The Marquise: I Earn My Own Worship

"Mother, why hasn't Kang'er come back yet?" Mrs. Lu looked up at the hall with a worried look on her face.

"Maybe the imperial concubine left Kang Ge'er over there." Before she finished speaking, a palace maid came up to her and bowed.

"Madam, the Imperial Concubine has sent a servant to tell you that Young Master Duan will be dining with the Sixth Prince. He will be escorted back after the banquet."

Song Shengfu was flattered and quickly said, "How can this be allowed? This is against the rules."

The maid Zhilan smiled and stepped forward, explaining in a low voice, "The Sixth Prince and Young Master Duan haven't seen each other for a long time and miss him terribly. He begged the Imperial Concubine to keep Young Master Duan. The Imperial Concubine asked His Majesty for permission, and the Emperor said it was alright."

What this sentence means is that the emperor has agreed, so why are you still being so pretentious?

Song Shengfu naturally understood what she meant. While Zhilan was close to her, she quickly pulled out two large ingots of silver from her sleeve and stuffed them into Zhilan's hands. Zhilan quickly took them.

The actions of these two people did not attract the attention of others. Song Shengfu pretended that nothing had happened and smiled. She asked Zhilan to take good care of Kang Ge'er and to send someone to inform her if anything happened.

Zhilan took the silver and saw that the request was not a big deal, so she lowered her head and agreed, then turned and left.

Mrs. Lu did not say anything, and only asked her mother-in-law quietly after Zhilan left.

Song Shengfu briefly told her what had just happened. Lu felt both proud and worried, with the two emotions constantly turning in her heart.

Song Shengfu didn't care what her daughter-in-law thought. She just focused on watching the opera on the stage. These might not be attractive to other people, but Song Shengfu was already an old woman in her seventies. When she got older, she loved watching these things.

Wang, who was not far away, looked over and sent someone to inquire. She learned that Duan Chengkang had been left with the Sixth Prince. Seeing Lu's proud expression, she scoffed at the "villain's success."

Her eldest son and eldest grandson were both with the eldest prince. Who else had such a blessing as her? Wang was extremely proud at this time, as if no one around her was worthy of sitting at the same table with her.

When people saw her like this, they were mostly unwilling to associate with her, but there were also some wives of small officials who were good at currying favor with her and would come forward to flatter her.

As the banquet was about to end, a palace maid hurriedly walked towards Song Shengfu and whispered a few words in her ear. Song Shengfu's face became a little cracked, and she hurriedly left the table with Lu.

Seeing this, the other people at the table wondered if something had happened.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Lu supported Song Shengfu and quickly walked towards Zhaohua Palace, where the princes and lords attended the banquet.

Zhaohua Hall

This was the first time that the Sixth Prince Chu Qinling attended a banquet. In the past, his mother had not allowed him to attend these. This year, he specifically asked his mother to let him attend the New Year's Eve banquet, mainly so that he could play with Brother Kang.

As expected, he pestered his mother to keep Kang Ge here. Kang Ge was also very happy and continued to tell his younger brother what he had not finished before.

Gradually, a group of children gathered around. Everyone had heard that there was a sixth prince in the palace, but no one had ever seen him, so they were very curious.

Kang Ge'er and the Sixth Prince were sitting at the table. Kang Ge'er was telling Chu Qinling the last difficulty of Tang Monk's journey to the West in a vivid way. When he was talking about the old crocodile throwing Tang Monk and his companions into the river, he also made a hunched back and tail-flapping gesture, which made Chu Qinling laugh non-stop.

The other children had never heard of this story before, so they all gathered around Duan Chengkang and Chu Qinling, and the atmosphere was extremely lively for a while.

But there was also someone who couldn't stand this scene. This person was Zhao Chuanqi, the eldest grandson of the Right Prime Minister Wang.

Looking at the children gathered together, Zhao Chuanqi felt very unhappy. Before these two people existed, everyone centered around him.

His family is the eldest prince's maternal family, and he will become the emperor's uncle in the future. These people should revolve around him.

Now that there are these two people, all the followers around him have run away. He is very angry and is thinking of teaching them a lesson.

Previously, the Emperor of Chu and the Imperial Concubine were in Zhaohua Palace. Later, they were going to the Front Hall to meet with the ministers. The Emperor of Chu took the Imperial Concubine and several older princes to the Front Hall.

Only the fifth prince, the sixth prince and some descendants of family servants were left in the back hall. Most of them were eight or nine years old. This was also a special arrangement made by the imperial concubine, with the purpose of allowing Chu Qinling to make more playmates of the same age.

Suddenly, a palace maid serving tea felt a knock against her waist, and the scalding tea in her hands suddenly shook. She hurried to steady herself, but was too late. The lid of the jade pot fell off, and she fell forward uncontrollably.

In front of him was Chu Qinling, who was talking to Kang Ge'er with his head tilted to the side. Kang Ge'er happened to see this scene. At the critical moment, he remembered his grandmother's advice that the Sixth Prince should always be the most important thing.

Besides, they are best brothers now. Kang Ge'er immediately stood up and lay on Chu Qinling, pressing him behind him.

Chu Qinling was saying something when he suddenly saw Kang Ge'er's eyes widen. Before he could react, he was knocked to the ground.

Fortunately, the palace maids were well-trained. The maid serving tea forced herself to fall to the side at the cost of spraining her ankle, but some tea in her hand inevitably spilled.

The maids around the Sixth Prince were not pushovers either. Yashu, the Sixth Prince's personal maid, immediately stood in front of him, so only a little tea spilled on Kangger's legs.

But it is the middle of winter now, and the tea is boiling hot. If Duan Chengkang hadn't been wearing thick clothes, he would have been left with burn marks. Now he just feels a little hot.

For a moment, before everyone could react, things turned out like this.

The fallen palace maid quickly lay on the ground and apologized, while saying eloquently that it was someone who deliberately pushed her.

If she doesn't explain this clearly, her life will be at stake today. This is the most favored Sixth Prince. The palace maid was trembling with fear.

Yashu's body was also stained with a lot of tea, but she didn't bother to clean it up and turned around to check on the Sixth Prince.

I saw Young Master Duan and the Sixth Prince lying on the ermine carpet beside them. I quickly helped them up together with the other people around. Fortunately, everyone was kneeling, so no one was injured.

Seeing that the Sixth Prince was safe and sound, he harshly reprimanded the young palace maid, who kowtowed and confessed her guilt.

"I saw it. That guy did it. He bumped into this sister on purpose."

Kang Ge'er was helped to take off his outer clothes. Seeing this, he quickly pointed out the direction. Everyone saw that the finger was pointing at Zhao Chuanqi, who was a little frightened.

Zhao Chuanqi didn't expect things to develop like this. He just wanted to teach Duan Chengkang a lesson.

But he didn't know that the palace maid was bringing him boiling hot tea. He thought it was just some snacks, and seeing Duan Chengkang smiling happily, he bumped into her.

He didn't even realize that Duan Chengkang was sitting with the Sixth Prince. Seeing that he had gotten into trouble, he was naturally too scared to move.

Now that everyone turned to look at him, he panicked and quickly denied it.

Seeing that he still refused to admit it, Kang Ge'er thought that if the whole pot of tea had been poured out, your brother would have been weak to begin with, and if something had happened to him...

Kang Ge'er became even angrier when he thought about it. Without waiting for the people around him to change his clothes into clean ones, he rushed forward like a calf.