As soon as the palace entered August, it began to prepare for the Mid-Autumn Festival. But before the Mid-Autumn Festival, we must first prepare for the Qianqiu banquet of the concubine.

Jin Guifei's birthday is the tenth day of the eighth month, just five days before the Mid-Autumn Festival. How to celebrate the concubine's thousand autumns, the palace has its own set of conventions. Specifically, it is to set up a banquet in the palace where the concubine herself lives, and the concubines below the concubine must come to the banquet in full costume, and the concubine wears a dress to accept the bowing of the concubines, and then watches the play and drinks together, and after the banquet is dismissed, the concubines bow again, and then return to the palace.

However, Jin Guifei was depressed by this set, and on this year's birthday, she didn't want to just watch the drama and drink the banquet, but wanted to change her tricks. Naturally, the emperor would not disobey her.

Jin Guifei said that she wanted to visit the West Garden on her birthday. There is no need to set up a banquet, just ask the imperial dining room to choose a few things that the palace masters like to eat, and drink in the flower hall of the West Garden when the time comes. There is no need to call the entire troupe, just pick a few good singing Xiaosheng and Xiaodan, with the piano flute, and the cappella singing is more meaningful.

The most important thing is that she wants to invite the little prince and the little princess over. Her knees are empty, and the palace is deserted all day long, and she likes to see the little prince and the little princess laughing and playing.

Naturally, the emperor had no reason not to agree. At the same time, I am also very happy that Jin Linger is now willing to be close to the children.

When the first emperor was still alive, when Chen Jianjun was still the prince of the East Palace, he once made a promise to Jin Ling'er that if he had to ascend to the throne one day, he would definitely make her the queen. However, he lost his word.

Later, he said that he could not disobey the last photos of the first emperor and the decree of the empress dowager of the two palaces, and he could not make her the queen, because he was sorry for her. However, in the future, they will definitely make their son the crown prince. However, their son died before he could be canonized as crown prince.

He once swore that she was the only one in his heart in this life, and he could no longer tolerate anyone else. But he still had a crush on other women, more than one.

He knew that she had hatred and resentment in her heart, and in the early years she had sprinkled all this resentment on the concubines and their children who had been pampered by him, and he had also been angry with her, but he couldn't bear to blame her, because he had broken his promise.

In the past two years, her heart has calmed down a lot, and she no longer resents him because of the emperor's heir, and she also began to express her concern for the crown prince and several other princes and princesses. This made Chen Jianjun feel relieved.

Jin Guifei was especially concerned about the prince's marriage. Chen Jianjun knew what she was planning, but he felt that this arrangement was not bad.

The Jin family produced a noble concubine, although she won a lot of wealth and glory, but there was no successor. If there is another crown princess in the Ye family, a close relative of the Jin family, it is best to give birth to an imperial grandson, and the two families will be in unison, and their status will be stable.

He knew that Concubine Jin cared about her family very much, and he was willing to make such arrangements to reassure her.

Besides, Ye Tongying's father is known for his talent and official residence, so it is just right to choose him as the crown princess with such a background. Moreover, Ye Tongying is abnormally beautiful, delicate and cute, and it is not a grievance to Chen Youcong.

But Jin Guifei said that it is not appropriate to insist on pulling Lang to match, and it is good for two people to be happy. Just like her and Chen Jianjun, they have deep love and righteousness, so they can accompany each other until they grow old.

Moreover, the prince's marriage requires the approval of the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother has never been accustomed to Jin Ling'er, and may not agree with the choice of Ye Tongying as the crown princess. But if the prince and Ye Tong's love for cherries is deep-rooted, and the queen mother cherishes the prince so much, she will not ruthlessly break them up, and this matter will be logical.

Chen Jianjun felt that she was very reasonable, and nodded again and again.

On the tenth day of the eighth month, the emperor personally brought the concubine to the West Garden to hold a thousand autumn banquets. The concubines below the noble concubine were all dressed up and came to the banquet, and they were all dressed up dignified and rigorous. The concubines who can live well in this palace all have brains. The concubine is fifty years old, aren't you dressed up to make the concubine mother's block? Therefore, although they are wearing costumes, they are either blue and gray, lotus lotus, or pine green, and none of them wear red, but they only set off the golden bells made of red concubine costumes like stars holding the moon. The concubine's dress was not originally red, but the emperor was willing to make her red, who would dare to say anything?

Although the queen did not come to the birthday banquet, she ordered someone to send a rich gift. Of course, Jin Ling'er didn't want her to participate, and she had to see her on her birthday.

The crown prince and the other two little princes, as well as the two little princesses, also came to congratulate Jin Guifei. Because the prince and the princess were still young, they sat down at the table for a while, and then ran to the garden to play. The prince left the table to watch his younger siblings play, and when Ye Tongying saw this, she also stood up and went together.

Seeing this, the concubines immediately praised the prince for his benevolence and filial piety, and Miss Ye was very gentle and careful. These spirits naturally saw the plan of the emperor and Jin Guifei for a long time.

