Xichen went to Chen Palace to see Shen Huan. It was raining. It was raining in late spring. Shen Huan made him a pot of good tea. The two of them sat under the window, drinking tea and listening to the rain.
The drizzle wet the screen window, and a few raindrops fell in. Shen Huan felt a slight chill on her face. She squinted her eyes and looked at the flowers in the courtyard. The withered petals were beaten by the rain and fell on the surrounding damp soil. The pink petals were stained with wet muddy
Shen Huan sighed quietly, Xichen held the peach-patterned white jade tea bowl, put it on the tip of his nose and sniffed gently. Inside was the Shifeng Longjing tea bowl, with a fragrant aroma.
"What? Now you are sighing for the broken flowers?" he said with a playful smile.
Shen Huan glanced at him indifferently and said coldly: "Maybe one day, I will be like that broken flower, wet by the rain and trapped in the mud?"
Xichen's expression did not change, and he chuckled softly: "How could that be?"
Shen Huan was silent, Xichen put down the tea cup, put his hand on Shen Huan's hand, and said after a while: "I was so angry that day that I shouldn't have hit you."
His tone was so gentle that Shen Huan had to look at him a few more times.
His face was calm, his eyes were deep, and he looked indifferent
Really, can he be so indifferent? He is not a person who is good at apologising.
Shen Huan pulled away her hand and said calmly: "Forget it."
The rain outside the window gradually became heavier, and the patter turned into a gurgling sound, hitting the eaves of the window and sliding down like a curtain of rain.
Both of them were silent for a while, then Xichen suddenly said: "Huanhan, do we want a child?"
Shen Huan's expression froze. The loss of her last child was still the pain in her heart.
She was favored and let nature take its course, without taking any medicine or taking any measures - she didn't want his child, but luckily she never got pregnant. Maybe the last miscarriage had done too much damage to her body.
She didn't show any resistance, but just said: "Of course this kind of thing should be allowed to happen naturally. How can we force it?"
Seeing that she had no intention of objecting, Xichen said, "There is an imperial doctor in the imperial hospital who is good at gynecology. Would you like him to diagnose your pulse and prescribe some medicine for you?"
Shen Huan lowered his head, bit his lip, and when he raised his head again, he smiled slightly and said, "Okay."
Her thoughts returned to last night, when she asked about the eldest son's homework and food and clothing expenses. Cui Shanggong reminded her: "It's better for the queen to give birth to the prince as soon as possible."
She frowned slightly and said coldly: "Giving birth to a prince? Easier said than done?"
Cui Shanggong bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty is still young..." It's not that she didn't know about Shen Huan's previous miscarriage, but she also had plans for Shen Huan, "The emperor's eldest son is already four years old, and the emperor has no other son. The prince The position needs to be decided early, otherwise..."
Shen Huan suddenly interrupted her: "I feel sick!"
She raised her head in surprise and asked, "What?"
Shen Huan smiled to herself and said, "I feel sick if I do that with him again."
Cui Shanggong had to ask: "Why?"
Shen Huan looked a little sad and said in a low voice: "Because Xichao is back. If he dies, I won't object to being happy with others. But, he is not dead, he is still alive, and he will live happily in Prince Yi's Mansion. The pillar is hanging... He is so close to me, and I... I want to be with another man... I... feel sick!"
Cui Shanggong did not answer her immediately. After a long silence, he said: "Does the empress want to spend her life in the cold palace?"
"Teacher, you..."
"Is it possible for your Majesty not to get close to the Emperor?" She continued, "If your Majesty doesn't want to get close to you, the Emperor will force you to do so, Wei Chen... I haven't heard of the situation in which you and the Twelve Princes were captured after escaping. In such a day, do you still want to try? Or will you really be disgusted by the emperor and really be relegated to the cold palace and end your life?"
Shen Huan laughed self-deprecatingly and said, "That way, it will be clean when you arrive!"
"Clean is not the life your Majesty wants," Cui Shanggong warned again, "My Majesty needs power, needs to avenge your family, and needs to inherit the last wishes of your sister and your father... Maybe revenge has faded in my heart. But, don’t you want your sister and your father’s wishes to come true?”
"What wish?"
Cui Shanggong sighed: "The prime minister originally asked the queen to teach the empress to learn from various schools of thought. It is said to be the empress's own wish. So, doesn't the empress know what she wants?"
"But..." Shen Huan smiled bitterly, "I want to be Xichao's queen, not Chu Xichen's"
"Whoever is the queen is the queen, empress!" Cui Shanggong smiled faintly, "The empress is probably destined to be the queen in this life, not anyone's wife."
Shen Huan's heart suddenly jumped and he looked at her with piercing eyes: "Does the teacher know anything else?"
Cui Shanggong bowed his head and said: "What I said is all for the sake of the empress."
Shen Huan stared at her and said: "My father once asked someone to approve the lives of our brothers and sisters. At that time, the teacher was still in the house? I have been thinking about why my father wanted to kill the teacher. He would not just teach me all kinds of things. For such a simple reason, there should be... there are some things I don't know?"
Cui Shanggong did not speak, but fell down deeply.
Shen Wen sighed and said, "Since you don't want to say it, forget it." She suddenly sneered and said, "The teacher is right, I can't escape. Even if I feel sick, I will just make myself sick! "
So, she decided not to resist Chu Xichen anymore
Because there is no way to resist. Even if you resist, the result will still be the same, or even worse.
But today I said, I want a child?
Shen Huan wants a child, but not with him!
She couldn't openly defy him and go against him. She had to drink the medicine prescribed by the imperial doctor, but... she had to find a way to prevent her from getting pregnant too quickly.
A few days later, Shen Huan took the emperor's eldest son to Qin Chun Garden to fly a kite. The weather was getting hotter and it was only comfortable in the evening, so he changed into a narrow-sleeved Hu skirt and went to Qin Chun Garden surrounded by palace officials.
After the kite flew up, the eldest son of the emperor pulled the string, and Shen Huan sat aside and looked at it from a distance.
With a smile on his lips, he recalled the embarrassing incident when he was naughty with several princes when he was a child. The kite was hung on a branch, and he volunteered to climb up and pull it, almost falling.
"See Prince Yi," the palace maid's crisp voice sounded. Shen Huan turned around and saw Xi Chao, who was dressed in royal robes, standing there quietly, like a bamboo.
"Weak minister, please see the Queen." He bowed and saluted, every word seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.
Shen Huan felt a dull pain in her heart, but she still smiled and said: "Your Majesty, you are exempt from the courtesy, and you have the leisure to come here for a walk?"
"I just discussed court affairs with the emperor, and I remembered the scenery here, so I came to take a look." His expression was calm, but he didn't know what was going on in his heart.
"It's unlucky for the prince to come. The beauty of April in the world is gone, and the flowers in the Qinchun Garden have withered." Shen Huan still had a smile on her lips, and the clouds were light and the wind was gentle.
Xichao raised his eyes, glanced at her intentionally or unintentionally, and said: "Weichen is not here to admire the flowers. In Weichen's eyes, people are more beautiful than flowers."
(ps: Ranking at the end of the month, updated in the morning instead)