The sky was just beginning to lighten, with only the faintest hint of dawn appearing on the horizon.
A few candle flames still flickered in the main hall, and from the small nine-peach gilt incense burner on the tall stand in the inner chamber, wisps of calming agarwood smoke curled lazily upward.
Ming Hua stood before the half-height bronze mirror beside the huanghuali wood dressing table inlaid with mother-of-pearl, while Qingyun adjusted the sash on her court attire.
Through the mirror, she caught sight of the Emperor parting the white jade and crystal bead curtain that separated the inner chamber. She hurried forward to greet him, bending into a curtsey. "May Your Majesty enjoy ten thousand years of peace!"
Xie Chongyuan stepped forward and helped the young lady to her feet, his brow furrowing slightly as he reminded her, "Did we not agree yesterday, Huahua, that there is no need for such formalities in private?"
"Yes, this concubine will keep that in mind from now on."
The moment Xie Chongyuan drew near, Ming Hua was reminded of how intimate the two of them had been on the bed the night before.
When she had first woken, her lips no longer hurt, but they still looked somewhat swollen. Qingyun had spent a long time applying lip rouge to conceal it.
Now, seeing the one responsible, her small face flushed slightly pink with shyness. She lowered her long, curled lashes in embarrassment, too bashful to meet his gaze.
Ming Hua kept her eyes downcast, avoiding Xie Chongyuan's gentle gaze, and spoke in a sweet, soft voice tinged with shyness. "Your Majesty has arrived just in time—the palace attendants have just brought up the morning meal!"
Xie Chongyuan's phoenix eyes shifted subtly as he first carefully examined the young lady's rosy lips and the delicate corners of her eyes.
Only after confirming that no trace of last night's swelling remained did he relax slightly. Thinking of his own rash impropriety the night before, a flicker of discomfort passed through his expression.
Xie Chongyuan cleared his throat and asked in a warm voice, "Did Huahua use the medicine Li Youfu delivered last night? Does your face still hurt?"
Ming Hua's little head bobbed up and down, then shook side to side, her cheeks flushing.
She raised her watery, apricot-shaped eyes to look at Xie Chongyuan and laughed softly with shyness. "It didn't hurt much to begin with, and after using the medicine Your Majesty sent last night, I'm perfectly fine now."
Xie Chongyuan studied the young lady's expression carefully. Seeing that she seemed not the least bit disgusted by him or afraid of him because of what had happened last night, the anxious knot in his heart finally loosened.
All the way here, he had actually been worried and afraid—afraid that when he saw her, she would look at him with fear or revulsion.
He let out a subtle breath of relief and gave a slight nod. "As long as Huahua is unharmed, that is well. Last night I was thoughtless and too rash—I frightened Huahua and even hurt her."
"If there is ever anything that displeases Huahua, or any grievance weighing on her heart, Huahua may tell me freely. I will respect Huahua's wishes. Huahua must not wrong herself."
"This concubine thanks Your Majesty for his deep affection." Ming Hua lifted her face to look at Xie Chongyuan and explained with a gentle smile, "Your Majesty must not harbor guilt over this."
"Your Majesty did not punish this concubine last night and even treated me with such consideration. I am grateful and will remember it in my heart. I do not blame Your Majesty."
With that, she glanced at the huanghuali carved dining table now laid with an abundant morning spread, and curved her lips into a charming smile. "Let us sit down and enjoy the morning meal quickly. If we keep talking, we may delay Your Majesty's return to Zichen Palace to attend to state affairs."
"This concubine also needs to go to Yanfu Palace shortly to offer tea and pay respects to the Empress Dowager. It would not do to keep an elder waiting."
He had assumed that, given the young lady's distinguished family background and her life of pampered indulgence since childhood, the rumors outside about her being extravagant, willful, and troublesome were likely not without merit.
But now that he had spent time with her, although she was indeed somewhat delicate, she was gentle and endearing, remarkably sensible and considerate. Even her small fits of petulance now seemed utterly adorable.
Looking back, he realized he had been blinded by prejudice, narrow-minded enough to believe those outside rumors and view the young lady through a biased lens—he had wronged her.
Xie Chongyuan watched the young lady's radiant, flower-like smile, and the corners of his thin lips curved upward slightly. He then took his seat on the cushion beside the dining table.
