Chapter 163 Return to the Court Banquet (1)
Three days later, the imperial family held a banquet to celebrate the emperor's return to the court. Civil and military officials and their families attended. Although it was a feast for the emperor and his ministers, everyone knew that this banquet was merely a celebration of Shen Xin's success.
The Shen family holds great power, and with powerful generals like Shen Xin and Shen Qiu, if used well, they can be a powerful weapon to protect Ming Qi. If used poorly, they can threaten the person sitting in that chair at any time. The Ming Qi royal family is both dependent on and wary of the Shen family, but for now, while the outside world has not yet been cleared, the Shen family is at least safe.
As long as the Shen family doesn't mess around with the succession struggle, the imperial family won't take action against them for the next ten years. This is something that anyone with a brain in the court can see. However, Shen Miao's previous infatuation with Prince Ding led people to believe that if Shen Xin married his daughter to Fu Xiuyi, the Shen family's position in the court would become precarious. However, it seems that Shen Miao's interest in Fu Xiuyi gradually faded, and the Shen family would not be involved in the storm of the succession struggle and would naturally remain safe. In the next ten years, the title of a mighty general in Dingjing City would still intimidate many people.
Early in the morning, Luo Xueyan came to see Shen Miao. In the past few days, Luo Xueyan and Shen Xin had been investigating what had happened in the Shen Mansion over the past year. However, those things had always been covered up very well, and when you looked closely, they were all insignificant little things, so they couldn't find anything. Despite this, the Shen Xin couple still felt something was amiss, and in recent days, their attitude towards Old Madam Shen and the other two houses had become much more distant.
Shen Miao hadn't told the Chen Xin couple about Shen Qing's loss of innocence, and Ren Wanyun and Chen Ruoqiu were even less likely to tell anyone. Thus, Nanny Gui's death was a random excuse, with the claim that she had been expelled from the Chen residence due to dishonesty. Ren Wanyun had initially believed that Shen Miao would reveal the truth, but she fell for her excuse. Ren Wanyun, convinced that Shen Miao had some concerns about not complaining to the Chen Xin couple, felt even more confident.
"There are too few hairpins in the young lady's box." Bai Lu combed Shen Miao's hair into a long bun. Shen Miao had become thinner now, and gradually acquired a girlish demeanor. It would be a bit out of place to dress in the same childish way as before. Besides, she was going to the palace today, so she should probably dress respectably. However, in the past, Shen Miao's jewelry was all arranged by Ren Wanyun, and most of them were gold and silver jewelry. However, those jewelry had long been spent as banknotes when Shen Miao bought Yanmei and Shuibi from the Sanfu Band and supported Mo Qing in arranging Doctor Chen. Now, the jewelry box was empty.
"Didn't the master bring back His Majesty's rewards yesterday?" Shuangjiang had an idea: "Why don't you let the young lady pick out some of them? There must be a lot of good things in the palace rewards."
"Forget it." Shen Miao refused outright. All those things in the palace were stained with blood, and now she didn't want to wear them at all, as if getting stained would remind her of those tragic years. She thought for a moment, opened a compartment in the jewelry box, and picked out a hairpin.
"Hey, this hairpin is so beautiful!" Bai Lu said in surprise, "When did you get such a hairpin? Was it a gift from Madam?"
Shen Miao picked up the hairpin and examined it carefully. This was the hairpin she had used to check out. Back in the plum forest, Xie Jingxing had exchanged the jade crabapple for the real crabapple she had worn on her head. If Bai Lu hadn't mentioned not having jewelry today, she would have almost forgotten about it.
The hairpin was entirely made of jade, from light to dark. At the flower portion, the entire piece of jade was a translucent purple-red. The carving was exquisitely done by the artisan. The petals of the crabapple blossomed and unfurled, creating a sense of splendor and splendor. It felt cool and smooth to the touch, clearly made of top-grade jade. A crabapple flower hairpin like this was likely worth over a thousand gold coins. In her previous life, Shen Miao had seen many fine items in the palace, so she naturally recognized the extraordinary nature of this hairpin. This was why she was even more surprised by Xie Jingxing's generosity. Even the Lin'an Marquisate, with its wealth and splendor, could not afford such extravagance.
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