266. Let him be the prince consort?
266. Let him be the prince consort?
When the autumn wind blows, the Mid-Autumn Festival of that year also arrives.
According to tradition, a Mid-Autumn Festival banquet is held in the palace on August 15th every year. The emperor will invite princes, nobles, royal relatives, and officials of the court to attend the palace banquet.
On this day, there was a constant stream of carriages and horses at the palace gate, and countless people who received invitations came with their families.
“Ouch—”
Their carriage stopped, and Lu Mingfei and Zhang Lingxuan got out one after another.
The two of them looked up at the palace gate and walked towards it together. After handing over the invitation in their hands, they entered the palace gate smoothly and followed the eunuch leading the way into the palace.
Originally, only officials of the fourth rank and above were qualified to attend palace banquets.
However, Lu Mingfei was surprised to find that both he and Zhang Lingxuan had received invitations to the palace banquet. He suspected that the palace had invited Fu Lianxin and they felt embarrassed to leave out the top scholar, Zhang Lingxuan, the third place winner, so they invited all three of them.
Since they had received the invitation, they couldn't refuse to attend. This was a palace banquet, a place that many people dreamed of and wanted to enter.
If they don't come, they would be too ungrateful and will never be able to get promoted in the future.
Since the boss invited these new employees to attend the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, Lu Mingfei had to give him this honor. However, this meant that he would not be able to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with his family. However, when his family learned that he could enter the palace to attend the banquet, they were very happy for him and looked very proud of him.
But this is also the case. For ordinary people, the palace is a place they will never have the chance to enter in their lifetime. Being able to meet the emperor of a country is the supreme honor.
So now that he has the opportunity to enter the palace to attend the palace banquet and meet the emperor, his family members all act as if he has done something to bring honor to the family, and they are almost setting off firecrackers at home to celebrate.
However, perhaps only Zhao Lang, the emperor's nephew, would dare to complain behind the emperor's back about why he held such boring palace banquets every year, and say that it delayed their holiday.
Because it was inconvenient for them to appear together in public, they came to the palace banquet separately. Zhao Lang made his own arrangements, while Lu Mingfei went with Zhang Lingxuan. As for Fu Lianxin, he would not be traveling with them.
Thinking of what Zhao Lang had said about the emperor at home this morning, he couldn't help but find it funny and actually laughed out loud.
Suddenly, while walking, Zhang Lingxuan saw Lu Mingfei laughing. He turned to look at his friend and asked in confusion, "Hey, what are you laughing at? Why are you laughing so happily?"
"Well, I'm very happy to think that we will have the opportunity to come into the palace and attend the palace banquet." Lu Mingfei said seriously.
Zhang Lingxuan looked at his friend with disbelief in his eyes. He leaned close to his friend's ear and said in a low voice, "I've noticed you've been acting strange lately."
"Oh, really? Haven't I always been like this?" Lu Mingfei touched his face and didn't find any difference between himself and before.
Zhang Lingxuan looked at Lu Mingfei, shook his head, curled his lips, and said, "Very different. There are four words written on your face now."
"Huh?" Lu Mingfei looked confused. There were words written on his face?
"Written on your face right now are the four big words 'Spring Heart'." Zhang Lingxuan raised four fingers, leaving these four big words for Lu Mingfei, then walked a step faster than Lu Mingfei and came to the front.
"..." Lu Mingfei stared at Zhang Lingxuan's back. If it weren't for the fact that playing around in the palace would affect his image as the top scholar, he would have chased after Zhang Lingxuan and beat him up.
Zhang Lingxuan, who was walking in front, looked back, but the corner of his mouth was still curled up.
Lu Mingfei walked faster to catch up, and the two walked side by side. Their pace rose and fell in sync, just like they had done over the years, studying together, taking the imperial examinations together, and entering the court together. Their pace was always the same.
It’s just that there used to be four of them traveling together, but now there are only two of them left.
They had been to the palace twice before, for the last palace examination and when the results were announced, to express gratitude. This was their third time to the palace.
The palace was very large. The first two times they had been to the Golden Throne Hall where the emperor and his courtiers held court, but this time they were going to the Imperial Garden.
"Please come in, my lords."
The young eunuch who led the way brought them here, bowed and left.
Seeing that many people had come to the Imperial Garden, Lu Mingfei said to Zhang Lingxuan, "Let's go."
The two of them came in together.
They didn't know most of the ministers in the court. The two newcomers to the officialdom bowed and saluted everyone they met, because most of the officials attending the palace banquet today were higher in rank than them.
After encountering the big guys and bowing to them for who knows how many times, Lu Mingfei couldn't help but complain in his heart: Sure enough, it's not a good thing to come to such a place with such a low official rank. Everyone you meet is a big guy and you have to bow to them.
He saw that although Zhang Lingxuan still had his back straight, he could also tell that Zhang Lingxuan was trying to remain calm. In fact, he was so nervous that his spine was stiff. It was obvious that he was nervous.
