Chapter 93: Chapter 93: The Best Husband in the World
As the wife of the Heir of Duke Zhongyong’s Mansion, Ji Qingrong had attended her fair share of palace banquets. Of course she recognized the Emperor’s face.
She desperately wanted to convince herself that the man was merely someone else who resembled the Emperor.
But Emperor Wu Su’s features were too striking, his aura uniquely intimidating. It was difficult to mistake him for anyone else.
’Why would Emperor Wu Su be here?’ He seemed to be looking in their direction.
Ji Qingrong reasoned that the Emperor was probably out of the palace in disguise on other business. ’He must have just happened to see the carriage from the Duke Zhongyong’s Mansion and spared it a few glances,’ she thought. And so, she remained seated in the carriage.
Ji Qingwu walked over to the carriage window. It was a little high, so she had to tilt her head up to speak to the little girl inside.
"Jiu Jiu, were you a good girl? Did you bother your auntie?"
Jiu Jiu shook her head and whimpered, "Mama, why were you gone for so long? You must have found a new treasure outside and hidden it in this temple."
Ji Qingwu raised both hands. "I swear, I don’t have another..."
’That wasn’t true.’ She did have another treasure: Yuan Heng, back in the palace.
Ji Qingwu trailed off, trying to think of another way to put it.
Seeing her mama falter, the little girl’s large, dark eyes, like black grapes, instantly welled up with tears. Utterly heartbroken, she began to cry at the top of her lungs.
’No wonder Mama hasn’t been with me for days! She really does have a new, better-behaved treasure that she likes more!’
Children could cry at the drop of a hat, without any warning. Ji Qingwu’s head ached as she wondered how she was going to explain this.
Before she could speak, Jiu Jiu’s wails suddenly softened to hitches and sniffles as she stared at something behind her mother.
A familiar scent wafted past her. Ji Qingwu turned in surprise and saw a swath of cloud-white robes embroidered with orchids.
Emperor Wu Su had been standing at a distance, his gaze fixed on the mother-daughter pair ever since Jiu Jiu had popped out of the carriage. He hadn’t intended to approach.
But they had only exchanged a few words before the little girl’s face crumpled and she burst into tears.
Seeing him walk over, Jiu Jiu stopped crying. With shiny teardrops still clinging to her cheeks, she stared at him without blinking.
Emperor Wu Su asked in a deep voice, "What are you crying about?"
Ji Qingwu was too embarrassed to tell him the reason.
Inside the carriage, Ji Qingrong saw the Emperor approaching through a gap in the window and quickly disembarked, assisted by Chun Xing. Just as she was about to pay her respects, Emperor Wu Su, without looking her way, gave a slight raise of his hand. She retreated to one side.
In contrast, her fifth sister neither curtsied nor offered any greeting. Ji Qingrong grew even more astonished.
Although the Emperor was in plain clothes, he still carried an indescribable air of stern authority.
Yet Ji Qingwu stood beside Emperor Wu Su with a gentle expression, watching him speak with Jiu Jiu.
The two of them were not standing close, maintaining a respectful distance.
Yet Ji Qingrong felt a sense of intimacy between them that no one else could penetrate. It was as if a woman like her was exactly who belonged by the side of the formidable Emperor.
Jiu Jiu had a good memory. She had seen Emperor Wu Su at the palace banquet before and knew the man before her was the powerful Your Majesty the Emperor, who could punish anyone in the world. Pouting her little lips, she began to lodge her sorrowful complaint.
"Mama was gone for a long, long time. She hid her new treasure in that temple."
Ji Qingwu’s eyes met the Emperor’s, and she guiltily looked away.
’Part of the delay had been his fault. He had pinned her against a willow tree, refusing to let go, his iron arms squeezing her waist until it ached.’
Emperor Wu Su’s expression remained unchanged. He asked, slightly baffled, "You’re crying like this just because of that?"
