Early Autumn

After a few peaceful days, the weather turned cooler following a rainy evening. As the start of autumn approached, Qinghe seemed to be losing her composure.

She was normally quieter than Qingmei, who tended to worry about many things and had trouble letting go of her thoughts. Unlike Qingmei, who would eat and sleep well, Qinghe's round face was obviously carved with more worries. Her face, while still egg-shaped, was slender, and her chin had a hint of sharpness, leading many to believe that she had an almond-shaped face.

Xie Ning wondered what was bothering Qinghe, so she decided to ask her directly.

"I was just thinking that since it's going to get cooler, we will have a festival," Qinghe answered.

Xie Ning nodded, they had already celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival twice in the palace, and it wasn't much different from ordinary days. There were a few more mooncakes and fruits, but the festivities were mainly held for the emperor and his courtiers. Xie Ning wasn't qualified to participate in such events, and she could only join a few people who were close to her to admire the moon and drink a little weak wine.

The wine was so weak that it tasted like sour sweet water, like drinking dewdrops, such as the "Night Dew White" that they drank last year, which had no taste of wine at all.

If Xie Ning hadn't entered the palace, she might have established a small winery to sell her own rice wine and fruit wine to make a living. But now, such opportunities were no longer available to her.

Qinghe's concerns weren't really about festivals. Looking at Lady of Talents’ simple eyes, Qinghe felt that she still had a long way to go. How could she manage if she couldn't plan ahead?

Qinghe had never heard of the saying, "The capable should work harder." Some people were just born to think more and farther than others, but they often lived very tired and were less happy than ordinary people.

"According to past practice, there may be a promotion opportunity during the festival," Qinghe said.

Promotion... Xie Ning slowed down a beat as she remembered.

There had indeed been such events before. The emperor gave promotions during the festival as a reward for the harem, such as Beauty Liang, who was promoted during the New Year in her first year, and Lady Li of Bright Countenance, who was promoted during the Mid-autumn Festival that year and was later promoted to Lady of Bright Countenance.

There were also precedents for promotions at other times, but they had to be under exceptional circumstances. Men outside to seek career advancement aimed to make achievements and receive awards, while the women in the palace needed to have a specific way of making achievements.

Pregnancy, giving birth to an heir for the emperor, either male or female.

Qinghe certainly hoped that her lady would be promoted during the festival.

"If the Emperor summons Lady of Talents to accompany him during these days, you should pay attention to make him happy," Qinghe reminded her.

Xie Ning knew that Qinghe's warning was entirely for her own sake.

But she really didn't know how to make the emperor happy. To please an ordinary person, you could just cater to their interests. But what about the emperor? He was wealthy, and he lacked nothing.

Furthermore, there were so many women in the palace who were vying to please the emperor. All the tactics that could be used had probably been used to please him, and Xie Ning really didn't know how to come up with something new to make him happy.

It was too difficult.

After about half a month, she was summoned by the emperor again to accompany him during his carriage ride.

It was already the beginning of autumn, and the daytime weather was still as hot as midsummer, but the wind blowing on one's face in the early morning and evening was already quite cool. If you woke up early enough, you could see the dew that had condensed on the banana leaves into thick night fog, and the damp fog had turned into dewdrops.

Xie Ning wore a light apricot-coloured palace outfit today, with an ivory-coloured embroidered flower shawl draped over her shoulders. She didn't have too much jewellery on her head, except for a cloud bun, which was decorated with several gardenia flowers. The flowers were immaculate and white with green leaves.

It was not the season for gardenia flowers to bloom, so the emperor could immediately tell that they were not real flowers when his gaze stopped in Xie Ning's hair for a moment.

"Are they made of silk?"

Xie Ning nodded, explaining softly, "After cutting the clothes, there will always be some useless scraps left, and they're pretty much useless; you can't even make a purse out of them. However, you can cut them into the size of petals and then simply piece them together." The leaves were also made of ink-green satin.

"Isn't silk fabric very soft?"

Even an Emperor could not know everything.

Xie Ning explained, "Silk fabric needs to be starched, and it will become stiff after the starch dries."

The emperor recalled the grass-weaving flower basket on the bookshelf in the Haunting Fragrance Pavilion, "Did you make that too?"

"It was just something I made in my spare time for entertainment."

This flower was quite suitable for her.

The beauties in the palace liked to wear flowers on their heads. Their favourites were complexly shaped, brightly coloured flowers such as peonies, roses, hibiscus, tea flowers and so on. When gardenias were in season, some people would tie them into bracelets or use them as a collar pin because of the extra fragrance of the gardenia.

So Xie Ning said that she really didn't know how to please the emperor. Even if the emperor seemed interested in the flowers that women wore on their heads, she couldn't determine the emperor's favourite. Even when they ate together, she couldn't tell what the emperor truly liked to eat. If there was one thing that she could point out, it was that the emperor seemed to like the dishes that she recommended. From the bowl of noodles that the emperor had his first time in the Haunting Fragrance Pavilion, to the winter melon soup they drank at the Anxi Bridge last time, they were all her recommendations, and the emperor seemed to like them.

However, this was just her preference, how could she use it to determine the emperor's taste? Moreover, the emperor was not a three-year-old child, even if she knew what he liked to eat, it would not guarantee that she could win his favour just based on that.

It was frustrating.

Xie Ning couldn't keep going on like this. For things that she couldn't figure out, she wouldn't bother to worry about them. She focused on tasting the emperor's good tea.

The tea leaves were green and serene, and the tea soup was a light-yellow colour, with a fragrant tea aroma and a sweet taste.

The tea leaves that she had sent over recently were not bad either, but they couldn't compare with the tea here. Looking out of the open window, she could see the sky was a clear blue. The autumn sun shining on the roofs of distant palaces painted them with a melting gold colour that was difficult to look at.

"Handsome Fairness Chen complained to me about you."

Xie Ning's thoughts, which had flown far away, were brought back by the emperor's words. She held the teacup, and her clear eyes had a hint of confusion. It seemed that she couldn't understand the emperor's meaning for a moment.