Jiang Yuqing followed the prisoner escort team across the ocean from Lǐdōng Prefecture to Da Xia. It took them over a month to return to the capital.
Jing Yan led the ministers to welcome them at the city gate.
The couple were somewhat emotional after not seeing each other for three months. But there were many people around, so they had to postpone further conversation.
The generals offered treasures and presented prisoners. Jing Yan rewarded them for their merits and held a grand banquet for his ministers.
After the banquet ended and they returned to the palace, the couple finally had a chance to bare their hearts to one another.
The next day when Jiang Yuqing woke up, it was already late morning. Recalling the passionate waves last night, she couldn't help blushing a little. As the saying goes, a short separation is better than a new marriage.
After getting up and washing, she had breakfast. She first went to pay her respects to the Retired Emperor and Empress Dowager.
But palace maids told her that the Retired Emperor and Empress Dowager were digging sweet potatoes in the imperial garden.
When Jiang Yuqing arrived, they had already dug several baskets full. She laughed when she saw it: “Oh my, these sweet potatoes grew very well. There are a lot of tubers and they are quite big.”
The Retired Emperor was immediately delighted and boasted: “Of course, just look who planted them. How could they not grow well when I planted them?”
The Empress Dowager couldn't stand his smugness and immediately rebutted: “Did you really plant them yourself? All you did was make suggestions. It was the gardeners who did the planting, fertilizing, and weeding.”
The Retired Emperor was unhappy: “How could you say I didn't plant them? At least I came up with the idea and watered them too. And the guide was given by Jingbao's father. I read it many times.”
The Empress Dowager rolled her eyes, too lazy to argue with him further.
Jiang Yuqing picked two medium-sized sweet potatoes from the basket that looked good to her and asked the palace maid to wash them clean.
She took out the gleaming surgical knife that she carries with her and peeled them, handing one to the Empress Dowager and eating one herself.
The red skin and yellow flesh, biting into it gave a crisp, juicy crunch that was very enjoyable.
The Empress Dowager held it in her hand for a long time without daring to bite it. After a while, she gingerly asked: “Jingbao, your knife hasn't cut people before, has it?”
Jiang Yuqing was taken aback for a moment before replying: “No, it's new. It's only been used to cut fish.”
At this the Empress Dowager felt relieved. The two of them sat side by side on a stone bench at the edge and munched on the sweet potatoes.
When Jing Yan returned from court, this was the scene he saw.
His father was wearing a brocade robe with sleeves digging sweet potatoes in the ground. His mother and wife were sitting on the ground eating sweet potatoes. It was quite an idyllic picture.
Seeing him keep looking at her, Jiang Yuqing asked: “Do you want to eat it?” She held out the half-eaten sweet potato in her hand.
Jing Yan didn't mind and took it to eat right away.
This sight startled the Empress Dowager so much that the sweet potato in her hand suddenly became unappetizing.
So she also stood up and beckoned to the Retired Emperor: “Old fellow, come over. This sweet potato is quite sweet, I'll share half with you.”
The Retired Emperor glanced at her: “What for?”
“I told you to come over, so come over!” The Retired Emperor had no choice but to put down his tools and walk over.
Ever since he abdicated, this woman has become less and less afraid of him.
When he got close, the Empress Dowager said: “Open your mouth!”
The Retired Emperor looked at her warily: “What trick are you playing again?”
“I told you to open your mouth, so open your mouth.”
As soon as the Retired Emperor opened his mouth, half a sweet potato was stuffed in. He instinctively took a bite and chewed with a crunch.
The Empress Dowager turned her head provocatively to glance at the young couple, her meaning very obvious.
The couple looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing.
They bowed to each other and walked away hand in hand.
Well, some scenes were too beautiful for children to watch up close, so it was still better to keep away.
Having just annexed the Eastern Ocean, there were still many things to do.
Because his wife had told him about Wo Country in her previous life, he had originally intended to massacre all the people of Wo Country.
But after much consideration, he eventually abandoned the idea.
Firstly, there were nearly 700,000 people in Wo Country. Killing them all would be too detrimental to the world. This would be no different than what happened to the people of Wo Country in his wife's previous world.
Also, large-scale massacre would drive the people of Wo Country to desperation and they would resist desperately. That would be even worse.
Secondly, if Da Xia implemented a policy of ethnic cleansing, it would surely arouse vigilance from other surrounding nations or forces. This would be of no benefit to Da Xia's future ambitions of conquest.
Thirdly, and most importantly, Da Xia currently has too vast a territory and a severe shortage of population. If he killed all the people of Wo Country, he would have to relocate people from the mainland to migrate there.
Now there was more land than people to farm on the continent. Who would be willing to leave their hometown and move to a small island in the east to make a living? It was not a nice place, with frequent natural disasters like typhoons and earthquakes every year.
It would be better to let them stay, plant potatoes and build roads when told, and assimilate them.
They did not originally have their own script. In this way, after a hundred years, who would still remember who their ancestors were? They would thoroughly become an ordinary ethnic minority group of Da Xia.
As for their so-called Emperor of Wo Country, the imperial family, and the shoguns, they should all be executed without exception. These good-for-nothings just wasted food.
In the afternoon, Jiang Yuqing went back to the Jiang manor.
When she said she was going back to her maternal home, the Retired Emperor was very generous. He gave her a basket of sweet potatoes and a basket of potatoes he had just dug up, and told her to take them back for her family to taste.
...It was indeed rare for ordinary people to get to eat sweet potatoes and potatoes grown by the Retired Emperor himself!
Not having seen her for three months, her mother looked her over for a long time and said she had become thinner.
