After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 116 A Variety of Figures
"Your Majesty, dinner is ready," a palace maid announced.

"Bring it up."

Chu Yan instructed Xiangyun and Daiyu, "You two eat with me."

When the emperor hosted a banquet, Daiyu wanted to get up to express her gratitude, but seeing that Xiangyun only smiled and agreed, Daiyu did not move.

Chu Yan said to Xiangyun, "The plaques and ancestral halls of Ningrong Mansion don't need to be changed for now. Let me tour the Grand View Garden first."

He wanted to see the original scene of the Imperial Concubine's visit to her family, so the plaque was left for the time being.

Daiyu glanced at him and asked, "Does His Majesty intend to stay at the Grand View Garden?"

“Not bad.” Chu Yan nodded.

Daiyu lowered her head slightly and remained silent.

Xiangyun saw through Lin Jie's thoughts. The Grand View Garden was where the girls of the Jia family lived, and few men had entered it in the past. It was the inner quarters where Lin Jie lived on a daily basis.

The second brother also lived in the garden, and the sisters would chat and play together, making it a lively place.

Now that the second brother has been driven away and Emperor Chu Yan has moved in, he doesn't treat the Grand View Garden as a garden, but as his temporary palace, and all the girls in the garden have to serve him...

Xiangyun suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said to Chu Yan, "My sister-in-law also lives in the garden. I'll talk to her later and ask her to move out."

Chu Yan laughed and said, "Why should we make her move out? Let her continue to live here. Although she is a widow, I won't do anything to her. There is also a nun in the garden who practices Buddhism with her hair still intact. We can visit her after we enter the garden."

Xiangyun blushed and didn't want to bring it up again, mistakenly thinking that she had misunderstood.

Daiyu sneered inwardly.

After a while, the palace maids brought in the evening meal, which consisted of a table full of various dishes.

Chu Yan picked up his chopsticks and invited them to eat. Xiangyun picked up her bowl and ate happily.

Lin Daiyu, however, did not touch her chopsticks. Instead, she sat at the table, her eyes fixed on the dishes laid out before her.

"Why isn't Sister Lin eating?" Xiangyun asked curiously.

Chu Yan glanced at her as well. What was Lin Daiyu up to now?
Daiyu picked up her chopsticks, pointed slightly at the plum blossom cake on the table, and asked in a delicate voice, "Where did you pick these plum blossoms? Could they be from the Longcui Nunnery?"

Longcui Nunnery?
Chu Yan looked at the plum blossom cake.

Xiangyun glanced at the plum blossom cake and immediately laughed: "Sister Lin, you don't know any better. There are no plum blossoms in the plum blossom cake. It's made with pine nuts, brown sugar, and sesame seeds."

Daiyu asked, "If there are no plum blossoms in the plum blossom cake, how can it be called a plum blossom cake?"

Xiangyun smiled, picked up a piece, and ate it, saying, "Why do you care what it's called? Does it mean it can't be called plum blossom cake just because it doesn't have plum blossoms? Nobody says it can't be called plum blossom cake. It looks like plum blossoms, so people call it plum blossom cake~"

Daiyu laughed and said, "That's true. No one in the world, except the emperor, can dictate that it can't be called plum blossom cake."

It's like a nun who practices Buddhism while still keeping her hair; although she lives in a nunnery, people still call her a nun.

Xiangyun burst out laughing while eating, pointing her chopsticks at her and laughing nonstop.

She recognized who Lin Daiyu was referring to, and she wasn't worried that the emperor would be angry; in her view, it was just a joke.

"Lin Daiyu is absolutely right."

Chu Yan smiled too.

He finally got to know Lin Daiyu's sharp tongue; it took him a few twists and turns before he unleashed his killer move.

No respectable man in the world goes to a nunnery. Although Miaoyu practiced Buddhism while still keeping her hair, she was still a nun.

Chu Yan looked at Lin Daiyu's slender figure and laughed, "I have seen Miss Bao before. She is plump and radiant with fair and smooth skin. It makes one wonder if even Yang Guifei of the Tang Dynasty could not compare to her."

Daiyu picked up her chopsticks and began to eat, but listened carefully to what he said.

