The Gilded Cage

Settlement – I Plan to Hold Your Coronation Ceremony (2)

At night, after Xiao Kezhi made an inspection tour outside the city, it was too late to rush back to Ganlu Hall.

Chu Ning had already had her dinner, but the flax cakes and mutton soup were still warming by the stove. When she saw him coming back, she asked someone to put them on the food table, then went over to take off his coat for him. She also brought a handkerchief for his face.

He smiled and took it, wiped off, and couldn’t help but put his arms around her and kiss her twice.

Chu Ning smiled and touched his chin with a little stubble, shrunk her head back, and pushed him away, “It prickles!”

Hearing this, instead of backing away, he rubbed against her neck even more vigorously and said in a low voice, “But it grew out after two days of repairing. A’Ning can help me take care of it, right?”

Chu Ning pulled him to sit by the food table and let him eat first, “Okay, I will take care of it for Your Majesty in a while.”

Hearing this, he chewed the flax cake faster, and after a while, he swallowed two pieces of cake with the soup.

The waiter had already prepared the knife, towel, hot water, etc. Chu Ning simply let him lie on his back and pillow on his lap, first dipped the towel in hot water to warm and soften the beard on his chin, and then carefully scraped it with the knife bit by bit.

Where the knife passed, the stubble that protruded from the chin was shaved away, and it became smooth again.

Xiao Kezhi’s heart felt satisfied for a while. Although he was lying on his back, he refused to close his eyes. He just stared at Chu Ning’s attentive and careful face and couldn’t help but raise the corners of his lips.

“Don’t move!” Chu Ning was startled, and hurriedly moved the knife in her hand away, for fear of cutting his cheek, “It almost cut you.”

Only then did Xiao Kezhi come back to his senses. He tried his best to keep his face sullen and let her deal with it.

It’s strange to say that he was always a serious person in the past, but when he came to her, he seemed to have removed some disguise, and he couldn’t help showing a relaxed smile.

After a while, Chu Ning put down the knife, covered him with a towel, and then applied a thin layer of facial cream to finish.

“Well, take a look, Your Majesty. How is it?”

Xiao Kezhi stood up, looked left and right at the bronze mirror, and said with satisfaction: “A’ Ning’s craftsmanship is naturally better than my own!”

Chu Ning covered her lips and smiled, then raised her head proudly, “That’s natural, Your Majesty is not as patient as I am.”

“Yes, I should reward your patience…”

As he said that, he simply pulled her into his arms and rubbed her neck with his smooth jaw.

“Your Majesty—don’t, I still have something to say!” Chu Ning felt the change in his movements, giggled, and avoided, “Today I went to Yeting.”

Xiao Kezhi glanced at her, knowing that she did have something to say, and it happened that he also had something to say, so he stopped and asked, “What did you do?”

“I met the handymen there and asked a few more questions.”

She also said what Madam Xu had said earlier, together with the plan in her heart.

“I want to set up a school in the palace to teach these maids from commoner backgrounds to read, write, and learn skills. If there are outstanding ones, they can be promoted and become female officials. Your Majesty, what do you think?”

Xiao Kezhi listened earnestly. At this moment, he couldn’t help sitting up straight, took her hand, and said, “I think it’s very good. I never thought about this matter, but you paid attention to it.”

His impression of his mother only existed before he was twelve years old. At that time, although he remembered that his mother seemed to love reading, he never thought about it. But she paid attention and came up with such a method.

“I am now in the Imperial court, and I am gradually promoting some insightful people from humble backgrounds. Although I have to work slowly, I have made some progress. You can do this in the palace, and it is also in line with my ideas to set an example for the world, it’s really good.”

He said, with a touch of emotion in his eyes, “If my mother could see this matter, she would definitely agree with it. She was in the palace back then, and she didn’t have a chance to study hard. If you do this, you have fulfilled my original wish, A’Ning. I am very grateful.”

She knew that he understood her intentions: “A’Ning wants to do his best for Your Majesty. Now that they are husband and wife, Your Majesty’s mother is also my mother. Even if she is gone, I know His Majesty still misses her.”

“Yes, you understand…”

He sighed softly, opened the window to look at the stars in the sky, and whispered in his heart to his mother who had passed away many years ago.

She reached out and hugged him gently, pressing her face against his chest.

The two were silent for a while, and he whispered, “I also have something to say to you. Ah Ning, on the day of the Mid Autumn Festival, I plan to hold your coronation ceremony, okay?”

“Coronation Ceremony?” Chu Ning was taken aback, then raised his head to look at him, “But, but I haven’t prepared my robes and accessories—”

“You don’t have to be busy with these. I have already asked the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to do it. After two days, it will be delivered to you for a try-on.” He had been thinking about this for a long time. “That day, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated by the whole world, and the coronation ceremony will be held to let the people of the world celebrate this event. The banquet at night will also be celebrated by hundreds of officials.”

“Besides, the Mid-Autumn Festival means reunion. If we are together, it will be a good omen.”

Hearing that he spoke clearly and logically, Chu Ning knew that he had already made up his mind, “Then I will listen to Your Majesty. I will just manage the banquet and leave the rest to Your Majesty.”