Wang Daxia spotted Lu Ying underwater and hastily plucked a lotus leaf the size of a washbasin to cover the indescribable area below his navel. "Commander Lu? What brings you here?"
Wei Caiwei, meanwhile, swam behind Wang Daxia, using him as a human shield for modesty.
For ease of boating, Wang Daxia wore only a sleeveless jacket and thigh-length trousers, while Wei Caiwei was similarly dressed. Their soaked garments clung tightly to their bodies, rendering them almost as revealing as being unclothed.
The lotus leaf in Wang Daxia’s hand could only conceal Wang Xiaoxia, while the defined muscles of his chest and abdomen strained against the fabric, nearly bursting through.
"A friend’s husband is not to be teased."
Lu Ying snapped open a fan to cover her eyes. "An urgent military matter from the northwest has arisen, so I came to find you. Your servant said you were fishing in the pond, so I entered."
It turned out they weren’t fishing. Had she arrived a moment later, she would have witnessed their intimate aquatic frolic.
Wang Daxia’s heart sank at her words. "Commander Lu, didn’t we agree that I’d get a long vacation after marrying to properly rest? It hasn’t even been half a month! How can you go back on your word?"
Lu Ying replied, "Ding Wu has sent intelligence. The northwest is experiencing a severe drought—no rain for a month. This year may bring famine, and Mongolia’s Anda Khan is certain to mobilize troops against our borders. The Jiajing Emperor has ordered us to the northwestern frontier to coordinate with Ding Wu in monitoring Anda Khan’s forces. We must intercept them en route and prevent them from reaching the capital again."
Hearing that Ding Wu was involved, Wei Caiwei emerged from behind Wang Daxia and volunteered eagerly, "I’m going too."
Four years had passed since she parted from her sworn brother in Linqing City. Wei Caiwei missed Ding Wu dearly.
Wang Daxia and Lu Ying exchanged glances, both considering the frontier too dangerous for Wei Caiwei to accompany them.
Wei Caiwei climbed ashore and threw on an outer robe. "It’s settled then. I’ll pack my belongings. This time, I’ll open a pharmacy at the border, so I’ll need to load several carts of supplies."
There was no room for refusal or discussion—she was determined to go.
Watching Wei Caiwei’s whirlwind departure, Wang Daxia glared at Lu Ying. "What about our agreed-upon wedding leave? Now I’m losing my wife to this too."
Lu Ying turned to leave, feigning deafness. "Tomorrow, we’ll rent a decorated pleasure boat at Shichahai to strategize for the tough battle in the northwest. Don’t be late—there’s a fine for tardiness."
Wang Daxia howled at the sky, "Once you join the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it’s like plunging into an abyss! Vacation becomes a stranger forever!"
Though human joys and sorrows vary, the plight of the modern wage slave transcends time. Wang Daxia’s wedding leave was cut short as he embarked on a business trip with his wife in tow.
Before departing, Wei Caiwei entered the palace to bid farewell to Shang Qinglan. After the Jiajing Emperor’s passing, Shang Qinglan had been honored as a grand consort by the Longqing Emperor and moved to Wanshou Palace, leading a tranquil life.
Initially, some officials demanded severe punishment for Consort Shangshou, blaming her as a femme fatale and seeking reckoning for the past incident where she and the old emperor set off fireworks in bed, burning down Yu De Palace.
But the Longqing Emperor, grateful and remembering how Shang Qinglan had used planchette writing two months after the crown prince’s birth to remind the old emperor of his grandson’s pending hair-cutting ceremony, ignored these petitions. He treated Shang Qinglan with great respect, and the empress was also kind to this young stepmother, providing her with the finest provisions.
Thus, at just eighteen, Shang Qinglan began the leisurely retired life that Wang Daxia envied—tending flowers, growing plants, and keeping several cats and dogs, living in perfect harmony with her pets.No matter what state she was in, she had the ability to live her life well, going with the flow and adapting to circumstances.
