Today is the Changning Festival, which is the emperor's birthday.
Therefore, the celebrations in the palace are mainly concentrated on this day.
At this time, Yan Shu had just finished talking to the queen mother about the Japanese country, and then she heard the palace servants report that the female guests who came to the palace to celebrate had arrived.
The two of them went out together and went to Chunhe Pavilion, where the female guests were entertained today.
The emperor's birthday is extraordinary. In Chunhe Pavilion today, in addition to the noble ladies of the Daliang royal family, the families of several ministers in the court, and the families of envoys from various foreign countries, they all wore their own costumes. Looking around, they were colorful, each with its own characteristics, and it was very lively.
Among them, the biggest crowd was undoubtedly Princess Gaoli. But today, not only was she wearing Gaoli's characteristic spring silk dress, but also had her hair in a Gaoli bun with various gold, silver, pearls and jadeite inserted into it. The two maids beside her were also carefully dressed and very eye-catching.
In fact, Yan Shu had already seen this Princess Gaoli at the banquet in Jiying Palace last night. She still remembered that she was dressed very gorgeously last night. Unexpectedly, in just one night, she changed her outfit again and became the focus of the whole scene.
She thought to herself, it seems that she is also a beauty-loving person.
However, the journey from Gaoli to the capital is long, and as a beauty-loving person, it is not easy. She has to carry so many jewelry and clothes on such a long journey. It must be a bit difficult to pull the carriage.
Of course, no matter what others think, what makes her happiest today is that she can see her mother again.
——Well, after all, her mother, Zhu, is now a legitimate marquise and has an imperial decree, so she is naturally qualified to attend such a banquet.
In addition, Yan Shu is now pregnant with the heir, so her future is limitless. During the banquet, many noble ladies took the initiative to approach Zhu and talk to her, flattering her with all kinds of nice words, and their intention to make friends was very obvious.
Today's celebration will last for a day. After lunch, various songs, dances, operas and acrobatics will begin on the stage of Chunhe Pavilion.
Yan Shu deliberately sat with her mother. While the gongs and drums were beating loudly on the stage, she quietly reminded her mother, "Just listen to those nice words they said to you. Be more careful in everything and don't trust others too easily."
But her mother nodded and said, "Don't worry, your majesty. I understand."
Yan Shu agreed and chatted with her mother about the situation at home.
Not long after, a short play was finished on the stage, and all the guests applauded.
At this time, the gorgeous Princess Gaoli said in not very fluent Chinese, "The singing and dancing of Daliang are very wonderful. In order to express my gratitude, I also asked my maid to prepare a dance for everyone to enjoy."
Huh? Gaoli Kingdom also prepared a dance?
Everyone was curious when they heard it. The Queen Mother nodded
and said, "Then please invite them." Princess Gaoli nodded and gestured to the maids. The two maids responded, went to the side to prepare, and went to the stage. There was a square table of props left over from the performance of the opera. The two maids lit a candle and placed it in the middle of the table. Then they each carried a long drum and sang and danced around the table. Surprisingly, there were people playing the piano and music next to the stage. They were also the maids of Princess Gaoli. Seeing this, Yan Shu couldn't help but sigh in her heart. This princess really knows how to enjoy life! She traveled thousands of miles to go out, and not only did she bring enough clothes and jewelry, she even brought a band? Awesome! But the system interrupted, [This is mainly because her husband loves to enjoy himself. The Gaoli prince Li Taichu is a well-known playboy. In order not to be rejected by her husband, the daughter-in-law can only try her best to dress herself up and make her husband happy in various ways. ] Yan Shu, "..." So that's it. Well, it's not easy for the Gaoli princess to have such a husband. Just thinking about it, I saw the two maids on the stage dancing and actually got on the square table, and danced around the candles they had just lit on the table. ——You know, the square table is only two feet and eight inches long. The two maids stood on it, beating the drums and dancing, and constantly changing their movements. From time to time, they turned a few circles, and they were all very stable, like flowing clouds and water, which made people marvel. The most important thing is that the candle they lit did not go out at all. It was still burning until they finished dancing and left the table. When the dance ended, there was applause in Chunhe Pavilion. Everyone was amazed and cheered. It was very lively. The Queen Mother could