Chapter 212

New Year Eve’s banquet (1)

Mu Mingtang invited Mrs Zhu and Zhu Yuqing to visit the palace, but they didn’t come to meet her for a month. However, she didn’t think about that matter deeply because the Zhu family had just moved to the capital, and they were busy settling things at their house. 

Mu Mingtang also knew that this kind of thing couldn’t be rushed, and she also got busy with New Year preparations. 

There were many things to do before the New Year, such as purchasing, preparing various food, arrangements etc. Even though there were people to do those things, everything must be reviewed by Mu Mingtang before they can be implemented. So just listening to maids’ reports every day was enough of a headache. 

Mu Mingtang didn’t even know how expensive tea was when she was at home, but now she realized how difficult it was to be the mistress of the house. Fortunately, she didn’t need to worry about her parents-in-law’s face or worry about the concubine in other rooms. But other than that, she had to look after everything to maintain human relationships. If the people below quietly stumble on you, it will be even more exhausting.

Mu Mingtang thought of Jiang Mingwei next door and spontaneously gave birth to a kind of happiness. Fortunately, she didn’t marry into Prince Jin’s mansion. Otherwise, she would have been acting for a lifetime.

Although Jiang Mingwei strictly forbade people to spread the matters in the mansion, they lived next door, and Mu Mingtang could hear some gossip. For example, Xie Xuanji seemed to favor a few handmaids. So those handmaids dared to compete with Jiang Mingwei openly. 

Wives and concubines were different. To show the dignity of the right wife, in the first fifteen days of the New Year, the husband had to be in his wife’s chamber. Even the emperor followed that tradition to give a face to the right wife, so other n.o.blemen below didn’t dare to go against it. 

However, the favorite concubine of Prince Jin’s mansion suddenly felt ill on the fifteenth day and called Xie Xuanji to see her in the evening. Although he went back to Jiang Mingwei after visiting his concubine late at night, Jiang Mingwei was so angry that she lost her temper, and the two of them fought. As Mu Mingtang heard, it lasted for half a month, and Mu Mingtang spent that time inquiring about them in the next house to adjust her mood. 

At the beginning of the month, Mu Mingtang was busy, and at the end of the month, she was suddenly relaxed. Mu Mingtang had already received the news that the emperor was holding a banquet in the palace on New Year’s Eve every year, and she and Xie Xuanchen were both going to enter the palace, so they didn’t prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner early in the morning.

The emperor likes to eat noodles, especially on New Year’s Eve, so to show off his benevolence, a grand banquet was held every year. Officials of the fourth rank and above, as well as concubines, ministers, and n.o.bles, all had to attend the New Year’s Eve banquet, and some of the emperor’s close officials were also granted special exemptions.

The palace was flourishing, and the venue was extremely luxurious. Xie Xuanchen and Mu Mingtang were the most important guests at this banquet.

The emperor had invited many people to do such a big platoon, not to tell the old ministers during the Jianshi period that Xie Xuanchen was still alive and well. The emperor intended to show the whole world he was bright and upright. Even the sick nephew had improved under his care, so the gossip about how he became the emperor slowly died down.