Chapter 39

After the Lantern Festival, the New Year celebrations were considered over. The court resumed its activities, and the families of King Yan and the Grand Princess returned to their respective duties and studies.

One day, the Ministry of Rites received news that His Majesty would hold the Plowing Ceremony this year.

The Plowing Ceremony involves the Emperor personally plowing a field at the Temple of Agriculture on a selected day in February or March, chosen by the Astronomical Bureau. This ceremony is meant to honor the first farmer and promote the national policy of prioritizing agriculture and encouraging farming throughout the land.

Whether or not to hold the Plowing Ceremony is up to the Emperor. In this dynasty, there have been wise rulers who, to save money, never held the ceremony during their reign. Therefore, not holding it wouldn’t lead to severe criticism from the ministers, who wouldn’t accuse the Emperor of being a foolish ruler.

The Emperor’s plowing is naturally less arduous than that of ordinary farmers. It involves a ceremonial offering first, followed by three pushes and three returns of the plow amidst music and songs. The oxen used are carefully selected for their docility, and an experienced farmer leads the oxen, ensuring the Emperor doesn’t have to exert much effort.

The only issue is that to ensure everything goes smoothly, the Emperor needs to rehearse in the Western Garden. The Emperor finds the practice troublesome, so apart from the first two years of his reign, he hasn’t held the Plowing Ceremony since.

Lin Que remembered clearly when Emperor Gu Youxun cautiously asked if he could be exempted from the Plowing Ceremony. When Lin Que said yes, Gu Youxun was delighted. The ministers who advised him otherwise were scolded, completely unaware that they were pushing the Emperor’s responsibilities onto others.

Why the sudden change of heart?

Curious, Lin Que investigated and found that someone had been advising him—An Ying’s student, Pei Siyuan.

The newly appointed Minister of Rites was one of Lin Que’s people. Like all members of King Yan’s faction, he wasn’t afraid of an incompetent emperor but feared an emperor being molded into a good ruler. He sent the news, unsure if the Plowing Ceremony would impact the current situation.

Lin Que closed his eyes to rest for a while. When he opened them, his gaze fell on the list of participants for the Plowing Ceremony brought by the Minister of Rites. He said, “Proceed as usual.”

No matter who was plotting behind the scenes, the throne couldn’t be stabilized as long as Gu Youxun was Emperor.

Lin Que was more concerned about Pei Siyuan than Gu Youxun.

Given Lin Que’s nature, Pei Siyuan’s fate would have been sealed once An Ying retired. However, Pei Siyuan’s proposed reforms positively impacted the current political situation and improved people’s lives. Grand Princess Zhaoming increasingly saw Pei Siyuan as a talent and didn’t want Lin Que to eliminate him.

Lin Que knew that Grand Princess Zhaoming cared deeply about the country. If Pei Siyuan were to die out of fear, how would she be different from when the late Emperor was in power?

So Lin Que hadn’t taken action. He decided to wait a bit longer, hoping to find a way to keep Pei Siyuan while ensuring he had no choice but to serve them.

At night, Lin Que chatted with Li Mu as usual. Li Mu listened while putting a black cat ear hat she had secretly crocheted on Lin Que’s head.

Perfect, very cute!

It was worth sneaking around since the Lantern Festival to make it!

Li Mu was in a good mood, holding Lin Que’s face and looking at him from side to side. She casually said, “Isn’t it simple? Make Mother the Emperor. Pei Siyuan is loyal to the Emperor, right? Let him be loyal to her.”

Code conflict? Fix it. Li Mu was good at debugging.

As she spoke, Li Mu looked up, finding the cat ears adorable, and pinched them. When she looked down, she saw Lin Que staring at her in a daze.

Li Mu blinked: What’s wrong? Do the external cat ears have sensory feedback?

Lin Que didn’t speak, pulling her into his arms. He tilted his head, thinking, and murmured, “Why didn’t I think of this before?”