Upon learning that Wei Caiwei would be leaving the capital for some time, Shang Qinglan sat swaying on a swing, stroking a dozing Persian cat in her arms. "I can never leave the Forbidden City in this lifetime. When you go outside, be my eyes and see the world for me. I'll wait for you to return and listen to your stories of the outside world."
After bidding farewell to Shang Qinglan, Wei Caiwei went to the Palace of Celestial Favor. As the foremost of the Eastern Six Palaces, the mistress of the Palace of Celestial Favor was commonly referred to as the Eastern Palace Consort. Li Jiubao had been enfeoffed as an Imperial Noble Consort and taken residence in the Palace of Celestial Favor, making her status in the rear palace second only to Empress Chen.
Li Jiubao had been continuously pregnant and had given birth to her second princess, who was also the first child since the Longqing Emperor's accession to the throne, making her particularly favored.
However, having two children in three years had nearly drained her health. After giving birth to her second daughter, she had to undergo a double month of postpartum confinement to recover.
Yet when Wei Caiwei came to bid farewell, Li Jiubao was holding a spittoon while vomiting.
Immediately after completing her double month of confinement, she had become pregnant with her fourth child.
Wei Caiwei felt a chill in her heart and whispered, "How did this happen? This humble official said you must wait at least a year. Your Highness's body cannot withstand this."
The emperor was the Son of Heaven, destined to spread imperial blessings and continue the royal lineage, unlike Wang Daxia who had to observe three years of mourning abstinence.
Li Jiubao rinsed her mouth with fragrant tea. "I didn't want this either, but that day, His Majesty consumed this thing—"
Li Jiubao took out a red pill from her brocade pouch. "After taking this, His Majesty became unusually excited and completely ignored my repeated refusals... That one time resulted in this pregnancy. Doctor Wei, what is this thing? How can it be so sinister?"
Wei Caiwei cut off a portion of the pill, ground it into powder, and carefully sniffed it at her nose tip. She immediately felt her body heating up and quickly washed her nose with clean water. "This is an aphrodisiac used by common men to treat impotence, but its effects are excessively strong. Which imperial physician prepared this medicine? It's nothing short of a vicious drug!"
Li Jiubao looked bewildered. She had given birth to her second daughter soon after moving into the Forbidden City, then underwent double month confinement without ever stepping out of the Palace of Celestial Favor. She knew nothing about palace affairs, and now with another pregnancy, she would have to live in seclusion for another year, nurturing the fetus within the Palace of Celestial Favor.
Everything in the rear palace was decided by Empress Chen. She was merely a breeding machine.
The childbirth she had once eagerly anticipated had now become shackles, trapping her so tightly she could barely move. Beyond bearing children, she could do nothing.
However, Chen Jingji, who was serving nearby, had long been vigilant and had secretly investigated the matter. He said, "Doctor Wei, this was presented by Meng Chong, the Supervising Eunuch of the Imperial Kitchen."
In her previous life, after the Jiajing Emperor passed away, with a new emperor came new ministers. Huang Jin, who had once been the illustrious Supervising Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs, retired completely and voluntarily went to Nanjing to serve as a defense eunuch in his old age.
After Shang Qinglan became an imperial consort dowager, Wei Caiwei withdrew from palace life with her, secluding themselves in the Palace of Longevity to live quietly. They deliberately avoided the palace's covert struggles to prevent getting burned, which was why Wei Caiwei remained unaware of these palace secrets.
The Imperial Kitchen was one of the Twenty-Four Directorates, responsible for palace meals. Wei Caiwei found it unbelievable. "What does a eunuch from a cook background know about medicine? How dare the emperor take something he presented? Was there no one to stop this? Didn't the Grand Eunuch Li Fang advise against it? Didn't the Empress intervene either?"Chen Jingji said, "Meng Chong started as an imperial chef and never studied at the Inner Study Hall, so he is rather coarse and vulgar. However, he excels at flattery and pleasing his superiors. He prepared highly nourishing dishes for the emperor, which won His Majesty’s favor. The emperor, now past thirty and overwhelmed with state affairs, has seen his physical strength decline significantly. With only one son, the crown prince, in the palace, the emperor is anxious to produce more heirs. The imperial physicians prescribe medicine cautiously, but the emperor finds their methods ineffective. Seizing the opportunity, Meng Chong presented this potent drug, greatly delighting the emperor. Even the empress and Li Fang dare not intervene, fearing they might lose the emperor’s favor."
