The sound of ceremonial music sounded again, and the royal procession began to set off for Ci'en Temple. Li Hong watched his father's carriage slowly start, and then his mother's carriage followed. He immediately turned his head with a smile on his face, and saw Xu Jingzong consciously and slowly disappearing behind the team.
But Wu Mei's sharp peripheral vision caught this scene. As she walked slowly, Wu Mei's mind was filled with Li Hong's happy smile. After thinking about it, she felt uneasy and said to Lian Tie, "Go and invite the prince to come over and sit with me."
Li Hong was about to get on the car while humming a little tune when Lian Tie came over and called out, "Your Highness, the Queen wants you to ride with her."
"Are you kidding? How can this be possible?" Li Hong wanted to hide reflexively, but when he came to think about it, he realized that he had not done anything bad recently.
So he asked, "Why?"
Lian Tie said honestly: "I don't know."
"But... can we still catch up with the carriage now?" Li Hong said as he looked at the Phoenix Chariot which was already twenty feet away or even farther away.
Lian Tie looked at him and nodded. Then Li Hong turned his head strangely and looked at Bai Chun, Xiao Han and Xia Zhi from top to bottom. He said coldly: "Who told you to wear high heels when going out? It makes you look taller, right? Disgusting!"
After he finished speaking, he snorted. He was wondering if his mother was going to beat him up again because of this. And he was sure that his mother must have worn these new high heels today.
...
...
Of course, who knows, maybe she even wore the underwear, because when he was taking a shower and changing clothes today, he saw Xiaoxue and Bai Lu wearing them. Bai Chun was probably wearing them too. He might take a peek at her taking a shower one day and see, haha.
After being put on his mother's carriage by Lian Tie, Li Hong first hid aside, staring at Wu Mei and refusing to go over. Then he looked at the pair of small feet exposed under the empress's phoenix dress. Although he could not see the shoe surface, he could clearly see the thin high heels on the back of the feet.
"come over."
"No... Please tell me what happened first, and then I'll go over." Li Hong leaned against the door and refused to go over no matter what. The palace maids sitting on both sides couldn't help but smile when they saw Li Hong like this.
"You haven't done anything wrong, so what are you afraid of?" Wu Mei's eyebrows were raised, her eyes were wide open, and her elegant and noble image of a queen suddenly weakened a little.
"Of course I didn't do anything wrong. I have been very well-behaved recently. Also, Li Xian and the others went out on their own yesterday. It had nothing to do with me. And it was allowed by the Imperial College and Chongwenguan. I did not participate." Li Hong argued.
"Did you go yesterday? What did you do yesterday? What's going on with Helan Minzhi?" Wu Mei didn't want to settle the score with him now, but seeing Li Hong's look, she couldn't help but want to beat him up.
"Helan Minzhi brought this upon himself. It has nothing to do with me. If I hadn't stepped in, he would have lost all the face of the royal family." Li Hong muttered in a low voice.
Seeing Wu Mei pouting helplessly and after making sure that it was nothing serious, Li Hong walked towards Wu Mei in the carriage with a grin on his face.
"Hey, mother, how are it? How do you wear these so-called high heels? Apart from being a little uncomfortable to walk in, there are no other drawbacks, right?" Li Hong looked at Wu Mei, whose face was gentle and she no longer had the frown on her face as she had when she first got in the car, and he moved closer to her with a shameless face.
After Wu Mei sat down sideways, Li Hong pulled the palace maid sitting next to her closer to him, then he nestled his upper body into the palace maid's arms, chose a comfortable position, and looked at Wu Mei with innocent eyes blinking.
"Alas... could you behave yourself? You are the prince, and you are like this..." Wu Mei sighed at the end, not knowing what to say anymore. She had been saying these words for five or six years, or seven or eight years, but they had never worked.
But only Li Hong dared to do so in front of her. Even Li Xian and Li Zhe were well-behaved and respectful in front of her, and did not violate the standard royal etiquette at all. Only he did not act like a royal prince in front of her, but he was the most favored by her.
It is said that when parents have many children, the eldest one will naturally become the least favored. However, in the imperial palace, he is the eldest son of the empress and is the most favored by the emperor and the empress. All etiquette and customs are of no use to this eldest son.
Moreover, other princes could not learn this set of skills from Li Hong. No matter whether it was Li Xian or Li Zhe, after making Empress Wu Mei angry, they wanted to learn Li Hong's two-faced skills, but before they could learn half of it, they showed their cowardice under the majestic gaze of Empress Wu Mei.
Wu Mei had no intention of settling accounts with him today. In her opinion, what happened last night was extremely dangerous.
If Li Hong had been a little more careless, he would have been completely manipulated by Xu Jingzong. Unexpectedly, the little guy, with his unique willfulness and toughness, resolved an incident that was threatening to both the royal family and himself.
This incident also made Wu Mei more confident in Li Hong. Not everyone can fight on equal terms with Xu Jingzong, or even have a slight advantage.
"These shoes look nice to wear, but they're a bit tight. They become very uncomfortable after wearing for a long time." Wu Mei stretched out one foot, looked at the shoes on her foot, which also had the auspicious pattern of a phoenix written on them, and said while hitting her calf.
