Chapter 8 - Newlyweds

Newlyweds

The next day Mu Mingtang slept until the sun rose three poles before waking up.[1] When she opened her eyes, she saw sunlight pouring into the room and quickly got up to change clothes and wash. I got tired yesterday and could not wake up early in the morning. Fortunately, I don’t need to wait on my in-laws after marriage, and no one in the palace would care about me.

After Mu Mingtang got dressed, she found another troublesome problem. Everything in Yulin Hall was completed, but there was no mirrors. Without a mirror, Mu Mingtang combed her hair. She remembered that she had a full set of furniture in her dowry. When she was free, she would go to look for it in the dowry.

Fortunately, Xie Xuanchen was in a coma, the guards outside would not let me go out, so no one would laugh at me. Mu Mingtang twisted her hair indiscriminately, and hurried to Xie Xuanchen‘s chamber.

When Mu Mingtang saw Xie Xuanchen, she was a bit surprised. Xie Xuanchen was as still as yesterday. How come he had not even moved a single bit? While murmuring in her heart, Mu Mingtang wiped Xie Xuanchen’s face with a handkerchief and changed the medicine again. After Mu Mingtang finished everything up, she suddenly found that she had nothing to do.

In the past, for a long time, she rarely had free time. After her parents’ death, she was running around to seek life. Even in the Jiang family, she was busy learning etiquette and poetry every day.  But today she has nothing to do. So Mu Mingtang sat for a while then walked around the hall to clean the hall. When she was cleaning, she suddenly heard a sound at the door. So Mu Mingtang opened the door and found that it was the two maids from yesterday.

Before the marriage, when Mrs. Jiang appointed dowry maids for Mu  Mingtang, the maids cried and begged not to send them with Mu Mintang. So Mu Mingtang took the initiative to tell Mrs. Jiang that there was no need to choose dowry maids. In the end, Mrs. Jiang only arranged for two people to follow Mu Mingtang to the Qiyang Palace to be dowry maids.

Mu Mingtang knew very well that these two maids were not dowries but were sent by the Jiang family to monitor her. It’s just that Xie Xuanchen’s reputation was so scary that the two maids didn’t even dare to enter the Yulin Hall yesterday. They only dared to stay outside the palace and talk to her through a door.

I am abandoned by everyone. Xie Xuanchen is still in a coma. But when I stay inside the palace, no one will dare to do anything to me. Thinking of this, Mu Mingtang straightened her face and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“The servants are here to greet the princess, and… see if the princess is doing well and if there is anything that needs to be purchased.” They said timidly.

Mu Mingtang thought for a while, then nodded seriously: ” I have. I remember that my dowry was placed on the western side of the palace. You go and see if there is a smaller dresser, and let someone move in for me.”  She raised her eyebrows and said, “Don’t think about embezzling my dowry. The dowry booklet is here with me. Before I got married, I checked it. As long as one is missing, I will ask for it from you.”

“The slave knows. Princess, how did you get along with King Qiyang last night?”

Mu Mingtang snorted coldly and said, “Didn’t you all listen to me last night? Don’t you know?”

Mu Mingtang’s words made the two maids blush with embarrassment, yesterday they didn’t dare to approach, but they had to do the errand arranged by Mrs. Jiang, so they had to hide behind the palace wall. But that was the former Emperor’s son’s palace. So how could anyone hear sounds from inside?

The two maids listened for a long time, but didn’t hear anything. So they thought the fake second lady was still alive, so they went back to sleep.

Early this morning, they came to the gate of Yulin Hall. It was guarded by heavily armed soldiers. Even though the maids were scared of those soldiers, they were more scared of King Qiyang. So they dare not to go inside the palace. They dawdled for a while, until they realized that they hadn’t seen Mu Mingtang’s movement for a long time. Is the beast inside woken up? After hesitating, they called Mu Mintang’s name timidly. Fortunately the door was opened by Mu Mingtang.

Knowing that Mu Mingtang was still alive, the two maids were undoubtedly greatly relieved. Then they looked at Mu Mingtang quietly and found that she was full of energy, her cheeks were rosy, and it didn’t look like… she had been tortured all night. She slept next to King Qiyang, isn’t she afraid? The maids wondered.

The maid didn’t know whether to be disappointed or happy and couldn’t help but want to see the situation in the house. Mu Mingtang noticed their eyes were drifting back, smiled, and let go of them generously: “Why don’t you come in and see?”

As soon as Mu Mingtang revealed the palace behind her, the two maids hurriedly retreated back, as if there were some ferocious beasts in the house. A maid was so frightened that she stepped on her skirt when she stepped back and even fell down.

At this moment, something seemed to fall in the hall. The two maids shivered and ran back in a panic. Mu Mingtang watched the two crawling out and shouted deliberately, “Don’t forget to move the dresser for me.”

The two maids didn’t look back. Mu Mingtang pouted and sneered: “Cowards”

She was about to close the door when the soldier delivering the meal came. They were obviously relieved when they saw Mu Mingtang. The leading soldier put the food box at the door, clasped his fists and said, “Princess, now that the prince is married, it is not convenient for us to enter the hall. In the future, I will leave the washing and feeding of the prince to the princess.”

