Chapter 429: Garden Tour (2)

The round-faced young lady laughed and said with a little pride: "My eyes are the most venomous. I can tell which jewelry or clothes someone wears from which silver shop or embroidery workshop with just one glance. I will never make a mistake!"

After that, she pointed at Caiwei's clothes and said: "The jacket on the young lady's body was made by Liu Sigu, the best embroiderer in Shu Embroidery Workshop. The embroidery alone is worth three hundred taels of silver. The skirt is also from Shu Embroidery Workshop, but it is not made by Liu Sigu. It looks like it was made by An Dagu. And the young lady's embroidered shoes..."

The round-faced young lady is very talkative and chatters non-stop. She soon became familiar with Caiwei.

Through the conversation, Caiwei learned that she was the eldest daughter of Jian'an Marquis's Mansion. Her name was Wu Xiangyun. She was sixteen years old this year and had attended the Queen's Shangsi Festival banquet for the third time.

Caiwei also told her her identity honestly. Xiangyun was a very good person. She did not look down on Caiwei because of her humble origin. Instead, she was very interested in Caiwei's experience.

"Caiwei, so the barbecue skewers you invented are delicious?"

"You can say that!"

"Oh, then I must try it myself some other day. No, I'll go tonight."

Wu Xiangyun nodded, "Well, that's it!"

Caiwei liked Xiangyun's personality very much. She was cheerful, straightforward, not pretentious, and very sincere. She was many times better than Du Wanqiu beside her.

Du Wanqiu hardly spoke from the moment she sat down. She looked like a reserved lady, but her eyes looked around, and from time to time she looked at the male guest seat on the left. I wonder who she was looking at?

Caiwei didn't pay attention to her behavior, and just waited to see the noble queen. It was already late, and everyone had arrived. The Queen had not yet shown up. The royal family only had a few young princes and concubines of low status. No one who could hold the scene had arrived.

Caiwei had never attended a royal banquet before, and did not know the rules of royal banquets, but she privately thought that it was not good for the host to not even show his face when the guests had arrived. Others must have thought so too, but they just did not dare to say it out loud.

Just as she was thinking, a big eunuch came over with a whisk in his hand and said in a shrill voice: "The Queen will arrive later. The Queen has ordered that all the young men and young ladies please have fun by yourselves, and do not be restrained."

Since the Queen had not come yet, and it seemed that she would not come in a short time, many people left the table and had fun in the imperial garden in groups of three or five.

However, everyone tacitly avoided the waterside pavilion in the middle. Most of them were playing on the long corridor surrounding the lake. Sitting on the beauties under the corridor, enjoying the warm breeze and looking at the scenery in the distance, they felt very comfortable.

There were also a few young noblemen who went directly to the painted boat and asked the eunuchs who rowed the boat to take them for a closer tour to have fun.

Du Wanru dressed up as Caiwei's maid and followed behind Caiwei. Her beautiful eyes, like Du Wanqiu, flew to the men's seats from time to time. Seeing that several young nobles left the seats and walked away along the curved corridor by the lake, she encouraged Caiwei to go out for a walk and relax.

Caiwei was thinking about how to deal with the queen later, so she was not in the mood to go out for a walk, so she flatly refused.

However, Wu Xiangyun, who had just met, loved to be lively. Seeing that Caiwei's maid was instigating her, she was moved. Anyway, the Queen won’t be here for a while, so they might as well take the opportunity to go for a walk. After all, they don’t have the chance to visit the Imperial Garden every day!