They came to a busy street with stalls and store fronts. Since this was her first time, Ye didn’t rush Mei Hua and let her look around. After passing by several stores, she stopped at a small stall selling carved figurines.

“May I pick them up?” Mei Hua asked the merchant politely. When he gave a nod and a toothy grin, she began picking up the ones interesting to her. The bulk of the carvings were of deer. A single doe standing in a field, a leaping fawn, a majestic buck, or some combination of the three, were all exquisitely carved. She picked up a buck that had vines entangling it’s antlers, reminding her of when she’d led people over the mountains all those years ago.

“Ye, do you think Jin would like this?”

Ye’s face puckered. “Do we really need another deer decoration at home?”

“Mother, I think this one would be better.” Shi Ji smiled as he picked up a doe. Its base was made to look like a field of tiny, beautiful flowers. The doe’s head was lowered into the tiny field, as if eating.

She looked at it curiously. “It’s lovely, but why that one? It doesn’t fit his image.”

Shi Ji couldn’t help laughing.

“What do you mean ‘doesn’t fit’? This would remind him of you! He’d definitely like it.”

“Oh!” Mei Hua felt her cheeks heat up. Not knowing how to respond, she picked up a random carving and then blinked. “What on earth…?”

While the deer were like tiny replicas of the real thing, the carving in her hand was very… stylized. It was a woman with an oval face like an egg, thin eyes, tiny nose, and eyebrows almost dot shaped. Her hair was piled up on top of her head and she was wearing dainty clothes, and in her hand was a flowering branch. There was a sort of… limp look to how the carved woman was standing and holding the branch.

“Ah, that is Lady—I mean, Imperial Queen Consort,” The merchant slowly said out the title, brows furrowed slightly as he did. The new title had been spread to all the towns and villages, but people were still having problems adjusting. “Mei Hua. The wife of his Revered Imperial Highness, Emperor Jin.”

Mei Hua’s mouth fell open in surprise. This was her? This… how was this her?! In what way?! Was she born with an egg for a face?! Did she stand like she had no spine?! This kind of artistic liberty was borderline defamation! The more she stared at the tiny figure the more vexed she felt about it. She had the urge to chuck the figurine but managed to restrain herself and only set it down a little harder than necessary.

Ye laughed uproariously at her expression while Shi Ji kindly explained, “No matter how it looks, it’s based off a famous painting.”

“…painting?” She gave her son a horrified expression and pointed at the other similar figurines. “There’s a… painting… like these…”

“Hn, the painter is quite famous. Let me think…” Shi Ji furrowed his brow, trying to remember the details. “Name was something like Gao Kaizhou? I think he came here ten years ago?”

“His name was Gu Kaizhi*. It was twelve years ago.” Ye was still chortling.

[*Author’s Note: No relation to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_Kaizhi ]

“Ah, is that right? Paintings aren’t my specialty so I only vaguely remember the whole thing. Some of our people saved the Gao Kaizhi—”

“Gu Kaizhi.” Ye corrected.

“Hn, that guy— anyway, he was saved so he came and offered to paint as a way of saying thanks. The Old— I mean, the Emperor,” Shi Ji quickly corrected himself. “Told Gu Kaizhi he didn’t have to, but the painter was really persistent. In the end, the Emperor told him to paint… the.. Uh.. Imperial Queen Consort.” He found it terribly awkward to talk about his parents using their titles. “The Emperor liked it so much he had the painter make a few more and then sent them around to various villages and towns.”

“To show them off.” Ye added with a grin.

Mei Hua’s face stiffened. “…how… how many people have seen these paintings?”

The merchant selling the carvings had been listening politely and decided to explain, “Young Miss must be from out of town right? Every year, Imperial Queen Consort’s birthday is treated like a big holiday in Lanhua. Everyone celebrates. His Imperial Highness takes out the paintings, and many other things that are related to her, and sets them out on display. There are many dances and plays too. Everyone decorates the streets and their homes, even themselves, in flowers. That’s why it’s called the Thousand Flower Festival.”

Hearing this, Mei Hua glared at Ye. There was no way it was just Jin’s idea to turn her birthday into a national holiday. That had definitely been a group effort! Who told them to do it?! She already had problems with the huge party they threw every year! Ye coincidentally found something in the opposite direction to look at, thus avoiding her glare.

“When this humble sculptor was younger, his Imperial Highness was still taking the paintings around to the villages. This humble sculptor was fortunate to see many up close, which is why this one can make such good carving replicas. Young miss won’t find any as accurate or well done as this humble sculptor’s wares, guaranteed! If you wanted to see the paintings now, you can only see them in Xifang and Dongbian during the Thousand Flower Festival. The Imperial Palace splits the paintings between the two cities. Much harder to see them in person now because of that. My work is the next best thing.” He paused and then grumbled darkly, “Not that Dongbian should be getting half. They came after Xifang after all. Bunch of upstarts.”

