Xuanyuan Peng's attitude towards the Bai family froze everyone present.

For a moment, everyone in the hall fell silent, not even daring to breathe loudly.

The smugness that had been on Consort Liang's face vanished instantly, and her cheerful expression completely collapsed.

Su Huiyan, who was behind her, was even more insanely jealous, and almost crushed her fists.

Xuan Yuanzhan also had a dark expression, staring coldly at Xuan Yuanpeng supporting Bai Shi's hand, his stern face filled with displeasure.

Su Xuening sensed Xuan Yuanzhan's emotions and secretly squeezed his palm.

In fact, she could understand the Dowager Consort. Without the Dowager Consort's sacrifices and compromises, Xuan Yuanzhan's life would never have been as smooth as it is now.

Feeling Su Xuening's silent comfort, Xuan Yuanzhan held her small hand in his palm, turned his face away and refused to look at Xuan Yuanpeng and Bai Fuya anymore, wanting to avoid seeing them!

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Bai Shi had long been used to Xuan Yuanpeng's lack of restraint, and she didn't care. In fact, she was happy with it.

After all, the more Xuanyuan Peng values ​​her, the higher and more stable the status of the Holy King's Mansion and Zhan'er will be, and the more those who secretly stir up trouble and want to trip them up will have to be careful!

Especially this time, Su Renyi was stripped of his title and beheaded for assassinating Zhan'er, and even the Yong'an Marquis's mansion was raided. As the emperor's brother-in-law, and even with the Su family army, the emperor did not give Su Renyi any face. This shows how much the emperor values ​​Zhan'er and the Holy Prince's mansion.

Those who want to harm Zhan'er and the Holy King's Mansion should think twice about their own capabilities!

Lady Bai stood up, but Xuan Yuanpeng still wouldn't let go of her hand: "Today is my birthday, you will sit with me on the throne today."

Xuanyuan Peng's words once again stunned everyone in the hall.

Although everyone knows that the Emperor has special feelings for the Holy Princess, she is, after all, his widowed sister-in-law. In the past, even if the Emperor harbored these feelings, he still tried to conceal them. But lately, the Emperor has become increasingly unreserved!

The last time was at the Xishan hunting grounds, and today at the birthday banquet, all the imperial relatives and civil and military officials are present. The Emperor still shows no intention of avoiding any appearance of leniency, and his favoritism and doting on the Holy Princess is practically written all over his face.

Consort Liang's expression darkened further, but she still forced a smile at Madam Bai: "Yes, today is His Majesty's birthday, so please join us and take the seat of honor, sister-in-law."

Consort Liang was clever. Her words were partly to help Xuan Yuanpeng smooth things over, even if it was just self-deception. She wanted to cover up for Xuan Yuanpeng to some extent. Of course, this was not entirely for Xuan Yuanpeng's sake, but also for her own vanity.

Secondly, her words were also a subtle reminder to Xuanyuan Peng of Bai's status, hoping that he would restrain himself a bit due to their special relationship.

Unfortunately, after Consort Liang finished speaking, neither Xuanyuan Peng nor Madam Bai paid any attention to her.

Without waiting for Bai's reply, Xuanyuan Peng led her up the jade steps.

The two of them went up the jade steps together. When Consort Liang, Su Huiyan, Consort Liu and others wanted to follow, they heard Xuan Yuanpeng say coldly, "You guys sit down and don't come up."

The expressions on everyone's faces instantly turned ugly, especially Consort Liang, who had just told Bai Shi to sit with her and the Emperor in the seat of honor.

But now, only Lady Bai can sit with the Emperor in the seat of honor. Even she, the imperial concubine in charge of the imperial seal, cannot sit with the Emperor and can only sit below him. This is a blatant slap in the face to her!

But since it was the Emperor who slapped her, she dared not resist!

Even though they were all jealous and resentful, they still dared not refute Xuan Yuanpeng. They could only stop and bow in agreement.

Zong Jiu quickly arranged seats for them downstairs.

The only people seated at the top were Xuanyuan Peng and Bai Shi.

Xuanyuan Peng sat on the dragon throne, and Bai Shi accompanied him. In particular, Bai Shi was wearing the official robes of a first-rank imperial concubine today, and the two of them had a strong resemblance to an emperor and empress.

But a concubine is still just a concubine. The Holy King's Consort is the Emperor's widowed sister-in-law. How could she be qualified to stay by the Emperor's side, let alone become the Empress of Eastern Chu!

The Emperor's actions are completely unethical!

The officials present were all secretly cursing Xuanyuan Peng, but none of them dared to speak out.

"Your Majesty, we pay our respects!" After Xuanyuan Peng took the main seat, everyone bowed to him together.

"You may rise, no need for formalities."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After exchanging greetings, everyone took their seats in turn.

With the arrival of Consort Liang and her entourage, everyone's seats on the lower right were moved back in sequence. Following Consort Liang and her group were the other members of the imperial family.

No matter how the other side moved, Xuan Yuanzhan and Su Xuening still sat on the left, followed by Xuan Yuanduo, Xuan Yuanzhi, Xuan Yuanyu and his wife, and then the civil and military officials.

This time, both Xuanyuan Duo and Xuanyuan Zhi brought their respective queens, while Xuanyuan Yu had Zhao Zhenzhen on his left and Su Feiling on his right, showing that he had brought both his principal wife and concubines.

Su Xuening was somewhat surprised when she saw Su Feiling.

Su Renyi's death and the confiscation of the Yong'an Marquis's mansion seem to have no impact on Su Feiling. Not only is she still able to maintain her position as Xuan Yuan Yu's concubine, but she can also get Xuan Yuan Yu to take her to today's palace banquet!

It's worth noting that both Xuanyuan Duo and Xuanyuan Zhi had concubines, yet they only brought their principal wives. Even the concubines were only of the rank of concubines, and they couldn't just attend occasions like the Emperor's birthday banquet whenever they wanted. It has to be said that Su Feiling is indeed quite resourceful!

Since it was Xuanyuan Peng's birthday, the next step was for the imperial relatives and civil and military officials to present gifts.

It must be said that everyone is very enthusiastic about presenting gifts.

First came the imperial concubines and princes. Xuanyuan Peng didn't have many concubines, but they all sent gifts. Most were handmade; Consort Liu personally embroidered a "Hundred Longevity Characters" picture, Su Huiyan copied a "Longevity Sutra," and Consort Liang presented a "Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" painting she had personally drawn.

Xuanyuan Duo and the other two are all married and have prepared birthday gifts for each of them. However, compared to their mother, the gifts they prepared were obviously not as thoughtful.

The Holy King's Mansion also sent its own congratulatory gift, a jade carving of the God of Longevity. It was certainly valuable, but it was also clear that no special effort had been put into it.

Secondly, there were the imperial relatives, who racked their brains to curry favor with Xuanyuan Peng, and all the gifts they gave him were extremely precious.

Next came the officials, whose birthday gifts were rather similar: jade carvings, gold Buddhas, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and rare calligraphy copybooks. They were neither particularly precious nor particularly cheap.

After all, if the gifts were too precious, their origins would be unclear, easily arousing the emperor's suspicion. Gifts that were too cheap could not be sent to the emperor, so compared to the imperial relatives, the gifts given by the officials were relatively moderate.

Xuanyuan Peng accepted all offers without hesitation, and he had even begun to plan which items should be sent to the Holy King's Mansion.

After everyone had presented their gifts, just as Xuanyuan Peng was about to announce the start of the banquet, a palace attendant ran in to report: "Your Majesty, the Holy Maiden of the Southern Frontier has come to offer her birthday wishes."