76: Wine and meat

Chapter 76: Pool of Wine and Forest of Meat

The sky had just darkened.

Liu Chengen led ten palace mistresses who had just entered the palace for the sacrificial ceremony, walking toward White Jade Capital.

Most of these ten mistresses held the title of Beauty, and each was youthful, vibrant, and lively. Right now, however, suppressing the excitement in their hearts, they followed timidly step by step behind Liu Chengen.

The woman at the lead was the only Noble Lady among these ten Beauties.

Lan Lingrong, Noble Lady Lan.

During the selection that day, she had proactively greeted Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager, and moved Your Majesty with a Kunqu opera song, thus being bestowed the title of Noble Lady Lan.

She originated from Shanyang County, and her mother was a concubine of Lan Huai, the Vice Magistrate of Shanyang County.

At the same time, she was also a popular courtesan within Shanyang County city.

After Lan Huai assumed office as the Vice Magistrate of Shanyang County, she was forcibly taken into the estate and became a favored concubine.

To consolidate her position within the estate, this favored concubine constantly fought with other wives and concubines, but ultimately was disliked by Lan Huai due to aging and fading looks.

Lan Lingrong grew up in such an environment.

She always kept her mother's teachings in mind.

"As a woman, you must know how to fight for things, otherwise you will suffer for a lifetime!"

"Rong'er, remember that men are all the same; they only like young and pretty ones!"

"That's why you must seize a man's heart while you are young, making him never forget you for the rest of his life...!"

Under such teachings, Lan Lingrong became a palace maiden and stepped into the imperial palace.

Also because of her boldness and attentiveness, she was the first to be bestowed as Noble Lady Lan!

Yet tonight she was taken out by Father-in-law again; could that be for...?

She quickened her steps, pulled out a jade hairpin given to her by her mother when leaving home from her bosom, gritted her teeth, and came before Liu Chengen.

"Liu, Liu Father-in-law, I wonder where you are taking us at this late hour?"

After speaking, she quietly handed over this jade hairpin.

"Father-in-law has worked hard..."

Liu Chengen glanced at the jade hairpin, thought for a moment without accepting it, and instead said in a low voice, "Mistress, please put it away."

"Bringing all the mistresses here tonight is by Your Majesty's order."

"Congratulations, Mistress; felicitations, Mistress. Tonight is the day for Mistress to attend to Your Majesty in bed."

"Attend to him in bed!"

Lan Lingrong's eyes suddenly brightened. Entering the palace as palace maidens for only about three days, they had never heard of any palace maiden going to attend to Your Majesty in bed.

She... was the first?

Wrong!

If she were truly attending in bed, why would other palace maidens be brought along?

Among the nine women behind her, she knew a few of them, all of whom held the rank of Beauty.

She asked in puzzlement, "Fa-, Father-in-law, I, I am here to attend in bed, then, then why are they all..."

Liu Chengen rolled his eyes and said, "Your Majesty is vigorous and full of vitality, and the Dao of martial arts flourishes. All of you are here to attend to Your Majesty in bed tonight."

"You are the first Noble Lady mistress. The other mistresses are nothing more than Beauties."

"I, I..."

Lan Lingrong immediately immediately felt a sense of grievance rise up.

She was a Noble Lady after all; why, why did attending to him in bed have to be done together with other women?

Your, Your Majesty was simply too... dissolute and devoid of Dao!

Of course, she dared not say these words out loud, but her face was incomparably conflicted.

"What, is Mistress unwilling?"

Liu Chengen glanced at her and said, "Your Majesty gave the order tonight to have this servant bring ten mistresses. this servant chose you first precisely because Mistress Lan had great courage that day."

"The reason the nine mistresses behind you were chosen by this servant is much the same."

"If Your Ladyship is unwilling, this servant will send you back to the palace right now."

"Hehehe..."

"There are over five hundred mistresses entering the palace this term. If you don't come this time, who knows when you'll have to wait until next time~!"

