Chapter 107 - 88: Night Meeting in the Imperial Garden
"My Lady, perhaps we should go back."
"It’s so cold out here. How can you bear it, My Lady?"
After hearing that their lady wanted to go to the Imperial Garden, Jiang Xian’s two personal Chief Palace Maids tried their best to dissuade her. In the end, their lady just nodded. "Why don’t you two head back first? I can handle it. I’m afraid you two can’t." As she spoke, she took one of their hands in each of hers, her temperature control halo active.
Zhenqiu noticed that her mistress’s hands, as fine and smooth as mutton-fat jade, were faintly radiating warmth.
Their mistress had been considerate enough to grant them an extra layer of cotton to wear under their palace dresses, which was already very warm, but their own hands were merely temperate, not nearly as warm as their mistress’s. Mian Xia was quick to speak her mind. "My Lady is truly blessed. You’re so warm in the winter, but I’m afraid you’ll be a furnace in the summer. I really hope you can be promoted to a Concubine before summer arrives."
A Concubine of that rank could use far more ice than a Noble Lady.
The moment she finished, she earned a sharp glance from Zhenqiu. "Stop egging our mistress on. Her Ladyship started at a somewhat low rank, but she’s already been promoted past her station to Noble Lady. That’s already quite fast and shows her standing in the Emperor’s heart. If she gets promoted to Concubine again before summer, I’m afraid things won’t be so easy for her over at Changle Palace."
"Zhenqiu, I was wrong."
Mian Xia raised her hands in surrender.
Zhenqiu sighed. "My Lady, please don’t talk about sending us back. Even just standing here beside you to block some of the wind would be good."
"If I’d known, I would have asked Chen Daying to come out with us," Mian Xia grumbled.
Jiang Xian asked, puzzled, "What would we ask her to come out for?"
"If Chen Daying were here instead, she’d definitely be clamoring to go back by now."
Jiang Xian chuckled and pinched her nose.
...
Just as she was about to leave, Chen Daying, who hadn’t gone to sleep yet, had rubbed her drowsy eyes and asked where she was going. Upon learning Jiang Xian was heading to the Imperial Garden, she looked as if she’d seen a ghost and hesitated for five seconds, debating whether to follow. In the end, she chose to go back to sleep.
After Jiang Xian left, He Xiang teased her own mistress. "Weren’t you trying to curry favor with Noble Lady Gu? Why the tactical retreat? Last time Noble Lady Gu went for a walk without you, you were complaining that she’d gone out without her dog."
Chen Daying retorted:
"Even dogs need their beauty sleep!"
He Xiang was left speechless by her mistress’s reply. Shaking her head, she went to heat water for her mistress’s foot bath, lest she go to bed with her legs frozen on such a cold winter day.
...
In the Imperial Garden, Jiang Xian was not idle. She took out her loose-leaf notebook, inkstone, and brush in a pavilion. After having Zhenqiu grind the ink for her, she allowed both maids to doze off beside her. Palace maids had far more work to do each day than their masters. Jiang Xian might enjoy working overtime, but she was lenient with her subordinates and didn’t want to tire the two out.
After all, Zhenqiu and Mian Xia were not yet twenty. In the eyes of a modern person, they were child laborers.
’Ordering them around makes my conscience ache.’
Mian Xia’s eyelids were fighting to stay open. She murmured drowsily, "My Lady, if you want to paint in the Imperial Garden, you could always come during the day."
"I don’t have time to paint during the day. I’d have to spar verbally with anyone I meet, or deal with those trying to befriend me. If someone wanted to sit and enjoy the scenery with me, could I refuse? Besides, the day is for daytime tasks. The middle of the night belongs to me."
The evening wind and the night water seemed exceptionally cold. The pavilion Jiang Xian was in stood right next to a spring. Looking down, she could see the white froth of the gushing spring water. It would be a refreshing sight in the summer, sure to banish all heat. In winter, however, it was a bit too chilly. The wind carried a dampness that seeped straight into one’s bones, making the two palace maids shiver involuntarily.
