The New Year is one of the most important festivals of the Sheng Dynasty, and the government will hold a parade on this day. Nobles from all over the country will go to the capital to meet the queen, and the royal family will open some palaces to entertain guests.
And the most common people talk about is who will be the lucky person who can be received by the Queen every year. On this day at the end of the year, the Queen will receive ten civilians selected by lottery and listen to their opinions or suggestions.
This is the tradition of the royal family. Although there are more and more show elements nowadays, it has become the highlight of the year because it is enough to entertain the public. Aspiring participants hoped to take the opportunity to shine, and join the fun simply hoping to see the Queen up close.
At this time in previous years, the whole country was already full of festive atmosphere, but this year is different. Since the declaration of independence of Hezhou, the atmosphere of the empire has been sluggish. Although the celebration was held as usual, the royal family cancelled this year's aristocratic gathering, showing a somewhat cautious attitude.
Just when the public speculated whether the meeting with civilians would also be canceled, the royal family announced the list of people to meet. In order to ensure the safety of the Queen, the identity and background of all civilians will be investigated in detail before the interview, and the procedure is particularly strict this year.
Ten civilians were finally able to enter the palace after a thorough security check, and four sentries from a regiment of guards escorted the group to the Queen's reception room. This is the place where the Queen receives foreign guests, dignitaries and interviews. This interview was also broadcast live by satellite.
During this tense period, the palace was more heavily guarded, and ten people were taken to the lounge to wait for the Queen's summons.
Huatu came back from the headquarters in Hezhou in the morning, and met with the Prime Minister after dealing with the backlog of official business. She had only half an hour to rest before the start of the live broadcast.
The Queen was lying on the massage chair wearing a steam eye mask and closed her eyes, while the faceless man stood silently behind her.
"Azheng, pour me a glass of water." Huatuo's voice was a little tired as she crossed her hands on her lower abdomen.
The Faceless Man obeyed the king's order, and while helping her pour water, he said, "You shouldn't call me that."
"Isn't it okay when it's just the two of us?"
The flower cluster lifted her blindfold and looked at her, and the faceless man just handed the cup into her hand. The flower cluster did not take it immediately, but stared at her. The two were deadlocked for a while, and the Faceless was finally defeated.
"Forget it, you'll be happy."
Only then did the flower cluster take the cup, showing a smile of a winner.
The Faceless waited quietly for her to finish drinking, then handed her a plate of caramel biscuits.
"How much to eat, I don't know how long it will take to meet." Although most of the time each interviewer will be controlled within ten minutes or even less, but if you encounter that kind of preparedness to come and prepare a long speech, it is true Some people with insight and talent will not interrupt their speech in principle.
One interviewee once wrote a speech of 100,000 words and spent 2 hours expounding his views. Hearing that, the king fell asleep. Even better, ten years later he became the Prime Minister of the Empire, and he always used the experience as an anecdote, bringing the tradition to more attention.
It is rare for Huatuo to eat sweets, so he pushed the biscuits away and shook his head: "No, is there anything sour?"
Probably because of too much pressure, she has lost her appetite recently, and she has lost a lot of weight.
"Then eat some plums," the faceless man took a stack of candied fruit from the coffee table and handed it to her, "you should stay in the palace to rest at night. The situation in Hebei New Area is stable, so there is no need to rush back overnight."
Although the transportation is convenient now, the journey is still tiring. Moreover, the atmosphere at the front-line command post was tense, and the situation in the newly recovered Hebei New Area was complicated.
Huatuo shook his head, "No, the situation in the new district is still unclear. There are many emergency situations that need to be decided. I can improve efficiency there."
"Not everything needs to be decided by the king."
Huatu raised her eyebrows, "Of course I don't need it in normal times, but now the situation is special... If we don't solve the matter quickly, when can we find Mumu?"
For Hua Tui, Hua Ce's behavior was just a dying struggle. If she didn't happen to encounter Hua Mu's disappearance, she wouldn't mind even if she slowly grinded her.
The Queen's heart is not on national affairs but on the love of her children, which seems to make the leader a little helpless.
"It seems that your father's decision is still correct. To a certain extent, you are really unfit to be a queen, let alone Hua Jian."
Flower Cluster used to get angry at the faceless view, but now she has learned to laugh at it.
"Whether it's suitable or not, I'm already a queen. For the people, a humane monarch is not a bad thing. Besides, isn't there still you? It's enough for you to think about rational things. As for Ajian... He's not interested. Therefore, it has already aggrieved him to worry about his official duties. If it wasn't for Mu Mu, he would probably go directly to guard the tomb after Simin's death."
The infatuation of Duke Huajian is very famous in the empire, so even if it is rumored that he lives an extravagant life and acts absurdly, there are still many female fans who support him.
"You two are very close to each other, one is taking care of your sister... the other is doing your best for your brother."
