Chongfei Manual [II]

Chapter 133.1

When the servant said that Zhao Jie was in the study, Wei Luo didn't find it strange. She thought he was reading a book or handling official business. She didn't expect that when she walking into the study, she would see Zhao Jie sitting on an eight immortal style Chinese cedar chair with his left leg casually crossed over his right leg. One of his sleeves that were embroidered with a pattern of auspicious clouds was rolled up and his strong, powerful arm was exposed. He was holding a small box of graphite eyebrow powder and drawing something on his exposed arm.

Wei Luo walked closer and saw that there were varying lines of thickness and length. When she carefully looked at these small lines, she noticed that they were slightly curved and looked slightly similar to the eyebrow lines that he had drawn for her in the morning.

"Big brother, what are you doing?" Wei Luo asked.

Zhao Jie looked up and placed the graphite eyebrow powder on a nearby vermillion-lacquered Chinese cedar table. Seeing that she had returned, he faintly smiled, opened his arms, and said, "Back? Come here and let husband hug you."

Wei Luo walked forward and obediently went into his arms to let him hug her until his heart was content. She didn't forget about his previous actions. She pointed at the crooked lines on his arm and asked, "Why did you draw this?"

Zhao Jie picked her up, placed her on his leg, wrapped his arm around her soft, slender waist, and said with a smile, "Weren't you looking down on me because I couldn't draw eyebrows well? I thought I should start practicing now, so that I can draw eyebrows for you in the future."

Glib-tongued. Wei Luo wrinkled her little nose and looked at the lines left and right. She felt that he had improved a lot from this morning, so she curiously asked, "Were you practicing this the entire afternoon? How do you know which type of eyebrow shape suits me?"

Zhao Jie grasped her tiny, pointy chin to face him and gently traced her eyebrows with his other hand. "How could I not know that Ah Luo has liu ye eyebrows? I only practiced for an hour. It wasn't long."

(T/N: Below is a picture of various eyebrow styles. The one on the bottom right is liu ye. Literal translation of liu ye would be willow leaf.)

After he had finished handling his official work, he didn't have anything to do. He thought of Wei Luo's disdainful look this morning and got carried away by a whim. He ordered Zhu Geng to bring him graphite eyebrow powder. At first, he practiced on fine writing paper. Later, he decided that the paper wasn't close enough to skin, so he started drawing on his arm. Just after he tried a few attempts of drawing on his arm, Wei Luo returned. Zhao Jie didn't overlook the trace of unhappiness in Wei Luo's eyes. He lowered his head, kissed her little mouth, and said, "What's wrong? You don't seem happy. Who bullied our Ah Luo?"

Wei Luo didn't expect that his perception would be so keen. She thought she was hiding her mood very well without exposing any of her feelings. She wrapped her arms around Zhao Jie's neck, leaned against his chest, and said, "I met Noble Consort Ning and Princess Consort Qi when I went to Qian Temple today."

(T/N: Just like how Zhao Jie has a title of Prince Jing, Zhao Zhang's title is Prince Qi.)

Because fifth prince Zhao Zhang had handled the drought in the northwest well, he had been promoted to a first-rank prince by Emperor Zhong Chen in the previous year. After Duke Ding's family's Gao Wan married him, she naturally became Princess Consort Qi. In addition, an imperial doctor had recently determined that she was pregnant. There had been so many people going over to Prince Qi's residence to send their congratulations and gifts to the couple that his front doors were almost trampled down.

Now that she thought about it, Noble Consort Ning had brought Gao Wan to Qian Temple to burn incenses and worship Buddha for her own health and Gao Wan's unborn baby.

Zhao Jie didn't have much of a reaction. He calmly said, "Oh. What did you talk about?"

Wei Luo thought for a moment before truthfully saying, "Not much. We just exchanged conventional greetings. Noble Consort asked me if my injury had recovered, so I thanked her for giving me that bottle of su ji san. She wasn't feeling well. We didn't say much before they left. Princess Consort Qi's temperament seemed very good when we talked for a bit."

As Wei Luo talked with Zhao Jie, she also ordered Jin Lu to bring a bowl of warm water. After the warm water was brought over, she wet a towel and gently wiped away the eyebrow marks on Zhao Jie's arm. She continued to say, "Noble Consort Ning also said a few concerned words about your situation."

Zhao Jie curved his lips into a fake smile and said, "How did you respond?"

Wei Luo lowered her long and thick eyelashes. They fluttered like two little fans. "I naturally answered truthfully that you're very healthy."

After a while, Wei Luo finished wiping cleaning his arm, put down his rolled up sleeve, and raised her head to look at him as she said, "Princess Consort Qi said that Princess Consort Yong An recently gave birth to her first son. In a few days, it'll be his first month birthday. She invited me to go with her to his birthday celebration."

As Zhao Jie enjoyed the feeling of Wei Luo taking care of him, he held a smile in his mouth and said, "What would you like to do? If you don't want to go, I can directly send over a present and you can stay home instead."

Wei Luo thought for a moment, then she said, "It's better if I go. After all, your relationships with other people are so lacking. I should at least strive to improve it a little bit. If I don't go, there won't be anyone left in the capital that wants to have any dealings with you."

These words weren't false. Zhao Jie's relationship with the other people really wasn't very good. He had a naturally indifferent and unreasonable disposition and was very taciturn in front of other people. If he smiled at a person, it was already bestowing him or her a great gift. In addition, his reputation wasn't good either. He was shrewd and unwaveringly ruthless when handling official business. The people in the capital had given him the title of "King of Hell" a long time ago. Other than the court ministers that were his supporters, none of the aristocratic families were willing to have any extraneous dealings with him. They were afraid that a moment of carelessness would provoke him. If he had a grudge against you, it would be difficult to preserve the lives of your family members from the oldest person to the youngest.

Since Wei Luo had already married Zhao Jie, she wasn't willing for him to have too many enemies. If she drew the court ministers' wives to her side, she would be able to slightly improve his reputation. This way, his reputation wouldn't become worse and worse.

Even though Wei Luo didn't like attending these events where there were shams of politeness, she would still go.