CH 105

It took a long time for Yuan Ci Xian to change.

Lu Shi Qing knew that she felt suffocated for a whole month. It was rare for her to go out to get the spring breeze. He didn’t want to spoil her mood, so he thought that at most he would be late, which was nothing, so he didn’t rush her.

After all, when it came to the Huihu matter, the more he was less active, the more the emperor feel at ease.

He had nothing to do, so he got up to see the child.

In the bedroom, two rocking cribs were placed side by side. Lu Yuan Shu was sleeping, breathing very evenly. Lu Yuan Zhen was up, looking at his sister with his eyes open. Probably because he felt that it was too tiring to lie flat and look over like this, he kicked his feet and shrugged his shoulders, trying to turn himself over and look sideways. However, his muscles and bones were still too tender, and the strength was not enough, no matter how hard he tried to turn over, he couldn’t turn over, until his face turned flushed from the force.

Lu Shi Qing saw his intention clearly, thought it was funny for a while, the stepped forward and helped his son successfully turn over.

But Lu Yuan Zhen didn’t seem to like it. He looked at him aggrievedly, and then wanted to turn himself back.

Such a difficult child.

Lu Shi Qing had no choice but to held him to lie flat again, and then saw that he returned to the previous situation of struggling to turn over.

He understood. His son was stubborn and liked to rely on himself.

He stood on the sideline for a long time, and when Lu Yuan Zhen finally turned himself over with great effort, he stretched out his arms to hug him, bowed his head and said, “This little ancestor is just like your mother. Are you satisfied now?”

Lu Yuan Zhen didn’t understand, he giggled at him, seemed to be very interested in the new official robe on his body, his butt was held in the crook of his arm, but his little hand climbed onto his lapel, scratching for a while.

Lu Shi Qing glanced at his crumpled clothes: “Your mother has just flattened it.” As he spoke, he pushed his little hand away, and then rock him to signal him to settle down.

Who knew that Lu Yuan Zhen was not happy about this, his mouth shrunk, as if he was about to cry.

Lu Shi Qing felt that he could spoil his daughter, but he couldn’t pamper his son. His complexion darkened, which probably meant “cry if you have the ability”.

Then Lu Yuan Zhen cried. But not with the eyes.

By the time Lu Shi Qing felt a wave of wetness spread in the crook of his arms, it was too late. Lu Yuan Zhen pissed on his hand so easily and comfortably.

“…”

Yuan Ci Xian came out after changing her clothes, and what she saw was Lu Shi Qing throwing the child back into the rocking crib, holding up a dripping sleeve in shock.

She reacted in a daze, she looked at him unbearably, then looked at Lu Yuan Zhen in the rocking crib. Her son was still laughing playfully, as if he didn’t feel that he had caused any disaster at all.

Yuan Ci Xian went forward, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and asked Shi Cui and Jian Zhi to quickly take care of the child, then picked up Lu Shi Qing’s clean sleeve, and pulled him to the clean room, saying all the way: “In such a short time, how did you provoke Yuan Zhen?”

She originally wanted to take care of her son, after all Lu Shi Qing was such a big man. But when she thought about his cleanliness obsession, it would be difficult to hand him over to the two maids, so she pulled the stunned man over herself.

Lu Shi Qing’s face was so dark that ink could squeeze out of it, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses. His footsteps stopped, as if he finally remembered something, and when he was about to turn around and teach his son a lesson, Yuan Ci Xian stopped him: “Come on, can you still beat him? Changing your clothes is more important!”

If it wasn’t his own son, Lu Shi Qing would probably have exploded by now.

He endured all the way, and when he arrived at the clean room, he suddenly realized: How could he change his clothes? He just got promoted, and now he only has this brand new outfit!

Yuan Ci Xian obviously also realized this, looked at him for a while, and then took off his belt. If you couldn’t change, you have to scrub and scrub. It was not good to use this smelly outfit to receive the Huihu envoys.

However, a month-old baby only ate milk, so it was actually quite clean, and there was no fishy smell. It was just that Lu Shi Qing couldn’t get over the hurdle of his cleanliness obsession after all. His eyelashes were trembling, he gritted his teeth tightly, and let her tossed him around with his eyes closed.

After the official robe were dried in a hurry, the time when Yuan Ci Xian and Lu Shi Qing entered the palace was much later, and they missed the big scene where Emperor Huining welcomed the envoys. They heard that the Huihu party had already settled down, and Princess Jia Hu was invited by the empress to the Taiye Pond to enjoy the lake view, accompanied by a group of princes and several clan relatives and officials.

As soon as Yuan Ci Xian heard this, she knew that the emperor had handed over the burden of facilitating the marriage alliance to the empress. Those princes of the right age were actually for Princess Jia Hu to see. As for the clan relatives such as her brother, and also a few officials who were most likely already old, they were just a mere formality and served as a foil, to make the scene not be dry, and it was best to not make other people’s princess looked like she was “shopping” for a husband, lest she be thin-skinned and embarrassed and shy.

