Shen Xihe was both exasperated and unsure how to face this man. One moment he was solemn and commanding, his strategic brilliance utterly admirable; the next, he became unbearably frivolous, making her want to resort to violence!
"Youyou, when I'm with you, I feel at ease and comfortable. Everything I say and do is my true nature." Xiao Huayong's lips curved into a swaying smile. "I want you to know this before our wedding, so you won't think I've changed after we're married."
"...Should I thank Your Highness?" Shen Xihe asked helplessly.
"Why stand on ceremony between us? Besides, I'm just being honest with Youyou." Xiao Huayong shook his head with a laugh. "As for the examination fraud case, just enjoy the spectacle. Why don't you instead choose our wedding attire..."
With that, Xiao Huayong picked up a catalog sent by the Imperial Wardrobe Bureau, containing complete sets of wedding garments.
As the Crown Princess, she naturally differed from other brides who had to make their own wedding dresses. Even those unskilled in needlework had to symbolically stitch a few threads. Her and Xiao Huayong's wedding attire was prepared by the Imperial Wardrobe Bureau. All wedding ceremonies were managed by the Six Bureaus and Twenty-Four Offices under the Palace Service Department, with the Court of Imperial Sacrifices overseeing the Ministry of Rites. She didn't even need to prepare her own dowry—the imperial family maintained a standard dowry for Crown Princesses.
Naturally, she wasn't required to prepare the wedding ceremony attire either. This dynasty favored vibrant colors, typically using crimson and emerald green for wedding garments—green for the bride, red for the groom. The Crown Prince's wedding robes featured intricate patterns, and after browsing through several sets, Shen Xihe found them largely similar.
She preferred subtle, elegant colors, having never worn anything more vibrant than purple—neither emerald green nor crimson appealed to her.
Just as she was growing disinterested and about to randomly select a set, she spotted pale cloud-colored wedding robes with exquisite golden-thread embroidered borders. Shen Xihe was instantly captivated, yet she hesitated: "Is pale cloud color inappropriate?"
"What's inappropriate about it? It's our wedding, not anyone else's. Your happiness is what matters." Xiao Huayong was doing this deliberately—his Youyou was too bound by propriety and etiquette, and he wanted to gradually break these constraints.
She could be a lady of impeccable grace, a Crown Princess well-versed in etiquette, but to him, she must be a wife who acted according to her heart.
Only by breaking through this barrier could they truly be uninhibited and completely open with each other.
"The censors, the Ministry of Rites, the Confucian scholars..." Shen Xihe felt a headache coming just thinking about their inevitable criticism.
She truly didn't believe momentary pleasure was worth wasting time dealing with these people.
"No laws dictate that weddings must feature red and green." Xiao Huayong smiled gently. "White was revered by our ancestors too. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, white was considered beautiful. Our dynasty doesn't prohibit wearing white either. What's wrong with white wedding robes for our ceremony?"
Seeing Xiao Huayong's confident assurance, Shen Xihe worried he had specially arranged this for her preference—that fulfilling her wish would require elaborate schemes to silence the critics.
"In this lifetime, we only marry once. Being able to marry you is my greatest fortune—my joy lies in you." Xiao Huayong spoke with deep sincerity. "Your situation differs from mine. Marrying me may not bring unexpected joys. I only wish you more satisfaction in our wedding matters. On our wedding day, I want to see genuine delight and happiness in your eyes."
So a mere set of wedding robes—whether it brought her joy or mere acceptance—held such profound meaning to him.In this lifetime, just this once, Shen Xihe was moved. She chose to follow her heart: "Then this set it is."
Xiao Huayong revealed a pleased smile. With this wedding dress paired with the floral crown crafted from Northern Pearls he had Haidongqing collect, on their wedding day, he was determined to make her beauty astonish the world.
Shen Xihe only returned to her residence after having dinner at the Eastern Palace. From that day onward, Xiao Huayong truly sent a plate of cherries daily, each one plump and glossy, as if meticulously selected.
Tianyuan naturally had to seek credit for his master: "His Highness personally picked each cherry, selected them himself, and cleaned them."
Those that weren't attractive enough or lacked uniform redness were picked out by His Highness and given to his subordinates.
"Tell His Highness to send me the cherries he filtered out as well. I'll make some food for him," Shen Xihe returned the favor.
Who knew how many other cherries Xiao Huayong had to go through to select such uniformly beautiful ones? Cherries were so precious, it would be a shame to waste them.
Tianyuan promptly agreed. The plate of cherries was what the Crown Prince had selected from a whole basket. He had eaten so many cherries that he nearly fled at the very scent of them.
The next day, Shen Xihe received many cherries that weren't very attractive—though they were only less appealing compared to the ones Xiao Huayong had selected. She made cherry soup, perfect for quenching thirst during the warm spring afternoons when the heat sometimes lingered.
She also made cherry blossom cakes for Xiao Huayong to enjoy as tea snacks. The extra cherries she trimmed and planned to try fermenting into cherry fruit wine.
While she was busy making food in her residence, the court was in turmoil. The top candidate in the imperial examination was personally re-examined by the Grand Secretary under the Youning Emperor's orders, with a new topic assigned for him to solve alone. The candidate's calligraphy remained exquisite, but his answers were utterly nonsensical, infuriating the Youning Emperor so much that he hurled a paperweight at the Minister of Rites' head.
The reason the Minister of Rites had leaked the exam questions this time was due to his grandson's misconduct—actually, it was Xiao Huayong's doing.
Two years earlier, the Minister of Rites' grandson had casually presented a poem he claimed to have found at a literary gathering. It was highly praised, and overwhelmed by the unprecedented acclaim, he impulsively claimed authorship.
Later, inundated with invitations and unwilling to be exposed as a fraud, he coincidentally found the true author. Discovering the man's poverty, he threatened him with wealth and power into becoming his ghostwriter. From then on, his poems, paintings, and essays flourished, earning him much admiration—even the lady he admired looked upon him favorably, sinking him deeper into the deception.
Just before the imperial examination, the top candidate uncovered his disgraceful secret and threatened to expose him unless he obtained the exam questions. Since the Minister of Rites' grandson wasn't taking the exam that year, his grandfather had set the questions.
Knowing his grandfather well, he got him drunk and extracted the topics, which he then passed to the candidate.
The candidate, unable to answer the questions himself and afraid to draw attention, was inadvertently guided by a "well-meaning person" to recall his distant relation to the Imperial Academy Chancellor's family. Under the pretense of seeking knowledge, he won the He family's favor.The eldest son of the He family possessed exceptional literary talent, but his grandfather had passed away earlier that year. As he had not yet completed the one-year mourning period, he was ineligible to sit for the imperial examinations. Therefore, the candidate took the examination questions to the He family's eldest son to have them analyzed and outlined, then memorized the entire composition verbatim. As expected, the examination topics aligned perfectly.
By plagiarizing the He family eldest son's essay, he successfully passed the provincial-level examination and became a provincial graduate.
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