229 Untitled (2/2)
”Clang.”
The sound of the ruyi hitting the ground startled everyone.
Xuanyuan Cheng too scrounged his brows—select randomly? Even though he had a surprised expression—random was fine too; besides, things had already come to this point anyway.
The ruyi fell to the ground.
It skidded between Yuwen Zi and Hua Zhirong.
Hua Zhirong was so tense that her back was as straight as a rod and her eyes were fixed intently on the spinning ruyi. However, the ruyi soon came to a stop, landing on Yu Wenzi's name.
Yuwen Zi!
The entire palace was so silent one could hear a pin drop. The only sound came from the shrill voice of a eunuch as he called out the name, and all the other candidates huffed in anger—not because they weren't selected, but because the selection process was way too arduous and tortuous. All of the girls had waited with halted breaths, yet the pretty emperor purposely dragged the process on and made them anxious beyond relief.
Now that the position of empress had been decided, despite their disappointment, the girls were finally free. Only Hua Zhirong's face was filled with hatred and anger as she glared at the jade ruyi in the golden plate—it had clearly moved towards her, so how did it slide to Yuwen Zi's name?
Without any change in expression, Meng Fuyao received the ruyi and said, ”Yuwen Zi expresses her gratitude!”
Xuanyuan Min personally went to get her and Meng Fuyao lifted her eyes, making eye contact with him. Both of them were smiling merrily, and one party's eyes were filled with satisfaction while the other was clearly saying, ”We'll see, we'll see”.
Xuanyuan Cheng was watching from the side, the steam from the tea he was holding clouding his deeply contemplating eyes. Naturally, he knew that Xuanyuan Min especially favored Yu Wenzi, and it seemed like he had actually done some preparation in order to select her today. However, he didn't mind Xuanyuan Min's little trick; if a member of the Xuanyuan family didn't have any motives, then that would be abnormal instead. Now that he had selected his beloved as the empress, that was fine as well. At least he wouldn't have any excuses not to see the empress. Moreover… He smiled behind the faint trail of steam. No matter what, since he had already given his opinion, Tang Yiguang and Jian Xue definitely had to be chosen. Since he did not make things difficult for Xuanyuan Min today, if Xuanyuan Min understood his intentions, he would know that he had already taken a step back. Hence, in the selection of consorts, the choices would naturally be clear.
He was very clear about it, but Xuanyuan Min seemed to be extremely satisfied at having a wife that he had forgotten about the four consorts, preparing to leave with Meng Fuyao. The eunuch supervising the rites coughed loudly and unnaturally, and an official beside him stepped forward and tugged at his sleeve. ”Your Majesty, the four consorts…” he whispered.
”Oh…” As though he suddenly remembered, Xuanyuan Min waved his sleeve and announced, ”Let the Regent King decide, I think anyone is fine, the delicate are delicate, the proper are proper.”
Following that, he pulled Meng Fuyao's sleeve again and walked towards the palace. Meng Fuyao covered her face with a sleeve ”shyly” and glanced back at the Regent King for help.
Finally, Xuanyuan Cheng couldn't stand it any longer and cleared his throat. ”Your Majesty, where are you going?” he said.
”Going back to sing opera,” Xuanyuan Min replied gleefully. ”After singing… then we can talk about matters of the heart.”
The palace was filled with the sound of coughing as Xuanyuan Cheng replied, ”Your Majesty, this is the empress, wouldn't it be too demeaning to just drag her into the palace like this?”
Xuanyuan Min sighed and let go of Meng Fuyao's hand, then asked, frowning, ”When will the official ceremony be held, today?”
”When the common folks marry, they also don't marry on the same day, but first pay a visit. There are also many ceremonies involved, much less for the royalty? According to tradition, the empress should be invited from the mother's house and brought to the palace, but since Empress Yuwen's family is far away in Changning and she has no other relatives in the city, the Regent King's manor can be considered as her house. I will treat her as my real younger sister and send her off lavishly.”
Turning to the ministry of rites, he ordered, ”Prepare to issue an announcement to the nation, the emperor is about to get married, and send invitations to the royal families of the other nations.” Following that, he smiled and stood up. He turned to face Meng Fuyao and bowed, saying, ”It is a true honor for the Regent King's manor to produce an empress.”
Meng Fuyao bowed courteously and reciprocated, ”It is merely this little sister's fortune, the credit goes to elder brother.”
She secretly shook off the goosebumps growing on her arms, suddenly remembering a very serious problem—It seemed like the Xuanyuan family's succession tradition was something like ”if the emperor dies, the younger brother takes over”, so Xuanyuan Cheng and Xuanyuan Min were both of the same generation as Prince Wenyi; now that she was ”married” to Xuanyuan Min, wouldn't that make her Zong Yue's aunt?
'Oh, hahahahaha…'
Aunt Meng envisioned a certain poison-tongued, cold, young man dressed in flowy white robes calling her ”aunt”, and cracked a wry smile.
Xuanyuan Min eyed her strangely. 'This woman is really not right in the head, doesn't she know what position she is in already? It's clear that Xuanyuan Cheng has let her into his manor because he doesn't trust her and there is a high chance that he will test her again, yet she can still smile so carefreely…'
On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month of the twelfth year of the Zhaoning era in Xuanyuan, the royal Xuanyuan family had finally selected the empress from the Yuwen family. It also so happened that the new queen came from the north of Xuanyuan, from the Changning Wang tribe, and was distantly related to the Regent King. Hence currently, all the attention was upon the Regent King's manor. After thirteen days, the Regent King's manor would send Yuwen Zi off as a younger sister with a lavish ceremony for her to be wedded into the imperial palace. a curved decorative object that serves as a ceremonial scepter symbolizing power and good fortune in Chinese folklore. A traditional ruyi has a long S-shaped handle and a head fashioned like a fist, cloud, or lingzhi mushroom