The hall-bowing rites ended. From this moment on, Great Zhou’s rear palace was no longer without a mistress.

Only, Great Zhou’s empress still had not been decided.

As for whether the Yan clan’s daughter would win favor and become empress, or whether Qin’s princess would be the first to give birth to an imperial son—

That would depend on what came later.

But to certain ministers who were loyal to Great Zhou’s imperial house, they felt this might be a good thing.

Because Qin’s strength today could not be underestimated, and Qin’s eldest princess, as the only younger sister of Qin’s ruler, was deeply cherished by Qin’s ruler.

If someone else entered the palace, it was very likely they would die an unnatural death.

But this Qin eldest princess was different. No one dared to touch her.

Perhaps this was a breakthrough. Your Majesty might even be able to borrow Qin’s power to reclaim imperial authority.

But what Qin truly intended, and whether Great Zhou would be inviting a wolf into the house, still required much more consideration.

But no matter what—

The rear palace was probably going to be unable to be peaceful for a long, long time.

According to custom, Yan Ruxue and Qin Siyao were taken by the maidservants to their respective sleeping palaces, to wait for Your Majesty to lift their red veils and drink the spouses’ wine.

But Xiao Mo did not return to the rear palace that quickly.

After the hall-bowing was finished and every step of the process was completed, the sky had already reached evening.

The wedding banquet began.

Amid the congratulations of the assembled ministers, Xiao Mo drank several cups of wine, dealt with the honored guests who had come from afar as well as the managing elders from the sects within Great Zhou, and before long the light in the sky had already dimmed.

When the time was about right, Xiao Mo left the banquet and had the Empress Dowager, Yan Zhen, and Yan Shanao help receive the guests.

But Xiao Mo did not immediately head for any noble consort’s palace.

He first returned to his own sleeping palace, bathed, and washed away the smell of wine.

“May I ask which noble consort’s sleeping palace Your Majesty intends to go to tonight?”

Sili asked softly.

“Which one...” Xiao Mo let out a quiet sigh. He could not help feeling a little torn.

He knew that, not only the civil and military officials of the court, even the ordinary commoners in the imperial capital were waiting to see which consort he would favor first.

It was not as though no one from the Ministry of Rites had suggested it before—letting the two noble consorts serve Xiao Mo together on the wedding night.

But that suggestion was not only rejected by the Yan clan, it was also met with a furious scolding from Qin’s envoy.

The reason was simple.

In the eyes of the Yan clan and Qin alike, either Xiao Mo favored Yan Ruxue, or he favored Qin Mujiu. Since when was there any logic in having two women serve together?

When would two women serve together?

Only when it was a dowry maidservant and her mistress. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

What, then?

When the time came, who would be the mistress, who would be the maidservant, and who would be the one to rub someone’s back?

So tonight, whose sleeping palace he would go to was something only Xiao Mo himself could decide.

And Xiao Mo’s decision generally represented whether he was drawing close to Qin, or drawing close to the Yan clan.

But in Sili’s eyes, whether Xiao Mo went to the Yan clan’s daughter’s sleeping palace or went to Qin’s eldest princess’s sleeping palace, it was the same outcome.

There was absolutely no way she would allow these two mortal women to take their master’s primal yang first.

“Enough, enough... I’ll leave it to Heaven...”

After thinking for a long time, Xiao Mo shook his head and decided to see what the heavens intended.

“Si Li, do you have any copper coins on you?” Xiao Mo turned his head and looked at Sili.

Sili immediately understood what Xiao Mo meant. She drew out a round jade pendant from her lapel and handed it to Xiao Mo. The pendant still carried her warmth.

“Your Majesty, this servant does not have any copper coins on her, but this round pendant is the same size as a copper coin, and its texture is evenly distributed.”

“Mhm.”

Xiao Mo took Sili’s jade pendant, untied the thin cord, and tossed it into the air.

The jade pendant spun unceasingly in midair before finally landing on the back of Xiao Mo’s hand.

...

Hall of Holding Wine.

It was no more than a walk of half a quarter hour from Xiao Mo’s Hall of Nourishing the Heart.

Inside the sleeping palace, candlelight swayed gently, carrying faint light and shadow that fell over the woman’s bright red wedding robes.

Under that candlelight, the wedding robes on her body looked even redder, and even more beautiful.

Qin Siyao sat straight and dignified on the wedding bed, her legs together. Beneath her red sleeves, her beautiful jade hands rested atop her well-proportioned thighs. Her wedding robes clung to the woman’s graceful figure, like a red peony.

Beneath the red veil, the woman’s curved, upturned lashes trembled lightly. Her eyes blinked again and again, carrying joy, and carrying anticipation.

Qin Siyao had already been waiting in the sleeping palace for a long time.

She knew that even if the wedding banquet in the front hall of the palace was not yet over, the sky was already late. Her husband would certainly be leaving his seat soon.

Was her husband now hesitating over whether to come to her Hall of Holding Wine, or go to Bai Ruxue’s Hall of Congealed Snow?

Or had her husband already gone to the Hall of Congealed Snow?

Just as Qin Siyao’s thoughts drifted farther and farther away, she sensed footsteps outside the door.

Then came the sound of the room’s door opening.

Qin Siyao’s lips curled slightly. Her eyes curved, and the joy flowing from them was more moving than the rouge-red at the corners of her mouth.

Xiao Mo closed the door and picked up the jade scepter-shaped scale from the table.

Looking at his wife seated on the bed, Xiao Mo’s heartbeat began to quicken.

Even if he had long prepared himself, even if he had already seen Qin Mujiu many times—

At this moment, the one before him was his wife by rite and by law.

He and she were no longer outsiders, but husband and wife.

Xiao Mo extended the jade scale and slowly hooked up Qin Siyao’s red veil.

As the red veil lifted little by little, what entered Xiao Mo’s eyes was the woman’s long, fair neck.

Above that was a snow-white chin.

Then her tender rouge-red lips, her dainty, straight nose, her closed eyes, and her long, curved lashes.

When the red veil was fully lifted, Qin Siyao’s face was displayed flawlessly before Xiao Mo’s eyes.

Xiao Mo froze for a moment.

Qin Siyao was already breathtakingly beautiful, rare in the world.

But now, dressed in wedding robes and wearing a light layer of makeup, she had less of her usual liveliness and more of a mature charm.

Her original purity overlapped with the red finery, and the blush on her cheeks was even more moving beneath the red candles’ light.

The woman’s shyness was like clear, mellow wine, making one unable to resist wanting to drink a sip.

Tonight, she was like a peony bud about to bloom, waiting for him to pluck her.

Qin Siyao slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Xiao Mo with shy timidity, then lowered her head again in embarrassment. Her red lips parted slightly, and her voice carried nervousness.

“Your Majesty, do not keep looking at this consort... it’s time to drink... to drink the spouses’ wine...”

“That’s true.”

Xiao Mo came back to himself and nodded.

He set down the jade scale, poured two cups of wine, sat beside Qin Siyao, and handed her the cup in his hand.

Qin Siyao took it. The two of them hooked arms, their cups passing through each other’s elbows, until both of them could even feel the other’s breath.

After they drank the wine in their cups in one go, Qin Siyao lowered her head. Her small {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} hand pinched the hem of her skirt over her thigh, and her voice carried nervousness and anticipation.

“Your Majesty... it’s... it’s time to blow out the candles...”