Chapter 703: Chapter 703: Which Brat Knocked Out the Doorway?
She had asked someone to prove she had just come out, but she hadn’t asked them to give such detailed accounts.
Perhaps Nanny Qi had been driven to distraction by her incessant muttering, pondering whether the Side Hall needed more alterations, why His Majesty still hadn’t returned, and what the Main Hall actually looked like, until she finally could stand it no longer and shooed her out.
"Oh, yes, my master," Xiao Linzi immediately closed his mouth.
The Emperor felt completely relieved, yet he still instructed, "Next time you have to wait, wait inside the hall. Do not come out to wait, do you understand?"
"Oh, alright, alright, I understand." Lian Hua pouted, she wasn’t really waiting for anything, His Majesty was being too serious.
But then she thought, the Lord has returned; they could go to the Main Hall together!
With that thought, she became excited and eagerly pulled someone along, "Your Majesty, let’s go, let’s go see the Main Hall. Ah, I have no idea how it’s been arranged; I’m so eager to see it."
"If you wanted to see, why didn’t you go earlier?" The Emperor quickened his pace to catch up with her, then held her hand in his own, protectively surrounding her.
Lian Hua said very naturally, "I wanted to go with you. After all, we’re going to live together in the Main Hall in the future. You are the head of the family, ah, that doesn’t sound quite right, but you get what I mean. We can’t have a house moving ceremony without you there."
The Emperor’s eyes smiled, his gaze sparkled like the stars; his Little Concubine always managed to melt his heart without even trying.
He didn’t say a word, just led her towards the Main Hall.
Lian Hua was happy to be led along, and she didn’t stop talking—speculating about what the Main Hall might look like and suggesting they should have dinner after seeing the Main Hall.
She chattered nonstop, and whenever she encountered His Majesty, it seemed she had an endless stream of trivial matters to discuss with him.
The Emperor, on the other hand, listened with a smile, occasionally responding with a word or two, finding even the small talk interesting.
Halfway there, Lian Hua suddenly remembered what she had just seen and couldn’t help saying fiercely, "Your Majesty, I don’t know which brat did it, but someone put two holes in our gate, and there was sawdust everywhere. I just noticed it. Hmph, I’d better not catch that brat, or I’ll make them pay double... "
After thinking about it, she felt that wasn’t enough and corrected herself, "No, tenfold... "
But then she felt that was too greedy and not quite appropriate, so she finally settled with her conscience, "Never mind, let them pay triple, and they should pay for a whole new door. Yes, that’s fair. Otherwise, they won’t learn their lesson, hmph."
Repairs would cost silver, and all her silver had been given to His Majesty. Where would she find the silver to fix things? It was outrageous that someone had punched holes in her gate and then run off, as if she was an easy target!
The Emperor touched his nose uneasily; if he remembered correctly, those two holes in the door were made by Hu Miaomiao when he’d rushed home upon hearing she’d been in trouble—a situation largely related to him.
It hadn’t been appropriate to replace the gate at Canglan Court due to the disturbance it would cause and the speculation it might invite. Furthermore, with people standing guard nearby all the time, no one could get close, so it had never been replaced.
Now that the matter was settled, changing the door wouldn’t be a problem, and moving to the new palace was set today for that very reason.
"I’ll have someone replace it tomorrow," he said.
Upon hearing this, Lian Hua disagreed, "Your Majesty, how can I let you pay for it? If you ask me, we can still use this gate. Just paste a layer of paper over it and paint it a similar color; if you look from afar, it will be fine."
After some thought, she felt that might be cutting corners and changed her mind, "If that really doesn’t work, then just nail a wooden patch inside to cover the holes."
Then she pondered again; that didn’t seem right either, it was too shabby. His Majesty came there every day; such a makeshift repair would not be fitting for His Majesty’s status.
So, the repair idea was, "Hmm...it’s better this way, these two holes are about the same size, when I have some time, I’ll carve two lion heads to fit right in, so I won’t even need to dig holes, hmm hmm, not bad, this is a good idea."
Looking at it, it would be imposing and impressive, saving silver too, very good, very good, this is what I’ll do.
Anyway, if I can save some silver, I should, even if it’s His Majesty’s silver, it’s not okay, and I don’t want His Majesty to worry about such trivial matters.
The Emperor, as soon as he heard this, immediately disagreed, "Nannan, your body is not convenient at the moment, such matters should be left to others, there’s no need for you to do it yourself."
"Is that so?" Lian Hua touched her protruding belly with her free hand and sighed softly, muttering quietly, "Carrying a melon really does make everything inconvenient..."
"What?" The Emperor raised an eyebrow at her.
"Oh, nothing, nothing." Lian Hua stuck out her tongue.
Passing a small stone, she instinctively gave it a light kick and said, "But Your Majesty, I’m thinking of finding something to occupy myself with..."
The Emperor paused briefly, then continued leading her forward, "Don’t you have chess? You and your servants playing chess is good too, isn’t it?"
"Oh~" she mumbled, "That’s why I said when I have time, if it weren’t for the chess games, I could start as early as tomorrow, oh no, the day after tomorrow."
The Emperor frowned slightly; she indeed was someone who couldn’t sit still, one thing alone was too trivial for her to busy herself with, but he really didn’t want her to handle those things and risk getting hurt.
He thought for a moment and suggested, "Didn’t you say before that you liked reading storybooks? Later, I’ll have someone find some for you, how about that?"
Although the Emperor really didn’t like those nonsensical storybooks, compared to carving wood, this was more acceptable.
He thought to himself that she had read so many storybooks when she was younger and hadn’t been led astray, so it should be fine for her to read them now.
But he hadn’t considered the possibility that Lian Hua’s quirky ideas might have come from those storybooks.
Of course, storybooks hadn’t had such a big influence on her. With her father’s teachings and her self-taught skills, she didn’t need to learn from storybooks.
Lian Hua’s eyes lit up, she couldn’t resist scratching his palm and cheering, "Ah, really? Haha, Your Majesty, you understand me so well, that’s exactly what I want, don’t forget, okay?"
The Emperor nodded with a smile.
Lian Hua had just cheered up a bit when she suddenly worried again, "What about the two holes in the gate? It’s all because of that brat, next time if he’s going to hit, he should hit the ground and just fill it up with dirt, it’s so much more troublesome on the gate..."
"I’ll have someone replace it. There’s ready-made material available anyway," seeing her thoughts, the Emperor promptly said, "If we were to carve new beast heads for the gate, the material used and the silver spent would be even more."
As soon as she heard it would cost a lot of silver, Lian Hua immediately dismissed the idea, "Oh dear, then never mind. It seems I’m still troubling Your Majesty with our court’s gates."
His Majesty is so busy every day, I originally wanted to handle it myself, but in the end, I still made His Majesty worry.
The Emperor chuckled, "Didn’t Nannan say it’s our court’s gate as well? Isn’t that my responsibility?"
Her eyes crinkled with a smile, the corners of her mouth arching so high they revealed her pearly white teeth, "Mhmm, Your Majesty is right."