The wronged female supporting role made a comeback with a divine reply

Chapter 321 Portrait of the Goddess

Time flies, and it is October 5th in a blink of an eye.

That day was the Empress Dowager's sixtieth birthday. Since it was a birthday celebration, the Emperor decided to hold a grand banquet. All royal relatives, marquises, nobles, and officials above the fourth rank and their families were allowed to attend the palace banquet.

It’s interesting to say that although Bai Zhaozhao is a member of the Bai family, she attended the event as a county lady, so she came with Prince An and Princess An.

On the contrary, although Tang Yanyan is a princess, she is already married to Bai Hao, so she came with the Bai family.

It is worth mentioning that three men from the Bai family came. The first one was naturally Bai Lin. He had just been promoted and was already a fourth-rank official, so he was able to come;

The second one is Bai Hao. His status as a guard is naturally not good enough, but his status as a county horse is just right;

The third one is Bai Che, who came as the head of the Sihai Chamber of Commerce. He was one of a group of partners that the Minister of Revenue specially applied to the emperor for. The reason was simple: these partners each donated at least 100,000 taels of silver for the Empress Dowager’s birthday celebration!

In fact, this was also done with the help of Bai Zhaozhao behind the scenes. The Sihai Chamber of Commerce had been silently providing her with money and convenience, and was also in charge of the cooperative caravan between the Bai and Zhong families on the northwest line. The opportunity for Bai Che to get to know more powerful people naturally could not be missed.

There was some warm-up before the banquet started, which was actually just for everyone to get to know each other, flatter each other, watch singing and dancing, and eat cakes.

Bai Zhaozhao looked around at the female guests and found Tang Yanyan talking to Princess An, enjoying mother-daughter time.

Jiang Yuanmeng was whispering to Lin Qingshuang and glancing at the Fourth Prince from time to time. It was obvious that the two were conspiring together. This gave Bai Zhaozhao a guess: could it be that Jiang Yuanmeng's sudden enlightenment was planned by him?

As for the Princess of Qingyang County, she went to the Queen Mother's place and will probably appear with her later.

I have to say that this birthday banquet was extremely grand, with excellent singing and dancing, clinking glasses, and a very lively atmosphere.

Soon, the noises gradually died down, and in the huge palace, the Queen Mother and the Emperor slowly walked in and sat at the top, followed by the Queen and the Crown Prince.

Everyone came to celebrate the birthday and there was another lively moment.

According to convention, the Queen Mother has appeared, and after the birthday greetings comes the gift-presenting session. The Ministry of Rites has selected one hundred gifts from thousands of gifts and displayed them one by one.

It is said that there is fierce competition for this display opportunity, but Bai Zhaozhao is not interested in it. Her gift is ordinary, so there is no need for her to compete for this opportunity.

She was a little bored, so she took the opportunity to change her clothes and went out for a walk. When she came back, she happened to hear two officials on the male guest side talking about the Bai family, so she listened to a few words.

"The Bai family does have some cleverness, and is somewhat different from other rising upstarts."

"Oh? How is it different?"

"Other upstarts naturally seize every opportunity to make connections and climb up the social ladder, but look at the Bai family. Only Bai Lin is at the forefront, making his name known to the world, while the rest of the Bai family members are keeping a low profile and quietly retreating behind the scenes."

"Behind the scenes? How do you mean that? I remember that Lord Bai Hao was quite high-profile."

"But his title is County Horse. Do you know his other identities?"

"Other identities? Bai Lin's younger brother?"

"Wrong, he is a fourth-rank sword-bearing guard in front of the emperor. He is the leader appointed by the empress dowager every time she goes out. He is the successor secretly trained by the current commander of the imperial guards!"

"Oh my God! How did you know that?"

"Oh, I'm just being low-key, it's not top secret."

"Hurry up, tell me, what else do you know?"

"Does Bai Shihong know that the potato production was remarkable and the emperor commended him several times, but he chose to stay away from home all year round and do the work himself."

"Ah, no wonder I've only heard of it but never seen it."

