This wasn’tthe first time Xia Fen has entered the palace, compared to the other childrenof influential families, the palace was almost his second home.
The emperorled a banquet at the Qifu palace with the officials and other influentialfamily’s son, while the empress watched singing and dancing in the rear palace withthe imperial concubines, princesses and the mothers and wives of officials. Thebanquet had just begun, after the emperor and the crown prince saw the courtcouncillors, they saw Xia Fen behind w.a.n.g Yun Feng.
The emperorbeckoned Xia Fen forward, good-naturedly asking him about his studies. Xia Fenhad already long ago experienced the stringent rules of the imperial palace, heexceedingly understood this emperor was not as harmless as he appeared on thesurface.
On the contrary, when the emperor smile and spoke even more gently andsoftly, maybe in his mind at that exact moment was sharpening a knife,preparing to stab you once at any time. Before Xia Fen entered the palace hehad been warned repeated by his parents numerous times, pursing his lips, hisheart had long before tensed. He honestly and sincerely replied about all hisperformance records in literary and martial arts, the emperor laughed heartily:“My fond w.a.n.g, you as a literary official actually cannot teach your son well,this is a serious mistake ah.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng kowtowed, only saying: “To feed without teaching is the father"s fault,the emperor is correct.”
The emperorrubbed the top of the crown prince’s head: “I hear you stil haven’t given yourfirst son a formal personal name?”
“Yes.”
The emperorgrunted, pondering a while: “Then we will give him a name on your behalf.Surname w.a.n.g, name Zi Feng. Crown prince, tell me what you think?”
The crownprince bowed respectfully: “Father emperor bestowing a name, is w.a.n.g Zi Feng’sgood fortune. I your son thank you on behalf of Zi Feng for your grace.” Hestopped talking, then he kowtowed.
w.a.n.g YunFeng immediately pulled on Xia Fen, that is the now w.a.n.g Zi Feng kowtow tothank the emperor for his favour.
The emperorput on such a show, everyone also knew this was to make clear of w.a.n.g Zi
Feng’sident.i.ty. With the crown prince taking the lead in the thanks, some day in thefuture this w.a.n.g Zi Feng will be a member of the crown prince’s innerministerial circle, common people would not dare to make an issue of hisstatus.
Every timeto celebrate new year, the emperor would grant general pardons, at the sametime bestow rewards on hundreds of officials. After his son was conferred aname, w.a.n.g Yun Feng, from fifth rank was promoted to forth rank imperial censorsupervisor, even though he wasn’t promoted back to his previous third rank, it pacifieda lot of people.
After anhour Xia Ling Mei, at the empress’s dwelling heard the palace eunuch read theimperial decree, felt sad temporarily. The females in the Xia family were alltranquil and natural, clearly again expecting this outcome. Amongst theinfluential families that w.a.n.g Yun Feng had offended before, some people foundit difficult to avoid showing a trace of obscured hatred, however, everyonewere females of wealthy families who had seen the matters of the world, theirmood promptly pa.s.sed with a turn, not long after talking and laughing again inthe middle of the songs and dance celebrations. Out of the corner of her eyeXia Ling Mei looked at the empress in a high position, the other person did notgive her a little attention. Up until before she left the palace, then did shesee the empress trusted palace maid, the other person quietly delivered a shortsentence: “The position of imperial censor is exceedingly right, please mayLord w.a.n.g remain clean-living and honest.”
Xia LingMei hand tensed, turning around, she bowed in the direction of the Feng XianPalace.
Leaving thepalace, the curtain of darkness had just been drawn.
Inside thecarriage, w.a.n.g Yun Feng was just unable to tolerate from being vexed at thestubbornness to w.a.n.g Zi Feng’s own correct name: “Remember, from now on ifsomeone calls you `Xia Fen` again, you must strictly remind the other person,you’re now called w.a.n.g Zi Feng.”
w.a.n.g ZiFeng puffed out his cheeks: “Xia Fen is better.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng frowned: “You want to be punished?”
“No.”
“Thenlisten to your dad.”
“Humph!”
