The fake daughter of a fallen ghost is reborn

It's getting dark.

As night fell, the Imperial Garden gradually became lively.

The banquet begins.

The emperor, empress and queen mother occupied high seats, concubines sat separately, and ministers and family members, both men and women, sat separately.

Peng Hui shouted: "The Northern Di envoys come to see us!"

For a moment, all the guests were silent and looked at one place.

Several tall-armed and dark-eyed men dressed in exotic costumes walked up to the table. The leading man had slightly dark skin and looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He was slightly taller than Gu Shimin. Between his sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, there was a deep calculation as deep as water, and the gloom of a veteran on the battlefield.

"Foreign minister Helian You pays homage to Emperor Dayong."

As the future heir of Beidi, he naturally learned the official language of Dayong.

During the meal, Huo Wuyou simply poured himself a glass of wine and drank it, as if he wanted to swallow down the surging hatred.

The emperor exempted them from the formalities and allowed them to take their seats.

Listening to the emperor and Helian You's hypocritical words, Huo Wuyou felt annoyed. He looked at the empress dowager, but Xue Zhiyi was not by her side. He then looked at Huo Zhiyu's seat, which was also empty.

I don't know what he was thinking, his pair of auspicious phoenix eyes dimmed slightly, not showing on his face, but his fingers were already clenched around the cup anxiously.

As the emperor and Helian You toasted each other, the topic naturally turned to the marriage.

Helian You smiled and said, "My father Khan only hopes that I can bring a princess back to Beidi this time, but I don't know if the flowers in the Central Plains can withstand the bitter cold of the desert."

"Princess, as a princess, you are blessed with the blood of a true dragon. Why should you fear the bitter cold?" An Zhaoyi said coldly.

Although An Zhaoyi was allowed to attend, her favor was no longer the same as before. She hated Concubine Li and tried to please the Queen and the Queen Mother more and more. At this moment, she was eager to go against Concubine Li.

Upon hearing this, Concubine Li's smile froze for a moment, then she said softly, "Your Majesty, Pingzhang has been unwell recently and fell ill again this morning. I'm afraid he can't stand the praise from Concubine An."

Sure enough, there was not even a seat arranged for Gu Ruxuan at today's banquet.

Concubine Ge continued, "Speaking of which, Princess Anle is the descendant of a military family, and her father and brother are both stationed at the frontier. She must be different from these spoiled girls who grew up in Huajing."

Huo Wuyou frowned and said nothing: The Ge family's goal is to sabotage the marriage. Now they have rashly pushed A Yu out, their purpose is definitely not to make A Yu a candidate for the marriage.

In short, when something goes wrong, there must be a monster.

Helian You heard this and echoed, "Princess Anle has a free and easy personality, she is indeed different from others."

Concubine Ge was surprised: "So, Your Highness has already met Princess Anle?"

Before Helian You could speak, a concubine echoed: "Your Highness, you don't know, the princess and His Highness got to know each other after a fight, they are a perfect match made in heaven..."

When he was almost done talking, Concubine Ge belatedly reminded him, "Don't be careless with your words."

The Empress Dowager's expression had changed, but the Emperor did not stop them. He just let them continue talking.

Helian You smiled and said, "I just don't know why Princess Anle didn't show up today? Is she feeling unwell?"

After saying this, everyone noticed that Huo Zhiyu's seat was empty.

"I didn't know that the prince of Beidi was so concerned about the women of other countries' royal families."

The concern is almost shameless.

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Huo Wuyou leaning against the side. He was wearing a red robe and his hair was covered with flamboyant beads, making him look like a peacock, but his face was stiff and impatient.

Hearing this, the imperial concubine smiled as if to smooth things over: "Your Highness, this is Princess Anle's brother, Marquis Lin'an."

After that, Concubine Ge pretended to be worried and said, "I wonder if the Marquis of Lin'an knows where the princess has gone? It's really worrying that she hasn't been seen for such a long time."

As soon as Concubine Ge opened her mouth, Huo Wuyou glared at her: "Concubine Ge is too worried. What can happen in the palace?"

As he spoke, he suddenly smiled casually: "The Imperial Concubine just said that A Yu's father and brother are guarding the northwest, so she is not afraid of the bitter cold?"

The imperial concubine had always thought of him as an ordinary playboy and had never carefully understood his character. At this moment, she didn't know what he was going to say, so she just didn't answer him.

Huo Wuyou shook the wine cup in his hand slowly and said, "Unfortunately, my father and brother left Yueling Pass three years ago. Now Princess Anle's brother is only a pampered and idle lord like me."

As he spoke, his eyebrows slightly raised: "Come to think of it, the one guarding Yueling Pass now is Duke Dingguo, so I guess the girls of the Ge family must be as strong as bulls, right?"

He said this, but still in a joking tone, which made people seem too petty if they wanted to argue with him.

Concubine Ge was speechless.

Everyone had expected that Huo Wuyou would express his dissatisfaction with the marriage. After all, no one wanted their loved ones to be sent thousands of miles away. However, Concubine Ge couldn't find the right words to refute his malicious ridicule.

