She walked in front, and Pei Xiaoyuan followed behind her. At a distance of 10 to 20 steps, Yang Zaien led the eunuchs and palace maids, quietly following at the end. The group walked silently through the quiet palace on the mid-spring night and entered her bedroom.
The chilly night wind made people feel a little cold, but the bedroom was still heated by the fire, and the air was full. Pei Xiaoyuanfang walked in, and a warm fragrance came over him, wrapping him from head to toe, and penetrating his lungs. His cold eyelids became hot, and his mind was slightly dazed. At this time, he saw the maid Zhu'er and several young palace maids coming out of the inner room to greet him. When they saw him, they exclaimed in surprise: "The prince consort is here too?" Then they hurriedly greeted her, and said quickly to her beside him: "The young master has just eaten, his eyelids are sticky, he wants to sleep, but he doesn't want to sleep, and my mother is coaxing him."
Xuyu handed the shawl she had taken off to another maid and said with a smile, "I'll go and take a look. You all should serve the prince consort well." After that, she washed her hands in front of a basin filled with clean water, took the white towel handed to her by the maid, wiped her hands dry, and then hurried inside, her figure disappearing behind a curtain.
Zhu Er came up happily and told her what she had heard in the palace about the meritorious service of her master. She and the other maids were diligent in preparing tea and snacks, but he stopped them and told them not to stay and go and do their own work. Zhu Er and the maids looked at each other and saw that he was not joking, so they did not dare to keep him. They responded, bowed, and quietly left.
The scene in front of her finally quieted down, and the sounds coming from the inner hall became clearer. She and He Shi whispered a few words from time to time, asking about the child's diet when she was away. In between the conversations, there were also the whimpering of Xiaohuer and her gentle soothing voice.
He tilted his ear and listened attentively for a moment, as if he was being summoned by something. He couldn't help but slowly walk to the side of the curtain where she had just disappeared, stopped and looked inside.
There was another lattice door behind the curtain, half-closed. Through the slightly opened door, he saw that she had changed her clothes and put on a daily moon-white spring shirt, a cotton skirt embroidered with simple jasmine flowers, and lay on the edge of the couch. Little Tiger lay in her arms, one of his little hands clenched into a fist, tightly grasping her shoulder. She gently patted his back to coax him to sleep.
Although she couldn't see her son's appearance at the moment, Pei Xiaoyuan could imagine that he must be in her arms, closing his eyes obediently, and falling asleep. Although he still held her shoulder tightly, he could no longer hear the grievance whimpering because he couldn't see her in the dark.
She did not leave immediately, but continued to stay with him for a long time, until he fell asleep. She slowly loosened her hand, leaned over, kissed his forehead, covered him with the quilt, gently got down from the couch, told He and the wet nurse to stay with him for a while longer, and then she could go and rest, and then she walked out.
Pei Xiaoyuan did not dodge and remained where he was.
She looked at him, motioned for him to follow her, then walked past him, out of the outer hall, and into a small pavilion separated by six screens.
The small pavilion was not big, and it seemed private when a screen was put behind it. The furnishings inside were simple and elegant, and there were not many things. There was a Persian rug with exotic patterns woven on it for winter, which took up half of the room. There were two low couches on the left and right of the rug, and a long table in front of it, on which were displayed paper, pens, water containers and other items for painting, as well as a shiny porcelain vase with a seasonal jasmine branch full of delicate yellow flowers in it, which matched the embroidery on her spring dress.