This year, Crown Prince Gu Tang turned twenty-one, which was not a big birthday. In addition, the current emperor valued simplicity, so there was no big celebration.
He only invited a few close ministers and royal relatives to the palace to congratulate.
Others waited until dark before entering the palace, but Princess Changping entered the palace early and went to the Queen's Palace to accompany the Queen first. She waited for the eunuch to announce the start of the palace banquet before entering the banquet hall with the Queen.
Because she was beside Empress Pei, she naturally enjoyed the respect of the ladies. After Empress Pei called her, she sat behind the tent with the empress.
"Go ahead. There are many young girls outside. You don't have to stay here with me."
Empress Pei is now in her late thirties. Although her well-maintained features are no longer as beautiful as they were in her youth, she still exudes a graceful and self-satisfied demeanor. Princess Changping kneels at her feet and pours her tea. "Changping is willing to stay here with your aunt."
When Empress Pei heard her call her aunt, a smile appeared on her majestic face, "It's enough to have this kind of heart. Go and accompany the prince."
"Although the Crown Princess that the Emperor has his eyes on is not you, in my heart, you are my daughter-in-law." Empress Pei clapped her hands, "You have always been a capable person, but don't let others take the lead in your relationship with your children."
Listening to what the Queen Aunt said, Princess Changping looked shy, but when she looked down at the stage, the look on Prince Gu Tang's face was one of determination.
"Go ahead." Queen Pei said with a smile.
After coming down from the high platform, Changping's figure came into everyone's sight. She was holding a beauty fan in her hand, revealing a small part of her beautiful neck, and her long skirt covered her embroidered shoes tightly. She was like a water lily at night, beautiful and mysterious. Soon, a group of noble ladies gathered around her, "The princess's dress is really beautiful. Was it made by Zhao Xiu Niang?"
Changping walked down the stage and smiled at everyone.
"The princess is so beautiful, only the clothes made by Zhao Xiu Niang can match her!"
"I think all the flowers in the imperial garden are better than the princess's beauty." The noble lady next to her echoed, "Look, the prince is looking at you too."
Gu Tang was indeed looking over here again, but he was not looking at Princess Changping.
But seeing that all the women were looking at him, he also pulled his lips and revealed a smile. The prince with outstanding grace and grace could make many noble ladies' hearts flutter with just a smile, but it was a pity that such a handsome prince, who was the future emperor, was about to be betrothed to the crown princess.
"Why hasn't Wang Qingluo come yet?"
"I'm afraid she doesn't dare to show up?" The noble lady who was on good terms with Changping started to sneer, "All the better embroiderers in the capital are in the princess's mansion. What clothes can she wear? She can't come out to attend the prince's banquet wrapped in a sack, right?" As soon as the words fell, the noble ladies gathered together laughed sarcastically at Wang Qingluo.
But as he was making fun of it, he suddenly felt something was wrong, because the place suddenly became quiet.
The group of people surrounding Princess Changping also turned their heads and looked towards the quiet place. In order to celebrate the birthday of the crown prince, the palace hung red lanterns. Under the moonlight, a young girl walked out slowly, with slender steps. She was wearing a lavender dress with large interwoven leaves and flowers on the pattern. It was a prosperous scene, but because of the elegant purple, it blended into a wonderful artistic conception.
As she moved, the gracefulness of the dress was truly felt. The hem of her skirt was like a butterfly tail, and seemed to fly up as she walked. In such a mood, she looked like a fairy who had just entered the mortal world.
In such a scene, not to mention the young women who were already pursuing clothes and jewelry, even the prince, who was used to seeing beautiful women, couldn't help but fix his eyes on the woman in front of him.
Wang Qingluo, the princess consort appointed for him by his father.
In the previous few times they met, he only thought that this girl had bright eyes. Although she could be called pretty, she seemed like a girl who had not grown up yet. She really did not arouse his interest. She was not as good as his scheming cousin. But today, she changed her clothes and looked particularly radiant.
"Meet the Crown Prince, meet the Queen."
Having caught everyone's attention just now, Wang Qingluo felt light and happy, greeting the crown prince and the queen. Queen Pei said, "Get up. Qingluo is much more beautiful today than usual."
Wang Qingluo said, "Thank you for the compliment, Your Majesty." Then she stood up, lifting her skirt.
When she turned around, she saw Prince Gu Tang standing next to her. As he got closer, his long eyebrows and straight nose made him look even more handsome.
"Luo'er really brightened my eyes today."
Wang Qingluo was startled and almost couldn't hide the look of disgust on her face.
Fortunately, she still remembered what the occasion was, and smiled sweetly, "As long as Your Highness likes it."
Gu Tang took in her expression just now, and his eyes became more and more interested: It seems that my father's matchmaking is not very good. This girl hates me very much? Thinking of this, Gu Tang couldn't help but touch his face. There must be many girls who like his face, right?
"Luo'er, I want to go light lanterns and make a wish. Please come with me."
