The sky in early autumn is azure blue, and the gentle breeze blows the white gauze hanging in the water pavilion.
On the inside of the tulle were two beauties in gorgeous clothes, sitting lazily and leisurely behind a long table with fruits and tea on it, surrounded by maids who served them diligently.
Outside the gauze, there were two sturdy guards with their chests bare, fighting with each other again and again.
Beads of sweat rolled down their handsome faces and dripped onto their muscular bodies.
During the stalemate, one person freed his hand and grabbed the other's thin waist.
The waist and abdomen contract, as sensitive as a grass leaf supporting dew.
His eyes were burning with fire and he panted like a wild beast.
The air around seemed to become hotter.
Huayang gently waved a round fan, and the shadow of the fan obscured her gaze, which seemed uninterested but was actually fascinated and admiring.
In fact, she used to hate fighting, and men’s smelly sweat would only make her feel disgusted and nauseous.
At this moment, she actually felt that the scene before her was so vibrant that images of galloping horses, fighting tigers and leopards appeared in her mind... as well as her late husband Chen Jingzong.
Chen Jingzong was tall and strong, and it was said that he started practicing martial arts when he was six or seven years old.
His father was a man of great learning and had served as a minister of two dynasties. His brothers also won the first and third place in the imperial examinations respectively. However, Chen Jingzong resolutely embarked on the path of military affairs.
He looked cool but handsome. It was because of his face that Huayang agreed to the marriage arranged by his father and mother because of him.
Who would have thought that to really live together day and night and become husband and wife, just having a face is far from enough. Chen Jingzong's words and actions almost always challenge her bottom line of tolerance.
He liked to have a drink at the dinner table and had to rinse his mouth repeatedly to get rid of the smell. However, Chen Jingzong was a rough man and liked to get things done perfunctorily, so that when the couple slept in the same bed, she could always smell the alcohol from Chen Jingzong's side.
Chen Jingzong was proud of his martial arts and had a body full of muscular muscles, stronger than any Ferghana horse she had ever seen. Whenever anyone saw him for the first time, they would praise him as "heroic".
But military officers love to sweat, and every time Chen Jingzong came back from work, he would smell of sweat.
It would have been fine if he was a person of manners, as long as he didn't offend Huayang, but Chen Jingzong was not. He either forgot to wash his hair or simply didn't take a bath and just lay down on her fragrant couch. Huayang even complained that his rough skin and thick flesh ruined her bed of fine silk.
His father-in-law and brothers tried to reason with him calmly, but he responded with cold eyes and cold words, which made the atmosphere in the family tense and embarrassed her.
Because of these trivial things that happened every day, Huayang became more and more displeased with Chen Jingzong.
Chen Jingzong understood in his heart that he had his pride, and he came to spend the night with her less and less frequently.
Huayang was more than happy to have him. Apart from disliking his unrefined manners, he also couldn't stand Chen Jingzong's bull-like strength. Every time he came to spend the night, Huayang would shout until his throat was hoarse.
They had been married for four years, and she had also disliked him for four years.
Until Chen Jingzong died in battle.
Until the strong man who always came home covered in sweat was buried in the ground and would never appear in front of her again.
The dead are the greatest. After Chen Jingzong's death, Huayang no longer wanted to care about his unkind deeds, and gradually only his good points remained in his mind.
For example, the figure of him walking steadily in the rain with her on his back.
Like his fiery chest on a cold winter day.
"What's the matter? Panpan is stunned?"
Huayang heard the teasing and smiling voice and came back to his senses from his memories. He then discovered that the two guards had finished the competition and were kneeling outside waiting for their reward.
Hua Yang was unwilling to be laughed at by his frivolous aunt, so he pouted slightly and said with a hint of lingering meaning, "I just thought their kung fu was average and not worth seeing, so I thought of something else."
Princess Anle winked at the maids.
A maid went to give rewards to the two guards and told them to leave.
After the foreign man left, Princess Anle teased Huayang, "He is one of the best guards in my palace, but you only give him an average evaluation. However, Panpan once had such a brave and combative prince consort, so it is normal for him to have high standards."
Huayang still looked idle and lazy, as if she no longer cared when others mentioned her late husband.
Princess Anle clicked her tongue and said, "Oh, are we really indifferent to this?"
Huayang: "He's been dead for three years, and you still remember what he did."
Princess Anle said: "When a man's wife dies, some will marry a new one within three months. You are the elder sister of the current emperor. Since you have no feelings for Chen Jingzong, do you want to learn from that chaste heroine and win a memorial arch for yourself?"
Huayang: "I don't need a memorial archway, but why do I have to find another consort? What if the new consort is also a pervert and doesn't care about manners? Wouldn't that just be making things difficult for myself?"
Princess Anle smiled and said, "I agree with this. Auntie just can't bear to see you sleepless nights in your prime years. Why don't you learn from your auntie and keep some concubines in your house, either gentlemen or heroic men, and invite them to bed before going to bed and send them away when you wake up. How happy that would be."
Huayang: …
She knew that her aunt, a dishonest person, would try to seduce her into taking the dishonest path.
Huayang is very concerned about his reputation and doesn't want to be known for having a dissolute reputation by keeping a lover.
It would be fine if she had this hobby. A princess can do whatever she wants and not care what others say. The problem is that Huayang has no interest in keeping a lover.
Just because she has seen the three most outstanding types of men in the world.
One type is a general like Chen Jingzong, who is the best in martial arts and is just like the heroes in the novels.
