349. The Banquet in the Palace

Because of Liu’s arrival, many people began to gossip about Long.

Long was very helpless and unhappy about this.

But there was nothing he could do.

No matter how upset he was, he had to accept it.

Moreover, he had to cooperate with Liu and act in front of outsiders. Long felt it was really ridiculous.

This day, a banquet was held in the palace.

Before the sacrifice ceremony in Western Mountain, the banquet would be held in the palace for two consecutive days.

It seemed that it had become a custom.

In addition, the ministers could bring their legal wife and sons to attend the banquet.

As for the princes, they could bring their concubines, as well as two guards.

They were not required to only bring their princess.

However, most of the princes would still take their princess to the banquet, which could show that they thought highly of the woman’s family. It was also a way to win people’s hearts. Otherwise, why would the woman’s family help them?

Originally, Emperor Zhou had many sons and several of them had grown up and gained power.

Now that two had died, he only had three capable sons left.

As for the three princes, the crown prince took two guards and his princess.

The fourth prince took Xu You and two guards.

The two guards were actually Long Xiaoyuan and the woman disguised by Liu Suifeng.

Even in this palace, Liu could still be called a stunning beauty, but obviously, he was dressed as a married woman.

Despite of that, Liu still attracted a lot of attention.

The crown prince couldn’t help glancing at Liu, which had really irritated the princess next to him, but in front of others, she had to smile.

Only by smiling, could she show others that she was a sensible woman!

The fifth prince Zhou Suye had not been married yet, so he came alone.

He had become very popular in the imperial court.

Many ministers favored him. They thought that if the fifth prince could be their son-in-law, then their family would be prosperous!

Many ministers went to please him with their wives, and the fifth prince didn’t refuse anyone. He had been very polite.

So he was growing on the ministers.

Liu gently said to Long who was beside him, “I’m leaving. You should follow the fourth prince. Don’t walk around.”

Long nodded, knowing that he was going to contact s.h.i.+. “Yes.”

Liu left soon…

The crown prince had been paying attention to Liu, so once he saw Liu leave, he thought that it would be an opportunity.

Liu was so beautiful. The crown prince thought if he could have Liu, it would be wonderful.

More importantly, Liu was on Fang Shuoyang’s side.

At present, Zhou Shuoyang was his enemy!

If he could win over this beauty, he would kill two birds with one stone, right?

Therefore, the crown prince followed Liu and left.

There were a lot of people around. Even though he watched Liu leave and quickly followed up, he still lost Liu soon.

The crown prince was very dissatisfied.

However, it was clearly unwise to make a scene on such an occasion.

So the crown prince had no choice but to give up.

After he returned to his seat, the crown princess smiled softly beside him. “Where have you been, Your Highness?”

The crown prince laughed embarra.s.sedly. “Oh, I just looked around.”

After hearing this, the crown princess said nothing more.

Long also saw the crown prince leaving, but he was not worried. He knew that the crown prince would definitely not catch up with Liu!

Look, he was absolutely right. The crown prince came back soon.

Long sneered in secret.

Xu You said, “When will the emperor come?”

“It will probably be a while. What’s the matter?” Fang Shuoyang asked.

“I’m hungry.” Xu touched his belly. “I didn’t know that the feast wouldn’t start until so late.”

Hearing this, Fang really wanted to laugh.

“He should be coming soon.”

Xu curled his lips. “I should have brought something to eat.”

Long pretended that he heard nothing.

Liu came back before the emperor arrived and the place was still very noisy.

Almost no one found that Liu left earlier!

Although Liu attracted some attention because of his beautiful face, all people thought that he had already got married. So there was no need to care too much about this beauty, was there?

After Liu returned, Long said in a low voice, “It’s done?”

“Yeah,” Liu responded.

Even though Long knew that s.h.i.+ would take good care of himself, he still asked, “Is he fine?”

Liu smiled. “Of course. Don’t worry, dear.”

