EES - Chapter 29
Chapter 29
With her personnel arrangements settled, all that remained was to proceed normally with the Grand Investiture Ceremony for the Empress.
Fortunately, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Revenue were well aware of the state of the treasury. In planning the ceremony, they had done their best to cut expenses, aiming to hold an investiture within protocol using the minimum necessary funds.
Even so, An Lin still felt a pang of sympathy for the expenditure.
As for the Empress's ceremonial robes, if one insisted they were mandatory, fine. Though An Lin wasn't particularly keen on them, the imperial household already maintained a dedicated team of embroiderers. Precious fabrics and decorations could be drawn directly from the palace stores, meaning the only actual cost would be labor fees.
But the banquet for the hundred officials could easily be skipped. Couldn't everyone just return home after attending the wedding? Food prepared by others would never taste as good as home-cooked meals, anyway. And what was there to eat when palace dishes arrived cold?
So An Lin voiced these thoughts to Minister Ji Zhengqing of the Ministry of Rites, playing the part of the miserly sovereign. "We usually drink porridge morning and night," she lamented, "and for lunch We only have three simple dishes, sometimes just two. With the treasury empty, We must save wherever possible, especially for events like palace banquets."
Minister Ji looked somewhat troubled upon hearing this. "Your Majesty, the banquet for the hundred officials following the grand ceremony is indeed a standard part of the investiture rites. It symbolizes abundant harvests and surpluses year after year."
"...Very well." An Lin sighed and held out her hand. "Bring Us the menu filed by the Court of Imperial Hospitality. Let Us see it."
At first taken aback by the request, Minister Ji paused before realizing what was needed. He sifted through the stack of ceremony documents he had brought for the emperor's review and pulled out the banquet menu submitted by the Court of Imperial Hospitality.
An Lin took it and scanned it from top to bottom without changing her expression. She merely leaned back slightly, half-reclining in her chair. "Minister Ji, have you actually reviewed this list?"
"No, Your Majesty. I intended to take it to the Ministry of Revenue and hand it to the Minister of Revenue once I leave the palace." Minister Ji did not understand why this mattered.
"I see. Then let Us ask you a question." An Lin spoke up.
"Please speak, Your Majesty."
"The small wontons sold along the Qing River banks. You used to eat them often, Minister Ji. How many cash coins per bowl?" An Lin asked.
Before he could wonder how the emperor knew about his fondness for wontons, he answered instinctively, "Five cash coins. Six more would make six."
"In Qiong'an, pork prices fluctuate between nineteen and twenty-one cash coins per jin from east to west city. Even mutton barely exceeds eight hundred cash coins." After hearing this, An Lin simply nodded and pointed out calmly, "Yet the Court of Imperial Hospitality's list states 'pork, twenty taels per jin, total estimated cost two thousand taels; mutton, fifty taels per jin, total estimated cost five thousand taels.' No wonder this palace banquet requires over twenty thousand taels of silver."
"We are curious, Minister Ji. Have you never looked at these before? Did the Minister of Revenue approve them all? How much silver did they report for the last palace banquet?"
An Lin could understand the Court of Imperial Hospitality's mindset: if they don't host a banquet for a whole year, they want to feast for a year when they finally do.
But reporting twenty taels for something worth nineteen cash coins? Wasn't that taking things too far? They must think I'm a sucker! Besides, even when no banquet was held, they still received their salaries. They weren't going unpaid during off-seasons!
Xinzhu worked himself to the bone suppressing bandits and raiding their strongholds just to scrape together funds for me!
Only because this empress investiture required a palace banquet had An Lin even noticed the department's existence. Under normal circumstances, with such low visibility, she was about to forget the Court of Imperial Hospitality altogether.
Since they had voluntarily stuck their necks out, An Lin certainly wasn't going to ignore them and play the fool while they bled her dry.
"This..." Minister Ji glanced at the Court of Imperial Hospitality's list slapped onto the desk by An Lin. Seeing the inflated prices, his heart trembled, but he still hesitated, preparing to advise her. "Your Majesty, the Court of Imperial Hospitality is after all..."
"Two thousand taels of silver is enough. Anything over that is unacceptable. Later, have the market prices of Qiong'an welded to the gates of the Court of Imperial Hospitality." An Lin snorted coldly, then thought for a moment and added, "Forget it. This time, there's no need to let the Minister of the Court of Imperial Hospitality oversee the banquet. Xiuwen..."