Ye rolled his eyes at this comment but Mei Hua wasn’t paying any attention to the seller’s rude comment about Dongbian. She was too busy feeling annoyed and extremely embarrassed. Until that moment, she never considered herself a vain woman.

It turned out she was vain! Very vain!

It’s not that she wanted to be fawned over by strangers or complimented for her looks, but being viewed as an egg faced wet noodle wasn’t acceptable either! She was almost glad for the wedding procession. People would see her face and no longer associate her with such a ridiculous painting.

Thoroughly annoyed, she turned around and harrumphed. Turning to Ye, she said somewhat sourly, “Let’s keep going.”

Before anyone could say anything, she’d already started walking away. The merchant looked rather confused at the ‘Young Miss’s’ sudden change in attitude. Ye hurriedly followed her, afraid she’d get lost in the crowd.

Shi Ji went to follow but paused. He walked back to the merchant, dropped a whole silver coin into the man’s palm, and picked out the buck his Mother had found and the doe he’d originally shown her.

He left a stunned merchant holding the coin behind. Those figurines hadn’t been worth even twenty copper coins, much less a whole silver coin!

‘The Old Man really would have liked these,’ Shi Ji thought as he held up the figurines to get a closer look. ‘Especially if Mother had given them to him directly. He’d probably stick them somewhere and look at them secretly. Hm… shame she didn’t buy them, so he’ll never get them now. I guess they’re all mine.’

He stuffed the wood figurines up his sleeve, where they vanished, and hummed happily to himself.

—

After going through the market square, they walked the route the wedding procession would be going. It was fairly straight forward, since it started at the western entrance town gate and followed the main road. It wasn’t until they got near the east end of the town, which was mostly residential, that they had to take a few turns. Ye had Mei Hua go through this area three times before he was satisfied she knew where she was going. After they exited the town, they’d follow an enchanted path to the Palace, which meant they didn’t need to worry about anyone getting lost.

Once they were done, Ye guided them towards the Wu Family Estates.

As they walked, he looked around thoughtfully, “I wonder if it’s time we changed it from a town to city…”

“Change it?”

“Ah, I’ve been thinking of changing Xifang to a city, official like, for a while now. It’s just that Dongbian will throw a fit if they don’t get to be called a city too.”

“Why would Dongbian throw a fit?” Mei Hua asked with a confused expression.

“Why else? Because Xifang can’t have anything unless they get it too.” Ye gave a long aggrieved sigh. “Xifang and Dongbian are extremely competitive with each other. Half the time I’m running between the two breaking up some argument or other. They’re worse than Shan Hui and Yan Li when they were younger.”

“..Uncle, don’t you just add oil to the fire?” Shi Ji commented, eyebrows raised.

“Slanderous!” Ye cheeks puffed out, making himself look cutely angry instead of enraged. “I’ll have you know I work hard to make those two get along!”

Shi Ji shook his head, “Mother, don’t be deceived. Uncle Ye claims to be a peacemaker, but the moment things get interesting, he grabs snacks and watches them go at it.”

“Hey! Just because you like to live and breath work doesn’t mean the rest of us do. I’ve got to relax somehow and human drama is top quality entertainment! Why shouldn’t I enjoy myself when a show is unfolding in front of me?!”

“…really, a fairy’s nature is impossible to change…” Mei Hua muttered, rolling her eyes, and then asked her son, “Who decided to make your Uncle the diplomat anyway?”

“Well…” Shi Ji hesitated.

“Aya, Nephew, what are you hesitating for? We all know it’s your Old Man’s fault! Who decided to make a country, eh? And then what did he do? He went and turned into a shut-in! Who was left to run everything? That’s right, me! So I’m working and slaving all day long for the greater good!” Ye patted his chest proudly. “Which is why I don’t feel guilty when I step back and watch some good human drama unfolding now and then! Who told them to be so interesting?”

Mei Hua covered her mouth to stop from laughing and then schooled her expression to look more stern. “Really now, how has this country been functioning with someone like Ye in charge?”

“MeiMei, you wound me. Can’t you at least include Jin? Even when he was in charge, he’d avoid the messy work! He’d just grab whoever was nearby and force them to do it!” He pointed at himself repeatedly to show that person was always him.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure it was very hard for you.” She patted his shoulder while her lips twitched, “The real victims here are people like Peo Zhi and Wu Tengfei…”

“Speaking of the Wu’s...” Ye motioned ahead of them.

They’d finally walked up to a large gated entrance. It was roofed, with a fancy stone tablet hanging above the entrance that said: Wu Family Manor.

