Chapter 479: West Garden

Dou Zhao whispered to Song Mo, "Do you want Gu Yu to pass on a message to the Queen?"

"No!" Song Mo said firmly, "Gu Yu won't tell anyone else." He glanced behind him expressionlessly, "Naturally someone will help me pass on the message."

Dou Zhao followed Song Mo's glance out of the corner of his eye and saw the two guards following Gu Yu all the time.

Dou Zhao understood immediately.

She called Miao Ansu, then smilingly carried Yuan Ge'er to the back hall where the female members of the family were accommodated.

Miao Ansu followed Dou Zhao hand in hand and foot in foot.

Princess Ningde and several other older princesses and consorts were sitting there talking. When they saw Dou Zhao coming in with the child, they were all stunned. Princess Ningde was Dou Zhao's elder, so she said bluntly, "Why did you bring the child in? We have to go to the Queen Mother to celebrate her birthday later."

Such a banquet would be too much for adults, not to mention children. But it was difficult to say this in front of everyone.

She held out her hand for Dou Zhao to hand the child to her, and said, "Has Yuan'er's wet nurse come in with you? You should give the child to the wet nurse and take her back home first."

Dou Zhao smiled bitterly and said, "The Empress Dowager specially sent a eunuch to the palace to convey her oral instructions: On the day of the birthday banquet, let me bring Yuan Ge'er into the palace as well."

The way the princesses and consorts looked at Dou Zhao was very different from before. The princess of Huainan laughed and said, "This child has taken after his father. He is really beautiful. I wonder which daughter of a noble family will be lucky enough to find him as her son-in-law in the future?"

Yuan Ge'er looks more and more like Song Mo as he grows older.

Snow-white skin, black and shiny pupils, big eyes, long and curly eyelashes, pink and very cute.

The third princess joked, "Didn't your family just have a granddaughter a few days ago? I don't think you need to worry about it anymore. Just send Yuan Ge'er to your family to be your aunt."

Dou Zhao's forehead was covered with sweat.

The Princess of Huainan said, "Do you think I don't want to? It's a pity that my granddaughters are all born out of wedlock." As she said this, she gently held Yuan Ge'er's little hand.

Yuan Ge'er was getting used to it, because he often went into the palace with Dou Zhao these days, and was often hugged and played with by strange eunuchs or palace maids. He was not shy and smiled sweetly at the wife of the King of Huainan. The wife of the King of Huainan was so fond of him that she took off a piece of mutton-fat jade pendant from her waist that she used to keep quiet and hung it around Yuan Ge'er's neck: "This is for you to play with."

Dou Zhao hurried forward to thank him.

The Princess of Huainan nodded with a smile and said, "If you have time, you must come to visit me - my ninth grandson is only four months older than Yuan Ge'er."

Dou Zhao smiled and replied “yes”.

The Emperor came out, helping the Empress Dowager.

Behind them were the Queen and the Prince's family.

The hall immediately fell silent, and everyone bowed respectfully.

The ignorant Yuan Ge'er didn't care about all this. When he saw the familiar faces, he raised his head from his mother's arms and called out to the emperor and the empress dowager in the center of the hall. His voice sounded particularly abrupt and loud in the quiet hall.

Dou Zhao and Yuan Ge'er immediately became the focus of everyone's attention.

The grandson of the Third Emperor, who had been lying quietly in the arms of his wet nurse, began to twist his body and call out to Yuan Ge'er.

The solemn and dignified atmosphere suddenly seemed a little funny.

The queen frowned barely perceptibly.

The Empress Dowager and the Emperor laughed. The Empress Dowager even ordered the eunuch beside her: "Quickly bring Hege'er over and let him play with the three grandsons."

The eunuch smiled flatteringly and hugged Yuan Ge'er.

When passing by the emperor, the emperor smiled and touched Yuan Ge'er's little face.

The air in the hall was stagnant for a moment, but soon returned to its original smooth flow.

The Emperor's oldest cousin, Prince Huainan, led the royal family to celebrate the Empress Dowager's birthday.

Song Han followed at the back and stared at Song Han and Gu Yu who were standing at the front, feeling very uncomfortable.

After the birthday wishes, there is a birthday banquet.

The Empress and the Crown Princess escorted the Queen Mother to the West Palace. The Emperor was talking to several elderly uncles while the eunuchs were setting the table carefully.

Song Yichun, who had finally managed to get in front of the emperor, exchanged a few words with the emperor and then waved to Song Han.

Song Han walked over immediately.

Song Yichun said respectfully to the emperor: "This is my second son Song Han, whose nickname is Tianen."

Song Han quickly knelt down.

The emperor smiled and nodded, saying, "Today is a family dinner, so there's no need to be so particular." Then he called out "Song Mo" loudly, saying, "Go and tell the wine and vinegar department to bring over a few jars of Lihuabai. This thick wine is too light and not very strong."

Song Mo responded with a smile.

The emperor turned around and talked to Shi Chonglan about the Marquis of Changxing: "...I heard that he took in another concubine? How many legitimate sons and illegitimate sons does he have now?"

From beginning to end, he ignored Song Han.

Song Yichun was very depressed.

Song Han stood beside Song Yichun, looking at Song Mo, who was chatting and laughing with the people in the hall and seemed very familiar with them, and the smile on his face could no longer be maintained.

He didn't expect that Song Yichun didn't even have as much face as Song Mo in front of the emperor.

