Empress Running Away with the Ball

Chapter 854: Meeting to pick the empress

With a single set of divorce papers, Chu Shao Yang and Chen Ning became strangers and Chen Ning married to the far off East Qin.  With how far she went, she wouldn’t see her son anymore.

Empress Dowager Zhou finally solved a headache.

But thinking of Chen Ning’s appearance, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for her son.  This good of a girl was married off to East Qin, the East Qin Crown Prince is definitely more blessed than her son!

Empress Dowager Zhou shook her head and threw these thoughts to the back of her head.  There were still three days, she had to properly prepare everything so that her son would pick a talented and beautiful girl as his empress.

The emperor would be picking an empress!

It was like this piece of news had grown wings and spread all over the capital in a single night, creating a spark in the capital city.

They heard that three days from now, the palace would be hosting a garden party, inviting all the famous girls in the capital city.  It didn’t matter what one’s background was, as long as the girl was talented, she would have a chance to be invited to the palace.

This piece of news made the daughters of the powerful large families resentful because they would have even more powerful rivals to deal with, but it made the young girls of common families cheer out.  They never would have dreamed that they would have a chance to enter the palace, but now this chance was in front of them.

As long as they received an invitation to enter the palace, they would have the chance to win the emperor’s favour.  As long as they caught the emperor’s eye, they would be a phoenix ascending to the top of the tree, going from an ordinary citizen girl to the empress who ruled the world.

This was something that every girl dreamed of!

Especially after they heard that this selection didn’t focus on appearance, so the hearts of girls with average appearance were filled with joy.  In these three days, they did everything they could to show off their talents at the garden party, shocking everyone.

Those girls that were beautiful weren’t discouraged.  Although it focused on talent and not appearance, how could those with only talent catch the emperor’s eyes?  Which man in this world didn’t like to see a delicate and beautiful appearance? They did everything they could to make new clothes and new jewelry, creating a stunning appearance to catch the emperor’s eyes.

In a single night, all the capital’s bookstores, clothe shops, and jewelers were filled with young girls.  They were thin and wide, wearing red and green, attracting the attention of countless people.

There were discussions around these young girls, discussing who was more beautiful, who was more talented, and who had more of a chance to enter the palace.

After three days, all the girls who had received invitations came to the palace early.  They were then sent to the royal garden in soft palanquins.

No matter if they were beautiful or ugly, all the young girls were dressed up like flowers, with jewelry all over them.  For the first time in many years, there were this many young girls in the palace, making all the guards and eunuchs unable to take enough glances.

The young girls came in groups of two or three, walking slowly into the garden.  They greeted each other with soft smiles, looking very polite, but the smile was only on their faces and didn’t reach their hearts.

They only knew that one of them would be chosen to be the empress, but they didn’t know how that person would be chosen.  Everyone was anxious in their hearts, having deep hostility towards the girls beside them. They wanted to draw out the situation from others in conversation while hiding their own strengths, trying to manipulate each other.

These young girls were clearly separated into two factions.