Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

94. The Turk’s Choice

Translator: Antonia

The gate of Yaoran Palace was pushed open, and all the eyes of the male guests were directed over, which certainly includes His Highness who was waiting for his princess, as well as the Turkic Envoys who seemed watching a drama.

Because the banquet was usual, the Turkic Envoys were arranged to sit in the front, right opposed to Yuxing Tianrui, whose seat was arranged by Du Chuxuan. He was very familiar with the layout of the room and certainly knew who sat where without taking a look.

Only the Empress and the Crown Princess were entitled to entering through the main gate, while the others walked in through the side gate to them men and then quietly took their seats to wait for the Emperor to announce the commencement.

Du Chuxuan with ease sat next to Yuxing Tianrui who instantly poured him a cup of water. He had witnessed how hard Du Chuxuan had worked in the past two days and felt sorry for him.

Hadn’t it been that Du Chuxuan might be framed up if he didn’t know well about the banquet, he wouldn’t have asked Du Chuxuan to give mother a hand, because he had a lot of others who could have been of help to mother.

The Emperor didn’t know what Yuxing Tianrui had in mind and seeing everyone sat down, the Emperor said with a smile, “This is quite a rare and wonderful occasion, and the ladies need not to stand on ceremony. If you do have prepared any performance, feel free to step on the stage.”

This was the announcement to start the banquet. At once, there were maidservants coming out with strays, while the imperial musicians were also well-prepared and on the moment the Emperor finished, beautiful music was played. The Empress was the master of the harem after all, so after the last incident, there were few who dared to perform. Therefore, the professional troupes that had been pre-arranged and waiting outside, came in to perform one after another.

The eldest prince was sitting on the right side of Du Chuxuan. His eyes seemed to rest on the performers as though he didn’t care what would happen today. Du Chuxuan had to admit that he was always curious about this eldest prince.

Everyone in Shenglan knew that the eldest, since his birth, had fated to have nothing to do with the throne, something wasn’t of his own free will but that whether he wanted it or not, he couldn’t reach out for it. However, even under such circumstances, the eldest prince managed to make great accomplishments in many aspects such as learning and martial cultivation, which was a rare case.

Noting on whom Du Chuxuan’s eyes landed, Yuxing Tianrui was displeased and picked with chopsticks a pig’s trotter onto Du Chuxuan’s plate. His movement wasn’t subtle; nor was the sound he made. Instantly, Du Chuxuan’s attention was drawn back, and when he looked down at the trotter in his plate, he didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.

Why should such a thing appear at the banquet? It was all because Yuxing Tianrui’s jobbery claim that this thing was good for women, so the Empress ordered to prepare such a thing with the appreciation of his kindness. However, Du Chuxuan never cared about his face in front of food. With an ingratiating smile, he was ready to take a bite.

Just as he just grabbed the trotter, Mr. Ru, the Turkic Envoy, sitting opposite, suddenly got up, “Your Majesty, we’ve been here and bothered you for many days, yet our king is waiting for us to go back as soon as possible so as to restore our friendship, so we’re wondering which princess will Your Majesty marry off?”

Du Chuxuan sucked his teeth. In the past, though Ashina Yi wasn’t a man of learning, he did have more brain then this, but how could the Envoys he sent over so uncourteous? With that in mind, he took a bite. No wonder it was made by the cooks from the imperial chicken, even a pig trotter tasted so much more delicious than those made by others.

The Emperor had been quite baffled by it recently. In the past few days, Old Master Zhao mentioned to him several times of the contribution the Zhao family had done for this country. If there was an option, he didn’t want to hurt the Zhao family. Yet, the previous troubles created by it indeed went too far, so the Emperor didn’t take it without scruples.

There was a shadow of smile on his face, “Mr. Ru, don’t worry. The banquet is specially held for you. Of course I won’t forget the most important thing. On the other hand, since the marriage represents our friendship, I’m wondering since you’ve been Shenglan for a long time, do you have a name in mind?”

Du Chuxuan must give the Emperor a thumbs-up inwardly. For the two banquets, the two princesses hadn’t attended in the pretext of illness. Hence, the Turkic Envoys had never seen the real princesses at all. However, this Mr. Ru wasn’t stupid and should have known that the Emperor didn’t want to marry off to them either of the princesses.

Hence, the question was merely another way to ask which lady present they wanted to select.

Mr. Ru’s eyes swept around, which was a very rude behavior, but with the Emperor’s consent, no one dared to say anything.

“I have to be honest with you, Your Majesty. Since we’ve been staying in the palace, we don’t know much about the ladies.” Mr. Ru turned around and said to the Emperor, “But after last banquet, we have a deep impression of two ladies.”

The words made the Emperor’s eyes shine. The political marriage was like a poisonous ball, which, sent to whoever, would offend the catcher. Therefore, the best way for the Emperor was to let the Turks make their own decision. As long as it wasn’t too troublesome, he would be ready to agree.

Du Chuxuan sensed Yuxing Tianrui’s body slightly stiffened and knew that a nasty battle was in the air. He didn’t mind keeping nibbling on the trotter, but had contempt for the Turks’ act.

Obviously, both sides had shed all pretences of cordiality and started a fight, which had only ended because Shenglan failed to break the formation, while the Turks on a sudden unreasonably withdrew. But anyway, the Turks showed up as the loser, and the normal way to seek reconciliation was to send over a prince as a hostage.

However, they came to seek a marriage instead. Wasn’t that because they still harbored the ambition and just wanted to make a random move to gain more time to recover?

But whether this was the case or not, Yuxing Tianrui wouldn’t agree to let his sisters be dragged into the marriage. It seemed dangerous just to put a small tender girl from the central plains next to a burly Turk.

Du Chuxuan’s train of thoughts had travelled far away, when Mr. Ru directly named two people, “One of course is Miss. Zhao, because her dance really impressed us, and the other is—Her Highness.”