Chapter 022: Li Longji's Hint

  Yang Yuhuan was overjoyed and immediately waved her hand, saying "Quickly pass it on."

  She then stretched out her white and tender jade arm to prop herself up, and called out softly to Li Longji, "Third Brother, Third Sister has arrived..."

  "Ah?" Li Longji, immersed in the music and dance, although disturbed, still had a thick smile hanging on his face. He slowly sat down, pinched Yang Yuhuai's jade arm, and smiled, "The Princess of Guo has not entered the palace for many days. I heard that she held a poetry and wine party at Qujiangchi today, enjoying herself to her heart's content. Why did she come to the palace again..."

  Just then, the lady of Guo State, dressed in a magnificent purple palace attire with her hair styled in a low bun, glided in gracefully and curtsied to Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan, "Your subject pays respects to Your Majesty and Her Majesty."

  Although she was favored by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang due to her relationship with Yang Yuanyan, Lady Guo also knew her own place and did not dare to be arrogant or lazy in observing the proper ceremonies.

  Li Longji smiled and gazed at the beautiful woman in a long skirt who was bowing down in front of him, saying loudly, "Third Aunt, please get up. In the palace, there are no subjects, and family members don't need to be so polite. Take a seat."

  Li Longji had always affectionately referred to Yang Yuhuan's three sisters as "aunt", and in addition to being intimate, there was also a bit of ambiguity.

  Yang Yuhuan smiled and signaled for the palace maid to hurry over and help up Princess Guo.

  Guo Guo Furen sat below Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan, a thick smile hanging on her charming face. She was Yang Yuhuan's third sister, although she was several years older than Yang Yuhuan, there were some similarities between their eyebrows and eyes.

  A woman of the Tang Dynasty in her thirties is in her prime, as one can imagine. Although Lady Guo's beauty may be slightly inferior to that of Yang Yuhuan, it is actually not much different.

  Li Longji's eyes, slightly intoxicated and piercing, swept across the snow-white skin on Madame Guo's chest, a hint of lust flashing by, extremely subtle.

  Although he had a special affection for Yang Yuhuan, as an emperor who was high above and responded to the call of the people, the man with the most supreme power in the world, Li Longji's desire was so strong that one woman could not satisfy his lust.

  Ever since the three Yang sisters arrived in the capital, he had some unspoken and inexplicable thoughts about the youngest and most beautiful Lady Guo of Fuguo. The other two were ignored because they were less attractive and older.

  This is also an unavoidable factor for Guo Guo's wife to enjoy the highest favor and wealth among the three sisters.

  However, Li Longji did not rush to take action, perhaps mainly considering Yang Yuhuan's feelings. From this, it can be seen that Li Longji's favoritism towards Yang Yuhuan was not mixed with any falsehood.

  Noticing the emperor's ambiguous gaze, Princess Guo unconsciously sat up straight and composed herself.

  The emperor's occasional glance and intentional or unintentional hint, as a mature woman with rich emotions and experiences, how could she not detect it? It was just that she did not want to have an illicit relationship with the emperor. On one hand, she didn't want to hurt her sister Yang Yuhuan, and competing with her sister for a man went against her moral bottom line; on the other hand, she felt that Li Longji, although he was the emperor, wasn't actually the type of person she liked.

  She is also a woman with a rather far-sighted vision. She knows that the Yang family's favoritism stems from Yang Yuhuan. If Yang Yuhuan loses her favor, the Yang family will also fall into disfavor and misfortune.

  So she began to deliberately avoid the emperor's hints and recently rarely entered the palace to drink and have fun with the emperor and his concubines.

  After drinking, it's easy to get out of control. What if the Emperor gets excited one day and wants to force himself on her? The Empress knows she wouldn't dare refuse him either.

  Yang Yuhuan raised her cup to invite Lady Guo to drink, "Third sister, it's been a long time since you came to the palace to see me. Are you in good health? Today I heard that third sister invited scholars from Chang'an to have a drinking and poetry competition at Qujiang Pool, did you have fun?"

  "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your concern. I'm in good health and spirits. Today, I hosted a banquet at Qujiang Pool, where many scholars from Chang'an gathered, producing quite a few excellent works...and I also discovered a talented individual..."

  Yang Yuhuan smiled and said, "Third sister has also become elegant and fond of talent... Tell me, who is it that makes you praise him so much?"

  "It's that young master Zhang Xuan from the Jiuling Fu." Madame Guo smiled and said, "Previously, it was said that the third son of this Zhang family was a dissolute and useless young master, but today's facts prove that this son has extraordinary poetic talent, and among the young scholars, he is far ahead. Today, in the poetry competition, Cui Huan from the Cui family, Xiao Fu, the son of Xiao Heng, and Chen He, the grandson of Chancellor Chen Xi, all acknowledged defeat."

  Madam Guo glanced at Li Longji secretly, saw that he was narrowing his eyes, seemingly smiling but not speaking, and a thread of hesitation rose in her heart, unsure whether she should continue saying what came next.

  ……

  ……

  Zhang Jiuling's young son Zhang Xuan got drunk and insulted Li Linfu at a poetry and wine party by Qujiang Pool, which naturally spread to the Li residence. However, contrary to everyone's expectations, Li Linfu did not get furious and take "revenge" action because of this.

  Since the beginning of the year, Li Linfu has been ill and often stayed at home to recuperate. However, except for Li Linfu's children and family members, no one knew that Li Linfu's condition was very serious, and recently there were signs of a terminal illness, and he had already taken to his bed.

  The Li family has tightly sealed off this news, and the purpose is self-evident.

  As Zhang Huan had judged, for Li Linfu at present, the most important thing is how to keep his own descendants and the prosperity of the Li family from declining into the abyss after his death. He wants to make many arrangements before his death, especially not letting Yang Guozhong take over as prime minister. As for a younger member of the Zhang family who had drunk some wine and spoke wildly, cursing him as a treacherous prime minister, there was no need to bother with such trivialities, nor did he have the energy to do so.

  Li Linfu's attitude directly determined the attitudes of his confidants and Li family children. When Li Linfu was seriously ill, he sternly warned his own children to keep a low profile in their actions, lest they give others handles to attack them with in the future.

  So in this sudden turmoil of the upper class society in Beijing, the Li family who should have made a move did not make any noise, while the Zhang family who should not have made any noise had a "big commotion".

  ……

  ……

  After comforting the two little girls who were still frightened, Zhang Xuan hastily went to the front yard and directly pushed open the door of the living room.

  After entering, he bowed deeply to Zhang Jiuyin and Zhang Jiu'ao, who were both furious, then stood up calmly on one side. Mrs. Liu looked at her son with a complex gaze, secretly sighing, thinking that this time the child had gotten into big trouble, and she couldn't protect him anymore.

  Zhang Jiuyin and Zhang Jiu'ao hadn't had time to speak, but Zhang Ning's anger was already uncontrollable. He stood up, pointing at Zhang Xuan and scolding him, "You scoundrel, do you know what a great disaster you've caused today? Eldest brother is in prison, the whole family is in danger every day, and the elders are running around to rescue him. But you, this little thief, are out seeking pleasure and having fun. This is not even the worst of it, but you actually dared to humiliate Minister Li in public! You...you...you've pushed our entire family into the fire pit!"

  It has to be said that Zhang Ning's attitude was extremely poor. However, judging from the angry looks on Zhang Jiuyi and Zhang Jiu's faces, it's likely that if they had spoken up, their attitudes wouldn't have been much better than Zhang Ning's.

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