-yet-unnamed hairstyle, she looked noticeably more lively and spirited.
Her hair had been divided roughly into three sections, a thick middle section and a smaller section on each side. The middle portion was combed upward and tied at the crown with red string. Once secured, the remaining hair was split into two and braided into two separate braids.
Since Acai’s hair wasn’t quite thick enough, a short piece of cork was borrowed, and the braids were wound around it on either side, then tied together in the middle with red string, hiding the cork underneath the braids. The remaining hair on both sides was braided into thin, delicate braids, which could either hang loose or be looped behind the ears and tied at the middle with the red string.
Finally, the front section of hair was parted and held down with a hairpin ornament. The back was gently teased out to loosen it up a bit, giving it a fuller, fluffier look. And to top it off, decorative ornaments could be hung from the braids wound around the cork on either side.
Zhao Xiaojin had even wanted to hang a blessing-and-longevity hairpin ornament on Acai’s head, but Ajiu stopped her.
Compared to the simple, single coiled braid used before, this new style was a bit more elaborate, but it did look quite good. Palace women were required to coil their hair up, but nothing said it had to be a single braid specifically. And so, the very next day, Zhao Xiaojin’s own idea appeared on her own head as well.
Unlike Acai, Zhao Xiaojin used entirely her own hair. Finding the two little side braids too much trouble, she simply combed everything together into one style, turning the coiled braid into a fixed, horizontal shape, secured firmly in the middle with red string. On either side, the blessing-and-longevity hairpin ornaments now had little bells newly attached, which gave off a small, clear jingling sound whenever they swayed. On her ears, Zhao Xiaojin also wore a pair of bell earrings, engraved with characters.
That morning, she sat in front of the mirror while Ajiu styled her hair. Although it looked quite lovely, the whole process took far too long, long enough that the little monk had gone out for a stroll and come back before it was even finished.
“Huh, what’s that in your hand?” Zhao Xiaojin could only make out a vague shape in the bronze mirror, by the time she turned around, whatever the little monk had been holding was already hidden behind his back.
She’d need to get a new mirror soon, she couldn’t even make out anything clearly with this bronze one. Even looking at a person’s face, all she got was a rough impression.
Zhao Xiaojin stood up, dressed in a set of bright red everyday robes that suited her perfectly.
Watching his secondary consort look so full of energy, Yin Cheng noticed that as she turned, the little bells on her head swayed with the motion, ringing out a delicate, jingling chime, utterly delightful to hear. He gave the flower branch in his hand a light squeeze, then finally stepped forward.
“Don’t move.” He stood in front of his secondary consort, rose up on his toes, and tucked a red flower he’d plucked along the way into the spot where the red string sat on top of her head.
Yin Cheng stepped back to look, then stepped forward again to adjust it slightly, before finally declaring, “Good.”
Zhao Xiaojin only felt something added to her head, what it was, she hadn’t actually seen, since the little monk had simply reached up and placed it there directly. Still, reaching up to touch it, she could roughly guess it was a flower.
“Does it look nice?” Oh, right, there was supposed to be a flower, she’d forgotten about that.
Zhao Xiaojin turned to check the mirror, but all she could make out was a blurry red shape on top of her head, she really did need a proper, clear mirror.
The moment she turned, Yin Cheng, standing behind her, suddenly felt his face flush red.
Wang Xiaohai smiled and nodded repeatedly to himself, the young master had finally grown up, learning how to please someone. Although the secondary consort’s status was humble, she was, after all, the first person to receive a formal title, in the young master’s heart, she clearly held a place unlike anyone else’s.
Several courtyards away, inside the First House of the Eastern Five Houses, the Eldest Prince’s Primary Consort and the several gege daughters she’d borne him were gathered together, chatting.
“Mother, Father will be back soon, will my little brother be coming out too?” The Second Gege looked at her mother’s large belly, full of anticipation.
“Not yet, sweetheart. Once your father’s back, the little brother in Mother’s belly will still need a few more days before he’s ready to come out.” The Primary Consort rubbed her belly, having already calculated the timing quite precisely in her mind.
“That’s perfect, then, as soon as little brother arrives, he’ll get to see Father right away.” The Eldest Gege said this with a smile.
Mother and daughters alike were all eagerly anticipating the Eldest Prince’s return to the palace, this time, he’d been away following His Majesty on the northern campaign against Galdan for well over half a year already.
As they chatted and laughed together, outside, the messenger eunuch had nearly reached the door.