Xia LingMei got in the carriage, laughing she said: “Being called a name for nearlyseven years, it can’t just be changed right away. Why not in the future infront of outsiders, no matter who they are we will call you Zi Feng, inprivate, you parents will call you `Fen Er`, all right?”
w.a.n.g ZiFeng thew himself in to his mother’s arms, using his head to rub against herbelly: “In the future younger brother or sister will also call me older brotherFen.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng was somewhat annoyed, and yet somewhat love to spoil him, pulling his sonaway from Xia Ling Mei’s body: “Then your nickname will be `Fen Er`.” Afterall, he had asked the emperor for this favour before he had left Beiding cityfor the disaster relief, simply to avoid the older generation of the w.a.n.gfamily from inciting trouble. His son, naturally must be surnamed w.a.n.g. Hewon’t say, this also stops the rumours inside the Imperial city about Xia LingMei being chronically ill and unable to give birth, even though this rumour hadnow already been broken, however he did not want Xia Ling Mei to again bewronged even a little bit. As for himself, those mocking and ridicules he hadsuffered before, were in the past, he won’t say, she also will not know.
On newyear’s eve, the whole family offered sacrifice to the ancestors, ate a new yearfamily dinner, and handed red envelopes to the family servants, it was rare forit to be so lively.
The oldhousekeeper’s spirit was all the higher than before. When he was busy everyday, he would walk and sway his hips at the same time. He had originally wantedto invite a theatrical troupe to perform in the residence on the night of newyear’s eve. It was important to know in the previous years amongst all theofficial residences in Beiding city, the w.a.n.g residence was the most cheerless,not only was its master closed off completely, even the servants did not dareto relax and smile in front of him, at that time the old housekeeper wouldinvite a theatrical troupe, singing from the afternoon through to the evening,right until the sound of the new year bell rang, then would be announce hisphony liveliness can stop.
But thisyear the mistress was here, there was the young master, there were two moremasters, Master w.a.n.g had a rare relaxed and satisfied expression. Xia Ling Meiwithout thinking just cancelled the troupe, getting someone to buy quite a lotof fireworks.
Waitinguntil the fireworks from over at the palace exploded and echoed in the sky,w.a.n.g Zi Feng also grabbed hold of a thick and solid large incense stick,sliding along he lit ten fireworks, `pop, pop, pop` he almost dyed the darknessinto a colourful satin. There weren’t these things in the barracks, w.a.n.g ZiFeng seized all the fireworks by himself, he speedily spread them over theentire open s.p.a.ce, laughing loudly along with the exploding fireworks, hedidn’t even care about the fallen ash covering his head.
Layers ofthick ash piled up on the ground, Xiu Yu at long last could no longer carry onwatching, with Ying Shi they grabbed him together to throw him into a bath.
Bai Yan andJuan Shu also returned home, after Xiao Bai and Xiao Hei arranged the defences,gathered on a spot on the roof, watching the occasional firework which rushedout of the courtyard while drinking wine, exchanging a few blows. Wu Shengpulled out Nu Ju from a small house, going to the kitchen to steal severalhundred grams of beef as well as the pastries the mistress personally made,then Kong Xian grabbed Bai Shu to go into the wine cellar to carry out severaljugs of good wine, together huddled in a secluded little courtyard, starting toteach these two children how to be men. With regards to being a man,celebrating the new year you should not hide in secret and covertly envyothers, they should be with their brothers, drink large mouthfuls of wine andbig bites of meat, then…in the middle of the night go to pleasure houses tofreely and happily spend the second half of the night, and not live in vain.
Aftermidnight, after the bustle the Imperial city at last quietened down. w.a.n.g ZiFeng carried a book on the art of war given to him by w.a.n.g Yun Feng, a flexiblesword hung down from his waist which Xia Ling Mei had gotten someone tospecially forge, beside him on the bed was also piled up a small brocade box ofthe Four Treasures of the Study which he had kicked away, a heavy longevitygold necklace wrapped around his neck, with a flushed complexion he fellasleep.
Xia LingMei wiped dry his sweat with a handkerchief, taking off his outer garments forhim, after covering him with a quilt then did she complain to w.a.n.g Yun Feng: “Atthe barracks he’s never drank such potent wine, you know he can’t drink muchyet you still encourage him to drink a large cup, allowing him to suffertonight.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng was separated by a screen, sitting on the outside section on the warmcouch pouring and drinking himself, having heard what was said he smiled: “Hesays he wants to be a great general in the future, how can he not handle hiswine.”
