Shengfu.
Mrs. Ming was trembling a little since she got up.
After getting on the carriage, I became even more uneasy. From time to time I asked my granddaughters and maids who were riding in the carriage: "Is my hair a mess? Is my hairpin crooked?"
"What's the mess?" Mrs. Sheng was upset when he heard this and couldn't help but say, "People in the car can see you when they look up. Why can't I tell you if there is any omission?! Look at you, you look like you have never seen the world!"
Mrs. Ming said angrily: "I would like to see the world! But my father is a rural landowner. After following you, he will either be a husband and raise his children in Northern Xinjiang, or be an old lady in Nanfeng County! How can you expect me to see the world? ?!”
The old man was rarely speechless when asked by his wife. After choking for a while, he saw his granddaughters snickering without any shame. Although the maids next to him did not dare to laugh openly, they also lowered their heads to cover up. The old man's face turned red and he groaned: "This Didn’t I bring you to Chang’an? I’m going to attend the palace banquet later! How many people have never seen such a scene in their lives!”
"Is this the world you brought me to see?!" Old Madam Ming had the upper hand for the first time, so she couldn't help but take advantage of the victory and pursue her. She snorted coldly, "Have I taken advantage of my grandson?! Let's just say this invitation today. , isn’t it because Qiao Er and the others were granted the title of county lord, just because you were discharged from the army and returned to the field, do you have my share?!”
"...You are already this age, what do you love about being pretty!" Old Mrs. Sheng said angrily, "Don't even look at Qiaoer and the others. There are young and beautiful girls at home, who can bear to look at you? Old woman!”
Mrs. Ming sneered: "Then you just swore that the silver-gilt filigree emerald peony hairpin is not as suitable as the current gold hairpin inlaid with gems and figures, which is suitable for my hair and dress?! Anyway, it is not suitable for me!" She’s an old woman that no one is looking at, so what does it matter if I’m not dressed appropriately?!”
"Isn't that what I want to watch?" Mrs. Sheng replied subconsciously.
After saying this, the old couple's faces turned red at the same time. They each complained and rolled their eyes at the other, then fell silent.
Seeing this, even Sheng Weiqiao, who was worried about seeing Rong Suihe later, couldn't help laughing.
So when the Sheng family got out of the car that day, their expressions were a little weird.
The unexpected hit made Mrs. Ming, who was originally very nervous, calm down a lot.
But soon after they took out their invitations and were ushered to their seats by the palace people in the garden, Chun Lai, the eldest maid of Jingshao Palace, came over and said that Empress Meng had heard that the Sheng family was coming and planned to take advantage of this opportunity. Not many, but when she saw them, Mrs. Ming suddenly panicked again.
With Chun Lai in front of her, she was too embarrassed to ask her left and right, "Is her hair messy and her hairpin ring crooked?" but she kept stroking it here and there, feeling a little at a loss.
Fortunately, Chunlai noticed it and took the initiative to comfort them on the way to Queen Meng: "The Queen has always liked several county heads. She often said that if the old lady could raise such an outstanding granddaughter, she must be a kind and amiable person. Elder. I just want to meet with you now and talk a few words about home affairs. Madam, don’t worry!"
Mrs. Ming stuttered a little and said: "Qiao Er... Well, Kang Zhao and the others are actually not taught by me..."
"Grandma is humble." Sheng Weiqiao was familiar with Chunlai because of Empress Meng. Now he could see the sweat on the old lady's nervous forehead, so she hurriedly spoke to smooth things over, "We are your granddaughters, aren't we?" You taught it, and who taught it?"
Old Mrs. Sheng was also angry at the old wife's little family. He sighed secretly and whispered: "That's exactly the reason! The Queen is not looking for you to settle accounts for Qiao Er and the others for their wrong things. What are you afraid of? ?”
Under the comfort of her grandfather and grandson, Mrs. Ming finally calmed down a bit, and at this time she also arrived at the place where Queen Meng was.
Let’s first talk about the venue for today’s banquet, which is of course in Shanglin Garden.
