After the emperor took control of the government and sat firmly on the throne, she put aside state affairs and became an idle empress dowager.
Therefore, the emperor naturally respected the empress dowager. In order to please the emperor, the empress held a grand banquet every year. This year, it was the empress dowager's 60th birthday, so the prince's birthday ceremony was also reduced, and all the attention was placed on the empress dowager's banquet.
Naturally, the scale of each Qianqiu Banquet is incomparable.
Let's talk about the venue of the Qianqiu Banquet first. Unlike previous years, this time the Queen spent a lot of money to open up a piece of space in the Imperial Lake and built several pavilions that could accommodate dozens of people. The Qianqiu Banquet was to be held here. Therefore, when Shen Qingqiu and the noble ladies who were invited saw several boats on the shore that were going to take them to the center of the lake, they all looked confused.
The Queen kept it a secret and ordered people not to tell anyone, so no one knew that the Qianqiu Banquet was held in the center of the Imperial Lake.
As smart as Shen Qingqiu was, he understood a little bit when he looked at the pavilion vaguely visible in the distance.
"We are here for the Qianqiu Banquet, why should we take a boat? You dogs! Don't you know that this princess is seasick?" A young girl suddenly shouted, her words full of arrogance.
Shen Qingqiu looked over in the direction of the voice and saw the girl in a lake green palace dress, with her waist-length hair tied up and a nine-phoenix jade hairpin pinned on her head. She looked gorgeous in the sunlight.
Although she looks pretty, I don't know if it's because she looks rude or something else. After not seeing her for half a year, Princess Yongping's rudeness has become even more terrifying. Even if Shen Qingqiu doesn't have a friend filter in his mind, he still feels that she is not as dignified and beautiful as the Ninth Princess, and has no royal princess style at all.
Shen Qingqiu shook his head.
The Eleventh Princess' sudden attack made all the servants panic.
The leading eunuch came over with a nod and a bow: "Princess, please forgive me. This is the Queen's order. We servants dare not act on our own."
"My mother ordered it?" Princess Eleven frowned. "Even if it was arranged by my mother, I am afraid of water and cannot ride on a boat. If I want to ride... I have to ride a big boat!"
Princess Eleven rolled her eyes and said.
At this moment, there were only two large boats left on the lake. One was reserved for the queen, and the other was used by the ninth princess who arrived earlier. Unexpectedly, the tenth princess also wanted to take this boat.
Isn't this embarrassing? Everyone also knows that the eleventh princess is spoiled and has always been at odds with the ninth princess.
Both princesses are the apple of the emperor's eye, and it is difficult to offend either of them.
So sad!
At this moment, the Ninth Princess, who had already boarded the big ship, poked her head out from the ship. She didn't want to spoil the Queen Mother's joy at such a time as the Millennium Festival. "Imperial sister, I have already boarded the big ship you want to take. If you don't mind, come up and sit on the same boat with me."
The Ninth Princess really didn't want to see the Tenth Princess making a scene at the Royal Grandmother's Thousand Years Banquet and making the old lady upset, so she compromised and spoke up.
However, having said that, it seems that it is not easy to make the spoiled and domineering Princess Eleven give up.
However, this time the Ninth Princess was overthinking. The Eleventh Princess, who had never gotten along with her, actually got on the boat very obediently and bowed to the Ninth Princess: "In that case, thank you very much, Ninth Princess."
The call of "Ninth Princess" was clearly accompanied by a sweet smile, but the Ninth Princess got goose bumps for no reason and felt it was a bit creepy.
The Ninth Princess hugged the box prepared for the Queen Mother tightly in her arms and remained silent.
Everyone thought the eleventh princess would make a scene, but they didn't expect her to be so easily dealt with. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and continued to arrange for everyone to board the boat in an orderly manner and head to the center of the lake.
When Shen Qingqiu was about to board the ship, she took a look at the big ship carrying the Ninth Princess and the Eleventh Princess, and felt that something was wrong. She frowned tightly.
The boat sped across the lake and soon arrived at the pavilion. The central pavilion housed the Queen Mother, the Emperor, and others, while Shen Qingqiu and several other noble ladies were placed together with the Ninth Princess.
Soon, today's protagonist, the queen, arrived.
Seeing all these ingenious things, the Queen Mother nodded to the Queen with satisfaction: "The Queen is really thoughtful."
The queen was naturally happy in her heart. She kept a dignified face and smiled with pursed lips: "Thank you for the compliment, mother. With your words, it is worth it no matter how tired I am."
The emperor was very pleased. He smiled to liven up the atmosphere and asked everyone to present the birthday gifts they had prepared for the empress dowager.
Those who came to attend the Qianqiu Banquet had prepared birthday gifts. Shen Qingqiu heard that the Queen Mother believed in Buddhism in her later years, so she prepared a string of blessed Buddhist beads for the Queen Mother. However, at the Qianqiu Banquet, naturally only the things of the royal children would be opened on the spot, and the Queen Mother would look at them one by one.
The tributes started with the princes and princesses, and when it was almost the Ninth Princess' turn, she suddenly whispered "Ah!" in Shen Qingqiu's ear in an extremely surprised voice.
No one around noticed. Shen Qingqiu turned around and saw the Ninth Princess' beautiful face full of panic. She opened the box that she had been holding in her arms.
This box is made of the finest rosewood, with patterns all over the outside, and looks luxurious and extraordinary. It must contain some great treasures.
