"Are you so sure that I will be interested? Come on, tell me. If I don't show half a penny of interest later, I will pull your ears!" Yang Ruoqing said with a smile.
Da An smiled warmly, coughed slightly, and deliberately adjusted his tone and said, "The first thing is that in two days, Luo Fengtang, the protector of the country, will return to the capital to resume his duties with the emperor."
"What? How many days will it take for your brother-in-law to return to Beijing?" Yang Ruoqing was pleasantly surprised and her score went up a few points.
Daan smiled and corrected, "Sister, the 'two days' I use here does not refer to a few days, but two days in the precise sense."
In order to enhance Yang Ruoqing's understanding, Da'an also deliberately raised two fingers.
Yang Ruoqing stared at Daan's two delicate fingers with joy. The more she looked at them, the more cute the scissor hand gestures became!
"Great, if he doesn't come back, I won't recognize him anymore," she joked.
Daan also smiled, with a hint of distress in his eyes as he smiled.
This may seem like a joke, but the bitterness hidden behind this joke can only be understood by herself and the people closest to her.
"Sister, when you came from Nanmen Street in Beijing earlier, did you see that the road was decorated with lights?" Da'an asked again.
Yang Ruoqing recalled it carefully and nodded.
"Yes, the streets are really clean. The tree trunks on both sides of the street and the doorways of the shops are uniformly hung with red satin."
"Xiao Duo and Xiao Jie also speculated that a wealthy family was having a happy event, so the whole street was dressed up like that. It's so festive!" she said.
Daan smiled.
"Two days later, my brother-in-law will park his army a hundred miles away from the capital, and then bring a team of guards into the capital to meet the emperor and return to his throne."
"At that time, from Nanmen Street to the capital, my brother-in-law will pacify the southwest, sweep away the local rebels, and give a heavy blow and warning to those neighboring countries who are ready to take action,"
"The neighboring countries once again bowed their heads and surrendered, and sent protons and letters of surrender, gold, silver, jewelry, famous utensils, beauties, etc., and accompanied my brother-in-law to Beijing to meet the saint."
"Emperor Qi Longyan was overjoyed and issued a decree to commend my brother-in-law. Nanmen Street was decorated with lights and colorful decorations to welcome my brother-in-law on his triumphant return."
"Now all the people in the capital know the reputation of my brother-in-law. Whether it is at the banquet of the dignitaries, the poetry club of the students, or the large and small shops in the capital, there are two things that are hotly discussed. Among them One thing is that my brother-in-law has successfully pacified the country and returned in triumph. As for the other thing..."
Yang Ruoqing's ears stood up high as she listened, just like the cat.
Da'an suddenly stopped talking, which made her anxious and scratching her head and ears.
"Your brother-in-law is now a man of the hour, and the appraisal has been completed. So what is the other thing that attracted everyone's attention?" She quickly asked.
Daan, however, calmly picked up the tea bowl beside him and took a sip.
"Well, it's good to moisten your throat. After you're done moisturizing, continue talking!" Yang Ruoqing said with a smile.
Daan smiled, moistened his throat, put down his tea bowl, sat up straight, and continued.
"This other thing has nothing to do with us, but because it is a happy event for someone else's family, I heard about it and chatted about it after dinner," he said.
"Emperor Qi issued an imperial edict at the beginning of the year to select a concubine for His Highness the Crown Prince. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has drawn up the criteria for selecting concubines, and the selection scope will be in the capital, so as not to disturb the lower states and counties."
"The decree was sent out at the end of January, and in mid-February, a thousand qualified show girls signed up to participate in the audition."
"After layers of screening and elimination, there are still fifty beautiful girls left to receive training in the palace."
"Of these fifty show girls, another thirty will be eliminated by then, and the remaining twenty will be the final candidates."
"At that time, the emperor and the empress will select the candidate of their choice for the crown princess. They will discuss it with the three elders in the cabinet before issuing a decree to grant the marriage."
"The choice of the two crown prince's concubines will be decided by His Highness himself."
Hearing Da'an's words, Yang Ruoqing opened her eyes wide in surprise.
"Oh my god, isn't it too exaggerated to choose a princess?" she said.
"We only select three out of a thousand people. This only applies to the capital city. If we expand the selection to the lower states and counties, the admission ratio will be even more difficult than when you took the top prize exam!" she said.
Of course, the crown princess and the two concubines who were selected through this layer of screening must have no choice in terms of appearance, knowledge, words, deeds and qualities shown to outsiders.
Moreover, everyone must have a good family background, either a prince or noble, an important civil and military minister, or a noble family with an innocent family background...
"Wow, there are so many beauties, Qi Xingyun is so lucky now!" Yang Ruoqing said with a smile.
In my mind, I couldn't help but imagine that His Highness the Crown Prince, who is still single at the age of twenty-six or seven, and I heard that he didn't even have a bed-warming maid in the palace, would be hugging each other all at once. What would it be like?
It's the hardest thing to accept the kindness of a beautiful woman. He used to be indifferent to women, but now he is wallowing in makeup and powder. He is used to vegetarian food and suddenly becomes greasy. Will he have indigestion?
Where there are women, there is war, and these women are all fierce fighters among women. Even if they look silly and sweet on the outside, they are also very scheming on the inside.
They fight openly and secretly, and compete for favor. Can Qi Xingyun be able to withstand it?
Thinking of this, Yang Ruoqing found it very interesting, hahaha...
If Qi Xingyun knew that she was thinking about all the embarrassing things after his marriage, how would he feel?
In the East Palace, in the Prince's study.
"Ah sneeze!"
A loud sneeze resounded through the study, causing the hand holding the pen to shake. The ink on the tip of the pen fell off and fell on the nose of the beauty image painted on the white paper in front of him.
Qi Xingyun looked at the destroyed beauty scroll in front of him and raised his eyebrows.
"Eunuch An, how do you feel about this beauty?" he asked the middle-aged eunuch standing by to wait on her.
Hearing this, Eunuch An bowed forward and followed Qi Xingyun's guidance to look at the picture of a beauty spread out on the desk.
It doesn't matter if you don't look at it. When he saw it, the corners of An Gonggong's mouth twitched fiercely. He wanted to laugh but didn't dare to.
The good-looking beauty suddenly turned into a matchmaker with a black mole on her nose.
"Your Highness, this, this..." Eunuch An didn't know how to speak.
This scroll, together with several other scrolls on the desk that I haven't had time to open and look at, were sent over from the Ministry of Internal Affairs earlier.
The twenty beauties in the scroll are all beautiful ladies selected by the emperor for His Highness the Crown Prince. The future crown princess and the two concubines are all in these twenty scrolls, but the candidates have not yet been determined.
"This girl looks more suitable to be a matchmaker. Did the Ministry of Internal Affairs send her scroll to the wrong place?"
Beside the desk, Qi Xingyun leaned lazily on the Taishi's chair, tapping the armrests of the Taishi's chair with his fingers, his tone teasing.
