Chapter 151

 

Hua Yang just asked her aunt about staying at the hot spring villa, and Eldest Princess Anle immediately agreed and asked the day: “When are you going?”

Hua Yang: “Let’s leave on the third day of First Month. We’ll stay for about ten days and come back before the Lantern Festival.”

Princess Anle: “Why is it so late? I’ll ask someone to it clean up right away. You can stay there for the whole Twelfth Month.”

While Hua Yang was thinking about how to explain, the princess Anle smiled and said it first: “It’s not interesting to bathe in the hot springs by yourself, so you have to wait for Chen JIngzhong to accompany you, right? I calculated, he works in the guard station, and only start his holiday on Little New Yearalso known as Festival of Kitchen God, which takes place roughly a week before the Chinese New Year. New Year will come a few days after the Little New Year, and you have to go to the palace and the Chen Mansion. You really can’t leave before the New Year, so you can only go out after the New Year.”

Hua Yang: …

She lowered her eyes and said nothing, but a hint of crimson appeared on her cheeks, adding a bit of charm to the graceful and noble grand princess.

Princess Anle: “Okay, okay, I won’t tease you anymore. I only envy Chen Jingzhong’s good fortune. No man in the world has a better fate than him.”

Hua Yang was still annoyed and couldn’t help but tease back: “What kind of good fate does he have? Those who can serve by your side are the truly lucky ones.”

Princess Anle: “Mine don’t have your long-lasting love, so Chen Jingzhong is still the luckiest.”

Hua Yang: “Who has a long-lasting love for him? It’s just because Father Emperor granted me the marriage and there’s my sentiment for Cabinet Elder Chen, otherwise I will be too lazy to take him out.”

Princess Anle: “Yeah, whatever Panpan says.”

Chen Jingzong knew that Hua Yang would visit the Eldest Princess today, and when he came back in the evening, he first asked about the matter of borrowing the villa.

Hua Yang was teased by her aunt because of him, so naturally she wanted to take it out on him, and deliberately said: “My aunti also wants to use it, and asked me to go with her. I have already agreed, but it is inconvenient to take you with me. When I am not around, you can go home and spend more time with Mother and the others.”

Chen Jingzong: “…”

Hua Yang picked up the chopsticks and started eating without paying much attention.

Chen Jingzong watched her every move, and after drinking the pitiful amount of warm wine poured out of the thin-necked wine pot, Chen Jingzong thought of a way: “You aunt and niece are going to bathe in the hot springs. It’s really inappropriate for me, a grown man, to follow you openly. But I can sneak over, climb over the wall to find your courtyard at night, and hide inside it all the time. Anyway, I’ve never bathed in a hot spring. It’s you who aroused my interest, so you must satisfy me this time.”

Hua Yang: “My aunt also has three hundred guards. Do you think they are just freeloaders?”

Chen Jingzong: “Is she going to bring all the three hundred guards with you? Then I have to go even more, lest you envy her for having many handsome companions and want to raise few behind my back.”

Hua Yang glared at him.

Chen Jingzong: “Or I could properly prepare some gifts and personally go to plead with her, asking her to stay in the capital this year and help out our husband and wife. You’re also too thin-skinned. You definitely didn’t say that you want to take me with you, otherwise she would have agreed long ago.”

Hua Yang: “I’m really not as thick-skinned as you.”

Chen Jingzong: “I know what she likes. How about I tie up Zhou Ji and send him over there?”

Hua Yang: “You dare!”

Some men were eager to be her aunt’s guest, but Zhou Ji was not that kind of person, and Hua Yang would not allow her guard commander to be gossiped with her aunt, it would only become a laughingstock.

Chen Jingzong gave her some food: “I’m just teasing you. I know you like Zhou Ji the most. Eat, eat.”

Hua Yang glared at him while watching him thinking to himself about what gift to prepare for her aunt.

Lying on the bed, Chen Jingzong was still thinking.

Hua Yang heard it funny, and then said: “Save it, my aunt will not leave the capital this year.”

She thought that Chen Jingzong would complain or take the opportunity to come to her to ask for a compensation, but she didn’t expect that Chen Jingzong would just pounced on her and kissed her several times.

Hua Yang: “Isn’t it just a bath in the hot spring? Do you have to be this happy?”

Chen Jingzong: “You don’t understand.”

Hua Yang really didn’t understand. After all, how many times she had been bathing in the villa’s hot spring since she was a child, and she no longer felt it was novel. However, seeing that her prince consort was so looking forward to it, and thinking that she could broaden his horizons and enjoy it, Hua Yang was also in a good mood.

