King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 337

Relatively speaking, Chonghua Hall is more spacious, and it can accommodate more people for banquets.

The so-called family banquet is naturally the emperor's family banquet. Those present today will be the emperor's concubines, as well as a group of sons and grandsons.

Before the emperor and empress arrived, the concubines who lived in the harem arrived one after another, and chatting with each other was relaxing and pleasant.

Because of Yang Qingyin's existence, there were no such things as crows, dogs, and thieves in the harem, so these people were usually very harmonious.

And the concubines who gave birth to children were even more looking forward to their children entering the palace as soon as possible so that they could meet and talk.

Princes who were born as concubines were not allowed to enter the palace without being summoned. Their treatment was far worse than that of legitimate sons such as Zhu Jinghong, and they rarely had the opportunity to enter the palace throughout the year.

As time went by, princes and princesses came to the Chonghua Hall one after another, and immediately greeted their mothers when they saw them.

The crown prince and Prince Rui's family also came to the scene one after another, attracting a group of brothers to come to pay their respects in a hurry, and actually left the mother aside.

This behavior is easy to understand, because the candidate for the next emperor must be one of the prince and Prince Rui.

If you want to be Prince Xiaoyao in the future, how can you not fawn over these two.

Different from Prince Rui, Zhu Jinghong is not very comfortable at the moment because he is being entangled by his own sister.

On one side of the palace road, Zhu Yunsheng looked angry and said angrily: "Zhu Jinghong, you clearly promised me that you would bring fireworks into the palace, but you actually lied to me..."

"Woooooooo..."

Seeing Zhu Yunsheng venting his anger, Zhu Jinghong said with embarrassment: "Third sister... please keep your voice down. If mother hears it, it will be terrible!"

Zhu Jinghong admitted that it was because of his negligence that he forgot about it.

But he can't blame him entirely, who made the project arranged by Hou Jing these two days make him so happy to play, how could he remember the little sister's advice.

"How come the number one warrior of the Ming Dynasty actually lied to a little girl like me...you...you are so bad!" Zhu Yunsheng was indignant.

Glancing at the other girls in the room, sure enough, everyone was also disappointed, which made Zhu Jinghong feel that the matter was serious.

Seeing that Zhu Yunsheng was still making a fuss, Zhu Jinghong quickly stepped forward to comfort him: "Third sister, aren't they just fireworks... I'll just get them for you!"

"Deng An..."

"The servant is here!" Deng An hurried forward.

"You find a way, buy some fireworks!"

Hearing this, Deng An looked troubled: "Thirteenth Master, these fireworks... are forbidden items, how dare I bring them into the palace!"

Fireworks contain gunpowder, so they must be strictly controlled in the palace, so of course Deng An's face cannot be brought in.

These words reminded Zhu Jinghong that even he should be a little cautious. After all, it is not good to bring gunpowder into the palace.

"Then...just take Xiyuan, we will go to Xiyuan later!"

Compared with the heavily guarded palace, Xiyuan has less scruples, and the place is also spacious, so it is perfect for setting off fireworks.

"Yes!" Deng An agreed, although it was still difficult.

Turning around, Zhu Jinghong looked at the Zhu family girls and asked, "Third sister... what do you think?"

"Thank you, Brother Thirteen!"

Zhu Yunsheng's expression management is in place, and the smile has recovered at this moment, making Zhu Jinghong shake his head.

"Brother Thirteen, let's go to Chonghua Palace quickly, don't make parents wait!"

"Let's go!"

The two brothers and sisters reconciled as before, and continued to chat and went to Chonghua Hall.

When they arrived at the place, Zhu Jinghong was greeted one after another, which shows how different the status of his son-in-law is.

After greeting a group of concubine brothers, Zhu Jinghong greeted the fourth and sixth, and then sat back in his chair.

At this moment, a stage has been set up in the courtyard in front of the palace, and nearly a hundred musicians are ready under the stage. Apparently there will be a song, dance, and drama performed soon.

