Whenever the weather was fine, the Grand Princess now held banquets without fail.
Given her status and standing, the wives of officials and aristocratic families in the capital held her in great esteem.
Of late, aside from Wenren Luoshui's Begonia Garden, the liveliest gatherings in the capital were the Grand Princess's banquets.
The emperor also respected this aunt of his, who had no taste for stirring up trouble. Besides, only at her advanced age had she discovered that the child she had raised all her life-
Was not only unrelated to her by blood, but was also the murderer who had killed her own child.
After suffering such a devastating blow, she was already fortunate not to have fallen ill and never recovered. Now she had merely acquired a fondness for hosting banquets, using her own money and property.
Naturally, the emperor supported her.
He would even tell his children, Wenren Luoshui, and the others to stop by the Grand Princess's banquets when they had nothing else to do.
A dragonfly rested on a pink-and-white lotus petal, enveloped in the lotus's fresh, delicate fragrance.
A breeze swept past, gently stirring the gauze curtains hanging in the pavilion like sprites dancing among the flowers.
Wenren Luoshui, Tu Hua, and Yunjian sat in a relatively secluded pavilion.
Each held a cup of milk tea as they watched the elegantly dressed young ladies before them, all brimming with youthful vitality.
A young lady of about sixteen, dressed in pale purple, was pulling another girl of the same age in an apricot-colored outfit toward a nearby pavilion.
Li Jingyun was deeply reluctant. Whenever her elder sister ran into trouble, she would merely look aggrieved. Only when pushed to the limit would she calmly offer the words, "Even with a hundred mouths, I couldn't defend