But even the greatest heroes have to eat and live, and even the greatest heroes can have some aspects that make people dislike them and hate them.
The other type is the literati like father-in-law and husband’s brothers, who are upright and elegant.
But they are not as perfect as they seem. She has seen her father-in-law hide behind her mother-in-law when he was scared by snakes, and she has seen her husband's brothers fall down in the wind and rain.
The last type is an emperor like my father, the most noble person in the world.
The highest aspiration of all men in the world is to ascend the throne and become emperor, or to be granted a title of nobility or prime minister. Some men only dream about it, while others work hard for it their entire lives.
But Huayang has seen these three best men. Sometimes he admires them, and sometimes he feels that they are just so-so.
So, what other men can catch her eye and make her willing to sleep with him
My aunt is not particular and only seeks pleasure in bed.
Huayang believed that a man who couldn't even catch her eye had no right to get close to her or sleep in her bed.
The aunt and niece were still joking about the "face-shou" matter when the housekeeper from the front residence hurried over, looked at Huayang worriedly, and reported: "Report to the Grand Princess, the Princess, someone from the Chen residence just now said, that the Prime Minister... passed away due to illness."
With a "clang", the round fan in Huayang's hand fell to the ground, and the jade pendant hanging on the umbrella handle broke into two pieces.
Chen Shoufu, the father of Chen Jingzong, is also her father-in-law.
.
If Huayang were to say who he admired most in his life, that person would be his father-in-law Chen Tingjian.
My father-in-law was extremely talented. He passed the imperial examination at the age of sixteen, became the top scorer in the imperial examination at the age of nineteen, and became a cabinet minister at the age of forty.
When Huayang married into the Chen family, the old prime minister was old and sick, and everyone thought that her father-in-law was going to take over the cabinet.
At this critical juncture, my father-in-law's mother passed away. According to regulations, my father-in-law should go home to mourn for three years.
Princess Huayang had to follow her husband's family to live a hard life in their hometown thousands of miles away. She was almost suffocated to death, but her father-in-law left Beijing calmly and indifferently, without any regrets or reluctance of having to give up his position when he was about to reach the top.
After the mourning period was over, my father-in-law returned to the capital with his large family.
This time, he was promoted to Prime Minister without any suspense, and from then on he devoted himself to the court.
When his father passed away and Prince Yu rebelled, it was his father-in-law who made all the plans, stabilizing the court and suppressing the rebellion.
Because of this respect, even after Chen Jingzong died, even if she moved back to her own princess mansion, Huayang still retained her identity as the daughter-in-law of the Chen family, and would still respectfully call the Prime Minister "Father" when she saw him.
My father-in-law is a pillar of the country and his name should be recorded in history!
Therefore, Huayang never thought that after his father-in-law's death, a group of court officials would come forward to list his father-in-law's crimes.
She also didn't expect that her younger brother, who always respected his father-in-law, would actually order a raid on the Chen family.
The eldest brother Chen Bochong was wrongfully imprisoned and tortured to death.
My mother-in-law couldn't bear the trauma and passed away.
The rest of the Chen family were all exiled to the frontier as punishment.
.
It was the coldest month of winter and it was snowing heavily.
Huayang still couldn't help it, and left the capital with a small entourage, stopping on the road that the Chen family had to pass.
She stood on the side of the road. The maid was afraid that she would be cold, so she put a thick fox fur cloak on her and stuffed a warm copper hand warmer into her arms.
But Huayang soon saw that the relatives who once sat in the same room with her and chatted and laughed were walking towards her in thin white prison uniforms with their hands and feet shackled and chains.
The eldest brother, who was the top scholar, is no longer with us. The third brother, who was once the third scholar and the most charming and suave, now looks haggard and lifeless. When he saw her, it was as if he didn't see her.
The sisters-in-law were in tears, not for themselves, but only for her to plead for the children.
Huayang and Chen Jingzong were married for four years, and they spent more than half of that time in mourning at the old house. After that, they were apart for most of the time and had no children.
But she has three nephews and two nieces in the Chen family.
Now they walked past her with either numb expressions or tears streaming down their cheeks.
Huayang stood in the wind and snow, watching his familiar brothers and sisters-in-law and his innocent nephews and nieces walk farther and farther away until they disappeared.
"The snow is too heavy. You should go back."
The maid, with red eyes, helped her towards the carriage.
Huayang looked towards the center of the official road.
The snow was white and the footprints were messy, probably the last traces of the Chen family left in the capital.
However, the footprints that stretched all the way were quickly covered by the falling snow.
But she still saw those familiar faces.
"Take care of yourself. I'm leaving."
It was the day when Chen Jingzong went to war. The light was dim at dawn and he stood at the head of the bed and said goodbye to her.
"The fourth brother is a rough man. If he does anything to wrong the princess, I will punish him."
It was the upright and resolute voice of her father-in-law on the day she served tea.
"This courtyard was newly expanded, and the tables, chairs, beds and cabinets are all new. If Princess is not satisfied with anything, I will ask someone to change it."
When they just moved into the old house, the mother-in-law accompanied her to see the yard first, fearing that she would not be used to living there.
"It's my fault for not saying something nice. Princess, please don't blame me for getting angry."
"Princess, be careful. This goose can bite!"
"This is the peach blossom I just picked. Do you like it, Aunt Fourth?"
Huayang closed his eyes.
It shouldn't be like this.
The Chen family’s ending shouldn’t be like this!
(End of this chapter)