Before Ren Baqian arrived, there were already some people there. A few men dressed in red and purple ceremonial robes entered the palace without stopping. Some of the attendants recorded the gifts and waited outside the palace.
Ren Baqian listened to a few of them. When those attendants wrote down their gifts, they would read them out loud. For example, thirteen warm sun grass, one Heaven-grade weapon and so on.
After waiting for a while, Ren Baqian pondered for a while while writing down his gifts. Not to mention the people from the other three nations, just the officials of the imperial court alone would probably send a lot of gifts. In addition to the gifts brought by the people from the other three nations, the number of gifts would probably be huge.
It was impossible for the empress to look through everyone's gifts. At most, she would choose the ones that she was interested in to look at. The rest would be directly sent to the imperial treasury. As such, how the gifts were written was very important.
After all, if these things were not sent to the empress, then they would not be able to curry favor with her. Other people's gifts could be more ordinary. After all, with their status, it didn't matter if their gifts were outstanding. As long as they weren't too shabby, it would be fine.
However, Ren Baqian was different from all the other Dayao officials.
After he reported his name, the surrounding people looked at Ren Baqian in astonishment.
However, he was after all a Secondary class, Rank 6 official. Naturally, no one said anything.
They just felt that he was being too arrogant.
After writing down the gifts, someone would naturally send the items to the palace. As for the list of gifts, the empress would look through it.
Ren Baqian waved his hand at Tie Dao and Teng Hulu, indicating that they could go back first. He then walked into the palace.
There was a maid leading the way in front. Not far away, there were other people following the maid. Ren Baqian did not look around and obediently followed them to the front of an unfamiliar huge palace.
At this moment, there were two rows of tables in the palace. What Ren Baqian liked was that there were two chairs behind each table. It was much more comfortable than kneeling in ancient costume dramas.
There weren't many people inside. On the left side of the palace hall, there were several burly men with short hair or bald heads talking and laughing loudly. The voices were very messy. On the opposite side, a few people from the other three nations had arrived. They were all sitting at the tables with their eyes closed.
Ren Baqian did not attract much attention when he entered. His seat was the outermost on the left side near the main door. After being led to his seat, he thanked the maid and sat in his seat in a daze.
Next, he saw many big shots in the imperial court, but he didn't recognize any of them.
The big shots of the imperial court who came later were mostly men with short hair or bald heads, and they all had strong bodies. The women, on the other hand, all looked very valiant. They were also dressed in formal attire, but it was more complicated than the men's.
The female officials in Dayao weren't like those in ancient China, who were all in the palace. The proportion of female officials in the outer court of Dayao wasn't low. After all, the empress was the strongest in Dayao, and the aboriginal women weren't necessarily weaker than the men.
However, aboriginal women were mostly officials in the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Appointments. They were in charge of taxation and official assessments. Very few of them joined the army.
Liu Ruoyao's mother was the Imperial Treasurer, in charge of money and grain.
Not long after, Mister Emptiness, Ning Caichen, and the others also arrived. Ning Caichen did not know where his spirit sword was. In any case, he came alone. It was the same for Mister Emptiness. He did not bring any of the four beauties with him.
What made Ren Baqian slightly surprised was that Ning Caichen was actually sitting in the middle of the hall, slightly in front, while Mister Emptiness was sitting in the middle and slightly behind. Both of them were only seven or eight seats apart.
As time passed, the empty hall began to fill up, but the seats of honor on both sides were still empty.
The people who came next were the real big shots, such as the Second Elder. There were three empty seats at the very front. Other than the Second Elder, there was still one more seat, but no one knew who it was.
Next, the Seventh Prince of Great Xia arrived. This time around, he was the guest of honor from the three nations. Naturally, he was seated in the seat of honor on the right side.
After the Seventh Prince came in, he immediately cast his gaze in Ren Baqian's direction and nodded at the person who had the same face as him.
It wasn't only him. When he came in, the rest of the people also looked at him and Ren Baqian.
After all, there were two people who looked exactly the same. One was the Seventh Prince of Great Xia, and the other was a Secondary class, Rank 6 official of Dayao. This kind of situation made many people feel that it was interesting.
The moment Ren Baqian saw the Seventh Prince, his heart surged with the same impulse he had previously. Furthermore, this feeling was even stronger than before. This made him squint his eyes slightly.
After the Seventh Prince brought his people to the seat of honor on the right side and sat down, Ren Baqian lowered his head slightly. His gaze was on the table, and he clenched his fists tightly for a while before releasing them.
When an elder who was much thinner and weaker than the rest of the aboriginals entered the palace, and his posture wasn't as straight as before, the noises in the palace quieted down a lot. Following which, everyone stood up and greeted him. Even those arrogant big shots in the army lowered their voices when they saw him.
This person was the Great Elder, Shi Qing. It was because of him that there were so many people in the Shi family's stronghold who held office in the palace.
For example, Shi Hu and Shi Wanshan.
Shi Qing was dressed in a deep red ceremonial robe. If it wasn't for the scar on his face, he would look like an old man on the street.
Similarly, the Junior Elder, Zhe Kouhai, and Shi Qing entered almost one after the other. After the two of them arrived, the noises in the palace quieted down a lot, and the rest of the people were more or less quiet.
The two of them sat on the second and third seats on the left side. Only the seat of honor was still empty, and many people's gazes drifted to that seat from time to time.
Even Ren Baqian could roughly guess who that seat belonged to.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, an ordinary-looking middle-aged man who gave off the impression of a towering mountain entered the palace. Everyone quietened down. Even the Second Elder didn't behave like this when he entered.
Everyone stood up as a form of respect for the strong.
"Sir Hong Wu!" Everyone greeted him. In particular, the voices of the big shots in the army were the loudest.
On the right side, the people from the three nations also focused their attention on this man who could be said to be the most prestigious person in Dayao. Everyone was somewhat curious about Hong Wu.
After Hong Wu sat down, the noises in the palace became much quieter. Everyone knew that the banquet was about to begin.
At this moment, Ren Baqian adjusted his mood and looked at the opposite side. There was a row of gigolos sitting in front of him. There were all kinds of them. There were the handsome boy type, the handsome man type, the playboy type, the melancholic and melancholy type …
If this group of people were to be placed in the other nations, they might really attract the screams of many young girls who yearned for love and become a good couple.
However, when he thought of the empress's cold temperament and martial arts, Ren Baqian felt that these people probably wouldn't stand a chance.
After all, the empress wasn't a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl who hadn't seen the world before. She couldn't be deceived with just her looks. It was useless even if one's eyes could electrify. Ren Baqian looked at the peach blossom eyes opposite him and shuddered.
Just as Ren Baqian was sizing them up, grading, and letting his imagination run wild, a group of maids served the dishes.
This time, the palace really quieted down.
The kind of absolute silence.
Everyone looked at the dishes in front of them and thought, "What the hell is this?"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
