Chapter 33: State Banquet

Translator: Shi Xiao Ling

Editor: Asada

The palace workers shuttled between the tables as they were setting up the table. The people of Chen Dynasty were used to sitting cross legged or to kneel, especially among the upper classes and nobility, which symbolized a kind of etiquette.

However, it was quite common for folk tables and chairs to be matched. The common people are busy living and eating. They are busy working. They are not so poor and fastidious. They eat on stools.

This cross legged kneeling etiquette was also used in the state banquet. The floor was covered with a thick woolen blanket, and the long tables were shared by three people, arranged one by one according to their ranks.

Before the emperor arrived, the palace workers placed the objects and served the dishes under the guidance of the chief eunuch.

The so-called objects refer to the flowers’ arrangements and decorations. The Chen Dynasty’s national flower was a kind of blue flower, which blooms brightly and compellingly. The flowers were stacked one after another, with the golden core in the middle. It was decorated with a little bright yellow colour, which looked very beautiful. Compared with the richness of peony, it was not inferior, but it added some noble and cool temperament, which was loved by people.

This flower was called blue tail, also known as the imperial flower. It could be seen that the people of the Chen Dynasty loved and admired it. A perfect vase was placed on each table. A blue tail was inserted in the vase alone, which was elegant and beautiful.

The front dish was some fruit desserts. All the fruits were unique tributes in the palace. They were usually not available outside. Officials of four or more grades in the whole court had brought their families into the palace. Only legitimate children could follow their father into the palace. There was no limit to the number of people brought though.

This was a rare chance to see the world. Ministers had brought all their wives and children, even three or five-year-old baby girls.

The little dumpling was led by the emperor. She was too short, and her father was too tall. She stretched her little hand hard. Wei Jue bent down a little and Mr. Xiao Yuzi stopped him, “Your Majesty, this is a state banquet, held only once a year. Let the little princess walk by herself. “

He didn’t say anything unreasonable, after all, the emperor could take the people to the new era of prosperity in this Dynasty, holding onto and sitting on the Dragon throne. Why would he care about these trivial manners?

But the emperor was not afraid of anything. After all, the princess was a girl. If she had a good reputation in the future and could find an excellent son-in-law for him when she grows up, that would be wonderful. But, Mr. Xiao Yuzi was really heartbroken just thinking about it.

“Ministers will all look up to you. After all, you are the Lord of the world(1). No one can care about you. But if the princess has a good reputation in the court, it would be better for her when she grows up in the future.”

What Mr.Xiao Yuzi actually meant by this was that this was the first time that the little princess was appearing on a formal occasion. It was not only the ministers of the imperial court, but also some retired senior ministers and patriarchal elders. It was better to pay attention to such details.

Wei Jue slowed down and let the little dumpling walk on her short legs. Fortunately, she didn’t have to walk a lot. She had come here in the imperial chariot before and had to take a few steps.

The eunuchs high pitched voice sang as they entered: “The Emperor has arrived, Princess Chaoyang has arrived!”

“Long live the emperor, long live the princess!” After the ministers knelt down to salute. The emperor said in a low voice, “Please get up.”

Then the emperor sat on the Dragon throne.

As for the three-year-old princess that the emperor had brought back from outside the palace, the emperor was still very fond of her. She was carried into the court by the Emperor every day. This news has already spread all over Chang’an City.

All the civil and military officials in the court had only seen the back of the princess’s head, but not the front of her face. After all, every time the emperor held her, the little princess was sleeping. Everyone had been curious for a long time, not to mention the family members who couldn’t believe it after hearing the rumors.

Everyone looked up quietly and saw clearly.

The emperor led the little princess with a slow pace. The little princess was wearing a bright yellow palace Dress and it was the same color as the Dragon Robe of the emperor. As the emperor led the little princess, everyone was looking at them shocked. They could see that the emperor’s value and love for the princess seemed far more than what they heard in the rumors.

Just look at the little princess. She was raised to be chubby and fair. She was very cute.

The child was still small but she learned from the emperor’s cold expression and mimicked it with her small chubby face. But, she was still very young in the end, her big clear eyes couldn’t bear her curiosity and her eyes were looking around at everyone. Her face was red with excitement and she seemed to be both nervous and excited at the same time.

From their point of view, the princess had a lively and naive character, far from the cruel image of the emperor, but they really looked like father and daughter wearing clothes of the same color.

