Pampered Consort of the Fragrant Orchard

Although Du Xiaoli’s words bordered on disrespect, Han Mingze wasn’t angered. Perhaps because now it hadn’t yet reached that point, or perhaps, because in his heart, he didn’t want to make an enemy of her…

Only after exiting the Imperial Study did Du Xiaoli see Eunuch Shan, who looked at Du Xiaoli with squinted eyes.

“This servant greets the Princess.” Eunuch Shan greeted Du Xiaoli.

"Eunuch Shan, I didn't see even a trace of you just now!" Du Xiaoli joked.

"His Majesty said that he wanted this melted snow water tea, so this servant went to brew leaves." Eunuch Shan glanced at the tea in his hand and said with a smile, "Is Princess leaving? Would you like a cup of tea before leaving?"

“No need, I still have to go over to Princess Changle,” Du Xiaoli declined.

“Then next time, when there’s a chance to invite Princess to drink tea again. This servant will go send tea to His Majesty first.”

After speaking, Eunuch Shan went in. Du Xiaoli glanced at Eunuch Shan, and called Xia Yuan who was waiting outside to leave.

Brewing tea, brewed for nearly two hours…

When they arrived at Han Mingxiang’s palace, it was already noon, so the two of them had lunch together. It had to be said that the imperial chef in this palace was still quite good, their dishes only slightly paled in comparison to the Blizzard Pavilion’s.

“I heard long ago that you came, but after waiting and waiting you didn’t come. I even sent someone to look for you, and only then did I know you visited the Empress. Why were you gone so long?” Han Mingxiang asked as she ate.

Ever since hanging out with Du Xiaoli, she'd forgotten the etiquette rule of not speaking while eating and before sleeping.

"I stayed with the Empress for almost two hours, then was summoned by His Majesty the Emperor," Du Xiaoli took a sip of soup, "And stayed in the imperial study for a while."

“The Emperor looked for you?” Han Mingxiang asked, somewhat surprised.

Du Xiaoli nodded, then said, “I have some matters I’d like to ask you about.”

“Go ahead.”

The only maids in the room were Xia Yuan and Han Mingxiang's personal maid, so Du Xiaoli directly voiced her doubts.

"Why do I feel that the atmosphere in this palace is different? And, there are so many imperial guards outside the Empress' palace, as if the Empress is under house arrest, but the Crown Prince and I could enter as we pleased, so it also seemed unlike house arrest. What's going on with this?"

"I don't know either– it was like this shortly after I entered the palace. I heard it was because His Majesty the Emperor said that Her Majesty the Empress hasn’t been in the best of spirits lately– that she kept feeling like someone was hunting her down– so he sent the imperial guards to protect her. But I think both the Emperor and the Empress have been reacting so strangely." Han Mingxiang said in a low voice, "Also, His Majesty the Emperor said that Her Majesty the Empress is in poor health and should not be overworked, so even the matter of my marriage is being handled by Noble Consort Yi instead of her."

Du Xiaoli impaled her rice bowl with her chopsticks, saying, “It truly seems a little strange, but you’re leaving tomorrow, so you also don’t need to mind the matters here.”

“Yes, I’m leaving tomorrow.” Han Mingxiang smiled bitterly.

Seeing Han Mingxiang's smile, Du Xiaoli reached out to hold her hand, saying, "I’ve already mentioned, if your life there is terrible, I'll come and bring you back. Peace is only temporary, when you want to come back, I'll come get you. You shouldn't feel like all hope is lost when you go over there, got it?"

“Mm, I know, as long as I need you to, you’ll come help me,” Han Mingxiang said. "To have you as a sister in this life is a blessing from my last life."

In the royal family, though there were quite a few sisters, only a handful would treat each other genuinely. When others saw her, they either respected her or disdained her, and even though on the surface they smiled at her, they wouldn’t truly consider her a friend in their hearts.

“Okay, eat quickly or the food will be cold in a little bit.” Du Xiaoli reminded her.

Previously, when leaving the Imperial Study, Han Mingze told her that their conversation couldn't be told to Han Mingxiang. She also had taken advantage of this to make the request that nobody else could know she was some kind of heaven-sent woman.

After eating lunch, she went to see the Empress Dowager. Seeing that she was in good health and briefly giving her a checkup, she sat for a little bit before leaving.

The Empress Dowager said, as a royal sister sending off family, she didn’t need to do anything aside from accompanying Han Mingxiang on the road tomorrow.

Because she had to wake up in the middle of the night to pack, Han Mingxiang slept in the afternoon. Du Xiaoli was alone in her palace, and with nothing to do, she had people find her ink and paper to tinker with.

She felt that this Zhao Zhen was too dangerous, and her intuition told her he didn't have good intentions in marrying Han Mingxiang. She had to strengthen Feng Ming as soon as possible, to be safe.

Regardless of whether it was developing agriculture or commerce, this process would be gradual, and Han Mingze hadn't yet consolidated power, so even if he wanted to implement policies, it was much easier said than done.

Furthermore, to quickly consolidate strength, the military was the most direct approach. Aside from soft power approaches like training soldiers, there was a faster method– increasing their hard power!

For her, this was not too difficult. In her previous life, guns, bullets, and other chemical-based firearms were the most widely used, but one of her "Masters" had been a cold, physical weapons enthusiast; she could build several of these weapons, and when training Du Xiaoli, had also taught her some.

Because the brush was inconvenient to use, Du Xiaoli asked Xia Yuan and the others to find some burnt charcoal and sharpen the tip to use as a pen.

“Mistress, this bow you’re drawing looks so strange.” Ying Ge saw Du Xiaoli’s drawing as she brought up tea for Du Xiaoli.

“It’s strange?” Du XIaoli looked at the crossbow she had drawn.

“It looks much smaller than a normal crossbow. Won’t arrows from this have a much shorter range?” Ying Ge asked.

“They won’t, their range will be much farther. And it can fire three arrows at once,” Du Xiaoli explained.

“So powerful?” Ying Ge was taken aback.

“You’ll see when it’s finished.” Du Xiaoli didn’t explain any more details to them, smiling mysteriously at Ying Ge.

MoonWhisperer, skyrise's Thoughts

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