C12

It had been a long time since the Spring of March. In the blink of an eye, it was already close to April. The color of spring is strong, but the spring day is short. Gu Xiaoran felt exactly the same way. In the blink of an eye, the palace banquet had arrived.

The spring sunshine blended with the greenery. It was indeed reasonable to hold a banquet in the name of admiring the flowers in the palace, but it wasn't flowers that were competing with each other, it was people.

Gu Xiaoran was determined to keep a low profile. Therefore, the clothes she took from Second Wife that day were just an ordinary set. It was just that the fabric was better than the usual one. Besides, the palace banquet was so grand that no one would notice her all the time.

However, for the past few days, she still couldn't figure out a question. Was the person who secretly helped her and the person who punished Second Wife afterwards the same group of people? Who sent them?

Although there were only a few possible answers, it was not easy to tell. The only reason was that she didn't have any clues at all. She had to rely on her own guesses and memories from her previous life.

Gu Xiaoran wasn't grateful. She just felt that if that person wasn't Shu Jinghan, he would be her most suitable ally. Right now, she was too weak and had to borrow the strength of others to achieve her goals.

In his heart, however, there was an inexplicable feeling of disappointment as he kept thinking about Zhan Chuyan and knew that it was impossible.

On the day of the palace feast, Gu Xiaoran woke up early to let Mei Qing help her comb a slightly complicated hairstyle. However, there was nothing she could do about jewelry. Gu Xiaoran thought for a moment before taking out the treasure her mother had left for her. "It was a hairpin, a jade hairpin with a faint green glow. The design was simple and clean, and it matched Gu Xiaoran very well.

Before leaving, Mei Qing felt very depressed. It was only because of this palace banquet that normal people did not allow maidservants to stay by their side. Naturally, she couldn't follow Gu Xiaoran. However, she didn't want to be at ease when she didn't follow her sister, which put her in a difficult position.

Gu Xiaoran smiled. "It's just a banquet, not a battlefield. Why are you so nervous?"

Mei Qing sighed. How was she going to explain this to Miss? Although she was young and had not seen much of the world, she knew that there was always a surge in palace banquets. Especially now, Miss was standing at the heart of the struggle, how could she not make things difficult for him?

However, Gu Xiaoran didn't seem to care at all. Mei Qing thought about it carefully. With Miss's indifferent personality, she probably wouldn't care about such small matters. Besides, it seemed that someone was helping her in the dark. It could be seen from the incident with the meal that day.

Because it was an extremely formal banquet, Gu Xiaoran was naturally together with Gu Yunpeng. Along the way, they didn't say much, but it was because Gu Yunpeng didn't care about her at all. With his many years of experience in government affairs, it was rare for Prince Han to be so concerned about a woman. From this, he was sure that he had fallen in love with his own daughter at first sight.

Therefore, it didn't matter what opinions others had. As long as Gu Xiaoran didn't act too outrageously today, her relationship with Prince Han would definitely improve.

Gu Xiaoran felt a bit of regret. This kind of banquet was very boring for her. With such a large group of people together, it would be inconvenient for them to do anything. The worst thing was for them to continue chatting. What was there to say? Most people just lie to others and say something against their will. Is it that interesting?

She thought about it carefully. The only person she could be considered a friend during the last spring vacation was probably the very young Ye Chuli. She didn't have a good impression of anyone else. Although some people had good characters, they were not in the same circle and couldn't be talked about together.

Mm, in other words, she was alone and without help at this palace banquet.

Gu Xiaoran could no longer remember the process of the palace banquet, but she knew that some parts of it were the main highlight. For example, this time, it was a banquet held in the name of admiring the flowers, so the main show would naturally be the viewing of the flowers. However, aside from admiring the flowers, the most important person was Floral Fairy.

In the legends of Tianxiang Dynasty, Floral Fairy was the flower god's most beloved maid. Because of her intelligence and beauty, she was bestowed the title of fairy. Therefore, if a woman was called "Floral Fairy", it meant that she was definitely talented. However, although Floral Fairy's palace banquet was chosen for entertainment, many people still cared about her title and the right to choose their own husband.

Only because Floral Fairy had married into the Imperial Family every single time for over 10 years, and she enjoyed an endless amount of glory.

Gu Xiaoran smiled faintly, asking herself whether she was talented or not. No matter what, Floral Fairy's name would never reach out to her. However, Floral Fairy had to choose, and Shu Jinghan would definitely be robbed, right?

Although Gu Xiaoran knew that the possibility wasn't high, she was still in a good mood. She even forgot about the dull and boring banquet.

As she ate the pastries in silence to fill her empty stomach, she wondered who Floral Fairy was most likely to be this time. Thinking about it this way, there were quite a few people who had the chance, and all of them admired Shu Jinghan.

At the beginning, Gu Yunpeng sat beside Gu Xiaoran for a while and soon got busy chatting with his colleagues. Gu Xiaoran was enjoying her leisure time by herself. In reality, if she could escape from the Minister's Mansion, Gu Xiaoran would have long since gone far away, as far as possible from this group of boring people.

He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but it seemed like her gaze would always stay on him. However, when she turned around to look for him, it had disappeared without a trace.

After doing this a few times, Gu Xiaoran decided not to try anymore. However, she felt uncomfortable inside, as if someone was spying on her. There was always a sense of unease in her heart.

Fortunately, Gu Xiaoran had chosen a remote corner to sit in. Everyone was busy chatting and laughing, so not many people noticed her. Even if someone had noticed her, they would only talk about her in private with their friends.

Now, Gu Xiaoran had a profound understanding of what it meant to live as long as a year. She swore that she would never come to another event like this again.

As usual, this banquet would continue for a long time. There was even a banquet tonight. During the day, Floral Fairy was free to roam about before admiring the flowers. After she was done, she would compete in talent and select Floral Fairy. As for when the Emperor would appear on the scene, it all depended on his mood.

He counted with his fingers and found that it would take at least six hours. Besides, she had nothing to do with the entire banquet, okay? Since that was the case, Gu Xiaoran decided to close her eyes to rest. After all, it was still too early to wake up in the morning.