Volume 1 Meteor Festival Chapter 6 Banquet

  Night!

  The moon is cool as water.

  Outside the imperial palace in the capital city, a huge courtyard with an area of over 100,000 square meters was packed with all sorts of horse-drawn carriages.

  These carriages may not look as luxurious as those driven by wealthy merchants and landlords every day, but almost every carriage has a family crest painted on it, which has an unimaginable depth. Even if the rich merchants and landlords spend all their wealth and go bankrupt, they can't get the right to embroider these crests on their clothes!

  At this moment, at the entrance of the courtyard, Xu Xiaolin, as a maid, carefully helped their young lady Xu Bingying down from the carriage. Beside her, Gu Qing, as her husband, stood calmly with an air of nonchalance, his eyes casually scanning the surroundings without any intention of taking his lovely wife's hand and entering the courtyard together, even though his wife was so perfect in both appearance and temperament that she could drive countless young heroes in the capital city crazy with desire.

  When the two entered the courtyard, there were already many young men and women who had arrived earlier. However, it was still some time before the banquet officially began.

  The Wuwei Marquis Manor has some influence in the imperial capital, but looking at the entire imperial capital, there are not a few families with more influence than theirs. If they arrive too late, it will give people an impression of arrogance and rudeness, which would be somewhat unfavorable to the development of the family in the future.

  These young heroes from the imperial capital and even outside of it are now gathering together in twos and threes, with the men discussing topics such as official careers, secret recipes, and divine weapons, while some women who came with them or their elders formed a circle to chat about things that interest them. Although the banquet has not officially started yet, the atmosphere inside the courtyard is already gradually becoming lively.

  With the arrival of Xu Bingning, a woman with great reputation in the imperial capital, the atmosphere of the banquet was greatly enhanced. Many young and handsome men who thought they had a good family background nodded to her frequently or raised their cups to show their intention, but none of them came over to chat with her casually, as if there was a kind of deterrent power that restrained everyone's desire to get close to her.

  Xu Bingning was clearly familiar with this kind of banquet, with a elegant and refined smile on her face, greeting many young and handsome men, noble ladies, and asking about their well-being. However, among the guests who had arrived now, those who were truly influential were very rare, and there were almost none who could make her stop and chat voluntarily.

  At the banquet, mingling with many excellent people from all walks of life, Xu Bingning suddenly stopped and looked at Gu Qing who was following her like a bodyguard without saying a word, and said: "If I were you, I should take this opportunity to get to know more people who can help yourself, maybe they can also help in the future if something happens!"

  "Yes, Seventh Young Master, Miss asked you to attend the banquet just to let you get to know more people, not just to follow her around like a servant."

  Gu Qing smiled lightly and nodded, then began walking around in this courtyard.

  Seeing that he had finally changed a bit from before, Xu Bingning didn't know why, but she felt a slight sense of relief in her heart, as if celebrating his ability to change for the better.

  It wasn't until she inadvertently glanced at Xu Xiaolin beside her that she suddenly thought of something, furrowed her brow abruptly, and then replayed all the scenes of her limited contact with Gu Qing over the past year in her mind...

  As she sorted out all her thoughts, an answer that surprised and slightly infuriated her suddenly popped into her mind...

  "This old fellow... could it be that he actually wants to bully Little Lin!?"

  Looking at the smiling face, observing Gu Qing doing "proper things" with Xu Xiaolin, Xu Bingjing's original slight improvement in her impression of him turned bad again: "Is this really your true purpose for coming here? Hmph! Unless you can do something that makes me completely satisfied and faultless one day, otherwise, if you want to flirt with Xiaolin, I'll be the first to disagree!"

  For a moment, even the gaze directed at Gu Qing was tinged with a hint of vigilance.

  Just as Xu Bingjing had made up her mind not to let Gu Qing get close to Xu Xiaolin, Xu Xiaolin suddenly said strangely: "Why did Seventh Young Master circle around the courtyard and sit down? Does he know that the young people here are not yet on his level and doesn't want to make friends with them?"

  "Huh? Sit down." Xue Bing Cong was slightly stunned, and her eyes immediately followed Xue Xiao Lin's gaze to find Gu Qing sitting in a corner, looking thoughtful.

  "What is he talking about? Doesn't he think highly of the young and talented people present now? Doesn't he know that he can't even compare to these lowest-level young people?!?" With a hum of anger, Xu Bingjing was about to step forward and scold Gu Qing.

  However, Xulian beside her was worried that her young lady would quarrel with her brother-in-law again because of this matter, and hurriedly said: "Miss, miss, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go and tell your brother-in-law!" After speaking, she was afraid that Xu Bingying would not agree, and immediately ran to Gu Qing who was sitting in the corner of the courtyard!

  "Seventh Young Master!"

  "En." Gu Qing nodded at Xu Xiaolin: "Something up?"

  "Something's wrong? Have you forgotten what Miss told you so soon?"

  Gu Qing nodded slightly!