"There is also Bai Shikang. Although he is a relative of Prince An, he maintains a noble style. He would rather refuse a promotion and work under Lord Zhong because Lord Zhong has been kind to him. He keeps a low profile and now he holds an important position."

"It seems to be true!"

"So, the elders of the Bai family are all retreating behind the scenes, leaving opportunities to the young people. Do they have some skills?"

"Indeed, I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't told me. I even thought Bai Lin and Bai Hao were real brothers!"

"Yes, now with the addition of Bai Che, they are accumulating strength and soaring into the sky! Did you see that so many old patriarchs of the big chambers of commerce are full of praise for Bai Che? If they didn't have some strength, who would compliment a junior!"

"Then this Bai Che is..."

"Are the people from the fourth branch of the Bai family interesting?"

"Interesting? What's interesting?"

"You see, Bai Lin is actually from the third house. He also has a biological uncle, but he never mentioned it once. Instead, he brought Bai Che from the fourth house around."

"so what?"

"So in fact, the Bai family wants to raise these three young people up! To watch over each other! Moreover, the three sons of the Bai family are not cousins, but cousins ​​of a branch. Their household registration has been separated since their grandfather! Think about it, if any one of them makes a mistake, wouldn't it be difficult to punish them all?"

"That's right! They are all branches. As long as it's not a major crime of killing all nine clans, how can there be collective punishment?"

"Alright, alright, let's stop talking and just watch the fun!"

Bai Zhaozhao chuckled twice and returned to her seat. She felt really relieved after hearing these words. It could be regarded as her way of repaying the Bai family!

"Oh my god! Who drew this? It's so beautiful, isn't it?"

"As expected of a master of both calligraphy and painting, this painting is extremely lifelike and vivid, making people want to worship it!"

"..."

Bai Zhaozhao, who had just returned to his seat, heard constant exclamations coming from all around him. Tang Yanyan, who was standing next to him, also had a look of amazement in her eyes.

Bai Zhaozhao turned her head and saw two palace servants showing a painting, and the person standing next to them was Zhong Jingyu.

There was a woman in the painting, a goddess with an ethereal air!

The Queen Mother was very satisfied with the painting and smiled as she ordered the palace servants to show it to everyone.

However, the more Bai Zhaozhao looked at it, the more he felt something was wrong. The costumes, colors, and props in the painting of the goddess were almost identical to the one Bai Zhaozhao played that day!

Even his appearance is at least 70% like her!

In other words, Zhong Jingyu may have already known that Bai Zhaozhao is the actress who plays the goddess!

Bai Zhaozhao calmed herself down. She was sure that a lot of dry ice was used that day and the air was filled with smoke, so it was impossible for anyone to see her face, not to mention that she was wearing makeup.

Zhong Jingyu must have done it on purpose!

Sure enough, after being amazed, more and more people noticed this, whispering to each other while secretly looking at Bai Zhaozhao.

The Empress Dowager and the Emperor also noticed it and were equally puzzled. The Empress Dowager had no choice but to ask, "Why does Master Zhong's painting look a bit like Princess Zhaohe?"

Zhong Jingyu had anticipated this question, so he said frankly, "Your Majesty, I painted this last year when I passed by Yuzhou before I returned to Beijing. At that time, I had not met Princess Zhaohe yet. I just visited many local people who had seen the goddess appear. Based on their descriptions, I deduced the goddess' appearance bit by bit!

But I never expected that after returning to Beijing, I would accidentally meet Princess Showa and be shocked by her beauty. What was even more unbelievable was that Princess Showa looked so similar to the goddess!

I was also very confused about this, and wanted to go to the county lady to verify it, but I accidentally offended her and caused misunderstanding among the people in the capital, which led to some bad rumors. "

As soon as these words were spoken, some people suddenly realized that Zhong Jingyu was not in love with Bai Zhaozhao, but the goddess he painted was too similar to Bai Zhaozhao. Of course, some people sneered, saying that this way of covering up the flaws was really fresh and unconventional.