It was not until he stepped into the vast and magnificent space of the Taiji Palace Hall did Kou Zhong find out how popular he was in Chang’an. It did not matter whether it was somebody he knew or not, everybody was striving to greet him and to climb the friendship ladder with him.

While he was extremely busy with these people, Mei Xun patted his shoulder and said, “Xiaodi will have to ask to be excused! Later on I will find Mo Xiansheng to drink and be merry; let Xiaodi be the little host.”

Kou Zhong was stunned, “Where is Mei Zhangmen [headmaster] going?” he asked.

Chang He laughed and said, “Mei Zhangmen is not going anywhere; he just need to go to his assigned seat. Momentarily we have to part company!”

Mei Xun laughed aloud and left by himself.

Chang He pulled Kou Zhong toward a banquet table near the main table; he explained, “Jiancheng Taizi is taking up eight tables, Qin Wang six tables, but Qi Wang’s quota is only four tables. All seats are reserved for nobilities. Mei Xun could only sit on the table allocated to Qi Wang.”

Kou Zhong understood. He said, “Xiaodi naturally will sit with Laoye, Gongzi, and the others at the table allocated to Taizi Dianxia, right?”

Chang He laughed and said, “Your LaoGe is some kind of VIP; we are going to sit on the table allocated to Huangshang. Over there!”

Kou Zhong followed him toward the third banquet table on the east. Two high-ranking officials stood up and said, “Mo Xiansheng, please sit down!”

Kou Zhong looked up. Unexpectedly they were Liu Zhenghui and Wen Yanbo of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, whom he met at the Sifang Lou earlier. Promptly he returned the greeting.

Liu Zhenghui personally introduced him to various men around the banquet table; all were top rank officials of various ministries and departments.

Kou Zhong sat down between Liu Zhenghui and Chang He. Two of the seats were still vacant. After chatting and laughing for a moment, Kou Zhong could not bear not to ask, “Who are not here yet?”

Liu Zhenghui laughed and said, “On this, you must ask Old Wen.”

Wen Yanbo said, “One is an important foreign envoy. According to etiquette, we ought to wait for him, and not let him waiting for us! Now Xiaodi must ask to be excused.”

Kou Zhong did not take it to heart. Leaning toward Chang He, he said, “This kind of feast is so boring that people want to get the bird out of it, so when can we go out to play?”

Chang He awkwardly said, “I thought you were going to sit at Taizi Dianxia’s allocated table, so that slipping away would not be too conspicuous. But now …”

Noticing the two whispering to one another’s ear, Liu Zhenghui was curious, “What is it?” he asked.

Kou Zhong smiled bitterly and replied, “Nothing, it’s just my grand plan of touring the outside is done for.”

※ ※ ※

Sitting together with him were all Heavenly Policy Mansion’s martial art masters, including Zhangsun Wuji, Yuchi Jingde, Li Jing, husband and wife, Pang Yu, Luo Shixin, and Liu Dewei. There were still four empty seats, but he did not know whom they were reserved for. Xu Ziling was not like Kou Zhong; although inwardly he was apprehensive, he was well aware that it was inappropriate to ask. Fortunately Zhangsun Wuji was not sitting by his side, otherwise Xu Ziling would have to keep warding off his questions.

Palace maids and court eunuchs poured wine for them. Pang Yu, sitting on his left, sighed and said, “I wonder who will be the lucky one tonight to sit by Xiufang Dajia’s side.”

Although the main hall was packed with people, but since this was imperial court banquet, everybody was solemn and exercising self-control, no one dared to make a racket, hence the atmosphere remained serious.

Hong Funu laughed and swore in a low voice, “In my opinion, Xiufang’s heart already belongs to someone. Yu Gongzi must not be carried away by your wishful thinking.”

No one present was not emotionally moved, yet no one was not without envy either.

‘Yu Gongzi’ [lit. jade young master] was Pang Yu’s nickname-in-jest at the Heavenly Policy Mansion.

Hearing that, he was shaken. “Which lucky guy could really make people envious and jealous? Who is he? If this Gongzi spread this news around, I guarantee that there will be many men looking for him to stake his life against him.”

Hong Funu said, “Whatever this gentleman’s name and surname are, please forgive Hong Fu for being unable to provide, because I am just guessing.”

Greatly interested, Zhangsun Wuji said, “Although Zaixia does not have the qualifications to become the minister under Xiufang Dajia’s skirt [I know, it sounds weird in English, but that’s what the text says], I am still concerned over Shang Cainu’s [talented woman] lifelong happiness. I wonder from which spider’s thread and horse track [i.e. clues] did Dajie [big sister] guess that Shang Cainu’s heart belongs to someone?”

Hong Funu said, “Yesterday Hong Fu went to Shang Lin Yuan to call on her. I saw her writing ‘Thinking about the countenance, remembering the countenance, droplets of tears wet the beautiful silk fabrics, young master [orig. shaonian gongzi – young master who is young in age] bearing heavy kindness’, these several lines over and over more than a dozen times. When she saw me coming, she threw the note away. If her heart was not yearning, how could she act like that?”

Pang Yu dejectedly said, “Thank you Dajie for mentioning that; I’m sure she did not write that note for me.”

Li Jing suddenly spoke in low voice, “Look who’s here.”

Following his gaze, the crowd saw a group of men, upright and unafraid, entering the palace hall. Two of those men were surprisingly the Eastern Tujue’s Kang Qiaoli and Jingzhao Lian’s Big Boss Yang WenGan.

The latter was obviously getting on well with the influential officials of Chang’an; he never stopped exchanging greetings with high officials and noble persons on the east and west banquet tables.

Following behind them was the Great Immortal Hu Fo and his daughter, Hu Xiaoxian. Who could have imagined that this pair of father and daughter, who was famous in the gambling world – would also be in the list of people being invited to the feast.

When Hu Xiaoxian was passing by, her beautiful eyes cast a glance toward Xu Ziling; she even pursed her mouth and chuckled lightly, a pleased-with-herself, graceful but hateful appearance.

Luo Shixin, who was sitting by Xu Ziling, asked, “Does Mo Laoshi know Hu Xiaoxian?”

Xu Ziling was greatly embarrassed; he had no choice but to give him a vague answer, “Only met one time!”

This moment Hong Funu nudged Li Jing and said, “Shiji with Madame are here!”

Hearing that, Xu Ziling’s heart was shocked. Looking toward the palace hall door, indeed he saw Shen Luoyan, like a little bird relying on people [idiom: cute and helpless-looking], leaning on Li Shiji as they walked in this direction. Xu Ziling groaned inwardly.

※ ※ ※

Kou Zhong was unable to stop himself from asking Liu Zhenghui about the rise and fall of the terrain of the buildings around the Yue Ma Bridge region. While they were engrossed in the discussion suddenly everybody was standing up one after another, only he did not know what happened. But then he saw the beautiful Shang Xiufang, with Chen Gonggong, the head eunuch who was in charge of the seating arrangement of tonight’s feast, floating directly toward their table.

None of the people on the nearby tables did not reveal envious expression.

Kou Zhong came to his senses. He hurriedly copied everybody else by standing up to welcome her, while thinking inwardly that Shang Xiufang had more charis