By mid-October, the wound on Chen Jingzong's right shoulder had completely healed, leaving only a thin scar an inch long.
Chen Jingzong laughed as Huayang looked at his scar.
Huayang: "What are you laughing at?"
Chen Jingzong: "I have at least ten scars of varying sizes on my body, and this one is the most glorious."
Huayang was puzzled: "Where is the glory?"
Chen Jingzong: "First, it was caused by General Qin's powerful water gun. Most of the others who were injured by this gun are no longer alive."
Huayang: …
Therefore, even though General Qin was good at giving gifts and flattering, which was inconsistent with the integrity of a gentleman, Chen Jingzong still admired him sincerely and was even proud of being stabbed by the general's spear.
Chen Jingzong: "Second, other injuries would at most earn you a few gold nuggets, but this injury earned you a love-struck word."
He had seen the eldest princess's golden nugget several times, but this was the first time he heard her love words.
Huayang couldn't stand him talking about this, so he pushed him away and said, "Who is infatuated with you? I am the princess and you are the prince consort. You are mine. It's just a fact. How can it be considered infatuation?"
Chen Jingzong: "The son-in-law can be divorced, but you said in front of the emperor and all the ministers in the cabinet that I am yours, and you didn't hesitate to conflict with the Prime Minister and General Qin for this. Even if you fall in love with someone else in the future, you have the nerve to divorce me? Once you say that, you can only grow old with me. What else can you say if not infatuation?"
What a bunch of nonsense! Huayang covered his ears.
Chen Jingzong turned her over and began to kiss her contentedly, from the princess's disdainfully furrowed brows to her flushed cheeks, and finally to her soft and sweet lips despite her harsh words.
.
After recovering from his injuries, Chen Jingzong began his busy life of going out early and returning late.
This year is still a cold winter, with howling north winds. The water poured out will freeze into ice in the blink of an eye.
Huayang didn't like to go out when it was cold. She was usually visited by her mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, or her aunt and uncle. Even so, Huayang herself caught a cold. She had a fever in the middle of the night and was still asleep. Chen Jingzong noticed it. When Huayang woke up, the doctor hired by the princess's mansion was already sitting by the bed, feeling her pulse through a layer of gauze.
"This is a case of cold. I will write a prescription right now. Give the princess a bowl of medicine first and see if the fever can be relieved tomorrow morning."
Wu Run accompanied the doctor to boil the medicine.
Chen Jingzong brought a bowl of warm water to Huayang, lifted her shoulders and fed her.
Huayang felt drowsy and weak. He asked what time it was and was about to fall asleep again.
She was in low spirits, but Chen Jingzong did not force her to speak. After the medicine was boiled and brought over, he fed it to Huayang's mouth spoonful by spoonful, coaxing the dazed princess to take a large bowl of it obediently.
Huayang was sweating and feeling chilled at night, and Chen Jingzong stayed up almost all night, guarding her wholeheartedly.
Huayang slept until noon the next day. When he woke up, he saw Chen Jingzong, who had disappeared long ago, still lying outside, sleeping with his clothes on.
As soon as Huayang moved, Chen Jingzong woke up. Without saying a word, he touched her forehead.
"It's okay, it's not hot anymore." Chen Jingzong put down his hand and looked at her helplessly: "I'm the one who's busy all day and night, and you're pampered at home every day, how come you're still sick?"
Huayang glared at him.
This doesn't make sense. People's physiques are different.
The four big maids came to serve the eldest princess first. They wiped her sweaty and greasy body from the night, changed her into clean and comfortable clothes, and even changed the entire set of bedding.
Huayang still felt weak, so the doctor took his pulse and prescribed a milder prescription.
Chen Jingzong sat beside the bed and had breakfast with her.
Huayang: "I'm surrounded by people, you can go to the guard post, there's no need to stay and take care of me."
Chen Jingzong: "I have already sent someone to ask for leave. There is nothing important at the garrison."
Huayang stopped trying to persuade him.
After drinking the medicine, she fell asleep again. When she woke up again, it was bright outside the window. Chen Jingzong was sitting on the ground outside the tent with a military book in his hand.
Huayang didn't move and just looked at him silently.
In the winter of her previous life, she also caught a cold, but it wasn't a serious illness, so she forgot exactly when it happened.
But Huayang remembered that the only people around her were Wu Run and four maids. She did not ask anyone to pass the message to the palace or the Chen Mansion, so naturally, those two would not come to visit her.
Logically speaking, Wu Run and the four maids have been with her since she was a child. They are like half a family member to her. It should be enough to have them care about her well-being.
However, Huayang, lying sick in bed, felt very lonely.
When she was sick as a child, her father and mother would come to visit her. Even after her younger brother could run and jump, he would stay by her bedside, looking at her eagerly with his pair of clear black and white eyes.
After she got married, her father-in-law and his family treated her with great respect. If she fell ill, it would be a big deal for the Chen family, and her mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law would come to see her every day.
Huayang sometimes felt annoyed and didn't like those meaningless social engagements, but when she moved back to the Princess's Mansion, she could only look forward to such social engagements a few times a year, and she felt lonely again.
Not to mention Chen Jingzong. No matter how weak their relationship was at that time, as long as she was sick, Chen Jingzong would definitely stay with her, just like now.
Maybe she stared for too long, Chen Jingzong suddenly looked towards the bed.
Huayang pulled the quilt up and wiped the corner of his eyes without leaving a trace.
Chen Jingzong put down the book, lifted the gauze curtain, and when he sat down, he found that the eldest princess's face had appeared again and her eyes were a little red.
