Beautiful spring!
The Qujiang banquet prepared for the new scholars was held at the water pavilion next to the hibiscus pond in the apricot garden. The table was filled with delicacies and fine wines. The spring breeze blew, and the fallen apricot petals fell into the wine cup filled with fruit wine.
Zhang Yingying picked up the wine cup and took a sip of the fruit wine. The aroma of the wine was mixed with a faint scent of flowers, and she squinted her eyes in pleasure.
"Although the fruit wine is light, it has great staying power!"
Seeing a piece of apricot blossom petal on his niece's mouth, Zhang Bian smiled and stretched out his slender fingers to wipe it off for her.
This scene fell in the eyes of the boudoir ladies playing on the boat.
"Tanhua Lang is so gentle!"
"Today when we were visiting the garden, the number one scholar and the number two scholar were all accompanied by famous prostitutes. Only Mr. Zhang was accompanied by his family. Although there is nothing wrong with men being arty, there are few men in the world who are as clean and self-possessed as Mr. Zhang."
"Master Zhang loves his little niece so much. He must be a very gentle and elegant man. Only such a man is a good match."
"No, Mr. Zhang is handsome, talented and knowledgeable. Zhang Shangshu is also an important minister in the court that your Majesty relies on. With such a family background, such a person and talent, I don't know which young lady in the capital is lucky enough to marry like this. Good boy."
Today, Zhang Bian went against the grain, because his family background and appearance were not tarnished by the wives of aristocratic families in the capital and the ladies in the boudoir, but were praised by all of them.
Ji'an, who was also playing in the boat, heard the endless discussion, and looked at the man who gently wiped the petals from his niece's mouth, and felt jealous.
Originally, Prince Ning had chosen Zhang Bian for her, but she still looked down upon such a local dog who had just returned to the capital.
In the blink of an eye, he was the sweetheart of high school, and his worth has skyrocketed. He is the most preferred husband of young ladies from all over the capital.
But Zhang Bian, such an outstanding person, should have interacted with Princess Mu on the night of her wedding banquet, but he was afraid of avoiding her. In order to avoid her, he asked to marry Yue'er, a stupid person like Yue'er who only knows how to eat and play. .
Even during today's visit to the garden, Princess Chang and Xue Xiu dangled before her eyes, which made Ji An feel extremely dazzled.
She deliberately wanted to interrupt the discussion of the sisters on the boat, but thinking of her uncle Qi Wang's fate and her father's warning, she finally did not dare to say anything and pretended to be deaf, leaning on the boat and staring at her niece. Zhang Bian.
The boat was already very close to the water pavilion. Zhang Yingying secretly drank another sip of sweet fruit wine without her second uncle seeing her. She looked around for Li Sixu and caught Ji An's gaze. The wine cup in her hand almost disappeared. Hold firmly.
"Second uncle, that bad woman is targeting us again!"
After his sleeve was pulled, Zhang Bian followed Zhang Yingying's gaze and looked at the boat. Feng Danyun gently comforted Zhang Yingying: "It doesn't matter, she can't make any trouble anymore."
"But, she has been coveting the second uncle. She had already deliberately approached the second uncle when he had just returned to the capital and had not yet been chosen as the romantic partner. Now that the second uncle has been chosen as the romantic partner, there are so many people in our house who want to marry him. She’s not allowed to eat her second uncle?”
Zhang Yingying was very worried: "Her father is a prince after all. Yingying is really worried that she will succeed. Second uncle, she won't let her father ask the emperor for marriage, right?"
"Yingying heard that the royal relatives and official wives in the capital would take advantage of the Qujiang Banquet to choose husbands of good looks for their young ladies."
Zhang Bian felt helpless towards his little niece.
I don’t know what’s going on in my little mind?
He knocked Zhang Yingying on the head: "What nonsense are you talking about? Is your second uncle's food so delicious?"
Zhang Bian motioned to Zhang Yingying to follow his gaze. Zhang Yingying obeyed and saw the bright yellow figure sitting on the high platform. Next to him, sitting lower down, was a man wearing a hat.
A tall man wearing a gauze hat sitting there has become the focus of the entire Qujiang Banquet.
All the ministers in the court and the curious new scholars secretly looked at him and looked sideways from time to time. The man seemed to be restless.
Zhang Yingying asked curiously: "The person's body shape should be that of a man. Why is he wearing a hat and pretending to be a woman?"
"Because this prince offended the ten princesses and angered the emperor."
Zhang Bian revealed a little about Li Sixu's stay in Zending Temple and Wangfu Courtyard to Zhang Yingying.
When Zhang Yingying was still angry for the little princess she liked, Zhang Bian smiled and said: "The emperor did not kill him. He only said in the court that he was bewitched by a villain and should get close to him at all times. That day, the emperor After that, the prince never left Xingqing Palace, and even stayed with the emperor during the Qujiang Banquet."
"Is the prince also in such a miserable condition?"
Zhang Yingying asked Zhang Bian innocently: "The way he is twisting and turning is so funny, as if he is being roasted on the stove!"
King Qi, who was wearing a hat and attracting attention from all the ministers, was probably going to cry after hearing Zhang Yingying's words. He was not being roasted on the stove, he was itching and uncomfortable all over.
I don’t know what happened, but even though I had abscesses all over my body when I was in the palace, I could still endure the itching and pain.
After coming to this apricot garden and being surrounded by flowers, his body became more itchy and unbearable.
Under the nose of his imperial brother, he didn't dare to clean his hands even if he wanted to find an excuse, so he had to sit cross-legged in front of the desk and twist around. The face under the hat was already grinning, and he almost screamed out in pain.
Zhang Bian saw his discomfort in his eyes and said mockingly: "From now on, there will be times when he will be miserable when he has to live under his Majesty's nose. Yingying, tell me, he is already in such pain, how dare Prince Ning's palace to act rashly?"
Zhang Bian guessed that the reason why King Qi appeared like this at the Qujiang Banquet had something to do with the little princess.
The more miserable King Qi describes it, the better the effect of killing chickens to scare monkeys.
How could Prince Ning's Mansion dare to act rashly at this time?
But the courtiers and people would think that His Majesty was really wise and benevolent, even attending the Qujiang Banquet with King Qi who had made mistakes.
Regarding King Jingqi's incident, Prince Ning's Mansion should not dare to treat the marriage of Ji'an County Lord as a pawn anymore. As long as there is no brain disease, Prince Ning should also be a man with his tail between his legs at this time.
Otherwise, he will be the next one to be stabbed.
Moreover, His Majesty used a blunt knife, and the person who was cut seemed to have no wounds, but in fact, he was worse than dead.
Perhaps through the Qujiang Banquet today, Prince Ning would indeed propose marriage on behalf of the Lord of Ji'an County, but it would definitely not be him, the son of a powerful official.
When Zhang Bian concluded this, Li Sixu, who was sitting next to Concubine Liu Xian, was also looking at the most high-profile new scholars who were listed in this scientific examination.
When she was in Xingyuan just now, she took a look at it from a distance. Compared with Zhang Bian, the top scholar named Yuan was a more mature young man, and the student who won the second place seemed to be older.
Perhaps because he was studying hard at his desk, he was a little hunched over, and his posture was not so elegant. When he was riding in the park, his back was not very straight.
Now that I was getting closer, looking down from the height of Ziyun Tower, I realized that because of his body shape, he did look slightly older than Zhang Bian and Zhuangyuan Lang.
