Chapter 85 – A Thrill (27.1)
Speaking of Lin Jia Bao’s side of the story, we would have to go back to the day before.
As usual, Lin Jia Bao went to greet the empress early in the morning.
Lin Jia Bao arrived very early. He was always the first to arrive. After his arrival, the other concubines in the harem would arrive one after the one. Gradually, Lin Jia Bao became acquainted with them.
When the empress came in, Lin Jia Bao and the other concubines of the harem would greet the empress and pay their respects.
Then, the empress would talk about some of the harem’s official business. After that, the empress would also bring up matters concerning the harem itself. When the empress mentioned the heaven worshipping ceremony, the mothers of the three princes who had gone to attend the ceremony were all puffed up with pride. Lin Jia Bao sat in the very last seat and listened quietly.
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Lin Jia Bao was very happy to hear that His Royal Highness and the others would be back in one day.
When Lin Jia Bao watched the back of His Royal Highness as he left the palace, he couldn’t help but start to miss him already… Without His Royal Highness to hug him at night, Lin Jia Bao would toss about in bed, unable to sleep.
Husband, please come back soon… Lin Jia Bao thought.
Everyone only talked for a little bit before the empress dismissed them early.
She said to the concubines: “Let’s stop here today, everyone go back a bit earlier, ba…”
“Understood.” The concubines stood up one after another and asked to be excused, as was customary.
Lin Jia Bao also stood up and asked to be excused. Then he got ready to leave.
“An Zhu, you stay behind…” the empress called to Lin Jia Bao.
The other concubines all seemed to be rejoicing in his misfortune. On New Year’s Eve, the crown prince brought Lin-xiaoshi along to attend the banquet and had him sit in the seat of the crown princess. Everyone saw this. Unexpectedly, the emperor and the empress acted like they didn’t notice at that time, and didn’t reprimand them at all. But it looked like the empress was going to beat Lin-xiaoshi today.
Lin Jia Bao obeyed the empress’s command and stayed behind. He saw the other concubines looking at him, but he couldn’t decipher what their gazes meant. He also didn’t know why the empress wanted him to stay behind…
“An Zhu, come to me…” the empress said to Lin Jia Bao.
“Understood.” Lin Jia Bao stepped forward and came in front of the empress. “Your Majesty, what is your command?”
The empress looked at Lin Jia Bao standing in front of her. This Lin-xiaoshi was indeed a lovable child.
She looked at Lin Jia Bao’s pure and clear eyes. How could anyone dislike him? It was no wonder that the crown prince was a little addicted to him.
And the most precious thing about Lin-xiaoshi was that he could maintain his nature even when the crown prince doted on him so much. He did not become arrogant and hot-tempered. He did not get carried away [with his new status] and forget himself. It was truly a rare and precious thing.
The empress sighed in her heart. It was a pity that he was a ger… sons were better than females, what a pity…
[T/N: If I’m not remembering wrong, in this world, gers are more likely to give birth to gers (or daughters?) and gers are grouped with the females in the sense that they can’t inherit the family name and can’t continue the family bloodline, but they can give birth.]
The empress thought about it and said to Lin Jia Bao in a gentle manner: “An Zhu, ah. In the future, except for when the crown prince brings you to Yong Shou Palace, you do not normally have to come to Yong Shou Palace to pay your respects to me…”
Lin Jia Bao was stunned for a moment after hearing this. “Your Majesty, did An Zhu do something wrong?”
At that moment, Zhou-momo hurriedly came in, “Reporting to Your Majesty, the Li An Palace Hall is on fire…”
“How did this happen? Is the fire big?”
The Li An Palace Hall was relatively close to Yong Shou Palace. The late emperor’s great imperial concubine used to live there. After the great imperial concubine passed away, it has been left empty ever since. So how could it catch fire? The empress had misgivings about this sudden fire.
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“Reporting to Your Majesty, we don’t know why the palace hall caught fire. Perhaps it is due to the dry weather. This old servant has already ordered the imperial guards to go put out the fire. I believe the fire will be extinguished soon and it will not spread to Yong Shou Palace.” Zhou-momo replied.
“Send more imperial guards over to investigate the cause of the fire. Be sure to put out the fire…” The empress instructed Zhou-momo.
“Understood.” Zhou-momo replied and then retreated.
The empress turned to look at Lin Jia Bao, “I was just saying, in the future you don’t have to come to Yong Shou Palace every day to greet me, do you understand?”
Lin Jia Bao felt that this command was a bit ineffable. He felt that it should be normal to greet His Royal Highness’s mother every day. He could also feel the empress’s kindness towards him, and he has always been very respectful to the empress.
Lin Jia Bao would always come very early to greet her, regardless of weather conditions, rain, hail, or shine. It has always been this way up until now…
