That night, Lu Qi studied ink and wrote a letter back to his hometown Fan Yang. The wording in the letter was reserved, and he only mentioned his two aunts and elders who had been widowed for many years, saying that he wanted to invite them to come to Beijing to share their family together years ago.
Although the two aunts and elders who received the letter were a little puzzled why the Lu family in Beijing suddenly mentioned this matter and acted in such a hurry. However, considering that Lu Qi had just returned to Beijing from overseas to take up a post, the two aunts only thought that he was trying to show good will to the clan and appease the people of the clan in order to take over his father's position as clan leader.
Going to the capital would be of no harm to future generations, so the two aunts happily agreed and just had to pack up before setting off.
At this point, the matter comes to an end. Both Lu Binghui and Lu Bingzhen were imprisoned by their elders, but Lu Bingzhen's confinement was more like a show.
Because tomorrow is the Laba Festival, she will go to the palace for a banquet with Lu Qi and Li.
Thanks to the decree to confer the county monarch, almost no one noticed the plans of the empress and the prince. All parties only regarded the canonization of the county monarch as the emperor's affirmation of Lu Qi's political achievements. After all, this happened frequently.
On the day of Laba Festival.
Dawn always comes later in winter, and it's still dark outside, so Lu Bingzhen is woken up by the melting snow. "Ninth Lady, it's time to get up. You have to dress up according to the county prince's rank today, which will take more time than usual."
Lu Bingzhen was helped up in a daze and changed his clothes. It wasn't until he finished washing that he suddenly woke up. Looking at the complicated makeup and layers of jewelry in the mirror, Lu Bingzhen couldn't help but bargain, "Rong Xue, there's no need for so many jewelry. I didn't have so many jewelry last time I went to the palace for a banquet. It's too heavy for my scalp. It all hurts a little.”
Rongxue refused righteously, "Ninth lady, these are indispensable. I heard from Cai Bing that the last time I went to the palace, it was because you were dressed too plain that those people mistakenly recognized you. Identity. What's more, your identity is different now, so you need to dress up well."
Just as he was talking, Agate opened the curtain and walked in. After hearing Rongxue's words, he unexpectedly accepted Lu Bingzhen's intention and only asked Rongxue to dress up the Ninth Lady according to the grade of a county monarch, with only a few decorations. This made Lu Bingzhen feel strange.
In fact, this was because Mrs. Li already knew what the Queen and the Prince meant, so she would not let Lu Bingzhen dress up in an occasion where she would meet the two of them. Lu Bingzhen, who was completely unaware of everything at the moment, naturally thought that her mother felt sorry for her, so she followed the precedent of the last time she went to the palace for a banquet and did not dress up in a grand manner.
The palace was already brightly lit and decorated everywhere.
Lu Qi, Li Shi, and Lu Bingzhen were led all the way to the Taihe Palace by the young eunuch. Today is considered a family banquet for the royal family, so all men and women are seated in the Taihe Hall.
At such a palace banquet, Lu Qi's family was considered a new face. After Lu Qi and Li had some pleasantries with the royal children who had some friendship with them, they sat down quietly and said nothing more. Lu Bingzhen noticed that on the day of the palace banquet, he had some disagreements with Rongde County Jun Chi Weiyan, the daughter of Princess Ruyang.
Lu Bingzhen, who originally didn't care much about the canonization of the county monarch, suddenly felt grateful for this decree. At least with the decree, she didn't have to bow to Rongde County Jun Chi Weiyan.
However, Chi Weiyan's Rongde County Lord was much better than Lu Bingzhen's empty-handed Qingning County Lord. Just from the title alone, it can be seen that the emperor still valued this niece very much, not to mention that she also had a real fiefdom. That is a cornucopia that continuously produces food, grass, gold and silver.
After a while, the emperor and the empress entered together, with the prince behind them, and then the concubines leading their children.
Everyone stood up and knelt down, shouting long live the mountain. "My wife/daughter pays homage to Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty the Queen, and Your Highness the Crown Prince. May you be well and safe." After the emperor led the royal family to sit down, everyone stood up and sat down again.
From the moment he stepped into the hall, Prince Xiao Min couldn't help but focus on observing Lu Bingzhen. Today, Lu Bingzhen only dressed according to the rank of a county prince, and her jewelry and clothing were far less gorgeous than Chi Weiyan, who was also a county prince. The more he looked at her, the more his heart sank. Prince Xiao Min could only think that Lu Bingzhen knew his intentions today and deliberately dressed simply so as not to attract his attention.
Since Lu Bingzhen returned to Beijing, Xiao Min has inquired about Lu Bingzhen's affairs in many ways. Because of this, he knew quite a lot about Lu Bingzhen's affairs at home, and knew that she was the one who could influence the decisions of her parents and even the clan leader and grandfather. She was by no means an ordinary lady who could only listen to her parents' opinions. Lu Bingzhen's dress today is enough to explain her own attitude.
Xiao Min smiled bitterly in his heart and thought to himself, "So have I been the only one who has been sentimental for all these years? Am I the only one who remembers what happened when I entered the palace at a young age? Since that time, Nian Nian can't Turns out I was the only one who forgot."
Lu Bingzhen was completely unaware of the bitterness in Xiao Min's heart at this time. She was completely unaware that the Queen and the Crown Prince preferred her as the Crown Princess. After all, she was still a young lady waiting to be married, so it was still difficult for her to notice when her parents and family were determined to hide something from her.
The palace banquet that followed was nothing more than singing, dancing, toasting, and flattering the emperor.
There were two things that surprised Lu Bingzhen. First, Chi Weiyan seemed to have learned wisely and stopped provoking her, although the county prince looked at her with a very unfriendly look throughout the whole process. This made Lu Bingzhen even more grateful for the decree to make her the Queen of Qingning County.
