76 Peony Park
The festival ended, everyone returned to their respective places, it was late at night and almost dawn.
LuoXiang took BaiYing’s hand and walked together towards the Plum pavilion, followed by BaiYing’s little servants, the Crown Prince’s, and BeiYau.
Actually, the Crown Prince himself has his own pavilion behind his palace, called the West Dragon pavilion, but lately, the pavilion seems to be so empty and abandoned, as the cold wind passes by the squeaky clean floor because it rarely occupied it since BaiYing was there, he would always disturb BaiYing every night, whether just hugging him all or just sleeping quietly holding his hand, nothing more satisfied than that.
The Crown Prince took BaiYing’s hand and intertwined their fingers with each other, he couldn’t stop smiling, BaiYing’s steps seemed so excited after enjoying such a beautiful festival earlier, Yan and Bi brought some of the things BaiYing bought at the festival, one of it is the small fish in the bamboo he caught with Crown Prince.
“Em tomorrow, I have a meeting at the palace, the meeting is not too early but it will be held all day, YingYing, what’s your agenda for tomorrow?”
BaiYing frowned at the thought.
“Em, there’s a flower arrangement class”
“Flower arrangement, again? Aren’t you tired of doing it over and over again?”
“Well, it can’t be helped, Your Majesty, but I think that among the other classes, a flower arrangement is the easiest and most fun, let’s just say it relieves fatigue, Your Majesty can try it once.”
.....
The Crown Prince raised his hand holding BaiYing’s crown.
“Can I join? One class with YingYing seems fun too, umm, I’ll think about it later”
BaiYing misspoke, he shouldn’t have invited the tiger into the rabbit class,
“Hehe, it’s okay if Your Majesty is busy after all the class will be so boring, we just sit all day until our waist sore”
The group walked to the pavilion Plum located not so far from Peony park.
“Em, I can bear it, even though it’s so boring, as long as with YingYing I don’t mind at all”
BaiYing chuckled, this crappy Crown Prince.
“Your Majesty, this mask is so good, very cute” BaiYing lifted the paper mask he bought earlier, the rabbit head mask, the Crown Prince took out his, he put it on and made BaiYing laugh out loud.
“wauww I’ll eat you” he wore a beautiful paper mask in the shape of a wolf head, a white paper mask with a little painting on the colorful eyes, and bird feathers stuck to his eyebrows, really good handmade.
“Hahahaha that’s great Your Majesty”
The Crown Prince took off his mask.
“Well, it’s a shame that the senile emperor called suddenly because of less important matters, so we didn’t have time to dance together”
Best
“Well, luckily I didn’t join it, I couldn’t dance at all”
“Relax YingYing, I can guide your steps,” whisper Crown Prince close to BaiYing’s ear.
“Your Majesty!” BaiYing exclaimed as his ears tickled.
While on BeiYau side, the lantern festival went very smoothly, more than he expected, he breathed a sigh of relief, he was lucky enough that the event went well otherwise Crown Prince will be so furious at him, no one knew, how he and his men prepared the event so hastily.
That afternoon in the city center.
“Sir, please don’t take everything, what do I have to sell tonight? The lantern festival will be very crowded tonight, I can make a lot of profit,” exclaimed one of the old traders when a young man dressed as a palace guard bought up all the masks he made.
“Old man, calm down, tonight you just take a good rest at home or enjoy the festival, we buy all of your merchandise, here’s the money” the young guard handed a bag of money into the old man’s hand, the old man’s eyes widened, the money bag felt heavy, definitely it contained a lot of on it, and sure enough, his eyes widened when he saw what’s in the bag, gold, and silver coins, a lot of them, it is more than how many days of selling, even monthly, he stuttered.
“Eh, young man, this is a lot, the price is not that expensive, wait, I’ll count it first.”
The old man’s hands were still shaking as he was about to take the coins out of the pocket, but the guard smiled broadly as he touched his hand.
“Old Man, consider it a gift from the Crown Prince, because His Majesty who wants all your merchandise is not us, just take it all.”
The old man couldn’t help but be moved.
“Oh Crown Prince, May God always bless the Crown Prince, he is indeed very generous.”
Not only paper mask traders but also some lantern vendors who had to take a day off that night because all their merchandise was bought up by the palace guards, as well as sellers of fried foods, pastries, buns, noodles, even a small fishmonger, nothing was left behind.
Oh yeah, the story of the Second Prince in the festival.
The Second Prince took off the lanterns with his three concubines, the request was written on the lanterns, marrying concubine Hua as one of his youngest concubines, but, what happened made the Second Prince irritated, especially seeing the Crown Prince kissing consort Hua under the moon, what was his wish already lost? He was so annoyed that he didn’t think of anything else and left the festival before the others.
“Your Majesty, wait for us!” cried concubine Shen, she and the other two concubines chased after the Second Prince who shuffled away.
.......
The next day.
As if nothing had happened, in the sunny morning Peony’s field had turned back into a field for elite bodyguards to train, the scorching sun in the morning lit up the green and lush meadow overgrown with various other small plants that attract butterflies and little birds. Some flew back when the hooves of the horses stomped on the ground causing even the grass that was still soft from the morning dew to torn from the ground.
“Drap Drap Drap!”
Heeeee!!
The elite guards were stretching their waists and their bodies practicing warm-ups before the next strenuous workout, the head of the unit that had the field that morning was none other than Pai one of the talented and high-spirited young guards under BeiYau. All fresh faces and full of superfluous energy ready to be knocked down during training that will last all day, the Crown Prince’s elite guards consists of several groups who have to undergo rigorous training to maintain physical fitness and levels of reflexivity, so every day there will be unit groups that use the field to practice.
That very sunny morning was also well used by the Crown Prince’s concubines, including BaiYing, who decided to enjoy the fresh air outside the Peach pavilion at the back garden, and that morning they had a special guest, who else could suddenly come to visit in the morning if not Her Majesty the Queen.
“Oh this is so nice Yen’er, where did you learn this trick from?” Said the Queen who was sitting on a sloping chair that was deliberately placed in the middle of the garden enjoying their mani-pedi event, several young maids seemed to massage the Queen’s stiff neck, in her eyes there were thin slices of cucumber which BaiYing thought could eliminate dark circles.
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