Chapter 347: Not everyone is eligible

Liu Zhixia’s movements obviously paused, and he sighed slightly, “Something did happen, and it was pretty much the same thing.”

“They want you to marry their relative?”

Liu Zhixia only turned around and gave the woman a look. The darker it was, the more Fu Yuzheng couldn’t make it out clearly, but she felt that he was quite helpless with that glance.

Blame her for being too smart.

Fu Yuzheng once again hid her lips and snickered.

“Are you gloating?” The man stood up and patted his hands stained with dirt.

“Not at all,” Fu Yuzheng immediately denied.

The man laughed and walked over to stand in front of her, his pitch-black eyes fixed on her.

Fu Yuzheng became flustered inexplicably. Her heartbeat went haywire and throbbed chaotically.

The distance between them was too close, so close that she could distinctly feel the warmth from his body and his strong masculine scent.

She wanted to back up.

“Don’t move,” the man’s soft command froze Fu Yuzheng from head to toe, not daring to move.

Then she saw him raise his hand and reach out towards her.

“… ” Fu Yuzheng tensed. The corners of her lips were pursed tightly, so tense that she held her breath.

Her heart was beating faster and faster, unable to guess what he wanted to do.

He stared at her while his hand brushed against her cheek, brushed against her ear, and when he withdrew, his somewhat cool fingers touched her cheek again.

It was numbing and tickling.

“There’s snowflakes on your hair.” He spread his hands in front of her, and there were indeed crystal snowflakes in his palm.

“…” Seeing his dark eyes stained with a smile, how could Fu Yuzheng not know that he was just teasing her?

She bit her lip, stomped on his feet, and turned to walk away.

Behind her, the man’s laughter spilled out of his mouth.

She did not know how beautiful her delicate lady’s attitude was just now.

Fu Yuzheng’s face was still burning when she returned to the hall. She pretended to be calm and sat beside Liu Yusheng. The girl was surprised and said, “Why is your face dirty?”

“Where?” Fu Yuzheng was bewildered, and her hand subconsciously stroked her cheek.

“Here, it’s stained with mud and dust,” Liu Yusheng reached out and pointed out the location to her. She wanted to help her wipe it off, but the woman raised her hand to block her.

“I’ll do it myself.” That was the spot where Liu Zhixia’s finger touched!

Fu Yuzheng took out a handkerchief and wiped her cheek a few times.  Her face also burned even hotter, and she cursed Liu Zhixia in her heart.

He not only teased her, but also deliberately soiled her face.

Stomping on his foot was indeed too light.

Why was he so bad!

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and from an angle she thought the Liu elders’ could not see, she glared at Liu Zhixia who entered the house afterwards.

That provoked another laughter from the man.

“Elder Brother, why are you laughing for no good reason?”

“Nothing.”

Fu Yuzheng immediately did a thief-like head turn.

Honestly, the Lius caught everything that transpired, but they all just played dumb.

Several elders look at each other, with joy in their eyes.

There would certainly be a celebration this year.

While the house was warm, outside the house, the snow fell heavier and heavier. It soon covered the entire village with a layer of silver makeup.

The capital city was dressed in silver at the same time.

It was also accompanied by a bitter cold wind. The wind kept whistling in front of the streets and alleys and behind the houses.

From time to time, people would shovel a pile of snow foam on the ground.

The weather was so cold that people stayed at home and refused to move.

For the New Year’s Day, festive red lanterns were hung everywhere in the palace. In order to prevent the cold wind from blowing out the lanterns, they were also specially fixed.

The snow was also cleared clean in all the paths in the palace, extremely neat.

However, even after these superficial decorations, the atmosphere of the palace for the New Year wasn’t spirited.

The harem was too cold.

During the palace banquet, everyone sat around the table, but it was lacking people. There were even empty seats.

There were only seven people in total.

The emperor, Feng Mohan, the King of Nanling, Feng Qingbai, Consort Liu and the two concubines of the previous emperor who have been living in the harem, and two young girls added to the mix.

One was sixteen years old, and the other fourteen.

“Once the imperial harem welcomes the chosen beauties in early spring, there will be more people and the livelier it will get. In the future, when we celebrate the Spring Festival, there will also be several people around the palace to join in the fun.” Consort Liu put down her jade chopsticks and raised her hand after wiping the corner of her mouth, signaling her servant to clear the dishes in front of her.

“Auntie, why don’t you eat more today?” The young girl at the same table asked eagerly.

“I can’t eat anymore. Old people have poor appetite. You guys have your meals with His Majesty and His Royal Highness. Young people are usually more lively, so don’t mind me.” Except for Consort Liu, the other two elder concubines among these seats of women had no weight to speak.

From the time they took their seats, Consort Liu treated them as invisible people.

“Okay.” The young girl replied, shy and timid. She held the wine jar to pour wine for the two men on the table.

For today’s palace banquet, Consort Liu called her and another sister from the same family into the palace to accompany them to dinner.

This was to give them a chance to get close to the emperor.

In this way, they showed their faces in front of the emperor first, so when they were in the final draft, their chances would be much greater than other girls.

The two of them were sure to win the selection.

Even if the emperor was reluctant, there was still Consort Liu to intervene for them.

The emperor couldn’t refute her either.

The wine was first poured into the wine glass in front of Feng Mohan, who only raised his eyes and then continued to eat unaffected.

When the wine jar moved to Feng Qingbai, he covered the wine glass with one hand and stopped her.

“I’m full, no need to pour wine.” After that, he got up and looked at Consort Liu with his long slender eyes before leaving. “Today is the New Year’s palace banquet, so I’m going to show respect to Consort Liu and not refute you. However, the palace has the rules of the palace, and not everyone is entitled to sit in the seat of the palace banquet to accompany the emperor to dinner. Consort Liu is temporarily in charge of harem, so you should set an example. Don’t break the rules first and make people laugh. Never let this happen again.”

Flicking his sleeves, the man left.

Leaving the banquet hall silent.

The slap in the face slapped Consort Liu, and also slapped the two young girls, who failed to consider their identities. 

Although the Liu family was Consort Liu’s maternal family, they were but a merchant family in the end.

She let daughters of merchants without ranks sit at the palace banquet and without even informing the emperor beforehand, she did violate the rules.

It only showed that Consort Liu was putting on airs and looked down on others.

Even if she really didn’t not put the emperor in her eyes, this kind of thing shouldn’t be displayed on the table.

Otherwise, she would have to bear the consequences herself.

For example, like the King of Nanling just said –  do not give her any face.

This was one consequence.

“Auntie?” The two ladies who were humiliated by his explicit statement, looked at Consort Liu in tears. They were greatly aggrieved.

“Retreat.” Consort Liu reprimanded them expressionlessly, and then apologized to Feng Mohan, “I’ve really overstepped my bounds today. Blame it on my old age. I’ve always wanted more entertainment around, so I called two juniors to accompany me, but I didn’t expect that it would lead to misunderstanding by the King. It’s indeed my fault. Please do not take offense, Your Majesty.”

“Forget it. It’s just this once. Consort Liu should better remember it in the future.” Feng Mohan laughed, “You have called these two to accompany you, so there’s no need to serve me. I have my own servants around to serve me. You can accompany Consort Liu more.”