This is the first time Zhao Mian celebrates the New Year in a foreign land.
Beiyuan and Nanjing share a common ancestor. Although the customs of celebrating the New Year are not exactly the same, they still have some things in common: offering sacrifices to the kitchen god, sweeping the house, hanging peach charms, lighting lanterns and candles... On the first day of the first lunar month, "the elders and the young all dress properly", that is, put on new auspicious clothes.
Bai Yu single-handedly arranged the wedding attire for the brothers in the East Palace, and specially selected the finest fabrics from Nanjing, referring to the most fashionable styles in Shangjing. Especially for the wedding attire of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, she spent 120% of her efforts on it, and the finished garment was even more gorgeous and luxurious than the one His Royal Highness wore on the 15th of last month.
The light golden tunic matched with the ink-colored outer shirt was noble and calm, with a red gem inlaid in the middle of the collar. Not only that, Bai Yu also thoughtfully prepared a matching hair crown, necklace beads, jade pendants, and even a pair of small earrings.
This gorgeous suit is so luxurious and glittering just by hanging on the hanger that it is hard for ordinary people to pull it off. All it requires is an impeccable face and an expression that looks down on everyone. It is tailor-made for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
Bai Yu was very satisfied with his work and asked Zhao Mian confidently, "Your Highness, do you want to change it now?"
Zhao Mian stood in front of the clothes rack and admired it for a long time. He picked up the necklace made of red agate with his fingertips and said, "No need."
Bai Yu was a little surprised, trying to figure out what the Crown Prince was thinking: "Your Highness, do you think that wearing this is too ostentatious in another country?"
After all, they were on Beiyuan's territory. If they dressed better than the Beiyuan royal family, they would probably attract attention.
"Flamboyant?" Zhao Mian said, "I don't think so." He even felt that he could be more flamboyant.
"Then what is your Highness dissatisfied with?"
"No." Zhao Mian explained, "What I meant is that you don't wear it today, but wear it another day."
"Someday?" Bai Yu asked curiously, "Which day do you want to change it to, Your Highness?"
Zhao Mian pretended not to have heard Bai Yu's question clearly and turned to Zhou Huairang: "Is Shen Buci's New Year's Eve dinner ready?"
Starting from the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, sacrifices and banquets of all sizes were held continuously in the Beiyuan Palace. Wei Zhenfeng had to wear his most hated Beiyuan court dress every day, going out early and returning late, and today was no exception.
Before entering the palace, Wei Zhenfeng came to the courtyard where Zhao Mian was staying temporarily and took the initiative to report today's schedule to Zhao Mian: "The palace banquet will end very late, you won't wait for me, right?"
Zhao Mian said one thing and meant another, but he didn't mean it completely: "Nanjing has the custom of staying up all night to celebrate the New Year, so they might wait for you."
Wei Zhenfeng was very satisfied with this answer and said with a smile: "Okay, then I will try to come back as soon as possible. But if there is something going on in the palace and I can't come back, I won't force myself, okay?"
Zhao Mian nodded: "Okay."
Zhao Mian originally just wanted to spend a quiet New Year with the people in the East Palace, but who would have thought that the people in the palace were more eager to join in the fun, and even Ji Chong came with his wife. Shen Buci was busy in the kitchen all day, and the speed of flipping the pot was almost catching up with the speed of drawing the sword.
After eating the New Year’s Eve dinner, Zhao Mian hinted to leave those with whom he had ordinary relationships, and stayed up all night with Zhou Huairang, Shen Buci, and Bai Yu.
They sat around the stove under the eaves, facing the snow-covered courtyard. On the stove, preserved fruits were roasting and New Year wine was warming. The four people who grew up together drank and watched the snow while talking about the excitement that would happen in Nanjing Palace at this time.
Zhou Huairang held the wine glass, his face flushed and his eyes sparkling: "Every New Year, the emperor would give us red envelopes. I still remember last year the emperor said that Your Highness and I were already eighteen years old, and he would give us red envelopes for the last time, and there would be no more in the future."
Bai Yu looked at Zhao Mian with a smile on her face: "After the New Year, Your Highness will be nineteen years old, and will soon be a young adult."
"Nineteen years old..." Zhao Mian drank a lot of wine and was already tipsy. People love to look at the moon and miss their hometown. Although they can't see the moon on New Year's Eve, their homesickness is still overwhelming and has not diminished in the slightest.
Nineteen years old was a little special to Zhao Mian, because his father had him when he was nineteen.
Thinking of his father, Zhao Mian, he was happy. He curled his lips and said, "My father had me when he was this age."
"Yes." Bai Yu's eyes were shining with memories. "I heard from the teacher that when he diagnosed the emperor's pregnancy, he was almost scared to death."
Bai Yu's teacher was Cheng Yuanpan of the Nanjing Imperial Hospital. Both Zhao Mian and his brother were born under the supervision of Cheng Yuanpan.
At that time, Wanhua Meng's secret medicine for childbirth had just been released, and the birth of a man had only happened in Dongling, and had not yet spread to Nanjing. In the eyes of the people of Nanjing, a man's pregnancy was already horrifying, and the one who was pregnant was the king of a country - who was so capable of sleeping with the king of a country? It would be strange if Judge Cheng was not scared to death.
Zhao Mian didn't know much about how his father got pregnant and how he was born. His father and the prime minister rarely mentioned this matter in front of him. If there was anyone who knew the most about this matter, it would be Cheng Yuanpan. Cheng Yuanpan taught his beloved apprentice everything he knew, so Bai Yu must have known something about what happened back then.
Zhao Mian suddenly became curious: "What about father? Is he very happy when he knows that he is pregnant with me?"
In his opinion, having a child with the one he loves should be a happy thing.
