Chapter 25

"It's really fragrant! After today's matter is finished, you ask Aunt Sun to send me some more; I love to eat it."

"Got it, rest for a while after eating; we have to wait until Chen hour to start."

"Oh, why do I like listening to you talk so much even though you are younger than me?"

Xu Zaijing didn't pay attention to him, leaning on the chair in the palace, chewing beef jerky while closing his eyes to rest.

"Hey! Why don't you talk!"

Seeing Xu Zaijing not talking, Gu Tingye bit the beef jerky on his own, looking quite intoxicated.

About an hour passed.

Dong!

A loud bell rang,

the palace gate opened, and the birthday gifts from outside the palace were slowly sent into the palace.

Many residents of Bianjing gathered nearby to take a look and catch some of the Emperor's good fortune.

Xu Zaijing and Gu Tingye were in the palace, and their perspective was naturally pretty good; the performance hadn't started yet, and the officials of the Ministry of Rites were mostly directing the imperial guards in the palace to maintain order.

The Emperor's birthday banquet was set up on the square in front of the hall.

The Emperor sat peacefully in front of the palace, beside him were the favored imperial consorts and princesses in the palace.

On the left and right sides were high-ranking civil and military officials, dukes, and nobles,

and on the lower left and right sides were court officials, earls, and viscounts.

One by one, auspicious and rare treasures passed before the Emperor amidst the loud voices of the eunuchs; although the current nobles and high officials were knowledgeable, there were also things they hadn't seen.

From time to time, it would cause exclamations from those seated.

In a place far from the front of the hall,

Gu Tingye beside Xu Zaijing said anxiously beside Xu Zaijing: "Zhang Zhang Sanlang, Zhang Zhang Sanlang, look quickly, the neck of that strange beast is so long; wow, how did its neck grow like that!"

Xu Zaijing looked over and also looked surprised; he didn't expect that in this Great Zhou Dynasty, there would really be a vassal state bringing a giraffe to celebrate the birthday.

That giraffe slowly walked toward the front of the hall, causing everyone to exclaim.

Gu Yanhai, who was sitting near the Emperor, was quite proud, because this was found by his father-in-law Bai Wanshu from a place thousands of miles away.

Duke Ying, beside Gu Yanhai, looked at Gu Yanhai and said: "Gu Hou, I heard this is a strange beast found by your family?"

Gu Yanhai bowed and said: "Duke, this is a strange beast from a grassland thousands of miles away; the locals call it 'Jilin'."

Not far away, the Marquis Xiangyang slowly stroked his white beard and said: "Could this be the Qilin of the foreign lands? It is indeed different. Good, good, good. Gu Hou has heart."

"Thank you, brother! This is the duty of a subject."

The Marquis Xiangyang was over sixty years old; because of the matter of inheriting the heir, his ancestors had an unhappy relationship with the Marquis Lady Ningyuan's residence, and the order of the clan genealogy was different.

But after generations of ranking, the Marquis Xiangyang was of the same generation as Gu Yanhai.

Duke Ying at the side picked up the wine glass beside him, signaled to Gu Yanhai, and the two looked at each other and drank the fine wine.

Gu Yanhai's explanation naturally reached the ears of the female officials and eunuchs serving at the side, and soon the imperial consorts and princesses in the harem all knew about this 'Jilin' strange beast that had the same pronunciation as Qilin.

In less than an hour, the rare birds and strange beasts offered by various countries were almost gone.

Next were the birthday programs sent by officials and clan relatives from all over the Great Zhou Dynasty.

There were waist-slimming dances sent from Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Jinling; amidst the fluttering sleeves, the dancers spun and jumped, and the golden water sleeves seemed to have life.

Seeing ordinary singing and dancing, there were cheers from time to time.

These dancers had beautiful faces, flowing eyes, and were slim-waisted and long-legged; whoever saw them would be confused.

Especially the young noble family sons, who looked at each other, and everything was understood without words.

After the dance was finished, the dancers used their golden water sleeves to form a big "Shou" (longevity) character.

It was another burst of cheers.

There was a waist drum performance sent by a high official in the northwest.

Dozens of men and women were knocking on waist drums on the stage in front of the hall, and a fierce vitality of the Loess Plateau was about to burst out.

The Emperor looked at it and felt spirited, nodding continuously.

The Cao family, as the Duke's relatives, were naturally seated around the Emperor; seeing the Emperor so satisfied, their hearts were considered to have fallen into their stomachs.

