Xiaocao sat at the table with the empress dowager this time. Because of her different status now, she could not sit with the people from the Wen family. Instead, she sat at the same table with the empress dowager. Besides, this was the Emperor Xuanren's birthday celebration, so the empress dowager would not sit at the same table with him.
Also at the Empress Dowager's table were Princess Fukang, the oldest and most senior princess in the royal family, who was even the Empress Dowager's ancestor, and Princess Duan.
No matter whether it is Xiaocao or Princess Duan, being able to sit at this table shows their extraordinary status. Although Xiaocao does it for herself and Princess Duan does it for Prince Duan, in the end they have the same goal. I wonder how many people will be jealous.
On the left of the Queen Mother is the Old Princess, on the right is Princess Fukang, Xiaocao sits next to Princess Fukang, and opposite her is Princess Duan.
Xiaocao's gaze fell on the huge stage without a roof. This stage was different from the usual ones and had a sense of "later times". She was still a little skeptical at first, but when the "opening dance" came on stage, she was sure that Li Ruoshui was involved. She had a showdown with Li Ruoshui at the beginning of the first lunar month, and the birthday banquet of Emperor Xuanren was prepared when she was still in the epidemic area. Therefore, it was not her fault that the Pingjin Marquisate did not think highly of her. Of course, Li Ruoshui was just giving advice on these matters, not making any trouble. Xiaocao didn't mind at all. In fact, she was still looking forward to it.
The costumes of the opening dance and even the hundreds of women are very different from Qi Chao's. The top is tight-fitting, but the bottom has large pleated edges. Because the distance is a bit far, the finer details are not very clear, and it seems that there is lace.
The woman's gentleness is coupled with a certain dynamism. I guess the music was specially written for her.
Many people were watching attentively. Apparently, new and novel things would attract attention when they first appeared. Xiao Cao nodded secretly. It was indeed good. - If Li Ruoshui did not plagiarize poems, did not flirt with men everywhere, lived a peaceful life, and occasionally came up with some "new ideas", she could still live a good life. I don't understand why there is a hole in her brain
"Who is in charge of these things this year? They're quite novel." The Queen Mother couldn't help but say.
Xiao Cao remained silent, holding a dried fruit in her hand and eating it slowly. Li Ruoshui was originally detained in the Marquis' Mansion by the wife of Marquis Pingjin. Whatever she wanted to do, she could probably only do it through Hua Bochen. Therefore, just like the earlier "Banquet for a Thousand Elders and Thousand Elder Women", it was all done through the Li family. This time, she was not sure whether she could make a comeback.
"If you want to know, just ask later." Princess Fukang said, "Maybe there will be other good ideas. When you have nothing to do, you can have some fun."
The mother-daughter relationship between Princess Fukang and the Empress Dowager has gradually become more harmonious. Of course, it is still far from the close mother-daughter relationship. After all, Princess Fukang is already in her early forties and her emotions have become restrained. Therefore, it is likely that the relationship between them will never be the same as before the rift.
"That's not necessary." The Queen Mother waved her hand. "If you do it well, you will definitely be rewarded afterwards. As for the rest, forget it. This dance is only suitable for now. If it is done at other times, it will be noisy and I will definitely not be able to bear it."
"This novel idea may not necessarily be noisy."
"We'll talk about it then. If your mother is bored, Fukang can come to the palace to accompany me more. I'm old now, and every day I live is a day less." The empress dowager used to be a woman with great skills and was quite strong, but now she was obviously showing weakness.
Princess Fukang was silent for a moment, "Okay."
The smile on the Queen Mother's face became more obvious.
Seeing this, the old princess next to her laughed and said, "How should an old woman like me deal with what the Queen Mother said?"
"I was wrong, please don't blame me, great aunt."
"May you two live a long and healthy life," Princess Duan beside them also spoke up.
"The Queen Mother and the old princess are both in good health. If they pay attention to all aspects, they can be expected to live long lives." Xiaocao has the most say in this regard, and she is not speaking nonsense. These two are indeed in much better health than their peers.
"Xuan girl is a miracle doctor, this is the most believable." The two old people laughed. As long as there was no serious illness, who wouldn't want to live longer? After hearing Xiaocao's words, they were naturally happy.
When Emperor Xuanren heard the noise, he looked back and was naturally happy to see the harmonious scene.
After the "opening dance", Prince Duan took the lead in raising the glass, and everyone followed suit to toast Emperor Xuanren. The cheers of "Long live the Emperor" were deafening. Except for some envoys who looked a little unhappy, most of them were affected and were very excited.
After Emperor Xuanren fell seriously ill, he did not drink alcohol for a long time. Later, he drank a little occasionally. Today, he was in a good mood and drank a glass of wine in one go, which was quite heroic.
Today is special, Xiaocao will definitely not stop him. Of course, as long as he doesn't drink without restraint, there is no need to worry. After all, Xiaocao had prepared a hangover medicine for Eunuch Hong before, and he must have let Emperor Xuanren take it first.
Of course, this hangover remedy was not given only to Emperor Xuanren.
They continued to drink the wine. The meal had not officially started yet, and the table was filled with appetizers.
The performance on the stage was also going on, with "tradition" and "novelty" blending together. From time to time, there was a "birthday drama", which brought a sense of prosperity and peace. Even though I was far from drunk, I felt a little tipsy.
Since it was a big birthday, naturally there would be birthday celebrations. It started with Prince Duan and his brothers paying birthday greetings to Emperor Xuanren. Everyone in the court, except the Empress Dowager, came one after another with uniform birthday greetings and sincere wishes.