"There is no morning court today, so nothing will be delayed. I will accompany Huahua to Yanfu Palace to pay respects to Mother as well."
"Mother has never cared for such formalities, and she is very fond of Huahua. Even if we are a little late, she will not hold it against us. Let us enjoy our morning meal first."
"Surely Your Majesty is not teasing this concubine? The Empress Dowager has never even seen what I look like. This is my first time offering tea and paying respects—I must not be remiss in propriety."
Ming Hua's cheeks flushed as she took her seat across from Xie Chongyuan, casting him a bashful glance.
Xie Chongyuan looked at the modest young lady and explained gently with a faint smile, "I am not teasing Huahua. Mother has long heard of Huahua's famed beauty—enough to make fish sink and geese fall, to outshine the moon and put flowers to shame—as well as your reputation for being well-read, refined, and accomplished in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting."
"Mother's greatest regret in life is that she never bore a sweet, soft, adorable little daughter. She adores pretty, lovely young ladies like Huahua."
"When Huahua arrives at Yanfu Palace later, and the Empress Dowager sees with her own eyes how Huahua's beauty is unmatched and her elegance is peerless, I fear she will want to keep Huahua in Yanfu Palace to chat with her for an entire day. Huahua must not find it tiresome then."
Ming Hua had been fair and soft since childhood, adorable as jade and snow. Wherever she went, people praised her as a little beauty in the making. Having grown up amidst all manner of praise and flattery, she was long accustomed to such compliments.
But at this moment, hearing those familiar words of praise spoken so earnestly by Xie Chongyuan, Ming Hua suddenly felt terribly embarrassed.
Her small face burned like fire as she lowered her gaze, flustered and shy. "Those are merely exaggerations from others. Your Majesty must not tease me with them—you will truly embarrass me to death."
Xie Chongyuan looked at the young lady's shy and timid countenance, a faint smile in his deep phoenix eyes, and praised sincerely: "Huahua must not be so modest. I do not think these are exaggerations. Only upon seeing Huahua yesterday did I realize that all the words of praise in the world are insufficient to describe Huahua's exquisite beauty."
He had always prided himself on having a heart as still as water, not one to covet beauty.
When those ministers had previously tried to persuade him to take the young lady into the palace, seeking to win over the Ming family for their own purposes, they had lauded her beauty as if it existed only in heaven and not on earth—as if every man in the world should fall at her feet. He had scoffed at such claims.
But recalling how last night he had been unable to control himself as never before, nearly losing all reason, and how he had been so disgracefully flustered in the bath—he had to admit that those ministers' praises of the young lady's beauty were not exaggerations after all.
He, too, could lose his composure and be captivated by her looks.
Hearing Xie Chongyuan praise her so sincerely and directly, Ming Hua felt a secret little thrill of pride.
She raised her eyes to meet Xie Chongyuan's burning gaze, but her small face flushed crimson like a fully ripened shrimp. She said in a coquettish voice: "Your Majesty will truly embarrass me to death. It is not nearly so exaggerated…"
Xie Chongyuan discovered that the young lady seemed to have very thin skin—after only a few words with him, her fair little face would flush pink.
But he felt that she looked quite adorable this way, and he liked it very much.
Looking at her delicate pink cheeks, he could hardly resist reaching out to pinch them, but remembering how frightened she had been of his approach last night, he forcibly restrained himself.
Though he enjoyed her shy and lovely demeanor, he could not bear to see her so flustered.
He smiled and did not continue the topic that embarrassed her so, instead urging: "Since Huahua is so shy, I shall say no more. Let us have breakfast—if it grows cold, it will no longer be fragrant."
In Xie Chongyuan's usually sharp phoenix eyes, there was now a gentle warmth as he placed two soup dumplings and a minced vegetable and meat cake into the young lady's white porcelain bowl.
Remembering that the young lady seemed to favor sweet flavors yesterday, he was about to add a few brown sugar sesame cakes when she stopped him with her voice.
Ming Hua wrinkled her small face in distress: "Enough! Enough! If Your Majesty adds more, I will not be able to finish it and it will go to waste!"
