Tang Guo opened the box, which contained a few trinkets. Her ultimate goal was a particular brocade handkerchief, which General Tang had originally carried close to him.
When she entered the palace, General Tang placed the handkerchief in the box, signifying that it should be passed down to her.
Tang Guo unfolded the handkerchief and gazed at the intricate patterns and densely embroidered characters on it, her eyes glimmering.
To the untrained eye, it seemed like an ordinary handkerchief, but anyone who saw its contents would realize it was far from simple.
The handkerchief recorded a long-lost embroidery technique from the frontier, the same technique that had once adorned her sachet.
Tang Guo’s parents had met on the frontier when General Tang was an eighteen-year-old youth, handsome and skilled in martial arts.
During a campaign to suppress a rebellion, he happened upon her mother, who was fending off a group of ruffians with an embroidery needle. Admiring her greatly, he stepped in to resolve the situation.
The two immediately became kindred spirits, and their feelings deepened upon further encounters. Her mother returned with her father.
Although her mother was skilled in embroidery and adept in martial arts, an injury in her early years left her with a chronic condition. She barely managed to live to her twenties, already defying fate.
As expected, she passed away not long after giving birth to Tang Guo.
From then on, General Tang devoted all his love to his daughter, without any thought of remarrying or taking concubines.
Everyone in the Tianqin Kingdom knew that General Tang adored his daughter to the point of obsession, treating her like a little princess.
Knowing her time was short, her mother could not bear for such a precious family craft to vanish, so she preserved it through embroidery on the handkerchief.
For the past few days, Tang Guo had been studying this intricate embroidery technique.
In one of the worlds she had traveled through, she had been an embroiderer and mastered countless embroidery techniques. Yet, this one was entirely new to her.
After three to five days of observation, she felt she had grasped the basics and began crafting a sachet.
Mei Lan, who spent her days by Tang Guo’s side, was utterly astonished by her exceptional skills.
“This is a technique my mother left behind. Seeing the sachet on Noble Lady An that day reminded me. Such a technique must not be lost.”
Mei Lan understood. Now that Her Majesty had no family left, she could only cherish the belongings left by her loved ones to remember them.
“Your Majesty, who is this sachet for?” Mei Lan already had an inkling—it certainly wasn’t for the Emperor.
Sure enough, Tang Guo smiled. “Who else? Naturally, for the one coming over tonight.”
Tang Guo’s lips curved slightly. When the time was right, this sachet would prove immensely useful.
At night, when Xuanyuan Mie arrived, he found her different from usual—she wasn’t reading, but embroidering.
He approached quietly, careful not to startle her or risk her pricking her finger. Sitting silently to the side, he watched her embroidery, finding this serene moment utterly enchanting.
At that moment, he only wanted to call her, “my wife.”
When he saw the embroidered pattern, he was at a loss for words. He had thought she would embroider flowers or perhaps an eagle.
He never expected her to embroider an adorably small dog.
“Does it look good?”
“It’s beautiful, absolutely adorable,” Xuanyuan Mie quickly praised, his hand wrapping around her waist. “What inspired you to make this, Guo’er?”
“It’s for you, Ah Mie. Do you want it?”
A sachet embroidered with a small dog—for him?
Although carrying such a sachet clashed entirely with his image, why did it make him so happy? He wanted to discard the one on his waist immediately, put on this adorable sachet, and flaunt it before his subordinates. More than that, he wanted to flaunt it in front of Xuanyuan Mo.
“I want it.”
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