Chapter 27.1 - Entering the palace to give birthday greetings
When Lou Qingwu reached the Peony Garden, the guests of the birthday banquet had almost completely arrived.
She surveyed the guests and finally saw Lou Qufeng and Lou Lianxin who were seated to the lower left of the main seats.
She silently moved towards them and didn’t raise anyone’s attention.
When she moved to in front of Lou Qufeng, she politely called out, “Father.”
Lou Qufeng raised his head and viciously glared at her before ignoring her.
The anger on his face was obvious and also carried a hint of loftiness and coldness, as if he was looking at a stranger.
Lou Qingwu stood without moving because fighting with Lou Qufeng here would bring her no benefits.
Her eyes swept past him and saw Lou Lianxin who had a maidservant cover her face.
Lou Lianxin’s eyes were full of pride and contempt.
In an instant, Lou Qingwu understood.
It seemed that Lou Lianxin had taken advantage of her absence and taken the time to slander her in front of Lou Qufeng.
In only a short period of time, it was likely that the events of the Vermillion Bird gate were distorted to fit Lou Lianxin’s narrative.
Lou Qingwu didn’t explain herself because even if she did speak the truth, Lou Qufeng wouldn’t believe her.
In his heart, as long as it helped his official career, Lou Lianxin would always be right, even if she was wrong.
From three years ago, when her reputation was smeared, she had already seen clearly and wouldn’t vainly try to dissuade him.
Lou Qingwu had been standing for a while and had already raised the interest of the people nearby.
Lou Qufeng’s expression grew darker and humphed, letting her sit down.
Lou Qingwu’s face still didn’t show any expression but still looked weak and frail, as if she was a pure and untainted white lily flower as she sat down, well-behaved.
In contrast, Lou Lianxin who was sitting to the side, purposely slanted her body to bump into Lou Qingwu just as she was about to sat down.
Lou Qingwu’s body fell crooked and nearly fell to the floor, using her palms to touch the ground and only then, forced herself to sit down steadily.
This was seen by a few onlookers who looked at Lou Qingwu with even more pity in their eyes and to Lou Lianxin, with more disdain.
After all, what happened at the Vermillion Bird gate was seen by them.
But Lou Lianxin didn’t notice and instead, was gloating at how she successfully made Lou Qingwu lose face.
She proudly puffed up her chest as she looked at Lou Qingwu as if she was looking at the dirt on the ground.
After tonight, she would definitely gain the emperor’s favour and at the time, her rank would be incomparably noble.
Then she’d make mother marry off Lou Qingwu to someone ranked far lower than her and make her marry to someone as far as far can be!
Time moved quickly and the banquet was about to begin.
Lou Qingwu heard someone report, “The emperor has arrived, the empress has arrived, imperial consort Rong has arrived.”
Following that high pitched voice, a figure in imperial yellow appeared in front of the palace’s court.
The man had an imposing face, his five features robust and was Dongyu’s current emperor., Xiahou Fengtian.
Behind him, were two beautiful women both in palace outfits.
The one that was slightly in front was in a true red phoenix gown, dignified and luxurious, the current dynasty’s empress Mrs Xiao.
The other was the most doted on, the imperial consort Ruan Yirong.
The emperor stood tall and straight, raised his hands and sat on the dragon couch as the empress and imperial consort Rong sat to his left and right.
After they were seated, all of the palace’s court officials and guests stood and called out “long live” three times.
The emperor then raised his hands and let everyone be seated.
Afterwards, the princes and the palace officials would offer up their birthday gifts, then the other guests would also offer up extravagant gifts.
Of all the gifts, the most peculiar was the second prince Xiahou Rui’s gift, a dragon and phoenix deep sea cloud pearl.
It was an enormously large pearl that was also pure, round and shiny with an auspicious dragon and phoenix totem delicately carved on it.
The light on the pearl reflected off it and shockingly, almost reflected the dragon and pearl totem on the ground.
*
TL note
Imperial consort Rong - her name’s Ruan Yirong so she’s connected to the Ruan family, some type of aunt to Lou Lianxin too.
The Peony Garden is more a courtyard, the birthday banquet takes place in the courtyard's hall.
Hopefully LLX crashes and burns, she's so awful ugh! Thank you for the chapter 💖💖💖
ReplyDeleteTheme for the next few chapters would be: oh how the mighty fall 💕💕💕
DeleteThanks for the chapter! How does LLX not see that she's digging her own grave haha~
ReplyDeleteLLX is as dumb as a box of rocks and thanks for always reading 💞💞💞💞
DeleteThank you for the chapter~
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading 💗💗
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