In the spring of March, hundreds of flowers bloom. The Empress invited various unmarried young girls to participate in the Hundred Flowers Banquet. Wen Qing was among them.
It was called the Hundred Flowers Banquet, but in reality, it was a blind date banquet. Nowadays, they didn't value women much, so the selection of talented people* had also been stopped for a few years. Each family's unmarried men and women could marry freely. Although the separation between men and women in this era was not very strict, they still paid attention to letting men and women sit separately after 7 years old**. These young masters and young misses usually did not see each other on weekdays. They did not want to be married blindly by their parents, naturally, they wanted to choose the one they loved. Therefore, the Hundred Flowers Banquet held by the Empress gave them an opportunity.
*T/N: It is more or less the imperial examination.
**T/N: In ancient times, children after the age of seven were considered mature and already able to differentiate between genders.
Wen Qing was dragged by Zhao Wan to dress up. "You are also fifteen this year, almost all girls your age are already betrothed. Although you are a princess and don't have to worry about marriage, it is unsightly to let others pick first and leave you the ugly ones. Mother do not force you, just pick the one you like and let your uncle grant your marriage..."
Wen Qing nodded indifferently.
Zhao Wan saw her not taking it seriously and could not help but fume, "Mother tell you that you have to pick one today. If you don't choose any, mother and father will choose one for you!"
"Oh, mother, remember to choose the most good-looking."
Zhao Wan: "......"
She really believed it now. Her daughter didn't care about getting married at all!
But, the good-looking one...
The flowers in the palace had always been carefully taken care of by artisans. The rare and exotic plants competed with each other, just like various noblewomen inside the palace.
Jiang Shu entered the palace for the first time and felt curious about everything, her appearance falling into contempt in other people's eyes. Those who were well-educated would not show what they thought of in their heart on their face in the slightest. Those who were being sarcastic couldn't help but ridicule.
"What a country bumpkin! She had no insight!"
"Look at her appearance! Such an ordinary person is also rare!"
"Her clothes and makeup are not up-to-date, I don't know what year that style came from!"
"How come this kind of person is allowed to enter the Hundred Flowers Banquet? I can smell a shabby smell from afar!"
……
It took Jiang Shu a long time to figure out that they were talking about her and she couldn't help but frown. But she just arrived here and did not know the background of these people. It was better to get one less trouble, so she simply turned around and left, and didn't bother to lower herself to argue with those people.
Fortunately, those people still had their status as a noblewoman and wouldn't follow her just to throw insults.
Jiang Shu could finally clear her ears from those filthy words when she accidentally bumped into someone. The other person had a very neat appearance, and there was a whiff of the nice fragrance of bamboo leaves. Jiang Shu rubbed her sore nose and looked up.
The stranger was like a jade, a peerless young master in the world.
For no reason, Jiang Shu thought of this sentence.
The white-clothed gentleman had a smile on his lips. "Young lady, are you okay?"
His voice was very nice. Jiang Shu blushed red as she quickly replied, "I'm fine. I'm sorry, I don't know that someone was here..."
This scene happened to fall on Wen Qing's eyes. What a coincidence, the female lead and the loyal supporting male dog met for the first time.
In the original book, during the Hundred Flowers Banquet, a lot of things happened, and the meeting between the female lead and the supporting male lead was one of them. The second one was when the cannon fodder noblewomen ridiculing the female lead lost their reputations because of the male lead's plan. The third one was when the Empress got a sudden heart attack, and the female lead bought medicine from Taobao to save her. Wei Wenqing ran into the heroine taking a medicine bottle out of thin air, tearing off the packaging, and exclaimed that Jiang Shu was a monster, was the fourth. Later on, the male lead comforted the female lead and their relationship heated up. What followed after was the male lead taking revenge on Duke Manor.
But now, Zhao Yan was still locked up in prison and probably had no chance to ruin the noblewomen's reputations or retaliate against Duke Manor. Because of the absence of the male lead, the plot of the original book had long deviated.
The plot had changed, but some subplots had not. For example, the Empress still had a sudden heart attack, and Jiang Shu still bumped into Wen Qing when she bought the medicine, but she did not yell. Jiang Shu had a good heart, so why bother to cause trouble?
After taking the medicine, the Empress got better, and her goodwill towards Jiang Shu went up a notch. She rewarded her with a bunch of treasures and promised her that if she had a man she liked, she could help her grant a marriage. At this point, Jiang Shu succeeded in getting into the eyes of the Empress and got her protection. Those noblewomen who had thrown sarcastic remarks towards Jiang Shu turned pale and regretted treating her like that before.
Wen Qing didn't care about these things. What she cared about was that in the original plot, Emperor Yuan Chang died three months after the Hundred Flowers Banquet.
The banquet wasn't over yet when Wen Qing was called by Emperor Yuan Chang to Qing Ning Palace, which was the place where the Emperor handled government affairs.
"Qingqing, quick, come here! Do uncle a favor!" As soon as Wen Qing entered, Emperor Yuan Chang greeted her with a big smile on his face. Wen Qing never needed to kneel when she saw him, so she complied and walked to his side.
"You youngsters are eating, drinking, and having fun at the back. Your poor uncle has to deal with so many memorials that my head is now dizzy from it. Qingqing helps uncle work on the rest, ba."
Emperor Yuan Chang smiled like usual, yet the words that came out were no different than throwing down a heavy bomb, which surprised Qingqing. "Uncle, you want me to do the memorials?!"
What's with this situation! Letting his niece do the memorial? Although her uncle had always spoiled her, he couldn't spoil her this way!
