I've Taken a Fancy to Princess Jianing's Palace

Zhou Wanwan turned around and returned to the Cold Palace.

She frowned as she looked at the grand halls, which were filled with cobwebs. These palaces had fallen into disrepair over the years, and many of the hall walls had collapsed.

Zhou Wanwan sighed and said, "This is definitely not a habitable place."

The Old Scholar Tree smiled and said, "We have hundreds, if not thousands, of brothers in the Cold Palace. Let's tidy up the palace properly first."

These palaces do look dilapidated. Zhou Wanwan squinted and said, "I've got my eye on Princess Jianing's palace. I think it's quite nice."

"Oh! That makes things even easier." The Old Scholar Tree chuckled and turned to leave.

Many of the palaces here were moved out; they were all too dilapidated and were demolished.

Only about ten remain.

Everyone inside the palace was driven out, and they looked at Zhou Wanwan with terrified expressions, asking, "Who are you? What do you want?"

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said, "I was also banished to the Cold Palace by Noble Consort Ning, but don't you think she went too far?"

The ladies lowered their heads.

Zhou Wanwan looked at these ladies and said:

"Since I've ended up in the cold palace, I can't waste my youth and talent!"

I see you're all quite young, why don't you find something to do?

The woman in theatrical costume sighed and said:

"I was just a street singer who was noticed by the emperor and brought into the palace."

But he got tired of me after only two days and put me in the cold palace. Waaah~ What can I do?

Zhou Wanwan looked at her and said:

"Singing opera is your greatest strength, but it seems that this strength is no longer appreciated in the cold palace."

But we can explore and discover that everyone has their own strengths.

What's the use of you spending your days in the cold palace, wallowing in self-pity?

One of the concubines sighed and said, "What can we do? This Cold Palace is a forbidden area; we can't do anything we want."

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said:

Next, we need to find out what you are good at.

Needlework, cooking, embroidery, medicine, singing and dancing, playing musical instruments, painting, chess—anything you're good at.

Anyone can register.

Soon, these ladies began to sign up. In ancient times, how could a woman not have some talent?

These noble ladies, in particular, were proficient in all the arts, including music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and nodded:

"That's really great. I think you guys are really amazing. You should go out more and read more books."

Instead of spending your days thinking about how to gain others' favor, focus on enriching yourself.

A man's affection is fleeting; it cannot last and is unreliable.

Alright, let's start our first day with farming!

"Huh?" All the empresses and palace maids were dumbfounded.

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said:

"What's wrong with farming? You're all eating stale food and drinking garbage every day in the cold palace, aren't you miserable?"

Why not start changing now?

One of the ladies couldn't help but say, "We have no land to farm here! We have no tools, and we don't even have seeds."

Zhou Wanwan looked at her and said, "Don't worry! Everything is ready."

Zheng Xing'an distributed tools directly to all the palace maids and empresses, and placed the seeds aside as well.

Consort Zhen slowly walked out from inside.

She looked at Zhou Wanwan and said, "Ajiu..."

These words startled all the empresses.

One of the ladies looked at Zhou Wanwan's face and said, "You really do look like Ajiu."

"Ajiu was quite cute when she was little, it's a pity she was killed by Noble Consort Ning."

"Ajiu is very kind. Back then, when I had nothing to eat, she was always the one who took out food and shared it with me."

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said, "Alright, stop talking and get to work!"

There were naturally some people in the Cold Palace who knew how to farm. Zhou Wanwan selected more than 50 of them and had them teach the ladies of the various palaces how to farm.

The women, wielding hoes, said, "We're supposed to be farming? We've never even held a hoe before!"

The palace maids said, "Your Highness, we need to work hard in the fields so we can have food to eat."

At first, the ladies in the palace were really unwilling to farm, but after a while, they gradually found it interesting.

Those old palaces were gradually all demolished.

When evening came, Zhou Wanwan had food brought in, and the group of people started cooking and eating in the Cold Palace, which was quite a unique experience.

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said, "This is what makes life interesting. Otherwise, crying and wailing every day like a madwoman would be so boring!"

As night fell, the trees began to move; their first act was to move Princess Jianing's bedchamber into the Cold Palace.

Princess Jianing's palace had ten rooms; it would have been incredibly grand to place it in the Cold Palace.

Zhou Wanwan looked at the ten palace rooms and said, "Not bad, very grand. I like them quite a bit. Let's settle the ladies-in-waiting in each palace as well."

Zhou Wanwan chose the largest palace, which was fully furnished.

The Old Scholar Tree had changed all the clothes and blankets inside, just because Zhou Wanwan didn't like using other people's bedding.

Soon the entire bedding set was sparkling clean. Zhou Wanwan climbed into bed, lay down, and exclaimed, "Ah! So comfortable! Life in the cold palace isn't so bad!"

The Old Scholar Tree always felt that the Cold Palace was too desolate, so it went outside and moved back a large estate, which belonged to Noble Consort Ning.

The big trees felt there was a lack of water to irrigate their saplings, so they dug a huge pond overnight.

We can also grow lotus roots and fish in this pond, killing two birds with one stone.

That evening, the little dragon got up for a walk and, seeing the changes in the Cold Palace, rubbed his eyes and exclaimed, "Heavens! Where is this? This is the Cold Palace? Am I dreaming? Did I not wake up properly today?"

The Old Scholar Tree waved at him and said, "Little dragon, what are you doing up so late at night?"

The little dragon stared blankly and said, "I just couldn't sleep, so I got up to take a look! How come everything has changed? Are you telling me this is the Cold Palace?"

"Yeah, it's practically the cold palace! Oh dear! There's really nothing we can do, my Wanwan isn't used to living here, so we'll just have to make do with the cold palace for a change."

The little dragon clicked its tongue a few times and said, "You guys really know how to play! She wasn't used to living there, so you changed the whole palace. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!"

He now realized just how formidable Zhou Wanwan was; she was definitely someone he couldn't afford to mess with.

Just as Zhou Wanwan fell asleep, Consort Zhen entered the room. She stared blankly at Zhou Wanwan's face and murmured, "Ajiu..."

Zhou Wanwan opened her eyes and was nearly scared to death. "Your Highness Consort Zhen, what are you doing here so late at night?"

Consort Zhen looked at Zhou Wanwan and said, "I just missed you a little. Are you very tired today?"

I'm not tired, just a little sleepy. Why don't you sleep with me?