No, not even Yuan Ge'er had the face - when the birthday celebration was just now, the eunuch carried Yuan Ge'er out, and everyone teased Yuan Ge'er to bow to the Empress Dowager. Yuan Ge'er finally pulled his little finger and bowed twice, and the Empress Dowager smiled and rewarded Yuan Ge'er with two boxes of snacks and a bag of gold beans.

It seems that there is no hope for my job.

So what should I do in the future?

I can't just rely on the little interest from the farm and my father's support to make a living, can I?

As the saying goes, more firewood and more rice means less life. If my father remarries and has another son, can I still give him the subsidy without a written receipt? Even if I can give it to him, I'm afraid he will have to beg for it with a humble attitude, right?

Thinking of this, Song Han felt a little confused.

※※※※※

After the Empress Dowager's birthday, the Ministry of Rites began to prepare for the Emperor's birthday.

It was already very hot in June, so the emperor decided to go to the Western Garden to celebrate the Longevity Festival.

The Queen smiled and said, "Why not let Yan Tang take charge of the palace relocation this year? He is in charge of the Jinwu Guard at such a young age. Many people don't say it out loud, but they are talking about it in private. This is a good opportunity to shut those people up."

The emperor thought what the queen said made sense, and ordered Song Mo to be in charge of this year's palace relocation.

Song Mo remained silent for a long time after receiving the imperial edict.

The emperor went to the Western Garden to escape the summer heat. The ceremonial guards were led by the Bannerman Guards, the close guards were led by the Royal Guards, and the outer guards were led by the Imperial Guards. Although the three guards were all the emperor's personal guards, they were all of the third rank. The Bannerman Guards and the Imperial Guards were fine, but the Imperial Guards were very self-righteous and never paid attention to the Bannerman Guards and the Imperial Guards. In addition, the chief of the palace relocation over the years was always from the Imperial Guards...

Song Mo thought about it and went to Wang Yuan.

Wang Yuan saw Song Mo groaning a few times and said, "You really are being too aggressive? The emperor is the master and we are the servants. You are twisting your thigh with your arm, be careful not to break your arm."

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Song Mo acted helpless. "That bastard Wang Ge reported my words to the Empress the moment I said them." Then he complained, "How did you choose your apprentice? Why did you fall for that ruthless guy? He will tell the Emperor about this sooner or later."

He decided to trick Wangge.

Wang Yuan rolled his eyes and said, "Who are you blaming? If it's a whisper, you shouldn't say it in the hall. Even if you can't help but say it, you should look at the surrounding environment before you open your mouth. But it's not your fault. You grew up in a luxurious environment. Only others look at your eyes, but you don't have the time to look at others' eyes. But you shouldn't drag me into this! I want to serve the emperor safely and then go to the imperial mausoleum to guard the emperor's tomb..."

Song Mo interrupted him rudely: "That depends on whether you have the luck to do it! The eunuch who was beside the late emperor was beheaded by the emperor!"

Wang Yuan shut his mouth.

Song Mo said, "Why, give me a word." He added, "I'm not asking you to rebel, I just thought that if a good man has three helpers, it will be easier to do things."

Wang Yuan sighed and said, "Then let's make it clear that I will not interfere in the affairs of the Liao King."

Song Mo sneered and said, "If you think you can tolerate Wang Ge stepping on your shoulders to climb up, then just stand aside and watch the fun. I want to see if those people in the palace who are used to judging by the food will still rush to call you 'father' and 'grandfather' when they know that you can't do anything to Wang Ge."

Wang Yuan was so angry that his face turned blue and he kept stamping his feet.

Song Mo walked away without caring.

Before the Dragon Boat Festival was over, Qin Tianjian presented several auspicious times for the relocation of the palace to the emperor.

The emperor picked the sixth day of the fifth month and said, "Today we will hold a dragon boat race in the Western Garden. Let the Jinwu Guards, the Shenji Camp, and the Five Armies Camp all send people to participate."

Wang Yuan smiled and went to the pedestrian temple.

Song Mo began to prepare for the move.

He had a reputation for being fierce and was the son of a noble family, so he was quite favored by the emperor. Both Li Ruxiao, the commander-in-chief of the Bannerman Guard, and Shi Chuan, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard, were polite to him. Li Ruxiao even sent Wu Liang, the deputy governor of the Bannerman Guard, and Fu Shijie, the deputy governor of the Imperial Guard, to be in charge of the relocation of the palace, and things went unexpectedly smoothly.

But when the day of departure came, the yellow and green flags used to lead the way were missing, and the red silk crank umbrella had a big tear in it.

The flag bearers in charge of raising the flag and holding the parachute had already collapsed to the ground out of fear, while the flag bearer in charge of the ceremonial guard had a pale face and kept muttering, "I checked it last night, and everything was fine. How could this happen? How could this happen?"

It was the general flag's confidant who was smart and said, "Should we report this to Lord Wu as soon as possible? Let's go to the storehouse and get two flags and a red curved umbrella to make up for it first."

The general flag suddenly came to his senses and hurried to find Wu Liang.

Wu Liang is Jiang Lizhu's father-in-law, so he naturally fully supports Song Mo's affairs.

But at this moment, he was called by the Royal Guards, who said something happened there and wanted to ask him about it.

The general was dumbfounded, gritted his teeth, and said, "I'll go find Lord Li!"

Suddenly, a man ran out from the side, stopped him with a smile, and said, "Lord Li is talking with Lord Song and Lord Shi! If this matter alarms Lord Li, the Jinwu Guard and the Jinyi Guard will not be able to keep it secret. The three guards acted together, but it happened to our Qishou Guard. Where can Lord Li save his face? Even Lord Wu will probably be implicated. I think it would be better if I could think of a solution."