Luxury (1)
Because of the celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival, the streets were covered in calamus, and colourful five poisons talismans could be found everywhere.
[TL Notes: Calamus is a plant also known as Sweet flag. In many regions of China, hanging calamus with wormwood is a common practice, and it is believed that they can help avoid bad luck and diseases.
The Ancient Chinese believed that the only effective defence against poison was more poison, and one method they thought they could defend themselves on this day was by drinking realgar wine, which contains arsenic sulphide. The term “five poisons” here refers to five creatures that were thought to be “poisonous,” not five real toxins. They are snakes, scorpions, centipedes, Toads and spiders. They believe wearing talismans curved with those animals will guard you from bad luck.]
The sun had already risen when Mu Mingtang and Xie Xuanchen finished getting ready to visit the Jinming Lake after breakfast.
The island in the middle of Jinming Lake was still a prohibited location, even though the lake was now open to the public.
There was also a special passage to pass through for noble people, so that they didn’t have to squeeze with others.
The guards of Xie Xuanchen’s palace showed their badges to the imperial guards as Mu Mingtang’s carriage arrived at the special passageway. The head guard in charge of the royal guards waved to the back in order to signal for them to be released.
As soon as people on the street saw this, they became curious about the identity of Mu Mingtang, “Who is the owner of this carriage? Just now the wife of the Hou family’s head got down from the carriage and walked, but the owner of this carriage didn’t even have to get out of the carriage.”
The royalties were too far for the common people in the social ladder to recognise them. They hardly ever even saw officials, never mind the princes, generals, and ministers. As the Forbidden Garden was opened to the public by the Emperor at this year’s Dragon Boat Festival, it was a rare chance for residents of the capital to see actual members of the upper class. Everyone was so enthusiastic that every time a carriage passed, they discussed it for a long time.
A well-informed and gossip-loving person who knew that it was Prince An’s carriage yelled, “Who do you think was the one who passed by just now?”
As soon as the words came out, many people looked at him with enthusiasm, “Who is it?”
“That is the carriage from Prince An’s mansion! What kind of person is Prince An? How can he be the same as a typical Duke and Marquis?”
In reality, to the ordinary people, a Duke and Marquis were already significant figures. So when they heard it was a carriage from the royal family, they were even more surprised.
Someone asked as he couldn’t control his curiosity, “Is that the same Prince An you mentioned a few days ago?”
Although none of them had any direct contact with these wealthy princes, they had their own imagination according to various rumours, hence common people couldn’t stop their enthusiasm.
The man who just said that he recognized Mu Mingtang’s carriage wanted to show off more and said more vigorously, “Yes, that’s right. It’s him. Our house is in Shenli Lane, not far away from Zhuque Street. People from Prince An’s mansion came to buy seasonal vegetables there, and they wore badges exactly the same as those on the carriage just now.”
As he said those words, everyone stared at the man with their mouths half open. After Mu Mingtang’s birthday, Prince An’s mansion’s name became well-known throughout the royal capital, and the begonias on Zhuque Street were still in bloom.
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