The Devil of Scarlet Rain

Chapter 42 - The Banquet (Part 1)

The Imperial palace was extremely lively as all the high-ranking officials and nobles' family gathered for a celebration feast. It had been a few months since the war had come to an end. The Yin army came out victorious after a long struggle with the Mo army, but it was a ferocious battle that had taken a great toll on both Empires. Even though the Mo Army was defeated with the death of the Scarlet Emperor, but the Yin Emperor did not immediately hold a grand celebratory feast to commemorate the victory.

Instead, he issued an edict to forbid any huge celebration during the recovery period to honour the dead from both countries. Also, to ease the suffering of the citizens and refugees alike affected by the brutal war, he opened the imperial storage and spent generously to help the war victims to resume their normal lives.

After months of hard work to salvage the damages, lives began to revert to normal and citizens started to feel less resentful toward the royalties. Seeing that the situation had stabled down, the Yin Emperor decided to take this opportunity to organise a celebratory banquet. It had been a while since a grand banquet was held in the palace, hence the scene was extremely spectacular.

At the banquet, the venue was decorated lavishly with exquisite silvers and golds. Court ladies were sashaying around, serving plates of delicacies with gold trays. Famous chefs from Mo Empire were even summoned to the palace to help out with the food preparation. Since the banquet had yet to start officially, many of the attendees could be seen mingling around, chatting joyfully with each other.

"Prince Yin He has arrived!"

Yin He casually strolled into the hall as soon as his name was announced. Immediately a group of ministers quickly went up to greet him. His arrival drew quite a lot of attention, especially from the other side of the hall where all the madams and young ladies were gathered. Most of them eyed him eagerly, for after all, he was considered as one of the most eligible bachelors in the Yin Empire. A dashing prince with status, power and wealth who still did not have an official consort yet. Many young men of his age would probably already have a consort and a few concubines at home, but he had remained steadfastly single for so many years.

Naturally many madams of the privileged families were eager to matchmake their daughters with the prince. However, they only dare to think but not act on it. This was because a few years back, one of the emperor's favourite consorts did try to matchmake her niece with Yin He. Her niece was one of the four great beauties in the Yin capital, and she came from a long line of prominent and influential families.

Despite having many suitors competing for her hands in marriage, her niece only had her eyes on Yin He. She had after all caught a glimpse of Yin He when she came to the palace to visit her aunt, and had since fallen head over heels for him due to his good look. No matter how her parents persuade her, she would not give up on the notion of becoming Yin He's wife.

Having no choice, the parents decided to beg the favoured consort into helping them out. The consort agreed immediately, as this was beneficial for her son's standing in court. What better way to strengthen their clan's power than a marriage alliance? Also, the Empress had been very overbearing lately, and she needed this chance to take her down a notch.

After all, the resentment and power struggle between the Empress and Yin He was well known by almost everyone in the country. Yin He himself, would also be definitely satisfied with her clan's backing.

Moreover, which man would ever decline a beauty like her niece?

Unfortunately, it did not cross her mind that this idea of hers was not very well received by Yin He.

During one of the casual banquets, Noble Consort Xin was one of the organisers, so she came up with the idea of getting her niece, Xiu Lan who was a very gifted dancer to perform on stage. At the end of the performance, Xiu Lan bashfully took out a golden embroidered pouch and presented it to Yin He, thinking that Yin He would not dare to reject it in front of so many people. Many of the officials and nobles, clapped their hands and started teasing Yin He, causing the great beauty to blushed even harder behind her veils.

But! Who would have thought that Yin He would just leave her hanging by not accepting the pouch??? Instead, his smile deepened before he remarked casually, "Young lady Xiu Lan is truly a gifted dancer. Even the dancers from Yue Luo Xiang cannot be compared with you."

At that moment, Xiu Lan was stunned silly when she heard Yin He's word. Even a young lady like her who did not leave her house frequently would know what kind of place Yue Luo Xiang was. It was an infamous brothel in the Yin Capital. To compare her with the dancer of Yue Luo Xiang was truly a great humiliation!!!

Everyone on scene was shocked to the core by Yin He's brutality. He did not even need to reject Xiu Lan directly because in the next moment, Xiu Lan had already burst into tears and ran off from the banquet. Even the Emperor could only cough in awkwardness before he quickly turned to the Prime Minister and asked about the situation on the border.

The Empress lifted her handkerchief to hide a smirk before glancing at Noble Consort Xin whose pretty face had turned from white to blue to red. It was truly.... a sight to behold.

This incident caused such a huge backlash, and the outcome of the entire matter was miserable and embarrassing to the point it was still very well remembered by many people who had witnessed what happened.

A great beauty, coming from an influential family. She had even turned down so many suitors just to throw herself at Yin He. They might not be as handsome nor as influential as Yin He, but at least some of them were quite capable in their own rights and have a great future ahead of them.

It was only because Noble Consort Xin was very favoured by the emperor that no one dared to bring up this subject, otherwise Xiu Lan would have become the laughingstock in the capital. Nevertheless, the poor young lady had lost many potential suitors overnight due to that awkward incident. In the end, the young lady rarely left her house or attended any public event due to the embarrassment she suffered.

When the rest of the madams thought of that incident, they shuddered, shook their head, and quickly threw the ideas out of their mind. To think that even a rare pearl was rejected coldly by him, then it would be better not to risk the good prospect of their own daughters. After what he did, who would dare to provoke Prince Yin He anymore at this point?

Yin He smiled charmingly as he greeted back perfunctorily at the ministers who had approached him. As he did some idle chit chatting with some of them, his eyes wandered around the banquet lazily. He caught sight of Zheng Qing Yao sitting at a corner, deeply absorbed in his conversation with one of the Imperial Physician. He did not seem to pay much attention to Yin He's conspicuous entrance.

After a moment, another name was announced by the eunuch. This time it caught Zheng Qing Yao's attention as he looked up. Not only him, but almost everyone in the entire hall turned their attention toward the entrance expectantly. The smile on Yin He's face deepened slowly, and the pair of black obsidian pupils gleamed meaningfully.

"Looks like the banquet is finally beginning."