Chu Yan said, "When I saw Lin Daiyu again, I realized that the ancients' saying that 'plump Yang Guifei and slender Zhao Feiyan' were both beauties that could topple cities was indeed true."

Daiyu blushed and remained silent.

Yang Yuhuan and Zhao Feiyan were both concubines in the emperor's harem. His words clearly implied that he wanted to bring both of them into the harem!
Chu Yan looked at her and smiled, "Zhao Feiyan was from the Han Dynasty, and Yang Taizhen was from the Tang Dynasty. No one has ever seen what it would look like if the plump Yang and the slender Yang were together, but now I am fortunate enough to see it!"

Xiangyun glanced at Daiyu and said with a smile, "Sister Bao is not fat at all, but Sister Lin is very thin, as if a gust of wind could blow her away. Since we are having a banquet bestowed by the Emperor, Sister Lin should eat more!"

She realized that Chu Yan was using his status as the emperor to bring Baochai and Daiyu into the palace, thus creating a pair of beauties.

But Daiyu sensed another layer of meaning:
Taizhen was Yang Guifei's Taoist name after she became a nun. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang forced his daughter-in-law Yang Yuhuan to become a nun, and then issued an edict to summon her back to the palace and bestow upon her the title of Guifei.

Now that Chu Yan is the emperor, even if Miaoyu is a nun who has kept her hair, or even a real nun, if he takes a fancy to her, he can still issue an edict ordering Miaoyu to return to secular life and enter the palace as a concubine.

If nuns are treated this way, what about widows?
Only Yun Yatou was worried about Li Wan's reputation and wanted her to move out.

……

After finishing their meal, Chu Yan and the two women returned to the soft couch and sat down.

Night had fallen, and with nothing to do and not wanting to go out, Chu Yan said to Xiangyun, “Next month, when news comes back from the border that the world is roughly equal, we will move to Daming Palace to escape the heat. Then we can take a stroll in the back garden of Daming Palace after dinner.”

Xiangyun asked with longing, "I heard from Consort Qin and Sister Bao that there is a large lake in the Daming Palace where you can go boating, much bigger than the lake in the Grand View Garden!"

You can also take a boat ride on the lake in the Grand View Garden, but you'll reach the end in no time.

Chu Yan laughed and said, "It is quite big, about a mile in length and width. The shimmering lake is very cool, and you can go boating at night and drink on the boat."

Xiangyun longed for it even more, saying, "I've never been boating and drinking on a lake before, I wonder what it's like."

Chu Yan added, "If things go smoothly this year and the world is completely pacified, we will go hunting in the Western Garden in the autumn."

Xiangyun said, "Even the concubines in the harem go hunting? But I can't ride a horse..."

"It's just learning; it's not a proper hunt, just going to the Western Garden, which is just outside the capital."

The two chatted for a while, and when Xiangyun heard that Chu Yan might go to Jiangnan for inspection in the future, she became more and more excited.

Daiyu remained silent until she saw Chu Yan and Xiangyun chatting happily, then she took the opportunity to say, "I would like to ask His Majesty for a favor."

Chu Yan looked at her with a half-smile. Shi Xiangyun asked, "What does Sister Lin want to ask for?"

Daiyu felt flustered by his gaze, but she forced herself to calm down and said to Xiangyun, "You told me about Bao Erge's matter. I'm worried that he'll squander money outside the city again. I'd like to ask His Majesty to allow me to write him another letter."

Xiangyun laughed: "I was wondering what was so important that Sister Lin had to plead for it. It turns out it was just writing a letter."

She looked at Chu Yan, but saw that he didn't say anything, he was just smiling.

Xiangyun immediately realized that he didn't want to agree to help with this small matter.

Seeing that Chu Yan didn't speak, Daiyu knew that he would make her pay a price before he would help her, and even Yun's pleas were useless!

This emperor is indeed a ruthless person.

Xiangyun glanced at the two of them and said, "His Majesty the Emperor is angry with Sister Lin, so I can't plead for her. If Sister Lin apologizes, His Majesty might forgive her."

Daiyu remained silent.

Chu Yan laughed and said, "I invited her to the palace and offered to make her a concubine, but she refused. She wanted to be with your Second Brother Bao..."

Daiyu suddenly stood up, wanting to speak, but she became breathless due to her anxiety, her face turned pale, and her brows furrowed.

