She knew exactly where to hit where it hurt the most!
"Besides, how could Your Majesty look like someone in their thirties? You clearly appear to be the same age as your humble servant. The young man in my dreams was exactly like Your Majesty."
To cover up her earlier lie about holding back laughter, she could only embrace the Emperor and say: "Your Majesty, you are wonderful, far better than you think. The most correct decision your servant has made in this life was not refusing when father sent me into the palace. I truly don't know if I would be as happy as I am now had I married someone else outside the palace. But I can say with certainty that being able to stay by Your Majesty's side, being cherished and loved by you, is a blessing from my previous life."
A skilled psychological counselor, when attempting to influence someone, doesn't merely belittle them and attack their confidence. They also need to guide them when they're feeling inferior, making them feel that even if no one else in the world likes them, you are the one who loves them the most.
Moreover, she wasn't lying about the blessing from her previous life.
In her previous life, she died saving someone - an act of great virtue. The luxury and wealth she enjoyed in this life were well-deserved.
The Emperor was indeed moved by her words and embraced Jiang Xinyue tightly: "Yue'er, your sincere devotion to me brings me great comfort. I promise... nothing like this will ever happen again."
You made vows last time too, saying you'd rather die, yet here you are, living just fine.
Jiang Xinyue didn't believe him at all.
But this didn't stop her from putting on a deeply touched expression, burying her face in the Emperor's chest: "Your Majesty, I don't want to quarrel with you. Can't we just be good to each other? While you were suffering, I wasn't having an easy time either."
No!
She was actually living extremely comfortably, eating and sleeping well, with money and leisure, being served by servants as if she were an immortal.
The Emperor heaved a long sigh: "Sometimes I really wish..."
He didn't finish what he wanted to say, but Jiang Xinyue could guess. In such an emotional moment, the Emperor probably wanted to say "sometimes I really wish I wasn't the Emperor."
He probably wished he could take her and their children to live in seclusion in the mountains, being an enviably loving couple, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.
What was so good about being Emperor?
Unable to have normal human emotions and feelings, unable to have personal likes and dislikes, having to put the common people first in everything, maintaining balance in the court, stabilizing the palace, waking up earlier than roosters, sleeping later than dogs, working harder than oxen, and being criticized by officials and resented by commoners at the slightest mistake.
People say Emperors can do whatever they want, but that only applies to those who choose to be tyrannical rulers who destroy their kingdom. True good emperors have never been free to do as they please.
However, the Xuanwu Emperor was grateful that by his side appeared an understanding flower who could help him feel some warmth in this cold palace.
At the Treasure Joy Quarter—
Concubine Cheng put down the tuned guqin, and Cun Xin deliberately shook her head at the door. She frowned and muttered, "This isn't right!"
Cun Xin returned inside: "My lady, what should we do?"
Outside, the sun was still blazing, and cicada sounds came from the small woods behind the Treasure Joy Quarter. Concubine Cheng looked at the dazzling sunlight, her eyes full of calculating light: "Let's return to the Moon-Embracing Pavilion."
Concubine Ye is just Noble Lady Liu's dog. Without Noble Lady Liu's orders, how would she dare to monitor my movements?
The fact that her zither playing could no longer attract butterflies must not be revealed. If Noble Lady Liu wants to humiliate her, she must strike first.
"Ouch, it hurts, it hurts..."
Noble Lady Liu, who had been targeted by the "thief," was now lying on her bed while a female doctor lifted her clothes to examine her back and... buttocks.
"Noble Lady Liu's back to tailbone is fractured. She shouldn't get out of bed for three months, or the bones won't heal properly, risking paralysis in the future."
"What?"
Noble Lady Liu punched the bed: "That wretch! It must have been Cheng Nianhe who put oil on my shoes. She wants revenge because His Majesty scolded her because of me."
Yan'er also gritted her teeth: "It must be that Concubine Ye was discovered by Concubine Cheng while gathering information. Why else would she specifically go to the Treasure Joy Quarter, which requires passing through that cobblestone path? She clearly calculated that you would go there and applied oil to your shoes in advance."
The more Noble Lady Liu thought about it, the more she believed Yan'er was right. She tried to get up, but the pain in her tailbone made her face turn pale, intensifying her hatred for Concubine Cheng.
Jiang Xinyan finally "escaped" from the overly enthusiastic Noble Lady Jiang and returned to the Changchun Pavilion, only to find that the meal had already been served.
She belatedly realized that when Noble Lady Jiang invited her to stay for dinner earlier, was it to prevent her from disturbing her sister and brother-in-law's private time?
"Sister, why are you standing at the door? Come in!"
Jiang Xinyan, who was about to sneak away and accept Noble Lady Jiang's invitation instead, was called by Jiang Xinyue: "I specially asked the imperial kitchen to prepare your favorite dishes, come quickly."
Jiang Xinyan had no choice but to reluctantly approach and pay her respects to the Emperor.
The Xuanwu Emperor waved his hand: "Wang Dequan, go fetch a bowl of frozen lychees to help the Third Miss cool down."
Previously, lychees were only supplied to the palace for one season each year. The Emperor wasn't particularly fond of culinary pleasures, and even if some concubines liked lychees, he wouldn't have soldiers rush fresh lychees from thousands of miles away on horseback.
He wouldn't do such things that exhausted great manpower and resources and could potentially kill soldiers for anyone. Each year, the limited amount of lychees would be distributed among the favored concubines, each receiving a small basket.
The unfavored ones needn't even think about it - they wouldn't even get to see the lychee shells.
But starting last year, because the Imperial Noble Consort also loved this fruit, the Emperor gathered the eunuchs from the Internal Affairs Department to find a solution that would allow the Imperial Noble Consort to eat lychees anytime without burdening the people or causing loss of life.
In the end, it was the Imperial Noble Consort herself who provided two solutions: one was to make lychee preserves, similar to what almost every household in the Jiaodong region made; the second was to freeze the lychees with ice blocks, replacing the ice at each official post station, and allowing tired soldiers to pass the delivery task to the next soldier so they could rest.
They wouldn't need to fear punishment for failing to complete the task.
Now the palace had lychee preserves, and this year the Imperial Noble Consort decided that such transport of frozen lychees would be too extravagant, so she only requested preserves.
The preserves could be stored for a long time and didn't require so much manpower to transport. When the common people learned of this, they praised the Imperial Noble Consort for her consideration!
However, Jiang Xinyue knew that her good reputation was spread by the Emperor and the Jiang family.
The frozen lychees that Jiang Xinyan was eating were made from lychee preserves mixed with osmanthus and dairy, served with ice. Having a bowl in summer was refreshingly pleasant.
It must be because of his love for her sister that His Majesty treated her so well.
