Before we knew it, spring was almost over.

Ye Jingshu is going to hold a spring banquet at Chaoyang Palace. This is the first time she has held such a banquet. The emperor attaches great importance to it and has ordered the Consort Gui to give her full support, with the Virtuous Consort assisting her.

As the Imperial Concubine was in charge of the palace's expenses, she naturally supported all the costs associated with banquets.

Before entering the palace, Consort Xian was a renowned talented woman in the capital. She was experienced in all kinds of banquets, from the Spring Banquet to other banquets, and knew the rules best. With her assistance, there would certainly be no mistakes.

With these two helping him, Ye Jingchen didn't interfere.

After all, everyone has their own expertise. How could someone who doesn't even understand modern banquet rules possibly know how to hold a spring banquet in this era?

He simply reminded Ye Jingshu to remember the purpose of his spring banquet and not to let others easily sway her thoughts.

In the past, Ye Jingshu would have disdained to associate with her father's concubines. She was the legitimate princess, and her mother was her father's lawfully wedded wife. These concubines were nothing more than concubines.

However, this spring banquet was of great importance to her, and she had no choice but to put aside her resentment and humbly seek advice from the Imperial Concubine and the Virtuous Concubine.

Upon asking her for advice, she discovered some commendable qualities in these two concubines.

Although the Imperial Concubine was arrogant and didn't even show her face, she readily distributed the silver without making things difficult at all, which greatly surprised Ye Jingshu.

Consort Xian patiently taught her the specific rules of the banquet, various precautions, and possible accidents and how to deal with them.

She arranged everything clearly and meticulously, even the performances required at the banquet and the competitions in music, chess, poetry, calligraphy, and painting that Ye Jingshu specifically proposed.

Ye Jingshu cared most about the poetry and calligraphy competitions, so she deliberately made the rewards for the winners of these two competitions exceptionally tempting.

After all, besides bringing Ye Jingyan out to make an appearance and help her regain her confidence and stand tall, she also wanted to send a message to the noble ladies of the capital that the princess liked women with knowledge and talent.

As the saying goes, "what the superiors do, the inferiors will follow," and in order to cater to her preferences, these noble ladies would naturally read more books.

When Consort De was in charge of palace banquets, various banquets were frequently held in the harem to highlight her special status.

However, after Ji Wushuang took over, she was lazy and disdained to use such methods to demonstrate anything, so she never held a banquet, and the harem was very quiet for a while.

Suddenly, Princess Chang was going to hold a spring banquet, and all the idle or scheming concubines wanted to participate.

Chaoyang Palace, which no one dared to set foot in before, suddenly became lively. When Ye Jingshu returned from school, several concubines came to visit her.

Ye Jingshu originally thought these people were genuinely there to help, but after rambling on for so long, they turned out to be there to offer her advice.

Some people said she shouldn't have been so strict about the age limit; such a grand event should have allowed the female relatives of nobles and high-ranking officials to attend.

Some argued that only women should be invited, and that unmarried young men from noble families should also be invited, essentially turning the spring banquet into a matchmaking event.

Ye Jingshu was so angry that she chased them all away.

She held the Spring Banquet so that the noble ladies could read more, broaden their horizons, and awaken themselves, not so that they could marry and have children early and be confined to the inner quarters to be wives and mothers. This is completely contrary to her original intention!

"Although His Highness only wants to invite girls of similar age to the Second and Third Princesses, how can their families feel at ease letting them go to the palace banquet alone? They must be accompanied by an elder from their family to remind them of the rules at all times!" Consort Xian advised Ye Jingshu after learning about this matter.

Ye Jingshu felt that what she said made some sense, so she agreed.

After all, some of the noble ladies she invited were only five or six years old. If there were any timid girls like Ye Jingyan, it would be difficult to handle them without the comfort of their elders.

Preparations for the Spring Banquet were proceeding smoothly, and Ye Jingshu was extremely busy, spending all her time outside of class thinking about the banquet.

Despite being so busy, she still makes time to talk to Ye Jingchen about the progress and details every day, asking him to oversee things for her.

Ye Jingchen was also looking forward to this day. Of course, what he was looking forward to was not the spring banquet, but a day of free time.

Ye Jingshu really wanted Ye Jingchen to attend the banquet with her, but he refused her firmly.

This spring banquet invited most of the noble ladies in the capital who were of similar age to Ye Jingshu and the other two. In this era, boys and girls were not allowed to sit together after the age of seven. Although Wenhua Hall did not have this rule, it was not allowed in other places. If Ye Jingchen appeared at the spring banquet, it would be a very impolite and offensive thing.

Of course, this was just an excuse he used to get rid of Ye Jingshu; the real reason was—

He only gets one day off a month, and he's been eagerly anticipating it, having already planned what to do on that day. How could he possibly change his plans for a banquet that wasn't part of his schedule?

With Consort Xian around, she would never allow any mishaps to occur at the banquet, which she had finally had the opportunity to organize.

It's time for Ye Jingshu to try to stand on her own.

So, on their day off, Ye Jingshu was busy preparing for the Spring Festival banquet with Ye Jingyan and Ye Jingyu early in the morning, while Ye Jingchen was sleeping soundly in the East Palace.

The night before, he repeatedly told Ye Jinghe not to wait for him to have breakfast the next morning, as he wanted to sleep in.

When it's lunchtime, he will take Ye Jinghe to Chengqian Palace to have lunch with the emperor, just like he did on his last day off.

This way, he could cultivate a relationship with the emperor and also prevent the emperor from suddenly deciding to visit or summon him at the Eastern Palace on that day, since he would definitely want to go out and play during the precious afternoon.

Despite having transmigrated into the book some time ago and maintaining a very regular daily routine, Ye Jingchen still couldn't shake his habit of sleeping in late. In fact, because he used to be able to sleep four times a month, but now he can only sleep once a month, he cherishes it even more.

He woke up and fell asleep repeatedly, lying in bed in a daze until the end of the 11 AM.

If he didn't have plans for the afternoon, he felt he could have stayed in bed all day.

After washing up and eating a few pastries to fill his stomach, Ye Jingchen went to the side hall to find Ye Jinghe.

Ye Jinghe was practicing calligraphy with complete concentration. Ye Jingchen asked Fang Xi and Fang Rui about it and was quite pleased to learn that he had eaten breakfast on time.

On his last day off, Ye Jinghe insisted on waiting for him to wake up before having dinner together, which made him quite hungry.

He had told Ye Jinghe that if such a situation occurred again, he should let Ye Jinghe eat first, and to his surprise, Ye Jinghe actually listened to him.

Being able to eat by himself is a significant improvement for Ye Jinghe.

If you can sleep alone and eat alone, then you can also do other things alone.

Although Ye Jingchen always indulged him, he didn't spoil him blindly. He always had a limit in mind, a limit that wouldn't let Ye Jinghe become too dependent on him.