Harem Daily Life

Chapter 258 Sending the Queen Mother to the Palace

On the tenth day of the second month, the Queen Mother once again left the palace to go to the hot spring palace.

He Linzhang, Concubine De and Tao Yanyan brought their children to see the empress dowager off. Because Tao Yanyan was not with her this time and there was no cook to cook for her, the empress dowager looked depressed and didn't even look at her own son with a happy face.

Tao Yanyan prepared a food box for the empress dowager, which contained all of her favorite snacks and desserts, and gave it to Eunuch Qin to put on the carriage.

"Take care on your journey, mother. If I have time, I will definitely go to the temporary palace to visit you. When spring comes and the flowers bloom, I hope you can come back to the palace earlier." Last time, when He Linzhang was accompanying Concubine Xian to visit Concubine Li at Jingci Temple, he encountered assassins on the way and did not have time to rush back to the palace to see the empress dowager off. This time, he was not delayed by other things and could not help but say a few more words.

The Queen Mother was very pleased and nodded, saying, "You are very busy, Your Majesty, please come when you are free, but forget it if you are not free. A year's plan starts with spring, so just take care of your business."

The Queen Mother also recently learned that the Emperor was going to send troops to help the State of Yan quell the rebellion, and she knew that he was busy, so she would not force him to come and visit her.

After the Queen Mother finished speaking, she instructed Concubine De: "Concubine De, you are now assisting in the management of the six palaces. In addition to daily palace affairs, you must also pay more attention to the affairs of the royal family. You must not let the royal family find out any mistakes. We are all members of the royal family, and we must be fully polite. I will not say more. If you have any questions, go and ask the Queen. Do you understand?"

De Fei responded respectfully, but she was very disdainful in her heart, thinking that she was the legitimate daughter of the general's mansion after all, how could she not even handle the relationship between relatives? The Queen Mother looked down on her too much!

The more this happened, the more determined Concubine De became to achieve results that would impress the Empress Dowager and the Emperor.

After explaining this to Concubine De, the Queen Mother looked at Tao Yanyan again and said, "I will leave my two grandchildren to you. You should also take good care of Zhang'er on weekdays."

Tao Yanyan smiled and agreed: "Don't worry, Queen Mother, I will take good care of the three of them wholeheartedly."

The Queen Mother nodded, and spent some time with the three children before getting on the carriage and heading to the Hot Spring Palace.

Watching the empress dowager's procession go away, Tao Yanyan felt a little lost holding Xiao Jinan's hand. Xiao Jinan also said inexplicably melancholy: "I really want to go with the Royal Grandmother. I miss the chestnuts in the back mountain." After saying that, he thought of the sweetness of the sugar-roasted chestnuts and couldn't help swallowing.

Tao Yanyan looked at him with amusement: "Didn't you just eat chestnut cakes yesterday? Why do you want to eat them again so soon?" After that, she pinched his chubby face and said, "If you eat more, you'll have to make new clothes."

Children change every day. Before we knew it, little Jinan had grown from a skinny bean sprout into a plump kid. It wouldn't be long before he had to make a new set of clothes.

Little Jin'an tilted his head and said, "Chestnut cakes are not sugar-roasted chestnuts. What I want to eat now is sugar-roasted chestnuts."

He Xuan swallowed her saliva when she heard it, and looked at Tao Yanyan eagerly: "I, I haven't eaten sugar-roasted chestnuts yet."

Seeing that the two were interested in the sugar-roasted chestnuts, Tao Yanyan smiled and said, "Okay, okay, then after school today, you can go back to the palace and eat sugar-roasted chestnuts. Got it arranged!" After saying that, he made an "OK" gesture, and the two little ones jumped up with joy, surrounding Tao Yanyan with a smile on their faces.

The eldest prince's face fell when he was next to Concubine De. He had never eaten sugar-roasted chestnuts before, so he didn't know what it tasted like...

The diet of royal children is strictly regulated. They may have eaten chestnut cakes, but not necessarily sugar-roasted chestnuts. It was only because little Jin'an followed Tao Yanyan that he ate more strange snacks than the other children.

As soon as Concubine De saw the eldest prince's expression, she knew that the child's greed was also aroused, and she couldn't help but say, "Concubine Tao, you should pay more attention to the food that the prince and princess eat. This kind of street food is not suitable to be placed on the table of the royal heirs."

Tao Yanyan: “…”

I'm not giving you any raw food to eat, so why are you so nosy!

After responding softly, Tao Yanyan suppressed his smile, took his people to bid farewell to the emperor, and sent his two children to elementary school.

In order to see the Queen Mother off today, the children specially asked for leave from their teacher. It is just the right time to go there now. If they are any later they will miss the second class.

He Linzhang also returned to the former court to handle government affairs. Defei took her leave, asked the nanny to send the eldest prince to elementary school, and returned to Yongxing Palace.

As soon as she got back, Haitang, the senior palace maid beside her, came to report in a hurry: "Your Majesty, Princess Yu gave birth to a child yesterday, and we forgot to send a gift to Prince Yu's Mansion!"

When Concubine De heard this, she immediately frowned and said, "No one has mentioned this before?" She took over the palace affairs after the accident of the former Concubine Wen. There was no one to hand over to her. Who would know that Princess Yu had given birth to a child?

"Your Majesty, the most urgent thing is to remedy the situation. Fortunately, Si Xi went to deliver the monthly allowance to the imperial concubines' palace early this morning. He only learned about this news after hearing about it from several imperial concubines. If he delivers it now, I don't know if it will be too late."

De Fei thought about it. Prince Yu was the seventh son of the late emperor, and his mother was not of high rank, so it shouldn't be a problem. So she said, "Go and choose a few expensive gifts and have the Ministry of Internal Affairs send someone to deliver them. It's not too late to deliver the gift today since it was born yesterday."

Haitang went to do it immediately, but they all overlooked one problem, which was that they didn't even bother to find out whether the couple had a boy or a girl. Haitang was even more inexperienced, so she directly chose the gift based on the price without thinking about the meaning of the gift.

As a result, after several expensive gifts were delivered to Prince Yu's Mansion, they had no effect at all and instead caused criticism.

Princess Yu's mother, Duan, was taking care of her daughter and her newborn grandson in the Prince Yu's mansion. Like Concubine De's mother, she was also the wife of a general. She frowned at the gift that Concubine De had sent over and said, "Although I don't understand the twists and turns of gift giving, I also know that the gift sent by the palace this time doesn't seem to be a gift to congratulate you on having a child."

According to the customs of the Great Zhou Dynasty, when a man gave birth to a son, he would give him jade, a box of red eggs with an even number, and a fine brush wrapped in red paper, wishing the boy to be successful in his studies. However, after searching through all the gifts sent by Concubine De, she found nothing except the jade, and the latter two auspicious items, so Duan was a little unhappy.

Although Princess Yu felt a little uncomfortable, she still comforted him: "Maybe the queen in the palace doesn't know these customs. Mother, don't take it too seriously."

After Duan held the child and coaxed him to sleep, the nanny beside Princess Yu said, "I don't know if she deliberately didn't follow the custom or if she really forgot. Logically speaking, she herself is the one who gave birth to a prince. Didn't others follow the custom when she gave birth to a prince? Her mother should have taught her this in the boudoir. How can she be someone's wife if she doesn't know these?"