Long rolled his eyes at him. “Go away!”

Liu naturally didn’t really leave him.

Not long after, the emperor came and the banquet officially began…

Xu could finally eat to his heart’s content.

However, Long and Liu were not lucky as him, because they could only watch there.

Emperor Zhou was really quite scheming. After the entire banquet, even Long began to admire him.

Finally, the banquet was over.

After Emperor Zhou left, the ministers and others were also leaving.

The place they sat was actually far away from Emperor Zhou. If it weren’t for Long’s good eyesight, plus a little internal strength after much practice…

It would be impossible for him to see Emperor Zhou’s face clearly from so far away.

The only difference between the banquet here and that in Heaven Dragon was that Long would find an excuse to leave not long after the banquet began. He didn’t expect the emperor here to leave so late!

Did Emperor Zhou ever think that his presence would make the ministers feel awkward?

Moreover, wasn’t he afraid that he’d be a.s.sa.s.sinated?

That being said, there were really many guards around and many great martial artists were hiding in the dark. If Liu wasn’t dressed as a woman, he wouldn’t be able to contact someone here so freely…

If they used force to come in, it was highly likely that they’d be exposed!

The group of people went out. Long and Liu drove after Fang and Xu got into the carriage.

Xu seemed to be a little drunk, so he was quite noisy in the carriage.

Fang had been consoling him and preventing him from making noises.

Long glanced inside and curled his lips.

Liu was driving intently.

At this moment, a eunuch suddenly stopped them. “Your Highness, please wait a moment.”

Liu hurriedly stopped the carriage.

After hearing the sound outside, Xu stopped messing around and Fang drew the curtain.

“What’s that matter?”

“The emperor wants to meet you.”

Fang was slightly surprised. “Father? Okay, I’m going now.”

“Your Highness, your men can go back first. When you leave the palace later, we will order someone to send you back.”

“Okay.” Fang nodded, and then looked at Long significantly, “You can go back first.”

“Yes!”

Fang left with the eunuch.

Long and the others continued to return to the residence of the fourth prince.

After arriving at the mansion, Xu got out of the carriage and asked worriedly, “Elder brother, what did the emperor ask Shuoyang over?”

Long touched his chin. “Don’t worry. It should be something good.”

“Something good?” Xu frowned. “What could it be?”

“Haha.” Long laughed. “Naturally, it’s about the sacrifice ceremony in Western Mountain. I think Emperor Zhou will Fang Shuoyang to lead the team.”

Xu thought it was very possible. “If this is the case, he should be very safe, right?”

“Yes, he’s safe for the time being.” Long nodded.

Xu blinked. “For the time being?”

“Yes.” Long looked at Xu with a smile. “This is such a good job that many people are vying for and it should belong to the crown prince. Now that another man has taken it away, do you think he will be happy?”

Xu curled his lips. “My head aches. Forget it. Since there’s no problem now, I will go to bed.”

Long was surprised to hear that and the corners of his mouth twitched. “My dear brother, you really have a big heart.”

Xu rolled his eyes. He ignored Long and went straight to his room.

Long and Liu followed him slowly…

It was true that Fang was asked over because of the sacrifice ceremony in Western Mountain.

Moreover, the crown prince got the news once Fang was summoned by the emperor!

In the crown prince’s mansion, he was so angry that he almost smashed everything in the room.

As for the crown princess, after she returned to the mansion, she went back to her own room in a wise manner. She didn’t give a d.a.m.n about which woman the crown prince would stay with this night!

After the crown prince calmed down a bit, a charming female voice sounded and Zhuqingzi walked in from outside.

“What happened? Why are you so angry?”

The crown prince looked over. Seeing that it was this woman, he felt better. “Zhuqingzi…”

The crown prince called her in a very gentle voice. It seemed that he loved the woman in front of him very much.

As it turned out, the crown prince was really l.u.s.tful, and also very ruthless!