The Empress Dowager entered the study and everyone present greeted her in the manner that fitted her station. The old lady simply smiled in response to everyone and looked at the three men present in the room.
Her smile became a bit more sincere when she saw her own son and the corners of her eyes wrinkled in joy.
However, when she Zhou Sheng, she didn"t know what expression to make.
This person seemed to be the one in her son"s heart so she couldn"t make things difficult for him intentionally, but she had also heard that Prince Xi had tried to trip her son in court today because of this man.
She wondered if this person would become a hindrance to her son but then thinking about how the monarch had simply refused to marry anyone else except the person in his heart, she didn"t want to enact a spiteful mother-in-law drama in front of her child.
After all, that might be more detrimental to her in the long run.
If she did that, wouldn"t her child simply think that she was internally doing all this to make him choose between his mother and his love?
Therefore, trying not to let her innermost emotions spill on her face, she tried to be more welcoming to Zhou Sheng.
However, Zhou Sheng was shrewd enough to see behind her placid smile and realised that she must be against his closeness with her son.
He also didn"t want to put Princess in between a rock and a hard place, so he sensibly bowed to the mother-daughter duo and said, "This lowly one will take his leave now."
Su Li couldn"t understand why Zhou Sheng was leaving so briskly as soon as the Empress Dowager entered.
Thinking that it might be due to the fiasco of when they all had met in the Imperial Gardens, she wanted to stop him from leaving, she raised her hand to stop him.
However, before she could do that, the Empress Dowager gave a beatific smile to everyone present and said, "Ajia hasn"t had her lunch as of yet. Ajia"s palace is too lonely. Why don"t we ask the Imperial Kitchen to set up the feast outside and we all can enjoy the food and each other"s company."
At the present moment, only two out of the four people present understood why the Empress Dowager was allowing outsiders to have a meal in her presence even when there was no occasion worth celebrating.
She wanted to have a meal in the presence of her son and the person in his heart to personally watch the interaction between her son and the person he professed to have in his heart.
Ning Fu also realised this truth.
But, alas, our heroine and Zhou Sheng were unaware of this fact.
Su Li simply thought that the old lady was feeling lonely at her palace because even though she had untold riches and was the most powerful woman in the dynasty, she had no one to share her thoughts and feelings with.
Au contrary, Zhou Sheng thought the old lady might want to make things difficult for him because her precious child had been put in a bight spot because of him.
Thinking that it might be more helpful to gain the Empress Dowager"s goodwill, Zhou Sheng decided to overtly show his care for Princess in the lunch that was to follow.
In this manner, each of their thoughts had gone off on tangents their while they waited for the eunuchs and the maids to set up the feast.
Soon enough, everything was set up and a comedy of errors started.
The thing is that Zhou Sheng and Su Li still had some ingrained habits of the modern world.
Therefore, in a situation where Zhou Sheng knew that he was dining with females, he decided to be a gentleman.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
Just as everyone was about to go and sit, Zhou Sheng was the first one to reach the sitting stools and pulled the highest one which was reserved for the Empress Dowager back and smilingly offered, "Please, have a seat, milady."
The Empress Dowager was taken aback by his actions but thinking that the child must be trying his best to prove his worth to her, she didn"t comment upon him breaking the taboo and simply took a seat.
On the other hand, Su Li had also instinctively slowed down her steps when she saw Zhou Sheng"s actions and felt that it was better for her to not reach her seating position before Zhou Sheng could also pull out her chair for her.
By the time she reached her seat, Zhou Sheng had already pulled back her chair as well and flashed her a quick smile and she politely thanked him - which was an acceptable response in modern times.
However, it became an entirely different scene in the Empress Dowager"s eyes.
She thought that Zhou Sheng was really courteous and that if he behaved in such a manner on normal days, then the other person must have really looked after her son when he had been going through tough times.
In a similar vein, when the food was placed upon the table, Zhou Sheng didn"t dare to offer food to the Empress Dowager but he would place a few dishes in the monarch"s bowl every few seconds and comment in a soft voice, "Eat Well."
When Su Li refused to eat the green - because every pretty girl had some unwillingness to eat such things, he would give her a milf glare.
When she refused to eat the aubergine, he still coaxed her, "This lowly servant knows Your Majesty doesn"t like to eat this, but its good for your health, so please, eat it, Your Majesty."
Before anyone could point out how inappropriate it was for a commoner to talk in such a manner with the Son of Heaven in such a frivolous manner, they were surprised by the thunk of the monarch"s chopsticks. .h.i.tting his bowl with clear displeasure on his face.
All the attendants - the Empress Dowager"s retinue and the other eunuchs and maids felt their hearts almost jumping out of their bodies and felt weak at the knees.
Though everyone gossiped about the unprecedented favour the monarch showered on Zhou Sheng, there was also a general consensus that sooner or later the boy would fall out of favour.
Therefore, in a situation where it seemed that Zhou Sheng had angered the monarch with his insistent pestering, many servants wondered if the situation was about to finally disintegrate.
However, the Empress Dowager who had been happily looking over how the child looked after her son in