The door was closed with two burly guards standing at attention on either side. One was old and one was young. They both gave the Mei Hua’s group the stink eye until they were almost in front of them.

“Duke Lin Ye?!” The older guard did a double take at Ye’s appearance.

“That’s me!”

Both guards cupped their hands and bowed deeply. The older one saying, “Your Grace, this guard apologizes for not recognizing you sooner!”

Ye tilted toward Mei Hua and whispered quickly, “Pretty much everyone knows me by my green hair, so with it black I’m just some young punk!”

He then turned to the guard and said cheerfully, “Hohoho, I was in disguise today. If you guys noticed me immediately, what would be the point? So raise your heads. Is the Madam home at the moment?”

The guard bobbed his head as if Ye being in disguise was a perfectly normal explanation. “Currently Madam Pei Zhi is home. Would you like me to send forward an announcement to her that you’re here or are you preferring to walk directly in?”

“Walk directly in.” Ye paused and then couldn’t help himself. He pointed to Shi Ji with a grin, “By the way, this is the Third Prince Shi Ji.”

Both guards were caught off guard and for a moment just stared at Shi Ji stupidly. Everyone knew the princes had blue or gold eyes that glowed, but this young man’s eyes were normal.

“He’s in disguise like me.” Ye explained further when he saw their slightly unbelieving expressions. “And I swear I’m not joking. He’s really my Nephew, the Third Prince.”

Both guards stiffened at this before falling on their hands and knees, kowtowing deeply. “I-Imperial Prince please forgive us!”

Shi Ji glared at his Uncle darkly. Much like his Mother, he detested this kind of formality.

“What?” Ye eyes widened innocently. “You never come out of your lair—I mean, the Palace. Almost no one knows your face. Isn’t it good for at least the Wu Manor servants to know what you look like?”

Shi Ji didn’t want to argue with this black-bellied Uncle of his, so he turned to the guards instead. “What’s there to forgive? Like my Uncle, I too was in disguise. It’s fine to get up, I’m not upset.”

The guards were much more hesitant to relax with Shi Ji than they had been with Ye. They stood up but remained rigid and didn’t dare look him in the eye. Their timidity baffled Shi Ji somewhat. As far as he knew, he had no reputation for violence so there was no reason for them to behave in such a way.

The guards, however, were perfectly in the right to be cautious.

The First Prince, Shan Hui, was known for demanding absolute respect befitting his status from ‘outsiders’. He was almost petty about it. If possible, everyone in and outside of Lanhua wished to avoid meeting him in dark alleys, or lit alleys… anywhere really. If a person was being fair, they would admit many of the rumors of Shan Hui were likely exaggerated. But even if they were, no one wanted to find out by how much.

The Second Prince, Yan Li, didn’t mind etiquette and wasn’t anywhere near as easy to offend as the First Prince. He was straight forward and had a strong sense of justice, but this was offset by his short temper and impulsive nature. He was also not the type to talk things out, preferring to deal with problems using his fists. Thus, if he was enraged he would squish people like bugs and complain at their corpses afterward for making him angry. This kind of reputation naturally made people cautious around him.

Lu Shao, the Fourth Prince, was charming and amicable, and something of a dandy. Because he liked to perform publicly on a frequent basis, his face was well known and he was popular. His reputation was one of being a patient and kind person. But even so, he had a bottom line. Rumors swirled that if you offended the Fourth Prince, you wouldn’t even know you were being stabbed in the back, not even after you were on the floor bleeding. So people were still careful around him despite his gentle disposition.

The Third Prince, Shi Ji, was a total mystery. It was unclear if he ever left the Palace. If he did, no one ever saw him. The only thing people knew for sure was that he worked with the Lotus Valley Sect. But that Sect was also known for their hermit-like behavior! Thus, the only impression the people of Lanhua had of Shi Ji was that he was probably, mostly likely, some kind of Cultivator. That was all.

The guards knew all about the Princes except for Shi Ji. It’s not that they were terrified of the Princes, but Shan Hui’s behavior made them extremely nervous. Yes, the Imperial Family favored the Wu Family and so generally the Wu Manor and its inhabitants were treated very well by proxy. But the First Prince was magnanimous only to the Pei Zhi, Wu Tengfei, and their direct children. To any of the rest of the Wu Family he was indifferent, don’t even talk about the servants of the Manor. Thus, when faced with a Prince they knew very little about, they erred on the side of caution. If by chance this Third Prince was like the First… well….!

If Shi Ji knew the guards were afraid he had his older brother’s temperament, he’d have cried. Then he would have wished he was brave enough to punch that troublesome older brother of his for ruining his reputation before he even got one!