Wang Xiuwen appeared at the call.
"Take the chefs from the palace's Dietary Bureau to the Court of Imperial Hospitality later. Let them prepare this banquet. If they lack sufficient hands, bring over a few other kitchen maids and servants from the palace. We can survive on plain porridge and pickles for a few days. The investiture rites are what matter." An Lin wore a perfectly ordinary expression, showing not a hint of personal grievance for the greater good.
Yet precisely because of this, the conscience of Minister Ji, long numbed by years in officialdom, began to ache faintly.
Their young sovereign had been sacrificing himself since the day he ascended the throne!
Forcing himself to learn statecraft, progressing from complete unfamiliarity to handling affairs with ease today. He knew the outside market prices so well. During the consort selection, to save money, he hadn't followed previous emperors in draining the treasury and exhausting the people by traveling to various counties. Instead, he held a small-scale selection only in Qiong'an, kept only the Empress in the palace, and sent all other candidates home. Now, even for the smooth conduct of the investiture, he was willing to endure such personal hardship.
And yet the Court of Imperial Hospitality dared to submit such an inflated list, trying to steal the money their sovereign had painstakingly saved!
Minister Ji thought...
With a ruler like this, what reason did he have to sigh and complain all day over a slight increase in workload?
...Though it might be more than just a little.
But the memorials His Majesty processed daily, and the affairs he personally directed, would surely exceed even those of a Minister of Rites like him.
In this moment, Minister Ji suddenly understood the true meaning of overtime!
Watching Minister Ji suddenly perk up, An Lin had no idea what was going through his mind. However, she was equally satisfied with successfully reducing the banquet budget from twenty thousand to two thousand taels. Through their joint efforts, the revised expense list was sent to the Ministry of Rites, and the investiture ceremony proceeded smoothly.
On the day of the ceremony, An Lin controlled both accounts alone, completing the entire ritual under the gaze of all present.
Using the Emperor Avatar, An Lin smiled warmly as she watched the Empress's procession carriage approach slowly ahead. The Empress, dressed in crimson auspicious robes, tilted her head slightly to look toward the site of the investiture (where the Emperor currently stood) and met his gaze.
It was quite a strange feeling to face each other in a formal setting using two separate identities. From the perspective of the Empress Avatar, watching the solemn Emperor Avatar, An Lin thought, So this is what I look like when I am serious. Quite handsome. Looking at the Empress Avatar from the Emperor Avatar's perspective, Hmm... also very beautiful.
By that logic, the Emperor and Empress Avatars were quite a visually matched pair.
Noticing Minister Ji standing nearby, waiting for his turn to read the investiture text, watching Ji Wanshuang with visible concern, An Lin used Ji Wanshuang's avatar to offer a faint smile in his direction. Against Ji Wanshuang's lips stained red, it looked like ice and snow melting away.
Of course, from an outsider's perspective, it simply looked like the Empress, meeting the Emperor's affectionate gaze, offering a smile as gentle as thawing frost.
With poor eyesight, Minister Ji couldn't tell otherwise and assumed his daughter was smiling at the Emperor. Relieved, he concluded that although this marriage differed somewhat from the one he had once envisioned for his younger daughter (she was simply older than he'd hoped), it still amounted to lovers finally united.
Once Ji Wanshuang stepped down from the procession carriage, walked to the entrance of Baihong Hall, and reached the Emperor's side, Minister Ji suppressed the catch in his throat and began reading the investiture edict according to protocol. Together with other court officials, he presented the investiture book and seal. "By imperial decree, I confer the Empress's investiture book and seal."
Then came An Lin... cough, the Emperor opening the box containing the seal, taking it out, and handing it to Ji Wanshuang. He smiled and said, "From now on, you shall be Our Empress."
...
Hiss...
She instantly slipped into dramatic roleplay! Thank goodness no one knew that both the Emperor and the Empress were played by the same person.
Clearly, this action was just like moving an object from her left hand to her right hand... Wait, no, it was exactly like staring into a mirror and deeply declaring, "You're my wife from now on!"
An Lin subtly wiggled her toes, then split her attention to accept the Phoenix Seal using Ji Wanshuang's avatar.
