"On behalf of Qingzhu and Miss Yang, I thank Your Highness." Upon hearing Qu Qingxi's words, Qingdai's eyes flashed with joy, and she immediately knelt down respectfully before Qu Qingxi.
"No need for such formalities. This whole thing started because of me. I hope this will be of some use to them."
Before Qingdai returned from that place, Qu Qingxi received news from Qinglan Pavilion that the Emperor intended to send Princess Yongchang to Zhou Kingdom for a marriage alliance.
Qu Qingxi already knew this news, so there was nothing surprising about it.
Qu Qingxi is now curious about what method He Liufeng will use to resolve this matter, and why the Emperor suddenly decided to send Princess Yongchang for a political marriage.
Open the second message, which says that the Crown Prince knew about the Xu family's past affairs.
The Crown Prince indeed believed the information from Qinglan Pavilion and Cuiwei Pavilion. Although he outwardly still trusted the Xu family, he had already begun investigating the Xu family's affairs, especially their military training.
To make the Crown Prince even more convinced that the theft at the Xu residence was staged, Qu Qingxi simply took some items from her own space that she had "taken" from the Xu residence last time, placed them in suitable locations in line with the direction of the Crown Prince's investigation, and "coincidentally" had them discovered by the Crown Prince's men.
Qu Qingxi then arranged for the people of Cuiwei Pavilion to appropriately guide the Crown Prince's men to discover the places and things that needed to be discovered.
Later, with the help of the people from Cuiwei Pavilion, the Crown Prince's people saw what they were supposed to see and noticed what they were supposed to notice. Of course, the people from the Xu family were not to be trifled with either. Soon, the people in charge of this matter from the Xu family discovered the people who came to investigate.
The people who started chasing the Crown Prince were nearly killed on the way. When the people from Cuiwei Pavilion saw that the Crown Prince's men were about to give up, they helped them out and managed to get the message to the Crown Prince alive.
Qu Qingxi looked at the message in her hand and then at the date, and she understood what was going on. According to the people from Cuiwei Pavilion, the person in charge of investigating this matter would arrive at the Crown Prince's residence at the earliest tonight, and the Crown Prince would also know about it.
Upon seeing this, Qu Qingxi couldn't help but smile sarcastically. If the Crown Prince saw his people being chased by the Xu family and discovered that the Xu family was outwardly compliant but inwardly disobeying him and concealing the fact that they were actually raising troops, he wondered what he would think.
The Crown Prince must be both angry and heartbroken, after all, his strongest supporter right now is the Xu family, but the Xu family has betrayed him.
However, the Crown Prince must also know a lot about the Xu family, and a dog-eat-dog drama is about to begin.
In the afternoon, Qu Qingxi received an invitation from Xu Yanyan, inviting her to a winter banquet to be held at Princess Anping's residence in three days.
"Winter Feast? What is it mainly for?" Qu Qingxi looked at Qingdai with a puzzled expression. If it were a chrysanthemum appreciation feast or a lotus appreciation feast, it would be easy to tell what it was for. So what is this winter feast for?
"Your Highness, I have already sent people to inquire. It's really just about admiring the plum blossoms. Also, I heard that Xu Yanyan hired a special craftsman to make a lot of ice sculptures at Princess Anping's residence. To be honest, they are the same as those banquets you attended before, just with a different name."
Qingdai assumed that Qu Qingxi hadn't been taken to any banquets at the Prime Minister's residence before, so she explained in detail, "It's just inviting some noble ladies from the capital to the Princess's residence to sit, chat, and connect with each other. There's no real difference in essence."
"So that's how it is. I thought it had some special meaning." Qu Qingxi understood. It was similar to those banquets. She thought the winter banquet had some other meaning or taboos to be observed. It's good that there aren't any.
Qu Qingxi thought about what Xu Yanyan said yesterday for a long time and decided to believe Xu Yanyan for the time being, since she didn't seem to be lying.
Yesterday, she and Xu Yanyan had a very unpleasant argument over a bracelet, and the news must have already spread among the wives of officials in the capital.
The winter banquet three days later should be Xu Yanyan's attempt to further escalate the conflict between the two. Since Xu Yanyan wants to perform, I'll just keep her company for now.
That evening, just as Qu Qingxi was about to have dinner, He Liufeng returned.
Seeing Qu Qingxi sitting alone at the table, facing a large spread of food, He Liufeng couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. A while ago, he was able to squeeze out time to eat with Qu Qingxi, but these past few days, he had been too busy and couldn't find the time, leaving early and returning late almost every day.
"What's wrong?" Qu Qingxi asked suspiciously when she saw He Liufeng standing there staring at her.
"I just feel a little bad for you. I haven't had time to have a meal with you lately," He Liufeng said, his voice full of apology.
"It's nothing. You have your own things to do and you're already very busy. It's not like you didn't intentionally skip dinner with me." Qu Qingxi waved her hand, she didn't mind at all.
The maidservant helped He Liufeng wash up quickly, and the two finally sat down together for dinner.
"Why have you been so busy these past few days? Aren't you only in charge of Zhou Wenli's affairs?" Qu Qingxi asked curiously.
"Not only that, but as the year draws to a close, there are more matters to attend to at court. In addition to Zhou Wenli's affairs, the Emperor has also assigned me other tasks, which is why I'm quite busy."
"I see." Qu Qingxi nodded, then continued, "By the way, how's the matter in Yongchang?"
“This morning, I asked the Emperor, but he was vague and didn’t explain why he wanted to send a princess for a marriage alliance. However, his attitude was very clear: it had to be Yongchang.” He Liufeng frowned and shook his head upon hearing this.
"I can't guess what the Emperor is thinking either. Perhaps there is some hidden reason, but we haven't found it out yet."
"What secrets could possibly lead the Emperor to do this?" Qu Qingxi frowned. "You've already promised Yongchang, what are you going to do?"
"His Majesty has not yet issued an edict, and I see that Zhou Wenli has also indicated that he will not return until after the New Year, so there is no rush." He Liufeng was not too worried about this matter.
It's not time yet; there are too many variables. There will be a solution.
"Isn't it a bit illogical for a foreign prince to spend the New Year in another country instead of going home?"
Qu Qingxi was surprised. What exactly did Zhou Wenli want to do?
"Well, this seems illogical, but it's not surprising when applied to Zhou Wenli. He's a capricious and unpredictable person; he does whatever comes to mind."
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