The maidservant is too charming. I want to help her become the queen.

A few days passed in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, it was the eve of the Wanshou Festival.

Everyone in Xianfu Palace was busy.

Concubine Shu was punished to be under house arrest for many days because of forcing Lu Qingqing to plant trees. Tomorrow is the Emperor's Birthday, and it is finally time to lift the house arrest.

During this period of time, Concubine Shu has been holding a grudge in her heart. Why could the emperor punish her for a little palace maid?

What’s even more infuriating is that the day after he punished himself, he conferred the title of noble upon that woman!

What a shame!

When Concubine Shu thought of this, a vicious look appeared on her beautiful face.

This birthday celebration is a good opportunity. She must take back the dignity she lost to Lu Qingqing a thousand times over!

She ordered the palace servants to prepare in advance the palace dress to be worn for tomorrow's Longevity Festival, as well as a set of matching hairpins and rings.

This was a palace dress made of brocade and kesi that she had specially asked her father to get from Suzhou.

The palace dress that Concubine Shu ordered for herself was colorful yet elegant, interweaving and shining like a rainbow. Even the collar, cuffs and hem were inlaid with exquisite lace and jewels, especially the intricate gold embroidery, the golden silk thread sparkling, making it even more elegant and luxurious.

This time, Concubine Shu was determined to be the most dazzling woman at the birthday banquet to avenge her previous shame!

During this Wanshou Festival, the concubines in the harem all wore specific palace attire.

Although the procedures for the Wanshou Festival were arranged by Concubine Xian, thanks to the relationship between the Zhao family and the Imperial Household Department, it was easy to arrange for the Imperial Household Department to make special palace jewelry for Concubine Shu.

However, this time, Concubine Shu not only prepared a customized palace dress for herself, but also specially prepared a big gift for Lu Qingqing.

Who made Lu Qingqing so blind that she offended the eldest daughter of the Zhao family?

The next morning.

It was still dawn when Lu Qingqing was pulled out of bed by Erxi.

Lu Qingqing rubbed her sleepy eyes, her face full of fatigue.

"Erxi, it's not even daybreak yet, why are you waking me up so early?"

She pouted, turned her head and was about to fall down and fall asleep.

This was indeed the earliest time Lu Qingqing woke up in the palace.

Erxi saw that she was about to fall asleep again, and hurriedly pulled her out of bed.

"My lady, please don't sleep any more. Today is the Emperor's Birthday, a big day in the palace. We can't be late!"

The process of the Wanshou Festival is extremely complicated.

Not only were the inside and outside of the Forbidden City decorated with colorful paintings and cloth, but the emperor would also accept congratulations from princes and officials as well as gifts from concubines in the imperial palace.

After the offering of gifts, a longevity banquet will be held to entertain all the ministers and concubines in the harem, so that everyone in the palace can celebrate and have fun together.

Therefore, the concubines' clothing and makeup must not be taken lightly, and they need to get up early in the morning and wash and groom carefully.

After a lot of effort, Erxi pulled Lu Qingqing to sit in front of the dressing table. Even though she hadn't put on makeup yet, the face in the bronze mirror was still delicate and beautiful.

"Erxi, there are many distinguished guests at the banquet today, so my makeup should not be too eye-catching. Just a light layer of makeup will be enough."

Lu Qingqing was aware of her beauty and did not want to be the center of attention at the banquet, lest it bring her into trouble.

After all, she knew the secret of the golden statue of Concubine Shu in advance, and guessed that there must be big moves at today's banquet. She just wanted to stay quietly in the corner and watch the show, but she must not get involved in the disputes between the Zhao family and the royal family.

"Oh, Erxi, as for clothes, you can wear the most simple and elegant light blue palace dress today."

After hearing this, Erxi did not take the light blue palace dress as Lu Qingqing instructed, but instead took a dark purple palace dress and gave it to Lu Qingqing.

"My lady, this is the palace dress that the Ministry of Internal Affairs just sent. The palace dress for the Wanshou Festival has a special dress system, and the concubines cannot choose it at will. The concubines of high positions can choose the color of the palace dress by themselves, but you..."