  "Hmm, Seventh Young Master, does your nod mean that you remember what Miss said to you, or is it indeed as I said, that you've already forgotten?"

  "The defensive strength of this courtyard is not weak."

  "Huh? Seventh Young Master, what are you talking about? Someone is trying to talk to you."

  "Go and accompany your miss, it seems like someone is harassing her."

  Xu Xiaolin turned around and saw that her mistress was indeed surrounded by three young men, who were constantly talking about something. As they continued to interact, a hint of impatience appeared on her mistress's face.

  "How detestable, these people are getting more and more detestable. No, the one who is even more detestable is that Duke Qingpang, if it wasn't for him making it clear he's already against Miss, with Miss's status and strength, how would these little clowns dare to appear in front of her and jump around?"

  "Your family's young lady has injured her heart meridian, which belongs to fire and is in charge of blood and pulse. During the recovery period, it is forbidden to have drastic emotional fluctuations, that is, getting angry, otherwise it will accelerate the operation of the heart meridian, causing the blood to flow frequently in the blood vessels, directly impacting the heart and making the injured heart meridian worse. Therefore, I suggest that before your family's young lady gets truly angry, take her away to calm down her mood."

  "What, these guys are really too detestable, they actually dare to provoke Miss into anger!" As soon as she said this, Xu Xiaolin suddenly turned around, intending to give those three young men a lesson. However, just as she stood up, she thought of Gu Qing beside her and quickly turned back to say: "Right, Miss is your legitimate wife, so it's only right that you, Seventh Young Master, take action. Those three have the strength of Qi Dao Wu Chong, which is about the same as yours. You were already at Qi Dao Wu Chong three years ago, and now you should be even stronger. Dealing with them shouldn't be a problem at all. Come on, Seventh Young Master, it's time for you to show your face in front of Miss."

  "These few people can be completely dealt with by your Sixfold Path's strength, and if the young lady of your household were to take action, it would not be difficult to capture them either."

  "Am I not giving you a chance to perform?!" With that, Xu Xiaolin also couldn't care about so much anymore, and directly pulled up Gu Qing, heading towards the place where her own young lady was.

  Xu Bing's mood naturally didn't improve under the subtle sarcasm of the three young men, but considering they were just minor characters and this was a banquet hosted by the Emperor himself, he couldn't be bothered to argue with them. However, when he saw Xu Xiaolin disregard the distinction between men and women, pulling Gu Qing towards her, a hint of dark anger appeared on his face. He directly turned away from the three men and walked over to the two of them, scanning Gu Qing with some displeasure: "Let go!"

  Gu Qing smiled lightly and didn't say anything because his hand was being pulled by Xu Xiaolin.

  Xu Xiaolin was also scolded by her own mistress, and she seemed to understand something, so she quickly explained: "Sorry, miss, I saw that thing of yours earlier and got anxious, so I pulled him over."

  Xu Bingning also understood her temperament and nodded: "Don't be like this in the future."

  "Yes, miss."

  At this time, the three men who were shaken off by Xu Bingying surrounded them again. One of them, a man in white clothes, smiled and said, "Miss Xu, who is this gentleman? He looks quite familiar."

  Xu Bingning coldly replied, "If you want to know, can't you ask yourself?" After finishing speaking, she took Xu Xiaolin and retreated to the side. She understood that Xu Xiaolin had brought Gu Qing here with the intention of letting him show off a bit and regain some confidence. Anyway, these three people in front of her were just small fries, so it didn't matter if they were offended. She also took this opportunity to see whether Gu Qing was truly as rumored in the Hou Mansion, hiding his true self.

  That man in white was counted by Xu Bing's impolite words, but he didn't mind. He came to find fault originally, how could he expect others to welcome him with a smile? He walked up to Gu Qing familiarly and cupped his hands: "I am Wang Ji, the commander of Shanling Camp, I don't know if I have the honor to make friends with you."

  Gu Qing smiled lightly and nodded, then turned around and walked back to where he was sitting earlier.

  "Hmm..."

  Seeing himself good-hearted and going forward to greet, the person in front of him actually turned around and left without saying a word. Wang Ji's face suddenly looked a bit awkward, vaguely, he could even detect some attention to this aspect of people hiding in the dark smile...

  This time, His Majesty the Emperor personally issued a decree to invite all young and talented individuals from all walks of life in the Great Qi Dynasty. Those who received the invitation were not simple characters. Although Wang Ji was a high-ranking general with thousands of men under his command, he still didn't count as a prominent figure here. He had inadvertently provoked someone he shouldn't have, but he suppressed his discontent and didn't go looking for trouble.

  However, just as he was about to investigate Gu Qing's identity and rethink his plan, a young man who had been watching from the side suddenly spoke up: "Wang Doutong, that friend you wanted to introduce earlier, if I'm not mistaken, should be the Seventh Young Master of the Wuwei Marquis Manor, Gu Qing. Ah, yes! He's been following Miss Xu since he entered the banquet hall..."