When the group arrived at the gate of the imperial palace in a mighty procession, all the royal relatives, nobles, civil and military officials of the Great Qi had been waiting there for a long time.
Qing Lai was surprised to see a familiar figure in the crowd - Gu Nanjin, the eldest son of the late emperor Gu Lang.
Seven years ago, Gu Nanjin, as the crown prince of Da Qi, entertained Wuhejialou and his envoys from Hao State. Seven years later, the identities of both parties have changed drastically, which makes people feel that things have changed and people have changed.
Wuhejialou naturally recognized Gu Nanjin and his eyes moved slightly.
"It's been seven years since we last met, and Emperor Hao is even more elegant than before." Gu Nanjin took the initiative to greet Wuhejialou first. His every move was neither humble nor arrogant, but elegant and decent.
"Your Highness Prince Yu, thank you for your compliment." Wuhajialou returned the greeting politely.
Next, everyone gathered together and escorted Gu Jue and Wuhejialou into the palace and went to the Golden Throne Hall to attend the welcoming banquet held for Wuhejialou today.
Qinglai looked at Gu Nanjin imperceptibly. From the other party's few words, he learned that Gu Nanjin had worked in the Ministry of Rites in recent years, in charge of the Master and Guest Department, one of the four departments of the Ministry of Rites, and was specifically responsible for the diplomatic affairs of Da Qi.
This position is not an empty title, it holds real power.
Gu Nanjin was the crown prince of the late Emperor Gu Lang, so his current position is naturally awkward. Before today, Qing Lai thought that Gu Jue would simply lock him up and take good care of him to let the world know that the Emperor of Da Qi was tolerant. But Gu Jue actually entrusted Gu Nanjin with such an important task. His mind and bearing were truly extraordinary!
It was no wonder that their master Wuhejialou chose to cooperate with Gu Jue. It showed that he was very good at judging people! Qinglai quickly withdrew his gaze and followed Wuhejialou as if nothing had happened.
Today, Gu Jue personally hosted a welcoming party for Wuhejia Tower, and the protagonists were naturally the two of them. Everyone's eyes and topics of conversation were basically centered around the two of them, until the young prince of Da Qi, Gu Yuan, appeared.
Among a room full of adults, the five-year-old prince stood out from the crowd, attracting everyone's attention.
Amidst the gazes of hundreds of people, the young Gu Yuan was still graceful and elegant. He first saluted Gu Jue in a proper manner, and then solemnly offered a cup of tea to Wuhejialou. His words and actions were very appropriate, which made the officials of Da Qi present very proud and they all straightened their backs.
The heirs of the royal family are related to the future of a country. The emperor of Daqi has a son and a daughter. The prince is already five years old and extremely smart, while Emperor Hao has not even returned to secular life and does not even have a queen! At this moment, the thoughts of all the ministers of Daqi were almost synchronized, and they felt that they had won in the matter of the prince!!! The atmosphere of the whole welcoming banquet was extremely harmonious, and both the host and the guests were happy.
After the welcoming banquet, Gu Nanjin sent the group from Wuhejialou to Huitong Hall to stay.
Huitong Hall was built by order of Gu Jue after he ascended the throne. It was a residence for foreign envoys. It replaced the original Siyi Hall and was twice as large. It was located only two streets away from the imperial palace.
As for Gu Jue and his son, after leaving the Golden Palace, they returned to the Qianqing Palace together.
As soon as I entered the door, I heard the baby's giggling sound coming from the room.
The father and son quickened their pace and walked into the bedroom.
The two-month-old baby was lying in her crib, with a four-legged snow-white black cat squatting beside her. The black cat's long tail was swinging back and forth, and the baby's round eyes were spinning around following the cat's tail. She was laughing and waving her chubby little hands to grab the cat's tail...
"Is Yueying playing with Jiaojiao?" Gu Yuan trotted to the bedside, with a child's liveliness in his face, completely different from the little adult he had just been at the welcoming party.
Shen Qianchen, who was sitting next to him reading a book, put down the book in his hand, chuckled, and sighed: My son really hit the nail on the head.
When the black cat saw Gu Yuan coming, it immediately jumped off the crib and landed silently. It looked back at Gu Yuan, then jumped lightly onto the windowsill and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Xiao Jiaojiao blinked, and then blinked again, and realized that the cat's tail was gone, so she burst into tears.
Shen Qianchen reacted very quickly, picked up the rattle beside him and stuffed it into little Gu Yuan's hand.
Gu Yuan often played with his sister. His first reaction after getting the rattle was to subconsciously turn the handle. The two bullets on both sides hit the drum surface, making a "dong dong" sound.
Little Jiaojiao stopped crying immediately, and stared at the bullet that was spinning along the thin rope with shining eyes. Her eyeballs began to move around lively, and she was extremely happy.
Amber and the other palace maids retreated silently, feeling complicated.
An incense stick of time ago, the queen was using a rattle to amuse the eldest princess. Then she got tired and stopped. As a result, the eldest princess started crying non-stop and refused to let anyone take over from the queen. Then the cat happened to come and diverted the eldest princess' attention.
