The Return of An Lingrong in Legend of Zhen Huan

On New Year's Eve, everyone gathered together. On the surface, the brothers were friendly and respectful to each other, and the wives and concubines were in harmony.

But Concubine Nian did not attend the banquet. Princess Jingyue and the Eighth Prince were afraid of the cold, so Concubine Zhen and Concubine Tian did not attend either.

At the table nearby, Prince Dun was holding Qingcheng's hand to ask about his well-being, while his wife was also asking about her daughter's daily food, clothing, and living conditions. After all, this was the first time the child had left home since she was so old, and the couple couldn't bear it.

However, Fu Jin restrained herself. Prince Dun looked as if the emperor had treated his daughter harshly. The emperor looked very unhappy throughout the banquet.

At the end of New Year's Eve, everyone finished eating vegetarian dumplings and returned to their respective homes to stay up until the end of the year.

It is said that these dumplings were made to commemorate those who died in the war when Emperor Taizu of the Qing Dynasty started his rebellion. The dumpling filling is mainly made of dried vegetables, including longevity vegetables (purslane), day lily, mushrooms, fungus, bamboo shoots, gluten, etc.

An Lingrong preferred to eat dumplings stuffed with longevity vegetables. After eating the dumplings and rinsing her mouth, she got up and took her children to the Empress Dowager's Shoukang Palace to stay up until the end of the year.

When An Lingrong arrived, the Queen Mother was preparing the "auspicious plate" and "late-night fruit box". An Lingrong took the initiative to ask for help. The Queen Mother nodded and asked An Lingrong to prepare the "auspicious plate".

An Lingrong placed five green apples, red dates, chestnuts, and millstone persimmons on the plate, which sounded like "five blessings of peace and prosperity", "early establishment of a son", and "everything goes as you wish".

The "midnight snack fruit box" usually contains some sweets that the concubines often eat. In the past, the empress dowager only put a few candied fruits in the fruit cores. But this year, because An Lingrong and she were staying up together to celebrate the New Year, and they had three lovely children, she prepared several more sweets.

In addition to candied apples, candied apricots and golden dates, the empress dowager also placed sweet-scented osmanthus cake, lychees stuffed with pine nuts, candied hydrangea plums and longevity-shaped water chestnuts.

Generally, these sweets need to be arranged into auspicious patterns such as "Five Blessings Holding Longevity", "Three Friends of Winter" or "Abundant Auspiciousness". Generally, these are used for competition among the harems, and the winners will be rewarded. However, the current emperor does not like this, so he allows each palace to arrange and eat, without the need to compare with each other.

Originally, the Empress Dowager ordered the Empress to come to Shoukang Palace to celebrate the New Year together after she finished her work, but the Empress happened to have a headache after she finished her work, so the Empress Dowager asked the Empress to stay in Jingren Palace to celebrate the New Year and not come.

Hongyun and Wenshu were not satisfied that the Empress Dowager always held their brother but not them. They opened their hands and said incoherently, "Grandmother Fang (Empress Dowager), hold me."

When the Queen Mother saw the two children asking her to hug them, she put Hongxu down and hugged Hongyun and Wenshu one by one. Then she put them down and continued to hug Hongxu.

When Hongxu saw this, he thought that the Empress Dowager only liked him and not his brothers and sisters, so he twisted his body in the Empress Dowager's arms and didn't want to be held by her.

Hongxu: I don’t like my brothers and sisters, and I don’t like you either.

No one knows a son better than his mother. An Lingrong certainly saw through Hongxu's thoughts, but she is the empress dowager.

Fortunately, the Queen Mother did not think anything was wrong and thought that Hongxu was feeling uncomfortable because she was holding him.

"I think Hongxu's clothes are nice. Did you make them yourself?"

"Replying to Your Majesty, it was I who did it."

The Queen Mother nodded and said: "Your embroidery skills have always been excellent. Look at our little Hongxu, he looks just like a boy who gives away money."

Hongxu loves to eat, and he is white and plump. Wearing such festive clothes, he looks like a boy under the seat of Guanyin. The Queen Mother likes him very much.

Then she remembered something and said to An Lingrong, "The children are still young and don't know. You, as an adult, can't let them do whatever they want. Wen Shu is just a princess. You can't embroider her clothes like this just to please these children. For boys, there should be more tigers on their clothes, and for girls, there should be more flowers. Look at the clothes on Hongxu, there are tigers and flowers. It looks good, but what does it look like?"

"These children would cry and make a fuss whenever they find something different. Since it's just the same piece of clothing, I'll just let them do what they want."

The Queen Mother sighed: "When they were young, they could be accommodated, but now they are older, it's no longer the case. Boys have to do what boys should do, and girls have to learn music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and embroidery. What if Hongxu and Hongyun see Wen Shu embroidering and want to learn from her?"

"Yes, I understand."

"Also, these three children are grown up now. You should also hurry up and have more children for the emperor. Wanpin is good, but she is too smart. Yun promised that she was born in a humble family. I am most optimistic about you. If you have any problems on weekdays, you can also consult the queen."

"Yes, I understand."

Because they stayed up late, the Queen Mother asked An Lingrong to stay overnight in Shoukang Palace. Since the Queen had a headache, she could skip the visit tomorrow and just go back to Yanxi Palace after getting enough sleep.

An Lingrong agreed, and when the time was up, she took the child to a side hall in Shoukang Palace.

This was An Lingrong’s first time living in Shoukang Palace, and she realized that the palace was truly not soundproof.

The reason was that the emperor got up early to pay his respects to the empress dowager, which woke up An Lingrong. It was no wonder that the empress dowager didn't like the emperor. Which good family would pay their respects to their mother at 3 o'clock in the morning?

Normally, it would be fine, and it doesn't matter if you go to bed early, but you have to know that last night was a night of New Year's Eve. The Queen Mother went to bed at the end of the midnight hour (after 12 o'clock at night). In total, she slept for a little over an hour before being woken up. What was the Emperor thinking?

So, there is a reason why the emperor is not likable. It's not just because he didn't grow up in his lap. He was sleeping soundly, but he forced people to wake up to greet him. This is also very annoying.

This annoyed An Lingrong. She finally calmed down next door and was about to go to sleep when she heard Su Peisheng chanting: "The Emperor is coming!"

"Wow wow wow!"

An Lingrong wanted to kill someone now. Very much.

Note: The author has finished writing half a month's worth of work, and will release one chapter every day from now on.

That’s right?( ????? )? get!

The author also wrote several plots about Jiang Shen and Wei Lin, so please stay tuned (?˙ー˙?)