The eldest sister of the East Palace sobered up all of a sudden: "This..." Bai Yu saw the expectation in the eyes of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and quickly smiled: "Of course, His Majesty almost cried for joy at that time."
Zhao Mian was just drunk, not stupid. He keenly caught Bai Yu's fleeting stiffness and narrowed his eyes: "Are you lying?"
Bai Yu said weakly: "...I dare not."
Zhao Mian ordered: "I want you to tell the truth."
Bai Yu knew that he could not persuade His Highness, so he sighed and said, "Okay, Your Highness. In fact, His Majesty did not want to have a child back then. He and the Prime Minister had you because of a conspiracy. When His Majesty found out that she was pregnant, he was still a little scared." Seeing that His Highness's face was getting more and more stiff, Bai Yu quickly added, "Later, His Majesty and the Prime Minister knew each other and fell in love. They were both very, very looking forward to your birth!"
Zhao Mian's mood was not much better because of the patch Bai Yu had made. He was silent for a long time, so silent that the other three dared not breathe, and then he said in a difficult tone: "I am not the child of the love between my father and the prime minister."
He used to boast in front of Wei Zhenfeng, saying that the prince of Nanjing is different from the prince of Beiyuan, and that my brother and I were both children of our fathers who loved each other... How embarrassing.
Bai Yu felt very distressed but also a little amused. Their prince, who looked high and mighty, cared about such a warm and lovely little thing. She didn't even dare to tell the prince that in fact, after having sex with him, the emperor didn't even know who the other party was. He was busy looking for the other father of the dragon seed from several suspects, and he almost made a mistake.
If His Highness knew this, I wonder how devastated he would be.
Zhou Huairang felt the same way about the Crown Prince's depression and consoled him, "Your Highness, it's Chinese New Year..."
Shen Buci said: "You don't have to speak."
Zhao Mian was indeed a little shocked. He had always thought that his two fathers had fallen in love with each other before he was born, but he didn't expect the truth to be the other way around. Maybe he was also responsible for his father's success in ascending the throne and keeping the emperor to himself.
So he's the fathers'... matchmaker
Wei Zhenfeng returned home late at night, without even changing out of his court clothes, and went straight to Zhao Mian's residence. He saw three people from the East Palace sitting around the melancholy-looking prince, trying to comfort him.
Shen Buci: "Your Majesty and the Prime Minister love your Highness deeply, and I see it with my own eyes."
Zhao Mian: “Yeah.”
Zhou Huairang: "Your Highness, it's New Year's Day, we should be happy!"
Zhao Mian: “Oh.”
Bai Yu: "Your Highness, do you know? Back then, His Majesty and the Prime Minister were very satisfied with you, and they never thought of having a second child. The Second Prince was also born by accident, just like you."
Zhao Mian's response finally went beyond one word, and he raised his head: "Tell me in detail."
Just as Bai Yu was about to speak, he saw the young prince entering the courtyard from the corner of his eye. He immediately stood up and said, "The young prince is here. Do you want to stay up with us?"
"Yes." Wei Zhenfeng came over with a slight hint of alcohol on his body. "Do you have any hangover tea? I drank too much at the palace banquet because of some uncles."
Bai Yu smiled and said, "Yes, I'll get it right away. Your Highness, please talk to His Highness."
While Wei Zhenfeng untied the collar of his court robe that had been restricting him for a day, he looked down at Zhao Mian's face and asked, "What's wrong, Zhao Mian? Your face is so droopy, like a cat that has been scratched."
Zhao Mian said in a deep voice: "Bai Yu said that when my father was pregnant with me, he didn't seem to be completely in love with my father." He admitted with humiliation, "I'm not a child born out of their mutual affection. I'm just an accident."
Wei Zhenfeng thought for a moment and asked Shen Buci: "Is your Highness also drunk?"
Shen Buci said: "Not too much."
It can be seen that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince really cares about this kind of thing.
Wei Zhenfeng sat down at Bai Yu's original seat and asked, "Do your father and father like each other now?"
Zhao Mian said without hesitation: "Of course."
"That's it." Wei Zhenfeng patted Zhao Mian's shoulder, "Just based on this point, you have already won over all the princes and princesses in Beiyuan."
Zhao Mian frowned, "Is this meaningful compared to your Beiyuan Prince? Never mind, let's not talk about this." Zhao Mian tried to heal his heart with business, "How was your palace banquet?"
Wei Zhenfeng was not interested: "It's not worth mentioning. The only thing that made me laugh was that one of my uncles got a fish bone stuck in his throat. He coughed it out with great difficulty, and the fish bone just happened to fly into Concubine De's bowl. I almost laughed to death." Wei Zhenfeng smiled, "Also, my sisters are really cute."
It was New Year's Day, so Zhao Mian did not mock Wei Zhenfeng's clumsy boasting, and asked, "Where are Queen Beiyuan and the Crown Prince?"
Wei Zhenfeng stopped smiling and said calmly, "After the Queen admitted to poisoning my mother, she has been out of favor for a long time. She has been under semi-confinement for the past two years. She is only allowed to appear at major festivals such as New Year's Eve and Mid-Autumn Festival. Today, she has obviously aged a lot. Sitting with Emperor Yuan, she doesn't look like a couple, but more like Emperor Yuan's mother-in-law." Wei Zhenfeng paused, "As for the Crown Prince..."
"Your Highness," Yun Yong, who had hurried over, interrupted their conversation, "The Crown Prince is here."
Zhao Mian was sitting here. The Crown Prince that Yun Yong mentioned was naturally not him, but Wei Zhenfeng's elder brother, the Crown Prince of Beiyuan, Wei Changdu.
(End of this chapter)