The program offered by the Prince of Yong, whose territory was in the southwest, was a mountain song by a mountain singer among the various tribes in the southwest.

The lyrics had naturally been handed to the nobles seated by the female officials long ago.

Everyone felt that although they couldn't understand it, it sounded very good.

The next program was a harvest rice field song sent by some unknown clan relative whose territory was in Yuzhou.

The singing was simple, and agriculture is a major matter of the country, so the Emperor nodded, considering he had received this person's intention.

After a series of programs were performed, time passed unknowingly and it was already Si hour (around 11:00 AM).

The official of rites reporting the programs shouted at the side: "Eldest legitimate son of the Marquis Lady Ningyuan's residence, Tingye, eight years old, offers the Gu family spear technique."

The people at the banquet looked at Gu Yanhai one after another; Gu Yanhai stood up and bowed to signal to the Emperor, and the Emperor waved his hand, letting him sit down.

Afterwards, Gu Yanhai raised his glass to signal, and everyone smiled at each other.

In the palace, there were eunuchs and musicians who understood the atmosphere; just as Gu Tingye was walking on the field, the musicians in the palace had already begun to play heroic music.

Gu Tingye wore a silver-white arrow-sleeve long robe, holding a jujube-red gold-headed red-tasseled spear, wearing a brown hairband, and wearing white boots, quite stylish.

Only hearing the drums rumbling, Gu Tingye spat out his breath.

The sound penetrated the music and reached the ears of those before the Emperor, quite like a young tiger roaring in the valley.

He danced the Gu family spear technique with a decent look, and even used a few moves with the momentum of the battlefield.

Duke Ying, who understood, took the lead and shouted "Good."

Gu Yanhai showed a smile, quite complacent, looking around at his colleagues.

Seeing the Marquis Zhongjing and General Zheng, Gu Yanhai hurriedly bowed.

In the last move, Gu Tingye fiercely threw the long spear out, but suddenly appeared behind the long spear.

This move drew loud cheers from the crowd.

Gu Tingye stood still with his spear,

and the musicians' playing also slowly stopped.

Gu Tingye's posture hadn't been maintained for a few breaths when he jumped off the stage and came before the officials' seats,

then knelt before the Emperor and said loudly: "Your Majesty, did I dance well? If it was good, can you bestow this spear on me? I use this spear quite refreshingly!"

Gu Yanhai's expression turned from sunny to cloudy, looking at the Emperor, just wanting to reprimand him but was waved off by the Emperor,

"My dear official, don't be impatient."

Afterwards, the Emperor said loudly:

"Good child, you must have suffered quite a bit to send me a birthday gift, right?"

"Father said, being able to offer a birthday gift to Your Majesty is something I should be happy about."

"Oh? Then what do you think?"

The Emperor asked with a smile; Gu Yanhai heard this, his eyes quite anxious, but he couldn't speak over the Emperor.

"Happy."

"Good, then this spear is bestowed upon you."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Dong."

Saying this, Gu Tingye really kowtowed to the Emperor.

This childlike appearance caused a burst of laughter from everyone around the Emperor.

Amidst the laughter of the crowd and Gu Yanhai's angry glare, Gu Tingye hugged the long spear he had obtained and ran to the table of the Marquis Lady Ningyuan's residence,

quite like showing off, he handed his long spear to Gu Tingyu, who was full of envy.

Gu Yanhai behind the table said in a low voice: "This little beast, see if I don't beat him to death when I get home."

Duke Ying at the side shook his head quite amusingly and patted Gu Yanhai.

"It is a good thing that your son has such courage."

When the Emperor was asking Gu Tingye questions, eunuchs had already directed little eunuchs to move a row of archery targets to the stage.

By the time Gu Tingye received the Emperor's reward, the archery targets on the stage had also been placed.

In the distance, Xu Zaijing had already put on the white robe and gold armor carefully crafted with the help of Qingyun.

The so-called gold armor was just golden silk satin made into the shape of armor pieces, embroidered according to the appearance of armor.

It looked like metal, but it was actually very light.

Having been raised for six or seven years, Xu Zaijing's hair could also be tied into a bun, wearing a leather helmet, which also looked like metal on the outside, but was actually leather.

There were also two long pheasant feathers on the helmet.

The eunuch at the side said in a sharp voice: "Marquis Yongyi's residence, third legitimate son, Zaijing, seven years old, offers the archery technique of piercing a willow leaf."

Following the eunuch's announcement, everyone also saw Xu Zaijing wearing a white robe and gold armor, wearing a double-feathered helmet.

(End of this chapter)