Only then did Lan Lingrong's expression change. Remembering her mother's miserable appearance in the Lan estate, as well as the expressions of the other out-of-favor concubines, she gritted her teeth and said, "Thank you, Father-in-law, for your high regard. Lingrong is endlessly grateful!"

"A teachable child."

Liu Chengen smiled and said, "Once Mistress achieves success in the future, please must not forget this servant~!"

"Father-in-law exaggerates."

Lan Lingrong bowed and said, "In the future, if Lingrong has any matters in the palace, she will entirely rely on Liu Chengen."

"Easy to talk about, easy to talk about."

Very soon, the ten mistresses were brought before a gigantic palace.

Compared to other relatively old palace halls, this palace was obviously several times larger, and at a glance, it was newly constructed.

At the very front of the grand hall were more than ten gigantic pillars, each thick enough for three people to embrace, lining up continuously to both sides.

The entire grand hall had three levels, stacked layer upon layer.

The pillars were carved with dragons and phoenixes, featuring vermilion flying eaves, and engraved with auspicious beasts like pixiu and Qilin, exuding matchless nobility and fierce majesty.

The top of the grand hall was covered with glazed tiles. Illuminated by the moonlight at this moment, it actually emitted circles of glazed-colored halos, looking extremely pretty.

A bright yellow light leaked out from the windows, making the entire grand hall look almost like a luminous gigantic imperial jade seal, magnificent and grand.

"Hiss..."

It was the first time the ten mistresses had seen such a gigantic building, and they subconsciously raised their heads.

The height alone was around twenty zhang.

Standing at the very bottom and looking up, one could not even see the top of the grand hall.

"Such, such a huge palace!"

"Where, where is this?"

"There are characters at the entrance of the grand hall!"

"White, Jade, Capital!"

"White Jade Capital?"

Liu Chengen stepped onto the stairs, looking at the ten shocked mistresses, a trace of complacency inevitably appearing in his eyes.

This grand hall had been constructed under Your Majesty's direct instructions to the Ministry of Works.

For the millennium-old oak timber alone, more than fifty pieces were used, taking two years to build.

Not to mention other precious stones like marble, jade stones, and obsidian.

The grand hall alone cost over ten million taels of silver!

"All mistresses, this place is Your Majesty's sleeping quarters, White Jade Capital!"

Liu Chengen spoke, "In the future, when all mistresses attend to Your Majesty in bed, it will be right here."

"The area of this palace hall is extremely large; without Your Majesty's imperial decree, you must not wander around casually."

"Furthermore, all mistresses can only stay overnight on the first floor of White Jade Capital. The second, third floors and above must absolutely not be entered casually, understand?"

"We understand, thank you for the trouble, Father-in-law."

Among the ten, Lan Lingrong held the highest rank, so at this moment she was considered the small leader of the ten.

"Mhm."

Liu Chengen nodded indifferently and took the lead in stepping onto the stairs.

"Keep close to this old slave, do not run around blindly."

"Understood~!"

The ten little beauties obediently followed behind Liu Chengen, stepping into White Jade Capital.

Although lowering their heads, they still secretly sized up this gigantic palace.

Carved with dragons and phoenixes, made of nothing less than gold and jade, magnificent and luxurious, almost like a fairyland, they no longer had words to describe the grandness of this grand hall.

The unfamiliar stone material underfoot was extremely transparent, allowing them to even clearly see their own reflections.

On the surrounding walls, exquisite murals were also engraved, and precious calligraphy and paintings were hung one after another.

Screens, vases, and books were placed everywhere, exuding a serene beauty.

Liu Chengen led everyone around for a few circles, and then ordered someone to open a heavy door.

In an instant, a warm breath carrying a strange fragrance surged out from within.

The ten little beauties widened their eyes, only to see that a dense mist permeated within this door.

Hazy and ethereal, almost like a fairyland.

"Wine, wine scent?"

I don't know which little beauty suddenly said, and the other women also sniffed hard, their cheeks instantly turning somewhat red.

Liu Chengen said in a low voice, "Several mistresses, please enter. Your Majesty is waiting for you inside."

