Chongfei Manual pt. 1

99.1

Inside Qing Xi Palace's Zhao Yang Hall, Empress Chen was sitting on a rattan, arhat couch and reclining against a pillow. She was opening and looking through picture scrolls. Each painted picture had a young woman with a refined appearance that was as lovely as a flower. They each had a different posture and expression. Their only similarity was that they were all in the prime of their youth.

Empress Chen looked through these pictures several times and said to Mama Qiu, "Are these the only girls that have good family backgrounds?"

Mama Qiu was kneeling next to the couch. As she was massaging Empress Chen's legs, she said, "They’re all here. Does Your Majesty not like any of them?"

Empress Chen seemed slightly disappointed. Without a better option, she looked through the pictures again, but in the end, she didn't like any of them. She sighed, took out one of the paintings, showed it to Mama Qiu, and said, "Although the Director of Board of Right's daughter looks pretty, her eyes are too far apart. At first sight, it looks slightly strange..."

Then, she shook her head and held out another painting to show Mama Qiu. "And, this Taifu Liu's granddaughter, doesn't she look too thin? She looks too fragile. Her front and back look equally flat. The areas that should be curved and raised aren't. She won't easily be able to give birth."

One by one, Empress Chen commented on all of the paintings. If they weren't too thin, then their physiognomy wasn't good. Anyways, none of them were good. Listening to this, Mama Qiu sweated profusely. She didn't know how to respond.

Mama Qiu secretly sighed. These girls had to be extremely outstanding for her to like any of them. Empress Chen had seen too many beautiful girls like Gao Dan Yang, Gao Qing Yang, and Wei Luo. These three young women were full of life, especially Duke Ying's family's Fourth Miss, Wei Luo. Mama Qiu didn’t know how to describe Wei Luo’s appearance in words. She could only say that Wei Luo was truly good-looking and very pleasing to look at.

Listening to Empress Chen speak, Mama Qiu could only repeatedly comfort her, "Your Majesty, don't be anxious. Perhaps, His Highness Prince Jing just hasn't met a girl that he likes. If you bring these portraits to him, perhaps, Prince Jing might like one of them?"

If this were true, then Empress Chen wouldn't have to worry.

She was worried that her son didn't like women. When the time comes, it might even be a problem to get him to marry someone. It would be even less likely for him to have a chubby child.

By chance, Zhao Liuli walked into the hall at this time with her skirt lifted as she passed through the entrance. Seeing that the rattan, arhat couch was covered in picture scrolls, she opened her mouth in surprise, "Imperial mother, what are you preparing? Why are there so many picture scrolls?"

Empress Chen had just been worried over not having a person to help her. She hurriedly called Liuli to her side. She pulled her hand and asked, "Help imperial mother look. Do you know what type of girl Jie-er likes? I looked through all of these scrolls and didn't like any of them. I looked at them to the point that my eyes feel blurry."

Zhao Liuli paused. She vaguely understood Empress Chen's intention.

She was at an impasse. Should she be looking for a wife for her older brother?

She moved closer, sat down next to Empress Chen, and put on act of looking of looking through the painted scrolls. In the end, she shook her head and said, "None of them look good."

Empress Chen nodded in agreement.

However, Zhao Liuli's following words let her have hope again. Zhao Liuli said, "Imperial brother doesn't like this type..."

Empress Chen immediately became spirited. She curiously asked, "Oh, do you know what type he likes?"

"I know." Zhao Liuli curved her limpid eyes. In her mind, she imagined Wei Luo's image and deliberately kept Empress Chen in suspense for a moment before saying, "Imperial brother is really picky. The girl that he likes must be beautiful... And, it can't be an ordinary beautiful. She has to be unreasonably beautiful and exquisite. Her skin has to be white and her face has to look rich and noble. Her personality can't be bad... It would be the best if her voice also sounded pleasant."

Empress Chen had originally been in high spirits. The more she heard, the more she felt that Zhao Liuli was joking with her. She poked Zhao Liuli's forehead and said, "What are you saying? You listed so many requirements. Where should I go to find a person like that? Do you intentionally want your imperial brother to be single for the rest of his life?"

Zhao Liuli felt like she was being wronged. How was this her fault? Imperial brother liked Wei Luo. She was only describing Wei Luo's attributes. Wei Luo wasn't lacking in any aspect.

The strange thing was that Empress Chen had considered so many girls, but she hadn't thought about Zhao Liuli's previous study companion, Wei Luo. It was probably because Wei Luo was already engaged. Empress Chen hadn't heard the news about Song Hui and We Luo's engagement, so she momentarily hadn’t considered Wei Luo yet.

Zhao Liuli flattened her mouth and didn't continue to offer advice. She lowered her head and seemed to be focused with fiddling with the green sachet embroidered with lotus flowers on her waist. There was a faint smile on her lips. When she was staying at Zi Yu Vila, Yang Zhen had left the mountain to buy her this sachet. He had dried all of the flower petals inside the sachet. It was hard to imagine a warrior clumsily drying out flower petals in the sun. As soon as Zhao Liuli thought of that image, she couldn't resist smiling.