Xia LingMei walked over: “He’s still not yet seven years old.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng got up to help her sit down, Xia Ling Mei swatted away his wolf claws:“I’m still not that weak.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng sniffed at her neck, the wine fragrance exhaled was warm, the warmth wasalso lazy, he lightly laughed: “I want to do this, and there are no outsidersto see.”
Xia LingMei felt that this so called father was also drunk, moving away the wine cup inhis hand a little bit: “Don’t drink anymore. To see the new year you have toobserve it through the entire night.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng stretched his legs, coming close to her he muttered: “What to do to stayup late?”
Xia LingMei thought about it: “Before at my parents’ home a large group of sisters gottogether to chat and laugh, en, do you want to play mah-jong, I’ll get someoneto call the old housekeeper over, or maybe Bai Zi and Hei Zi. The oldhousekeeper work hard all year round, let him enjoy comfortably at his own hometonight.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng reached out to hold her waist, he couldn’t help use that s.h.a.ggy head ofhis to lightly rub against her slightly extended belly. There was underfloorheating in the house, Xia Ling Mei only wore a short-sleeved dress, a sleevelessjacket covering her, she also drank a bit of wine, right now her body was alittle bit warm, it may be a.s.sumed it was the wine flaring up.
Havingspoken, yet w.a.n.g Yun Feng did not reply, Xia Ling Mei considered it carefullyfor a little bit the all of a sudden she knew he didn’t want to be with otherpeople, and dropped the subject.
The twopeople quietly sat together side by side, not saying anything, once in a whilew.a.n.g Yun Feng would take a mouthful of warm wine, and not drink it himself butextend his neck and pour it into Xia Ling Mei’s mouth. If it was the past, theserious and cold imperial censor w.a.n.g would definitely not act in such amanner, Xia Ling Mei was determined he was already very intoxicated. It wasimpossible to speak clearly to a drunk, only drink along with him, he pouredmouthful by mouthful, Xia Ling Mei drank mouthful by mouthful. Until finally,Xia Ling Mei sleeveless jacket was also taken off, her pinned hair was a mess,misty eyed from intoxication, the scarlet which appeared to not exist on herwhite cheeks looked quite enchanting.
It wasextremely quiet outside the room, faintly from inside the room sound of waterpuddling together could be heard. w.a.n.g Yun Feng from time to time kissed herfrom different angles, carefully caressing her belly, occasionally mutteredsome inaudible rubbish. Xia Ling Mei was so intoxicated her head wasn’t clear,only feeling him hold her hand very
tightly, his breathes touching her cheeks.In the haze, her skirt moved as if it was being lifted up, her body burned fromhead to toe, making her unable to tell if she was in a dream or somewhere else.
Apparentlyshe still heard w.a.n.g Yun Feng ask her: “Stay with me from now on okay?”
Shelaughed, not replying.
That personpinched her waist, since she had gotten pregnant, her waist was always veryticklish, Xia Ling Mei struggled for a little while, she could only say:“Fine.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng again said: “In the future you must not leave me, okay?”
Xia LingMei thought about it, that person’s actions was a bit rougher, she gasped,nodding she said: “Fine.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng felt it was still not enough, continuing to entice in her ear: “Say `XiaLing Mei is w.a.n.g Yun Feng’s wife`.”
She’salways been his wife ah, is there a point to have to say it
w.a.n.g YunFeng’s wolf claws also pressed down at her back, she felt herself burn up, witha slight sobbing tone she said: “I’m your wife.”
The personon her was satisfied, sighing with a kiss on her temple, sucking in her tears.
Xia LingMei felt very tired, asking him in a daze: “What time is it?”
“It’s stillearly.” He said, “It’s still early in our lifetime, very early.”
Xia LingMei beat on his back: “You’re too heavy, get off.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng again laughed, turning to lie down on her side, picking up the bedding tocover the two of them well.
At the sideof the bed, that pot of strong alcoholic drink was already on its side, not asingle drop of wine leaked out, it was not certain who had actually finished it.
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T/N: Late update but only because so I can get 3 chapters completed!
Also please be reminded that at the time the story was set alcohol might not have been necessarily considered a bad thing to drink when pregnant. We now know of a thing called Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.