Jiang Yuqing didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She clearly hadn't lost a bit of weight! This was probably what “your mother thinks you have lost weight” means.
After chatting with Lu and her aunts for an afternoon and telling them about what she saw and heard in Eastern Ocean and the local customs, they were shocked when they heard that the so-called Eastern Ocean beauties had faces as white as coffin walls, plucked eyebrows, and black lacquered teeth.
Zhu said: “How can that be called human? Made up like female ghosts!”
Jiang Yuqing laughed: “That's right! When they first brought two Wo women to propose a marriage alliance, the ministers were scared stiff when their veils were lifted.”
Lu laughed loudly: “I also heard it from your brother. At that time he was so frightened that he shrank behind unable to move, for fear of being seen by those two Wo women and ending up with one as a bride.”
Jiang Yuqing laughed uncontrollably: “Don't worry, whoever they get as a groom, it's impossible it would be brother.” Besides, Jing Yan had no intention of marrying a Wo woman in the first place.”
“Mother knows. He was just saying that...”
In the evening, Jiang Wenyuan and his eldest son came in with Jing Yan.
“Why did you come too when you are so busy?”
Jing Yan touched her head: “I came to pick you up. No matter how busy, it doesn’t take that much time.”
Jiang Yuqing turned her head and looked at him happily: “Then stay for dinner before going back to the palace!”
“That was my intention.”
As they spoke, Doctor Qiu also returned.
Jiang Yuqing rushed forward and clung to her master's arm, fawning over her for a while.
For dinner the staple was sweet potato rice, and there were also several dishes cooked with potatoes. One was chicken braised with potatoes, one was stir fried potato shreds, and one was three delicacies of the earth. They were all cooked with the ingredients she brought from the palace.
Hearing that they were grown by the Retired Emperor himself, the family cherished them very much and ate an extra bowl of rice compared to usual.
It was a happy family dinner. Jiang Yuqing said she wanted to visit Old Jiang and Old Lady Hu tomorrow.
Lu said: “The Imperial College has a day off tomorrow. Your fourth, fifth and sixth brothers will also be on holiday. We haven't gone to see your grandfather in a while either, so let’s all go together tomorrow.”
Jiang Yuqing nodded in agreement.
Her fourth brother Jiang Yuhai, fifth brother Jiang Yuming, and sixth brother Jiang Yushan were all studying at the Imperial College now, and would take the spring exams after the new year.
They rarely had free time to go out because their studies were intense. It was a good chance to get together tomorrow to visit the elders and liven things up.
Back at the palace, when she said she was going to visit Old Jiang and the others at Tai’an Farm tomorrow, the Retired Emperor immediately became excited and said he wanted to go too. If he was going, then naturally the Empress Dowager couldn't be left behind either, so they might as well all go together.
Jiang Yuqing had no choice but to send word to her family.
So early next morning, the Jiang family waited at the front gate to welcome the Retired Emperor and Empress Dowager.
After that, a convoy of six or seven carriages set out mightily towards Tai’an Farm.
On the way, I unexpectedly ran into the carriage of Mingyang Princess. When I lifted the curtain and asked, she was also on the way to Tai'an Farm. What a coincidence to go together!
When we arrived, seeing the relatives and old friends, it was naturally lively.
This was the first time the Retired Emperor came to Tai'an Farm after Li Deshun left the palace.
The two old men started chatting as soon as they met. The old eunuch instinctively wanted to serve him, but the Retired Emperor stopped him.
"Old thing, take a good rest. You've served me for a lifetime at your age. Take it easy and enjoy your blessings. There are young eunuchs for other things!"
Then the Retired Emperor asked if he was comfortable living here and if the food was good.
The old eunuch said it was too good - good food, good lodging, people serving him. Usually, he could also go to the vegetable garden with his old pals to pull weeds, harvest vegetables, feed cows and herd sheep.
Occasionally they would also go fishing in the nearby river, or go hunting hares and mountain chickens on the mountains with General Qin.
The days passed by very cozily without any boredom.
This life really made the Retired Emperor envious when he heard it.
He also went to Li Deshun's yard to take a look. He found that although the place was not big, the layout was very comfortable with two servants waiting on him.
So he asked the old eunuch if there were any vacant houses here. The old eunuch said there was one next door that was empty. He went to take a look.
The house was originally prepared to receive guests. Everything inside was fully equipped. Although not precious, the layout was warm and comfortable.
The Retired Emperor felt it was pretty good here, so he shamelessly occupied the yard, deciding not to leave.
And he didn't allow the Empress Dowager to leave either.
The Empress Dowager had no choice but to apologize to Jiang Yuqing, "My dear, it's not that I don't want to help you. I really can't do anything now. So you have to take care of the matters in the palace yourself!"
Jiang Yuqing: "..." She shouldn't have come!
Yang Changyu got the news of their visit early and made preparations.
He slaughtered a sheep and a pig and asked the main kitchen to cook a table full of delicious food. Although they were common home-cooked dishes, the taste was extremely good.
He also had meat skewers and vegetable cakes pickled and paired well, and the fire on the grill was burning vigorously, just waiting for them to come and grill.
Compared to the elderly, young people prefer to grill barbecue themselves.
Mingyang Princess grabbed a few lamb skewers and moved next to her. While grilling, she secretly glanced at Yang Changyu, then asked Jiang Yuqing, "My dear, what do you think of Yang Changyu?”
Jiang Yuqing didn't understand her meaning at first and casually replied, "He's responsible and capable in his work, pretty good. What's wrong?"
When she turned her head, she saw Mingyang Princess blushing, waving her eyes at her. It took Jiang Yuqing two seconds to stare with wide eyes, "You like... Oh!"
