zChapter 1016 - Giving You an Illness (2/2)
Feng Yuheng did not consider whether or not he was an idiot. She had been out for the entire night, and her husband had just left. Without saying another word, she dove into bed and went to catch up on sleep. Wang Chuan and Huang Quan were both accustomed to Feng Yuheng catching up on sleep during the day after working through the night. Neither went to disturb her. Even the servants cleaning up the yard outside were much quieter. It was all for the sake of letting Feng Yuheng sleep well.
Calculating it, the new year would arrive in just a few days. Even if the atmosphere in the Imperial Palace drained away any festive feeling, this was the first new year’s celebration since Feng Yuheng and Xuan Tianming’s marriage. Lady Zhou felt that the two could not be allowed to suffer any grievances, thus she made arrangements ahead of time.
Qing Yu worked together with Lady Zhou, as the two handled the work that needed to be done in the Yu Palace and the imperial daughter’s manor. Not only were new clothes made for the servants, but even the Yao manor and Wenxuan manor’s supplies were purchased. Of the two, Lady Zhou felt that the Yao manor was Feng Yuheng’s extended family, thus she made a decision and ordered a set of head ornaments for the madams of the family. All of them were made of gold and inlaid with jade. The designs were ordered by Qing Yu from the jewelry shop. They were beautiful, neither looking old-fashioned nor plain.
As for the Yu Palace, Qing Yu felt that the servants of the Yu Palace should be provided with some better rewards in Feng Yuheng’s name. This additional reward could not come from the Yu Palace’s treasury; it would need to come from the imperial daughter’s manor. The imperial daughter’s manor had always kept its own treasury, and a large portion of Feng Yuheng’s personal wealth came from over there. Moreover, the imperial daughter’s manor had always been quite wealthy, and there was more gold and silver in the underground vault than could be counted. She went over herself and chose quite a few nice things, planning to get a headcount in the Yu Palace. Aside from rewarding them with money, each person was guaranteed to receive something as a gift for the new year. As for Lady Zhou and Eunuch Zhang, they were treated even more specially, as they were given lots of things.
Qing Yu told Feng Yuheng about her plan and the list of gifts when the latter woke up, and Feng Yuheng could not help but sigh: “It’s almost the new year, huh?” Recently, she had always been thinking about the situation in the palace, and she had completely forgotten about the new year. Even with Zirui returning to the capital, she did not feel even the slightest bit of a festive atmosphere. “This year’s new year’s celebration might not be so joyous.” While she said this, she returned the list of gifts to Qing Yu, “Just do as you’ve arranged. I have always been most at ease with you handling things.”
Qing Yu did not give over control and just nodded, saying: “Aside from just the capital, there are the Hundred Herb Halls all over, as well as Ji An Prefecture. There are also our shops in the south. The southern shops have Wang Lin, and there’s no need to worry. In Ji An Prefecture, this servant personally made the decision to send a letter to the third young miss half a month earlier, telling her and concubine mother An to help take care of these things over there. Although we have not yet received a reply, thinking about it, it should not be a problem.”
When Qing Yu brought up Xiangrong, Feng Yuheng sighed once more, saying: “I was originally thinking of having Xiangrong return to the capital for the new year, but then so many things have happened, and I no longer want to call her back. Having her in Ji An Prefecture is more reassuring. If she came back, who knows just what might happen.” After saying this, she suddenly remembered something, as she quickly said to Wang Chuan: “There is something that I forgot about. I promised Bai Ze to give him a vacation for the new year to let him go to Ji An Prefecture to see Furong. Help me with this. When His Highness returns tonight, bring this up and let Bai Ze set out tomorrow. If he doesn’t leave soon, it will be too late.”
Wang Chuan nodded and did not say anything; however, Huang Quan said: “As this servant sees it, Bai Ze will be unable to leave. Given the current situation and based on his personality, no matter how much he is thinking about the Bai family’s young miss, he can’t possibly leave His Highness on his own and head to Ji An Prefecture. As someone who is a personal guard, he has been with His Highness since childhood.”
Wang Chuan also felt this way, telling Feng Yuheng: “We were taught from a young age to always put our masters first. All personal feelings must be placed further down in priority. Of course, strictly speaking, we can’t have feelings. All of our feelings must be focused on our master, and our master’s life is our own life. If there is danger to our master, we definitely cannot leave them to handle personal affairs. These are the rules.”
Feng Yuheng naturally knew about these rules, but she still felt that things should be a little more humane. People could not be raised to be like machines. They should have their own feelings and thoughts. Each person was an independent person and should not live for the existence of a so-called master.
But she could not be bothered with saying such things. After all, she had already expressed her thoughts to Wang Chuan and the others. Even if she said it, they could not possibly do things as she said. It would be better to just follow the customs of the era.
Thus she waved her hand, “Then we’ll deal with it later! Either way, just bring it up tonight. Whether or not he goes, it will be his own decision.”
That afternoon, Feng Yuheng finally began to manage some of the Yu Palace’s affairs in her role as the female master, but most of it was just looking over what the servants had written down in reports for her. This included the clothes that had been prepared. She felt very satisfied.
Of course, Lady Zhou also prepared some new clothes made for her and Xuan Tianming, but their clothes were more of a surprise and had not yet been completed. They would only be completed in a few days’ time.
With many tasks at hand, time passed quickly. In what felt like a blink of an eye, the sky had become dark. Huang Quan knew that she would be going into the palace at night, thus she advised her to take a nap after eating dinner. Either way, Xuan Tianming had gone to visit the military camp and would not be returning for the night.
Feng Yuheng, however, was unable to fall asleep. She could not stop wondering what sort of condition old eighth would be in after waking up?