Chapter 935 Birthday Banquet
November 23rd, noon.
The Crown Princess hid behind the Moon Gate and looked in the distance. She saw her father, with a very happy face, moving between the wine tables, with Sun Shaozong and Sun Zhaolin following closely on his left and right.
Of course, compared with Sun Shaozong, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, Sun Zhaolin's presence has been weakened to the limit - after going through a whole circle, he only got the two sentences "A good father will have a good son".
On the contrary, there are countless people who want to find out the relationship between Sun Shaozong and Sun Tao.
actually……
According to current customs, the one who accompanies her father to toast should be her husband.
But given the prince's status and position, who would dare to bother him if he didn't take the initiative to mention it?
Thinking of this, the Crown Princess felt a little melancholy inexplicably, and subconsciously stared at Sun Shaozong for a few more times. She didn't know how many thoughts turned through her mind, but in the end she just whispered: "Go and call Zhaolin to the flower hall, and tell him that I have something to ask of him."
…
Because he and Sun Shaozong blocked several glasses of wine for his father, Sun Zhaolin's face was flushed and he talked a lot more than usual.
When the maid came over, he was pestering Sun Shaozong, asking about the details of Lin Qisheng's case. When he heard that his sister wanted to see him, he did not dare to be negligent in the slightest and hurriedly followed the maid to the west flower hall.
The cold wind on the road made the drunkenness surge up even faster.
When he arrived in the flower hall, he felt dizzy and was shaking his head. He didn't even understand what his sister was saying.
Finally, it was the female official Zou Qingyun who served him a cup of sobering soup and helped him sit down to rest for a while, and only then did he recover.
But after he woke up, he recalled what his sister had just said, and he couldn't help but feel horrified!
So he dismissed the attendants and said anxiously, "Sister, you just said that the Crown Prince wanted to have a secret talk with Brother Shaozong in our house?!"
As he spoke, he trembled all over and said tremblingly: "Are you...are you going to take a desperate...risk?!"
It turned out that he mistakenly thought that the prince wanted to use his family to plot a rebellion.
"Where are you thinking?!"
The Crown Princess was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. If she hadn't seen that he was old enough to get married, she would have snapped her fingers on his forehead if she hadn't taught him a lesson like she did when he was a child.
"But……"
Although his sister's reaction was obviously different from what he expected, Sun Zhaolin's doubts were not alleviated much.
He said hesitantly, "Shao Zong's second brother has never been shy about entering the Crown Prince's residence, so why did he choose to have a secret conversation in our residence, and asked me to restrict the servants from approaching casually - Sister, don't you find it strange?"
The Crown Princess was naturally very confused.
But she was sure that this secret talk was definitely about treason - otherwise, the prince would not have specially asked her to accompany him.
However, it is not easy to talk about this with Sun Zhaolin.
So the Crown Princess said perfunctorily: "Don't worry, I will be waiting next door. Not to mention that the Crown Prince has no such intention, even if he really wants to do so, he will never mention it when he knows that there are ears on the other side of the wall."
Sun Zhaolin then felt a little relieved, and gave his sister a few more instructions before ordering people to prepare a private banquet in case the prince could summon him at any time.
After seeing her brother off, the Crown Princess was alone in the flower hall, but she couldn't help but let her wild thoughts run wild.
It was not a rare thing for the prince to host a private banquet to entertain Sun Shaozong, in her opinion, but why did he insist on asking her to join him?
This is really impolite!
Could it be that...
Could it be that the prince has discovered the shameful things I have done in private?
But this shouldn't be the case.
Even the palace maids around her were unaware of such a secret matter, let alone the prince who she hadn't seen for ten days or half a month.
So what is his purpose in making such an arrangement?
The Crown Princess was completely puzzled.
But this is normal. No matter how smart she is, how could she have imagined that the prince wanted to use the two of them as "medicine leads"?
…
Two flowers bloom, each showing its own beauty.
However, after Sun Zhaolin had made all the arrangements, he returned to the front hall still distracted, and saw that the banquet had almost ended. Several officials from the Imperial College were surrounding Sun Shaozong in a corner and talking to him.
He had an idea in his mind, and quietly moved closer, listening for a moment, but was greatly disappointed.
It turned out that these officials from the Imperial College were also trying to find out the details of Lin Qisheng's case.
Although the officials of the Imperial College were not among the censors, they also belonged to the clean stream of the literati. Naturally, they paid more attention to Lin Qisheng, the leader of the clean stream, than to others.
However, Sun Shaozong just kept making excuses and refused to reveal the details.
According to his heart, Sun Shaozong did not want to stop Lin Qisheng's beastly behavior at all, but after all, this old beast had many students and old friends throughout the court and the country, and he did not want to become the target of public criticism just because of a momentary verbal pleasure.
If it were an ordinary official, seeing that Sun Shaozong remained silent, he would most likely guess that there was something he couldn't reveal, and then take the initiative to change the subject.
Unfortunately, most of the people in the Imperial College were bookworms who were not familiar with common affairs and were fond of getting to the bottom of things. So they asked questions again and again, making Sun Shaozong exhausted.
Just as he was thinking hard about how to get out of this situation, there was suddenly silence around him, and then everyone bowed to him from behind:
"Master of the Imperial Court."
It turned out to be the birthday god Gongsun Tao who came looking for him.
Sun Shaozong also hurriedly turned around to greet them, but saw Sun Tao waved his hand and said, "No need to be polite, I just came here to give you a few words - Shaozong, don't be in a hurry to leave, I have something else here, I need your help to look into it."
After this birthday banquet, the fact that the two families were related had become widely known, so it was not surprising that the uncle kept his nephew to talk.
Therefore, everyone did not think much about it and dispersed in groups of three or five.
Only Sun Zhaolin sensed something was wrong, and quietly followed behind his father. While no one else was paying attention, he asked in a low voice, "Father, did you want to keep Brother Shaozong, or did the prince instruct you to do so?"
Sun Tao glanced at his son but said nothing.
Upon seeing this, Sun Zhaolin hurriedly repeated what his sister had asked him to do before, which was to hold a separate banquet at home.
Sun Tao nodded and said, "I see."
He glanced at Sun Shaozong, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally, and then lowered his voice and ordered, "Tell your sister to keep a close eye on him. Even if it is impolite, it is better than letting our Sun family bear the stigma of instigating the crown prince to be disobedient and unfilial!"
Obviously, because of Xu Furen's failure to join the cabinet, he was also worried that the prince would take risks out of panic.
In this way, the Crown Princess received two warnings, both of which asked her to be informal about etiquette, but she could not disobey these two orders.
She had no choice but to cheer herself up and wait for the job of accompanying guests to drink.
