After I finished, I was very tired, and remembering that I would have to deal with the antics of the ministers tonight, I went back to the room to rest, Wu Min Jun was also a little tired and so followed. We both slept until it was dark, until almost dinner time.
The eunuchs and maids have long been busy outside, arranging the palace for the Spring festival. Speaking of the Spring festival, it was going to be held in Yingchun hall, it was quite luxurious, and was only used during the Spring festival and during the emperor's wedding, it accommodates a lot of people so it is very grand and magnificent, at a glance, one can tell that this would cost a lot of manpower and resources.
The ministers started to arrive one after the other, along with their wives and children. According to Wu Min Jun, normally the Spring festival celebration is not only for the ministers and Emperor to get closer but also for the Emperor to see the ministers' daughters at the festival, and to even let the young men and ladies look at each other, in short, it is a hidden matchmaking role. But since the incident with Liu Ya, I doubt anyone will dare to attempt to "seduce" me so I was secretly relieved.
When the hour of the celebration arrived, Wu Min Jun and I entered the hall and sat together on the throne seat. Normally the Emperor's throne seat is normally at the highest point, but because the purpose of the festival was for the emperor to become closer to the people, the position of the seat was brought a little lower, but it was still positioned at a higher place than the others, to show the difference between the rulers and subjects, so the emperor and empress still remain sitting above the everyone.
Pingyang and Lu Lu also came, sitting on a lower seat across from the TaiFu. The floor was covered with a thick red carpet, lined with gold thread, on each side of the carpet, there are a few golden beast statues that are spewing out smoke from their mouths, covering the area with mist, creating a celestial scene. At the center of the red carpet, there is a wide slightly elevated stage covered with a green brocade for performances. At the corners, there are white jade-like perfumed scented incense burners, which gently squirts smoke.
The entire Yingchun hall was filled with a wonderful delicate scent.
First, a female performer holding a bundle of wheat that survived through the winter approached the center, after stepping on the stage, she began to dance to the music to wish for a good harvest this year, for the people not to go cold or hungry and for the general well-being of the people.
The dancer's body is wonderful, with slick movements like a snake, with a graceful posture and delicate hands moving swiftly at different angles, according to the dance, it was very beautiful. Eventually, other dancers file onto the stage and join in the dance. I noticed that there are two dancers who occasionally looked toward here and sent fiery glances, I sighed even though I am a woman, I secretly glance at Wu Min Jun, but saw his calm demeanor with a trace of a small smile on his lips, drinking tea and watching the dance.
The atmosphere of the Spring festival was starting to get lively and warm with music and dancing. Although, Wu Min Jun seems a little impersonal and aloof, I was now currently the emperor. Although everyone was afraid of the Empress, they were mainly looking at the Emperor's face and seeing that I looked to be in good mood, they became a little bold and started to make conversations and toasts, the atmosphere became very lively.
The TaiFu was a statesman who has worked under three consecutive emperors, I raised my first toast to him: "The TaiFu works tirelessly for me and Xi, making painstaking efforts to ensure the country's progress, having the TaiFu is Xi's good fortune, my good fortune."
An applause followed, and the TaiFu with prideful tears in his eyes gulped his wine after saying: "Thank you, Emperor!"
"Cough..." The woman beside him hurriedly patted his back, he had drunk too fast and was choking.
I did not know whether to cry or laugh, the TaiFu embarrassed, awkwardly said: "I'm now old, if it was in the past...let's not mention it."
Everyone laughed and the atmosphere got better.
The second cup, I raised to He Qin: "General He, for me and Xi you led a victorious battle with Bei, you have shown great loyalty."
He Qin also excitedly raised his glass and downed the contents, receiving applause as well.
The last toast of wine, I raised to Wu Min Jun: "My last toast will be to my Empress."
I did not say much, I raised my glass and drank, Wu Min Jun smiled and also drank and then said: "Thank you, Emperor."