Li Mu thought it was normal for people to have limitations. Besides, the history here was unique, and there had never been a female emperor. It was normal not to think of it immediately.

Influenced by modern thinking, Li Mu didn’t see anything wrong with it.

However, Lin Que felt like a new world had opened up. His past worries and concerns suddenly had a permanent solution. He looked at Li Mu, and perhaps it was the bright candlelight, but Lin Que’s eyes seemed to shine like stars in the night sky.

Li Mu was stunned, not reacting even when Lin Que kissed her affectionately. She pushed him away, saying, “Moderate yourself.”

Lin Que smiled and complied but didn’t let go. He kissed Li Mu’s palm covering his face and asked, “Do you know why I have this name?”

Li Mu shook her head. How would she know?

She withdrew her hand, and Lin Que leaned close to her ear, speaking slowly, “When I was born, the late emperor bestowed my name upon me.”

“Que,” meaning to return or refuse.

If it had been chosen by the Grand Princess and the Prince Consort, it could be interpreted as a wish for their child to be humble. But since it was the late Emperor, the meaning became much more intriguing.

Lin Que continued, “It was both a gift and a reminder.”

“A reminder for my mother to always remember to relinquish military power when necessary and not to hold onto it for personal gain.”

Lin Que, as usual, spoke about his own matters as if recounting someone else’s story. He even had the leisure to sit up and carefully remove the ornaments from Li Mu’s hair one by one. “Later, my mother did relinquish military power once, when she defied the imperial edict to bring back Aunt Huai Shu. She quelled the rebellion, returned to the capital, and handed over the military power, leaving it to the late Emperor’s discretion.”

“My mother told me she was wrong in that matter, but even if she had to do it again, she would make the same mistake.”

“Later, the late Emperor’s favorite crown prince was captured during a campaign, leading to border turmoil. They urgently needed someone to lead the troops, so the military power returned to her hands.”

“She thought that this would balance out her merits and faults, but she never expected the late emperor to still be dissatisfied with her and to have her take me, only thirteen years old, into the military camp.”

As Li Mu’s hair got tangled in a hairpin, Lin Que carefully untangled it. “Looking back now, I still don’t understand the late Emperor’s intentions. Did he think I was young and would easily die on the battlefield, leaving my father without an heir? Or did he want my mother to remember the meaning of my name every time she called me, to relinquish military power when necessary?”

“But when is the necessary time? After conquering the northern border? When Zheng Dexiang was dissatisfied with the Lin family’s influence and led the literati to petition against the eunuchs’ corruption? Or when I didn’t die on the battlefield but instead, at seventeen, led a thousand men to break through five divisions and slaughter the Tatar royal family?”

Lin Que removed all the ornaments from Li Mu’s hair, letting her long hair fall freely. He lay back down beside her, and as Li Mu turned to embrace him, he pulled her into his arms and whispered—

“Weixi, you are right.”

“Mother devoted herself to the country, pacified the northern turmoil, and bore countless scars, yet she still thought of the greater good.”

“The late emperor owed her, and now that the world belongs to her, why not?”

---

In March, after Li Yunxi’s birthday, Lin Qiwu and Wudu’s two children went to the countryside and brought back a bunch of flowers.

Lin Qiwu didn’t want to tire Li Mu, so she didn’t ask her to make many flower crowns by hand like last year. Instead, she brought Lin Yan’an along, and the four children sat together with Li Mu to learn and make their own.

Lin Qiwu’s flower crown didn’t turn out very well. Seeing that Lin Yan’an’s was good, she took his and gave him hers, calling it an exchange.

After they left, Li Mu still had a flower crown in her hand, which she placed on Lin Que’s head when he returned from the Plowing Ceremony.

Still wearing his ceremonial prince’s attire, Lin Que had his nine-bead crown removed by Li Mu, who then placed the flower crown on him and fell silent.

Lin Que raised an eyebrow. “What does this mean? Doesn’t it look good?”

