Chapter 18: 早日为皇家开枝散叶

‘Start a new branch for the royal family soon’

And all this happened on the very day of her marriage, it was all too much of a coincidence!

Yin Shuang thought for a moment, “Lao ye (Master) has always treated people with fairness and honesty. His family tradition is strict.”

She remembered that there was a time when a servant in the residence bullied other people on the strength of one’s powerful connections or position, then when the master (Lao ye) found out about it, that person was severely beaten with twenty strokes of the plank (board) and expelled from the Prime Minister’s residence.

The more Lu Yunluo thought about it, the more she felt that something was not right here.

How could such a fair, honest and free from corruption prime minister do something like collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country?

At that time, when the original owner learned that her own father had been beheaded, she was heartbroken and became very ill. Later, she managed to pull through, however, the palace stopped providing food and clothing for her so she was starved to death.

The rest of the people in the Prime Minister’s residence were sent or transported to a distant place for penal punishment, a bitterly cold land.

She had a vague feeling that this was not a simple matter, tossing and turning on the bed yet she couldn’t sleep; after seeing Yin Shuang asleep, she entered the space with a flash of her body.

She didn’t know if it was just her, she had the feeling that this summer was particularly burning hot and if she remembered correctly, it hadn’t rained since the beginning of summer. The vegetables and fruits in the courtyard of the Cold Palace were all watered by her and Yin Shuang who had gone to the well to water them, bucket by bucket. If it continues like this, by September or October, the common people’s grain harvest this year will probably be a total crop failure, not a single grain was reaped (as in a bad harvest year). 

The price of food will definitely rise in winter.

It was better for her to grow more grain.

After the ripe herbs had been harvested, a lot of food was planted. Unfortunately, there are only a few plots of land that could be planted in space.

However, she did happen to notice that the ice cubes she had thrown in earlier had not shown a single trace of melting.

This discovery made her incessantly excited.

It meant she could make lots and lots of cold drinks or popsicles to do something ahead of time. She could take them out whenever she wanted to eat them, it was like she was carrying around a giant fridge.

The functionality of this space was truly unbelievable.

Seeing the small pile of saltpeter piled up on the side, Lu Yunluo decided that she would just hide in the Cold Palace for the next ten days to study the recipe for explosives, in order to blow up that saltpeter mine at the back of the mountain after she took it all away. 

Ji Wu Jue, that good for nothing, he didn’t even know that there was a saltpeter mine in his own palace!

After finishing his work, she inadvertently skimmed the large stone tablet by the spring, only then she remembered that this stone tablet could see the weather conditions for the next thirty days.

Originally, she thought it was a chicken rib (things of little value or interest) feature, but she never thought it would be useful.

Well, it’s going to rain in a few days?

And the rainfall is pretty good for the next thirty days, so it seems that she doesn’t have to worry about the drought situation.

When Ji Wu Jue arrived at Ning Xin Palace, the Empress Dowager was dressed in brocade and luxurious clothes, gracefully reclining on a mahogany soft cushion, a palace maid was fanning a cattail leaf fan (made from a whole Chinese fan palm leaf) at the side, and in the distance was an exquisite purple sand (a type of clay found in the region of Yixing Yíxīng [宜兴], used to make Yixing stoneware, with its distinctive russet or dark purple coloring) qilin openwork incense burner, emitting the wisps of white smoke continually. 

“Greetings to the Queen Mother!” Ji Wu Jue saluted ( the salute is to make obeisance by dropping the right arm in front of oneself and bending the left knee one.) 

The Empress Dowager’s face was flat, “Get up ba!”

“Thank you, Empress Mother!”

“Ever since you took on two concubines (Feizi), in the past few days, you have not come to see Aijia (me) at Ning Xin Palace. Do you have any complaints against me?”

“This son dares not!” Ji Wu Jue’s face was slightly cold.

“Jue Er,I (Aijia or I or me is a self-referring by a widowed empress etc, used in historical novels and operas) know that you don’t like those two noble ladies, but you’ve been married for so many days, even if they are grounded, you should still go and see them. They have been in the palace for quite some time now yet you haven’t even been to their chambers, what kind of nonsense is that?”

The Empress Dowager spoke in a slightly heavy tone, “Now that the Queen throne of the harem is vacant and you have no heir at your side. You should visit those two Guiren more often, so that you can start a family for the royal family as soon as possible.”