Time flies by in the midst of our busy lives.
The New Year passed in the blink of an eye. Wang Hongbo passed the test and was admitted to the firearms battalion. The day after he received the notice was the day Wushuang got married.
The night before the wedding, Yang brought a small booklet to Wushuang's room.
By then, Wushuang had already washed up and was tossing and turning in bed wearing a silk undergarment. She was both excited and scared, and too nervous to fall asleep.
Madam Yang lifted the bed curtains and handed over the old, yellowed booklet: "Take it."
"What is this?" Wushuang muttered, took it, opened it, and then screamed, throwing it far away. "Mom, what are you doing?"
Madam Yang picked up the book, opened the pages, and laid it out on the bed. She forced Wushuang to read it carefully: "It's nothing, just teaching you some things you'll need to know after you get married."
Wushuang, with one eye open and the other closed, said disdainfully, "So ugly!"
"What's so ugly about it? Originally, you wouldn't consummate the marriage before you got married, so I could be lazy and not teach you. However, Prince Ying is not young anymore. In many families, when this happens, the man already has a concubine. But I subtly asked Wanwan, and the prince has never had one. That's rare. In a way, it's good for you too, because no one will compete with you for your husband. But once a wife is married, you can only look at her, not touch her. I don't know if the prince can resist. So, you must understand these things, otherwise, if he changes his mind one day and takes advantage of you without you even knowing what happened, that won't do."
Yang spoke at length, and Wushuang only half understood some of it, but she grasped the main point. Her mother was afraid that Chu Yao would break his promise and not keep his promise to wait until she turned fifteen to consummate their marriage, so she brought the "Fire Avoidance Chart" to teach her.
Moreover, according to Yang, this is a lesson that girls must learn before they get married.
Wushuang finally understood why she found a fire-avoidance scroll behind Wuyou's bed...
She was lost in thought, rambling on about all sorts of things, while Madam Yang had already begun her lesson. After turning a page, she noticed that Wushuang was not paying attention, so she nudged her and said, "Listen carefully, don't be shy. This is something everyone goes through after getting married, it's nothing special. Don't think this booklet is bad just because it's old. Your great-grandmother gave it to your grandmother when she got married, and your grandmother gave it to me. When your sister got married, I passed it on to her. You see how good their relationship was. If you weren't getting married and needing to use it, I wouldn't have wanted it back."
It turns out it was a family heirloom; no wonder it looks so old and about to fall apart.
Wushuang puffed out her cheeks and observed carefully. The drawing skills were quite good. She yawned. When she was sleepy, her brain didn't work well: "The colors and the proportions of the figures are much more exquisite than Second Sister's book."
Yang's eyes widened in disbelief: "You guys are talking about this?"
She didn't care what was going on with Wuyou from her second uncle's family, but her Wushuang was still a child!
Wushuang then realized what she had said and hurriedly corrected herself, "No, no, no, what I meant was that the other picture books I saw at Second Sister's place were not like this."
She shook her head vigorously, like a rattle-drum, and finally said in a coquettish tone, "Mom, I'm so sleepy. I have to get up early tomorrow. Let me sleep."
At first, Madam Yang wanted to scold her daughter a few more times, but then she thought that this was Wushuang's last night at her parents' home, so why couldn't she be free and do as she pleased? So she agreed, "Then you should sleep well. I'll leave this book here and have Qiqiao keep it safe and take it with her. You can study it slowly when you have time."
She personally covered Wushuang with the brocade quilt, tucked the corners of the quilt in, blew out the lamp, and then left reluctantly.
Wushuang felt that the night was exceptionally short; she was woken up as soon as she closed her eyes.
She was so sleepy that she couldn't lift her head. Chaohua and Qiqiao led four maids to help her to the dressing table to get dressed and put on makeup.
The maids and servants came and went in the room, sometimes exchanging a few words with Wushuang, seemingly discussing some rules, but she listened in one ear and out the other without really understanding what they were saying.
In a daze, she heard someone say "It's over." Wushuang looked up and saw herself in the mercury mirror, wearing a phoenix crown and heavily made-up, almost unrecognizable. However, she only had time to glance at herself before the veil fell, leaving only a bright red blur before her eyes.
Amidst the deafening sound of firecrackers, Wushuang was carried onto the bridal sedan chair by Junheng.
No one has ever counted how long the wedding procession was, but Wushuang's dowry consisted of 188 loads, only 11 loads less than the 199 loads carried when the eldest princess got married.
The most valuable of the three sets of bridal sedan chairs belonged to the imperial palace.
The red coral tree bestowed by the Empress Dowager was as tall as a person, with a bright color, as thick as a wrist, and as wide as a fan.
A pair of jade lingzhi ruyi scepters, about the length of an adult man's forearm, are carved from a single piece of jade. They are shaped like lingzhi mushrooms and are decorated with small lingzhi mushrooms, flowers, and fruits all over. The jade is bright green, of good quality, and has excellent translucency. The carving is exquisite.
There was also a three-tiered peach vase bestowed by Consort Jing. On the front and back of the vase, there were two large bats with outstretched wings, supporting a cloisonné enamel "Fu" character surrounded by gilded flowing clouds. Between the three tiers of peaches, there were eight gilded small bats, fluttering up and down beside the large peaches.
The common people had never seen such rare treasures before. They came out to join the fun and, once they saw them, they turned back and called their friends to come and watch together, crowding the wide street so much that it was impossible to pass. In the end, the groom had to send out the Lingguang Guards to clear the way so that the bride could finally be successfully welcomed into the palace.
Unfortunately, no matter how lively the celebration was, she couldn't see it. The veil blocked her view. Even after being led into the bridal chamber and sitting on the wedding bed scattered with peanuts, lotus seeds, longans, and red dates, she could only see the tips of her shoes. The shoes were made of bright red silk, and the tips were adorned with red agate strung with gold thread to form the character for "happiness".
Wushuang twisted her fingers on the ground. Having lived two lives, this was her first time getting married, and she was finding it hard to calm down.
Will the future be good?
She would certainly have no worries about food and clothing in the Prince's mansion, but would Chu Yao treat her as well as he promised?
And why did he want to marry her so many years ago, when she was just a little girl...?
"Oh my god!" Wushuang exclaimed inwardly. She had never asked Chu Yao about such an important matter.
Just as he was filled with regret, he suddenly saw the gold-plated and jade-inlaid scale bar extending into the cover. Wushuang was startled; the cover had been lifted, and the world was suddenly revealed.
Wushuang looked up and saw Chu Yao standing in front of the footstool, dressed in a bright red wedding robe, smiling at her.
Chapter List 1 2 3 | 8.1 2 2
Chapter 123:
Wu Shuang had known Chu Yao for nine years and considered herself to know him intimately, yet for some reason, she felt shy in his presence. <strong>Novel txt download: Http://wW/</strong>
She glanced at him quickly, then lowered her head again.
Afterwards, maintaining this posture, she drank the nuptial wine with Chu Yao under the guidance of the matchmaker.
After the proper ceremonies were completed, the matchmaker tactfully withdrew from the room, leaving the newlyweds alone.
Wushuang had no tolerance for alcohol; even a small cup of the nuptial wine made her dizzy, her face flushed, and she staggered as she walked.
Chu Yao picked her up and carried her to the bed.
However, Wushuang seemed to have no bones and couldn't sit still, instead sliding under the bed.
Chu Yao had no choice but to lay her down and gently pat her delicate face, trying to wake her up a little: "I know you're very tired today, can you hold on a little longer? I'll go and call Qiqiao and Chaohua in to help you wash up."