xymnovel Chapter 347 Where is Xu Longxiang, the King of the North? Why hasn't he come to present gifts?
Chapter 347 Where is Xu Longxiang, the King of the North? Why hasn't he come to present gifts?
Qin Mu opened the brocade box and took out the official letter.
The official letter was written on bright yellow silk, with Zhao Qingxue's own handwriting on it, written in cinnabar. Each character was elegant and powerful, with sharp strokes, just like her.
The lower right corner of the silk was stamped with the imperial seal of the Li Yang royal family, the bright red mark clear and upright.
After Qin Mu finished reading it, he put the letter back into the brocade box and closed the lid.
"Accurate," he said.
Zhang Julu's body trembled slightly.
The trembling started in the shoulders, spread down the spine, to the hands, and to the fingertips.
He slowly straightened up, raised his head, and looked at the moon-white figure in the main seat, and then at the bright red figure in the main seat.
His eyes reddened.
His lips parted slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but something seemed to be blocking his throat, and he couldn't squeeze out a single word.
He simply knelt there, looking at Zhao Qingxue, at the woman he had watched grow up since she was a child, who had never cried since she was eight years old, and who was now sitting upright beside the Emperor of Qin with a faint smile on her face.
Zhao Qingxue was also looking at him.
She looked into his reddened, cloudy, and world-weary eyes, his gray beard, and his aged, wrinkled face.
Her fingers tightened slightly inside her sleeve, then loosened again.
The smile on her lips was still there, the curve and the depth unchanged, but something beneath that smile had shattered.
It shattered quietly, without a sound or a trace, so quietly that she could hardly notice it herself.
Zhang Julu slowly stood up and stepped aside.
Gu Jiantang stood up and stepped back to his side.
Li Chunfeng stood up and stepped back to Gu Jiantang's side.
Three people, three pairs of eyes, all gazed at the head of the table, at the woman they had served loyally for their entire lives.
She was no longer just the Empress of Liyang; she was the Empress of Qin.
But she was still herself, still the stubborn, proud Zhao Qingxue who hadn't cried since she was eight years old, the one who pulled them out of despair.
This is enough.
As long as she's still here, as long as she's alright, as long as she still has a smile on her face—that's enough.
Qin Mu placed the official letter aside and said calmly, "Everyone, please rise."
The officials rose and returned to their seats.
The hall was quiet for a moment, then the sound of string and wind instruments filled the air.
That was the performance by the most outstanding musicians of the Jiaofangsi (Imperial Music Bureau). The sounds of various instruments, such as the qin, se, sheng, xiao, zhong, gu, and qing, intertwined to form a solemn yet joyful musical movement.
The music contained ancient rituals, royal majesty, the joy of a newlywed couple, and an indescribable, comforting, and warm atmosphere of everyday life.
Dancers filed out from the side of the hall, dressed in scarlet gowns and holding long red ribbons, and danced gracefully in the center of the hall.
Their dance was graceful and dignified; every turn and every glance was just right, neither overly seductive nor lacking in agility.
The red silk fluttered in their hands, like pieces of red clouds, drifting around the hall and making the red silk in the hall even more vibrant.
Qin Mu leaned back in his chair, propping his chin up with one hand, his gaze fixed on the dancers, a half-smile playing on his lips, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Zhao Qingxue sat upright beside him, her gaze also falling on the dancers, but there was nothing in her eyes, only a calm, as calm as a lake without waves, with bottomless water, and no one knew what was at the bottom.
Just then, the palace maid's voice rang out again: "The envoy from Xiliang—presenting gifts—"
A burly middle-aged man walked in.
He wore the distinctive clothing of the Western Liang people, a long robe with narrow sleeves, a leather belt around his waist, and leather boots on his feet. His gait carried the boldness and ruggedness unique to the nomadic people of the grasslands.
His face was plastered with a smile, a smile as bright as the midday sun on the grassland, but there was no smile in his eyes.
He walked to the center of the hall, stopped, and bowed deeply to the head of the hall.
As he straightened up, his smile widened, and his voice boomed like a bell:
"Tuoba Ye, the envoy from Xiliang, is here by order of my lord to congratulate His Majesty the Emperor of Great Qin on his new marriage. I hereby present a thousand fine horses from Xiliang, a hundred sable pelts, ten luminous pearls, and a coral tree. May Your Majesty and the Empress live in harmony and grow old together."
After he finished speaking, he bowed deeply again, his smile remaining unchanged throughout.
But Zhao Qingxue noticed that when he bent down, his eyes were like those of a wolf lurking in the grass, only showing themselves for a moment before disappearing back into the shadows.
Qin Mu nodded, his voice soft and languid: "Your Majesty of Xiliang are too kind. Please take a seat."
Tuoba Ye bowed again and stepped down to sit on a side seat.
He picked up his wine cup, raised it to Qin Mu, and drank it all in one gulp.
The liquor spilled from the corner of his mouth, slid down his chin, and dripped onto his Hu-style clothes. He didn't wipe it off, but just wiped it with his sleeve, grinned, and revealed a set of teeth that were yellowed from tobacco and alcohol.
The eunuch's voice rang out again: "The envoy from Northern Mang—presenting gifts—"
A thin, middle-aged man with a sinister face walked in.
He wore a dark robe typical of the Northern Barbarians, with a black cloak over it. He walked with a light and steady gait, like a cat stalking in the night.
He also had a smile on his face, but it was much fainter than Tuoba Ye's, as faint as a thin layer of frost on a windowpane in winter, which would shatter at the slightest touch of a finger.
He walked to the center of the hall, stopped, and bowed slightly.
The bow was very small, almost negligible, but his voice was extremely respectful, so respectful that it was impeccable.
"Yelü Gu, the envoy from Northern Mang, is here by order of my lord to congratulate His Majesty the Emperor of Great Qin on his marriage. I hereby present a thousand fine horses, ten thousand catties of black iron, one hundred catties of ginseng, and a thousand sable pelts from Northern Mang. May His Majesty and His Majesty the Empress be forever united in heart and live ten thousand years."
Qin Mu looked at him, his deep eyes lingering on his face for a moment.
"Please take a seat," Qin Mu said.
Yelü Gu bowed again and stepped back to sit on a seat to the side.
Unlike Tuoba Ye, he didn't raise his cup and drink heartily. Instead, he picked up his wine cup, took a small sip, and then put the cup down.
The voices of palace maids rang out one after another.
"The Nanzhao envoy—presenting gifts—"
He had a smile on his face, a smile as sincere as a mountain spring, but in his eyes there was an indescribable, cautious probing.
"The envoy from the East Sea—presenting a gift—" An elderly man with a thin face, dressed in a white robe, walked in, holding a white jade box in his hands, inside which was a fist-sized luminous pearl.
"The envoy from the Western Regions—presenting gifts—"
A middle-aged man with a high nose and deep-set eyes, dressed in a magnificent Hu-style robe, walked in.
He had a smile on his face, a smile as bright as the desert sun, but in his eyes there was an inexplicable, shrewd calculation.
One envoy after another entered the palace, presenting gifts and offering words of congratulations.
Everyone wore a smile, a smile that was either radiant, gentle, respectful, or obsequious.
But there was no real smile in anyone's eyes.
After everyone had presented their gifts, Qin Mu looked around and said calmly:
"Where is King Xu Longxiang of the North? Why didn't he come to present gifts?"