Lu Jinping held her with one hand and said, "Okay, no need to do this. I know you are doing it for my own good. If you were not doing it for my good, you would have strangled me to death and threw it into the garbage dump, so I wouldn't blame you."

"Thank you for your grace, Young Master." Zhu Niang was grateful and burst into tears.

While talking, the carriage arrived in a garden with beautiful flowers. After asking, I realized that this was the emperor's imperial garden.

The guards here are much tighter than before, and they were investigated several times on the way.

When they arrived in the Imperial Garden, they stopped the car. Lu Jinping and Zhu Niang got out of the car. They saw many people around them looking at each other with curious eyes. When Lu Jinping glanced over, they lowered their eyes and dared not look at him. Judging from their clothes, they should be palace maids or eunuchs in the palace.

There were already many soft couches and coffee tables in the garden, and there were all kinds of melons, fruits, peaches, plums, pastries, and wine on the coffee table. There were already many people sitting on the soft couch. Seeing that they were wearing official robes, they must have been important officials in the court, but Lu Jinping did not recognize any of them.

However, when he walked into the scene, the officials stood up and saluted respectfully. Lu Jinping quickly bowed and returned the salute. He was a little puzzled, wondering why they were so polite to him, a strange young man. Could it be that they knew their life experience?

If so, that would be easy to explain.

Lu Jinping’s life experience is different now. You should know that he is not only the child of Shangguan Wan'er, but also the son of Prince Zhanghuai. Prince Zhanghuai Li Xian and the current emperor Li Chongmao are uncle and nephew. In other words, Lu Jinping is the cousin of the current emperor Li Chongmao and belongs to the direct blood relative of the royal family.

Even if the officials present have a high position, they are not as good as royal relatives, so they all get up and salute when they see him.

It can be seen from this that these people already know Lu Jinping’s identity. Or that his identity has been made public by Empress Wei and Shangguan Wan'er.

Although he was the illegitimate son of Li Xian and Shangguan Wan'er, the Tang Dynasty was originally an open dynasty, and Li Zhi married a son like Wu Zetian and married a concubine, not to mention that he was an illegitimate son, which was originally an orthodox bloodline. However, the lack of the church-making procedure, the blood relationship could not be changed. These ministers were very respectful in their rituals. There was no sarcasm or disdain at all.

Lu Jinping glanced at the seats in the field. The two dragon chaises placed in the top were probably the emperor and the queen. There were several soft couches on the left and right sides of the two dragon chaises. I don’t know who they were left for, but the ministers sat in the empty seats.

Zhu Niang led Lu Jinping to the empty seat on his left hand. Here was a handsome young man sitting here. Wearing a brocade robe, the man saw Lu Jinping coming with Zhu Niang. He immediately stood up with a smile on his face, bowed to salute, and said, "Longji, pay homage to the emperor!"

Lu Jinping couldn't help but be surprised and happy. Could it be that the handsome young man in front of him was the famous Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Li Longji?

Lu Jinping quickly hugged his fists and bowed back, but he didn't know what to call him, so he turned his head to look at Zhu Niang.

Zhu Niang smiled and said, "You should call him the emperor brother. She is the child of your fourth emperor uncle, Li Longji, the king of Linzi."

Lu Jinping then bowed and smiled, "Hello, my brother, please take care of me for the first time we met."

Lu Jinping didn't know how hello in the palace, so he pulled out what he often said in film and television dramas in later generations. As a result, Li Longji was stunned. Then he laughed and said, "Your brother is more care, come on, your brother. Please sit down."

After saying that, he pulled Lu Jinping and let him sit on the left. Lu Jinping's father Li Xian was the second son of Wu Zetian and Emperor Gaozong of Tang Li Zhi, while Li Longji's father Li Dan was the fourth son. So from the perspective of seniority, Lu Jinping was the cousin, so he naturally had to sit on the top.

After a while, I heard the drums and music, and then many people came out of a lobby one after another. First, a phoenix crown and a robe with a jingle sound, followed by a boy in a dragon robe. Behind were some colorful concubines.

The ceremonial sang loudly: "Empress Dowager, the emperor is here!"

Everyone quickly stood up and bowed to welcome him. It was not popular to kneel down and bow down in the Tang Dynasty. It was not as perverted as the Ming and Qing dynasties, so I could bow down and bow down.

When Lu Jinping heard that he was called the Empress Dowager, he understood that the person who was walking in the past should be the mother of the current emperor, Empress Wei, who was aligned with his mother Shangguan Wan'er to become the second best place in Wu Zetian.

Seeing that she looked dignified and generous, with a wide range of demeanor, she looked quite like a mother of the country. But she didn't look like a domineering dignity like Wu Zetian that Lu Jinping imagined. No wonder she couldn't become the second in Wu Zetian.

The one who followed Queen Wei and the emperor's brother was Shangguan Wan'er. Logically speaking, although Shangguan Wan'er was Zhaorong of the ancestor emperor, her power cannot be compared with the emperor's brother. The arrangement of Queen Wei to appear second only to her must have a profound meaning, indicating the alliance between the two sides.