The ten little girls walked in foolishly. With a look from Liu Chengen, the eunuchs outside slowly pushed the heavy door and closed it.

Inside the grand hall.

Although dense mist permeated the surroundings, once adjusted, vision was still not blocked.

Before their eyes was actually a gigantic jade pool standing over a person's height, just like a bath pool in a bathhouse.

The difference was that this gigantic bath pool was entirely made of Lantian jade.

As the saying goes, 'Under the warm Lantian sun, jade breathes out smoke.'

Lantian jade was a warm jade with excellent heat retention effects, and it was also the top-grade raw material for manufacturing imperial bath pools.

The difference was that the area of this bath pool was extremely large, occupying almost a third of the entire grand hall.

Visually, it was enough for forty to fifty people to bathe in it.

Strangely, around the Lantian bath pool were rows of tender roasted meat, fruits, and vegetables hanging on wooden racks.

Palace maids wearing only translucent light gauze undergarments were carefully roasting the meat, and from time to time carried roasted meat and fruits as they walked toward the bath pool.

Besides this special little forest formed by delicacies, meat, and fruits, on the surrounding walls there were several other gigantic doors tightly closed, unknown what lay behind them.

Looking up, they saw that the top of this room was also made of special jade, shimmering with a faint cyan glow.

On its surface, a large number of faint human figures were also engraved.

Some of these figures were in the shape of flying celestials, some were intertwined, and others seemed to be practicing martial arts.

Looking closely, these were not ordinary paintings at all, but... Spring Palace paintings!

All the paintings had distinct lines, showing every detail, and under the steaming mist, they appeared even more mysterious.

The ten little girls looked at these in shock, and finally Lan Lingrong, who was at the lead, took a deep breath, her nostrils filled with the fragrance of wine.

Gathering her courage, she stepped onto the jade stairs.

After no more than a dozen steps, she discovered something.

It turned out that the wine fragrance permeating the entire grand hall came from the Lantian bath pool before her eyes!

Inside this bath pool was not hot spring water, but fine wine!

The fine wine filling the entire bath pool, just a single sniff of it, could make the few little girls dizzy and at a loss.

The other little sisters also hurriedly crowded over. Amidst the swirling water mist, they happened to see in the bath pool directly ahead of them, a man leaning sideways with a face like jade and extraordinary handsome looks.

Zheng Yi!

At this moment, he was soaking in the fine wine hot spring, with beautiful palace maids attending to him by his side.

Fine wine, roasted meat, and fruits were all readily available.

Upon discovering the arrival of the ten newly-entered palace Beauties, Zheng Yi spotted the pink-clothed maiden at the lead at a glance.

"Noble Lady Lan~"

"Your, Your Majesty!"

Hearing Zheng Yi's voice, Lan Lingrong hurriedly knelt down to salute.

The nine little sisters behind her were also startled and successively knelt down on the ground.

However, the edge of the bath pool was inherently narrow, and two little girls were careless and actually rolled down from the stairs.

There were two others whose feet slipped, and they fell into the pool, scaring them into struggling desperately before quickly crawling back up.

"Giggle giggle~"

From the surrounding forest of meat, a few flirtatious giggles of little palace maids came over, and several other little palace maids hurriedly swam over to help up the Beauties who had fallen into the bath pool.

"Mistress, be careful~"

"This place is slippery, Mistress please watch your step~"

The several Beauties felt deeply embarrassed and hurriedly crawled onto the bank, their alluring figures clearly visible.

"Cough cough..."

Zheng Yi gave a light cough, attracting everyone's attention.

"Noble Lady Lan, and the other beauties."

"From today onward, this place will be the place where you attend to me in bed hereafter. This is the 'Pool of Wine and Forest of Meat, World of Ultimate Bliss'!"

"In this place, you can forget all sorrows and troubles, indulge in pleasure, play with life, and enjoy ultimate bliss early!"

Zheng Yi abruptly stood up, disregarding his own nudity, and stroed toward Lan Lingrong, picking her up in one embrace.

"Beauty, ascend to the World of Ultimate Bliss together with Us!"

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