"It’s been some time since I st saw the Empress Dowager," Wumian remarked.

  "Mm, it has been a while," Ying Qionglou replied. Today’s visit was partly for formal greetings, but more importantly, to speak with the Empress Dowager about the Eldest Prince.

  The Taiji Pace was still quite a distance away. After all, this was the imperial procession; with the Yulin Guards opening the way, their pace was slow and deliberate. It would take at least an hour or so.

  At first, Wumian made idle conversation with the emperor, but before long, she found herself growing drowsy, her eyelids growing heavier by the moment.

  Ying Qionglou noticed and said, "Why don’t you have some tea to wake yourself up?"

  "Your Majesty," Wumian shifted slightly and moved to the middle seat. "Come here."

  Ying Qionglou was puzzled but leaned toward her as she asked.

  Wumian smiled at him and rested her head against his shoulder.

  Her hair was styled high today, making this posture quite fitting. Besides, this man’s shoulders were broad enough.

  "Your Majesty, I’m really sleepy. Let me rest a little, alright?" Wumian tilted her head up, her rge, dewy eyes gazing at him. It seemed like she was acting coquettish—but then again, not quite.

  Ying Qionglou gave a quiet hum of assent.

  The moment he did, he found himself a little surprised. What was this now? Just sitting here like this? Was he simply being used as a prop?

  But as he caught the faint, clean fragrance from her hair and clothes, he closed his eyes and leaned back as well, resting his mind.

  Before long, he could feel the woman beside him grow heavier against him. Her body rexed entirely, and as the carriage rocked gently, she began to slowly lean to the side.

  Without opening his eyes, Ying Qionglou reached out and circled her waist with one arm, pulling her securely against him. His other hand held onto her wrist to keep her steady.

  Outside, at the rear of the carriage, stood Lu Zhong and Linshui. Both kept their heads lowered, pretending they saw nothing at all.

  The carriage rocked gently along the road. Though it was summer, it was still early in the morning, so the heat wasn’t oppressive.

  At first, Ying Qionglou merely rested his eyes, absentmindedly thinking over trivial matters. But with someone leaning heavily against him—her breathing light and even in sleep, his own drowsiness soon crashed over him like a wave.

  Just before he dozed off, a single thought crossed his mind: The empress never slept properly. When they got out of the carriage, he’d have to remind her to tidy her appearance.

  But then again, how much trouble could she cause? Even in a grand imperial carriage, space was limited. How far could she toss and turn?

  That thought nearly made the drowsy emperor chuckle.

  By the time the carriage finally arrived outside the pace grounds, Lu Zhong and Linshui hurriedly came forward to wake their master and mistress.

  Wumian blinked sleepily at Ying Qionglou. “Your Majesty?”

  “Still groggy? We’ve arrived.” He couldn’t help but ugh as he patted her waist.

  “Mmm…” Wumian rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn as she straightened up, only to wince. “Ah… I mustn’t sleep like that again. My waist feels sore.”

  Ying Qionglou merely gave her a half-smile, saying nothing.

  As for how half his body had gone numb, naturally, His Majesty the Emperor would never voice such a thing.

  Once they stepped out of the carriage and walked a short distance, Linshui’s expression shifted subtly as she whispered urgently, “Your Majesty, forgive me. This servant deserves death. One of your hairpins is missing—I only just noticed.”

  Wumian reached up and touched her hair. Sure enough, one of the gold hairpins on the left was gone.

  “It must’ve fallen in the carriage,” she said deliberately, her voice pitched so the emperor could hear. “It may seem a small matter, but I’ll still punish you. I am the empress—losing something so personal is no trivial thing. If it had fallen outside and someone with ill intentions picked it up, the loss of a hairpin would be minor, but the trouble it might cause would be grave. Be more careful next time.”

  Linshui immediately thanked her, though she understood well that the empress had only said so because the emperor was listening. Otherwise, she would never have been this careless.

  “What precious thing could it be?” Ying Qionglou spoke up casually, gncing at her. “I’ll have them fetch a few more for you ter.”

  “Then I must thank Your Majesty.” Wumian tugged lightly at his sleeve before letting go. “But it’s not the object itself that matters. What if someone picks it up and uses it to frame me? Then Your Majesty will have to stand up for me.”

  Ying Qionglou chuckled and looked ahead. “Naturally.”

  This little empress of his—she was quite amusing sometimes, always finding ways to catch his attention.

  To him, this whole fuss about a missing hairpin was clearly a little ploy for affection.

  Had it been before, Ying Qionglou would’ve found it annoying. But now… he thought it charming.

  So he casually instructed a young eunuch to retrieve the hairpin from the carriage—but once it was found, he kept it without returning it to the empress.

  Wumian, unaware of all this, yawned again and quietly gathered her composure, preparing to meet the Empress Dowager.

  A missing hairpin was nothing. She decided to think of it as an asymmetrical kind of beauty.

  The pace where the Empress Dowager resided was one of the rgest among the imperial family’s residences.

  Technically, it was more of a garden estate. Even in the capital these days, the nd was vast, the popution sparse, with many areas left unoccupied.

  This pace sat nestled against the mountains and beside clear waters—a pce of scenic beauty.

  The estate was filled with parasol trees—not the tter kind known for their unpleasant scent, but tall, elegant trees with graceful purple blossoms.

  It wasn’t the flowering season now, and only a few scattered clusters of purple could be seen in the branches.

  Even so, the trees themselves stood tall and proud, pleasing to the eye.

  Wumian was looking at the trees when Ying Qionglou spoke:

  “This is your first time here. Because of the parasol trees pnted everywhere, the common folk call this pce Phoenix Pace.”

  “Phoenix Pace? How fitting,” Wumian smiled lightly. “Though, as the old saying goes, ‘Under the parasol tree, no birds dare roost.’ That doesn’t seem true.” She pointed to a bird perched on one of the trees. In the sunlight, she couldn’t see clearly, but its bright feathers suggested it was a little oriole.

  “A green jade trunk, a thousand leaves like a cloud…” Ying Qionglou recited softly. “My father liked these trees. That’s why so many were pnted here. He loved them even when he was still a prince. It was my grandfather who had them pnted back then. In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed.”

  Wumian said nothing. There was no need for words at this moment.

  The two of them stood there quietly, almost as if being punished to stand in silence, until a servant from the Empress Dowager’s pace came to summon them. Only then did they finally make their way to her residence.

  “I heard you’d arrived,” the Empress Dowager greeted them with a smile. “But you were nowhere to be seen. So, you were out admiring flowers? The tung blossoms have fallen by now—what’s there to see?”

  “We greet Mother,” Wumian smiled. “We weren’t looking at flowers—just admiring the birds in the trees.”

  “You child. What’s so special about birds? There are peacocks in the western gardens—blue and white ones, many of them. You should go see them ter.”

  Phoenixes no longer existed, but the peacocks, said to carry the phoenix’s bloodline, were the next best thing.

  “It’s the empress’s first time here,” Ying Qionglou added.

  The Empress Dowager raised a brow in surprise. This was probably the first time the emperor had ever taken the initiative to expin something on the empress’s behalf.

  “You’ve both troubled yourselves. Quickly, sit. I’m perfectly well. Coming all this way in this heat, you’ll only suffer on the return journey.” She turned to the attendants beside her. “Go summon Fu Meiren to come pay respects.”

  A meiren held a low rank. Even if she knew the emperor and empress had arrived, she wouldn’t dare come without being summoned. Better to have someone call her formally.

  Ying Qionglou made polite conversation with the Empress Dowager about pace matters while they waited. Before long, Fu Meiren arrived.