Shangguan Wan'er couldn't help but smile at Lu Jinping, and nodded slightly at her. After she sat down and moved into the seat, Queen Wei looked at Lu Jinping with a smile and said, "You are Jinping, right?"

Lu Jinping quickly stood up and bowed to salute: "Jinping greets the Empress Dowager."

Queen Wei nodded slightly and said to the emperor Li Chongmao who was sitting beside him: "Emperor, you should also go and meet your brother!"

Li Chongmao agreed humbly, stood up and wanted to salute Lu Jinping. Lu Jinping quickly stepped forward and bowed and said, "Jinping greets the emperor, I wish my emperor a long life!"

This set of flattery words only appeared in large quantities in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and Lu Jinping moved it to the Tang Dynasty, which naturally made Li Chongmao, who had just ascended the throne, enjoyed it. He smiled and helped Lu Jinping and said, "The emperor's brother doesn't have to be too polite."

Queen Wei smiled and said, "It's rare for you two brothers to get along with each other at first sight. I'll drink a few more drinks later."

After the two agreed to sit down separately, Empress Wei then glanced at the concubines, princes, royal family, princes, generals and ministers in the court, and smiled and said, "There are two intentions to hold a family dinner today. One is that my son Chongmao ascended the throne as emperor, and the second is that he found Li Jinping, the son of Prince Zhanghuai who had been separated for many years. These two things are extremely gratifying!"

The royal relatives and ministers all stood up quickly and congratulated each other.

Empress Wei signaled everyone to sit down and continued: "Li Jinping is the child who has been separated from Prince Zhanghuai and Shangguan Zhaorong for many years, and is the cousin of the current emperor. Therefore, the emperor decided to enthrone Jinping as the King of Loyalty."

When Lu Jinping heard this, he was shocked and happy. He unexpectedly took the opportunity to attend today's banquet and actually took the prince as a prince, and couldn't help but look at him.

Zhu Niang stood behind Shangguan Wan'er at this moment, smiled and nodded at her, and looked at Shangguan Wan'er with joy again.

At this time, the ministers quickly stood up and congratulated each other, and Li Longji, who was sitting next to Lu Jinping, also stood up and folded his fists and smiled, "Congratulations to the emperor."

Lu Jinping quickly stood up to thank him, bowed and thanked him, and stepped forward to thank the emperor and Empress Wei.

Then Empress Wei announced the beginning of the banquet. During the entire ceremony, the emperor almost didn't get any chance to speak, and it was all endorsed by his mother Empress Wei. This shows that the emperor is just a puppet.

When the banquet started, there was no leader’s speech or speech in ancient times. It was just singing and dancing and toasting in turn.

Lu Jinping was a heroic man. When he heard that he was going to toast, he held a wine pot in one hand and the wine cup in the other. He first went forward to toast Queen Wei, then toast the emperor and Li Longji separately, and toast his mother Shangguan Wan'er. He toasted all the important officials of the court one by one, and he drank the wine every place he went, which was very generous.

Logically speaking, as the prince, Lu Jinping should have toasted him by the ministers. He now toasted these people in reverse, which made these people feel flattered. At the same time, he also felt that this young prince was kind and had no airs.

This kind of banquet is more of a kind of etiquette, but after Lu Jinping toasted everyone, he was dizzy when he drank it.

At this time, the ritual officer loudly announced the end of the banquet, so all the ministers stood up and said goodbye and left. The princes and royal families also stepped forward to say goodbye and left.

Seeing that they left one after another, Lu Jinping didn't know whether he should go back to the courtyard or leave the imperial city.

At this time, he saw Empress Wei wave to him, so he hurried over.

Empress Wei said: "It is difficult for you to get a trip to the palace, so you stay for a few days. The emperor brother and you brother have not seen each other for many years. We have a lot of chatting, how do you think about it?"

Lu Jinping quickly said, "This seems to be a bit inappropriate. After all, I am a big man and it is really inconvenient to live in the palace. Otherwise, I will still live outside. If the emperor wants to talk to me and come in again, wouldn't it be more appropriate?"

Empress Wei smiled, her voice raised a little. She glanced at Shangguan Wan'er next to her intentionally or unintentionally and said, "The emperor appointed you as King Zhong, and your prince's mansion will start construction soon. However, it will not be completed in the short term. You can stay in the palace during this period. The people in this palace are the family of your aunt, aunt, sister, sister, and sister. What's the point of living in the palace? If you feel uncomfortable, then this is better. There is a small courtyard near the south gate of the palace. It was used by the Empress Dowager when he met the ministers when he was handling government affairs in the inner palace. It is separated from the inner courtyard of the palace. You can live there. When you go back to the yard at night, you can come in to play with the emperor during the day. Is that good?"

When Lu Jinping heard this, he understood what Queen Wei's intention was to make such arrangements. He wanted to lock himself outside the palace, and it was no longer safe, so he put himself in the palace and monitored him. That was the most appropriate thing. Of course, the purpose was to take him as a hostage and force Shangguan Wan'er to join forces with him to deal with Li Longji.
Chapter completed!