Chapter 96

 

“Usually you throw your eyes like daggers quite fiercely, but now you haven’t thrown it more than ten times, are you running out of energy?”

Chen Jingzong rubbed Hua Yang’s head and said helplessly.

Hua Yang lay on his shoulder and breathed out feebly.

Normally watching Chen Jingzong climbed mountains and rode horses, everything seemed effortless for him, as if none of it was difficult. Only when it was her turn, that Hua Yang truly realized just how inexhaustible Chen Jingzong’s strength was.”

She was like a little phoenix that couldn’t fly. It landed on a sycamore branch and refused to move. Chen Jingzong had no choice but to help her.

After a while, he simply picked up Hua Yang and got out of the babu bed.

In the dead of night, with the cold wind howling outside the window, Chen Jingzong walked around the room holding Hua Yang.

In the end, Hua Yang felt too cold, so the two returned inside the curtain.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Jingzong finally reluctantly moved away. Seeing that she was lying there softly and motionless as if she was asleep, Chen Jingzong smiled and pulled up the brocade quilt to cover her.

When he walked out of the bed, Hua Yang lazily tilted her head and watched him walk to the washstand.

After all, it was winter, and he was afraid of the cold. He wore a middle coat and a pair of trousers, a set of loose clothes, but he looked even more imposing and tall.

After cleaning, Chen Jingzong changed a copper basin, poured warm water into it, wetted the towel he had prepared in advance, and walked towards her.

On a winter night in the capital, it was so cold outside the window that water dripped into ice. Even if Hua Yang was a princess, she couldn’t be too particular. She just wiped off the sweat with a towel and took a bath when the sun warmed up at noon.

She didn’t want to move a finger, and Chen Jingzong began to serve her like a maid.

Hua Yang kept her eyes closed until Chen Jingzong helped her put on her middle coat.

After finishing his work, Chen Jingzong turned off the lights, lay back on the bed, and held her in his arms.

His chest was broad, and as he breathed up and down, he exuded waves of warm body breath unique to a young military attaché.

Hua Yang shrank towards him. As for the hand-stove who had been pushed in by the maids when they were making the bed, she didn’t know where it was thrown by Chen Jingzong.

Touching the corner of her lips with his fingertips, Chen Jingzong asked: “I don’t want to show off, but when our guard station won, were you a little proud?”

Hua Yang blinked her eyes and said: “I wouldn’t say proud. I just felt satisfied that Father Emperor didn’t lose face. On the next competition, your method will definitely not work. Sir Liu and my cousin will unite more guards.”

Chen Jingzong: “If you don’t tell me, I almost forgot that Qi Jin is your cousin. Where does he rank this time?”

Hua Yang: “How do I know. I didn’t calculate Jinwu Vanguard’s scores. I only know the rankings of the three guards where you went up the stage.”

Chen Jingzong: “Do you know the score of our guard station?”

Hua Yang: “Well, Wan Yi has been counting it for you. If she recognized the ten soldiers, she might even know how many points each person won.”

Chen Jingzong: “Sure enough, nieces still the best. I have been sleeping with you for two years, but you didn’t help me keep score.”

Hua Yang subconsciously went to twist his waist, but she forgot that Chen Jingzong had almost no fat on his body, so she couldn’t twist it.

Chen Jingzong held her hand and said kindly: “If you want to twist, just twist my butt. There’s a lot of flesh there.”

Hua Yang retracted her hand hard and pushed him angrily: “Go to sleep!”

“I haven’t hugged you for three nights. Let me hold a little longer.” Chen Jingzong pressed her into his arms again. “You don’t know. In the past, you disliked me for not being clean, and I also disliked you for being squeamish. This time, I slept on the communal bed in the guard station for three nights, and almost suffocated by the smell of their ten feet.”

Hua Yang didn’t want to hear these disgusting things at all: “Can we talk about something else?”

Chen Jingzong: “What do you want to hear?”

Hua Yang thought for a while and asked, “Father Emperor asked the imperial doctor to diagnose and treat Gao Dazhuang. What exactly is his illness?”

Chen Jingzong relayed what the imperial doctor said.

His tone was relaxed, and seemed happy that Gao Dazhuang could recover. However, Hua Yang remembered that in her previous life, Chen Jingzong and the more than 5,000 people from Daxing Left Guard were almost wiped out. Only a few dozen soldiers who did not participate because they were injured in the previous battle survived that war.