"Mother, you can do this. You don't wear it at ordinary times. Take it off in the carriage and change into other shoes. Put it on again when you get off. Oh, by the way, wait a minute, I'll ask Lian Tie to find Xia Zhi. This guy must have prepared it, and it seems that it is in my carriage." After Li Hong finished speaking, he supported the inner thigh of the palace maid with one hand, then hurriedly got up, crawled to the curtain and knocked on the window.
Lian Tie heard the noise and hurriedly put his ear closer. Li Hong opened the car window a little, looked at the people standing on both sides of the street, and then said to Lian Tie: "Go to the back to find Xia Zhi and ask her to bring two pairs of slippers for my mother."
Wu Mei sat in the car and looked at the little guy, who was crawling around without caring about his image. Looking at his sticking up little butt, she really wanted to go up and slap him twice.
"Hehe, mother, you won't have to suffer later. This is good stuff. It is guaranteed to make your feet comfortable. Although the journey is not far, it is equivalent to crossing the entire Chang'an City. You should change into something comfortable." Li Hong continued to nestle in the palace maid's arms and found a comfortable place to lean his head.
Wu Mei was too lazy to look at him. She turned her head and looked through the thin gauze on the car window at the crowd of people outside who were cleared on both sides of the street. She murmured, "Hong'er, how many poor scholars are there in your Chongwen Hall now?"
"Mother, there should be about three hundred people now."
"Who can make it big?" Wu Mei continued to ask.
"Well...it's hard to say. Whether a poor scholar participates in the imperial examination or is recommended for officialdom, it is not possible for them to achieve success overnight and be compared with the scholars from wealthy families."
Wu Mei was puzzled when she heard this, and looked over at Li Hong inquiringly, only to see Li Hong say in a serious tone, "The nobility and the powerful families have too much of an advantage. After all, they are knowledgeable and have a broad vision and a high level of perspective, as well as a degree of familiarity with the government affairs in the court, or as local officials, they lack some height and confidence in governing the people. But their advantage is that they have more personal experience of the people and their sentiments than the wealthy scholars. If we compare them two by two, the wealthy families account for seven, and now the poor families account for three, which is a good result."
Wu Mei nodded thoughtfully. Although she wanted to advise Li Hong not to use too many scholars from poor families, after hearing Li Hong's logical analysis, she nodded in agreement.
According to historical records, after Wu Mei ascended the throne, she vigorously promoted scholars from poor families, which led to relative instability in the court. The aristocratic families were overly suppressed, and there was a lack of stable talent output in the court, which was also one of the reasons for the chaos in the Tang Dynasty after Wu Mei.
Li Hong naturally understood his mother's thoughts, and smiled and said, "Don't worry, mother. I know that in another ten years, I'm afraid we can be evenly matched, or even have the upper hand. But even the poor people now can also make great contributions to our country, not just in the court."
Lian Tie ran over quickly and handed a bright yellow bag in through the carriage window. Another palace maid hurriedly took it and closed the window.
Wu Mei signaled the palace maid to hand the bag in her hand to Li Hong. Who knew what new thing this naughty monkey had come up with? Without understanding it, it would be better for him to explain it himself first. Otherwise, it would be the same as before, where he would not be able to use the new things presented to him, which would cause a lot of jokes.
Li Hong glanced at the pocket in the maid's hand and said lazily, "Open it, um, take out the shoes inside."
The maid followed Li Hong's instructions and took out two pairs of... shoes? The soft shoes had no uppers at the heels, only the front uppers, and the openings were very large, so it was easy to put a foot in.
"Oh..." Li Hong took a pair of silk slippers from the palace maid's hand. They felt extremely soft and smooth.
Then he said to Wu Mei, "Mother, please take off the shoe on this foot and put on this one."
Wu Mei followed her instructions and took off her high heels with the help of the palace maid. Then Li Hong took the slippers in his hand and took a look at them. He got up from the palace maid's arms, sat down, took one of Wu Mei's feet and put it in his arms. With a natural and sincere expression on his face, he said, "Mother, please try this one that I prepared for you. When you ride in a carriage next time, you can change into this one. I guarantee you will be comfortable. You can also wear this one in the palace on weekdays. How about it? Comfortable, right? Haha..."
Wu Mei's eyes were full of tenderness as she looked at Li Hong, who was not at all pretentious. She held one of her feet and clumsily put a shoe with only an upper but no upper on her foot.
I just felt that although I put on a pair of soft and silky shoes on my feet, they seemed to have no weight, very light and soft. My feet did not feel as uncomfortable as before, but felt extremely comfortable.
"Hong'er, what is this?" Wu Mei asked as she watched Li Hong almost kneeling on the carriage and putting on his other shoe.
"Hehe, how is it? Are they comfortable? I named these shoes slippers. As the name suggests, you have to drag your feet while walking in them, hehe. They are suitable for you to wear in your room or in a carriage when you are relaxing. I guarantee that they are comfortable and light. The soles are also made of extremely soft material and are very light."
"You are the only one with so many clever ideas." Wu Mei looked at him with delight, wearing comfortable slippers on her feet, and rolled her eyes at Li Hongdao.
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