But at this moment, after the Ninth Princess opened the box, Shen Qingqiu only saw a messy ball of straw. This was definitely not the birthday gift that the Ninth Princess prepared for the Queen Mother.
"My glass jade pendant!"
The Ninth Princess suppressed her voice and was about to cry: "Who stole it? What should I do? It's almost my turn to present the gift to the Royal Grandmother. I can't take this grass up. If the Royal Grandmother sees it, she will blame me. What should I do? It must be Yongping. She boarded my boat today, contrary to her usual behavior. I was too careless!"
The Ninth Princess blamed herself and felt remorseful, her bright eyes filled with helplessness.
Shen Qingqiu's eyes flickered, and he suddenly took the box and whispered, "Don't panic, I have a way."
"Do you have a solution?" The Ninth Princess was skeptical.
“Yes.” Shen Qingqiu nodded: “I’ll leave for a while, you wait for me.” After saying that, he didn’t explain what he was going to do, and left with the box without looking back.
The little episode on the Ninth Princess's side went unnoticed. The princes and princesses were presenting gifts to the Queen Mother in an orderly manner. Seeing the Eighth Princess take out the centenary longevity picture she had carefully prepared, her sweet words made the Queen Mother laugh.
The Ninth Princess looked at Shen Qingqiu who was not coming back, and was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. At this time, the Eighth Princess had finished presenting her gifts, and it was the Ninth Princess' turn.
The Ninth Princess stood there in a daze, not moving, which attracted the attention of the Emperor.
The emperor asked loudly: "Lingling, what are you doing standing there?"
"Father, maybe the ninth sister hasn't prepared the gift for the grandmother yet." The eleventh princess said coquettishly, with a look of gloating between her raised eyebrows: "Look, she has nothing in her hands."
Everyone saw that it was true. But every year at the Qianqiu Banquet, the princes and princesses would prepare gifts for the Queen Mother to show their filial piety. This time, the Ninth Princess did not prepare any gifts. At the very least, she was young and careless and forgot. At the worst, she could be charged with a crime of disrespect.
It should be noted that the royal family has a cold relationship. If the Queen Mother gets angry this time, even if the Emperor comes out to defend her, the Ninth Princess will not have a good ending. In an instant, the atmosphere of the whole scene became extremely solemn.
The Ninth Princess immediately became the focus of the whole audience. The cool breeze with the fragrance of lotus flowers passed through her ears. She was frightened and felt dizzy. She couldn't even give a complete explanation.
"Father, Father, I am wrong..."
"Your Majesty, the Ninth Princess did not forget to prepare the gift out of disrespect for the Queen Mother, but she valued the gift too much and asked someone to guard it carefully. I went to get it back for her." At the critical moment, Shen Qingqiu suddenly said.
She jumped onto the pavilion swiftly, and the eunuch beside her hurried to help her up, "Lord Kangle, if you have anything to take, please tell me. What if you get hurt by jumping up and down?"
Shen Qingqiu said it was okay, and walked over to hand the red sandalwood box to the Ninth Princess. He smiled at the uneasy Ninth Princess and said, "Princess, the birthday gift has been retrieved."
The Ninth Princess held the heavy box, full of uncertainty, and hesitated to speak. But when she met Shen Qingqiu's determined eyes, she felt inexplicably confident.
At this time, the eleventh princess spoke again in a sarcastic tone: "Father, I have prepared a very rare and good item for the Royal Grandmother. I think the Royal Sister has prepared something good as well. Why don't we open them together and let Father and the Royal Grandmother appraise them for us. Whose gift is better?"
Of course the emperor just smiled. It was a good thing for his two daughters to compete to see who was more filial to the royal grandmother, so he naturally had no objection.
The eleventh princess stood up immediately and rolled her eyes when she passed by the ninth princess.
Although the Ninth Princess was nervous, she followed closely with Shen Qingqiu's encouragement.
As everyone watched, the two princesses opened the box at the same time. The ninth princess saw the pure and transparent glass jade pendant lying in the box. Finally, her tense heart relaxed.
However, when she saw what was in the Tenth Princess' box, she gasped!
It wasn't that the rare item that the Tenth Princess prepared was too good, but that she actually prepared a bunch of pitch-black, dirty waterweed! The Ninth Princess cast her eyes at Shen Qingqiu in the crowd, and the latter just smiled slyly. This smile made the Ninth Princess understand everything.
The Queen Mother's face immediately darkened. The Tenth Princess heard a rumbling sound in her ears, and she felt as if someone had hit her head with a hammer. She was so frightened that her soul flew away.
"Ridiculous! This is the birthday gift you prepared. It's ridiculous!" The emperor was furious and slammed the table in front of him.
The Eleventh Princess was so frightened that she collapsed to the ground: "Father, father! I was wrong, I was wrong! What I prepared was clearly a thousand-year-old sea turtle, how could it have turned into water grass? Someone must have switched it, father, I am innocent!" She burst into tears, saying that someone had framed her.
But in such a situation, it is either someone who has framed you or you are careless enough not to open the gift box and check it in advance.
Now that such a thing has happened, she is still crying and making a fuss, which is really a disgrace to the royal style. The empress dowager was annoyed and waved her hand to let her leave.
"Okay, whether you did it on purpose or not, you are wrong. I will punish you by putting you in solitary confinement and making you copy the Book of Filial Piety 30,000 times after today! This is to remind you that filial piety should not be violated!" This punishment was indeed severe.
At this point, the Tenth Princess knew that she could not change the situation, and she came to her pavilion sobbing.
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