Yin Hui didn’t like Concubine Li a lot, but secretly admired her way of dressing. She decided that when she gets old in the future, she would continue to dress up as she liked.
“Take out the spring and autumn outfits I made at home before I left the pavilion, and I’ll pick and choose,” Yin Hui said.
She got married last spring. Before she got married, the family prepared eight sets of clothes for the next four seasons. Su silk and Shu brocades were available in all kinds, and the colors were bright and elegant, suitable for various occasions.
However, after getting married, Yin Hui was intimidated by Xu Qingwan and Ji Xianxian’s auras. They and even the maids of the palace seemed to look at her with a kind of scrutiny. Being so richly dressed, even Wei Luo had looked at her coldly several times for no apparent reason.
Yin Hui put away those clothes and made a few new plain ones, and she was pregnant soon after. So she basically didn’t wear those dowry clothes, and they were still brand new.
When she mentioned “old clothes”, both Jinzhan and Yinzhan were stunned. Jinzhan spoke up and said in a low voice, “Madam, don’t you think those are too colorful?”
“I don’t mind it anymore.”
After she said that, Jinzhan immediately became happy, and said beamingly as she went to unpack the box, “When Madam was a little girl, the relatives in the family praised you for being beautiful, so you should wear bright colors.”
Yin Hui also remembered that kind of boast.
She looked at her hand, the ten fingers were white and slender. When she was a child, her relatives liked to read her palm, regardless of whether they really knew it or not, they all felt that she was born to be blessed.
It was indeed a blessing, as long as she stopped wasting time trying to please Wei Luo, with her dowry and status as a future princess, she would have everything that anyone wanted to have, so why worry about it?
Soon, Jinzhan found the sixteen sets of spring and autumn clothes that had been sealed for a year.
Because it had been stored in the box for too long, there were inevitably some fold marks, so she couldn’t wear it that morning, but the colorful colors, the brilliance that flew silently under the light, made Yin Hui seem to be back before getting married, looking forward to the warmth of spring every year. When the flowers started blooming, she looked forward to wearing a beautiful dress and going out to play.
“The weather is good, let’s wash them all today,” Yin Hui said, then walked to the wardrobe, and among a row of plain clothes, she picked out a persimmon-red dress and changed into it.
In Wei Luo’s absence, the atmosphere in Chengxin Hall became a lot more relaxed. Yin Hui asked the wet nurse to sit beside her with Brother Heng (Little Heng) in her arms, and had breakfast happily.
Brother Heng was still young and spent most of the day sleeping. Yin Hui teased her son and handed him over to the wet nurse. She took out her sewing basket and sat by the glazed window, starting to embroider a belt for her grandfather.
Her parents died early, and Yin Hui was raised by her grandparents. When she was twelve years old, her grandmother also passed away, and her grandfather became the person who loved her the most in the world.
After some time, Jinzhan came back from a stroll outside, holding a few red roses in her hands.
The master and the servant did needlework, and the other cut roses and arranged flowers.
“Madam, I was picking flowers in the garden just now, and I heard two maids talking, saying that Concubine Li went to Qinzheng Hall with a food box last night, and she also stayed overnight. Tell me, will the eldest and third masters come back in two days, or will the second master be released first?”
Yin Hui didn’t know, and she didn’t really care whether the second master and his wife could come out early, but Concubine Li brought the food box to see her father-in-law, so she must have mentioned her.
The next day, Yin Hui also cooked a pot of snow fungus and pear soup.
The weather in Yandi got dry as soon as autumn came. Her grandfather was in good health, but her grandmother was prone to coughing a few years before her death. Yin Hui was filial to her grandmother, and specially learned how to cook snow fungus pear soup from the cook in the house.
Yin Hui scooped up two bowls of snow fungus and fragrant pear soup, put them into two food boxes respectively, and then chose a peony-patterned beige outfit from the sixteen sets of clothes, and re-dressed her hair
At that time, the fourth and fifth masters were all studying. The two girls Wei Shan and Wei Ying were probably by their biological mother’s side. The East Sixth House was quiet, and Yin Hui did not meet anyone in the way.
After leaving the East Sixth House, Yin Hui made a detour from the back garden, and finally arrived at the West Sixth House. She didn’t know whether it was the sun or the walking, but beads of sweat appeared on the tip of her nose.
After wiping off her sweat with a handkerchief, she took a short rest. On entering the West Sixth House, Yin Hui asked Yinzhan to go directly to Mrs. Wen’s place with the food box, and she brought Jinzhan to greet Princess Xu.
The little maid led them in.
Concubine Xu was already forty years old, and her appearance was not outstanding among the women in Prince Yan’s palace. She could even be considered ordinary, her dignified and graceful demeanor was almost the same as that of the eldest son’s wife Xu Qingwan.
The Xu family was a first-class noble in that dynasty.
Grandpa Guo was a great general who founded the country with Emperor Jianlong, and made countless military exploits. Emperor Jianlong valued the Xu family very much. From the crown princess to the three wives and concubines, they were all daughters of the Xu family.