Chapter 510 Birthday Gifts from the People of Sui'an

When His Majesty celebrates his birthday, the court officials who come to offer their congratulations all bring birthday gifts. Upon entering the palace, the palace eunuchs register and accept the gifts, which are then stored away. Because there are too many birthday gifts, it is impossible to present them all. Only special birthday gifts from the Empress, the Crown Prince, and some high-ranking officials of the first rank are presented in public.

Sui'an was merely a sixth-rank court lady, and also a peasant woman. Her birthday gift didn't interest anyone present.

However, since it was Grand Tutor Lin who spoke, there were always some people willing to flatter and fawn over him.

However, some of the Lin family's political enemies raised objections.

"On the night of the Emperor's birthday banquet, the golden duck incense burner emits auspicious smoke, and a wonderful dance opens the feast. A song of spring moves the red strings... Why not enjoy this grand song and dance?"

"Many young ladies have prepared elegant songs and dances for Your Majesty, and we are all eagerly awaiting them."

"There's no need to present a special birthday gift to a peasant woman like me..."

The court officials, each displaying their skill and eloquence, left Grand Tutor Lin speechless.

Although the Lin family held high positions and wielded great power, Grand Tutor Lin disdained forming cliques, and therefore did not have many close associates in the court. At this time, no one stood up to speak a word in his defense.

The old man snorted coldly: "Singing and dancing are common every year, nothing special, but a peasant woman presenting a birthday gift to the emperor is a first in the more than 100 years since the founding of the Great Yu Dynasty. This old minister really wants to see it."

He has always admired talented people, and Sui'an was the first woman he admired. Moreover, since Sui'an had asked the Lin family to present a congratulatory gift, he had to handle the matter well.

“Your Majesty…” Eunuch Ming said softly, “When I went to Dahe Village, I heard that the people of Sui’an were tinkering with some strange things. I think this birthday gift should be related to those strange things. Why don’t we take a look at it in public… Anyway, it’s just a birthday gift, it won’t take much time.”

The Empress's voice was gentle: "A gift of a goose feather from a thousand miles away is a small gift but carries great meaning. Your Majesty, please take a look."

The emperor, his face expressionless, waved his hand and said, "Bring forth the birthday gifts from the people of Sui'an!"

The eunuchs below immediately went to carry out the order. Before these birthday gifts could even be stored away, they were quickly carried up and placed in the very center of the Imperial Garden.

Eunuch Ming went down and personally opened the chest.

The surrounding crowd immediately stood up and craned their necks to watch.

"It seems to be a birthday gift like a quilt, with the quilt cover embroidered with the character for longevity, and it looks alright."

"I thought it was some rare treasure. They embroidered a quilt and an undergarment and sent them all the way from afar. This is too much trouble."

"Grand Tutor Lin must have thought it was something valuable, but it turns out to be so shabby, tsk tsk!"

The Lin family's political enemies couldn't help but feel a bit schadenfreude.

Grand Tutor Lin frowned slightly. The letter from the people of Sui'an made it very clear that this birthday gift was extremely important and of great benefit to the national economy and the people's livelihood.

But no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't figure out the secret. Could it be that the real birthday gift was hidden under the quilt?

Just as he was about to walk to the center for a closer look, a courtier with a white beard darted to the side of the chest before him.

The man with the white beard was the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies of the Great Yu Dynasty, an official in charge of the dynasty's foreign relations. The Great Yu Dynasty was surrounded by countless vassal states, and beyond those states were many large states. The economies and cultures of those large states were no less than those of the Great Yu Dynasty, and there were various exchanges between the two sides. However, due to language barriers, diplomatic progress had always been slow, which had always been a headache for Minister Zhang of the Court of State Ceremonies.

Lord Zhang walked to the chest and, at such close range, he could clearly see the pattern on the quilt. His aged pupils constricted immediately, and he reached out to touch the quilt. At the last moment, he quickly withdrew his hand, turned around, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, this old minister dares to request a closer look at this birthday gift. I humbly request Your Majesty's permission."

This official, Lord Zhang, is over sixty years old this year. He has served as the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial for more than thirty years. This is the first time the Emperor has seen this old minister show such excitement. It seems that the birthday gift from the people of Sui'an is indeed very meaningful. Naturally, the Emperor nodded in agreement.

After Lord Zhang had the eunuch behind him wash his hands, he carefully picked up the quilt from the trunk.

The surrounding courtiers were completely bewildered, having no idea why Lord Zhang had suddenly become so agitated. They examined the quilt even more closely, but still couldn't see anything unusual about it.

Lord Zhang carefully held the quilt, and with the help of Eunuch Ming, he moved his hand to the corner of the quilt, where there were several lines of text embroidered with gold thread, which shone brightly under the lamplight at night.

"As expected, this old minister was right!" Lord Zhang was overjoyed. "Your Majesty, please look. Here are the characters of our Great Yu Dynasty embroidered: 'Like the rising sun, like the constant moon, like the longevity of the Southern Mountain, never waning or collapsing.'"

The courtiers on the side couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. They had thought it was something more. It was just a birthday greeting, which was indeed very elegant and had a very good meaning, but there was no need to get so excited.

While they were feeling disdain, Grand Tutor Lin had already strode forward and pressed, "The top line is in the script of my Great Yu Dynasty, but what about the lines below? Are they in the script of another country?"

"Grand Tutor is right." Lord Zhang stroked his beard. "The second line of text is in the script of Serso, the most powerful diplomatic nation in our Great Yu Dynasty. This sentence has the same meaning as the one above, just expressed in a different language... The third line is in the script of Laki, which is somewhat similar to the script of our Great Yu Dynasty. The fourth line is in the script of Asab, but I know very little about Asab, so I don't know if this sentence is a birthday greeting... As for the fifth line, please forgive my lack of knowledge, I really can't recognize it... However, it looks vaguely familiar, and I need to go back and check the correspondence to confirm it..."

The emperor, who had been calm all along, suddenly stood up.

The quilt was embroidered with foreign characters that even the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies couldn't recognize. How many more surprises did the people of Sui'an not know about?

He hurriedly went downstairs, picked up the quilt and examined it carefully. As the emperor, he had to deal with diplomatic documents from time to time. The most common language he encountered was the script of the Serso Kingdom, which had the most dealings with the Dayu Dynasty. Other languages ​​were only familiar to him, but he couldn't understand their meaning at all. However, this was enough to prove that the people of Sui'an knew foreign languages, and it seemed that they knew them even better than Lord Zhang.

The courtiers who were watching were extremely surprised.

"The woman from Sui'an is a farmer, right? How could she understand so many languages?"

"It's just a birthday greeting. You can look up the relevant words in a book and then embroider it. That doesn't prove she understood it, does it?"

"Lord Zhang has studied these things for decades, yet he couldn't recognize the last line. It's hard not to suspect that he made it all up..."

"A peasant woman's talents should be used on farming, not on all this fancy stuff..."

Ignoring the noise, Lord Zhang suppressed his excitement and said, "Your Majesty, could you allow me to study this quilt for a few days..."

"Lord Zhang has been looking at it for so long, may I also have a look?" The Minister of Revenue walked over, cupped his hands to the Emperor, and said, "I have noticed that the fabric of this quilt seems to be different from the usual one. I humbly request Your Majesty's permission to examine it carefully."

Grand Tutor Lin then became interested.

Being proficient in foreign languages ​​is not a skill that benefits the country or its people. This quilt must be related to agriculture, otherwise people from Sui'an would be so serious about it.

The real secret of Sui'an's longevity gift lies in the fact that even a high-ranking official like himself came to inspect it.