When the Empress's Phoenix Seal was placed in Ji Wanshuang's hands, at the exact moment the Grand Investiture Ceremony was completed, An Lin noticed the Empress Simulator beginning to change.
Unlike the Emperor Simulator, which required memorials as its interface, the Empress Simulator did not need a carrier; it could be viewed directly.
On the map displayed by the Empress Simulator, the tiny padlocks that had covered the previously drab gray buildings throughout the palace had quietly unlocked. The miniature structures now had color.
The Empress Simulator also allowed viewing the little figures moving about on the palace map, a feature the Emperor Simulator shared, so nothing remarkable there. But the difference was that above these figures' heads, in addition to their various stats, there were extra bars: a Buff bar and a Status bar.
For example, focusing her gaze on the Dietary Bureau, she saw the female dietary official's head topped with a [Honing Her Cooking] status bar, while the buff bar displayed Cooking Efficiency +10%.
This cooking efficiency buff wasn't just above the dietary official's head; it was also above the heads of other kitchen maids, food physicians, and servants in the bureau. Each person's buff increase varied: some +5%, some +1%, even +0.1%. In short, the better their culinary skills, the higher the efficiency boost, while those doing menial tasks received smaller increases.
Thoughtfully, An Lin zoomed the view out from the Dietary Bureau and saw that above the bureau itself, there was also a buff bar.
Cooking Efficiency +45.7%.
It was exactly the sum of everyone's individual efficiency boosts.
This feature was incredibly useful!
An Lin immediately thought of her planned Board of Manufactures. With this function, couldn't she accurately identify who had the best skills, group them together to stack efficiencies, and produce items faster? It could also indirectly test who possessed higher capabilities.
She just didn't know if the upper limit for this efficiency buff was one hundred percent or if it could be stacked further. She'd have to test it later.
But now, with the investiture ceremony still concluding in full public view, An Lin had no time to examine it closely. After glancing a few times, she redirected her attention back to the proceedings.
After she handed the Phoenix Seal to herself, ritual music sounded, and the hundred officials bowed to the Emperor and Empress.
Signifying the completion of the rites.
As the master of ceremonies loudly proclaimed, "The rites are concluded," the Emperor took the Empress's hand and entered Baihong Hall. The attending officials were then led by palace attendants to the location of the palace banquet.
"Putting on an investiture ceremony is more exhausting than reviewing ten catties of memorials," An Lin muttered after entering Baihong Hall and returning to the inner palace through another door. She headed straight for the study.
Naturally, both avatars went together.
The ornaments atop Ji Wanshuang's avatar were unbearably heavy. She reached up to start removing them, but whoever had styled them clearly didn't know how they worked. As An Lin tried to take them off, several pieces got tangled in her hair and refused to come loose. With no other option, she had the Emperor Avatar walk over to help remove them, since raising her hand with the Empress Avatar made it impossible to see what was on her own head.
Only after they were all removed did An Lin feel the sudden lightness return to Ji Wanshuang's hair.
"Your Majesty, will you be attending the palace banquet?" Just then, Wang Xiuwen entered after requesting permission. He happened to see the Emperor standing before the Empress, helping remove her hair ornaments, and quickly lowered his head, staring at the floor.
"The banquet? I'll drop by near the end." An Lin paid it little mind. "By the way, Xiuwen, find a few palace maids to go to Resting-Crane Hall and move all the Empress's clothing to Our bedchamber. From now on, the Empress's clothes can be stored alongside Ours, all in Our bedchamber."
Wang Xiuwen was startled. "Then how should Fengxi Palace, the Empress's bedchamber, be arranged?"
"What nonsense. The Emperor and Empress naturally live together!" An Lin stated firmly.
In reality, of course, it was because, unless additional palaces were built, the number of inner palace residences was fixed. Later, she planned to establish the Board of Manufactures, the Shadow Guard intelligence division, and various other departments for finance, medicine, chemical engineering, etc., within the palace grounds. Space was always insufficient, never surplus. Dedicating an entire palace solely as the Empress's residence would be such a waste.
After all, she was living with herself. It wasn't embarrassing. My bedchamber was spacious enough anyway.
"Oh, and Fengxi Palace doesn't need to keep that name anymore. Rename it the Board of Manufactures from now on."
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