As she was waiting for a seat, the little dumpling took it for granted to sit on the Dragon chair under the emperor’s buttock, and shared a chair with the emperor. Although the Dragon chair was wide, it was also possible to sit with two more dumplings like her, but it was also a surprise to the public.

It was a happy day in the end. No one was looking for anything to pick on, not to mention to lose the emperor’s face. The emperor was pretending as if this was nothing special after all.

The so-called state banquet was a feast for both the monarch and the ministers. It was not like the longevity Festival in which they had to offer gifts. There was no such rule here.

The eunuch Li’er announced that the auspicious time had come, the state banquet had begun. The pamphlets had been spread out for a long time regarding the great events that had happened in the past year and what achievements the emperor had made, then they listened to all the officials one by one.

After reading the pamphlets and praying that the next year’s state banquet will be better. Year after year, the banquet would start like this after a long opening speech.

The little dumpling was a three-years-old child. After listening to the reading of the passage for half an hour, she couldn’t sit still, but in order not to lose face, she stifled but sat still. Her little chubby face was taut, and her little claws secretly grasped the cuff of her father’s robe and held it back and forth.

When the ceremony announced that the banquet had started and was ready to eat, the little dumpling breathed a long sigh of relief and spit out her tongue. Finally, she was able to eat. Yinyin was starving!

When she was hungry, the little dumpling expected that her father would be hungry too. She could not wait to grab the nearest plate of cakes, pinch two of them, put one in his mouth, and handed the other to Wei Jue. Then she said in a tearful voice, “Father, you can also eat it.”

Some of the ministers noticed this scene and secretly thought that the emperor was the one who was the most fortunate, this was akin to an addiction. Even if the three-year-old was really naive, she was so spoiled by the emperor that she didn’t know the immensity of the earth. How dare she feed the emperor? They were afraid that the emperor would fume in anger.

Who didn’t know the emperor was extremely obsessed with cleanliness, but to everybody’s surprise he took the cake with his hand and ate it without any expression of disgust.

That was a cake! It’s sweet and greasy, and somebody’s paws had already touched it, yet the emperor ate it?!

A minister opened his eyes wide and looked back. He couldn’t believe what he had seen and he asked the person beside him by poking him with his elbows, “Did you just see that! The emperor ate the cake fed by the little princess?”

The person next to him was also in a trance. “It seems that I have seen that too…”

“…”

It was not the only matter that that dazzled the public. The state banquet made the little princess a big star, which left a deep impression on the ministers and officials.

Due to the presence of a little princess, after asking for the emperor’s advice, Mr. Xiao Yuzi said to the officials and eunuchs in charge of the banquet specifically that all the songs and dances with meanings not suitable for children should be put away, and the decorations of the whole banquet was also quite simple.

If it was not for such a dignified occasion as the state banquet,Chief Eunuch Mr. Xiao Yuzi, would even have proposed that children’s programs be held so that the little princess could also open her eyes to the big world and enjoy herself.

The banquet program, which was so dignified that the officials couldn’t help but look at the emperor again and again, Chief Eunuch Mr. Xiao Yuzi, who was waiting on the side, was showing a reserved smile and hiding his pride.

But in the end, it was Royal songs and dances, and the choreography was dignified. This also opened the eyes of this little illiterate girl who hadn’t seen much of the world. Her eyes were bright, her tiny mouth was opened, and she didn’t even care about her favorite food. Her eyes were glued to the beautiful big sisters who were dancing and playing the instruments. She was clapping her hands and exclaiming, “Wow! It’s so powerful. Beautiful sisters are so powerful. They dance so well! “

The little dumpling had some vision and some envy. Even a small dumpling loves beauty and has a dream in her heart. She wondered if she could grow up as beautiful as these big sisters, dance, play the instruments and be the most beautiful girl!

Wei Jue raised his eyelids and glanced casually at the dancers. He was not interested and lowered his eyes. He saw the little dumplings excited face and admired it. Her eyes were so bright. He looked at her in silence.

He wrinkled his brow and reached for a chopstick, took some chicken and placed it before the mouth of the little dumpling, and said simply: “Eat.”

The little dumpling’s attention was drawn back to the emperor. She turned her head and looked at her father. She smiled and opened her mouth to eat. She did not forget to praise that the meat from his father’s plate was delicious!

Just to share with him what she saw, she said “Father, these beautiful sisters dance so well and look good!”

She was a little worried and with a yearning look she asked, “Daddy, can Yinyin look so beautiful when she grows up?”

The man looked at the little dumpling’s big bright eyes, and after a little silence, he said, “Aren’t you the second best-looking person?”