Huatu looked at her with an ambiguous smile, "Are you jealous? Who made infatuation a 'tradition' of the royal family. After the abolition of the multiple concubinage system, the relationship between children will naturally be harmonious. You can see that even Hua Ce is as ambitious. People would rather break the rules and marry Alyssa. Even if Derek didn't wake up, he never thought of continuing."
"... In addition to infatuation, isn't widowhood also a tradition?"
As if it was a curse, the relationship between husband and wife among the royal family members is more harmonious and loving, and how early the other half will die. In today's advanced technology, the average age of ordinary people reaches 100 years old. In the case of abnormal deaths of sentinels and guides, they can even live to 200 years old. It is very rare to die before the age of 40.
But looking at the history of the royal family, more than 60% of the members' spouses died before the age of 30, and only less than 2% lived to the end of their lives. Nowadays, the closest relationship with the direct line, the wife of Grand Duke Huajian died when she was only 22 years old, and the spouse of Hua Ce also suffered an accident when she was less than 30 years old. Wei's wife also passed away early without leaving a son and a half daughter. Not to mention the former king Hua Yuandu, Hua Ce's father Hua Yuanqing and others.
The names of these elders in the flower cluster were taken from Ziwei, the capital of the Qing Dynasty, and the third child directly used two words because his mother died of dystocia.
Although it is not said on the surface, some scholars have already raised the tradition of royal widowhood in anonymous forums. There are also many people who believe that a monarch who announces that he will not marry like Huatu is to protect his lover.
Huatu didn't expect the other party to believe this, and showed a playful smile.
"Do you believe this? Simin's health has been bad since she was a child, and Ajian has long been mentally prepared to marry her. Now there are only a few bloodlines that are close to the royal family. How can it be a scientific conclusion with such a small number of statistical samples? If we calculate forward, we also have to consider the average age at that time, right?" The Queen believes in science and scoffs at the so-called 'tradition', "Besides, it is impossible to want peace in the center of power. To some extent, it is probably It's also a curse. What's the matter? You don't want to go to Hezhou in person, is it because of this?"
Huadu never worries about Huazheng, because in her heart, Huazheng's power has surpassed the level of mortals. She couldn't imagine anything that could hurt her, and she believed that the other party also had such confidence. She said this sentence entirely to pass the time and have a fight with Huazheng. She was prepared to laugh at the other party and come back by saying "I'm not your lover". Unexpectedly, the Faceless Man said something unbelievable to her after a moment of silence. .
"Even if it's just adoption... I was a royal after all."
Since Huatuo ascended the throne, Huazheng has never left her side, guarding her like a shadow. But she always thought that the other party just regarded this as a mission.
Because she can't forget it... At that time, she had to often tell herself that "this person has no heart", so as not to misunderstand some of her actions and words.
Huazheng is very rational, Huazheng is evil, Huazheng does not understand love, Huazheng is just a universal robot prepared by her father for her, she just has to obey her.
But this is definitely not something a heartless person can say, right
"come here."
Huatuo's mood was up and down, and she sat up slightly and waved to the faceless man.
Huazheng did not hesitate, and squatted at her feet obediently.
It was rare for the queen to hug her bodyguard generously and smiled, "What do you mean by that?"
"Explain why I can't leave your side."
"Then you admit..." The Queen bit her lip, a little shy, "I'm your lover?"
The sentinel said in a puzzled tone: "Why do you understand this? Isn't what we are talking about about your safety?"
Huatuo was going to be pissed off, she twisted the faceless man's thin back, and said fiercely: "What we are talking about is obviously the tradition of widowhood of the royal family. Are you worried that I am not because of... This?"
"Is that so? In such an emergency situation, Hua Ce will of course try to target you. I'm worried why do you need other reasons?"
The Queen found herself being played again and nearly fainted.
"Huazheng, go to hell!"
The entire empire is watching the live broadcast of today's meeting between the Queen and the commoners. The Queen personally informed the news of the recovery of the Hebei New District, bringing a good ending to this slightly turbulent year.
No one will doubt the victory of this war. As long as the Queen firmly controls the power of the tower, Hua Ce will not be able to turn over any huge waves. What everyone cares about is how to reduce losses and casualties, and now the royal family has handed in an answer sheet that is quite satisfactory to most people.
The meeting was still full of conditions as in previous years. There were uncles who fainted because of excitement, and young people who had to be interrupted in the end. Of course, there were also some warm scenes.
The last lucky person was a five-year-old girl who happened to be from the Hebei New District, which was liberated this time. Everyone was speculating that this was the highlight deliberately arranged by the royal family. The little girl was very delicate and cute, and her childish words also caused everyone to laugh frequently. The Queen even got up and walked up to the audience and planned to hug her.
But just when the audience was about to witness this historic hug, a black figure suddenly flew through the camera, followed by a strong firelight and a huge explosion—the live broadcast was interrupted.
The author has something to say: You can't let the protagonists go back and have nothing to do, right