Going to the girls' school every day, the relationship between Lu Bingzhen and his two cousins became more and more harmonious. A few days later, it was the Shangsi Festival, and Lu Bingzhen made an appointment with his two cousins to go out together at that time.

While she was enjoying the leisurely boudoir life carefree, Lu Qi and Li were worried about her.

Because, Lu Qi finally couldn't hide his father Lu Zhi, who was like a torch, and let Lu Zhi know that the queen mother and the prince of the East Palace had something to do with Jiuniang.

It seemed like an ordinary morning.

Lu Zhi himself doesn't like red tape, and he doesn't like juniors to disturb him every day to discuss official business with his staff. Therefore, Lu Bingzhen and other juniors only need to go to their parents every day to say goodbye, and they don't need to go to Lu Zhi's Yuanshan Hall.

But Lu Qi and his wife still need to go to Yuanshan Hall, firstly, as a son, to ask his father for peace, and secondly, Lu Zhi sometimes has to guide his son in the affairs of the court.

On this day, Lu Qi led his wife Li to greet his father.

"The son/daughter-in-law greets the father, and may the father live a long and happy life."

Lu Zhi smiled and asked the two to get up, and after a few words of gossip, he suddenly changed the conversation and talked about Lu Bingzhen's marriage.

"Jiu Niang is also fourteen years old this year, she has good knowledge and etiquette, and her reputation in the family is also outstanding. Did you parents choose a husband for her? ”

Li's heart tightened, and he subconsciously felt that Lu Zhi knew about the queen mother and the prince of the East Palace, so he could only smile reluctantly and said, "I just returned to Beijing with Langjun from outside Beijing, and my daughter-in-law is still looking, there are many handsome and beautiful Langjun in Beijing, and it must not take long to pick a good Langjun for A Rui." ”

Lu Zhi was noncommittal about this, and of course he couldn't have known about his daughter-in-law Li's fancy to the Wang family's Qilang. If it weren't for the choice of His Royal Highness the Prince, Wang Jiaqilang would indeed be a fast son-in-law of the dragon.

It's just that if Jiuniang marries into the East Palace, the Fanyang Lu family may have the possibility of going further.

As for those families who have never had the practice of marrying a daughter into the East Palace, Lu Zhi only felt sneered in his heart. It's just a fig leaf made by a group of families who are crumbling on the edge of loneliness.

In the previous dynasty, the inspection system prevailed, and the appointment and examination of officials were all in the hands of the family, and even the emperor had to share the world with the family.

However, the founding ancestor of the new dynasty was a heroic figure who rose up in troubled times, he was eloquent and far-sighted, and at the beginning of the dynasty, he set the rules for the selection and appointment of talents by the imperial examination system in this dynasty.

Although Gaozu later died of illness due to the hidden wounds left by the war, and the young new monarch was unable to convince the public, resulting in rebellions and thieves in various places, as time passed, the foundation of the empire began to become more and more stable.

At the beginning of the imperial examination system, because the collection of books and classics and famous teachers were in the hands of the family, the so-called imperial examination was just another manifestation of the examination system. However, since the establishment of Taixue and the wide acceptance of disciples in the court, the power of the family has been continuously weakened, and it has reached a precarious point.

At this point, the family has lost its former glory.

And the new monarch gradually grew old and became a scheming old emperor, he accumulated a lot of power, began to say everything in the court, arbitrary and arbitrary, and began to become more and more suspicious of the prince of the East Palace, who gradually grew up, and gradually became a puppet of power.

According to Lu Zhi's point of view, the crown prince Xiao Min is actually a qualified prince, and even a qualified emperor. Corporal Lixian is also calculating, resolute-willed, and clear-sighted, and most importantly, has the mind of a king.

And Lu Zhi can see that the crown prince Xiao Min is not a person who is crazy for power, at least not yet, there seems to be something very important in the prince's heart that occupies a place. This may not be a good thing for the imperial power, but it can be said to be very good for the courtiers.

However, the situation facing the crown prince now is also treacherous, with the suspicion of the elderly emperor's father and the ill intentions of the grown brothers, who have to deal with all kinds of whirlpools of the emperor's family internally and complicated political affairs externally.

I heard that there is another ambitious Hulu Khan on the grassland in the north, who is waiting for an opportunity to wave his troops south. This time is different from the helpless act of a few years ago after running out of ammunition and food, they have been recuperating for many years, and they are bound to come to the south to plunder the gold, silver, grain and grass of the Han people.

It's time for Fan Yanglu's family to consider whether to place chips.

Lu Zhi looked at his son who was pretending to be calm in front of him and his daughter-in-law who couldn't even maintain a smile, and thought about whether to marry Jiu Niang into the East Palace.

There are pros and cons to this. The crown prince seems to be quite interested in Jiuniang, if the bet wins the prince's ascension to the throne, maybe the Fanyang Lu family can go to the next level in the name of the descendants.

But marrying a daughter into the East Palace is undoubtedly telling everyone that the Fan Yang Lu family is standing in line with the prince of the East Palace, and may not be able to wait for the prince to ascend the throne before attracting the emperor's suspicion. Now that the Fan Yang Lu family is favored, is there a need to take this risk?

Glancing at his son Lu Qi, who had a cold look on his face and was gradually resolute, Lu Zhi finally put this plan on hold for the time being.

He is old, and sooner or later the Fanyang Lu family will be handed over to his son Lu Qi, who loves his only daughter Jiuniang very much, and has no intention of letting his daughter enter the East Palace at all.

He can push the boat with the flow, but there is no need to let his son be separated from him for the sake of uncertain power. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince may not have a safe grasp of his current situation to ascend the throne, perhaps Wang Jiaqilang is a more secure choice.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhi waved his hand and motioned for his son and daughter-in-law to go out.