If he had said this to others, maybe they wouldn’t understand it, but the little dumpling knew it too well. Her eyes brightened suddenly and she clapped her little hand and said, “Yes, my father is right. YinYin is the second best-looking person in the world. How could she not be beautiful and powerful! When I grow up, I may be more powerful than any of these beautiful sisters! “

For the first time, the cold corners of the man’s mouth were hooked, and the people who saw this scene were stunned. The princess who just fed the emperor a pastry and the emperor who had raised his noble dragon’s hand to feed the princess with chicken, the psychological endurance of the people improved step by step.

Now it was hard to see the scene of the emperor with a smile in his eyes. It was even more incredible!

That was the young emperor who dared to personally chop people’s heads and kill people without blinking! The emperor smiled, and it looked so funny that people couldn’t touch their heads. However, people’s mental barriers were broken again and again.

The little dumpling didn’t feel that anything was wrong. In her opinion, it was strange that dad doesn’t smile and hurt himself!

When this group of dancers did the closing ceremony, the performance was over, the girl clapped her hands hard with obvious delight on her face. Little YinYin shouted loudly, “You all are so wonderful!”

The dancers were stunned and bent down. Since the beginning, they had felt an extremely hot eye on them. They were the most attentive while they were dancing. But they didn’t dare to look up in the middle of their performance. Only now did they see that the person was a little princess.

They were appreciated by the three-year-old princess, but not by the emperor, and the dancers were very happy. When the little princess praised people, she was very sincere. Just look at her bright eyes, which seemed to have starlights in them, and her small hands were all red from clapping too hard. You could see how much she liked their dancing.

When the dancers left the stage, several brave people secretly looked up at the little princess sitting on the edge of the emperor’s seat with their spare eyes.

The little princess was small. Her body was mostly hidden away by the large table. Only her face was seen. She looked delicate and lovely. She was waving her little claws to say the dancers goodbye.

From this day on, there was a legend that there was a little princess in the dance shop(2) of the palace. The dancers loved the little princess very much. It was a pity that they couldn’t see her easily, but it didn’t prevent them from practicing dance more diligently, so that they could be chosen again at the next party and dance for the little princess.

The world only regarded them as lowly dancing prostitutes, and they weren’t appreciated for their talents. Only this small dumpling appreciated them sincerely. How could they not be happy?

The officials had come with their families in this state banquet. The children of these families were brought out to see the world. For the children with father’s with high grades , the children were also sitting close to the front, closer to the emperor’s seat.

The adults were secretly watching the emperor and the little princess. They dared not be bold. The young kids didn’t have such scruples. They open their eyes wide and look at the little princess beside the emperor.

It was said that she was picked up by the emperor outside the palace.

Young children watched for a long time, they ate and they watched. They were not interested in singing and dancing. They did not dare to be interested in the emperor, but they were very interested in the little princess. After seeing the beautiful little princess, they immediately admired the little princess.

Look, the little princess is so brave that she even sits beside the emperor who was so fierce that he could scare the children so much as to stop crying babies at night. How powerful!

In the young children’s mind, under the influence of the adults at home, the impression of the emperor was that he was fierce and terrible, and he would eat people, just like a tiger.

So the little princess who dared to sit beside the emperor aroused their respect.

Sitting in the front row, the grandson of the Taishidda family looked at the little princess with bright eyes, without blinking. His mother slapped him and scolded him to sit down and eat obediently. To not look blindly here and there. She also whispered in her son’s ear: “Look down, or the emperor will throw you to feed the tiger.”

Cao Lian, the prince’s(3) own young grandson, reluctantly took back his eyes. “Mother, I like the little princess. Can I make friends with her?”

The same scene happened among several other children.

At ordinary times, these arrogant and gifted children would not have made friends with such a little girl. But when they saw that the little princess was not afraid of the scary emperor, they all thought that the little princess must be very brave!

The great grandson of the old Prime Minister’s family took two bites and swallowed the whole thing in his mouth. He asked his great grandfather: “Grandfather, why is the little princess not afraid of the emperor?”

The old Prime Minister narrowed his eyes and his voice was very soft, “Because, ah, the princess is the emperor’s child.”

Beloved child, did the emperor even feel like a father?

The child didn’t hear clearly, “What do you say, Grandpa?”

The old Prime Minister touched his little head and joked lovingly: “Do you want to make friends with the little princess?”

The child nodded heavily with an eager red face.

Just think about it.