He looked at me and laughed, I think I probably understood why he did not have any reaction when those dancers were sending fiery glances my way. It was because even though he was in my body, the expression in the eyes were still his. If the eyes of those dancers are as fiery as the sun, then Wu Min Jun's eyes can be considered as calm as the moonlight, how can one compare the sun and the moon?
**(I believe the idea here is that Wu Min Jun's method of battle is different from those of dancers, while they are shooting fiery glances to the Emperor, Wu Min Jun (the empress) is using a cool gaze to suppress them, using the gaze to tell them how insignificant they are, so no matter how hot their flirtatious eyes are, they mean nothing compared to "her", the empress)**
I was a little embarrassed by my own thoughts, so I bowed my head and drank a sip of wine.
The dancing was suspended temporarily as it was time for the dishes to be served. Foods of all kinds were presented. Each dish was full of color and flavor, with a wonderful aroma. The color was bright, the presentation was beautiful and the taste was exquisite.
After eating for a while, everyone began to drink and play drinking games, as my cultural knowledge was not very high, I expressed that I did not want to participate and asked the Empress to "go to battle for me" for me today. The ministers were a bit apprehensive, but after seeing Wu Min Jun agree, they also accepted it.
Wu Min Jun went into battle, naturally, this person looks ignorant, but he was skilled in martial arts and highly cultured and learned. Anyway, he did not lose once. If he, the Empress loses, I, the Emperor will drink on 'her' behalf, but since he was not losing I did not get to drink at all, I was a little dissatisfied, so I secretly told him not to be so competitive and that he can lose once or twice, I was willing to drink.
Wu Min Jun only answered me with a patronizing stare.
The meal was finished, and it was also somewhat late. Although the moon was high in the sky, it was dimmer than the snow on the ground, the entire palace was lit with lights, which cast an orange glow on the snow, creating a glowing warm atmosphere.
After the feast, it was time to fly the lanterns, everyone brought out their lanterns and then ignited them. I brought out the lantern Yan Yu sent, ignited it and the scent of pines filled the area, Wu Min Jun did not like the fragrance, frowned, pinched his nose and ignited his own lantern, a hexagonal lantern, with drapes at the corners of the bottom. We released our lanterns and the others followed. After seeing the lanterns from the palace were released, the people outside also released theirs, soon the sky was filled with countless lanterns, joining the moon to light up the cold night together.
It wasn't snowing as much anymore, just very light at this point. We were all holding hand stoves and walking around in the palace with lanterns. The only restricted area to outsiders in the Imperial Palace is the inner palace (which in fact, is relatively empty, as there are no concubines, there's only the Empress and the princesses - who have already left to play by themselves elsewhere), there's also the Emperor and Empress's palace, other than that the others can walk around themselves too, but of course, it was better to follow the emperor - this seems to be the conclusion the others came to.
Needless to say, Wu Min Jun has been following beside me, he was the Empress and did have freedom of movement, but he was still following me. As a result, all the female family members also followed me, in short, everyone followed me.
I arrived at an open space, with only a few plum blossom trees and tons of snow, because the sky's dark even with the lanterns one still couldn't see everything clearly. I looked up at the sky and felt the mood was great, so I smiled and put my lantern down, pretended to be serious and said; "I don't know if you all know a game."
Everyone shared confused looks, Wu Min Jun's mouth twitched and he whispered quietly to me: "You better not go too out of line..."
I ignored him and said, "This game is..."
I bent down and grabbed a hand full of snow and threw it directly on Wu Min Jun's face: "...snowball fight."
The snowball hit his face and fell off, leaving some remnants on his face: "....."
Everyone.:"..."
Everyone was silent for a moment, then burst into violent laughter: "ha-ha-ha-ha..."
Wu Min Jun did not say anything, also grabbed a handful of snow and without hesitation threw it at me, I turned and ran, I looked back and received a snowball directly on my face, I heard Pingyang's laughter: "ha ha ha, royal brother, who asked you to bully royal sister-in-law?"