Xie Chongyuan looked at the young lady's adorable face and said with amusement: "Huahua truly has the appetite of a little kitten!"
But recalling the slender, snow-white waist beneath the young lady's red gauze nightclothes last night, he feared overfeeding her and did not urge her to eat more as he had during yesterday's evening meal.
Seeing that Xie Chongyuan had not added more, Ming Hua smiled at him gratefully, then picked up her jade chopsticks, speared a soup dumpling, and ate it with great relish.
Watching the young lady eat with such enjoyment, Xie Chongyuan found his own appetite whetted and began his breakfast.
Though the two had not shared a bed last night, their breakfast together this morning was no longer marked by the awkwardness and restraint of yesterday's dinner. Instead, it was remarkably harmonious—just like a newlywed couple.
After breakfast, they rode together to the Empress Dowager's Yanfu Palace.
Yanfu Palace was the residence of the Empress Dowager in every dynasty. Though not remotely located within the imperial city, it was very peaceful and quiet.
Inside Yanfu Palace, there were few palace maids or eunuchs on duty in the corridors and courtyards. Unlike the resplendent, intricately carved pavilions and towers elsewhere, the palace's decoration and layout exuded simplicity and elegance throughout.
Most novel of all, the courtyards and flower beds were not planted with precious flowers and trees, but rather with seasonal vegetables, melons, and fruit trees—possessing a unique rustic charm that Ming Hua found quite fascinating.
Ming Hua and Xie Chongyuan entered the main hall side by side, and there they saw seated in the place of honor a woman of about fifty-odd years, dressed in palace robes of deep purple embroidered with silver-thread lotus petal patterns, her graying hair coiled in a round bun and adorned with a pair of simple, elegant silver hairpins featuring cranes soaring amid clouds. She had a kind and benevolent face, and she smiled warmly as she watched them enter.
Though the Empress Dowager had been a pampered legitimate daughter of a distinguished family since childhood, after marriage she had followed the late Prince of Qianxi to his fiefdom in the west, where she had lived for nearly thirty years.
Qianxi was a barren and impoverished land, where most of the common folk lived in destitution. Thus, the Prince of Qianxi's manor did not enjoy the lavish fiefs that other princely estates did.
The Empress Dowager and the late Prince of Qianxi had been deeply devoted to each other. She was kind-hearted and virtuous, and to improve the lives of the people of Qianxi and to support the army, she often worked alongside the locals in the fields.
Though she was now honored as Empress Dowager of the realm, she remained accustomed to simplicity in her dress and daily needs. As a result, she appeared somewhat older than noblewomen of similar age who had spent years in comfort in the capital, but this also made her seem more benevolent and approachable.
Ming Hua had long heard that Empress Dowager Dezhuang was the most kind and loving of persons, but from time immemorial, new brides were expected to stand before their in-laws, observe propriety, and heed their instructions.
Moreover, her grandmother-in-law was now the reigning Empress Dowager. Throughout the journey to Yanfu Palace, her heart had been fraught with anxiety and trepidation.
But the moment she entered the hall and saw the Empress Dowager with such gentle, kindly features, so approachable and smiling at her with such warmth, the tension that had gripped Ming Hua's heart throughout the journey finally began to ease.
Seeing Xie Chongyuan beside her bow in greeting to the Empress Dowager, she too knelt in full ceremonial obeisance, lowering her head and saying respectfully, "Your subject pays respects to the Empress Dowager. May you enjoy blessings, longevity, and good health."
"Good child, rise quickly! Rise quickly!" The Empress Dowager's eyes crinkled with smiles as she looked at the delicate, tender young lady performing the rites below. The more she looked, the more satisfied she became, and she quickly gestured to Lan Gu beside her to help the girl up.
News had spread like wildfire overnight that the Emperor had not summoned his Noble Consort to his chambers, but had instead spent the night in the eastern side hall of Yilan Palace.
When the Empress Dowager rose in the morning and heard that the two had not consummated their union the previous night, she had sighed and lamented for a long while, barely touching her morning meal, inwardly cursing Xie Chongyuan as a worthless wretch.
It was not until she heard the palace attendants report that the Emperor was accompanying his Noble Consort to pay their respects to her that her worries began to dissipate. Overjoyed, she hurried to await them in the main hall.
