The Lantern Festival (4)
After waiting for a while, the eunuch came back with a cute looking monkey sugar figurine and respectfully presented it to Mu Mingtang. Although earlier she said that she didnât want it, when she saw the cute monkey, she immediately fell in love with it. After taking it into her hands, she kept looking at it with twinkling eyes as if she was reluctant to eat the candy.
Mu Mingtang finally returned to her senses and noticed the surrounding peopleâs gazes. After looking around, she found out that while others were dressed in neat clothes and standing gracefully, she was the only one behaving like an ignorant child who was excitedly holding a sugar figurine. It made her seem very out of place.
A little princess, who was held by her wet nurse, saw it and pointed to the sugar figurine in Mu Mingtangâs hand and cried out. When her birth mother heard it, she felt embarrassed, so she hurriedly silenced her daughter and asked the wet nurse to carry her down.
The little princessâs mother was not favoured before, but she rose to the position of Imperial Concubine after giving birth to her daughter. However, she didnât have any real power, so without putting on any airs, she hurriedly got up and sincerely apologised to Mu Mingtang: âPrincess An, please donât be angry. The fifth princess is still young and ignorant, but she didnât mean to offend Princess An.â
Mu Mingtang was taken aback by the concubineâs flustered apology. To be honest, before she was brought to the Capital, she was very well received among children, not to brag but today she was wearing pretty and vibrant clothes, and with a sugar figurine in one hand, it all made her look even more young and adorable. Mu Mingtang didnât know what she had done to become such a terrible existence in the eyes of people around her.
âYou donât need to be so worried about it. I know that the Fifth Princess is very young so itâs only normal for her to want to eat candy. Since she likes it, just let her have it.â With a warm smile, Mu Mingtang offered her candy.
The Imperial Concubine hesitantly looked at Mu Mingtang as she passed the candy to the eunuch and told him to give it to the Fifth Princess.
While everything was happening, the Imperial Concubine secretly glanced at Xie Xuanchen, wondering whether he would get upset or not. Not only her, but also those watching the situation around them, were paying close attention to his expression. However, even after staring at Xie Xuanchen for a long time, they found out that he really didnât care what was happening and simply stood to the side.
The Imperial Concubine couldnât believe her eyes, and even the Empress, who was paying attention to this, raised an eyebrow to show the unusualness of the situation.
The Imperial Concubine finally reacted and brought the Fifth Princess over to thank Mu Mingtang.
After this small drama was over, Mu Mingtang looked at the various performances and snack vendors under the city tower and sighed. âHow can we enjoy so many interesting things from such a long distance?â
As Xie Xuanchen and Mu Mingtang had been married for some time, he was aware of her small expressions and movements. So when he saw Mu Mingtangâs eager expression when looking at bustling crowd, he understood what she wanted and asked, âWant to go down and have a closer look?â
Flabbergast, Mu Mingtang widened her eyes and eagerly asked: âCan we really go there? Wonât it cause unnecessary troubles?ââ
âAs long as you would like to.â Xie Xuanchen simply explained, âYou wait here for a while, Iâll be right back.â
Later on, Xie Xuanchen walked towards the Emperor to say something. Hearing his words, the Emperor looked at Xie Xuanchen with surprise, then turned towards Mu Mingtang, and finally nodded his head good-naturedly. He started to give orders to nearby guards.
Mu Mingtang, who was paying attention to both of them, saw the Emperor nod and understood that they were allowed to go down. When Xie Xuanchen came back, Mu Mingtang happily hopped over to hold his sleeve, and together under the watchful eyes of everyone, they started to walk out of the city tower.
After walking through the heavily armed guards, Xie Xuanchen and Mu Mingtang soon blended into the crowd, nowhere to be seen.
Jiang Mingwei, other officials, Madams, the royal family members, and even the empress dowager could only watch as Mu Mingtang happily left the place.
The fifth princess, who was still enjoying the sugar figurine, seeing Mu Mingtangâs departure, pulled her motherâs sleeve: âMother concubine, why can they go but we canât?â
The Imperial Concubine sighed and whispered, âBecause they are Prince An and Princess An.â
Standing on the other side of the tower, Jiang Mingwei watched the guards running down to drive away the crowd in order to escort Xie Xuanchen and Mu Mingtang grandly and safely without any hitch.
When the crowd on both sides saw that Xie Xuanchen and Mu Mingtang had come down from the city tower, they were very surprised and rushed over to see them, but were stopped by the guards at a safe distance. It wasnât long before Mu Mingtang and Xie Xuanchen walked away, and could no longer be found after mixing in with the crowd.
While Jiang Mingwei kept her gaze in the direction of their departure, a Madam from Dukeâs mansion, who was standing near her, sighed softly: âPrince An really adores Princess An. Just like during the New Yearâs Eveâs banquet, even at the Lantern festival, Prince An didnât care about others and was always looking out for Princess An.â
Jiang Mingwei, who was in a bad mood, didnât want to reply, and fortunately, the Madam had no intention to get Jiang Mingweiâs reply, as after giving her opinion, she soon left.
Millions of people who lived in the capital had come out of their houses to celebrate the Lantern festival, so the streets were packed like sardines in a can. The whole capital seemed to be very prosperous at the moment, but Jiang Mingwei knew, according to the book, the capital was soon going to turn into a sea of fire.
âThe forign spies should already be mixed in the crowd. Where are they and why havenât they taken any actions yet?â Jiang Mingwei couldnât help herself from repeatedly thinking about it.
[TL Note:- âSardines in a canâ means extremely crowded, as in I could barely breatheâwe were packed in like sardines. This term, alluding to how tightly sardines are packed in cans, has been applied to human crowding since the late 1800s.]