Jiu Jiu’s eyes brimmed with tears, and she looked as if the sky were about to fall. "Mama doesn’t love Jiu Jiu the most anymore," she said miserably. "She has a new treasure."
Her childish words left Emperor Wu Su not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Seeing him laugh at her, Jiu Jiu accused him, both embarrassed and annoyed, "You’ve never been a mama’s most beloved little treasure, so you don’t understand how I feel!"
The little girl even shook her head sagely and added, "My teacher said that if you haven’t been in the situation, you can’t truly empathize."
Stung by Jiu Jiu’s words, Emperor Wu Su—who admittedly had never been Ji Qingwu’s "treasure"—suddenly understood why she was so heartbroken.
He nodded in silence.
Two more lines of hot, sorrowful tears streamed down Jiu Jiu’s face.
Watching from the side, Ji Qingwu saw that the Emperor had been defeated by the little girl’s few simple words.
’Looks like it’s my turn,’ she thought.
She began to coax softly, "Mama still loves..."
But she was cut off by Emperor Wu Su. "It is human nature to favor the new over the old. If you wish to take, you must first give."
Jiu Jiu, teary-eyed, looked on with large, confused eyes, not quite understanding what he meant.
Ji Qingwu’s red lips parted slightly as she tilted her head to look at the man beside her in astonishment.
Emperor Wu Su patiently began to reason with the child.
"If you want to secure your position as your mama’s most beloved little treasure, you must rely on your own abilities. You have to show her what about you is worth her love, not just use tears and tantrums to win her sympathy."
Upon hearing this, Jiu Jiu’s tears stopped as if a switch had been flipped.
’To be Mama’s favorite treasure, I have to be the very, very best.’
Blinking her big eyes, she quickly disappeared from the window. A rustling sound came from inside the carriage.
At her height, Ji Qingwu couldn’t see what was happening inside the carriage, so she tilted her head to look at his expression instead.
Emperor Wu Su watched the little girl rummaging for something, her little bottom sticking up in the air, and a hint of a smile touched his eyes.
A moment later, Jiu Jiu reappeared, holding a small cloth pouch in her little hands.
"Mama, for you."
Ji Qingwu glanced at it and knew it was the sweet cakes the little girl usually saved up. Jiu Jiu would save her favorite foods to eat all at once later, which meant these few cakes were her most prized possessions at the moment.
Jiu Jiu had taken the Emperor’s words to heart and acted on them immediately.
The little girl continued speaking through her small, rosy lips, "In the future, Jiu Jiu will give Mama the most fragrant and sweetest pastries in the whole world and let Mama live in the most beautiful, most luxurious courtyard."
She stared intently at her mother, and feeling this still wasn’t enough, she added another promise, "Jiu Jiu will also find the best husband in the world for Mama, so Mama won’t have to suffer anymore."
Hearing this, Emperor Wu Su’s brow twitched.
Most women might have casually dismissed or scoffed at such childish words, but Ji Qingwu’s eyes shone as she responded, truly believing in her heart that her little girl could do it.
"Alright, it’s a deal. Mama will be waiting for that day."
Ji Qingwu began to laugh.
Even the wind that drew near her seemed to turn gentle.
She wore her hair half-up today in an intricate floral style. Her silky, jet-black tresses were stirred gently by the wind.
A few inky-black strands drifted onto the cloud-white silk robes of the man beside her.
As her hair swayed, it brushed against Emperor Wu Su’s shoulder before slowly settling into his raised palm, coiling around his fingertips.
*
「The carriage departed from Hanshan Temple.」
Ji Qingrong’s gaze kept drifting to her fifth sister, who was dozing lightly against the carriage wall.
’When had Ji Qingwu become so familiar with the Emperor?’ she wondered.
As far as she knew, her fifth sister had only seen the Emperor’s face at a few palace banquets; they had no other interactions.
But the atmosphere between them today had been too strange. It wasn’t how the high and mighty Emperor would interact with the daughter of a mere subject.
It was more like...
