Chapter 302 – A Children’s Quarrel (2)
“Empress Dowager, even if it was only children quarreling, he shouldn’t have burnt Liu Hua’s hair!” she cried.
“I heard that was because Liu Hua was trying to smash A’Yi with that lantern, and the guard blocked her. I will scold that guard, don’t you worry.” The empress dowager calmly replied.
Now Princess Royal understood the other was clearly on Little Prince’s side. So, if she said what happened last night was only a children’s quarrel, then there was nothing they could discuss.
Even though she was unwilling to let Mo Rongyi get away from this, he was the blood brother of the emperor, Empress Dowager’s favorite son. What else could she do?
As such, Princess Royal left the palace aggrieved and unreconciled. However, to appease her, the empress dowager decreed to seal Liu Hua as Hua Fei, and excuse her from coming to the palace before she recovered.
When Ye Zhen heard this news, she just sneered in her heart. This was indeed Mo Rongzhan’s way of doing things. When he planned to win over someone, he would always reassure the person when the person was aggrieved. At least she and her brother were not implicated in the incident last night, so that was good news. However, she didn’t know if Mo Rongzhan would let her off the hook.
♚
After the Lantern Festival, it was time for Ye Zhen to return to the academy. She had to attend the Imperial Physician’s Exam in March. Although she was confident in her medical skills, she wouldn’t take it lightly and wholeheartedly immersed herself in gaining new knowledge.
As time slowly passed, she was finally able to put behind the incident of the Lantern Festival. She also entered the palace to meet the Empress Dowager afterwards. While there, she caught sight of Mo Rongzhan enjoying the flowers in the imperial garden with Xu Huiru. He treated her like everyone else, indifferent and aloof as if what happened that evening was only her nightmare.
This was enough. He had let her off, and she didn’t have to worry anymore!
“Yaoyao, tomorrow is the second of February, Dragon-Head-Raising Festival. Let’s go to the temple to worship.” Pei Shi came in and saw her daughter cooped up inside the house again reading a book. Ever since the Lantern Festival, Lu Yaoyao had mewed herself up in the mansion refusing to step out unless absolutely necessary.
Ye Zhen raised her head and smiled. “Mother, what brought you here?”
“Look at you, you’ve lost a lot of weight and always stay inside the house. I used to worry about you running around, now I worry that you stay in the house too much.” A slightly miffed Pei Shi then said, “If I knew that this would happen after you entered the School of Medicine, I wouldn’t have let you go.”
“Mother, can I go worship with you tomorrow?” Ye Zhen immediately put down the book in her hand and ran to hold Pei Shi’s arms.
Pei Shi chuckled and shook her head, knowing all too well her daughter’s coquetry. “What were you reading?”
“The book Mister Chen gave me. Mother, where did the Qi Medical Classics come from in our family?” Ye Zhen asked.
“Qi Medical Classics?” Pei Shi was confused. “How come I’ve never seen that book? The books I gave you are mostly collected in the border town. Do we really have the Qi Medical Classics?”
As the daughter of a doctor’s family, Pei Shi naturally understood the meaning of the Qi Medical Classics and couldn’t believe such a precious book was in their possession.
“There’s only one, mainly about various medical cases. Mister Chen has lent me several others,” Ye Zhen said.
Pei Shi was a little surprised. “Then you shall take a good look. Qi’s Medical Classics are extremely precious, many people have wished to read them but never had a chance. We’re really lucky.”
Ye Zhen nodded. “I will read them very carefully.”
She was very grateful to Huangfu Chen. If it were her, she might not be willing to lend such precious books, but he did it without any hesitation.
“All right, you need to prepare. Let’s go to the temple tomorrow, and fetch some water back from the moat. There is this custom in the capital, that after His Majesty brings the citizens and the officials to make offerings to God, Heaven would send blessed water to the moat, and if we bring back some water to our well, we will be blessed to have enough food and clothing for a year.” Pei Shi explained to her.
“Mother, I know. We shall take more tomorrow; we have two wells.” Ye Zhen smiled.
How could she not know about the custom of the second of February?
In the past, her father used to take her to the moat. He told her that although customs and legends were not credible, traditions must be followed.