The Imperial Garden at night was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
One’s hearing was magnified countless times. As the wind whistled past her ears, Mian Xia swallowed hard. "My Lady, why do I feel like there are eyes watching us from everywhere..."
"Your feeling is correct,"
Jiang Xian told her, "The eunuchs and palace maids on night watch all have eyes. They just don’t come out and get in your way."
’Even eunuchs have to work overtime.’
The Imperial Garden was dreadfully boring in the middle of the night, and it was the hour to rest, so the two maids slowly began to doze off. Jiang Xian, however, was wide awake. She had activated the garden design course she’d purchased from the system. With the virtual screen lit up, she took time to absorb the atmosphere of the Imperial Garden.
Only by being here in person could she truly appreciate the care and ingenuity of the landscape architects.
At the same time, Jiang Xian also took out the blueprints of the Imperial Garden that she had requested from the Ministry of Industry. These were the same blueprints used year after year for the garden’s annual repairs and touch-ups. Jiang Xian had gotten them from the Ministry of Industry through the Emperor. The Ministry had repeatedly urged her to be careful with them and had even worked overnight to manually create a crude copy, begging her not to lose the original.
In an era without backups, Jiang Xian was completely understanding.
The Emperor, who had come to the Imperial Garden on a whim after reading her note, had already walked a full circle around it. Only then did he spot Jiang Xian in the distance, her head bowed as she drew. Zhenqiu had draped a thick, fox-fur cloak over her. At a glance, she looked like a fluffy, adorable ball.
The Emperor gestured for the Palace Attendants following him to retreat an arrow’s shot away and not to disturb them.
He strode over quietly.
Unfortunately for him, Jiang Xian had a foundation in martial arts.
She sensed the auras of more than ten people stopping in the distance, then retreating, while only a single adult male, who was deliberately slowing his steps, approached her...
Jiang Xian was inwardly pleased. ’System, you said before that my wanting to learn martial arts had nothing to do with palace intrigue, but look, isn’t this an opportunity right here? If it were any other concubine without martial arts to her name, could she have detected the Emperor approaching with his presence concealed?’
System: [...]
’The host seems to have a point.’
Since the Emperor’s Footprint had arrived, Jiang Xian secretly channeled her Dantian and adopted an enchanting tone, the kind that could be recorded for a television drama. "If I can just design the
small garden in Xihua Garden to be beautiful enough, will His Majesty be able to rest there more comfortably?"
Her voice was extremely soft.
’Though I’m not very good at sweet-talking, if I just rephrase my usual praise for a superior, it should be enough.’
The original words were from a social media post:
"Let’s nail this project and help the boss trade his BMW for a Porsche next year!"
At the time, her boss had given her a ’like’.
That year, her boss did indeed make a lot of money.
He just made a little too much. While becoming a Porsche owner, he also won himself a pair of iron handcuffs. He was arrested for economic crimes, and her old colleagues called him an outlaw. Treating the Emperor as her boss carried no such risk.
Because he *was* the law. If the Emperor broke the law, the law would be changed.
Hearing this, the Emperor’s heart indeed softened.
No boss could dislike hearing such pleasant words, knowing she was putting so much thought into him.
However, when he saw Jiang Xian out so late while her two palace maids were dozing beside her instead of vigilantly serving their master, his brow furrowed. "Not only did you allow your mistress to come out and be battered by the night wind, but you dare to doze off while she is still awake? How audacious."
Startled awake by the male voice, the two maids paled and fell to their knees.
"Your Majesty, what brings you here?"
Jiang Xian rose and immediately pleaded for her subordinates. "Your Majesty, it was I who insisted on coming to the Imperial Garden. They couldn’t dissuade me. I was afraid they wouldn’t be able to wake up to serve me tomorrow, so I permitted them to rest for a while. It also spared me from having a palace maid constantly watching over my shoulder while I was drawing."
Hearing Jiang Xian’s explanation, the Emperor’s expression softened slightly, and he allowed them to rise.
Then, he asked, "What are you drawing?"