Chapter 192: Entering The Palace

The Dowager d.u.c.h.ess was taken aback, she was sure that the young girl would not agree, but to her surprise, she compromised. Fine, just two.

Three The Dowager d.u.c.h.ess held up three fingers tentatively.

Lu Liangwei silently marveled at her persistence but refused to give in. No, just two. If you keep pus.h.i.+ng your luck, you wont be getting even one.

Defeated, the Dowager d.u.c.h.ess put on a sheepish expression. Very well, then Ill have another two.

The Dowager d.u.c.h.esss eyes lit up immediately when Lu Liangwei pa.s.sed the glutinous rice dumplings to her. Without waiting for Lu Liangwei to help her this time, she peeled off the bamboo leaves in a flash and dug into the glutinous rice dumplings.

Lu Liangwei was shocked. Please eat slower

The Dowager d.u.c.h.ess was finally satisfied after wolfing down the two glutinous rice dumplings.

To prevent her from getting a stomach ache, Lu Liangwei specifically prepared some medicine that aided digestion and pa.s.sed it to Aunt Lan.

Lu Tingchen had said that he wanted to bring a few glutinous rice dumplings to the palace for the Emperor, so Lu Liangwei had to make some more.

After getting ready, the family set off for the palace in the evening to attend the banquet.

It was the early part of the summer, and the banquet was set up in the waterside pavilion next to the imperial garden.

There were not many guests, but those invited were all important figures in the imperial court.

Despite that, when these prominent people saw that the Dowager d.u.c.h.ess had come, they all got up from their seats to greet her.

The Dowager d.u.c.h.ess did not put on airs or acted excessively friendly, maintaining a perfect balance between the two.

The Emperor had yet to arrive, so everyone was behaving more casually.

For some time, lively chatter filled the waterside pavilion. People gathered in groups of three to five, talking among themselves.

Lu Liangwei was sitting quietly beside the Dowager d.u.c.h.ess, but she could still hear someone talking about the Eastern Palaces affairs.

Lu Liangwei raised her eyebrows.

She had already heard from Zhu Yu about the Eastern Palace taking in a few more women.

That girl seemed to have something against the Eastern Palace. Every day, she would go out of her way to collect gossip on the Eastern Palace, then pick out all the news tidbits about Lu Yunshuangs misfortune to tell her.

For example, she would tell Lu Liangwei trivial stuff like Lu Yunshuang being publicly embarra.s.sed by Beauty Chen, a newcomer.

Somehow, Zhu Yu knew just about everything about the goings-on in the Eastern Palace. The source of her information was a mystery.

Although she had already known about Long Chi taking in concubines, she felt strange to hear it again from someone else.

In the original plot, Long Chis only woman was Lu Yunshuang, and he had never taken in any concubines. However, the way things were happening now was obviously deviating further and further from the original story.

Long Chi had gotten himself concubines. Several of them at once, in fact.

Why was this happening?

Could it be the b.u.t.terfly effect?

In the original story, the original Lu Liangwei was just cannon fodder and died as soon as she made her debut.

Now, because of her arrival, many things had changed. Once a b.u.t.terfly flapped its wings, it was bound to trigger a series of changes.

Moreover, now that Long Yang had been cured of the poison, he would survive the year. In fact, if he nursed his health properly, he could even live a long life. Long Chis position as the Heir Apparent would no longer be the same, and there was no telling now if he would ever succeed to the throne

Lu Liangwei was lost in her thoughts when she suddenly heard a mocking voice. No matter how good you pretend to be, you still cant change your vile nature. Do you think n.o.body here knows that?

Lu Liangwei raised her head, meeting the blatant look of contempt on a girls face.

She paused for a while. Was this not Ji Lingxiu whom she had met once outside the palace gates last time?

After a momentary pause, she said, Its not shameful to know how to hide your shortcomings. On the contrary, youll become a laughing stock if you expose them willingly. Miss Ji, dont you agree?