When the prince arrived with the kings and princesses, the hall of Xuande was already lively.
Today, on the emperor's birthday, no one dared to be late for the palace banquet, including a group of envoys who arrived early. Everyone gathered together, talking in twos and threes, and even those envoys from small countries were not left out, making the atmosphere in the hall very lively. harmonious.
Qi Yang and Lu Qipei were sitting at the same table, with the princes and princesses on the left and right, and the envoys and courtiers sitting opposite. However, the two of them stood together as if there was no one else around, and whispered together, seeing Rong Shi, who was facing him, frowning, not daring to look too far.
Fortunately, everyone stepped on the point to leave the Xuan Family Hall, so soon after the princes and daughters were seated, the palace banquet also began.
The emperor, dressed in black clothes, arrived late, and when he walked calmly through the hall, everyone on both sides stood up and bent down, bowing their heads in salute.
The black-colored clothes swiped in the peripheral vision of everyone, and finally they walked to the top and took their seats in front of the throne.
The emperor's majestic voice sounded immediately, and he first avoided everyone's salute, and then said two polite words as the opening. The intimidating majesty that had arisen when the emperor entered the hall gradually dissipated, and the atmosphere in the hall became much calmer.
When this palace banquet is held, it is to celebrate the emperor's birthday, and the prince and daughter are the first.
The crown prince is the chief and the prince. He first attended the trip to the front of the royal family. He bowed and said, "The father's birthday is celebrated by the whole country. My son and ministers congratulate the father and the emperor. He said, "My son is blunt, and everything in his body is the kindness of the king. Today, I only have a picture of a hundred longevity written in my own hand. I can talk about my son's heart and hope that the father and the emperor will not blame him."
Of course, the emperor would not blame the poor gift from the prince. He immediately smiled and encouraged him, and asked the servant to take the picture of the longevity presented by the prince.
The so-called "Baishou Tu" is composed of one hundred longevity characters. Some people took advantage of it to make one hundred people write the character for longevity, and they can also make up a picture of one hundred longevity. Some people are bothered, they have to come up with the 100 characters of longevity by themselves, and it takes a lot of effort to write beautifully if the characters are different. The prince is obviously the latter. In his capacity, it is too simple to find hundreds of people to come to these pictures of a hundred longevity.
The emperor saw it and knew that the character was actually handwritten by the crown prince. He also thought of how much time and effort it would take to write such a character now, thinking that his half-handed right hand had changed to practice calligraphy with his left hand. For a while, I was moved and said three good words in a row.
Even the emperor said it was good, how could the ministers spoil the fun, and the hall was full of praise for a while.
This made the faces of the other princes not very good-looking. They spent money and thought, thinking that they had found a delicate and precious thing to give the emperor as a birthday gift, just to get the emperor's praise and the ministers' praise. However, at this moment, before they presented the birthday gift, they actually let the prince take the lead with a worthless hundred birthday picture. Why not make people angry
But the anger turned into anger. On this palace banquet, in front of the emperor and the envoys of the courtiers, the kings did not dare to say more. Only a few eyes fell directly on the prince, which was full of jealousy and unwillingness.
The prince has been the heir for many years, and he has been deeply blessed since he was born. How could he see such eyes less? Or, the prince grew up under such jealous and unwilling eyes, and now he is very calm. After thanking the emperor for his praise, he sat back.
He Shou started and continued.
Under the crown prince, the second prince died early, the third prince was executed for treason, and then the fourth prince, King Qi.
King Qi couldn't sit still when the ministers praised the prince, and now he jumped up and said, "Father, my son heard that auspicious auspiciousness was born in Qizhou, and the sky is full of fairy spirit. Wandering around, they will make people look for it. Fortunately, I came here before the father's birthday, and dedicated it to the father, I wish the father a healthy dragon and a boundless longevity."
The emperor has been on the throne for decades, and he has never heard of any kind of auspiciousness or auspiciousness.
Because of the auspicious matter, the emperor has eight points of disbelief, but it is always a happy event to involve auspiciousness. Therefore, although the emperor lacked interest in his heart, he still showed two points of joy on his face, and asked, "It's He Xiangrui, and I will present it to the temple for a look."
King Qi saw the emperor with a smile on his face, thinking that his birthday gift was a good gift, and his back was three points straighter than before. He personally ordered, and soon four servants came to the hall with the birthday gift covered by the red cloth. The next glass water tank was exposed.
At this moment, the hall was brightly lit, and the warm yellow light penetrated the clear glass, clearly revealing an arowana in the water tank.
It was a real dragon fish, with a slender body like a snake, with golden scales attached to its body, a dragon whisker on its lips, and a face that was only half that of a fish, while the other half was more like the legendary golden dragon.
In ancient times, there was a saying that the fish jumped over the dragon gate. Except for having no claws and no horns and being trapped in a fence, this dragon fish has the appearance of a dragon.
No one has ever seen such an arowana, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is auspicious. For a while, their eyes widened with surprise. Even the emperor who didn't care about it before couldn't help but feel a little bit in his heart, and even got down from the throne and walked to the glass water tank to take a closer look.
Seeing this, King Qi became more and more complacent, and looked at the emperor with bright eyes, just waiting for his father to praise him.