The two princes, eight-year-old Chen Youxuan and three-year-old Chen Youxuan, one is silent and quiet, the other is lively and active, Chen Youxuan always lets his younger brother, so it is okay to play together.

Four-year-old Princess Renhe and two-year-old Princess Deqing sat together, took the puppets, and let them sit on small chairs, with small plates and small bowls in front of them, and flowers and plants were placed in the dishes, and the puppets also drank and feasted together.

Chen Youcong watched them play. In fact, it is said that they came out to take care of their younger brothers and sisters, and these princes and princesses are not children of poor families, so naturally they have nannies and palace people to serve with them, where is the need for the eldest brother to watch?

But these younger siblings are all good with Chen Youcong, and they are happy to be next to him. Especially the two younger sisters, they are very attached to their eldest brother. It's just because Chen Youcong is generous and steady, and he is more reliable than his father Chen Jianjun, who has a somewhat naughty temperament and is uncertain, so he is quite like an eldest brother and father to several younger siblings.

In addition, it was also because Chen Youcong was very impatient to sit at the banquet and the concubines in the audience patted Jin Ling'er's ass. If he sat down in the middle of the banquet again, I am afraid that he would not be able to hide the disdain on his face.

Chen Youcong was standing next to a flower tree and watching his sisters play thoughtfully, because he suddenly found that the dolls played by the two little girls were not dressed as Da Yan women, but wearing long skirt tunic gowns, with brown hair curly in some way, and a small and strangely shaped hair crown on their heads. This is clearly the appearance of those exotic ladies painted in the album that Zhang Weizhao gave to the Queen Mother.

He wanted to get closer and pick it up to take a closer look, but he heard a soft footstep coming from behind him, and when he looked back, it was Ye Tongying who approached him.

Ye Tongying was wearing a garnet red shirt, a pink and white skirt, and a butterfly flower on her head, her face was bright, her smile was sweet, and she said, "His Royal Highness the Prince, what do you think this is?" ”

A basket was handed to the crown prince. The prince didn't want to hang in with her, but at this time, he couldn't help but look at it, only to see a little white milk dog curled up in the basket, with dark eyes and a black nose, looking at Chen Youcong with a blank eye.

When Chen Youcong saw this puppy, he was puzzled and said, "Is this your puppy?" What about your two original cats? ”

Ye Tongying lowered her head aggrievedly: "Those two cats hurt the prince, made a big mistake, and were disposed of by my father." A layer of tears appeared in her beautiful eyes as she spoke.

Chen Youcong was caught by a cat more than two months ago, and was called to Anxi Palace to dine with the emperor, Jin Guifei and Ye Tongying, because he had just known the cause of his mother's death not long ago, Chen Youcong was in pain and upset, and he really had no spirit and Jin Guifei was vain and wronged, so he deliberately let Ye Tongying's cat scratch himself, so as to take the opportunity to get out.

He knew that it was not the fault of the two cats, it was he who secretly pinched and hurt the cats first. Therefore, I specially told Ye Tongying not to punish cats, after all, they are just beasts, they don't understand human nature, and they don't have to take human rules to demand them. But who knew that the two cats were still disposed of.

"Because my cat hurt the prince that day, I was terrified and took the cat home. Although you say that cats are wild and untamable, that's what they are, and you don't have to punish them, just watch and don't let them hurt again. But when my father and mother heard about this, they could not tolerate the fact that the cat that had injured the prince was still alive in the world, so they ordered the two cats to be hanged. I lost my cat and cried for days. My mother found this puppy for me. It is said that dogs are tame, not as wild as cats. Teach this puppy well, and it will definitely not hurt people at will. I was allowed to take it into the palace. ”

Chen Youcong couldn't help but feel sorry in his heart when he heard this. He sighed and reached out to touch the puppy's head. Not wanting to touch it, this little guy seemed to immediately feel Chen Youcong's kindness, stood up from the basket, stared at Chen Youcong earnestly with wet black eyes, flicked his little tail around, and crackled the edge of the basket, expressing his enthusiasm without hesitation.

Chen Youcong couldn't resist it, so he had to reach out and touch its head again. The puppy stretched its head into the palm of Chen Youcong's hand, as if this kind of stroke gave it great joy.

The feeling of its fluffy little head touching the palm of his hand made Chen Youcong's heart feel soft. He simply grabbed it from the basket and held it in his arms and stroked it. The puppy immediately snuggled into his arms with great trust.

Ye Tongying saw it in her eyes, and said in her heart that what her mother said was right, this method really worked. During this time, Chen Youcong has always been indifferent to her, the last Qixi Palace banquet, she gave Princess Renhe hazelnuts to eat, but Princess Renhe was stuck in the throat by the nuts, and then Chen Youcong avoided her intentionally or unintentionally, which made her very sad and annoyed.

So she went home and asked her mother for advice.

Her mother told her that encircling a man is like marching into a war, knowing oneself and knowing that the other side can survive a hundred battles, and you must know what Chen Youcong likes and dislikes in order to please him.

The mother and daughter talked carefully for a long time about how to capture the prince's heart.