Now the prince has taken over and replaced the cat.
Amber couldn't help but sigh that the eldest princess' temper was much worse than the prince's when he was a child! Until Amber and others left the bedroom, they could still hear waves of rattles coming from the back.
“Knock, knock…”
Gu Yuan helped to coax Xiao Jiaojiao, while Shen Qianchen and Gu Jue sat on the side, watching the brother and sister play and talking.
Gu Jue smiled and said, "I plan to recruit young people from the Imperial College and the candidates to study in Hao Country. Wuhejialou also has this plan. In two days, we will sign an agreement on this."
Whether for Da Qi or Hao Kingdom, peace is always better than constant conflicts between the two countries.
That was why Gu Jue decided to form an alliance with Wuhejialou that year.
They both knew that no country could last forever, but at least during their lifetimes, Da Qi and Hao could coexist peacefully and strive to make their countries better.
Shen Qianchen also thought this was a good idea, and said with a smile: "Then there will be a lot of excitement in the capital."
Shen Qianchen suddenly had an idea and asked, "Jiuxia, can only men go?"
The implication was, can women go? Gu Jue and she had always been in tune with each other, and they understood each other immediately, knowing that Shen Qianchen was thinking of the female students in Huixin Garden.
"Let me think about it." Gu Jue murmured.
It is not that easy to let female students go to Hao Kingdom to study. In Da Qi, a woman's reputation is more important than anything else, which means that most of the female students' families would probably not agree.
Gu Jue never thought that women were inferior to men. His Yun Ni was very outstanding, and there were many female secret guards under his command whose martial arts were no worse than men. Moreover, women were more careful, and in some aspects women could learn better than men and could also make contributions to the country.
Shen Qianchen smiled and said no more. She was just throwing out some ideas.
While the couple was talking, Gu Yuan never stopped playing the rattle in his hand.
“Knock, knock…”
After persisting for a whole cup of tea, Gu Yuan felt a little tired and stopped. As a result, the bullets connected by thin wires on both sides of the rattle also stopped.
6◇9◇Book◇Bar
The drums stopped.
Xiao Jiaojiao, who was about to fall asleep with her eyes squinted, seemed to be awakened. She suddenly opened her eyes, pouted her little mouth, and started howling.
Gu Jue took the rattle from Gu Yuan, and he took over and continued to swing the rattle.
“Knock, knock…”
The black cat came back at some point and licked its paws while looking at the father and son with sympathy.
The cat thinks this bipedal cub is really hard to coax!
"Meow! Meow!"
Outside the window, a small black and white kitten squatted beside the flowers below, looking up and calling out to the big black cat on the windowsill.
The kitten is half a month younger than Xiao Jiaojiao, only one and a half months old, but it can already run and jump. It’s just that the window sill is too high for it.
The little kitten is very cute, half black and half white, with a black back, black ears, black tail, and a snow-white mouth, nose and belly. Compared to the big cat Yueying who looks a bit fierce, the little guy seems soft and harmless, just like a soft, round and plump sesame dumpling, very sweet.
Shen Qianchen rested his elbow on the windowsill, looked at the kitten outside the window, then raised his other hand and touched the big cat's head. The big cat squinted comfortably and rubbed Shen Qianchen's palm with the top of its head.
"Yueying, do you still remember your savior?" she asked it with a smile.
Yueying meowed, but no one knew whether it knew what Shen Qianchen was asking.
Shen Qianchen asked again: "How about letting your little baby follow him?"
"Meow!" Yueying called again.
So, on the day of Xiao Jiaojiao's double full moon banquet four days later, Wuhejialou received a gift before giving out the gift he had prepared for Xiao Jiaojiao.
Yueying personally brought the black and white kitten to him.
“Meow meow!”
Yueying rubbed Wuhejialou's snow-white monk robe with her face affectionately. Although so many years have passed, it still remembers the person who picked it up from the street and the extremely gentle hands.
"..." Wuhejialou looked at Gu Jue and Shen Qianchen in surprise.
Shen Qianchen said with a smile: "This is Yueying's kitten."
Yueying is the cat of Gu Jue and hers, so naturally there is no shortage of kittens born to her. Empress Dowager Yin, Shen Yunmu, Gu Zhiyan and others all raise Yueying's children.
Now Shen Qianchen only has this little kitten left by his side. Wuhejialou came to Da Qi at this time. Shen Qianchen thought that maybe it had a destiny with Wuhejialou, so he had this idea temporarily.
What she didn't expect was that Yueying actually thought the same thing as she did. Perhaps this was the fate between Yueying and Wuhejialou. If she hadn't been around in her previous life, Yueying should have stayed with Wuhejialou.
Wuhejialou leaned over and picked up the kitten that Yueying was holding in her mouth. The kitten cried softly and looked at its future owner curiously, its emerald green eyes wide open.
Wuhejialou stroked the kitten's chin with one hand and said with a smile, "I still remember the rules of Daqi, which is to hire a cat."
(End of this chapter)