However, Shanglin Garden spans more than 300 miles across five counties and contains hundreds of palaces and pavilions. Of course, it is impossible to use all of them for a mere day's banquet.
Probably because Empress Dowager Meng was really old and couldn't help but struggle, the Lingbo Palace closest to the palace was used at the moment.
Lingbo Palace is a palace built along one of the eight rivers in Shanglin Garden. Due to the influence of dense forests and river bank topography, the entire palace complex is not as regular as the palaces in the imperial city, but is distributed in a long and narrow way.
Influenced by the fact that the imperial city is located in the south of Chang'an City, the main hall of Lingbo Palace is located in the southeast.
Based on the main hall, the seats toward the northwest are humbler and less valued.
Although Sheng Weiqiao and others have been in and out of the palace frequently recently, and have brought a miserable ending to Princess Deping, Meng Twelve and Meng Shisan, after all, they have only been in Chang'an for a short time and their foundation is still shallow. Their elders, Mrs. Sheng and Mrs. Ming , and his official position is low, so although the original seat is not said to be the last seat, it is almost the same.
At this moment, when I walked all the way to the main hall, I saw the splendor and beauty all around, and the people who looked at it were simply dizzying.
Because seats were already being arranged in the main hall at this time, to avoid being disturbed, the queen used the side hall next door to stay temporarily.
As soon as I entered, I saw several ladies and beauties who had also arrived early, chatting and laughing around Queen Meng who was sitting high on the phoenix throne. When they saw the Sheng family entering, they all looked over. Sheng Weiqiao and the others have been in and out of the palace several times. Mr. Sheng was used to seeing life and death in the army as a young man, so he is naturally not afraid of such gazes at this moment.
Sheng Weiqiao recognized a few of the people whose names he knew and nodded slightly.
However, Old Madam Ming suddenly became timid and subconsciously wanted to bend down to salute. But before she could do anything, she remembered the etiquette that her granddaughters had warned her about before. In this situation, she had to salute the Queen first, and then follow this A few greetings.
So she stopped abruptly... The people above her could clearly see her embarrassment, and some people covered their faces with fans, their eyes slightly bent, and they were obviously smiling.
But probably because everyone knew that Queen Meng was very fond of Sheng Weiqiao and the others, no one dared to laugh out loud.
So the Sheng family members who noticed this scene couldn't say anything, but Mrs. Ming felt ashamed and became more and more stiff.
Even though Empress Meng looked kind and friendly, and after being seated, she specifically asked whether they should have tea or drink to show her importance, Mrs. Ming still stuttered a bit in her answer, and when she received the tea, she almost spilled the tea up her skirt.
Seeing this situation, Queen Meng could only quietly give Sheng Weiqiao an apologetic look, and after a few pleasantries, she said: "Kang Zhao and Jiaxiang stay here with me! As for the old lady and the old lady, I will leave it to you." Could you please change seats?"
Sheng Weiqiao knew that the seat she had changed must be closer to the front, but the Sheng family did not have the support of prominent power and status at the moment, so changing to a seat among noble guests might not be a good thing.
But just as she was about to refuse, Queen Meng continued, "How about sitting with the Ningwei Hou family?"
Sheng Weiqiao immediately nodded at the questioning look cast by Mrs. Sheng. It was the first time for her grandparents, cousins and grandparents to attend a banquet of this scale. With the Xu family watching, she could finally feel relieved.
In this way, after Mrs. Sheng and others left, Queen Meng said to Sheng Weiqiao: "I heard that your seats are in the back, and I wanted to change my seat for you. I wanted to talk by the way, but I didn't want to disturb Grandma Ling."
"Grandma has been in Nanfeng County for a long time, and this is her first time attending a palace banquet, so she is a bit unfamiliar. It's okay if you don't blame me for any disrespect. How can you say 'disturbing'?" Because there are other people around at this moment, Sheng Weiqiao Naturally, he would not be as casual as he was in private, and said politely, "Speaking of which, I was also very frightened when I went to Xinshou Palace to see the Queen Mother for the first time. It's all thanks to the Queen Mother's tolerance and kindness that she didn't care about me."