Hua Yang hugged him slightly.

He would never say those words again in this life, and she would never let him die early on the battlefield again.

As long as her father emperor was alive, that idiot Prince Yu would not dare to rebel!

.

In late winter, there was a heavy snowfall in the capital.

On this day, Wu Run from the Princess Mansion sent someone to deliver a message to Hua Yang.

Hua Yang put on less eye-catching regular clothes and went out with her two maids. Because the princess’s carriage was too ostentatious, Hua Yang used the Chen family’s carriage.

Qianmen Street was the most prosperous place in the capital, and boudoir girls often follow their mothers or make appointments with a few boudoir sisters to visit the shops here.

The carriage slowly stopped in front of a silk shop.

A guard dressed as a commoner approached the carriage and said something to Chao Yun who was standing beside the carriage. Chao Yun got on the carriage again and said to her master: “Princess, Miss Han has just gone to the Duobao Pavilion at the front.”

Hua Yang nodded.

Chao Yun then ordered the coachman to drive the carriage to Duobao Pavilion.

When they arrived at the place, Hua Yang put on her veil and got off the carriage.

It’s almost the end of the year, and some people had already begun to prepare New Year’s goods. Those who were rich have to buy some new jewelry for the girls in the family, so that they could look decent when going out.

Therefore, Duobao Pavilion was quite lively at the moment, with girls and young women who have not left the pavilion accounting for each half.

Chao Yun looked at the people inside one by one according to the guard’s descriptions. The one wearing a pink top and a long scarlet skirt, a red tourmaline peach blossom hairpin, with round cheeks and a slender figure…

Suddenly, Chao Yun stopped looking, came close to the princess, and whispered: “That is Miss Han.”

The girl she was talking about, Miss Han, was facing away from Hua Yang’s master and servant, standing in front of a counter with a woman dressed as a young married woman, choosing jewelry.

Hua Yang led Chao Yun and Chao Yue over.

She lowered her head to look at the jewelry placed on the counter, and only looked at Han Ping’er from the corner of her eye.

Han Ping’er was the daughter of Han Qianhu, a member of Jinyiwei. She was fourteen years old this year.

In her previous life, Han Ping’er would be selected into the palace in the palace draft at the Second Month next year. She won the favor of her father emperor in one fell swoop and was named Concubine Rong in just three months.  Then she was convicted because her father emperor died on her, and given three feet of white silk. A case of beauty meeting a tragic fate.

At that time, Hua Yang had never met Concubine Rong. She was not interested in any of her father emperor’s women, especially those women younger than her. Even if there was a chance to meet, Hua Yang would deliberately avoid them.

Hua Yang didn’t want to see them, but she didn’t hate them. Even her mother didn’t care who her father favored. Hua Yang didn’t need to care. What’s more, she actually sympathized with these fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls. No matter how noble her father emperor’s status was, he was already over fifty years old. He may have been handsome when he was young, but he was just like that when he was old. He didn’t even have the spirit of her father-in-law, Physician Doctor Li and the others, and his beard was sparse…

Hua Yang was filial to her father emperor and hoped that he will live a long life. But if her father was just a strange old man in his fifties, Hua Yang really didn’t want to take a second look at him.

Hua Yang also knew that her father’s death was just an accident. He had started taking those pills for fun a few years ago. Han Ping’er was just sleeping with him in accordance to the rules and did not intentionally setting him up.

In this life, Hua Yang didn’t want her father to die suddenly in such an undignified way. She and her mother could not change her father’s greed, so she could only find a way to prevent Han Ping’er from entering the palace. Even though her father would have other beauties, without Han Ping’er, perhaps the other beauties would not be so obsessively pampered by her father. A few less favors would benefit her father’s health.

Not entering the palace was also a good thing for Han Ping’er. She didn’t have to commit herself to an old emperor, nor did she have to accidentally lose her life.

While Hua Yang pondering all of this, Han Ping’er looked at the jewelry on Hua Yang’s side, and finally she could see her face clearly.

It was a girl with apricot eyes and peach cheeks. According to Hua Yang’s eyes, Han Ping’er could only be considered seven points beautiful, but her eyes were clear, bright, and charming.

Being stared at by such a pair of beautiful eyes might make an old man feel young again, right?

The more Hua Yang admired Han Ping’er, the more her respect for her father emperor weaken uncontrollably.