When Yuan Ci Xian approached Taiye Pond with Lu Shi Qing in her arm, the pavilion by the lake was full of joy and harmony.

At the head of the table sat Empress Liang, and seated below her was likely the legendary Princess Jia Hu. She wore a long white and gold-patterned narrow-sleeved gown with a folded collar, and her conical Huihu-style hairdo was elegantly adorned with pearls and jewels. Her facial features were exquisitely delicate, with a high nose and deep-set eyes. Although her honey-colored skin didn’t fit Great Zhou’s aesthetics, it exuded a unique charm.

Looking around again, there was a circle of nobles from the Heavenly family with extraordinary bearing, the Sixth and Ninth Princes were all there, and even the Thirteenth Prince joined in the fun, eating fruit on the side as companions. Talking about the number of young talents, it was several times more than when she met Zheng Zhuo in Furong Garden two years ago.

Seeing her admiring eyes, Lu Shi Qing tilted his head and asked, “Envy?”

Yuan Ci Xian hurriedly shook her head, with a smug expression on her face: “Quality over quantity, I picked out the best one. Even if the rest is lined up from Yanxing Gate to West Market, what is there to envy?”

Lu Shi Qing smiled very comfortably, and took her to his side, only thought that he should really boil her mouth after going back, see if he could extract some honey.

The two didn’t want to attract attention, but it was impossible. In terms of identities, one was high ranking official, the other was the County Princess. In terms of appearance, if one was to exaggerated, before they approached, the pavilion was already lit up first. As a result, several people cast their gazes their way, first at Lu Shi Qing, who was promoted into the cabinet, and then at his charming wife beside him.

Lu Shi Qing also glanced at Yuan Ci Xian.

She said that goose yellow and purple go very well together, so she came out wearing a dress of this color. The style of the dress was nothing special, so it wouldn’t upstaged others, but the color contrasted better with the skin and very eye-catching. If it weren’t for the flower tints on her forehead and the married woman’s bun on her head, she would look as tender as a little girl who hasn’t come out of the cabinet, it seemed that if you use a little bit of force, you could squeeze water out of her skin.

The choice of clothes was too clever. Looking at the makeup, it looked light but exquisite, not heavy makeup, only showed her true color even more, which was stunning.

Lu Shi Qing regretted taking her out a little now. In order to reassure her, it was him who became worried.

No need to mention others, just Ninth Prince Zheng Pei alone. If it wasn’t for the embarrassment of seasickness in Furong Garden, so he felt that he could no longer hold his head up in front of Yuan Ci Xian, and later he was forced by the emperor not to associate with her, maybe he would keep harassing her. Even now it’s unknown whether he had completely stopped thinking about it.

Seeing the two coming, the empress greeted them eagerly.

Lu Shi Qing was the first to apologize for being late, but the empress just said it doesn’t matter. Her eyes then fell on his wrinkled sleeves for some reason, and quickly moved away, invited them to sit down, and then introduced Princess Jia Hu.

Jia Hu looked at them, squinted her eyes and smiled: “I know Assistant Minister Lu, I met him in the palace a while ago.” Then she said to Yuan Ci Xian, “Is this really Lady Lu?”

Yuan Ci Xian’s smile remained unchanged, but she felt strange inside. What, did she think she didn’t look like it? But before she could make a fuss, Jia Hu continued: “If it weren’t for Niangniang’s introduction, I would still think you were the little lady of the Lu family. But considering Assistant Minister Lu’s age, it doesn’t seem to be right.”

“…” This was exaggerating her young age. Lu Shi Qing was only six years older than her, he couldn’t have such a big daughter yet.

Yuan Ci Xian turned her head and saw that his face was dark. But what could she say? Smearing honey and flapping one’s lip depend on the occasion. They were surrounded by nobles of heavenly family, she could only wait until they go home to coax Lu Shi Qing who was mistaken as her father. Now she could only say “the princess is joking”.

After she finished speaking, she caught a glimpse of gloating on Yuan Yu’s face. Further on, there was also a faint smile on Zheng Zhuo’s face.

Seeing this, she subconsciously glanced at his hand holding the teapot. He used his left hand. The right hand was hidden in his wide sleeve, and the injury could not be seen.

Seeing her frowning, Zheng Zhuo pursed his lips and smiled, his eyes were open and clear, as if to comfort her.

Seeing that smile, Yuan Ci Xian’s heart felt even more blocked.

She really couldn’t mix such Zheng Zhuo with the man who killed the donkey after the grinding was done in her dream.

