80 Banque

A week later was The Chrysanthemum Banquet which was held in one of the large Imperial Gardens.

The garden had manmade fountains and small hills throughout and the Chrysanthemums were blooming at every turn.

The Chrysanthemum Banquet was a flower viewing tradition passed down from the for Father's and everyone in the dynasty followed it almost religiously.

On this day, the imperial family would view the flower with various first and second-tier families in the imperial capital and many distant imperial clan members were asked to observe the banquets in their own fiefs as well.

During the banquet, various young unmarried girls would showcase their talents because the banquet was treated as a preliminary test by the Imperial family to choose their daughters-in-law.

The younger boys and men would also showcase their talents in the hopes that they would catch the eye of one of the civil or military officials which would help them in their official carriers.

At this time, most of the officials had already arrived along with their legal first wives and di children.

The unmarried girls were dressed to the nines - jewellery, make-up, bright clothes and their long, lush hairs settle into various hair-dos and the younger men had also taken some pains to dress carefully today and not to shame their families.

The Imperial clan members had also arrived and everyone was just waiting for the Empress Dowager and the Emperor to arrive.

Since the late emperor's death, this was the first festival being celebrated by the imperial family and as such even the official's had not celebrated anything in the past year or so.

Hence, there was much anticipation regarding the banquet and the subsequent festivities.

When the eunuch announced that both the exalted existences had arrived, the crowd knelt to pay homage.

His Majesty smiled at everyone present and said, "Rise. Today is the Chrysanthemum viewing banquet, Zhen hopes everyone enjoys the festivities. No need to be so restrained."

Everyone gave their thanks and sat down very quickly while The Empress Dowager and the Emperor sat on the seats placed on a raised platform.

Very quickly, everybody started talking about the blooming flowers around them and giving compliments to each other and the imperial family.

Meanwhile, Su Li watched this farce while smiling to herself.

She realised that the modern-day high-class parties and the celebration going on in front of her were no different in essence.

Everyone was wearing their business smiles on their faces while sharpening their knives to plunge into others behind their backs.

She didn't have the heart to wet her feet in these murky waters, so she kept quiet and whenever someone proposed a toast to her, she simply drank from her wine cup - in which her drinking choice had been already changed from wine to water by The Head Commander of the Shadow Guards.

Once the viewing ceremony was over, the entertainment side of the evening began - with dancers and singers abound.

The Head Eunuch gestured at one of the palace eunuchs and immediately music filtered across the gardens.

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A few female dancers with light and graceful dance steps started dancing. The alluring figures and charming features not only attracted the men, but even the females also present admired them.

But, even though these dancers were beautiful, they only had low statuses.

Though the women were jealous of these dancers for inciting their husbands or beloved's with such blatant means, they tried to soothe themselves with the fact that these lowly wretches could never become the legitimate wives or compare to them in status or money.

The men had a different view of point.

The dynasty hadn't been allowed any singing or dancing banquets since last year when the late emperor had passed away and all of them had felt stifled without being given a chance to appreciate beauties to their heart's content.

Now, that they had a chance to do so, they looked at the dancers as if a hungry would eyeing its next prey.

Meanwhile, the emperor seemed to ignore the beauties and his expression was cold.

He seemed to be unaware that all the unmarried girls and the dancers were watching him with barely-concealed coveting eyes.

However, the more he ignored the dancers, the more it captivated the hearts of all the di born daughter's hearts.

The soft glow of the evening sun glowed on his body and the monarch looked resplendent in his dragon robes.

In comparison to other young men, he seemed to be the most outstanding - not only because of his noble stairs but also because of his bearing.

This further infatuated the younger girls to the monarch and made the older women want such a son-in-law for themselves.

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Just as the festivities were underway, everyone saw a male entering the banquet.

He was wearing an off-white coloured gown which had embleshiments in silver and gold at the collar.

His smiling face and carefree express gave off a charming vibe to him.

It was His Majesty's new favourite - Zhou Sheng.

As they say, if someone was happy, others would be upset.

Seeing him coming late to the banquet even when the monarch had been present for some time let the others feel as if he didn't put the dynasty's rules in his eyes and didn't pat heed to decorum.

However, before anybody could question him about it, His Majesty laughed and said, "Zhen had wondered where you have been lost to come late. You have always been the one to enjoy such things. anyway, now that you are here, enjoy yourself."

Since the person with the highest authority had already spoken and glossed over the fact that Zhou Sheng had been late, none of the ministers could do anything.

They silently rebuked the aforementioned person in their hearts.

But more than the various imperial clan members and officials, two other people felt even more distressed at seeing this.

One was the Unit Commander of The Devil Snare Army - Ning Fu and the other person was the lady who had accompanied Hus Majesty atop The Kumbh Mountains for the rain ritual, Left Prime Minister's daughter Cheng Ru.