Jiu Zhang Ji: The Daily Life of the Reborn Daughter

Chapter 3: The Skirt Banquet ()

"Miss Qiao is really from a military family. She is very imposing. She beat my guest as soon as she entered the door."

After Yu Xinyao finished speaking, she stared at Qiao Lili blankly.

When Yu Xinyao came over, everyone stood up from their seats in a hurry, and the three of them were no exception. Qiao Lili was tall, and martial artists always had heroic spirit, while Yu Xinyao was tall like the queen, and was petite. She was addicted to sensual pleasures every day, so she naturally had a listless air. When she faced Qiao Lili, the difference was obvious.

Qiao Lili's aura is much stronger than hers.

"Yes, Princess, are you going to reward me?" Qiao Lili tilted her head, smiled sweetly, and put away her fierceness, showing the demeanor of a little girl.

The third princess was a little confused by her words. "I want to punish you, but I also want to reward you. You are dreaming," she thought to herself and asked, "You are so arrogant. How can I reward you if I want to punish you?"

Qiao Lili blinked her big eyes, pretending to be confused, and a faint smile appeared on the dimples at the corners of her lips.

"I just defended the emperor on behalf of the princess. Shouldn't the princess reward me? Bai Rou'er just defied the emperor's order and questioned his decision in public, so I taught her a lesson. So I thought the princess came to praise me and reward me. Why did you punish me? Shouldn't I defend the emperor?"

Everyone opened their mouths involuntarily. Is this still possible? But who dared to say no?

Who dares to say that defending the emperor is wrong and should be punished? Who dares?

Being called a sister-in-law means disobeying the emperor's order and questioning the emperor's conclusion. This is a bit too much. It depends on how you think about it. The emperor did say that the engagement between Bai Junzhe and Duke Dingguo's mansion was annulled. Was that an order? Not really, but does anyone dare to question it?

Regarding the marriage of Qiao Lili and Bai Junzhe, the emperor also solemnly gave a conclusion in the court, that is, Bai Junzhe's mother stole the engagement letter to deceive the marriage, and Bai Junzhe was demoted to guard the city gate because of this. What Qiao Lili said was not wrong.

Yu Xinyao knew all these things. She was speechless and couldn't respond. People defended your father for you. You can choose not to reward them, but you can't call for their killing.

Before she came to cause trouble for Qiao Lili, she should have pretended that no one knew about this matter, and no one could say anything if she didn't reward anyone. Now, Qiao Lili has said everything she should be rewarded with. If she doesn't reward anything, and it gets to her father's ears in the future, he will most likely be unhappy.

What? You don’t reward the person who protects me. Do you think she shouldn’t protect me?

When Yu Xinyao thought of this, her heart suddenly tightened, and she quickly said to Yu Lan who was following her: "Show Miss Qiao the reward." What reward should she give? If the reward was too little, it would not be a problem, but if the reward was too much, she would feel uncomfortable. So let's give her something flashy and impractical.

So he said, "Since Miss Qiao is so concerned about the emperor, please bring the calligraphy that the emperor wrote for me and give it to Miss Qiao as a reward."

"Thank you, Princess, for the reward." It sounds very honorable to reward someone with the emperor's calligraphy, but it is really useless for her, who is about to marry into the royal family. If she wants it, won't she ask the emperor to write it herself? This is, rewarding you, but not letting you get any substantial benefits. The third princess is very calculating.

But who is she, Qiao Lili? The more you don't want her to get any benefits, the more she wants to get more.

In just a few words, Yu Lan had already taken the emperor's calligraphy.

Qiao Lili solemnly handed the calligraphy to Cai Qi and Cai Xing, and then said to everyone: "Some time ago, I opened an orphanage in the capital, which specializes in taking in homeless children. Our Great Yan is thriving under the wise governance of the emperor. As a citizen of Great Yan, I can't do anything else, so I want to do my best to help."

"Now there are more and more children in the Salesian Home, and the amount of money needed is also increasing. Thank you, Princess, for giving me this calligraphy. Today, I will use the precious land of the Princess's Mansion to hold a sealed auction for this calligraphy of the Emperor."

"All proceeds from the auction will be given to the Salesian Home. From now on, all guests can hand over the slips with the amount written on them to my two maids. By the end of today's banquet, the highest bidder will receive the emperor's calligraphy."

After saying this, Qiao Lili smiled and bowed to Yu Xinyao, as if to apologize for her auctioning off the paintings at her banquet.

Yu Xinyao saw it as nothing but provocation.

Could she say no? Not allow the auction? That was the emperor's calligraphy, and the money would be used to raise the orphans of Dayan. If the emperor knew about it, he could write another one for Qiao Lili and let her sell it at will. If she dared to say no, the censors would form a group to report her tomorrow morning, and the reports would be more than just this one. She had as many complaints as the head of the mansion.

She was very depressed, but she dared not say a word and had to cooperate.

Caiqi and Caixing cannot both do this task, so one of them must be left to serve (protect) Qiao Lili.

Chen Ruxin and Su Shiyun each brought two maids. Seeing that Qiao Lili didn't have enough people, they only left one maid to serve and sent the other to help Caixing. Caixing was careful, so Caixing let her stay with the young lady and took on the new task of selling calligraphy.

The three maids first showed the emperor's calligraphy to the female guests, and then to the male guests. After a while, maids and servants came to Cai Xing one after another to give her notes. The three maids occupied a table in a corner of the banquet and registered and compiled the notes they received, waiting until the end of the banquet to find out who gave the most money.

Even if Yu Xinyao bit her silver teeth off, there was nothing she could do but continue with today's banquet. Since all the flowers had bloomed and there was no grass left, she would skip this part and move directly to the riddle guessing game.

A row of maids holding lanterns with riddles written on them walked slowly among the ladies. Whoever could guess the answer to the riddle would leave the lantern on their table. The person with the most lanterns would be the winner of the day and would receive a reward.

Qiao Lili had already been in the limelight, but now she chose to be lazy and hide her shortcomings. She only guessed one riddle: "Winning the first prize in the imperial palace" and the answer was: out of reach. She refused to guess any more. There was a lantern in front of her, as long as it was not ugly and bare.

After all, it is quite eye-catching even without a lantern.

There were seven lanterns in front of Chen Ruxin, and three in front of Su Shiyun.

All of a sudden, all the lanterns were left on the table. After counting, the top female guest was Chen Ruxin, and the top male guest was Ke Yang. Qiao Lili was not familiar with this name. Chen Ruxin said, "It's the youngest son of Lord Liu."

"Why isn't his surname Liu? I've never heard of such a person in Beijing before. The surname Ke is quite rare." Qiao Lili lowered her head and whispered to Chen Ruxin.

"He took his mother's surname. He just came back from his maternal grandparents' home in Jiangnan a while ago."

Qiao Lili nodded. Since their fathers were both ministers, they naturally knew more.

"One of the talented men in Jiangnan, he is said to be a hot candidate for the next spring imperial examination."

On the male side, Ke Yang stood up and saluted to the guests around him who were congratulating him. Su Shiyun glanced at him and her face instantly turned as red as an apple.