The process of marriage was actually already written very clearly in the Book of Rites— nacai, wenming, naji, nazheng, qingqi, qinying1nacai, wenming, naji, nazheng, qingqi, qinying: these are the six traditional Chinese marriage rituals: presenting betrothal gifts, exchanging names, confirming the marriage is auspicious, sending the main betrothal gifts, selecting the wedding date, and personally welcoming the bride]. The imperial family also follows this set of procedures, but due to the noble status of the emperor, these procedures are naturally even more complicated.
Last year, after Meng Fu learned that she had been removed from the family register by Meng Yanxing, she went to the government office to reapply for her own household registration. In this era, it’s not easy for a woman to establish her own household independently — it requires verification from many sides. Fortunately, Meng Fu had maintained good interpersonal relations in the past. Even after dissolving her marriage with Xie Wenzhao and being driven out of the Meng family by Meng Yanxing, she was still able to find people to help her. After putting in some effort, she finally managed to get the matter settled.
Now that she was to have a grand wedding with Li Yue, the Empress Dowager was worried that she, being alone outside, getting married directly like this would be looked down upon. She wanted to pick a suitable noble or aristocratic family in the imperial capital and have Meng Fu be married off from their household. But if done this way, it would inevitably create some entanglements, and besides, her identity was something anyone in the capital could easily find out with a little inquiry. There really wasn’t a need for such concealment, so Meng Fu politely declined the Empress Dowager’s kind intention.
Li Yue took out half of his private treasury as Meng Fu’s dowry, and the remaining half as the bride price.
Most of the treasures in his private treasury were saved up by the former emperor during his lifetime. After taking stock, Li Yue was shocked to find that if not for this enormous fortune left by the former emperor, he would be a pauper — might not even be able to afford a wife.
The former emperor had, after all, done one or two good deeds while alive. Though this might not have been intentional, Li Yue generously decided that during this year’s ancestral worship, he would offer the former emperor an extra stick of incense, hoping that the former emperor could have a better time down in the Nine Springs.
After dividing up the treasures in the private treasury, Li Yue came running to organize the grand wedding with Meng Fu. This was his own wedding, so naturally he had to care about it, and the more effort he put in, the less trouble A’Fu would have to take.
When Li Yue arrived, Meng Fu had just finished listing out the names for the wedding procession. Seeing him come in, she handed the list to him for a look.
Most of the people on this list were the young lords and nobles who had fought in the northern border wars alongside Li Yue back in the day — all of whom had pretty good relationships with him. But Li Yue read through the list from beginning to end twice, then looked up and asked Meng Fu:
“Am I not going to the wedding procession to fetch the bride?”
Meng Fu responded with an “en,” then nodded and said, “According to the rites, you don’t need to go.”
Among the common people, when men and women get married, the groom must personally go to the bride’s home to fetch the bride. But it’s different for the Emperor — the Emperor is the Supreme of the Nine and Five, the ruler of the world. The matter of fetching the bride is usually handled by sending envoys to complete it on his behalf.
“I want to personally go fetch the bride.” Li Yue put down the list in his hand. “A’Fu.”
Meng Fu propped up her chin, pursed her lips and looked at the Emperor across from her, as if considering whether this matter could be done.
“How can I get married and not go fetch the bride?” Li Yue urged her, “A’Fu, add me in, add me in.”
“Alright, then you remember to go and inform the hundred officials.” Meng Fu picked up the pen and circled out the line with the envoy.
Li Yue tilted his head and asked doubtfully, “This matter has something to do with them too?”
Meng Fu was caught off guard and was suddenly struck by how cute the Emperor was — her hand holding the pen paused for a moment.
“Not necessarily related,” Meng Fu put down the pen, curled her lips into a smile and said, “But they will definitely feel that it’s related to them.”
And in truth, it really was like that. There was no matter of the Emperor that had nothing to do with the hundred officials — they had to stick their hands into everything.
Once they learned that His Majesty wanted to leave the palace to fetch the bride, the officials all voiced that it was against the rules.
Li Yue immediately got angry. What? Everyone else gets to go fetch their bride, why can’t the Emperor?
The court officials were momentarily shocked by His Majesty’s logic — originally, not letting the Emperor go to fetch the bride was meant to show the Emperor’s noble status, but after he put it that way, it instead sounded like they were treating the Emperor harshly.
So the officials quickly changed their reasoning — they said this was for the sake of the Emperor’s safety, as there might be an assassination attempt along the route to fetch the bride.
Li Yue sat on the dragon throne, looked down at the officials in the court, and sneered coldly: “Then does that mean I can never leave the palace again? That I don’t need to attend next year’s hunting expedition at Jun Mountain either?”
At this, the officials fell silent — they couldn’t say a word.