But no matter what, he was her father, the father who loved her very much.

.

Having confirmed Han Ping’er’s beauty with her own eyes, and having asked Wu Run to inquire about the temperaments of everyone in the Han family, and found nothing objectionable, Hua Yang approached her third sister-in-law Luo Yuyan.

In the early years, Luo Yuyan was resentful that everyone in the Chen family respected Hua Yang and she also looked down on Yu Xiu’s humble background. Hua Yang never thought of becoming friends with Luo Yuyan. Later, Luo Yuyan changed her bad temper and often came over with Yu Xiu to accompany her to admire the flowers and chatted, only then Hua Yang accepted this third sister-in-law. She was not very close to her, but she was willing to socialize with her.

Hua Yang hope that Han Ping’er could get married as soon as possible before her father’s decree for the palace draft was issued.

If a matchmaker was rashly bribed to go to the Han family to arrange marriage, if there was no suitable bridegroom candidate, the Han family would not marry off their daughter casually.

Hua Yang could inform the Han family in advance about her father’s palace draft, but Hua Yang was not sure whether the Han family would be more willing to send their daughter to the palace to be favored.

After much thought, Hua Yang could only choose a man for Han Ping’er who had suitable conditions in all aspects and whom the Han family would not reject.

But Hua Yang was a princess. Apart from the eunuch and guards in the palace, and her cousin Qi Jin and the men from the Chen family, Hua Yang didn’t know any foreign men.

Luo Yuyan was different. The Luo family had many in-laws in the capital and had a wide network of contacts.

Hua Yang directly expressed her intention to Luo Yuyan, hoping that Luo Yuyan would help Han Ping’er finalize a marriage before the Second Month.

Luo Yuyan couldn’t contain her curiosity: “Does Princess have any connection with this Miss Han? Why bother to care for her?”

She and the princess had been sisters-in-law for three years, and the princess had never taken the initiative to care about her. How could a mere Qianhua military rank, literary means thousand household‘s daughter be so lucky?

Hua Yang smiled lightly: “Maybe it’s just a good impression. Third sister-in-law just let me know if you can help me with this. If Third Sister-in-law finds it difficult, I will have to trouble others.”

It was rare for the princess to ask for anything from her. Luo Yuyan was not willing to miss this opportunity to truly make good friends with the princess. She promised: “Don’t worry, Princess, I will go find out if there’s a suitable candidate at my relatives’ house!”

Hua Yang: “Thank you, Third Sister-in-law. Please keep this secret for me. Don’t let anyone besides you and me know that I am involved in this matter.”

Luo Yuyan understands!

Next, Luo Yuyan began to frequently visit her relatives’ homes, prompting Chen Xiaozong to ask what she had been busy with recently.

Luo Yuyan didn’t even tell her husband.

At the end of the Twelfth Month, Luo Yuyan came to Siyi Hall and brought good news with a smile: “Princess, I have a cousin from an uncle’s house. Although the family is a little depressed, he is the Shizi and has learned good kung fu. He is on an errand in Yulin Right Guard, and there are usually many girls who want to marry him. After I asked someone to introduce Miss Han to him, he was very satisfied. He asked a matchmaker to go to the Han family to propose marriage this morning, and the Han family also accepted. By the end of the year, they should exchange the birth chart.”

Once the two families exchanged birth chart, even if the palace were to hold a draft, they would not register such a woman.

Hua Yang was surprised by Luo Yuyan’s neatness in doing things.

The princess’s expression made Luo Yuyan felt very comfortable, and she said humbly: “This is nothing. If the princess personally acts as a matchmaker for Miss Han, maybe just after you let the word out, all the marriageable men in the capital will come immediately.”

Hua Yang smiled and said: “Anyway, Third Sister-in-law has helped me a lot. If Third Sister-in-law encounters any trouble in the future, feel free to come to me.”

Luo Yuyan said a few polite words and left with a glowing face.

When Chen Xiaozong came back in the evening, he saw the corners of her lips kept curling up, so he asked curiously: “Did you picked up some money? You look so happy.”

Luo Yuyan: “You only care about money. I have entered the Princess’s eye, but I can’t tell you exactly why!”

Chen Xiaozong laughed.

His wife used to be jealous of the princess, but now the princess was just willing to give her a few smiles, and she was so happy that she seemed to be possessed by a fairy.

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