During the Chinese New Year, a new wave of banquets started among the royal families and relatives. One day the Princess invited guests into her mansion, and the next a banquet would be held in a Prince’s Mansion.
Wei Luo was considered a person who didn’t like to drink, but he had to eat one meal every day, and the smell of alcohol on his body had never faded.
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, after the banquet was over, he came out of the Second Princess’s husband’s mansion, the Yang family of Marquis Wu Ding’s Mansion, and as soon as he got into the carriage, Wei Luo showed obvious impatience on his face.
Even a sociable person like Yin Hui was tired, let alone a quiet person like him.
Xiao Heng and Xiao Xun were very good at reading their father’s face; they sat side by side, quietly.
Xiao Ning was more naughty; she would sit on the side of her brothers for a while and climb down again for a while.
Yin Hui looked at Wei Luo.
Wei Luo leaned back against the carriage, closed his eyes, and slightly frowned his straight eyebrows. Maybe in the next moment, he would open his eyes and beat his daughter up.
Yin Hui hurriedly hugged Xiao Ning into her arms and whispered, “Father is sleepy. Ning Ning, don’t make trouble.”
Xiao Ning lifted her head to look at her father and saw that he was already “asleep”. Xiao Ning blinked, being honest for a while.
Suddenly, when Xiao Xun hiccupped loudly, Xiao Ning looked at him and giggled.
Brother Xun blushed, worried that his father would scold him. He looked at his father nervously, and when he saw the corner of his mouth twitching, he panicked even more.
Wei Luo asked him, “Are you full?”
Xiao Xun nodded.
Adults often found banquets troublesome, yet children thoroughly enjoyed them, eager to have as many playmates as possible. When immersed in fun, their desire for food diminished.
From Xiao Heng to Xiao Xun to Xiao Ning, all displayed flushed faces and eyes brimming with unsuppressed excitement.
Wei Luo gently parted the curtains, exhaling the lingering scent of alcohol, relieving much of the irritability accumulated during the social gathering.
As the carriage halted in front of the Shu Mansion, the youngest sister, Ning, had already succumbed to sleep, while Xun stifled several yawns.
Wei Luo carried Ning back to the side room and then up to the upper room.
Yin Hui presented a bowl of hangover tea.
Wei Luo promptly stood, drank, washed his face, discarded the wine-stained outer robe, and noticed some marks on his shirt. He removed the jacket, dampened a towel, and prepared to wipe his chest.
Yin Hui stood nearby and offered, “Let me help you.”
Whenever Wei Luo was in a bad mood, Yin Hui’s consideration surpassed the usual.
Wei Luo handed her the towel, watched her meticulously wipe his chest, and then proceeded to wipe his back when he turned around.
In the moments he couldn’t see her, Wei Luo’s thoughts drifted back to the banquet.
Over the past three years, Yang Pengju, the Second Princess’s husband, had achieved numerous military feats. He hailed from the Marquis Mansion, leading his father and the Emperor’s personal army. Among the three guards, Jinwu Zuowei served as the commander, with Jinwu Right Guard and Qianwei under the leadership of Guo Liao and Feng Teng, respectively. The fathers, Yang Jingzhong, Guo Xiao, and Feng Su, were dispatched by his father to safeguard various borders.
Yang Pengju, the brother-in-law of the second brother, Guo Liao, the cousin of the fourth brother, and Feng Teng, perceived by outsiders as being on his side due his marriage to Liao Qiuniang, were all adept drinkers at the banquet. Fueled by years of camaraderie in battles, they received the most toasts.
Wei Luo discreetly observed that during the friendly competition for toasts, the elder brother’s smile carried a hint of complexity.
Speaking of which, the elder brother’s mother and wife’s family, the Xu family, should have been the number one military officer in the dynasty, but Xu Yao offended his father, and his limelight was a little bleak.
When assisting the father to seize the world, they were all brothers that devoted themselves to the outside world. Now that the father had won the world, the brothers lived alone in separate houses and had relatives by marriage. They might never go back to the past.
“Okay, it’s cold outside, go lie down under the blanket,” Yin Hui wiped him twice, patted his firm back lightly, and said softly.
Wei Luo was still distracted, and after hearing what she said, he subconsciously went to bed.
Yin Hui asked the maids to change the water, wiped her face herself, and then came to the bed. Seeing that Wei Luo was still frowning, she wondered, “What are you thinking?” Wei Luo looked at her and moved inside to let her sleep.
Yin Hui put down the curtain and lay down.
She thought that Wei Luo was aroused, but she didn’t expect that he just hugged her and didn’t say anything.
Yin Hui was sleepy; she leaned into his arms and yawned, closing her eyes.
Wei Luo could smell the fragrance of the cream she had just applied. She was the pampered daughter of the richest man in Yandi. She married him when she grew up and never suffered any hardships.
His father was in power, and he didn’t allow them to establish a family elsewhere. When the Elder Brother ascends to the throne, what would he do?
From the lesson learned from the past, his Elder Brother wouldn’t dare to let them go.
Would he leave them as idle princes in the capital?
But every prince had relatives-in-law, so if he truly wanted to ensure safety, the relationships must be severed to avoid hidden dangers, unless the Elder Brother was broad-minded and appointed people on merit.
Wei Luo was immersed in his own thoughts, but his hands unconsciously rubbed his wife’s soft, long hair.
How could Yin Hui sleep like this? She grabbed his hand and muttered in dissatisfaction, “Do you want to sleep?”
Wei Luo looked at her sleepy expression, and the thoughts in his mind suddenly dissipated.
There was only one cousin left in his mother’s family, the Wen family, and the cousin’s husband was just a concubine born from a family in the downfall of the Marquis’s family, so he wouldn’t be feared by others. In the Yin family, the wealth of the old man’s family had almost been dispersed, and he wanted to enjoy his old age peacefully. Even if Yin Lang would be admitted to Jinshi in a few years, he would have to slowly climb up from the bottom of the civil service. It would be good to keep the official position, but he couldn’t be promoted again in a short time.