Emperor Yuan Chang still smiled and said, "What? Qingqing is not willing to help uncle? Sigh, uncle dote on Qingqing for nothing. See, uncle have worked so hard, yet you don't know how to help uncle!"
Wen Qing was silent for a moment. She had a vague conjecture in her heart, but did not question it. Rather, she obediently picked up the writing brush dipped in ink. She had once been an Emperor. She had helped her uncle organize the memorials. These things on the table were especially left for her to practice. It wasn't difficult, so she quickly got started.
She probably understood what her uncle meant. He probably wanted to pass the throne to her, right?
Even so, she had previously thought about who would inherit the throne from her uncle a hundred years later. Zhao Jie was impossible. King Huainan and his family, who had the closest blood relationship, had already been imprisoned, and there was no good candidate from the imperial clan. She'd also thought of taking over, but she did not want to hurt her uncle's heart. Uncle's love for her wasn't mixed with selfishness. If she'd said she wanted the throne, she was afraid her uncle would be suspicious that she got close to him only for the throne.
Therefore, this option was passed* off by her. In the end, she was planning to assist whoever her uncle chose, but she did not expect her uncle to give her the throne.
*T/N: The raw wrote the word "pass" in English. I've tried my best to fit it in.
There might be no suitable candidate that could be found.
Emperor Yuan Chang made this plan after careful consideration. He had only one son, Zhao Jie, but that son had a problem with his brain and always felt that others wanted to harm him. He invited a grand tutor for him, but he said the grand tutor wanted to raise him as waste and beat him away. After three times in a row, no one was willing to be his grand tutor.
Without the grand tutor's teaching, he did not even finish the basic education, and it was said that he could not fully recognize some characters. How could you expect him to have a clear understanding if he didn't read? Therefore, many people called him a fool at the back.
Giving a throne to a fool? Emperor Yuan Chang thought that the ancestors of the Zhao family would jump out and slap him to death! But he found that he had been sterilized at an early age and would have no other sons, no more children. In the end, the throne would eventually fall to Zhao Jie's hand. Choose a few more loyal ministers and good generals to assist him, wait for him to give birth to the prince, and train him well. It might not be impossible.
However, yesterday's dream changed Emperor Yuan Chang's decision. In the dream, it was indeed his son Zhao Jie who succeeded to the throne, but he was just a puppet. Zhao Yan, who inherited his father's title, is the true holder of Great Zhao. Zhao Yan was so ruthless, he could even kill his own father. How could he expect him to have any feelings for the Great Zhao? There were only him and that Lord of Jiang Ning County.
So, after taking revenge on all the enemies and leaving a pile of mess for the Great Zhao, Zhao Yan took his wife and children to a paradise and lived a life like a divine couple.
Then, The Great Zhao fell into Zhao Jie's hands. No one controlled him anymore, so he became unscrupulous. Within a few years, he killed all the loyal ministers in the court! Because he felt that these officials wanted to harm him! Then, he selected a group of useless ministers who only knew how to bootlick, indulge in pleasure, and neglect the government. Within two years, the country of Zhao was overrun by barbarians, and perished.
This result was something that Emperor Yuan Chang didn't want to see. He did not choose a good successor and let the country of Zhao perish. This was his fault! Once he thought of the Zhao family's hundreds of years of foundation being ruined in his hands, what face did he have to meet the ancestors?!
So, he must choose his successor carefully. Zhao Jie was definitely not good! No matter how many loyal ministers were left for him, he would kill them! But, after adopting sons from the imperial clans, Emperor Yuan Chang saw that none was good. Not to mention that they had distant blood relations, he was unwilling to give the throne to someone he had no relationship with. Just by their characters, no one could make him feel at ease! Therefore, after thinking for a long time, only his niece was pleasing to his eyes.
Although his niece was a woman, she had the blood of the Zhao Clan. Moreover, she was the Goddess Xuannü of the Ninth Heaven who descended to the earth to protect the Great Zhao for hundreds of years. He didn't worry that the Zhao dynasty would perish in her hands. To have the protection of immortals was the honor of the Zhao Clan. Who knows, the ancestors might even have to praise him for doing a good job!
The more Emperor Yuan Chang thought about it, the more he felt it was feasible. He made up his mind and no longer hesitated. Because of the dream, he saw that he only had three more months to live. His body was weak and frail, he was satisfied with living until he was in his forties. Moreover, because of his niece, he was healthy for the rest of his life, and he was already very satisfied without suffering from illness. People have to learn to be content. How many emperors in history were not satisfied and sought longevity? But, what was the result? Emperor Yuan Chang had seen it clearly.
Wen Qing didn't know that because Emperor Yuan Chang had dreamed of the historical trajectory of the original book, he made up his mind to choose her as the heir. She quietly looked over the memorials and asked him if she had any questions. By the time she was finished, the palace had been closed. Wen Qing often lived in the palace, so she naturally had her own palace. After bidding farewell to Emperor Yuan Chang, she was going to return to her residence.
Emperor Yuan Chang called out to her, "Qingqing, from today onwards, you will stay in the East Palace."
The East Palace had always been the residence of the crown prince. This time, Wen Qing could not pretend to be stupid even if she wanted to. Her expression was calm as she looked at Emperor Yuan Chang, "Uncle, do you know what you are doing?"
Emperor Yuan Chang smiled, "Uncle is not yet old and confused, of course, I know what I'm doing."
Wen Qing was silent for a moment and asked again, "Then, do father and mother know?"
"I already spoke to the Duke of Zhen. He will tell your parents. Tomorrow, uncle will change your Jade slip and put it under the Empress name. From then on, you will be a genuine and proper first princess. Of course, your parents are still your parents, and uncle is still your uncle, it's just that..."
"You become the Crown Princess."