Chapter 275 Lucky Star
The Empress Dowager nodded thoughtfully.
She knew that the Zhao family was incredibly wealthy, enough to rival the wealth of a nation.
What is even more commendable is that despite their immense wealth, the Zhao family remained humble and modest, constantly instructing their descendants not to do anything that would bring shame upon the family.
If it weren't for the secret machinations of the Zou family, the maternal family of the former imperial concubine, the Zhao family's status as a royal merchant would not have been so easily changed.
The Zhao family's daughter is of a somewhat low social standing, after all, she comes from a merchant family. However, if she can enter the Eastern Palace as a concubine, it would be a great honor for the Zhao family. In the future, she would be able to serve the royal family more diligently, wouldn't she?
So the three generations of the family finalized the list of noble ladies to be invited, and the Empress Dowager was determined to select a Crown Princess from among the girls attending the banquet!
The summer banquet is scheduled for three days from now.
Qi Yuxuan was embroidering a purse for the Empress Dowager, appearing focused on her work, but in reality, her mind was wandering to other things.
The Empress Dowager was to choose the Crown Princess at a banquet three days later. She felt a mix of relief and bitterness.
This was an emotion she had never experienced in both of her lives combined.
She was clearly happy for the Crown Prince too.
The Crown Princess is crucial to the stability of the nation. If the Eastern Palace has no mistress and the Crown Prince has no heir, then the position of heir apparent will eventually be attacked.
She didn't want the crown prince she favored to be questioned for being unqualified because of these things. She hoped that the crown prince could have a harmonious and loving crown princess, and have several beautiful and intelligent children. At least, if he didn't have a perfect life in his previous life, he could make up for it in this life.
But she always felt depressed, as if something was pressing down on her and making it hard for her to breathe.
"hiss--"
Before she knew it, the tiny needle pricked her skin, and a bead of blood, the size of a bean, immediately appeared, standing out prominently on her fair and delicate fingertip.
"Princess!" Lanxin, who was also embroidering nearby, was so frightened that she immediately dropped her embroidery frame and tried to press a handkerchief against the wound.
"It's alright." Qi Yuxuan had already put her fingertip in her mouth and mumbled a comforting remark to Lanxin.
With her fingertip in her mouth, she began to drift off into thought again, wondering how the Crown Prince would react if he found out that the banquet was held to select a consort for him.
Will you get angry, or will you reluctantly agree, thinking it's convenient this way?
At least there's no need to go through the trouble of holding a talent show; just set it up like this, and get married when he comes of age in two months. It doesn't seem so bad...
"Princess? Princess?"
Lanxin saw that she was staring blankly with her fingertip in her mouth and couldn't help but call out.
Qi Yuxuan suddenly came to her senses. She lowered her hand, looked at the still unformed purse in front of her, and sighed softly.
I have no heart to continue embroidering. Forcing myself to finish it would only greatly reduce the quality of the embroidery, so I might as well put it aside for now.
"I'm a little tired. What time is it? If it's still early, I'll take a nap."
It was much cooler here than in the capital, so she picked up her habit of taking a midday nap. When she heard that it was just past 3 PM, she nodded, got up, and went to the inner room to rest.
Lanxin was still worried, so she bandaged her finger and used the special medicine prescribed by Pei Xing'er. She estimated that the needle mark would be invisible by tomorrow.
The bedroom window was made of off-white paper pulp, filtering the sunlight before it fell on the sleeping girl on the chaise longue, as if bathing her in a golden glow.
Princess Minying and Princess Changle had a good relationship, which was common knowledge among the maids. She was also young, and when she entered the princess's bedroom alone, the maids simply continued to stand guard outside the door without stopping her.
Qi Minying had tiptoed in, intending to give her a fright, but seeing how peacefully she was sleeping, she couldn't bear to do it.
She's not the kind of kid who would scare people easily.
But even though she was asleep, Qi Minying couldn't bear to leave. It took a full quarter of an hour to walk from the palace where she and the Empress lived. At first, she stubbornly insisted that she didn't want to be chased, but now, walking under the scorching sun to Fuqu Garden, her legs were really getting thinner from all the walking.
"Huh..."
Qi Minying looked at the unfinished flower pattern on the table and curiously peeked inside. The pattern didn't seem like it was for the Empress Dowager or the Eldest Princess; instead, it seemed like it was for…
Qi Yuxuan woke up to a burst of suppressed laughter.
None of the maids in her room were so inconsiderate, not even Pei Xing'er would act this way, so there must be only one—
"Minying?"
She called out softly, rubbing her eyes as she sat up.
Qi Minying quickly wiped the smile off her face, straightened up, and put on a teasing look that only made things worse: "Sister Yuxuan, tell me the truth, who are you planning to embroider this pattern for?!"
She pointed to the pattern on the desk, and Qi Yuxuan saw it clearly. Her cheeks instantly flushed red: "...That is..."
She had originally planned to embroider a simple purse for the Crown Prince as a coming-of-age gift, but thinking that he would soon marry the Crown Princess, she immediately changed her mind and sent it as a wedding gift instead, so she depicted a dragon and phoenix motif.
Qi Minying blurted out, "I knew you were secretly preparing a gift for me!"
Qi Yuxuan: "..."
Qi Minying happily held the palm-sized piece of paper in her hand, examined it closely, and said admiringly:
"Oh my, it looks really beautiful. I told her I liked the pattern before, but Mother always said I looked old-fashioned..."
"But Sister Yuxuan, your painting is also very good. This is the first time I've seen you paint anything, even if it's just an embroidery pattern."
Qi Yuxuan breathed a sigh of relief, and the two girls started discussing other things again.
"Are you serious? They all want to come!"
Upon hearing that the Empress Dowager and the Eldest Princess were going to hold a summer banquet in the North Garden and invite a bunch of young girls, Qi Minying's eyes widened with excitement.
"But with so many people, where will they stay?" Qi Minying's eyes lit up, and she suggested, "Could we invite Sister Zheng and the others to Fuqu Garden? I'll come too, and we can all sleep together. We can chat while we sleep at night. Just thinking about it makes me excited!"
Qi Yuxuan laughed, shattering her illusion: "Her Majesty the Empress would absolutely not allow you to rest in the Lotus Garden."
After the incident with Xie Tingzhou at Zhuangshan, and later with Bai Mingluan being expelled and the Bai family being exiled, she and the Empress had formed a deep grudge.
Qi Minying was also ordered by the Empress not to go to the Princess's residence, and it would be best if she could stay completely away from Qi Yuxuan.
However, Qi Minying didn't have a good impression of the Bai family and Bai Mingluan to begin with, and she quickly realized that her mother probably thought that Qi Yuxuan was behind the Bai family's exile, so she was taking her anger out on them.
Qi Minying pondered for a moment, "I'll go back and beg my mother, and if that doesn't work, I'll beg my brother. He'll definitely agree!"
Qi Yuxuan's smile froze. Why would the Crown Prince agree to such a thing as young ladies getting together?
Immediately afterwards, Qi Minying cleared up her doubts:
"I understand now. Whenever I ask my brother for something that involves my sister, he never disagrees! Even when I asked for an extra candied hawthorn skewer because my sister brought it, he agreed! Sister Yuxuan, you truly are my lucky star!"
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