.

But plan was a plan, and there was still the entire Twelfth Month to pass.

On the first day of Twelfth Month, Hua Yang went to the palace to pay respects to her mother empress as usual.

Empress Dowager Qi: “I used to think that you came to the palace too often, but now I realize that you come only infrequently.”

Hua Yang laughed: “I’ve also heard that Nan Kang often comes to the palace to talk to you recently?”

Empress Dowager Qi: “Yes, she is much more stable now, and He Jing and Brother Dun are becoming more and more lovable, always calling me Imperial Grandmother. It’s also strange, obviously they are by my side, but I always think of you.”

Hua Yang warned: “You’re not going to urge me to give you a grandchild again, are you?”

Empress Dowager Qi: “You made it clear that you don’t want to hear it, and I don’t bother to offend you. It’s just that as I get older, I often think of you and your brother when you were young.”

Hua Yang: “My brother is not that old now.”

Empress Dowager Qi: “He’s much taller than you and me, how can he’s not that old. Even some maid started to think of climbing his bed.”

Hua Yang: “…is it successful?”

Empress Dowager Qi: “No, your brother probably didn’t like it and asked someone to drag her down and deal with it.”

Hua Yang was silent.

She, the grand princess, had a good temper and would not take the life of the palace people at every turn, but her brother was different. Except for their father emperor, mother empress, and her father-in-law, her brother was rarely bullied by others, so he could not tolerate others bullying him. For a lustful man, it might be a pleasure for a woman to take the initiative to crawl into your bed, but her brother would see it as an act of disrespect and an offence to him as the emperor.

“He’s at this age, does Mother Empress have any plans?”

Hua Yang knew that in many noble families, son or grandson as young as thirteen or fourteen years old would already been given tongfang.

Empress Dowager Qi said calmly: “He’s still growing up, just keep it clean. Then let’s talk again once he takes charge of the government.”

Hua Yang remembered that in her previous life, her mother empress had the same attitude. She might have seen too much of her father emperor’s obsession with women, so mother empress hoped that her brother would keep himself clean and not be affected by female’s charm. As for her brother, he had to go to school every day to study politics and was always busy. The maids around him were all ordinary-looking, and it was not known whether he was familiar with any maid.

At noon, Emperor Yuanyou came to have lunch with his mother and sister.

After the meal, Empress Dowager Qi wisely went to rest, leaving the sister and brother to talk.

The palace attendants around him also retreated. Emperor Yuanyou looked at his sister opposite, who had a rosy complexion and was more delicate than a flower. He sighed heavily.

Hua Yang was amused: “Are you tired recently?”

Emperor Yuan You: “It’s not that I’m tired, I’m just annoyed. That He Qingxian is more controlling and stricter than Cabinet Elder Chen.”

He Qingxian had never been to the capital in her previous life. Naturally, Hua Yang didn’t know how He Qingxian could offend her brother. She asked curiously: “How exactly is he managing things? ”

Emperor Yuanyou: “He lives frugally himself and wants us to follow suit. He wants to control the paper, charcoal, lamps and oils in various government offices. I see that Cining Palace and Ciqing Palace are looking dilapidated, and I want to ask people to repair them. He said there was no rush since no one lives there now. Department of Palace Affairs, responsible for palace meals, hadn’t paid salaries for several months. I wanted to allocate 100,000 taels of silver from the Ministry of Revenue, but he came to me and said the silver from Ministry of Revenue should be used for urgent matters and suggested I reduce the number of dishes served daily. Also, he suggested dismissing the concubines left behind by Father Emperor. With fewer concubines, there are fewer maids and eunuchs to serve, and the meals needed were reduced. Department of Palace Affairs can also clear out a group of people. He even calculated the expenses for the New Year celebrations this year and suggested not holding a lantern festival, which would save a significant amount of money. ”

Hua Yang: “You listened to everything?”

Emperor Yuanyou looked a little aggrieved: “He wants the country to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. As an emperor, I naturally have to set an example.”

Listening was listening, and he was willing to cooperate in action, but he felt very uncomfortable.

Hua Yang could only coax her brother: “In the past two years, the national treasury has been short of money. Save what you can. When the New Policy is implemented and the treasury has more money, even if the palace is a little more extravagant, they can’t say anything. Even for Cabinet Elder He, when the country is prospered and the people are safe, I don’t believe that he will continue to eat only coarse grains.”

Emperor Yuanyou: “Sometimes I find him annoying, and sometimes I feel sorry for him. Does Sister know why he didn’t bring his family with him to the capital this time?”

Hua Yang: “Why?”

