Chapter 782: Chapter 782: The Empress Dowager’s Birthday Banquet Chapter 782: Chapter 782: The Empress Dowager’s Birthday Banquet The performance concluded.

The Empress Dowager couldn’t stop smiling. Miss Situ was truly amusing, always coming up with innovative ideas. Just now, she contributed a Hundred Longevity Picture to celebrate her birthday, which was very much to her liking, and now, she had specifically performed a birthday song for her. The Empress Dowager seemed to take a particular liking to Xuexue.

Everyone present was discerning and could see how happy the Empress Dowager was. Instantly, thunderous applause erupted.

Xuexue slightly bent her body, “Your servant lady adapted a piece from ‘Drunken Penglai’, wishing the Empress Dowager happiness for many years to come, and a joyous today and tomorrow, year after year.”

“Good, good, excellent!” The Empress Dowager felt content and repeatedly expressed her delight. Then, she asked Xuexue to sit by her side.

Situ Qinger and She Na watched and grinded their teeth with hatred, yet they were puzzled at the same time. How could this little cheap person, who was clearly from a humble background, play instruments and sing songs?

Furthermore, it was a piece adapted from poetry, something even they, who had been well-versed in literature from prominent families, could not master.

Situ Qinger was shocked. She had suggested this idea to The Emperor and the Empress Dowager hoping for Xuexue to embarrass herself, not to steal the spotlight.

Right now, she felt extremely frustrated.

The way Xuexue’s foster parents appeared, they didn’t seem to be from a wealthy family, yet they still managed to send this little mongrel to a private school, which felt somewhat unbelievable.

“This little cheap person, sooner or later I’ll skin her alive and show her,” She Na muttered softly.

“Sister She, lower your voice. Don’t let anyone with ill intentions hear you! Speaking like this is not good for your reputation,” Situ Qinger said to She Na with a face full of concern.

She Na was someone who lacked intelligence, and Situ Qinger often needed her help to get things done. Therefore, Situ Qinger took good care of her.

Of course, this “care” came with quotation marks.

This place was, after all, the Imperial Palace and She Na was still shaken from a setback earlier. Hearing Situ Qinger’s warning, she quickly glanced around, saw that everyone was focused on Xuexue, and let out a sigh of relief once she confirmed nobody had paid attention to her.

“I was just too upset and couldn’t help but grumble a little,” She Na came to her senses and spoke up close to Situ Qinger in a low voice, slightly scared.

“Sister She, we are close, and it doesn’t matter if I hear it, but I’m afraid if someone with bad intentions overhears, it will be detrimental to you.”

“I just knew you, Sister Qinger, are the kindest to me, unlike that nasty sweeping star of an elder sister you have. She’s so annoying, a real bane to me. Whenever I come across her, nothing good happens,” She Na complained.

“Sister She, don’t be angry. To put it plainly, she’s just a country girl. Even dressed up as the Eldest Legitimate Daughter of the General’s Mansion, deep down she’s still a country bumpkin, not worth your anger,” Situ Qinger soothed.

“True, your elder sister is just a country bumpkin, unaware of the ways of the world. No matter what, as the Legitimate Daughter of the Ministerial Mansion in the Capital, I do have a reputation to maintain. She doesn’t show me any respect, and worse, in front of everyone, she even dared to call me a dog, that bold of her,” She Na’s anger flared up again as she spoke.

Situ Qinger was distracted, her eyes intermittently glancing towards Xuexue, who was chatting and laughing merrily with the Empress Dowager on the stage. Her heart filled with jealousy. How could a country girl steal the show at the Empress Dowager’s birthday feast? She found it impossible to swallow this indignity.

At that moment, the piercing voice of a eunuch rang from outside: “The Fourth Prince has arrived, presenting the Empress Dowager with a birthday gift, a pair of Jade Ruyi.”

Xuexue, who was conversing with the Empress Dowager, stiffened momentarily, but quickly regained her composure, and continued to smile serenely at the Empress Dowager as if nothing had happened.

“The Fourth Prince has come, that’s wonderful.” The Empress Dowager didn’t notice Xuexue’s reaction. A little girl, who had never been in the Imperial Palace before, was understandably nervous, and she was very understanding of that.