Even though he knew that she didn't like him, Gu Tang still asked her to accompany him to light the lanterns.
Wang Qingluo felt that the eyes of the noble ladies all wanted to kill her, "Okay." She raised a smile and looked at Changping, who was so angry that his face turned pale but had to keep a smile on his face to remain elegant: No matter what you plot, I am still the Crown Princess.
After he mouthed these words, Changping's expression became visibly uglier.
Shen Qingqiu waited in the Prime Minister's Mansion until the middle of the night, and Wang Qingluo came back only when he could no longer bear the sleepiness.
"Why haven't you gone home yet?"
Seeing the little girl rubbing her eyes and looking sleepy, Wang Qingluo hurriedly ordered someone to prepare some goat milk.
"Forget it. I think you should not go back today. Just sleep at my house."
Shen Qingqiu shook his head, wrinkled his little nose, sniffed the goat milk handed over by the maid, drank a sip, and then asked, "How was your time in the palace today?"
It would have been fine if she didn't ask, but as soon as she asked, Wang Qingluo couldn't help laughing and told her everything that happened at the banquet today.
"You didn't see it. She was trying her best to suppress me today, but in the end, the prince lit the lanterns with me. How ugly was her face!"
Shen Qingqiu felt relieved after hearing this, and clapped his hands and prepared to go home.
Wang Qingluo quickly asked, "How much is this skirt?"
"No money." Shen Qingqiu said.
"Nonsense!" Wang Qingluo, who was the one who had to pay, was angry. "How can such a nice skirt be free? The person who made the skirt would have wasted his efforts. No, I'll give you five hundred..." Wang Qingluo just remembered that she had almost spent all her pocket money this month, so she said, "How about one hundred and fifty taels?"
Then he tried again, "I'll give you a hundred first, and the remaining fifty will be given to you next month?"
Shen Qingqiu was so cute that he smiled, "I said it's not necessary."
"I didn't give you clothes for you." Shen Qingqiu clapped his hands, "That woman is dealing with my mother. I'm happy when she's unhappy, and I'm also happy when she's causing trouble. This is mutually beneficial for us."
"If there is anything that causes trouble for her in the future, you can come to me."
Wang Qingluo was stunned for a moment, then she clapped her legs and laughed without caring about her image, "Okay, I hate Changping too, so we'll be friends from now on."
The enemy of my enemy is naturally my friend. Shen Qingqiu nodded.
"Why do you hate that woman?" He hated that woman because she came to his house to cause trouble, but a princess whose father was far away in a foreign land should not be able to afford to offend the daughter of the prime minister like Wang Qingluo? "Of course she can't afford to offend me, my father is the prime minister." Wang Qingluo raised her chin when she mentioned her father, "She just relied on the two stinky money in her hand to make trouble for me! If she came to cause trouble for me seriously, do you think she would dare to do it?"
"Is it because of the prince? You like the prince, and she likes the prince too?"
"Puh!" Wang Qingluo made a spitting sound as if she had eaten some stinky food that had been left over from the previous night. "Who would like that playboy prince? If there were any other options, I wouldn't marry him..." Thinking of this, Wang Qingluo became unhappy for a moment. As a darling of heaven, she was not happy about everything.
"Isn't the prince the future emperor? Wouldn't you be unhappy to be the queen after you marry him?" Shen Qingqiu looked at him curiously.
"That's not necessarily true. There's no such thing as a sure thing about the royal family." Wang Qingluo looked at her friend, supporting her cheeks with both hands. "Actually, there's nothing good or bad about it. I just feel that I'm living a muddled life. People carrying loads on their shoulders on the street have hope. If I marry the prince in the future, I guess I'll spend the rest of my life competing for favor with his women like Changping."
But I never expected that under her seemingly innocent appearance, she would have such a delicate heart.
Shen Qingqiu said: "My mother was originally the daughter of a poor family..." She started, and Wang Qingluo looked at her, "Later, the family was poor, and she was almost sold to a brothel. She ran more than 200 miles to join a troupe outside the city, and became a low-class actress. Later, my mother married someone as a concubine, and after many years, she was tortured by the wife at home. Many of the favored women in that courtyard either went crazy or became sick, but my mother was the only one who survived."
This is actually one of the things Shen Qingqiu admires about her mother. Although she doesn't seem to be competitive, she is actually the smartest one who knows how to judge people the best.
She had long seen through the eldest lady's hypocritical nature, so she had never competed for Shen Bin's favor since she entered the mansion.
"Now that I have arrived in the capital with my mother, she has just opened a showroom."
Wang Qingluo was stunned by what she said, but she didn't understand what Shen Qingqiu meant.
"My mother is just a person of low status, but she can still live a smooth life through her own efforts. And you are the daughter of the prime minister, you have had everything you wanted since childhood, but now you feel that the rest of your life is meaningless without even trying hard just because something goes wrong. Isn't this ridiculous?"
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