Chapter 418

Chapter 418

October nights were pleasantly warm and cool, especially the cozy air that blows inside the house, making people feel refreshed.

However, Qin Jiu was not interested in enjoying a peaceful night and instead struggled with the needle and thread.

As a bride to be married, Qin Jiu was happy, and there was no need for her to worry about dowry or anything else. Since Gu Zezhi was a county king, her wedding dress was also regulated and prepared by the imperial clan. Originally, she should not have done anything, but Empress Wei said that she should embroider shoes to honor her mother-in-law during the marriage ceremony.

Qin Jiu's needlework was very bad. At most, she has embroidered forehead belts, hairbands, and handkerchiefs, all of which were the simplest embroidery. For this pair of shoes, she has been struggling for several days, yet the soles were barely passable, and the stitches on the shoe surface were zigzag; anyone would see it would feel dizzy, and her hands were already numb.

In short, Qin Jiu's embroidery skills were not good, and she was far from the ancient lady who had learned women's embroidery when they were young, so she used cross-stitch, applique embroidery, and bead embroidery to compensate for her strengths and weaknesses.

The pattern was drawn with Du Ruo's help, and this same master, was also the one who picked the embroidery threads. As she followed Du Ruo's pattern, she felt she was just a tool man with a confused mind.

Qin Jiu also felt that it was too difficult for these ladies in ancient times, not only did they have to learn zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but also has to learn embroidery, not to mention, making clothes, and shoes. Just the embroidery alone, there were so many stitches, and the red threads had more than a dozen types, which made Qin Jiu almost suspect that she was colorblind.

After spending more than half a month, she finally finished embroidering three red plums on one shoe, and she already felt that her needlework had advanced through the leaps and bounds. It was already at the end of October, and the weather was increasingly colder.

On the first day of November, news came from the palace that Imperial Consort Fang was seriously ill and wanted to call her grandchildren to accompany her to the Jiuya Garden on the outskirts of the capital.

Originally, this matter was only casually mentioned by Qin Zening after he returned because the illness of Imperial Consort Fang caused a lot of trouble, and the entire Jiuya Garden was disturbed.

Qin Zening was quite disdainful of Imperial Consort Fang, saying that she only dares to make such a fuss because of the emperor's good temper.

The emperor accepted Imperial Consort Fang's request and sent several imperial physicians to Jiuya Garden, resulting in Gu Xi and his sister staying with Imperial Consort Fang.

On the day of the winter solstice, Qin Jiu went to the palace and heard Empress Dowager Liu complaining about this unhappily.

"She's been given good food and drink for more than ten years, yet she is still afraid that the emperor and this dowager will treat her poorly?!"

"Pretentious! If you want to be filial, why didn't you come to the capital a few years ago to honor 'that one' at the Jiuya Garden!"

Although Empress Dowager Liu did not name anyone from beginning to end, everyone present knew who she was referring to just by the words "Jiuya Garden," and probably only Imperial Consort Fang from Jiuya Garden could make Empress Dowager Liu so worked up.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "winter solstice is as big as the year"*. Today is the winter solstice, and Empress Dowager Liu held a small feast in the Shouning Palace, inviting Empress Wei, several high-ranking concubines, princes, and princesses, as well as noble ladies, making the hall very lively as people chatted and laughed.

(*as important as Chinese New Year)

As soon as Empress Dowager Liu casually complained, a few of the concubines present could not wait to join in and voice out with their coquettish voices. "Empress Dowager is right. They, ah, are using the heart of a villain to judge the belly of a gentleman*!"

(*use a humble mind to guess a person of noble character)

"The Empress Dowager has given them a great deal of generosity; how can she be compared to some people!"

"..."

The room was full of blue-blooded nobles, so the "young transparent" Qin Jiu huddled in a corner, peeling oranges, and eating them.

Tribute oranges were delicious, sweet, sour, plump, and tasty.

While eating, Qin Jiu was busy listening to the gossip. She has been cooped up at home for a month working on her embroidery, so now she feels that as long as she could go out, she could go anywhere, even if it was the palace that was boring before, has become much more interesting now.

Empress Dowager Liu has a few cats here; these cats were usually taken care of by the palace servants, so they were not afraid of people and could stay wherever they wanted. There was a long-haired cat with mandarin-like eyes on the small square table next to Qin Jiu.

Every time Qin Jiu went to get the fruit from the fruit bowl behind the cat, it would sneak up on her with its cat's paws and give her a light pat behind her hand. Qin Jiu was patted a few times before she could eat.

When Qin Jiu had eaten enough, she harassed the cat, touched its head, patted its paws, and lifted its chin, causing the previously lazy cat to become excited. Its round eyes widened and its fluffy tail happily swung back and forth.

Qin Jiu was having fun when she suddenly heard a female voice beside her respectfully reported, "Empress Dowager, His Highness the Second Prince and Concubine Qin have come."

The atmosphere inside the hall underwent a subtle instantaneous change.

Everyone knew that ever since Yun Guang's incident, Empress Dowager Liu was not as cordial to the Second Prince as she had been.

Empress Dowager Liu frowned in disgust, but no matter how disappointed she was with Gu Jing, Gu Jing was after all her grandson, but it was not the same for Qin Xin, so she could not help but think: what is Qin Xin doing here? Gu Jing is so careless, bringing a concubine into the palace.

Empress Dowager Liu didn't give Gu Jing any face at all and directly said, "Let them go back."

Noble Consort Liu's complexion changed, and she hurriedly rounded up the situation by saying, "Mother, the second prince is also very filial, and today is the winter solstice, so he specially came to give you a peace offering."

Hearing that today was indeed winter solstice, Empress Dowager Liu did not want to make a scene and reluctantly nodded in response.

Empress Wei stared coldly from the sidelines while sipping her tea.

After brief silence, the others in the hall started chatting and joking separately.

Soon, the palace maid who came to report went out and led Gu Jing and Qin Xin.

***