Chapter 158 One Step Away
Li Yan'er listened from behind, feeling extremely distressed.
But she didn't have the courage to rush forward and refute Princess Anshun.
Two concubines stepped forward and whispered words of comfort to Princess Anshun, which took a long time to calm her down.
Wen Weizhu watched this scene coldly with resentful eyes, lost in thought.
The officials, however, whispered amongst themselves, watching intently as if they were watching a play.
The Emperor had been admiring the performance the whole time, but when he saw that there were no more new tricks up their sleeves, he raised his voice and spoke.
"The auspicious time has arrived. Let the newlyweds hold their wedding ceremony here. Then, send the bride to the private room in the Liuli Pavilion to wait until Prince Wen has finished his banquet and they will return to the manor together."
This is certainly against the rules, but Prince Wen's marriage today is a joke in itself. It's a joke he deliberately prepared for the Prince of Anshun's residence and its officials.
What rules are there for jokes?
Success is when those who should cry have cried, and those who should laugh have laughed.
No one dared to question the Emperor's arrangements.
Wen Zhiming and Li Yan'er were led back to the center of the banquet table and stood side by side. With a shout from Eunuch Zhao, "First bow to Heaven and Earth!"
The two bowed to heaven and earth together.
"Bowing to the parents twice!"
With the Emperor present and being Wen Zhiming's elder, Eunuch Zhao instructed the two to first pay their respects to the Emperor, and then to Prince Anshun and his wife.
"Husband and wife bow to each other!"
This time, Li Yan'er bowed hastily, and the two were too close. Wen Zhiming even took a step forward foolishly, causing their heads to collide. There was a crisp bang, and then all of Li Yan'er's gold, silver, and jade ornaments fell to the ground.
After a series of crisp sounds, a large pile of glittering headdresses appeared in front of her. Her black silk stockings also fell apart.
"this……"
The officials were startled once again, but having learned from their previous experience, they dared not laugh rashly and instead looked up to see the emperor's expression.
A clear smile appeared on the emperor's lips.
Everyone understood.
"The bride not only prepared food for her unborn child, but also prepared gold and silver items well in advance."
"But these things won't disappear if they're kept in the mansion, so why are they all piled up on our heads? Look how many there are, isn't it heavy to carry this weight?"
"Oh, you don't understand. This is probably the first time the bride has seen such expensive things. How can she feel at ease if she doesn't carry them with her?"
"That's right. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten the bride's original identity."
"I can't forget it. People do what they're supposed to do. Look at what this bride did today; that's something only someone of her status would do."
"What exactly does Prince Wen see in her? She's really not presentable."
"Ahem, how would we know about this? Perhaps, but it's best not to say..."
Li Yan'er was frantic with worry.
She encountered too many problems today, far exceeding her ability to handle them.
Listening to the surrounding chatter, she really didn't know what to do, so she could only numbly continue the previous operation, picking it up from the ground and inserting it into her hair bun.
But she was wearing a bridal veil and her hair was loose, so it was impossible to recreate the original look.
At this moment, Wen Zhiming seemed to have become interested and squatted down in front of Li Yan'er. Just as she thought Wen Zhiming had come to help her, she heard the other mutter, "This is good, this can be used to make a slingshot, this is good, this can be used to tease crickets, this is good, this can be used as a dart..."
Wen Zhiming picked and chose among them, constantly saying "this is good, this is good," and quickly selected a large bunch while everyone stared in astonishment.
He put a few of them into his bosom, some into his sleeve, and held a few more in his hand. Then he skipped and hopped away.
He seemed to suddenly become playful, wandering around the banquet and causing trouble with the headdresses.
Li Yan'er was speechless.
This is their big day, they're in the middle of the wedding ceremony, what is this idiot doing?
After Wen Zhiming picked up most of the headdress, she simply tied her hair into a bun and put the rest back in her hair.
But the problem now is, the foolish prince has run away, how is she going to hold the wedding ceremony alone?
The emperor watched this farce and chuckled meaningfully.
Those unaware of the situation might have thought he was looking at the newlyweds with a loving expression, but in reality, he had anticipated this outcome.
He had originally planned to have someone bump into Li Yan'er after the wedding ceremony so that her hair would fall off, but the silly young master was clumsy and knocked it off during the ceremony, saving his men the trouble of doing it again.
He wanted to tell the King and Queen Anshun that the world belonged to them, and that they could decide who would live and who would die.
Not to mention trivial matters like marriage and imprisonment.
He wanted to tell everyone that even with the supreme favor of the emperor, Wen Zhiming was just an incapable fool.
Of course, Wen Weizhu's reaction was beyond his expectations. Li Yan'er was even more cowardly and useless than he had imagined. These deviations were all good things, further proving that the Anshun Prince's Mansion only had some useless people left, who could no longer cause any trouble.
Looking at Wen Zhiming, who was jumping around at the banquet, Eunuch Zhao asked with difficulty, "Your Majesty, the wedding ceremony is still one step away. Should we bring Prince Wen here?"
Of course, the Emperor wouldn't force Wen Zhiming to perform the wedding ceremony in front of all the officials. Zhan Yan smiled and said, "The young master Wen is so happy that he's dancing with joy. He's lost his mind after all. There's no need to worry about these little details. Let's just consider the ceremony over and take the bride to the private room. It's more important for all of you to congratulate the young master Wen and the Prince of Anshun."
Once the Emperor gave the order, Eunuch Zhao knew what to do. He instructed his men to take Li Yan'er away, and then ordered a performance of songs, dances, and delicious food.
The officials watched the singing and dancing and enjoyed the food, but they did not forget the emperor's order and went one by one to toast Prince Anshun and Wen Zhiming.
When the Prince of Anshun's mansion fell into misfortune, Meng Xingyuan thought that he had not offered any help and had even strongly supported Wen Zhiming and Lingge's divorce. Now that this matter was not a happy occasion for the Prince of Anshun, he really couldn't bring himself to offer his congratulations.
They were also afraid that if he didn't go, the emperor would find out and then suspect his intentions.
He had no choice but to mingle with the crowd offering toasts, making a few random noises. When it was almost his turn, he made another excuse to slip away and returned to his seat.
Prince Anshun truly did not want to drink this celebratory wine, but he knew that the angrier he became, the happier the Emperor would be. His anger and fury would not change the outcome; they would only make the situation more embarrassing and make his Prince Anshun's residence an even bigger laughingstock.
Since that's the case, let's drink it.
Anyway, I've been drinking it for months just to survive, so one more day won't make a difference.
He accepted all toasts without hesitation. He would drink without a word, and the palace maids couldn't even keep up with his drinking speed when pouring wine.
Princess Anshun and her two concubines urged him to drink less, but he acted as if he didn't hear them.
Since Wen Weizhu had already lost all face today, and seeing that her father had no time to care about her, she simply followed the men's example and drank and ate heartily, treating this wedding banquet as her last meal.
The officials naturally didn't let Prince Wen, who was wandering around the banquet, off the hook. However, Prince Wen was playful, strong, and fast. They chased after him with wine cups, but they couldn't get him to drink much. Instead, several older officials couldn't handle it themselves.
The Emperor, observing the scene below, was still somewhat dissatisfied with Prince Anshun's reaction. He hoped to see Prince Anshun utterly devastated and completely broken.
The Emperor narrowed his eyes, summoned Eunuch Zhao, and whispered a few instructions.
Eunuch Zhao opened his mouth in surprise.
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