I: "..."
Wu Min Jun arrogantly laughed: "Pingyang, very good, I haven't been good to you in vain."
I:"..." Not even concerned about his face...
Lu Lu, at Pingyang's side, said: "Pingyang, you can't be like this!"
I feel gratified, Lu Lu is very good!
LuLu then continued: "You are pregnant, it wouldn't be good to touch cold things?"
I:"..." I was annoyed....
I picked up some snow, but was worried for Pingyang so did not throw recklessly, I aimed at Lu Lu's back and hit, Lu Lu shivered.
Pingyang had her back to me and did not see that I hit Lu Lu, felt him shiver and was puzzled: "What?"
Lu Lu answered: "Your royal brother...threw snow at me."
Pingyang shrieked, I laughed, it seems aiming at Lu Lu is more effective than aiming at Pingyang herself.
While I was howling with laughter, a ball of snow flew directly on my face, aimed for my mouth, I quickly spit it out, I saw it was Wu Min Jun looking at me with a soft smile: "Rest assured Emperor, I took it from a branch, although dirty, it is still cleaner than the ground, ha ha ha ha..."
I:"..."
The Emperor, Empress, and the Fuma (Lu Lu) took the lead in playing, the others got more courageous and joined in too, the TaiFu stood to the side and did not know whether to laugh or cry: "Highly improper, highly improper..."
Then he turned around and went to the corner alone.
As he turned, four or five snowballs flew and hit him.
"..." TaiFu roared: "Who?!"
Everyone laughed, TaiFu raised up his sleeves and joined the war, while gathering snow saying: "Now I am old, if it was in the past...let's not mention it."
Then he started throwing snow to avenge himself.
Liu Ya coyly walked towards me, Wu Min Jun was sharp-eyed and noticed her and then threw a snowball at her, she turned at screamed: "Who?!"
Then she saw Wu Min Jun standing there smiling at her, holding on to a ball of snow in one hand.
Wu Min Jun did not hesitate and immediately threw the ball of snow precisely at Liu Ya's face: "Come after me."
Liu Ya seeing that today everyone was so carefree, simply screamed: "Stop!" Then grabbed some and happily gave chase. I stood behind speechless watching the two people. Seeing Wu Min Jun turn a corner, Liu Ya accordingly followed after, and then fell into the puddle Wu Min Jun had me prepare in the afternoon.
Liu Ya screamed, but it was drowned out by everyone's laughter. Wu Min Jun laughed and then pulled her up and had a maid take her to change clothes and drink some ginger tea -- Wu Min Jun already had prepared, he even said: "Go quickly, I'll wait for you."
Liu Ya was frozen and was red.
I hid behind and I couldn't help bursting into laughter
The Spring festival was a night of celebration, the whole palace was bathed in a warm orange glow, the sky was illuminated similarly with floating lanterns, which kept on increasing in numbers, almost covering the sky above the palace like a fire, bright and beautiful. The people's laughter outside the palace seemed to break through the thick palace walls, reaching us here.
I've been alive for sixteen, almost seventeen years, perhaps I have had too little knowledge, perhaps my life was too bitter before, but I think this was the happiest winter I have ever had, just like how this thick snow cannot be seen falling in Dong. The snow quietly fell, covering me and my heart felt soft like cotton and clean like the snow, soft and fluffy.
After we tired of playing, we all resigned, both tired and satisfied everyone returned to their homes. Wu Min Jun and I were also tired, smiled and sent the ministers and their families off, the palace instantly quieted down.
The snow quietly fell with no sound, Wu Min Jun and I were looking at each other, in the warm glow of the orange lights, we were both surrounded by a lovely warm snowy scenery.
The floating lanterns covered the moon, lighting the snow, it looked like warm light sprinkling around us, like ice and fire blending together at this moment, long and gentle...
... Wu Min Jun and I kissed in the empty serene palace...
Behind the brilliance, the snow fell white...