It's freezing cold right now, so it's really cold to perform outside, but what the royal family wants is a show, and whether you watch it or not is secondary.

Let's say that Zhu Jinghong was sitting on the porch, and the eunuch sent him a hand and foot stove, so he was not afraid of the wind, snow and cold.

"Wait!"

"Master Thirteen, please order!"

"Get some more hand stoves and give them to the princess to read!"

"Yes!"

Strictly speaking, this is against the rules, but since it is Zhu Jinghong's words, how can the people below dare to refuse.

After a while, the things were delivered to Baochai and the others, allowing them to receive the warmth in winter.

Seeing this situation, Zhu Yunsheng couldn't help feeling unbalanced, so he said: "Brother Thirteen really cares about you, even more than my own sister!"

At this moment, Zhen Qin said: "Princess, the Thirteenth Lord has cared about you a lot, he has done everything you mentioned, and he has taken a lot of punishment for you!"

Thinking about it carefully, Zhu Yunsheng didn't elaborate on this, but looked at Zhen Qin and said, "Sister Qin, you care so much about Brother Thirteen, why don't you go after he will become king next year?" Choose his princess?"

Oops, the princess knew what she was thinking. It was so embarrassing to tell her in public... Zhen Qin started to add to the drama in her heart.

But no one present could see her little thought.

To Zhen Qin's surprise, the other three didn't speak, only Xiangyun looked deeply at Baochai and the other three, and then smiled inadvertently.

"Princess, don't say that... I'm your servant!" Zhen Qin was even more coy.

Zhu Yunsheng thought this "Silly Sister" was quite amusing, so he went on to say: "What's so embarrassing...I, Daming, didn't say that a servant can't choose a concubine!"

"As long as I can get it right by then, you can pass the primary election directly, and then you can directly participate in the third round of re-election!"

Baochai Yang Jingting knew what Zhu Yunsheng said, so the crux of the problem was how to get the Queen to agree to run for the election.

Originally, Yang Jingting didn't worry about this, because she knew that she was going to be a servant, and it was the queen who wanted to train her to be her daughter-in-law.
But now, her aunt pays more and more attention to Baochai, which makes Yang Jingting worried, afraid that she will miss Zhu Jinghong.

Like her, Baochai was extremely worried because her own father was gone, which was her biggest flaw.

Although the imperial concubine does not pay attention to family status, it still chooses a harmonious family. Losing a father at a young age can easily be regarded as a person with less blessings.

So Zhu Yunsheng's words made both Baochai and Yang Jingting extremely sad, and their expressions visible to the naked eye became sad.

"His Majesty is here!"

The shouting outside immediately caused tension inside and outside the hall, everyone greeted them out of the hall, and soon knelt on the ground inside the palace gate.

After a few breaths, the emperor and empress appeared together. They were walking and chatting, ignoring the person who was kneeling now.

"Your Majesty, long live my emperor!"

"Well...get up!" Zhu Xianming responded casually.

The concubines and princes and grandchildren at the scene all hoped that the emperor would take a look at him, but unfortunately all their ideas came to nothing.

After entering the palace gate, the emperor only summoned Zhu Muchun, the prince's eldest son, and inquired about his studies and life.

Soon the emperor took his seat, and everyone else sat back in their seats, and the banquet officially began.

Although it is a family banquet, it is relatively more formal this time, so there are many rules in eating.

What puzzled Zhu Jinghong was that the Supreme Emperor did not come today.

You must know that in the past on New Year's Eve, the Supreme Emperor would attend the Chonghua Palace family banquet, and this year it should be even more appropriate.

Many people present had the same doubts, Zhu Xianming also noticed this, and explained that the Supreme Emperor was unable to attend due to physical discomfort.

Zhu Xinkan is 70 years old. It is not an exaggeration to say that the loess buried his neck, and it is normal to feel unwell.

(End of this chapter)