Ming Hua gave her thanks before being helped up by Lan Gu. She then took the tea offered by the young palace maid beside her, walked to kneel before the Empress Dowager's seat, and presented the tea with reverence, saying, "Empress Dowager, please have some tea."
"Very good," the Empress Dowager said with a smile as she accepted the teacup and took a sip. She then personally helped the young lady to her feet and guided her to sit on a small round stool before her seat.
Taking Ming Hua's hands, she smiled with crinkled eyes and said, "Since I have drunk Huahua's tea, we are now family."
"And since we are family, in private there is no need to stand on such tiresome formalities. Let us be like an ordinary household. From now on, Huahua, like Chongyuan, shall call me Mother."
Ming Hua could feel the Empress Dowager's fondness and approval of her. She met the older woman's expectant gaze for a moment, then smiled shyly and softly replied, "Yes, Mother…"
"Ah!" The Empress Dowager responded with delight. "I had long heard that the youngest daughter of the Duke of Fuguo was a beauty as lovely as flowers and jade. Now that I have seen her in person, the rumors prove true indeed."
"For Chongyuan to marry a peerless beauty of distinguished birth like Huahua—one gifted in both talent and appearance—is a blessing he has cultivated over eight lifetimes!"
Hearing this, Ming Hua lowered her head in embarrassment and said modestly, "Mother flatters me; I am unworthy of such praise. His Majesty is wise and mighty—it is my fortune to be able to serve him in the palace…"
"You child, too modest!" The Empress Dowager watched the young lady shyly praising her son, and saw that her son, once seated, had not taken his eyes off the young lady. Her smile deepened.
She quickly gestured to Lan Gu beside her, signaling the young palace maids to bring out the meeting gifts she had prepared long in advance. Then, she slipped the pair of fine mutton-fat jade bracelets from her own wrists and placed them onto the young lady's hands.
"These are jade bracelets passed down through the women of my maternal family. I never had a daughter of my own, and you are the eldest daughter-in-law of our house. Consider these your meeting gift!"
With that, she glanced at the twenty-odd brocade boxes of varying sizes held by the palace maids, and continued with a smile, "As for these tribute jewelry and silks—an old woman like me with one foot in the grave would only waste them. I have been storing them away in the treasury."
"Now I shall bring them all out as my meeting gift, for they suit a beauty like Huahua perfectly!"
Ming Hua was overwhelmed by the honor and said, "Mother is elegant and dignified, virtuous and generous—only such fine things are worthy of you!"
"But since it is Mother's kind intention, I should not decline. These jewelry and silks are one thing, but this pair of jade bracelets is so precious, and moreover an heirloom. To give them to me now—I fear it would breach propriety…"
Ming Hua knew the significance of these bracelets was extraordinary. By all rights, they should belong to a future Empress.
Though she had heard that the Emperor had declared there would only ever be her alone in the harem, and that he would never take another, even so, she was currently only a Noble Consort. To accept them now would be overstepping her station.
At this thought, Ming Hua quickly turned to cast a questioning glance at Xie Chongyuan, seated below.
Xie Chongyuan, who had been set aside by his own mother to drink tea, noticed the young lady's flustered gaze. He set down his teacup and said with a gentle smile, "I told you earlier, Mother is very fond of Huahua. These jade bracelets were meant to be passed down to Huahua all along, so accept them with ease—do not refuse."
The palace attendants serving nearby heard the emperor's words and inwardly sighed, realizing that the future mistress of the inner court would undoubtedly be this noble consort.
"Then I shall gratefully accept Your Majesty's and Mother's kindness," Ming Hua said. Only after receiving Xie Chongyuan's approval did she dare to accept the gift, then rose and performed a curtsey of gratitude.
The Empress Dowager was so delighted by the young lady's sweet words that she could not stop smiling. Watching the two exchange glances back and forth, her heart grew even more joyful.
When had her son—so oblivious to romance, who spent his days with a cold face leading troops into battle and handling state affairs—ever looked like this? As if possessed, transformed into a different person, with such a tender, gentle expression?
And now, when he spoke to the young lady, his voice was so soft, as if afraid of frightening her. It seemed that their not having consummated the marriage last night must have had its own hidden reasons.