Imperial Palace
Although it was early morning, a layer of drifting clouds veiled the sky, and the gloomy, overcast weather added a touch of unease. The empress let her hair down, leaving it to the closest old eunuch to comb it out strand by strand.
"Is there any routine business today?" The empress looked at the person in the mirror, her brows slightly furrowed. She looked dignified and delicate, yet her face was so pale it lacked a trace of color, making it difficult to bear.
The eunuch acknowledged her words and said, "Her Ladyship released goodwill, and Consort Wu offered six baskets of mandarin oranges."
Seeing the empress nod slightly, he continued, "Princess Zhong offered ten rolls of brocade, which is also nothing major. However, Prince Ninghe offered the Three Mountains Everlasting Life Painting and a hundred seven-minute pearls."
The three mountains were Fanghu, Yingzhou, and Penglai, recorded in Liezi: Questions of Tang as being east of the Bohai Sea, where herbs of immortality were said to exist.
As for seven-minute pearls, pearls were graded by quality according to the fen system (one liang equaled ten qian, and one qian equaled ten fen). Those weighing three and a half fen already graced the table, and with every fen gained, the price doubled. In the end came the saying, "Seven fen makes a pearl, eight fen makes a treasure."
A hundred seven-minute pearls was a heavy gift indeed. Given Prince Ninghe's current financial situation, it was practically emptying his entire savings.
The empress raised her chin to think, yet she did not show anger. "What does he want?"
"Although Consort Wei died under the pretext of illness back then and even received a posthumous title, not only was the title unflattering, but her actual ancestral rites are also lacking. Prince