"Sister Lin!"

Xiangyun quickly got up to help her.

Chu Yan understood. Daiyu didn't want to talk about her affair with Baoyu in front of others. Although some people in the Jia family noticed, she still wanted to follow the traditional etiquette of arranged marriage. Without the permission of Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang, she would not have any intimate interactions with Baoyu in private, let alone talk about it in front of others.

"Should we call the imperial physician?" Chu Yan asked her.

"There's no need to call me. I'm not sick; I've always been this way."

Daiyu said softly that after she calmed down, she gradually felt better.

Chu Yan nodded: "Go back and rest. Oh, by the way, since Miss Yun is here, you can give her the letter. The logistics army isn't very strict, so a letter can still be delivered to her."

Daiyu was startled and looked at him.

Did he show leniency only because he saw that I was sick?
Xiangyun glanced at him twice before reluctantly helping Sister Lin out the door.

Chu Yan smiled and said, "Sister Yun, you're leaving too?"

Xiangyun turned around and looked over. Daiyu gently pushed her hand away and said with a smile, "His Majesty has already called you 'sister,' why don't you go and keep your Emperor brother company? Zijuan and I will go back."

"Emperor Brother?" Xiangyun found the title novel, and Daiyu laughed again, "Didn't you just call him that?"

Chu Yan nodded and said, "That's a good way to address you. Since I call you Sister Yun and Sister Lin, you can call me Emperor Brother from now on!"

Daiyu glanced at him with her dewy eyes, neither saying "good" nor referring to him as "brother."

Zijuan came over to help her, and Xiangyun let go of her hand, went back into the house, and wanted to sit next to him.

"Sister Yun, are you getting distant with me? Come here."

"what?"

"Come here, let me hug you one more time."

Hearing their conversation, Daiyu couldn't help but turn around and see Xiangyun fall into Chu Yan's arms. Her charming and lovely face was full of shyness as the emperor held her waist and embraced her intimately.

Daiyu blushed, turned her head away and refused to look again, then hurriedly left through the back hall door.

She knew that even though Yun Meimei hadn't yet served him tonight, she would still do many shameful things with him.

The emperor still embraced her when she refused to enter the palace, so how much more so would Sister Yun?
No sooner had Daiyu left than Chu Yan, inside the room, kissed Shi Xiangyun's lips tenderly.

Xiangyun blushed and felt hot, but quickly accepted it and awkwardly responded to his kiss.

After a long while, Chu Yan finally released her. The moment their lips parted, Xiang Yun slowly opened her eyes, her gaze filled with intoxication and shyness. She stared at him with her eyes half-open, not blinking.

"Has Yun'er missed me these past few days?"

Chu Yan gently stroked her face.

The young woman was already moved, and compared to Li Wan, whom she had kissed a few days ago, Shi Xiangyun, who was not yet married, had a different kind of feeling.

Li Wan was a woman who had not been in contact with men for a long time. Once she fell in love, she became extremely devoted, even passionate.

A young girl's feelings are subtle, lingering, and sweet, but they don't ignite into a flame.

"I've thought about it..."

blushing, Shi Xiangyun nodded obediently, leaned against his lap, and chuckled secretly: "Before I entered the palace, I thought I would be held by you... like this, Sister Lin is still here, so you called me here..."

Chu Yan laughed and said, "Since Yun'er thought of this, yet still went to the palace, does that mean she likes kissing me like this?"

"No!"

Xiangyun quickly shook her head. How could she keep thinking about such vulgar things?

"dislike?"

"..."

She blushed and nodded again.

Chu Yan cupped Shi Xiangyun's innocent and straightforward face in his hands, and kissed her again as she closed her eyes to wait.

For an emperor, winning the heart of a young girl is a simple matter. These girls have not seen many men and have no other choice. The emperor is their husband and their lifelong support.

Their status, honor, and disgrace were all bestowed upon them by the emperor.

Therefore, when Chu Yan gave Shi Xiangyun special care and affection, and engaged in intimate acts between a man and a woman, she quickly entrusted her heart to him.

Chu Yan didn't have much time to slowly develop romantic feelings for them, so he used the fastest and most direct method to directly win their hearts.

(End of this chapter)