They arrived quite early, and there was still some time before the palace banquet began.
If they continued standing in such a crowded place, they would have to greet everyone they met. Lu Mingfei suspected their knees would buckle if they continued like this, so he discussed with Zhang Lingxuan, "Why don't we find a deserted place to stay for a while?"
"Okay, let's go." Zhang Lingxuan nodded hurriedly.
Seeing that there was no one under the willow tree by the lake, the two of them walked over and stood there to enjoy the scenery and talk.
If Lu Mingfei knew that the two of them would meet the Fifth Princess coming here with her maid while talking here, he would definitely not choose such a place to talk.
Just as the two of them were standing here talking, a woman's voice suddenly sounded behind them, "Who are you?"
Hearing the voice, Lu Mingfei and Zhang Lingxuan subconsciously looked back and saw a young woman in gorgeous dress and two palace maids standing on the path behind them. The question "Who are you" was asked by the palace maids.
But they didn't know the identity of this woman, so naturally they didn't know how to address her.
At this moment, the palace maid accompanying the woman scolded them both: "How dare you! You don't even know how to greet Her Royal Highness the Fifth Princess."
Only then did they realize the identity of this gorgeously dressed woman. They hurriedly bowed and said, "Your humble servant greets Her Royal Highness the Fifth Princess."
"No need to be polite." The Fifth Princess waved her hand, asking the maid in front of her to step back. She took two steps forward and stood in front of Lu Mingfei and Zhang Lingxuan. She smiled and said, "I remember you two."
"You are the new number one scholar, and you are the third place scholar."
Lu Mingfei and Zhang Lingxuan had not expected that the Fifth Princess would know them. For a moment, they did not know the purpose of the Princess walking towards them, so they stood there motionless, waiting to see what the Princess wanted to say.
The fifth princess's gaze fell on Lu Zhuangyuan, her eyes shining brightly.
Seeing that these two people didn't know how to fawn over her, the princess, who had been pampered since childhood, said a little unhappy: "Why are you two so boring? You don't say a word to me when you see me."
"Your humble servant is dull, please forgive me, Your Highness." Lu Mingfei, having lived two lifetimes, knew exactly what the look in her eyes meant when he looked at her. However, he didn't dare to respond to her favor casually.
Zhang Lingxuan also bowed and stood with Lu Mingfei.
But the princess was a straightforward person. She came up to him, grabbed his hand, and asked, "I want you to be my consort. Are you willing?"
“…” Let him be the prince consort?
Lu Mingfei almost froze. He quickly pulled his hand back, took a step back, and apologized to the princess: "Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness. I am truly unworthy of being your consort. Please don't misplace your sincerity."
Zhang Lingxuan obviously didn't expect that the princess would speak so directly and would directly ask his friend to become the princess's husband.
In the Great Yan Dynasty, there was an unwritten rule that a consort could not hold real power. If a man married a princess and became a consort, he would only be able to spend his whole life in a sinecure.
[Oh, what am I thinking! Ming Fei already has someone he loves, so it's obviously impossible for him to be a consort.] Realizing that his thoughts were elsewhere, Zhang Lingxuan quickly turned his mind back to the scene in front of him. For a moment, he didn't know how to deal with the situation.
Obviously, based on his understanding of his friend, his friend would definitely not like the Fifth Princess, let alone want to marry her.
When the Fifth Princess heard Lu Mingfei's refusal, she flew into a rage and pointed at Lu Mingfei's nose, cursing, "How dare you! I've asked you to be my consort. This is the blessing you've earned in eight lifetimes, and you dare to refuse!"
"..." Lu Mingfei, do you want to marry me, or is this the blessing I've cultivated in eight lifetimes? He really didn't know how to understand the princess's train of thought.
Just as he was mentally organizing his words, thinking about how to respond so that Her Royal Highness would not be so angry, he heard footsteps coming from the front. Hearing someone coming, he subconsciously looked up and saw Zhao Lang and several young masters walking towards them.
Then he heard Zhao Lang's voice.
"Oh, isn't this our Fifth Princess?" Zhao Lang looked at the Fifth Princess with a look of hostility and sarcasm, and the words that came out of his mouth were like poison. "What? Are you forcing me to marry you?"
"But, I see, this gentleman doesn't seem very willing to marry you. Don't be so self-indulgent."
When Zhao Lang said this, his eyes swept across the Fifth Princess and glanced at Lu Zhuangyuan behind him, his face full of unhappiness. He never expected that one day someone would come to steal his girl!
With Zhao Lang were several princes and young masters of aristocratic families, including Prince Qi Jun, the prince of Zhennan, the one that His Majesty intended to marry to the fifth princess in front of him.
When he heard the woman he was going to marry asked another man to marry her, the face of Qi Shizi was very ugly.
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