Remembering Lu Shi Qing’s analysis earlier that Zheng Yao’s falling out with the Yuan family might just be a scene arranged by him, her heart was even more shaken. After getting along this whole time, plus during the night she gave birth, where he sacrificed his life to save her like that, it was really unreasonable for her to regard him as a heinous person because of the voices of the common people in her dream.

Although she also knew why Zheng Zhuo saved her at all costs that day. To put it bluntly, it was out of affection for Lu Shi Qing.

It was because of him that Lu Shi Qing went to Huihu to win the Khan’s support. If something happened to her at this time, he was the one that responsible. If she have the slightest mishap, he would have no face to see Lu Shi Qing again.

But no matter why he did it for or who he saved her for, she was still extremely grateful. She was the kind of person who always return favors, and she couldn’t feel at ease when she wasn’t able to.

After the accident last time, she also wanted to visit Zheng Zhuo, but she almost lost half her life, so she couldn’t afford to get up. Coupled with the fact that Lu Shi Qing couldn’t determine the reason for the leakage of the secret passage, he immediately abandoned that passage, sealed the mechanism, and temporarily cut off his secret communication with him. She could only learn about his recent situation through other people’s mouths. And because of the tense situation in the court, the emperor began to focus on the Lu Mansion, so she didn’t have a chance to talk to him face to face when she was out of confinement.

She was in a trance, when she suddenly felt a big palm gently envelop her hand.

She turned her head to look at Lu Shi Qing, saw that he also smiled at herself consolingly, and then wrote a few words on the back of her hand: It’s fine.

If it was Zheng Zhuo’s injury, it was impossible to be completely fine. Yuan Ci Xian was very clear about this kind of muscular injury. In the future, if he wanted to use weapons, he would definitely not be able to do so neatly. This ‘it’s fine’ sentence, it just meant that there would be no problems in daily life.

She sighed in her heart, but she didn’t show it on her face, she just pretended to be interested, listening to everyone talking and laughing.

The empress seemed to be talking about some kind of gift at this time, and she noticed that there were a bunch of exquisite boxes piled high and high in Jia Hu’s hand, which looked like a meeting gift prepared by several princes for her, one from each person, as if wanting to please her.

It was just that the princes wouldn’t all be so attentive, it must be the emperor’s order. It seemed that in order to facilitate this marriage alliance, the emperor really took great pains and drove all his sons beyond their capabilities.

She heard the empress say: “Sixth child really has a heart. His injury has not healed, but he took time and effort to dexterously carve such a jade rabbit with his own hands.”

Yuan Ci Xian choked at the back of her throat. She thought impossible, Zheng Zhuo still had the ability to hand-carve jade pendants?

Sure enough, he opened his mouth when he heard this, as if wanting to explain that he didn’t carve it, but just asked someone to buy it. But seeing that the empress had already turned the subject away, he couldn’t speak.

Yuan Ci Xian glanced at Lu Shi Qing with an expression of “Well, well, well, there seems to be a mystery in it”.

Lu Shi Qing smiled lightly and pinched her hand bones, implying that she didn’t need to worry about it.

The empress then asked Jia Hu if she was satisfied with the playthings she received. Jia hu smiled and nodded. Just when everyone thought that she could say a few polite words, they heard her say: “But there are quite a few of you here who haven’t given me presents.”

An old minister accidentally said “um”.

This Huihu princess praised people with frankness, but also asked for things with frankness.

The empress didn’t expect her to say this, so she could only follow up after hearing the words: “Yes, who else has prepared a gift, please present it quickly.”

Several officials and clan members looked embarrassed. The emperor did not say that they should also sending gifts.

Just when everyone was looking at their noses, their noses pointing at their hearts, and the surroundings were a little awkward, Jia Hu removed the predicament herself, pointed to the person at the bottom of the main seat and said: “This…” She paused halfway through her words, and then smiled embarrassingly, “I don’t know this general’s surname, what gift did you bring me?”

Yuan Yu who was pointed at raised his head, looked left and right, and found that everyone’s eyes were all focused on his face, then he reacted and pointing to his nose: “Me?”

Yuan Ci Xian was also taken aback, and soon gave her brother a look. At this time, it would be unlucky to say that he didn’t prepare anything, he has to make up one now!

Of course, Yuan Yu was not that stupid, he got his sister’s hint, and hurriedly answered: “Princess please don’t dislike. The gift this humble one prepared is not as good as the ones presented. It’s a few boxes of secret ointment made by my father. Legend has it that it can lighten the skin.”

“…” Everyone was dumbfounded. Damn it, is this Yuan Shichen stupid? Doesn’t this imply that the princess’s complexion is not white enough?

Just when Yuan Ci Xian had a headache and held her forehead, Jia Hu at the seat of honor said “ah” in surprise and joy, then held her face in one hand, and pointed to Yuan Yu with the other: “This is good, this is good! Give it to me quickly so I can try!”

“…”