Moreover, His Majesty was worthy of being His Majesty — he could always bring them little surprises beyond expectation. Ever since the founding of Great Zhou, most Empresses resided in Kunning Palace, and the few who didn’t receive the Emperor’s favor would be moved to remote palaces in the southwest corner.
But when the palace attendants came to ask whether Kunning Palace should be refurbished a bit more, His Majesty directly said there was no need to tidy up Kunning Palace — after the grand wedding, the Empress would reside in the Zichen Hall.
Zichen Hall had three buildings: front, middle, and rear. Although the rear hall was the Emperor’s bedchamber, the front hall was where he met with officials daily, and the middle hall was where the Emperor handled memorials. It really wasn’t appropriate for the Empress to live there with the Emperor. If His Majesty truly didn’t want her to live too far away, he could have another palace built near Zichen Hall.
But if Li Yue were someone who could be directed by others, then he wouldn’t be Li Yue.
His Majesty sincerely felt that these officials worried too much — he didn’t even care where they slept after court, so why should they care about him! Can’t everyone just go home after court and live peacefully!
Wei Jun’an and Liu Changlan, these two old ministers, had now been worn down to the point they had no temper left. Seeing that His Majesty’s attitude was firm, in the end, they didn’t say anything more.
To look at it broadly, this matter concerned ritual propriety and the state — as stated in the Book of Rites, “The upper serves the ancestral temples, the lower continues the generations,” which in the imperial family was especially important. But to look at it narrowly, it was truly just His Majesty’s household matter — it didn’t affect them much.
His Majesty had been single for so many years. Now that he finally wanted to establish an Empress — if this got messed up, they wouldn’t even know where to go cry.
Besides, that old man Meng Yanxing didn’t acknowledge this daughter, which was equivalent to her not having any maternal relatives.. Even if someone wanted to curry favor with the Empress to speak on their behalf, they probably wouldn’t dare send gifts directly to Zichen Hall, right? Thinking about it that way, His Majesty’s decision was actually not bad.
If they showed the Empress a little more respect when they met her and didn’t cause any mishaps, even if the Empress wanted to interfere in state affairs, she wouldn’t have a reason to — at most, it would be the Xuanping Marquis Manor that might suffer a little.
Sacrificing Xie Wenzhao’s whole family for the happiness of millions of others — sounds good, sounds good.
Li Yue, having settled these two big matters, also felt pretty good.
Under His Majesty’s urgent anticipation, the eighteenth of the fifth month finally arrived. The Office of the Astronomical Bureau really had some skill—mid-fifth month, it was supposed to be a hot season, yet on this day the scorching sun hid behind the clouds. The sky was a bit overcast, but not a single raindrop fell. A cool breeze blew gently, dispersing the accumulated heat from recent days.
While Meng Fu was preparing for the grand wedding in the palace, she also had people tidy up her residence from inside out. The bookshop owner came by once and, upon seeing the red silk hanging on the door, instantly realized a joyful event was at hand. He even asked Qingping whether he could join in and offer a small gift to catch some of the good luck. Later, after learning Meng Fu’s true identity, the owner was nearly scared to death.
After waking up, the shop owner’s eyes sparkled. He grabbed his abacus and started calculating—if the author identity of Night Talks of Mount Qi were revealed, wouldn’t the book go absolutely viral?
Only, since this matter was now connected with the imperial family, if he really wanted to do anything, he had to first obtain imperial permission.
At the break of dawn, Meng Fu had already risen and sat in front of the mirror. Many palace attendants surrounded her, dressing her and doing her hair. Meng Fu looked at herself in the mirror and thought of how His Majesty had even run over to her place the night before last and chatted with her for half the night. Traditionally, the bride and groom shouldn’t meet the day before the wedding to avoid clashing fates. His Majesty had never believed in such superstitions, but this time he was surprisingly cautious, obediently staying in the palace.
These past two days, Meng Fu hadn’t had much to do, and couldn’t settle her mind to write, so she sewed a bunny plush. It was just finished last night, and she had the secret guard deliver it to His Majesty in the palace.
Her needlework had never been particularly good, but she thought His Majesty would probably like it.
Thinking of this, Meng Fu’s lips curled into a smile. Just then, she heard Qingping softly call by her ear, “Miss…”
Meng Fu turned her head and saw Qingping’s eyes brimming with mist. She asked, “What’s wrong? On such a good day, why are you crying?”
Qingping quickly wiped away her tears and sniffled, “I’m happy for you.”
Many years ago, on the day Meng Fu married Xie Wenzhao, Qingping also cried once—but it was after Meng Fu had entered the marquis manor. That night, Xie Wenzhao never showed up, and Meng Fu spent the night alone.