At the hour of the dog, Jing Yan came back with the smell of alcohol on him.
The senior ritual female official took the golden scissors and cut off a small tuft of hair from the Emperor and Empress's heads, carefully tying them up with red silk threads and placing them under the large red dragon and phoenix pillow.
They were bonded as husband and wife, with mutual affection and no doubts.
Afterwards, the female official also brought over interlocking wine cups, and the couple looked at each other with a smile and drank with their arms intertwined. This was meant to signify that as a married couple they were of one body, and would never separate. In sickness and in health, come what may, they would face it together.
Then all the palace women withdrew, leaving space for the newly wedded couple.
The hall was brightly lit, especially the two thick dragon and phoenix joy candles on the table, shining brightly.
Jiang Yuqing also put Bai Xiaojiu and Bai Xiaoshi into the spiritual space, and as an afterthought blocked Bai Xiaoshi’s spiritual awareness to prevent her from unconsciously peeping. Otherwise she would be terribly embarrassed.
Jing Yan came back from washing up and embraced Jiang Yuqing, pressing his forehead against hers, his eyes full of dazzling starlight.
With great satisfaction he sighed, “Qingqing, I’ve longed for you for many years, and today I’ve finally gotten my wish.”
Jiang Yuqing looked up, her eyes also full of him, “Ah Yan, congratulations on our marriage!”
“Congratulations on our marriage, Qingqing!” he said. Then he accurately kissed her sweet cherry lips that he had been longing for...
On that good spring night, the red candles shone brightly. The red canopy fell to the ground, overturned by red waves. Coy moans were melodious, and the room was filled with charm.
The next day, dawn broke. Jiang Yuqing slowly woke up in Jing Yan’s embrace, and when she opened her eyes she saw his bare, sturdy chest directly.
She felt their naked bodies beneath the comforter, and remembering the previous night’s passion, even with her thick skin she couldn’t help but blush to the tips of her ears. So she buried her head in his embrace again.
Jing Yan had already woken up earlier, but had rested with his eyes closed so as not to wake up his beloved beauty, feeling completely happy.
Seeing his precious little wife reveal her rare feminine shyness, it was also somewhat strange and amusing to him. He laughed lightly.
Jiang Yuqing punched him lightly in irritation, and scolded him, “And you’re still laughing!”
Jing Yan grabbed her little fist and pressed it to his chest, gently coaxing her, “Alright, I won’t laugh anymore.” Though he said this, the laughter in his tone couldn’t be blocked at all.
“Does your body feel a bit better?” Jing Yan embraced her with one arm, and stroked her bare, jade-like back lightly with the other, lowering his head to kiss her forehead.
“You still have the nerve to talk about it!” Jiang Yuqing irritably hit him again. “How could you be so excessive!”
It was often said that newly intimate men shouldn’t be provoked. Last night, Jiang Yuqing had truly witnessed it.
Relying on both of them being cultivators, this guy had really let loose, turning her over again and again, doing this and that several times, almost bullying her to tears.
If it weren’t for her using Rejuvenation Arts to repair herself in time, she wouldn’t even have had the strength to speak now.
Yet this guy was still oblivious, actually daring to ask this kind of question, it really made one angry.
But Jing Yan flipped her over to press her beneath him again, smiling rather unrestrainedly. “It seems my wife is still quite satisfied with my performance last night.”
Jiang Yuqing felt something pressing against her below, and her face instantly turned bright red.
She hurriedly pushed him, “Get up quick, we still have to go pay our respects to the Retired Emperor and Empress Dowager later! If we delay any longer I won’t have the face to see anyone.”
Jing Yan teased her for a while longer, but didn’t dare go too far after all.
After getting up, the two of them went to bathe in the pool behind, then he personally helped dress her middle garment.
Jing Yan knew his Empress had thin skin, so he personally collected the stained bed sheet with red spots himself so as to call in palace maids to attend to her.
When the palace maids entered and did not see the bed sheet, they looked somewhat awkward. Jing Yan said, “This Emperor has personally taken care of the Empress’s bed sheet, there’s no need to worry.”
Only then did the palace maid make a sound of acknowledgement and left to do her own tasks. Meanwhile she secretly marveled to herself that His Majesty truly doted on Her Ladyship deeply. Even personally taking care of her bed sheet without letting others see.