not help but nod and said, "The Gaoli dancers are very skilled. It is really eye-opening." The guests followed suit. After the voice fell, the Princess Gaoli thanked her, and then said, "I carefully selected these two women. I brought them to Daliang this time because I wanted to give them to Daliang. If the Queen Mother likes them, she will keep them in the palace. They can play the piano and dance, and they can accompany the Queen Mother and Concubine Yi." She also nodded to Yan Shu. Yan Shu, "..." Emmm, just now I thought that this princess had a hard time, but she wanted to send someone to the harem again. ——Is it because she saw the emperor reject the two "beauties" from Dongwo last night, and knew that the emperor would have a hard time, so she wanted to ask the empress dowager for her consent today? Just thinking about this, she suddenly paused, damn, these two maids are not some... weird... people? But the system said, [No, compared to Dongwo, the Gaoli royal family is relatively normal, but these two maids have been touched by the Gaoli prince. Of course, it's not just these two. The women in the Gaoli palace who are a little bit pretty have not been let go by the prince.] Yan Shu, [......] Well, he is indeed a playboy. But she still didn't understand, so she asked the system again, "Doesn't Princess Gaoli know that the men in Daliang care a lot about a woman's virginity?" System, "Of course she knows, they also care about this." Yan Shu was even more confused, "Then why did she send the maidservant who had been touched by her husband to the emperor? Isn't she afraid that the emperor of Daliang will be angry?" System, "That's what she planned." Yan Shu, "???" Princess Gaoli planned that? What's the plan?
The system didn't say anything for a while, so she had to try to think from the perspective of Princess Gaoli. She thought, could it be that this prince was so promiscuous that his wife hated him so much?
Then his wife planned to use this method to anger the Emperor of Daliang, thereby causing the Daliang and Gaoli royal families to get angry, and then ask the royal family there to punish her husband?
System, [That's about right.]
Yan Shu couldn't help but say, [This method is a bit too far-fetched! And as the legal wife of Li Taichu, if Li Taichu is convicted, she will also be implicated!]
She still couldn't understand, isn't this the legendary killing 800 enemies and losing 1,000 of your own?
But the system said, [He is not guilty, because Li Taichu is a general among the short men. He is the most powerful prince in Gaoli. His mother's family is also the largest clan in Gaoli. Others can't touch him at all. The princess has always wanted to take revenge on him, but there is no other way in the country. Now that she has finally come to Daliang, she can only use this method to deal with him. If she doesn't expect anything else, she plans to ask the ministers in the country to talk to her husband, so that Li Taichu can at least restrain himself.]
Yan Shu, […]
It's really hard for the Princess of Gaoli to go through so much trouble just for such a small purpose.
Of course, no matter what the Princess of Gaoli's purpose is now, the key is what the Queen Mother plans to do?
Yan Shu tried to look at her leader.
With a hint of uncertainty in her heart.
But her leader smiled and said, "I am old, so I should not waste the youth of these two girls. Besides, the two countries are far away from each other, and I can't bear to ask them to leave their hometown and stay. I appreciate the princess's kindness, but I don't want them for now. After all, they were raised by their parents, and it is a sin to ask them to leave their homeland for no reason."
Perhaps the words were a bit long, so Princess Gaoli had to wait for the translator to translate them before she understood.
Then, with disappointment in her eyes, she could only say, "Okay, thank you for your kindness, Queen Mother."
But before she finished speaking, she heard the Queen Mother say to everyone, "Concubine Yi is pregnant now. This is your Majesty's first child, which is very important to Daliang. I don't want anything to happen again to affect her pregnancy." As
soon as these words came out, everyone in the palace could only agree.
I couldn't help but sigh in my heart. The Queen Mother said this specifically for Concubine Yi!
Tsk tsk, but to be honest, Concubine Yi is too amazing! The daughter of a minor official from a small place, not only has she been favored by the emperor, but she has also been cared for by the Queen Mother!
What method did she use?
And how could Yan Shu not know the Queen Mother's intentions?
So after everyone responded, she immediately said to the Queen Mother, "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty." The Queen Mother
just nodded and said in a calm voice, "Let's watch the show, and don't talk about anything else."
As soon as the voice fell, a new play was performed on the stage, and everyone was soon immersed in it again.
Only Yan Shu was still moved in her heart -
her leader was so good to her!