Li Jiubao had finally returned to the Forbidden City. Reunited with her childhood sweetheart, one was now a favored consort, the other a eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial—yet they could finally watch over each other. Chen Jingji served as Li Jiubao’s aide.
Chen Jingji, who pitied Li Jiubao for the physical toll that childbirth had taken on her, naturally detested Meng Chong for presenting such dangerous drugs.
Wei Caiwei, soon to depart for the northwest and too far away to intervene in palace affairs, advised Li Jiubao and Chen Jingji: "With the new emperor on the throne, all manner of demons and monsters are vying for his favor and competing for influence. Now that the Noble Consort is pregnant, she should take this opportunity to live quietly, staying within the Palace of Celestial Favor to rest and nurture the fetus, ignoring the storms outside. Whatever the emperor wishes to do, do not interfere."
"Even the empress and Li Fang are not advising against it, focusing only on self-preservation. Who among you has more influence than they do? Do not be an egg striking a stone. Let them fight like dogs scrambling for the emperor’s favor. If trouble arises, it has nothing to do with you. Your duty is to take good care of the Noble Consort’s health—nothing is more important than that."
Wei Caiwei’s perspective was pragmatic: since the Longqing Emperor showed no concern for Li Jiubao’s well-being, there was no need for her to worry about him recklessly consuming potent drugs in his obsession to produce heirs.
After all, Li Jiubao was already pregnant. If the emperor chose to ruin his own health, it would not harm her. Let him eat whatever he pleased.
Only a few months into his reign, the Longqing Emperor had unwittingly become the very kind of person he once despised. When he was Prince Yu, he had loathed his father’s obsession with alchemy and immortality, considering the late emperor foolish and laughable for believing that elixirs could make him immortal.
Now, as emperor, he had smashed all the alchemical furnaces. Yet when someone presented him with ready-made aphrodisiacs to feed his obsession with fertility, he indulged freely—unaware that these drugs were even more toxic and damaging to the body than the elixirs his father had consumed. In mocking his father, he was, in fact, far worse—a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Chen Jingji took Wei Caiwei’s advice to heart, guarding the Palace of Celestial Favor so tightly that not even a drop of water could seep through. He turned a deaf ear to outside matters, focusing entirely on helping Li Jiubao maintain her health and peace during her pregnancy.
Early autumn, Fengcheng.
A cosmetics shop opened with great fanfare. The owner was a woman. Business was slow at the start, and the proprietress sat idly at the entrance, cracking melon seeds and littering her skirt with shells. She appeared bold and flirtatious—full-bosomed, slim-waisted, and long-legged—hardly resembling a respectable woman. Instead, she gave the impression of a courtesan who had washed off her makeup and turned over a new leaf.
As a result, women passing by hesitated to enter the shop, while men were drawn in under the pretext of buying cosmetics for their wives, hoping to sneak a glimpse or take some liberties.
But the proprietress was a sharp-tempered woman with little patience. If a customer lingered too long examining the goods, she would grow impatient, toss the cosmetics onto the counter, and widen her almond-shaped eyes in irritation."Are you done yet? I only have quality goods here. Just buy any one and take it home, your wife will love it. If you're not buying, then stop looking. I'm a respectable woman—if you want to flirt, go left out the door and it's at the next intersection."
That day, when Ding Wu entered the rouge shop, the shopkeeper's expression instantly shifted from a world-weary "seen-it-all" look to a beaming smile as she warmly called out, "Brother-in-law is here!"
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