After the couple had finished dressing in their formal court attire, they held hands as they walked over to Fu’an Palace where the Empress Dowager Qin lived.
The couple first went to pay their respects to the Retired Emperor and Empress Dowager, accompanying them for breakfast. Afterwards they would go to Liangyi Hall to accept congratulations from the civil officials and foreign envoys.
When they arrived, the Retired Emperor and Empress Dowager had already been waiting for a while.
The Emperor and Empress served tea to their elders, and Jiang Yuqing switched to addressing them as Father Emperor and Mother Empress.
The Empress Dowager was extremely delighted, personally helping Jiang Yuqing up to size her up carefully.
Seeing her glowing complexion, snow-white skin and flower-like appearance, with a hint of charm in her clear and beautiful brows and eyes, she knew that she and her son had spent the previous night in great harmony.
Jiang Yuqing felt somewhat embarrassed by the Empress Dowager's scrutiny, and softly scolded, "Mother Empress!"
Only then did the Empress Dowager put away her gossipy look, lightly coughed, and solemnly said, "My dear Qing'er,
you and Yan'er have been childhood sweethearts for so many years, and today you’ve finally become tied together in marriage. This old heart of mine can finally settle down now.
In the future, I hope that you two can support each other as husband and wife, and live in harmony and bliss. If you can give birth to some well-behaved grandsons for me, that would make this lifetime free from regret for this old woman.”
The Retired Emperor suddenly stretched out a palm, saying, “At least five.”
The corner of Jiang Yuqing's mouth twitched. Five, you're very bold in your imaginings, old man. But she was clever enough not to refute him, since there was someone else to take the fall beside her.
Jing Yan gave his father a look, and mercilessly doused him with a basin of cold water. "Five is not a small number, I'm just afraid the ancestral tomb fengshui of our old Jing family was positioned wrongly.”
The sore spot was poked in the Retired Emperor and he glared fiercely with tiger eyes, “You rascal, how dare you speak like that!”
Jing Yan said, “Did this son say anything wrong? You should know very clearly the kind of state our old Jing family was in too.
So for the matter of offspring, your son will let nature take its course. Please don't pressure Qingqing, pestering her is useless anyway."
When Jiang Yuqing heard this, her eyes shone brightly, secretly giving her man 10086 thumbs up.
And so, the matter of urging for children was smoothly skipped over. Jiang Yuqing got off scot-free, feeling completely relaxed physically.
After accompanying the Retired Emperor and Empress Dowager to finish breakfast,
The couple then moved to Liangyi Hall, to accept congratulations from the civil officials and foreign envoys there.
With a glance, Jiang Yuqing spotted her dad kneeling below the imperial stairs, performing a kowtowing greeting to his daughter and son-in-law. Her eyes inexplicably felt somewhat sour, inwardly resenting these damned feudal customs and hierarchy.
Fortunately she remembered that one shouldn't shed tears at such occasions. So she forcibly blinked her tears back, changing to a smiling expression instead.
When Jiang Wenyuan finished his greeting and got up from the ground, he saw his daughter wearing indigo blue formal Empress robes while beaming radiantly at him from the head seat.
His precious daughter's complexion was rosy, shining brightly, seems like she hadn't suffered any grievances at all. The anxiety that had hung over his heart throughout the night could finally settle back down into his stomach now.
The foreign envoys invited to observe the ceremony this time consisted of Xian Country, the Southern Borderlands, East Woman Country and two small tribal clans.
Even Yuta's......ahem, the once arrogant and formidable Xiongnu who had now been driven to the fringes of the desert by Da Xia, currently divided and struggling to survive on their own.
Offending Da Xia last year, it took Tubo less than half a year to have their country annihilated.
Just recently, the Northeastern Liju had also become three prefectures of Da Xia.
The barbaric, ferocious, deceitful Wo savages on the eastern islands had also been frightened out of their guts.
It was said they now prayed to their Sun Goddess Amaterasu every day for Da Xia not to come find trouble with them.
So the small intact countries around consisted of only these few.
And these few were also filled with trembling fear, terrified that the Da Xia Emperor would wake up one day, glance at the world map and take offence at them for whatever reason before directly sending troops to annihilate them.
Among them, East Woman Country was especially paranoid and afraid.
Their previous Too-Female ruler had once offended the Da Xia Empress.