I will write a storybook when I go back and read it to the Queen Mother.
~~
Yan Shu did what she said. When she returned to Ganlu Palace in the evening, she started writing immediately.
Although her efficiency is not as good as before pregnancy, her spirit is much better than before. Until the evening, when Yuwen Lan arrived, she had already written the first half of the story.
Seeing her sitting at the table, Yuwen Lan was also surprised and asked, "Why did you think of writing a storybook today?"
Yan Shu said, "Because I got some inspiration today, I think I should write it down quickly, otherwise if I don't write it, I'm afraid that the readers will forget about me."
- Hehe, it's mainly for her big boss! She still remembered that the queen mother once mentioned that she liked to read strange stories, so this time she specially wrote a storybook of strange stories.
Yuwen Lan listened silently, and some sourness rose in his heart -
why is her relationship with the queen mother so good now?
Was he raised by the queen mother, or was it her?
Was she his beloved concubine, or the queen mother's?
...
After a while of being sad, he finally couldn't help but ask, "What story are you writing this time? Can you tell me first?"
Fortunately, she was quite generous. She nodded immediately after hearing what he said, and then she said to him, "The story I wrote today is a strange story. It says that there was a country outside the East China Sea in the past. Its king was arrogant and extravagant, and did not do his work all day long. Because of this, many ministers who did not do their work also emerged in his court. They did not think about governing the country well all day long, but thought about how to please this king to seek official positions and gold and silver."
"One day, someone presented a peerless beauty to the king. The king was overjoyed and immediately took the beauty into his harem. He also rewarded the person who brought her. From then on, he spent all day with the beauty and ignored state affairs. However, soon, people around the king noticed that the king's complexion was getting worse and worse, and he gradually became thinner and looked older."
"After some investigation, everyone discovered that the beauty was actually a monster. The king's vitality had long been sucked away by her, and he was already dying. Everyone was terrified, so they hurriedly looked for sorcerers to get rid of the monster. However, the monster had greatly increased in power, and ordinary sorcerers were no match for her. In less than half a month, the monster not only sucked the king dry and killed the ministers, but also began to harm civilians."
Yuwen Lan, "..."
Isn't this talking about the King of East Wo?
Well, that man really deserves to die! It sounds quite refreshing.
So he took advantage of her pause to ask, "Who finally subdued the monster?"
But she smiled mysteriously and said, "Of course it was a mysterious female hero from the Eastern Continent. This female hero has unparalleled martial arts skills and is proficient in various methods of exorcising demons. After fighting the monster for seven days and seven nights, she finally subdued the monster."
Yuwen Lan, "???"
Female hero?
... Is she talking about herself again?
Sure enough, she added, "By the way, Your Majesty, do you remember the storybook of the female hero that I told you about last time? I plan to add this story to that storybook and make it into a long story."
Hehe, after all, you have to come up with new ideas from time to time to surprise your readers!
“…”
Yuwen Lan could only nod and say, "Okay, it's up to you. I want to know, what happened to the heroine after she got rid of the demon?"
Yan Shu thought and said, "After she got rid of the demon, the people there begged her to stay and govern the country, but the heroine was unrestrained by nature, so she didn't agree. In the early morning when no one noticed, she quietly left again."
Hehe, doesn't this lead to the next story?
Well, I wonder which country will contribute some weird news next.
Yuwen Lan, "..."
He was not interested in the weird news of those weird countries. He was just worried about whether her body could hold on. So he said, "Write slowly, don't tire yourself out."
Yan Shu nodded.
He then added, "But no matter what, the Four Books and Five Classics still need to be listened to every day."
Yan Shu, "..."
This man always finds a way to spoil people's fun at the right time.
~~
After telling the story, it was already late, so the two of them went to wash up and then went to bed.
Of course, today was Yuwen Lan's birthday, and Yan Shu did not forget to sing a birthday song for him by his pillow.
It made him feel warm, and he couldn't help but kiss her on the forehead twice, and then hugged her from behind to sleep.
Who knew that he would sleep like this until midnight, but suddenly heard Fu Hai's anxious report outside the palace.
"Your Majesty, just now the Honglu Temple reported that there was an assassination attempt at the envoy's inn tonight, and Prince Gao Li was stabbed."
What?
Yuwen Lan blinked.