He meant well, but Yao Huang kept crying out in soreness.
Zhao Sui lightened his pressure. Seeing her moist eyes brimming with tears looking over faintly, Zhao Sui asked, “Don’t you ride horses often?”
Yao Huang replied, “Where’s the ‘often’? My family only has two mules. Normally my father and brother ride them. Only when they’re resting can I indulge myself. Besides, from when the palace selection roster began until now—over half a year—I only went riding once yesterday. Suddenly doing this, who could endure it?”
Zhao Sui said, “Now you have Ni Guang. You can practice more.”
Yao Huang: “…”
Too infuriating! She pushed his shoulder with her right foot.
Zhao Sui supported his body with his right hand, grasped her ankle with his left, his gaze shifting aside.
Yao Huang quickly grabbed the quilt to cover herself, simultaneously trying to break free from his restraint. Her still-burning face flared up again.
Zhao Sui knew his own condition and didn’t force it further.
The next day he woke half an hour early to exercise his Princess Consort’s right leg, causing Yao Huang to wake even later. Too rushed to wash up, she first had Bai Ling come in to massage her.
A’Ji loved learning new skills. Chun Yan’s needlework was too intricate and complex—she had neither the patience nor the time. Qiu Chan’s arithmetic—the simple parts she knew, the difficult parts made her head hurt from pondering. So when Bai Ling attended to the Princess Consort massaging her legs, A’Ji knelt on the bed inside, watching and learning while helping massage the Princess Consort’s other leg.
Seeing a circle of palm prints at the root of the Princess Consort’s leg, she asked in alarm, “Princess Consort, what happened here?”
She had seen many more marks left by the Prince, all on the upper body. This mark on the leg—could it be the Prince had grown angry and pinched the Princess Consort?
Yao Huang glared at her. “Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask.”
A’Ji was stunned, smiled awkwardly, guessing the Prince and Princess Consort had tried new variations again.
The morning passed like this. After the meal, Yao Huang summoned Gao Niangzi and had her prepare tomorrow’s lunch banquet well. “They’re all my natal family. No need to make overly complicated dishes. Five meat, three vegetable, one soup will do. Make double portions. When a plate empties, serve more of that dish.”
Gao Niangzi smiled. “Princess Consort, rest assured. Tomorrow just wait and see.”
What kind of banquet would double portions make? She would lead the kitchen to prepare sixteen non-repeating dishes for the Princess Consort’s relatives, including the three fish the Princess Consort prepared—they must be made three different ways!
In the afternoon, Yao Huang took a long nap. When she woke, both legs had finally recovered seventy to eighty percent. Thinking her body had indeed become more delicate than half a year ago, Yao Huang had A’Ji fetch a long rope. She had Bai Ling and Chun Yan, who couldn’t jump, each stand at one end swinging the rope, while she led A’Ji and Qiu Chan—sometimes taking turns jumping, sometimes two people jumping, sometimes three people jumping.
Jumping a while, resting a while—after an hour, all three mistress and servants had flushed faces with sweat-dampened stray hair.
Yao Huang persisted the longest of the three. Even A’Ji couldn’t match her.
Bai Ling said admiringly, “The Princess Consort is truly amazing!”
When first meeting the Princess Consort, she had thought the Princess Consort was so plump and lustrous because she didn’t like moving. Who knew when jumping she would be light as a swallow!
A’Ji said with shared honor, “This is nothing. The Princess Consort can even wield a spear—moving like a dragon and phoenix. She performs even better than my young master.”
Chun Yan immediately flattered, “Could the Princess Consort open our eyes?”
Yao Huang took a damp cloth to wipe her sweat, glanced at the western sun, and smiled. “It’s still early. Then I’ll show you a skill.”
She pointed to a junior maid and had her ask Guo Shu to borrow a spear. Prince Hui was famous for military achievements—the residence definitely didn’t lack weapons.
Guo Shu came personally, bringing two spears. One had a wooden spear head—what the residence guards used for normal sparring. The other was a cattail wood long spear lacquered black with hints of red, with a sharp spear head—an old spear Prince Hui had used when practicing martial arts in his youth.
Guo Shu’s voice carried a trace of pleading. “If the Princess Consort is just practicing, please use the wooden spear. If you injure yourself, the Prince will worry.”
Yao Huang smiled, grabbed Prince Hui’s old spear, and had everyone retreat to the corridor. As if no one else existed, she practiced a round of spearmanship she had learned from her brother.
Ordinary soldiers in military camps, including her centurion father, learned the simplest enemy-confronting spearmanship. Her brother had also followed their father learning this set as a child. Later when her brother tested into the military academy, court-appointed master teachers separately taught them boxing, spearmanship, blade techniques, swordsmanship, and so on. Her brother, afraid of biting off more than he could chew, chose spearmanship and blade techniques to practice diligently. Yao Huang not only learned these two from her brother but also had Li Tingwang teach her swordsmanship.
If not for the benefits she could get from Li Tingwang, just based on his foul mouth, Yao Huang would have long since ignored him.
Finishing a set of spear techniques, when withdrawing the spear, Yao Huang thrust the spear tip downward forcefully. An obvious small pit was actually pierced into the stone brick beneath her feet.
She smiled toward Guo Shu.
Guo Shu was first shocked, then clapped in praise. “Princess Consort, excellent spearmanship! This humble one previously underestimated you. Please forgive me, Princess Consort.”
Yao Huang was magnanimous. Weighing the spear in her hand, she asked, “Can you get me one exactly like this?”
The two spears her father and brother had saved money to forge were both too heavy for her. This one was just right to use.
Guo Shu replied, “The Prince’s spears are all custom-made by the court armory workshop. I’ll request instructions from the Prince. As long as I have the Prince’s token, I can order one from the armory workshop.”
Yao Huang said, “That troublesome? Then forget it. Normally I don’t need it anyway. When my hands itch, I’ll just use the Prince’s old one.”
At night she attended to him so diligently—presumably Prince Hui wasn’t that petty.