On the tenth month, Vermilion Bird Empire, Dragon City…
Within the city center, there was a cluster of very imposing buildings, probably more… wait, this looks like part of the palace.
“Longji, how are your uncle and aunt?” asked an aristocratic lady, concern in her eyes. Her question was sincere.
In this palace, there was only one girl named Longji. This girl was Princess Longji. And there were very few who could call her name like this— this person was the empress dowager.
“They’re very well, though they have so many events to attend… You know that even if they weren’t related to us, they’d still attract a lot of attention,” said Princess Longji.
Princess Longji already owned her own territory, that was why she had her own residence within Dragon City. This time, Ye Chengtian and the rest were staying within her residence.
This was a returned favour. The last time she visited Soaring Sky, she had lived in their Ye Residence. Now that they were here, they lived at her place.
This was also because they rejected the empress dowager’s invite for them to live in the Vermilion Bird palace. Ye Chengtian and his wife felt that it was inappropriate so they refused.
Initially, they planned to look for their own place. She had been in the city so naturally, she invited them into her home.
The couple finally agreed.
They had met the empress dowager and emperor once when they arrived, though not after. That was why the empress dowager asked Princess Longji about them.
“They won’t be able to avoid those events, they’re not ordinary people…” The empress dowager smiled. She had already anticipated this.
At this point, everyone wanted to be friends with the Ye family. With their neutral attitude and Ye Lang’s peculiar position, everyone wanted to form a relationship with them.
Even if they could not merge their family with the Ye’s, at least they could form a friendly tie. Usually, the Ye family would be in Ye City so they did not have a chance like that. Now that they were here, all the Vermilion Bird palace officials and aristocrats took the chance to invite them to events.
Many people knew about Long Anqi’s identity here too, that was why they tried their very best to impress.
In the past, perhaps they would consider the empress dowager’s feelings since no one really knew what went on between Long Anqi and the empress dowager.
Now that everyone discovered the empress dowager intended to maintain contact with Long Anqi, perhaps even a good relationship, they had to get in on this.
However, even if the empress dowager did not like long Anqi, there would still be people both in broad daylight and in the dark who would want to form close ties with Long Anqi. Ye Chengtian was a powerful force.
“But Ah-Yi and the rest are the busy ones, Lanyu and Yazhu are having fun,” said Longji smilingly.
[Auntie (Ah-Yi) = a vague term to greet any lady older than yourself]
“Didn’t I say you have to call her Gu Gu?” The empress dowager frowned, displeased.
[Auntie (Gu Gu) = a greeting for your aunt – father’s sister]
“Ah… habit…” She stuck out her tongue mischievously, like a child. This was not an expression she made often. However, it was normal in front of the empress dowager.
As for her previous greeting, Long Anqi had wanted her to call her as Ah-Yi so no one would suspect their relationship. There was one important reason- Long Anqi still refused to recognise Princess Longji as her own niece- meaning she did not recognise her blood ties to the Vermilion Bird Empire.
The term Ah-Yi could be used everywhere, it did not clearly state one’s relationship. It could be used out of respect.
“Are Lanyu and the rest interested in coming over?” asked the empress dowager.
“About that… They don’t seem to like the palace very much… Not that they don’t like this place, they just aren’t interested in palaces. Perhaps due to that incident,” she said wistfully, shaking her head.
The empress dowager was silent for a moment, understanding what Princess Longji meant.
She was referring to Zhao Yarou usurping her father’s throne. A trauma like that would not heal so easily, especially for the seventh princess.
The empress dowager did not know that the seventh princess didn’t like palaces not just for this reason- she never liked places of political and mind games. She never liked the palace during her childhood either. She just had no choice but to live in it.
Zhao Yarou’s incident made her completely cut ties with palaces. Not living in one was good news to her!
“If they don’t like it, we won’t force them! But I can visit them.” The empress dowager smiled. She did not care about customs,especially not regarding people she cared about.
“Mmm, you can visit, Auntie never directly objected to you visiting them.” Princess Longji nodded. She was familiar with the empress dowager’s antics. More importantly, Ye Lang had visited once and the empress dowager had already grown close to him.
“We’ll both visit them together later! Right, why are you here today? Don’t tell me it’s just to visit us, you don’t care that much,” teased the empress dowager.
She did not think that Princess Longji would visit so early just to greet her. There must be something else. If she really wanted, she would have done this a long time ago.
Of course, the empress dowager also knew why she was so busy. It was for her own birthday ceremony, spending time with Long Anqi and the rest in the empress dowager’s place.
“No, I care a lot…” The princess pouted.
“Tell me what you’re here for, I won’t judge,” she said, squinting her eyes at her beloved granddaughter.
“Father told me to come, he said there’s a princess from Ai La Empire coming and I should welcome her. He says my identity is appropriate for this,” said the princess.
“Your identity is appropriate? You’re not the only princess in the palace, plus you know your rank is a special one here. You mean Ai La’s princess isn’t here for the ceremony, but for something else?” the empress dowager furrowed her brows.