Li Mu shook her head and said slowly, “You are more beautiful than the flowers.”

Lin Que laughed heartily and began to embrace Li Mu.

The dignified ceremonial robe ended up draped over Li Mu. The fabric felt uncomfortable against her skin, but she had no time to care as she was pulled into Lin Que’s rhythm.

Perhaps the cold weather made people crave intimacy. Li Mu thought intermittently: When it gets warmer, it should be better.

But it wasn’t.

Lin Que’s health had improved, so they didn’t go to the summer palace to escape the heat this year. This summer was the hottest, even hotter than the previous years when they didn’t go to the summer palace. It was so hot that Li Mu temporarily set aside her worries about a possible Little Ice Age in this era and wore gauze clothes that she didn’t often wear in previous summers. She didn’t wear an undershirt, just a main belt, which was a common summer outfit for women at home in this era. She even considered not wearing gauze clothes, just a sleeveless black gauze vest, to barely survive the scorching summer.

Li Mu avoided the scorching sun and lay on the couch in the study on the west side. The couch table was pushed aside, holding her homework, several memorials, two cups, and a plate of small pastries.

The homework had already been discussed, with Li Mu’s corrections and rewritten thoughts. The memorials were pressed under content summaries, indicating that Lin Que was no longer satisfied with just teaching Li Mu about people’s livelihood in class but had also started teaching her how to read memorials.

The two had already eaten the plate of small pastries, leaving only the ice, which absorbed the hot air and was slowly melting.

Lin Que lay beside Li Mu. Although there was an ice container in the study, which would make lying still less hot, Lin Que insisted on snuggling up to Li Mu, inching closer bit by bit.

Li Mu tried to push him away, complaining, “Stop rubbing against me, or we’ll end up all sweaty again.”

Lin Que hooked her finger, saying, “Isn’t that perfect? Then we can take a bath together.”

It’s hard to say whether the suggestion of a bath tempted Li Mu or the newlywed couple simply lacked self-control. By the time the ice in the plate had completely melted and was no longer cold, they were both drenched in sweat, feeling sticky and uncomfortable, and only felt refreshed after taking a bath.

Finally, Wudu, looking conflicted, said that while their current behavior wasn’t excessive, it wasn’t without impact either. He suggested they sleep in separate rooms to exercise restraint, which taught Lin Que to control himself in this regard.

—Lin Que sincerely believed that a bit of restraint was fine, but sleeping in separate rooms was not an option.

A few days later, the heavens finally opened up, bringing rain that lowered the temperature in the capital. The rain lasted for several days. One day, Gu Chi came to visit Lin Que in the rain, discussed some official matters, and then called out, “Brother.”

Lin Que took a sip of lotus seed tea and said, “Speak your mind.”

Gu Chi said, “I want to marry the second daughter of the Li family, Li Zhi.”

The day had finally come.

Lin Que’s face darkened. Seeing this, Gu Chi recalled Li Zhi’s various worries and began listing countermeasures.

Lin Que’s change of expression wasn’t for any other reason but frustration. Li Mu had previously asked Lin Que how she should address Gu Chi—as a younger brother-in-law or as a second brother-in-law.

Later, since Li Mu rarely called people by name, the issue was resolved, but another problem remained.

Lin Que said, “I don’t really want the second daughter of the Li family to call me brother.”

Gu Chi’s heart sank. He was about to express his determination to marry Li Zhi when he heard Lin Que say, “She should call me brother-in-law in the future. You call me brother, and you two can each call me differently.”

Gu Chi looked confused. Wasn’t he against it? Why did he say “you two”?

Lin Que thought Gu Chi was unwilling. He put down his teacup and added, “Actually, it’s fine if Li Zhi calls me brother and calls Weixi sister-in-law. I’m just worried your sister-in-law might feel awkward.”

Sigh, what a headache.

Gu Chi: “…” Why was the difficulty of proposing to his beloved different from what he had imagined?