Lu Qi and his wife hurriedly retired and walked out of Yuanshan Hall, the two of them only felt that their backs were cold, and they had unconsciously broken out in a cold sweat.

The cold winter wind was blowing, and Li subconsciously tightened the scarlet cloak on her body, she wanted to say something, but stopped under the signal of her husband's eyes. The husband and wife returned to the main courtyard in silence.

Lu Qi is going to court today, and he has no way to stay at home to appease his panicked wife, so he can only leave a sentence, "An Niang, you can talk to the Wang family as soon as possible." ”

Li is also an understanding person, today's father-in-law Lu Zhi clearly wants to marry Jiuniang into the East Palace, although he changed his mind later for some reason, but Jiuniang's marriage must be decided as soon as possible, as the so-called late will change.

Li Shi froze down, reluctantly calmed down and said, "Don't worry, Lang Jun, I will write a letter to Li's house today." If they can make a decision with Wang Jiaqilang, they will be released out of Beijing after marriage, so as not to get involved in the storm of the capital. ”

The husband and wife looked at each other and made up their minds.

Today's stay in Yuanshan Hall was longer than usual, Lu Qi didn't have time to have breakfast with his wife and daughter and hurried out to go to the court, Li ordered the servants to bring some snacks to Lu Qi to satisfy his hunger, so as not to be unbearable for too long in the early dynasty.

Lu Bingzhen had been waiting in the courtyard for a long time, today was the day of the ten-year vacation, she didn't have to go to school, she specially came to ask her father and mother for breakfast.

After Li sent Lu Qi out of the door, he looked back at his daughter A Rui, who didn't know anything, and sighed deeply. didn't want this kind of thing to affect his daughter, so Li Shi stayed up with his daughter to finish breakfast.

Seeing his daughter chatting about various things about the Shangsi Festival with great interest, Li didn't want to spoil her interest, smiled and responded to the end, and asked Onyx to prepare all kinds of things needed for the Shangsi Festival.

This is Rui's third appearance after returning to Beijing, and Li is unwilling to let her show her timidity in front of everyone.

In Liuchunwu, Lu Bingzhen couldn't cry or laugh, she looked at the various silk jewelry sent into her yard like flowing water and said, "Aunt Onyx, you don't have to be like this." If you want to go to the river during the Shangsi Festival, it will not be convenient to have so many things. ”

Onyx said with a resolute face, "Nine Niangzi, of course this can't work, these are not enough at all, you need other things." “

Thinking about the experience of entering the palace for a banquet when he first entered Beijing, Onyx said with affection, "Jiu Niangzi, you don't know." The people in Beijing, from the eighty-year-old woman to the three or five-year-old children, are all sunny and vicious masters, and they all respect Luo Yi first and then others. ”

Thinking of this time Jiu Niangzi went out to play, you don't have to be like the last time you entered the palace for the banquet on the Laba Festival, you can only dress up according to the grade rules, and the agate is even more gearing up to dress up the Nine Niangzi well, and be sure to make the beauty of the Nine Niangzi famous in the capital.

Li didn't ignore Liuniang and Qiniang, who wanted to go out together, and each selected a set of head and face jewelry from their private vaults and sent them over, and pointed to two hair-combing maids to help with makeup.

Lu Bingzhen is looking forward to this Shangsi Festival, she has rarely had the opportunity to go out since she returned to the capital, and the sporadic opportunities to go out are also a lot for the ladies in Beijing.

But Lu Bingzhen grew up with her parents in various places, and when she was in Fangzhou, Lingzhou and other places, she was the daughter of a local governor, and she was treated politely wherever she went. In addition, there are not as many rules as in Beijing, and there are no grandparents and relatives to watch, Lu Qi and his wife are also laissez-faire for their daughter to go out to play from time to time.

The Lu family and his wife were already guilty because Lu Bingzhen couldn't stay in Beijing at a young age because his parents were released, how could they stop their daughter from going out and other trivial things, at most they just sent more people to follow.

And this Shangsi Festival is not as big as the previous two palace banquets, even if the women of the family enter the palace, they must always be more careful everywhere and cannot be casual.

As for the time when she could go out on the Yuan Festival at will, given that Lu Bingzhen was frightened several times that day, she directly ignored it.

The day before the Shangshi Festival, Mrs. Li saw that the three little ladies were trying their best to suppress their excitement in class, and Mrs. Li, who also came from the age of a young girl, simply took a holiday early.

Liu Niang, Qi Niang and Lu Bingzhen left happily after thanking Mrs. Li, preparing to go back to the room to prepare the things for tomorrow's Shangsi Festival.

Lu Bingzhen had just separated from his two cousins at the fork in the garden, and was about to go back to Liuchunwu to change his clothes first, when he saw Lu Chi, the guard next to his grandfather, come and invite her to Yuanshan Hall.

Although I don't know why my grandfather suddenly invited her to go, but my grandfather has an order, Lu Bingzhen didn't dare to disobey, so he could only follow Lu Chi to Yuanshan Hall suspiciously.

Rongxue, who was holding a variety of bookcases for Jiu Niang behind him, was smart, and immediately used the excuse of sending things back to Liuchunwu, but in fact, he ran to the main courtyard where the Li family was to ventilate and report the news.

Lu Chi saw the small abacus of the snowmelt, but he didn't stop it. Jiu Niangzi was frightened by the lit lantern last time, but she deliberately suppressed the matter, and Lu Chi himself was deeply trusted by Lu Zhi and would not be punished for this matter.

But the brothers under Lu Chi are not necessarily, and they can be regarded as repaying this kindness. Lu Chi pretended not to see it, just strode behind Lu Bingzhen and went to Yuanshan Hall with her.