"Uncomfortable?" Chen Jingzong asked doubtfully, his palm already on her forehead.
Huayang: "No, I thought of my father."
He wouldn't do that now, but she has always been a spoiled child, not to mention that her father is no longer around, and her only two closest relatives are in the palace, each busy with their own things.
"When you get better, I will accompany you to the palace." Chen Jingzong touched her head.
Huayang closed her eyes, and after a while, she hugged his hands.
Chen Jingzong paused, quickly lifted her quilt and lay down beside her.
The eldest princess came closer and pressed herself against him.
.
When Huayang recovered from her illness, the eldest princess's dignity returned to normal, and she would never again rush into the arms of her husband with red eyes.
Chen Jingzong felt a little regretful, but only a little. After all, he preferred the eldest princess who would glare at him and say a few sarcastic words to him at every turn. And at night, seeing the eldest princess who was so arrogant and noble during the day crying under him, with no dignity in her phoenix eyes anymore, that feeling was a thousand times better than when she would occasionally throw herself into his arms.
"Tomorrow is a day off. I'll go to the palace with you."
Afterwards, Chen Jingzong brushed away the strands of hair stuck to her cheek and kissed her.
Huayang: "I don't want to go. It's not the beginning of the month."
Chen Jingzong: "That's your home. Who says you can only go there at the beginning of the month?" She was obviously missing her family when she was sick, but when she recovered, she became so weird again.
Huayang: "That's the kind of person my mother is."
Chen Jingzong: "You just said you missed her, how could she not be happy?"
Huayang: "Why didn't you tell your father about this?"
Chen Jingzong: …
Huayang: "By the way, you saw father at the court meeting this month. How is his health?"
In autumn and winter, cold winds are rampant. Her father-in-law is older than her and is so busy every day, so he is more likely to be attacked by cold winds.
In his previous life, my father-in-law suffered from a hidden illness. Not to mention this winter, he often took a day or two off throughout the second year of Yuanyou. The next year, the Single Whip Law was implemented, and my father-in-law had to hold on. If my father-in-law could take it easier, perhaps he would not have died of illness in the fall.
Chen Jingzong: "He looks OK. He was full of energy when he was arguing with Lord He."
Huayang laughed at first, and then he felt relieved. It seemed that asking Doctor Li to eliminate his father-in-law's hidden illness that year had indeed helped improve his father-in-law's physical condition.
On the second day, Huayang was coaxed by Chen Jingzong into the carriage to the palace.
She talked to her mother, and Chen Jingzong followed Emperor Yuanyou to the imperial study.
Emperor Yuanyou was a little surprised: "Why did my sister come to the palace today?"
It’s not that he doesn’t welcome his sister, but his sister has been entering the palace on the first day of every month for the past two years. Suddenly there has been a change. Could something have happened
Chen Jingzong sighed, "The princess caught a cold a few days ago. She kept calling for the late emperor, the queen, and the emperor in her dreams. She clearly missed home, but she pretended not to care when she woke up during the day. She even refused to let me pass on any news to the palace. Even when I went to the palace today, I had to talk my mouth off before I could get the princess into the carriage."
Emperor Yuanyou was stunned.
He remembered that when his sister was still married, even if she accidentally bumped her arm against the table and bruised it, his father would bring the imperial physician to visit her, and he would rush over immediately to see his father care about his sister in a gentle voice and his mother persuade him not to worry too much. When his sister was upset, she would tear up, and when she was not upset, she would smile and watch his mother dislike his father for making a fuss.
When my father was alive, my sister often returned to the palace to live permanently. Since my father passed away, my sister has started to come to the palace regularly.
Does she think her mother doesn't like her coming too often
Or did he neglect his sister, causing her to not dare to act recklessly
Comparing this with the past, and thinking about the fact that his sister was sick this time and only had a prince consort to take care of her diligently, Emperor Yuanyou felt a surge of sadness in his heart.
After a moment of silence, Emperor Yuanyou said to Chen Jingzong: "Since my sister misses me and my mother, you can go back first. I want to keep my sister for a while this time."
Chen Jingzong: …
Emperor Yuanyou raised his eyebrows: "Why, you don't want to?"
Chen Jingzong seemed a little scared but not too scared, and asked tentatively: "How long does Your Majesty plan to keep the Princess?"
Emperor Yuanyou smiled and said, "Stay until my sister wants to leave the palace."
Chen Jingzong looked resentful.
Emperor Yuanyou showed no mercy: "It's a good opportunity for you to return to Chen's residence and stay there for a while, so that you can show your filial piety to the two elders."
Chen Jingzong accepted the order reluctantly.
But Emperor Yuanyou soon discovered that his good brother-in-law did not listen to him at all, but stayed directly in the guard post. Except for returning to the capital to attend court meetings, he would also visit his sister to ask when she would leave the palace. In total, he only stayed in Chen's Mansion for two nights and had two reunion dinners.
He told this to his mother and sister.
Huayang ate his meal as if nothing had happened.
Empress Dowager Qi spoke for her son-in-law: "It's freezing cold, and it's too tiring to travel morning and night. It's understandable that he likes to live in the guard post."
Emperor Yuanyou: "Why didn't he feel tired when my sister didn't enter the palace? It shows that in his heart, serving my sister is more important than serving my parents."
The young man wanted to cheer his sister up, but instead of laughing, his sister glared at him.
Empress Dowager Qi picked up a lion's head for her son and said, "Eat it. This dish tastes good today."
Emperor Yuanyou: …
(End of this chapter)