Ye City, the Imperial Palace.
Inside the Xuan Room.
Liu Xie was engrossed in state affairs behind the Dragon Desk. He was not alone; Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Jia Xu, and other ministers were also there, seated throughout the hall.
The Court Assembly convened once every five days.
On ordinary days when there was no Court Assembly, these trusted ministers qualified to deliberate on state affairs would gather in the Xuan Room to assist the Son of Heaven and share his burden.
The great hall was very quiet.
Only the faint sounds of memorials being turned and annotated could be heard.
"Tea."
Liu Xie pushed his tea bowl forward and spoke without raising his head.
The attendant palace maid beside him immediately replaced it with the tea she had prepared-Liu Xie disliked tea soup loaded with seasonings and preferred tea made simply by steeping leaves in hot water.
As the saying went, those below followed the example of those above. This way of drinking tea had gradually become fashionable among high officials, nobles, and the gentry.
Compared with tea soup, which was quite troublesome to prepare, tea that could be brewed and drunk directly was undoubtedly much simpler, and it retained the tea's original, delicate fragrance.
While serving the tea, the attendant palace maid asked, "Your Majesty, many portraits have been delivered to the palace over the past few days. Would you like to look at them?"
Ever since the decision to expand the Son of Heaven's harem, the Great Aristocratic Families had been actively making arrangements. In just over ten days, more than a hundred portraits had been delivered to the Imperial Palace.
They were all portraits of women the Great Aristocratic Families had selected from their households and hoped to send into the Imperial Palace.
At these