She could only think bitterly: He is just a useless playboy who can only talk big.

At this moment, An Zhaoyi suddenly cried out: "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Miss Yuan Hui since the banquet started. It's been such a long time since I last saw her. As her aunt, how come you're not worried at all?"

Concubine Ge was distracted: Sure enough, Ge Yuanhui's seat was also empty. She was preoccupied today and didn't even notice where Ge Yuanhui had gone.

During the dinner, Ge Jingyang sighed worriedly. He had discovered his sister was missing a long time ago and had sent someone to look for her secretly, but there was still no news.

There must be no mistakes in today's plan.

At this moment, there was an extremely abrupt bang, and Helian You stood up with an apologetic look on his face: "Your Majesty, I accidentally knocked over the wine cup just now. I am sorry. May I leave the table and go change my clothes?"

Sure enough, there were large wine stains on his collar.

The emperor naturally agreed and asked someone to lead Helian You to change his clothes.

Before leaving, Helian You and Wu Lifei's eyes quietly crossed, making it difficult to notice.

Accidents happened one after another, making people feel an indescribable strangeness, as if there was some undercurrent surging, but they couldn't put their finger on it.

Concubine Li looked serious and acted like a manager of the six palaces. She said, "As Marquis Lin'an said, what can we worry about when we are in the palace? It's just that the girl is having fun and got stuck somewhere. She might come back soon."

Concubine Ge also said, "Xue Zhiyi, who usually follows the Queen Mother, is also missing. I guess she is serving the princess at this moment. This servant is loyal. When the princess fell into the water, she risked her life to save her. Having her follow her makes us feel more at ease."

These little incidents did not attract much attention and the banquet continued.

But Helian You had not returned for a long time, and the emperor became worried, so he asked Peng Hui to send people to look for him.

Seeing this, Concubine Ge smiled maliciously and said, "Princess Anle hasn't come back yet, so even if we meet her, we can't say for sure where she is."

An Zhaoyi took advantage of the situation and said, "So, it's possible that he might meet Miss Yuan Hui, isn't it?"

Concubine Ge remained silent, feeling that she was making herself look bad.

From an angle where no one could see, Concubine Wu Lifei twisted her fingers under her sleeves, with a flash of guilt in her eyes: I'm sorry, Princess, if there was no other choice, she wouldn't want to do this...

But at this moment, a commotion broke out. Several eunuchs were seen holding down a palace maid dressed as a servant, cursing, "You lowly creature! How dare you barge into the banquet without permission!"

The servant was still shouting heartbreakingly: "Your Majesty, help! Princess Anle is in trouble! I dare not hide it!"

As if it were earth-shattering news, everyone looked in that direction.

The Queen Mother stood up anxiously: "Let her in!"

Then the servant palace maid was brought forward.

The emperor asked her coldly, "You said the princess is in trouble? What kind of trouble is that? If you don't tell the truth, I will sentence you to death."

The maid huddled up in a ball, her voice trembling, "I... I found a pearl flower belonging to the princess by the Taiye Lake. I'm worried that the princess has already fallen into the water!"

"It's just a pearl flower." Concubine Ge's face was serious, but her eyes were clear: "How can you conclude that the princess fell into the water and it was not lost by accident?"

The maid kowtowed heavily and said, "Reporting to the Imperial Concubine, I originally thought so, but I just heard that the person following the princess is Xue Zhiyi. I am worried that she will attack the princess again!"

"Xue Zhiyi is from Jianzhang Palace, why would she harm the princess?"

The one who spoke was Huo Wuyou. His lazy tone was rarely filled with a hint of murderous intent that could not be concealed. He sneered, "I'm afraid that life in the imperial court was difficult, and he got mad but couldn't see a doctor in time, so now he's crazy and has come to the banquet."

Concubine Ge only glanced in his direction, and then said to the maid, "What do you mean by 'once again'?"

The maid quickly recited the following words as if she had received some instructions: "In the past, when the Xue Mansion was still in existence, Xue Zhiyi had saved the princess when she fell into the water, and therefore won the Queen Mother's favor. But I know that all of this was done deliberately by Xue Zhiyi. She pushed the princess into the water herself, and then rescued her, in order to gain merit in front of the Queen Mother!"

Then she kowtowed again: "I dare not lie, everything I said is true!"

Hearing this, Concubine Ge responded with a righteous tone, "How could a servant like you know what happened in the Xue Mansion? I'm afraid you want to falsely accuse someone close to the Queen Mother!"

The maid looked up at this moment and said, "I know this because I saw it with my own eyes. When Xue Zhiyi was plotting to murder the princess, I saw it by accident, but I didn't dare to say anything at the time!"

The moment she raised her head, the women at the table were already exclaiming in surprise.

The imperial concubine asked her sternly, "Who are you?"

The maid's lips trembled as she said in a loud voice, "I am Xue Panrou, a maid in the palace. My father is the criminal Xue Zhentong, the second sister of Xue Zhiyi!"