Emperor Yuanyou: “He said that he offends people easily, and he doesn’t know how long he can be in the cabinet this time. Thinking that he may have to leave in a year or two, why bother asking his family to follow him.”

Hua Yang: “It sounds like he’s trying to gain your sympathy, hinting that you should protect him.”

Emperor Yuanyou: “Exactly. And with his dark, skinny appearance, I can’t help but think it’s because he’s been out in the fields helping the common people farm under the scorching sun, which indeed makes me feel compassionate at him.”

Hua Yang naturally flattered her brother: “It shows that you are a good emperor who is considerate of his subjects.”

Emperor Yuanyou sighed again.

After her brother left, Hua Yang walked back to Qifeng Palace, with the corners of her mouth kept turning up.

When He Qingxian came to the capital this time, many things that were originally her father-in-law’s responsibility were placed on his shoulders.

For example, the harem dismissed the low-ranking concubines left by father emperor. For example, the palace eliminated redundant maids and eunuchs. For example, discouraging her brother from renovating several palaces and holding lantern festivals, etc. These were all things her father-in-law did in her previous life.

It was true that her brother respected her father-in-law, but he also had a little resentment towards her father-in-law for being strict in the past. The more father-in-law took care of things, the more resentful her brother would be.

It was different when it changed to He Qingxian. He Qingxian was recognized by the people as a good and upright official, including her brother. When He Qingxian asked him to be frugal, her brother just felt aggrieved and could not resent He Qingxian.

It was exactly what Hua Yang meant when she said she felt sorry for her father-in-law, and wanted to let He Qingxian come to the capital to assist her father-in-law in implementing the new reform policy and helped him share some of the slander and resentment from the officials and common people, including her brother.

Hua Yang also respected He Qingxian, but she didn’t have to worry about He Qingxian, because even back then when He Qingxian wrote a letter scolding her imperial grandfather, imperial grandfather didn’t cut off He Qingxian’s head. Now, let alone He Qingxian just advising her brother to be frugal, even if He Qingxian pointed at her brother and scolded to his face, her brother might be furious, but he still couldn’t execute He Qingxian. He wouldn’t dare to bear the infamy of being a foolish monarch who killed the most upright official in the world. At most, he would demote He Qingxian to a remote place and make him a minor official.

Her father-in-law was also an old fox. It seemed he may have deliberately left the job of “reducing expenditures” to He Qingxian.

But it didn’t reduce Hua Yang’s respect for her father-in-law. For the sake of everyone in the Chen family and the people of the world, she wishes that her father-in-law would be more slick.

After leaving the palace the next day, Hua Yang went to the Chen Mansion to stay for two days as usual.

Her mother-in-law, Sun shi, also mentioned He Qingxian to her: “Since Cabinet Elder He came to the capital, he helped the old man share a lot of things. Now the old man comes home much earlier. But I guess, he mainly doesn’t want to be stay in the office with Cabinet Elder He, and always have to complain to me every time he came back.”

Hua Yang: “I also heard from Prince Consort that the two of them often quarrelled during court meeting.”

Sun shi was beaming and said, “It’s good to quarrel.”

If no one in the court dared to offend the old man, it was definitely not a good thing. If everyone listened to the old man, where would that leave the emperor?

All this was thanks to her daughter-in-law princess!

“Are you going to play chess with the old man tonight?” Sun shi asked very expectantly. In her family, only the Old Four dared to talk back to the old man, but it was difficult to persuade the old man with reason. And let’s not to mention the Old One and the Old Three, they would just listen to everything the old man said. Sun shi especially hoped that her daughter-in-law princess would give the old man a few words and let her watch the show.

Hua Yang:……

As night fell, by the time Chen Tingjian came back from the palace, Hua Yang had already returned to Siyi Hall and had dinner alone with Chen Jingzong.

Chen Jingzong: “Have you told Mother about our trip to Tangshan?”

Hua Yang: “It’s only the beginning of the month. It’s not too late to talk about it on the New Year.”

Chen Jingzong: “I am probably the first person in the old Chen family to have the opportunity to bathe in hot springs.”

Hua Yang: “I remember one winter when it was very cold. Father Emperor went to the Temporary Palace to stay for the whole winter. Not only did we go, many ministers also went to there to work on errands. Father was a cabinet elder and could take his family. Maybe he also brought Mother with him.”

Chen Jingzong: “…Then I will be the first young man in the old Chen family to have the opportunity to bathe in hot springs.”

The author has something to say:

Old Three: Look how proud you are. Eldest Brother, let’s go and buy a villa together!

Old One: No need, no money.

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