And the Da Xia Emperor doted deeply on his Empress down to his very bones and marrow. So if the Da Xia Empress held any lingering resentment over past events, she just needed to lightly whisper some pillow talk, and East Woman Country would cease to exist.
Fortunately, the Da Xia Empress only gave them a two eyed glance before ignoring them thereafter, causing them to slightly relax.
They only hoped that after today ended they could immediately set off to leave Da Xia. Too damn scary here.
Lunch consisted of an imperial family banquet, which also served as a recognition of kin ceremony. Prince Fu, Princess Ronghua, Princess Mingyang, Second Princess, Third Princess each brought their own families and were all present.
However they weren’t qualified to receive Jiang Yuqing’s greetings, instead having to be the ones to greet her.
There would be a three day suspension of court sessions for the imperial wedding, only resuming after the Empress returned to spend time privately.
The newlywed couple were intimate and indulgent with each other honeymooning delightfully. As Jing Yan had also just become intimate recently, he was somewhat obsessed with the taste and his vigor was especially strong. He held Jiang Yuqing every night, refusing to stop his tender affections, and it was like this continuously for several days.
Unable to endure it anymore, Jiang Yuqing finally kicked him off the bed one day, stating clearly that if he went too overboard again she would go sleep in the study room.
Seeing his dear wifey was really angry, Jing Yan finally restrained himself a bit.
Sleeping in the study? Never happening in this lifetime!
On the day the Empress returned to spend time privately, the main gates of the Jiang Ducal Manor were thrown wide open.
Jing Yan accompanied Jiang Yuqing back home in plain clothes, treating himself as a son-in-law of the Jiang family. Jiang Wenyuan was very respectful to him.
Although Madam Lu had heard from her husband that her daughter was living a good new marriage life, she still felt a little worried without seeing it with her own eyes.
Now that her daughter came back home, seeing that she looked ruddy and smiled charmingly, Madam Lu knew that she was really living an extremely good life.
When asked about her life in the palace, knowing that the Retired Emperor and the Empress Dowager treated her very well, Madam Lu felt even more delighted.
Jing Yan discussed matters with Jiang Wenyuan in the study room, while Jiang Yuqing chatted and whispered with her mother and other senior female relatives of the family indoors.
During lunch, Jing Yan was collectively retaliated by the Jiang men and was poured a lot of wine.
He didn't even need to use his spiritual power, just used his inner strength to easily force out the effects of alcohol.
On the contrary, it was the Jiang men who got drunk and collapsed.
Jiang Yuqing had no choice but to feed each of them a hangover pill one by one and asked the women of the family to take them back to their rooms.
As for those who were not taken care of yet, such as her sixth uncle and elder brother, she had to send them back herself.
She felt that it was time to urge them to find a couple of sisters-in-law to come back.
Single dogs would always get more hurt at times like this when they got too drunk and there was no one to pick them up.
On the second day after returning home, Jing Yan went back to the royal court. The Retired Emperor came to look for Jiang Yuqing, wanting to hand over the palace affairs to her. But Jiang Yuqing directly refused.
Although the Retired Emperor had moved from the Diligent Governance Hall to the Clear and Simple Palace at the back after his abdication, his imperial concubines were still living in the palace. Since ancient times, a daughter-in-law had no reason to help her father-in-law manage his little wives.
She only needed to take good care of her own little family and everything would go smoothly. What’s the point of tiring herself to death in the palace when she could spend the extra time on something else?
Therefore, she only stayed in the palace for a few days before changing into plain clothes and going back to work at Anding Hospital. She would see patients when it was time to see patients, and go back to visit her maternal home when it was time to do so, without any delay.
In between, she personally bid farewell to the clan chief and elders of her hometown, as well as her maternal grandfather's family.
She also bid farewell to her other brothers. As for Old Master Jiang, Madam Hu and Jiang Yuqing’s two uncles and aunts, they finally decided to settle down in the capital instead of going back.
Jiang Wenkang and Jiang Wenxi were agricultural officials, in other words, farmers.
Since they were farmers, it didn’t matter where they farmed. Hence, at the end of last year, Jing Yan had transferred them to the Ministry of Agriculture in the capital city so that the family could reunite.
In the end, Jiang Yuqing’s freedom still attracted dissatisfaction from several conservative court officials. They submitted a letter to Jing Yan, saying that the Empress’ behavior was not in line with etiquette and asked the Emperor to restrain her more.
