"Come spend this year at the old residence. Invite some friends who are staying in the capital too, and we can all celebrate together."
Pei Ye lingered by the carriage door, however, looking back at the many stalls along the street with some hesitation.
Inside the carriage, Xu Chuo lowered her eyes. "What are you doing?"
"Aren't we buying some New Year supplies?" Pei Ye rubbed his hands, his eyes sparkling.
This was his first New Year since he had seen the wider world and come into money.
There were simply too many novel things.
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, with spring approaching, the palace too was decked with lanterns and colored streamers.
Lanterns hung against vermilion walls and green tiles. Palace maids tied colored silk beneath the eaves and shaped clean snow into endearingly clumsy little figures. At this time every year, Gong distributed allowances and even sent attendants home in batches to visit their families. The faces of the nobles, too, mostly wore warm, amiable smiles. These were the finest days of the year.
Yet today, the atmosphere in Purple Chen Hall was graver than at any other time of year. The palace maids, already dressed in festive colors, prostrated themselves in fear, silent as winter cicadas. They had come early on the Empress's orders to clean the hall, and now knelt there like statues.
"A pillar of two reigns, an uncle to the nation..." Still in vermilion robes, Li Hanfei had not even changed into court dress. He knelt leaning against a Coiling Dragon Pillar, the smell of wine still on him. His eyes were red and numb, his lips bluish-purple, his voice trembling slightly. "And a villain simply cut off his head in the street..."
Yang Juhu, Zhang Mengqiu, and