Speaking of this, Xia Tong looked a little unnatural. How could she know that villains like to suddenly appear and scare people?
"It's just... it accidentally fell in when feeding the fish. My daughter will be more careful next time." She pretended to be calm.
Hearing this, Xia Zhian showed a hint of blame on his face. It was obvious that her injuries had not healed yet, so it was not appropriate to blame her too much. He just asked her to rest more and left.
However, someone had to take the blame for her injury, and the next day her aunt caught the "careless" servant. This was only what happened on the surface. Secretly, she only heard that Xia Min was fined two months' salary by the old lady because she was not good at learning calligraphy and painting. Everyone knew the actual reason, it was just some painless punishment. Xia Tong had expected this, this was the "family" that her father cared about.
There were still seven days before the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet. She didn't know what the snow magnolia cream was, but after using it, the rash on her face healed exceptionally quickly, and by the day of departure, there was basically no trace of it left.
Since she couldn't escape, Xia Tong decided to keep a low profile. After all, there were so many people in the palace, and the other party might not notice her.
The old lady also took extra care to send her many clothes and jewelry. On the day of departure, Qing'er was dazzled by the choices before her.
"This blue Begonia flower-sprinkled skirt will definitely suit your complexion. Why don't you try it on first?"
Qing'er was still trying out the two, while Xia Tong sat in front of the dressing table. She didn't even turn her head. She just glanced at them and said calmly, "The yellow one."
Hearing this, Qing'er couldn't help but curl her lips and hesitated to speak. Although the style of this light yellow dress was good, the color was a little too light.
But since it was her master's idea, she didn't say much. She quickly took the clothes and tied her hair into a flying fairy style that matched the dress.
When Xia Tong got dressed and went out, a carriage was already parked at the gate of the mansion, and Nanny Liu was already waiting by the side, which showed that the old lady was already waiting for her.
As soon as she got on the carriage, she saw the old lady wearing the court dress of a first-rank lady and sitting there dozing. It was not until she came in that she raised her eyes slightly.
There was no flaw on the woman's fair skin. She was wearing an autumn-scented pine flower silk skirt that perfectly showed off her beautiful figure. She didn't wear too many jewelry on her beautiful hair, and she looked rather plain.
The old lady narrowed her eyes, as if she was displeased, "Didn't I ask someone to send you some clothes?"
The air pressure in the carriage was a little low. Xia Tong had known that the old lady would be unhappy, so she just lowered her head and explained respectfully, "There must be many beautiful people at the banquet today, and my granddaughter doesn't want to be one of them."
The carriage had already started moving, and a soft and gentle sound rang in her ears. The old lady glanced and looked at her granddaughter steadily, but did not say anything more.
This granddaughter did not grow up with her, but she seemed to be a person with her own ideas. It was good that way, at least she would be able to gain a firm foothold after marrying into the royal family.
Seeing that the other party stopped talking, Xia Tong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. This old lady and the other people in the Xiahou Mansion were not good people. What she had to do now was to make her father see the reality as soon as possible. These relatives were unreliable. Otherwise, even if she could escape from the villains, she would fall into the hands of this old lady later.
There was no conversation along the way. The capital was particularly crowded today. The carriage stopped and started for half an hour before arriving at the palace gate. However, when it was still some distance away from the palace gate, bursts of noise were heard outside. Xia Tong bravely lifted the curtain and saw that there were many imperial guards and ministers passing by surrounding the palace gate.
"What happened?" The old lady suddenly opened her eyes.
Before Xia Tong could reply, Nanny Liu outside opened the curtain and leaned in with a mysterious look on her face. "It seems that the Regent's carriage had a dispute with the envoys of the neighboring country."
Whoever arrived at the palace gate had to get off the carriage, of course, except for the villains. For a moment, Xia Tong could only follow the old lady curiously, but she saw a lot of people gathered at the palace gate. A group of imperial guards surrounded several men in strange clothes.
A huge black wooden carriage stood there motionless, and the atmosphere around was solemn. An elderly minister could not help but step forward and persuade the people in the carriage, "Today is the Queen Mother's birthday banquet, and the whole world is celebrating. Why don't the Regent rely on the Queen Mother's face to make a big deal out of a small matter?"
"This is outrageous. We have traveled thousands of miles to express our emperor's friendship to your country, and this is how you treat guests?" One of the strangely dressed men said indignantly.
Xia Tong hid behind the crowd and took a look. Judging from the clothes of the two people, they should be from Lang Country. This is a small neighboring country, but it is rich in resources and relatively wealthy, so Lang Country has always maintained good relations with them. However, it must be said that these two people are really courageous to dare to speak like this in front of the big villain.
The people in the carriage did not move, but a young man holding a sword outside sneered, his eyes sharp, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do. The envoy is so ignorant of the rules that I'm afraid he doesn't really respect our Great Jin Dynasty."
"You... you must stop making up stories!" The envoy shouted anxiously, his face flushed and his neck thickened. "It's just that the carriage stayed in front of the Regent for a little longer. What kind of rules is this?"
Their Lang Kingdom is rich in resources and many countries have dealings with them, but they never expected that the Jin Dynasty would be so overbearing and domineering!
As soon as these words came out, everyone including Xia Tong was worried about this envoy. Rules? Isn't this regent the rule now?
"You want to know what the rules are?" The man holding the sword suddenly stepped forward with a cold look, "Okay, I'll tell you."
"wait--"
Before the old minister could speak out to stop it, two streaks of bright red suddenly splattered on the palace bricks. The two people who were shouting there before were now lying there motionless, with their eyes wide open, and the bright red on their necks was glaring.
A gust of cold wind blew by, and everyone shivered. The man holding the sword simply put the sword away, said something to the people in the carriage, and then continued to drive the carriage without changing his expression, as if he had only wasted some time.
Some ministers who were used to it just sighed and continued walking towards the palace. Fortunately, Lang was only a small country, but the emperor only listened to the slander of treacherous people, and no one knew when such days would end.
The old lady's face was not very good either. Even though she had heard of the regent's bad reputation, this was the first time she saw something so disregarding of etiquette and law. It was really a villain in power!
The other noble ladies who had just arrived didn't know what had happened. When they heard about it, they were trembling with fear. The three words "Regent" were enough to scare them to the point of their legs going weak.
Xia Tong's back was covered in cold sweat. She finally understood what it meant to be taught by a villain. The scary thing was that she felt that the reason why the villain became like this was mainly because her father did not have a good ending as a good official, so he simply became a traitor and took revenge on the society!
No one knows why the old emperor trusts the villain so much. Although the villain started his career with military merits, rising from a small soldier to a general of cavalry and then to the all-powerful regent, he is still very capable, but it is not to the point of handing over almost all military power to him, and he has to obey the villain's words. Otherwise, how could the aristocratic families in the capital compromise and seek a way out in front of a rising star? However, this is not recorded in the book, which only describes the reasons why the villain turned bad.
"Don't gossip about what happened today, do you understand?" The old lady came back to her senses and looked at her with bright eyes.
Seeing this, Xia Tong nodded immediately. She wondered what the old lady would think if she knew that their Xiahou Mansion had once stabbed the regent.
Walking to the inner palace, palace servants passed by in a hurry from time to time. The old lady did not take her to the banquet, but walked her to the back palace. Because the Xia family was related to the queen, this trip must first pay a visit to the queen.
Xia Tong had been respectfully supporting the old lady and didn't dare to say much, but the other party suddenly said calmly: "Don't talk nonsense when you meet the Queen later. It would be best if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is also here."
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