The new year is coming soon, the whole palace is very happening and high in festive mode, each palace is also focused in their spring cleaning, the servants were also receiving awards non stop.
Everyone was most envious to those from Kun Ning Palace. The empress comes from a wealthy family, the emperor also gifts her things every 2 to 3 days, so she is considered the richest woman in the palace. She was also very generous, these few days all that worked for her received awards or gifts till they forgot to close their mouths.
Kun Ning Palace’s couplets are all written personally by Ji Wu Jiu, writing festive phrases on red paper with brushes, and hanged on the sides of the main door. His writing skills were very good, even Ye Zhen Zhen can’t help but praises them.
Accordingly, Ji Wu Jiu brought a lot of things to Kun Ning Palace, not only that, he also purposely personally pass to her a pair of jade white swan.
Ever since she thought things through, Ye Zhen Zhen is now along the thoughts of “trying to build a good relationship with Ji Wu Jiu” mode. That person she cannot offend.
He decides her life or death, if she wants to live a comfortable live, she must save him some face. So she made Su Yue to choose a lot of gifts to be sent to him as a return gift, and seeing that the rest of the concubines like Zhuang Concubine also personally made something for Ji Wu Jiu, she also decided to follow the crowd and gave him a handmade pouch she made earlier on. The pouch has a dragon embroidered on it, and was sent along with the other items.
The embroidered dragon is rather ugly, in a glimpse it actually looks like a suffering millipede. Ji Wu Jiu was moving the pouch around in his hands, he really wanted to wear it on himself, but during this festive period, he still have to take care of the emperor’s pride, so he decided to put the pouch into another pouch and placed it on his waist.
Towards Ye Zhen Zhen, new years celebration is a good thing, but there is one thing that really makes her upset: “Shou Sui” (something like a Chinese countdown ritual). Previous years, ,as an unmarried lady, she was not really required to perform this ritual, she likes to sleep, and her family dotes on her, so she was not required to be involved on the eve of the new year and allowed her to sleep early.
But now, as the empress, she cannot avoid it anymore. New years eve night, at Gan Qing Palace, Ye Zhen Zhen was accompanying Ji Wu Jiu, along with the rest of the concubine and consorts to stay up. On the table various types of pastries were placed in accordance to the occasion, these delicate pastries were all made to perfection, making people feel touched, however, it still didn’t help Ye Zhen Zhen. Once her usual sleep timing approaches, as though as someone pressed a secret button on her body, she starts to lose her strength and vigor, slowly falling asleep. She no longer replies to the consorts chatting and slowly dozing off.
Seeing that she is in such a state, Ji Wu Jiu felt a little sorry, and really wanted to pull her into her arms and let her take a good nap, but if he were to really do it, it would go against the palace rules, so he has to stop himself.
Finally she lasted till midnight, Ye Zhen Zhen is already near the state of dreaming, Ji Wu Jiu woke her up, and told her it was time to eat dumplings. After counting down, it was time to eat dumplings, it was a ritual for some local people, and the royal family also performs them.
There are a total of 64 types of fillings in the dumplings, they were brought up to the table, and who wants to eat which flavor, they just have to order and someone will bring them. Ye Zhen Zhen was still in a daze, and simply called a few types, Su Yue place them on a plate and brought it over to her. With her eyes half closed, looking a bit foolish, Ji Wu Jiu found it very funny.