After the birthday celebration, birthday gifts had to be presented of course. The difference from the time when the Queen Mother celebrated her death was that on the Qi Dynasty side, only the princes who had reached adulthood and were crowned kings presented birthday gifts on the spot, and after that came the birthday gifts brought by envoys from various countries.
Naturally, there are many tricks involved in birthday gifts. Not to mention those from our own countries, one can basically get a glimpse of their attitude towards Qi Chao from their birthday gifts. Of course, sometimes they will hide it, such as when they want to cover up their true attitude.
Compared to the Queen Mother's longevity and Prince Heng's trouble, the birthday gifts of several princes today were quite standard. None of them were very unique, and none of them looked shabby. Something like uniqueness is not easy to come by, and if it was shabby, it would be embarrassing in front of other people.
Next came the birthday gifts from various countries, which were probably the most important and had to be the last to appear, so Liuka was originally scheduled to be the first. However, the general who was Mu Bei's mortal enemy of Liuka disagreed, and the second prince Xiao Yu, who was the instigator, did not stop him.
Many people think that arguing about such things is childish and boring. However, these six people have been doing this from the beginning, and seem to be constantly refreshing their "age" bottom line.
Qi Chao holds an indifferent attitude, so there must be a country at the beginning. However, the latter statement of "the stronger the better" has left many small countries with reservations. They admit that their country is not that strong, but to admit that they are the weakest is really embarrassing and impossible.
The situation seemed to be reaching a stalemate. At this circumstance, the prince of Bao country, dressed in jewels and precious stones, stood up and said, "In this case, let's start with our Bao country." With the gift list in hand, he asked someone to bring the birthday gifts.
Although Baoguo is far inferior to countries like Qichao, Liuqie and Xichi, except for these countries, Baoguo may not be the strongest among the remaining countries, but its territory is definitely the largest and the richest. If it is the weakest, then the remaining small countries can just dig a hole and bury themselves.
The Black Prince was finally out of trouble, and everyone else was more or less grateful, except for Liu Kari who was looking for trouble.
The birthday gift was brought up, wrapped in red silk. It looked tall and big, and reminded people of the jade Guanyin that King Heng had given him two years ago. Of course, Baoguo had prepared two pieces, and the height difference was nearly that of two people.
When the red silk was lifted, almost everyone felt dazzled.
People subconsciously label Baoguo as a nouveau riche. Of course, a country that is not short of money and has other resources not so abundant can't help but curse it in their hearts.
The birthday gifts of Baoguo are also quite in line with their national conditions, and are authentic "local specialties" - gold, silver and gemstone trees.
The trunk and branches are made of pure gold, and are adorned with various warm-colored gemstones. The sun is also nice today. It is still very cold in early spring, and the sun does not burn people, but it is more than enough to make the gem tree sparkle continuously.
As for the silver treasure tree next to it, its trunk and branches are not made of pure silver, but are inlaid with relatively cool-colored gems one by one. The big ones are as big as a fist, and the small ones are as big as the tip of a thumb. The branches are not decorated with gems, but are densely packed with jade leaves. Both the water head and the color are top-grade.
The overall shape of the gold treasure tree is somewhat similar to a pomegranate tree, while the shape of the silver treasure tree is somewhat similar to an ancient pine tree that welcomes guests. From the perspective of workmanship, both trees have been carefully crafted. - It can be said that because of the specialties of Baoguo, they have been developed in this direction. Baoguo can be said to have the best gold, silver and gemstone craftsmen, so these two trees are extraordinary in terms of value and art.
"Baoguo is very thoughtful, and I like it very much." Although in fact, Emperor Xuanren really wanted to tear them all down, it was really a bit dazzling, but after thinking about it, he decided to give it up.
—These two trees are also very attractive to most women, and their ideas are somewhat similar to Emperor Xuanren’s. The only difference is that they don’t think they are dazzling, but just want to make them into various head ornaments that people can’t put down.
I originally thought that Baoguo’s birthday gifts were just these two things, but it wasn’t. In addition to these, there were also some gold, silver and gems. It was really quite simple, crude and "tacky".
Emperor Xuanren couldn't help but put his fist to his lips.
Compared with the shock brought by the birthday gifts from the treasure country, the birthday gifts from the small countries behind seem a bit ordinary. However, they are basically various specialties plus some rare treasures.
Then, among these birthday gifts, Xiaocao saw two elephants.
He must have taken medicine before and was in a deep sleep, but when it took a lot of effort to send him in, he woke up and screamed with his nose raised, and his ears seemed to be deafened.
When the elephants slowly stood up, they looked like two small hills, and were estimated to be as tall as two adult men combined. The tusks of the male elephant were four or five feet long, and looked like extremely lethal weapons.
You have to know that there were only a handful of people present who had seen these things, so you can imagine the shock they brought.
The country that presented the elephants was very pleased to see the people's fixed gazes on their faces. They felt that it was worth the effort and hardship they had put into bringing the two sacred elephants. The envoys used the not-so-fluent official language of Qichao to introduce and praise the two elephants, expressing their highest respect for His Majesty the Emperor of Qichao.
However, as time went on, something seemed to be wrong with the two elephants. They rammed the iron cage with such force that even though the cage was made of bars as thick as arms, it still made a clanging sound, clearly telling everyone that the cage could not hold them at all. If such a giant went crazy... the consequences would be unimaginable.
Many people were terrified and looked like they were ready to run away at any time.
The faces of the envoys who presented the elephant also became uneasy, as if they didn't know why there was such a change.
Xiaocao couldn't help but stand up, but then he sat down again and his expression returned to being calm.