It was a basket of peaches and a few fish.
Long Yang said warmly, “These are peaches that you picked. As for the fish, I caught them myself. The fish reared in the imperial holiday home have a very good flavor; I believe you will enjoy them.”
Lu Liangwei immediately curtsied to him. “Thank you for bestowing these upon me, Your Majesty.”
Long Yang’s expression cooled slightly when he saw her behaving so formally. “It’s merely a trifle.”
All he genuinely wanted was to give her a few fish as a present; it could not be counted as bestowing anything.
He did not linger. Once Zhao Qian had set the gifts down, Long Yang left together with his subordinates.
Zhu Yu approached and said somewhat hesitantly, “Miss, His Majesty…”
Lu Liangwei rubbed the space between her brows. She was getting a slight headache.
His Majesty had no intention of hiding anything.
He had taken the time to see her home and had gifted her with both peaches and fish. Something as blatantly obvious as this would quickly reach the ears of her grandmother and father.
She gave this some thought and had someone bring everything into the mansion. After that, she did not even bother to change her clothes but headed straight for Longevity Hall.
Longevity Hall.
The Dowager Duchess had already received word of what had transpired at the front gates.
The moment Long Yang departed from the mansion, the servants had already reported the matter to her.
When Lu Liangwei entered, she saw the Dowager Duchess sitting there and drinking tea, looking serene and very much at ease.
When Lu Liangwei saw this, she felt a twinge of nervousness.
She did not believe that what had transpired at the front gate would have gone unreported to the Dowager Duchess.
“You’re here?” When the Dowager Duchess saw Lu Liangwei coming in with a dejected look on her little face, she could contain herself no longer and spoke first.
When Lu Liangwei heard this, she immediately trotted toward the Dowager Duchess. Kneeling beside the Dowager Duchess’ feet, she wrapped her arms around the matriarch’s legs coquettishly. “Grandmother…”
When the Dowager Duchess saw the distress in Lu Liangwei’s face, the anger within her heart subsided considerably.
She reached out to gently tousle Lu Liangwei’s soft hair, asking in a kindly voice, “What’s happened? Who has upset my Weiwei?”
Lu Liangwei instantly felt aggrieved.
“Grandmother, I don’t want to go to the Palace…”
Previously, she had been upfront with Long Yang and declined his advances, but Long Yang refused to accept this. Furthermore, he was the Emperor; it did not matter how unwilling she was, she could not continue turning him down.
If by chance she angered him, she would not be able to bear the consequences.
That was why she actually did feel rather angry.
She was angry at Long Yang and even more furious with herself.
As a result, when facing the Dowager Duchess, she could not help but feel that she genuinely did have a grievance.
This gave the Dowager Duchess pause. She decided not to feign ignorance and immediately pulled Lu Liangwei up.
“You silly girl, how did you suddenly end up attracting His Majesty’s attention for no rhyme or reason?”
Lu Liangwei wanted to cry, but the tears would not come. “I really didn’t do anything.”
Could curing the Emperor of his sickness be considered a reason?
The wheels in the Dowager Duchess’ brain began swiftly turning.
Naturally, she did not want her granddaughter to enter the Palace.
This was not to say that the Emperor was not a good person. In fact, he was an extremely capable man and an effective ruler. The Great Shang Kingdom would not have prospered so much otherwise. In the last few years, practically no outside enemies had dared to disturb its borders.
However, that was from the standpoint of ruling a country.
From a woman’s point of view, however, the Emperor would not make a good husband.
There was also the matter of His Majesty being much older than Weiwei. If His Majesty were a healthy man, his children would be as old as Weiwei by now.
At His Majesty’s age, he was old enough to be Weiwei’s father.
Besides that, he was also the Crown Prince’s uncle.
If Weiwei married into the Palace, not only she would end up becoming the Crown Prince’s aunt, but even Lu Yunshuang would need to call her ‘Aunt’.
The family relationships would become extremely complicated and messy.
The Dowager Duchess felt a slight headache coming on just thinking about all of this.
However, she quickly calmed down.
For now, the Emperor had not disclosed his intentions to her yet, which meant that she could take pre-emptive action.
As she looked at the troubled face of her granddaughter, the Dowager Duchess was about to say something when Aunt Lan hurried in from the outside.
“Dowager Duchess, Duke Ji is requesting an audience with you.”
The Dowager Duchess was startled. What did Ji Qingyuan want with her?