Chapter 177: The Little Princess is Shoveled

Each ancestor took turns, and if they didn’t know the story, they made one up.

The ancestors told the little girl stories with sniffling and tears, their tone indescribably gentle.

“The ancestral hall is glowing with golden light!”

“It’s such a big and dazzling golden light.”

The guards were dumbfounded.

The Great Tyrant and the civil and military officials were stunned.

This year, the ancestors were manifesting in a completely different way for the ancestral worship.

In all the years of ancestral worship, there had never been such a special occurrence. Today, the situation was continuous. The Great Tyrant wondered what was different this year.

The ritual and offerings were the same as before.

The only difference this year was Ah Bao.

Could it be…

The Great Tyrant realized this was the ancestors celebrating Ah Bao’s birth?

Outside the ancestral hall, at dawn, after the ancestral worship was complete, the Great Tyrant, accompanied by the civil and military officials, withdrew.

They had no idea that, through the night, the revered ancestors had been telling Ah Bao bedtime stories. Ah Bao had slept very well.

At first light, it began to snow. Di Hongluan, who was copying Buddhist scriptures in the small square, seemed to have been forgotten.

With everyone gone, she hadn’t finished copying the scriptures even once. The snow covered her completely.

Di Hongluan’s hands hurt, her legs were numb, her eyes ached, and her heart hurt even more.

Waaah.

She vowed never to verbally criticize Di Jiaoyang again; she would only do it silently in her heart.

Ah Bao slept the entire day, only waking in the evening.

Outside the hall, the snow had stopped, and the palace maids began clearing the snow from the ancestral hall.

“Goodness, who is this, so thoughtless, making a snowman in front of the ancestral hall?” Two palace maids came forward, both astonished. The ancestral hall was only unguarded today because of the ancestral worship, with many people present and fewer guards needed.

Normally, this place was very solemn and no outsiders were allowed.

This rule was known to everyone in the palace, and a little snowman appearing here was likely the work of some mischievous child.

“Hurry up and shovel it away. If the master finds out, we might lose our heads.” One of them said.

The other nodded, and both grabbed shovels and started scraping at the little snowman’s bottom.

“Ouch, that hurts! Who dares to hit me?”

As the two palace maids prepared to apply more force, they heard a voice, “Hong’er, did you hear someone speaking?”

“Sister Lu, yes, I heard… But there’s no one around. Who could have made that sound? Could it be a ghost?”

Sister Lu: “There are no ghosts. This is the ancestral hall!”

Hong’er: “Forget it. Let’s just shovel and leave quickly.”

“Shovel, shovel, shovel! Who dares to shovel me?” Di Hongluan was nearly enraged, shouting angrily. But as soon as she opened her mouth, she took a big mouthful of snow. Already freezing and unable to move, this only made her insides feel icy.

“Who dares to play tricks? I’ll slap you dead!” Hong’er said nothing further and directly hit the snowman’s head with her shovel.

Di Hongluan was struck on the head, making her feel dizzy. “Ah, ah, ah! It’s me! I’m Di Hongluan!”

Princess… Princess?” The two palace maids were dumbstruck. How could the princess be here?

Di Hongluan, after calming down a bit and regaining the ability to move, turned her head and looked up fiercely at the two maids.

She wiped the snow off her face, and the two maids, seeing her in the dim light of dusk, realized it was indeed her.

“Oh my, it’s the princess! How did you end up as a snowman? We didn’t recognize you earlier. Please don’t be angry, princess.”

Translation:

Di Hongluan: “Don’t be angry!”

She’d had enough anger!

Why was she here?

She could say she was punished by the Queen Mother to copy scriptures a hundred times and had ended up freezing here.

She didn’t want to be a snowman either; it was just that she was freezing.

And now, these two blind fools were using iron shovels to hit her backside and slap her face. She was absolutely furious—she hadn’t been this angry the entire day. She was about to be driven mad.

But this was the ancestral hall. Di Hongluan didn’t want to cause trouble, so she gritted her teeth and said, “You two blind fools, come over and help this princess.”

It hurt, it hurt so much. Waaaah, she was aching everywhere now. She really regretted it—why did she have to steal scriptures from the National Protection Temple?

The two palace maids exchanged glances and helped Di Hongluan away.

When Feng Zhuo brought Ah Bao out, Ah Bao’s sharp eyes caught sight of what had happened earlier. “Oh.”

[Isn’t that the little princess? Wow, she must be frozen silly, hahaha!]

Ah Bao was quite amused.

Feng Zhuo carried Ah Bao back to Yihe Palace, where the Concubine De greeted them with a beaming smile.

Ah Bao sweetly called out, “Liang Qin.”

[It feels so good to see you after a whole day.]

The Concubine De smiled and noticed Feng Zhuo. “Oh, why are you the one bringing the little princess back? Where’s that boy, Di Zian?”

Feng Zhuo: ???

He was momentarily stunned. “Replying to Concubine De, I haven’t seen the Seventh Prince.”

“Then where did you pick up the little princess? Wasn’t the Seventh Prince supposed to be with her all day?” The Concubine De had been busy with the ancestral worship since dawn until now, and hadn’t seen Ah Bao all day. She assumed Di Zian had once again sneaked Ah Bao out of the palace.

It was only when Feng Zhuo returned with Ah Bao that she felt something was wrong.

[Ah! Mom must not know I slept in the ancestral hall all night.]

The Concubine De: “…”

(⊙o⊙)…

Ancestral hall?

[Oh no, I can’t let Mom find out. Otherwise, she’ll be mad at me.]

The Concubine De glanced at the little girl in her arms, who opened her mouth and said, “Liang Qin, hug hug.”

[Hmm, I hope Mom won’t find out. I really hope she doesn’t.]

[And Feng Zhuo didn’t say anything. I won’t say anything either. But why does Mom’s gaze seem so strange?]

The Concubine De signaled Zhilan, handing Ah Bao to her. “Little crazy, where have you been?”

“To the ancestral hall.” Feng Zhuo guessed that the Concubine De had already figured out what happened last night and decided to tell the whole truth, describing everything from beginning to end.

He understood the concern a mother would have for her daughter.

The Concubine De, after hearing the full account, sighed in relief, glad that Ah Bao was alright.

It was also her fault for not keeping a better watch over Ah Bao.

In the evening, at Qianqing Palace.

The Great Tyrant had an extremely restless night. After the ancestral worship, he had spent the entire day in the Imperial Study handling official documents. That night, he unknowingly dreamt of the late emperor and his ancestors.

“My son, my good son.” The late emperor held the Great Tyrant and cried loudly.

The Great Tyrant stood in a white mist, stunned. “Father, is someone bullying you in the underworld?”

It shouldn’t be; they had just finished the ancestral worship today, burning a lot of silver and treasures.

“No, no, no one is bullying me. I’m just so happy that I couldn’t help but come and see you, and remind you of a few things.”

The Great Tyrant was puzzled. Honestly, this was the first time he had dreamt of his father since his father passed away.

“Father, what are you so happy about?”

After so many years, what could suddenly make him so happy that he had to come in a dream??