Empress Meng covered her mouth and smiled: "My aunt is still deeply impressed by you. When she mentions it occasionally, she always says that she has never seen such an innocent girl like you!"
Sheng Weiqiao's face turned red when he thought of his recklessness when he first entered the palace, and he said, "Let the Queen Mother... Well, it's funny!"
"Empress, the Lord of Kangzhao County, I have always heard you talk about it, but this is the first time we have met him!" At this time, among the female relatives who arrived first, a girl of twelve or thirteen years old asked with a smile, "Won't you introduce it to us?"
Queen Meng turned to glance at her, smiled and said to Sheng Weiqiao: "This is the granddaughter of my second uncle from my natal family. Her father is my second uncle from my natal family. Her maiden name is Shuang Liao. She is twelve years old this year. She has always loved She acts like a spoiled child, and I am sometimes made dumbfounded by her."
From this introduction, it can be heard that Queen Meng still loves Meng Shuangliu somewhat.
Sheng Weiqiao then smiled and said, "This is because Miss Shuangliao is in love with the empress."
"Your Majesty loves me too, don't I have to rely on her pampering to make me spoiled?" Meng Shuangliao interjected sweetly, "Otherwise I wouldn't dare to speak rashly in front of your Majesty."
Empress Meng deliberately said with a straight face: "You don't dare to speak! I see that sometimes you finish everything I want to say!"
"Then I must feel sorry for you, your Majesty, because you will be tired from talking too much, so I finished it for you!" Meng Shuangliao was not panicked when he saw this, and immediately said, "That's definitely the case! I'm so considerate of your Majesty, so I won't do it for you. I'm so annoyed by the talkative talk in front of you!"
She nodded seriously, "Yes! That's definitely the case!"
"Did you see it?" Empress Meng pointed at her with the fan and said to Sheng Weiqiao, "That's it. She loves to talk too much and is also sophistical. I really can't do anything about it!"
"My Majesty sounds like she is complaining, but we can all see that you are full of pain for Miss Shuang Liao!" Sheng Weiqiao hid her mouth and snickered, and asked everyone, "Do you think so?"
So everyone naturally joined the topic in agreement, but Gongsun Yingjiang, who was left behind with Sheng Weiqiao, remained silent.
In everyone's opinion, this situation is naturally because the flower viewing banquet happened not long ago. Even if the Jiaxiang County Lord who was the worst cheated at the banquet had Yizhi Jinfeng to cover his face, it would be good if he had the courage to come to the banquet now. , how could we have such a lively chat with someone who has nothing to do
In fact, everyone including Queen Meng was a little surprised that Gongsun Yingjiang would come.
They originally thought that since Gongsun Yingjiang "suffered such a big blow" and heard that he "thrown himself into a lake that night", if "Mrs. Ning Weihou hadn't foreseen it and sent someone to keep an eye on it", he would have been killed long ago. The fragrance is gone and the jade is gone!
So, according to common sense, this person is most likely hiding at home and refusing to see anyone!
"Is it because after getting engaged, she felt she had a status, so she felt embarrassed to come out? But looking at her taciturn appearance now, it doesn't look like she has already exposed it... It's no wonder, she tried to commit suicide in the first place. Yeah, it’s only been a few days, how could she just think about it?”
"I really don't know why she came here today?"
Everyone was muttering in their hearts, because they were worried about Queen Meng's presence, let alone asking, they didn't even dare to show it on their faces, they could only guess secretly.
But he didn't know that the reason why Gongsun Yingjiang didn't participate in their conversation at this moment was that he was not interested in this kind of entertainment; secondly, he was seriously thinking about a question: "Last time, my uncle said that anyone who has ideas for my aunt is Beautiful man, I can sleep wherever you want!"
"So… "
"Today, should I sleep with Marquis Yichun first, Uncle Chongxin first, or Cao Zhu first?"
Having too many choices is also a sweet trouble!