After the soldier finished speaking, turned around and left without waiting for Mu Mingtang to ask questions.

Mu Mingtang sighed, she actually just wanted to ask about the daily recipe. She will also have dinner with Xie Xuanchen in the future. Anyway, let’s arrange some favorite dishes for me.

Mu Mingtang sat down in the bedroom with the liquid food, looked at Xie Xuanchen’s face left and right, and didn’t understand why the people outside were so frightened: “It’s obviously a good-looking little white face, what’s so scary.” She started blowing the porridge to feed him.

When grandma Zhou was seriously ill, she couldn’t chew anything at all, so she could only drink liquid food every day. To make grandma Zhou eat more, Mu Mingtang made a lot of porridge using different methods. While she was blowing the porridge, she smelled a strange smell. So she tasted it herself first. Sure enough. It seems to be some kind of herbal medicine, with a medicinal smell.

Mu Mingtang was a bit suspicious about the porridge, so she did not dare to give Xie Xuanchen the food with medicine, so she immediately brought porridge and went outside to ask someone. As soon as she went out, she was stopped by the captain of the guard. He didn’t even look at her and said coldly, “Princess stay inside, the princess only needs to stay in the hall to take care of King Qiyang, and the rest is not needed to worry.”

Mu Mingtang picked up the bowl, gestured to the head guard, and asked, “Why does the prince’s meal smell so strange? The prince is seriously ill, so how dare you treat the prince harshly?”

Then the captain of the guard quickly took a step back, clasped his fists and said, “I dare not to be a humble officer. The princess doesn’t know anything, and the food of the lord is specially prepared by the Imperial Medical Bureau. King Qiyang refused to take medicine this year, so the Imperial Medical Bureau had to mix the treatment medicine into the porridge meal. You can’t miss it every day.”

“Oh?” Mu Mingtang looked down at the bowl and asked, “What would happen if it was missing?”

The head of the guard looked at her coldly. “I advise the princess not to be lazy. King Qiyang must have three medicinal meals a day, otherwise, King Qiyang will go crazy. At that time, it is useless to do anything, only Wait for the prince to faint. The princess and the prince live together. If the prince is frantic, the princess will be the first to be injured. I advise the princess that it is best not to take chances.”

After the chief guard finished speaking, he paused. After a pause, he continued to say: “When the herbal meal was delivered this morning, the princess and the prince didn’t get up, and they had no choice but to remove it. The medicine in the morning was already added to today’s porridge, and this porridge is very valuable. The princess should go back as soon as possible to feed King Qiyang.”

Mu Mingtang gave an “oh” and asked, “What is added to the porridge, so magical?”

“It’s the secret recipe of the Imperial Hospital, I don’t know about it.” The head of the guard said.

After getting answers from the head of the guard, Mu Mingtang sighed and walked into the house.

Then she suddenly turned around and asked, “Medicine is three-point poisonous, and I’m not sick. I don’t have any herbs in my meals, right?”

“Don’t worry, wang fei[2], there is someone who will make medicinal meals for King Qiyang, and your meals will come from another stove.” The head of the guard said.

“That’s good.” Mu Mingtang nodded, turned to close a door, and smiled at the head guard, “Thank you, head guard.”

After Mu Mingtang returned to the house, she sniffed the porridge again. The smell seemed to be stronger. It turned out to be double the medicinal ingredients, no wonder I smelled it.

Mu Mingtang had a special ability since she was a child, and it was useless to say it, but she was inexplicably able to find valuable things when she was shopping. When two stones were placed in front of her, she could strangely sense which one was valuable. So her father said with a smile that Mu Mingtang had the nose of a treasure hunter and was born to gather wealth.

She doesn’t know if it’s really a treasure hunt mouse, Mu Mingtang, but her intuition is very smart, and she has always believed in her own intuition. If it weren’t for this ability, she would have died many times on the way to escape.

I feel this bowl of medicinal porridge has some weird things. Something is wrong. Mu Mingtang began to think with her intuition. So she poured it into the flower pot without thinking.

Fortunately, there is no one in the palace, so no one will know about this. Then she thought to feed Xie Xuanchen from her bowl of porridge.

When Mu Mingtang was feeding the porridge, Xie Xuanchen seemed to be conflicted and refused to open his teeth. Mu Mingtang tried several times, but there was a lot of porridge flowing out. Mu Mingtang was helpless, gently wiped the rice grains from his mouth, and said, “His Royal Highness Qiyang, don’t worry, I’m probably the person in the world who looks forward to your life the most. If something happens to you, I’ll be the first one to die. You can’t die. I won’t hurt you.”

After Mu Mingtang finished speaking, she felt ridiculous. He is in a coma, so he couldn’t hear me. But like a miracle was happening, Xie Xuanchen slowly relaxed his teeth, Mu Mingtang was overjoyed, and hurriedly fed the porridge.

After drinking a bowl of porridge, Xie Xuanchen seemed to have used up all his energy, relaxed his body, and fell asleep.

End of chapter 8

Translator Notes:

1. A Chinese idiom. The sun is rising very high, and it’s late. ↵

2. 王妃 – “wang fei” the official wife of a Prince, aka Princess Consort/Imperial Consort. ↵