Erxi looked down at the dark purple palace dress, then looked up at Lu Qingqing and smiled awkwardly.

Needless to say, Lu Qingqing also understood that her status was only that of a noble, and she was not qualified to decide the color of her own palace dress.

However, she could be considered the emperor's new favorite. According to the Imperial Household Department's usual practice of flattering the powerful and bullying the weak, they should have sought her advice on the colors of the palace dresses. For some reason, no one asked her this time.

Lu Qingqing felt a little strange, but then she changed her mind and thought that maybe the Ministry of Internal Affairs had been under strict supervision by Concubine Xian recently and they had started to strictly follow the rules.

She didn't think any further and changed into the dark purple palace dress.

Just looking at this palace dress, it is extremely ugly.

Dark purple is often used in the clothing of imperial concubines. Young imperial concubines all dislike this color because it looks old-fashioned and makes their faces look gloomy.

Not only the color, the stitching of this palace dress is also very rough, and it is obvious that it was made in a hurry. The waist is also made very large and is not at all in accordance with Lu Qingqing's waist size.

However, time was urgent and the Wanshou Festival ceremony was about to begin. There was no extra time for Lu Qingqing to go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to change into palace clothes, so she could only wear the one in front of her.

After Lu Qingqing put on the dress, fortunately she still had a peerless beauty to balance out the ugliness of the palace dress.

Erxi stood up for Lu Qingqing.

"My lady, it must be the Ministry of Internal Affairs who is bullying us. Why are they deliberately giving us this crudely made palace dress?"

On the contrary, Lu Qingqing disagreed and winked at Erxi playfully.

"It's okay, Erxi. The birthday festival only lasts one day. I plan to be low-key today. This dark color will allow me to blend in with the crowd."

And, most importantly, the reason why she wanted to hide in the crowd was because she still had to hide from Prince Jing today.

……

The festival begins.

The sound of stringed instruments slowly began to play in the imperial palace, and all the ministers of the former dynasty and concubines from the harem gathered together.

Li Xuansheng, wearing a bright yellow gilded dragon robe, sat on the dragon throne in the center of the hall. The dragon pattern was lifelike, the gilded scales were delicately depicted, the dragon head was raised high, and the dragon eyes were bright, revealing unparalleled majesty and domineering.

The queen sat on Li Xuansheng's left, wearing a gold-woven phoenix robe, with gold and silver threads interwoven, and the phoenix pattern was intricate and exquisite. Her hands protected her slightly bulging belly, and her expression had a hint of imperceptible kindness.

What surprised Lu Qingqing was that the empress dowager, who seldom appeared in public on weekdays, also came to the banquet today.

She had imagined the empress dowager to be a silver-haired old woman, but she looked so young, perhaps in her early thirties.

The Queen Mother sat on the right side of Li Xuansheng, wearing a bright red palace dress embroidered with dark phoenix patterns. She had an exquisite bun and a beautiful face, attracting even more attention than the Queen who sat on the left.

The seats of the rest of the people were arranged in order according to their official titles and positions.

Lu Qingqing's position was not high, so she was arranged to sit at the end of the banquet. Sitting next to her were Shu Guiren and Xu Guan's daughter. She nodded and smiled at the two of them, as a greeting.

According to the procedures of previous years, everyone should present birthday gifts to the emperor at this time.

But this year's Wanshou Festival is different from previous years. In order to save treasury funds, the funds for the Wanshou Festival are raised by those attending the banquet. Therefore, before the gift presentation, a segment of reading out the amount of funds raised by everyone was added.

Eunuch He Qing held the list and read out the names one by one.

The amount of money raised by the ministers was determined according to their official positions. No one contributed additional money, so the reading was completed quickly.

Next, the contributions of the concubines were read out.

"Empress, triple the investment."

"My Lady Consort, double the money."

"Empress Zhuang, double the investment."

When He Qingnian said this, no one at the banquet reacted. Even though the ladies had contributed many times more, it was just according to the rules and there was no need to make a fuss.

However, what was read next caused an uproar among the guests.

"Empress Shufei, triple the investment!"