Yao Huang couldn’t figure it out. She had only felt sorry that everyone in the group was exhausted from the journey and would have to hurriedly tidy up the new residence, so she had told Qing Ai to only prepare this one bathtub in the back courtyard. How had this, in broad daylight, stirred up Prince Hui’s desires?
He had already finished washing and was sitting cleanly on the couch. Did he want her to wash herself under the gaze of those eyes?
Yao Huang couldn’t do it. Leaning back against the door with her head lowered, she reasoned with him: “Second Master values propriety and ritual above all else. Why tease me like this? Although I’m usually rather willful in my actions, I’m still a girl who knows shame and modesty. Even though you’re a prince, I don’t want to obey you in this matter.”
Zhao Sui looked at the princess consort whose appearance and voice were both aggrieved, and asked: “If you’re afraid of shame, why did you propose bathing together?”
If she hadn’t said such a thing herself, Zhao Sui would never have stayed in the back courtyard.
Yao Huang’s face quickly turned bright red: “Bathing together was to spare Qing Ai and Fei Quan some trouble. I had it all planned out—when we actually started washing, I would blindfold you.”
All those inelegant scrubbing and washing motions—she didn’t want to watch the prince scrub, nor did she want the prince to watch her scrub.
Zhao Sui: “Come here.”
Yao Huang glanced at him and walked slowly to the edge of the couch.
Zhao Sui grasped her wrist: “Come up.”
Yao Huang didn’t understand: “What for?”
Prince Hui simply increased the force gripping her wrist.
The prince’s authority enveloped her in such silence and persistence. Yao Huang didn’t dare disobey nor dare ask further. She kicked off her two embroidered shoes and knelt beside him with her wrist gripped by him. Before she could settle, Prince Hui suddenly pressed down on her shoulder, making her fall onto the couch, forcing her to face toward the bathtub.
Yao Huang’s heart pounded. Why was he in such a hurry?
“Yesterday was the tenth. When we made camp I couldn’t accompany you. Just now when you mentioned bathing together, I thought you wanted to make up for it.”
Yao Huang felt wronged: “I truly didn’t think of that!”
Zhao Sui: “Too late.”
Yao Huang understood. Because of the misunderstanding, Prince Hui had been stirred to fire by her and had been burning alone in the room for quite a while. How could such a fire be extinguished just by saying so?
“Then wait a moment. Let me go wipe down behind the screen first.”
“No need.”
Yao Huang bit her lip, thinking that she had washed in the tent last night, and this entire morning she had just been sitting in the carriage—she really hadn’t perspired much.
“Be quick this time to avoid the servants’ suspicions.” Looking at the princess consort’s tense appearance as she closed her eyes with a flushed face, preparing herself, Zhao Sui said in a low voice.
Yao Huang buried her face even deeper into his left arm that he had extended horizontally to serve as her pillow, making a barely audible sound of assent.
Zhao Sui gathered her chest binding into a ball with one hand and had her bite down on it.
A’Ji was still tidying up in the eastern room. The bed had already been made, but the princess consort had brought too many dresses and skirts. She had to hang them one by one in the wardrobe—folding and leaving them stacked in trunks would easily create creases.
When busy, one forgot the time. A’Ji vaguely felt the princess consort had only just gone in not long ago, probably about a quarter-hour, when some sounds came from the western room.
Now there was only her, one maid, serving in the back courtyard. A’Ji quickly put the long skirt she had just unfolded back in the trunk and hurriedly walked out.
Lifting the curtain of the eastern room and simultaneously stepping out with one foot, A’Ji froze, staring blankly at the prince pushing his own wheelchair as he left the western room.
Zhao Sui’s gaze only swept past her skirt hem as he instructed expressionlessly: “Tell Qing Ai to come.”
Snapping back to her senses, A’Ji hurried to the front courtyard to relay the message.
By the time A’Ji returned with Qing Ai, Prince Hui had already pushed himself to the doorway of the main hall and was sitting in the sunlight.
Qing Ai hastily pushed the prince to the front courtyard.
The wheelchair disappeared at the front of the corridor. The back courtyard returned to silence. A’Ji came to the door of the western room and was just about to speak when she suddenly heard the sound of water displaced as someone stepped into or out of the bathtub.
A’Ji tried calling out: “Madam, do you need me to come in and help?”
Yao Huang, who had just sat into the bathtub, glanced toward the doorway and said in a hoarse voice: “No need. Go about your business.”
A’Ji only felt the madam’s voice was trembling. She had some vague guesses but also felt the timing was completely wrong, so she simply shook her head and went back to her tasks.
By the time A’Ji finally finished organizing the wardrobe, the princess consort also emerged from the western room. She had changed into a set of fine cotton fabric jacket and skirt, her half-wet long hair hanging loose. Her jade-white cheeks carried the characteristic flush unique to after bathing, like a peony that had drunk its fill of rainwater and just bloomed, each petal so tender it seemed about to drip flower dew.
Even A’Ji, who had watched her for over ten years, was mesmerized: “Miss is so beautiful. Born with such looks, you were naturally destined to be an empress!”
The imperial consorts in the palace were empresses, and the princess consort of a prince’s manor was also an empress.
Yao Huang looked at her A’Ji with the gaze one would use for a silly girl. Princes and princess consorts and such—noble as they were, when it came to that, weren’t they just ordinary men and women? When it got vulgar, there wasn’t much difference from the farmers and rough men in storybooks—just the difference between talking more or less, crudely or elegantly.
Seeing that tea and water had already been set out on the tea table at the north side of the main hall, Yao Huang walked over and poured and drank three cups in succession, finally moistening her throat. Biting down on the chest binding only stopped her voice from escaping—Yao Huang’s throat hadn’t been idle for a moment. Damn that Prince Hui! When urgent, he was even less like a human, yet once his clothes were on he became that unworldly, lifeless appearance again!
“Is the prince in the front courtyard?”
“Yes, he left right after washing.”
Yao Huang both hated that this man could pretend to be a proper, rule-abiding prince, and was pleased he pretended so well. As long as one of the couple went to the front early, the servants in both courtyards wouldn’t suspect the prince and princess consort had done such an absurd thing in broad daylight.
Thinking that after the meal they would still need an afternoon nap, she had A’Ji go help Gao Niangzi in the western courtyard while Yao Huang went directly to the front courtyard with her hair still down.
Physician Liao, Zhang Yue, Wang Dong, including Qing Ai, had all gone to the western courtyard to tidy up their respective rooms and luggage. Only Fei Quan waited in the shaded area under the corridor.
Seeing the princess consort with loose hair looking languid and alluring, Fei Quan lowered his head in time.
Yao Huang: “You go tidy up too. I’m here with Second Master.”
Fei Quan acknowledged and before leaving, reminded her in a low voice: “Madam, unless necessary, Second Master doesn’t like me and Qing Ai entering his bathroom or privy. You’d best not enter these two places either. Second Master’s temper is sometimes good and sometimes bad. If you happen to catch him in a bad mood, Madam…”
Yao Huang glanced at the western room of the front courtyard and the privy partitioned off inside the eastern room, guessing that there must be some items specially added inside to care for the prince. Otherwise, if it were identical to the back courtyard, what would the prince need to be particular about?