After Zhu Ying left, the emperor once again issued a gag order to everyone in the Qianqing Palace.
"You are not allowed to reveal a single word of what Lord Zhang and Lord Wang discussed today. Otherwise, you will be sentenced to lifelong hard labor as before, and you will not be pardoned even if you are pardoned!"
During the previous selection of a son-in-law, despite his repeated prohibitions, someone still couldn't help but leak the news. With the order of collective punishment in place, the palace maid was reported almost immediately after she leaked the news. The emperor, who had always been lenient to his people, was furious and directly punished the palace maid with fifty lashes of the whip and made her a laundry slave. The eunuch who seduced her to leak the news was directly beaten to death.
That was not all. The Empress Dowager also issued an order that if the palace maid was beaten to death or disabled, the executioner would be punished as well; if she died in the laundry department within three years, the head of the laundry department would be punished as well. The eunuch who had leaked the information was in the palace of Concubine Xu, who was stripped of her title and imprisoned in the palace. The rest were all assigned to clean the palace gardens. For a time, the whole palace was silent and no one dared to spy on the Qianqing Palace anymore.
As for the palace maids and eunuchs in the Qianqing Palace, no one dared to have any other ideas. The palace maids waited obediently for their age to be released from the palace; a few eunuchs waited obediently for the opportunity to be promoted. No one wanted to run into the tip of the spear and the knife of the empress dowager and the emperor's purge of the palace.
Therefore, the emperor's shocking move to personally matchmake the second son of the Duke of Zhao, Zhu Erlang, and the niece of Wang Jie, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, was unknown to anyone. As for the fact that Wang Jie reported the new spinning machine and Zhang Shou presented the blueprint, no one dared to spread it.
In this peaceful and tranquil scene, the Winter Solstice Court finally arrived. This was Zhang Shou's first time attending such a grand event. He was dragged to rehearse with other doctors from the Imperial College three days in advance. The scene reminded him of the rehearsals for various evening parties in later generations. Moreover, just as some evening parties had to be attended in order to ensure exposure, he also couldn't be absent from the Winter Solstice Court.
The lady of the house patiently passed on to him various experiences of the day - from how to deal with urgency, to how to fill the stomach in advance to prevent fainting from hunger, to what kind of clothes to wear under the official uniform, and what kind of preparations to make under the official boots to prevent losing manners due to frozen hands and feet in the sudden cold weather in the capital... As a result, Zhu Ying, who was listening beside him, couldn't help complaining.
"Every time the Emperor talks about the three major events, New Year's Day, Longevity Day and Winter Solstice, he sighs and complains. Can't he be simpler and not so complicated and grand? This would actually be better for everyone!"
Zhang Shou laughed immediately. This was exactly the same as many people in later generations complaining about the formalism of various meetings and the long and boring topics. Seeing the lady staring at Zhu Ying angrily, he coughed and said, "Yingying, after all, there are envoys from all over the world, many of whom are even foreigners with different hair and skin colors. The court wants to show its majesty, so everyone has to reluctantly play their roles well."
He was grateful to Taizu for saving many court meetings for low-ranking officials; he was even more grateful for the earlier court meetings in summer and later ones in winter; and of course, he was even more grateful to the emperor. If it weren't for the excuse of rectifying the academic atmosphere of the Imperial College, he, as a doctor of the Imperial College, would have attended court more often. Of course, while he was happy, many of his colleagues were heartbroken, like Yang Yiming of the Ratexing Hall.