As for the other thing, it came from His Highness the Crown Prince, who is beneath one person and above tens of thousands of people. Before that, Lu Bingzhen's understanding of him was limited to the fact that he was a direct descendant of the palace, had a legitimate reputation, and seemed to be good in literature, Taoism, and martial arts. But His Highness the Crown Prince seemed to be paying attention to her frequently tonight. Lu Bingzhen silently recalled the contents of the Di newspaper and attributed this incident to his father Lu Qi's recent political achievements.
After three rounds of drinking, the palace banquet finally ended amidst the drunkenness of the royal family members and the emperor's ministers.
Lu Bingzhen left the palace with her parents. By the time the carriage swayed all the way to Lu's house, she was already drowsy. Mrs. Li lovingly asked her servants and maids to take her to rest. Lu Bingzhen was so sleepy that she fell asleep when she returned. When she woke up again, it was already three o'clock in the morning on the second day.
Just after waking up from his sleep, Rong Xue summoned a group of maids to surround Lu Bingzhen to wash herself and put on makeup. "Ninth Lady, Madam has sent someone to tell you that someone from the Queen's Palace has sent a reward. She asked you to go over there after washing up. You will also have lunch in the main courtyard with Madam."
Lu Bingzhen, who was twisting her hair, subconsciously turned back to look at Rong Xue, but her hair was pulled hard. There was a pain in her hair, and she couldn't help but let out a low cry. The little girl hurriedly let go of her hand, and with a plop, she knelt down and cried, "Ninth lady, I didn't mean this. Please forgive me, little lady."
Lu Bingzhen said nonchalantly, "It's okay, get up quickly. It's because I suddenly turned around just now, I don't blame you." Rongxue quickly asked someone to help the little girl up, and said with some hatred, "You, you, you , how have you learned the rules in the past, that is, the nine ladies are merciful and don’t care. If it were another noble person, no matter what the reason was, they would still be dragged out and beaten. "
The little girl only responded and did not dare to talk back. Now she didn't dare to ask her to comb Lu Bingzhen's hair, so Rong Xue sent her away to water the flowers outside the house.
Half a quarter of an hour later, Lu Bingzhen, who had finished packing, was sitting in the main room of the main courtyard, drinking cheese and listening to Mrs. Li talking about today's reward.
"These things today are quite unusual. They are all things commonly used by young ladies. A Rui, look at them. They are all things you can use."
Lu Bingzhen didn't take it seriously at first. The things Gain always rewarded were supported by the word "gong-made", and the utensils and brocades were not as good as those produced by the aristocratic family. Hearing Li's words, Lu Bingzhen became interested and went over to take a look. He was really surprised.
The things I was gifted today are not only exquisite utensils and gorgeous and delicate brocades, but they also unexpectedly fit Lu Bingzhen’s taste.
There are four types of vases: a gallbladder vase with blue glaze, a small-mouthed plum vase with red glaze, a yarrow vase with blue glaze, and a celadon jade vase. All of them are to her liking, not to mention incense burners, incense, toys, etc. Various ornaments. The only thing that Lu Bingzhen didn't like was the six batches of gold-woven satin with different patterns.
Lu Bingzhen really didn't like this kind of heavy and stiff material, it was really uncomfortable. Even if you dress up for a banquet once in a while, you won't be able to wear it at home on weekdays. Even if you attend an ordinary banquet between aristocratic families, it doesn't need to be so grand.
Li and Lu Bingzhen originally thought that this reward was just the Queen's usual reward to royal family members before the New Year. And these rewards are just in the name of the Queen's regular rewards, and everything among them was personally collected by His Highness the Crown Prince according to Lu Bingzhen's preferences.
The six batches of gold-woven satin were made because His Royal Highness saw that day that Lu Wuniang, who was favored by the old patriarch and his wife, was wearing gold-woven satin, while Lu Jiuniang, who had just returned to Beijing, could only wear Jiangnan brocade fabrics. His Highness the Crown Prince thought it was Lu Jiuniang who was secretly being tripped up by Lu Wuniang at home, so he hurriedly collected gold-woven satin with various patterns and sent it over, fearing that his sweetheart would be wronged over the expense.
His Royal Highness, who was worried about causing chaos, never thought that with Lu Qi and his wife here, no one even within the Lu family could bully Lu Jiuniang.
Two days before the New Year's Day, two great-aunts from Fan Yang's hometown finally arrived in the capital after a long journey. Fortunately, Fan Yang's hometown is not far from the capital, and the Lu family has rich wealth and unusual carriages and horses, so they can set off in winter. Of course, the two great uncles and aunts wanted to go to the capital as soon as possible for fear that the patriarch and his family would regret it.
The children of these two uncles and aunts are all mediocre in qualifications, but they are more reliable and have pure character. Now that the patriarch's family has specially extended an olive branch, they must grasp it firmly.
When people come from my hometown, they are also elders. The old patriarch and Mr. and Mrs. Lu Qi tacitly pressed the door tightly without mentioning anything, and asked the Fifth Lady and the Ninth Lady to come out of the house to meet the two elders.
In terms of seniority of these two aunts, one is the eighth great-uncle and the other is the eleventh great-uncle. The eighth uncle's grandmother is a thin old man with a serious face. Uncle Eleven was more kind-hearted.
Lu Binghui and Lu Bingzhen were not reserved in their etiquette. They bowed down with smiles and said, "I have met the eighth uncle and the eleventh uncle." The two old people immediately asked people to help the two young ladies up, and then gave them to each other. Meeting gift.
Considering that the two aunts were old after all, after introducing everyone in the family, Lu Qi asked the two aunts to rest and only wait for the evening to take care of the two aunts.
