In the golden autumn of September, a full moon slowly rose in the night sky above the Forbidden City. The sky was cloudless, with twinkling stars surrounding the moon, much like the Forbidden City itself, encircling the capital.
The Forbidden City was exceptionally lively today, as it was the Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet. Lanterns were lit throughout the Forbidden City, illuminating the entire palace. Officials of the second rank and above, along with their relatives, arrived early with their families to attend the banquet.
At this time, Kunning Palace was filled with the sounds of clinking glasses and laughter. When the time came, Hongli ordered the guests to take their seats. Although the Fourth Prince was not present, this seat was naturally reserved for him.
After everyone took their seats, they saw that the throne was empty and assumed that the Fourth Prince had been delayed by something and had not come. However, Hongli then announced the start of the banquet, which surprised everyone, as the Fourth Prince had not appeared.
The crowd exchanged glances, their brows furrowed as they looked at the empty throne. Hongli, seeing the expressions on their faces, knew what they were wondering about, so he coughed a few times and announced, "Father is unwell and will preside over the ceremony in his stead."
Upon hearing Hongli's words, the crowd was not at ease and were even more puzzled. However, none of them dared to show it. They put on smiles instead of their doubts. After all, the people present were not ordinary people. They had been in officialdom for many years and had achieved positions of the second rank or above. They were quite capable.
"I see. How is His Majesty's health?"
"Father's health is fine. It's just that the matter was sudden, and it's inconvenient to trouble everyone, so he won't be attending today's palace banquet. My dear ministers, there's no need to worry," Hongli said calmly. At this moment, Hongli also knew that he absolutely could not reveal his true intentions to these old foxes. If they noticed anything amiss, it would be troublesome.
Upon hearing Hongli's words, everyone was secretly suspicious, but they didn't dare to press him further, so they stopped bothering him and continued to drink heartily as if nothing had happened.
Besides the Kunning Palace, a family banquet was also being held in the inner palace. Since Lanqin was not in the capital, Consort Song and Consort Wu were asked to represent Lanqin in entertaining the families of the ministers. Mingyu was invited to attend, and Xueying was also among them.
The family members present were puzzled to see that Lanqin's seat was also empty. "Why isn't the Empress Dowager here?"
Upon hearing this, Consort Wu, who was sitting above, spoke up, "The Empress Dowager is not here today either, so I, Consort He, will be entertaining you all. I heard that His Majesty is not in the Kunning Palace either."
"But what happened?"
The Mid-Autumn Festival banquet was always presided over by the Fourth Prince and He Lanqin. The two of them had never been absent as they were today. Although they knew that the Fourth Prince and Lanqin had gone to the Yuanmingyuan for recuperation, they should have rushed back by now.
"His Majesty is unwell, so the Empress Dowager has stayed at the Yuanmingyuan to take care of him," Consort Wu said slowly, looking at the doubts on everyone's faces. In fact, Consort Song and Consort Wu also had doubts, because they did not know that the Fourth Prince and Lanqin were in Huizhou at this time. However, the most important thing at this moment was to comfort everyone present who had doubts.
Upon hearing Consort Wu's words, everyone became suspicious, but they dared not show it.
The Mid-Autumn Festival banquet came to an end, but people began to speculate why the Emperor and Empress Dowager did not even attend the Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet.
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