However, the emperor stared at the water tank for a long time, but never said a word. He was silent for so long that King Qi was a little flustered when he waited, so he cautiously called out "Royal Father"
Only then did the emperor return to his senses, nodded and said, "The emperor has bothered, not bad."
After saying this, the emperor waved his hand and motioned to the chamberlain beside him to carry the birthday gift down, he also turned around and walked back to the throne. What auspicious looks like. Especially before the close look, the emperor was obviously quite interested, but after seeing it, he reacted like this
Everyone couldn't help but feel a little suspicious, and they all suspected that King Qi had cheated and let the emperor find the clue.
No one dared to say such a guess, and it was a little strange when they only looked at King Qi. King Qi was so angry that he felt inexplicable, and he couldn't be more aggrieved when he looked at the throne.
Qi Yang, who was watching, also found it strange. He sneaked into Lu Qipei's ear and asked her in a whisper, "Father, what's wrong, I was very happy to see it before, and I really haven't seen this dragon fish auspicious before."
Lu Qipei observed more carefully, or maybe it was because she was in a good position, so he whispered back to Qi Yang, "I saw the dragon fish in the water tank, and its belly seems to have turned white."
Qi Yang heard the words, Mei's eyes opened slightly and the fish belly turned white, and she was about to die. It was self-evident that such a birthday gift was given on the emperor's birthday. Thanks to the emperor's calmness, his mind was even more sober, knowing that King Qi could not have done it on purpose, otherwise there would be thunder's wrath at this moment. But this is the case, at this moment, it is estimated that the fire is simmering in the stomach.
The two of them were talking when suddenly they heard a loud bang, and everyone in the hall turned their heads in shock.
However, I saw that the glass water tank that was being lifted down by the red cloth was covered by the inner servant, and the bottom of the tank suddenly fell down. The water in the water tank was dripping for a while, and the golden dragon fish stood out in the shattered glass shards.
No one expected such a scene, and the hall was silent for a moment.
What Lu Qipei saw before was not wrong, the dragon fish was about to die, so even if it left the water and fell into the shards of glass, its golden tail only swept weakly twice, and then stopped completely.
Even if everyone in the hall has no knowledge, they still have common sense. When they saw the appearance of the dragon fish, they didn't know its condition. The hall was full of gasps for a while. Only then did a few servants who carried the tank react, and they hurriedly knelt down and begged for mercy, in their hearts. All are apprehensive.
The emperor's face was black enough to drip ink, looking at the chaos in the hall without saying a word.
King Qi finally reacted from this shock, and hurriedly went to the front of the palace and knelt down and said, "Father, Father, please listen to Erchen's explanation. Erchen really sought auspiciousness to offer it. When he entered the palace before, the dragon fish was still there. Okay, it's alive and kicking, I don't know why it's like this. And this glass is made of a single piece of glass, so how can it fall to the ground? Someone wants to harm my son, please ask the father and emperor to see it."
At the end of the day, King Qi still has two points of astuteness. This explanation sounds plausible. However, in this situation, in front of the foreign envoy, after a farce, the face of the emperor and Liang Guo was really lost.
The emperor chose to hold back his anger before because there were foreign envoys in the palace, and he didn't want to make the family scandal public.
But now that his face has been lost, the emperor has to continue to endure it, and glared at King Qi, "I will not step back."
King Qi shivered and got up, wiped his cold sweat and returned to the room. He looked around, but felt that the brothers on the left and right were the ones who harmed him. In the end, his eyes fell on the prince, and his hatred was even greater. Obviously, he felt that the prince was the most suspect.
The prince ignored him. Seeing that the emperor was still angry and the atmosphere in the hall was depressed, he ordered the servants who were still begging for mercy, "Don't clean up the hall and retire."
A few of the inner servants, hearing the words, were amnesty, and they hurriedly cleaned up the glass fragments and water stains in the hall. Only that dragon fish, no one dared to move for a while, or Zhang Jian instructed others to take away the dragon fish body.
The palace people moved very quickly, but in a short while, the hall returned to its previous appearance, as if the incident had never happened before.
But the atmosphere has already broken down. At this time, who can really pretend that nothing happened, and continue to celebrate the emperor's birthday with the emperor? Wei Wang, who was in line to give a gift after Qi Wang, shrank his neck, and at this moment did not dare to touch it. Emperor Yutou, for the first time in my heart, it was a pity that the King of Chu was deprived of the title.
It's a pity that the King of Chu is not here, and unfortunately he can't hide if he wants to restore the atmosphere. In the end, King Wei has to bite the bullet and say congratulations to the emperor and give a birthday gift under the watchful eyes of everyone.
King Wei's birthday gift is also quite precious, and it can be seen that it was carefully prepared, but compared with King Qi, it is quite satisfactory.
The emperor didn't like such extravagant gifts, but when he saw it at this time, he couldn't help but relax. He nodded, said a few words of encouragement to King Wei, and smiled slightly, which gradually eased the atmosphere in the hall.
Then the King of Wu offered a birthday gift, followed by a group of princesses. When it was Qi Yang's turn to present the birthday gift, the emperor heard that she was the Bodhisattva she specially invited to fast in Huguo Temple, and the smile on his face finally became much more real.