The Princess Kicks Down the Protagonists

Chapter 175 New Year’s Eve (1)

On New Year's Eve, the emperor and empress, along with a group of concubines and juniors, had dinner with the empress dowager in the Qianqing Palace, a night for the family reunion.

This year is different from previous years. After all, Ziker is here, so the preparations are extra grand.

It was said to be just a reunion dinner, but the scale was almost as high as a state banquet.

Ever since the incident of the real and fake princess, Concubine Ling has been banned and the emperor has never visited her again. In order not to disgust the emperor, she held back and did not go out.

Even when Fulun was dismissed from office, Concubine Ling did not come out to plead for him, and the implication of breaking off ties was very obvious.

Concubine Ling stayed in semi-confinement like this until the end of the New Year. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, she sent someone to deliver a thick stack of handwritten Buddhist scriptures.

It is said that during the time he was confined to reflect on his mistakes, he devoted himself to copying Buddhist scriptures and praying for the Empress Dowager.

So the emperor released her as a matter of course.

The emperor was very satisfied with her understanding. He had checked the matter and found that it had nothing to do with Concubine Ling. Naturally, the emperor would not be too angry.

After all, in this huge harem, Concubine Ling is the only one who understands his thoughts and can talk to him.

Of course, the queen was like this before. Although the two of them had reconciled, I don’t know if it was because the queen felt uncomfortable or something, but every time the emperor went to see her, the two of them just treated each other with respect, as if they could never go back to the way they were before.

For example, now, the Queen is sitting below the Emperor. She can clearly look up and talk to him, but the Queen's mind is all on the Twelfth Prince and Jingyan. She has not thought at all about whether she should say anything to the Emperor on New Year's Eve.

The emperor felt a little lost and drank his wine gloomily.

Noticing the emperor's frustration, Concubine Ling raised her glass tenderly and said, "I offer a toast to your majesty. I wish you peace and prosperity in the coming year."

The emperor looked at Concubine Ling, then at the empress. Seeing that the empress still had no reaction, he couldn't help feeling a little depressed.

The Queen should have taken the lead in toasting. Concubine Ling was overstepping her bounds. Moreover, the Mongolian prince was watching. How could this be proper?

Thinking of this, he did not raise his glass, but looked at the queen and said: "Queen, on New Year's Eve, shouldn't you toast me a glass?"

The queen looked up at the emperor, somewhat confused as to what was wrong with him.

But in front of everyone, the queen still stood up with a smile: "Okay, I offer a toast to the emperor, and wish our Qing Dynasty prosperity."

The emperor curled his lips into a grin, raised his glass happily and drank it all in one gulp.

After finishing the Queen's wine, the Emperor looked at Concubine Ling who was standing awkwardly and raised his glass in a gesture.

Only then did Concubine Ling understand what the emperor meant. He thought she was overstepping her authority.

Concubine Ling forced herself to smile as she sat down, but she couldn't suppress the anger in her heart. It had always been like this in previous years, why couldn't it be done this year?

It's because she was implicated in Fulun's affair. Fulun is a waste. He was dismissed from his position as a Grand Secretary. He is really useless.

After the two of them started the toast, the other concubines stood up and toasted, and the emperor simply raised his glass and invited everyone to join in.

After finishing the drink and sitting down, Qing'er looked at the angry Concubine Ling, a little confused: "Yan'er, I really feel that many things are different this year."

Jingyan was enjoying her meal when she heard this. She swallowed her squirrel fish and said mysteriously, "Of course it's different this year. The Mongolian prince is still here, so of course we have to do it well."

Jingyan avoided the question. She knew what Qing'er meant, and Qing'er also understood what Jingyan meant.

Indeed, it doesn't matter how much the emperor favors Concubine Ling on ordinary days, but in this kind of occasion, Concubine Ling will definitely be disliked by the emperor regardless of status. Moreover, the emperor has neglected Concubine Ling for so long, it is different after all.

Seeing that Jingyan and Qing'er were enjoying their meal and didn't show any intention of showing off, Ziwei stood up and raised her glass.

"Father Emperor, last year, Ziwei spent New Year's Eve with my mother. I thought I would be alone this year, but I didn't expect to find my father so smoothly. Ziwei is very grateful to God, and I hope that everything goes well for you, Father Emperor, and that you are in good health."

Ziwei's words were sincere. Perhaps her house arrest during these days had made her understand some rules. The emperor drank her toast happily.

Looking at the Empress Dowager, Ziwei toasted her again and said a series of blessings. Then she toasted the Queen, Concubine Ling, and Concubine Yu one by one.

Seeing Ziwei stand up and not sit down, the emperor frowned slightly. It was only New Year's Eve, and there would be plenty of time for her to visit the elders on New Year's Day tomorrow, so there was no need to pay her respects now.

Fortunately, the other children did not have this good awareness for the time being, otherwise the emperor would have thought that just the toast today would have made everyone drunk.

On the other side, the Fucha family also gathered together to have the New Year’s Eve dinner, and Ertai was with them.

It was the three brothers Fu Ling'an who went to the Prince's Mansion personally to kidnap the person.

Fu Jin enthusiastically picked up some food for Ertai and said, "Good boy, just think of this as your home. When you and Princess Seya return from Mongolia and find the Prince's Mansion boring, come here."

Ertai accepted Fu Jin's kindness with a smile. Knowing that they were sincere towards him, he did not politely refuse: "Aunt, that's natural. When Ertai comes back, he must pay his respects to uncle and aunt first."

Looking at the grown-up children, Fu Jin smiled and nodded happily.

"Ertai, why don't you just be my son? Raising sons is what I'm best at. Look at my three eldest sons. I've raised them pretty well, haven't I?"

Ertai widened his eyes in shock, looking at Fu Ling'an and then at Fu Heng.

Fu Heng touched his forehead helplessly. His wife was too enthusiastic and he was really worried that it would scare the child.

"Well, Ertai is still half your son now, so just take good care of him."

After listening to this, Fu Jin nodded repeatedly and picked up more dishes for Ertai: "Yes, Ertai, eat more. After you finish eating, go outside with Kang An and the others to set off fireworks. Your uncle bought a lot."

When Fu Ling'an heard this, he was silent. He wanted to set off fireworks with the princess.

Sure enough, he looked at Ertai, and Ertai's eyes clearly showed that he didn't care about hanging out with a group of men and was thinking about his future wife.

Unfortunately, there was no rule to go to the palace on New Year's Eve, nor was there a rule to go to the girl's house on New Year's Eve. It was still the palace there, so the two could only look at the moon and miss each other.

As soon as Fu Heng saw his eldest son's useless look, he knew what he was thinking.

If he had worked harder, it would not be the third brother but the princess who would set off fireworks in the yard this year.

At this time, Yongheng was obviously much happier than his other good brothers.

After all, Prince Guo and his wife have not returned yet, so of course he has to celebrate the New Year with them in the palace.

After dinner, the emperor took everyone to the square beside Taiye Lake to watch the fireworks show.

After the large fireworks were set off, Yongheng brought people to move a whole box of fireworks from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

This is the kind that can be held in your hand, as Jingyan strongly requested.

The transformation was not difficult, and they made it immediately after the princess gave the order.

It's just unstable. After all, it's very close to your hand. If you don't control the direction of the fireworks well, it can easily explode towards your hand.

But in order to avoid hurting people, they made the pole very long and put very little gunpowder.

He also carefully studied the pattern of spark explosion and made the fire spray outward.

After all, the ones playing these are all young masters, and if there is even the slightest mistake, they will lose their heads.