Chapter 631 Beautiful and sultry
Although the arrival of the family members in Guanxi greatly increased the number of family affairs, Li Tai no longer had to worry about it because there were family members sharing the burden inside and outside.
Before and after the New Year, Li Tai had a limited life. He occasionally received visitors at home, but most of the time he was in a state of unemployment, visiting relatives and friends at will, wandering around the suburbs of Beijing, and even took time to go to Lishan Villa to soak in hot springs for a few days. His life was comfortable.
After the New Year, Li Tai still had two weddings to attend, one of which was the wedding of his brother-in-law Yuwen Yu and Dugu Xin's second daughter, and the other was the wedding of his younger brother Li Chao.
Yuwen Yu's wedding was to be held in January, so after the New Year's Day, all the civil and military dignitaries, from the Grand Executive Yuwen Tai, went to Huazhou to prepare and attend the wedding.
Liang Wang Xiaozhao was also invited by Yuwen Tai to go to Huazhou with Li Tai's family, preparing to return to Xiangyang with Li Tai after attending the wedding.
After returning to Huazhou, Miaoyin took her maids and servants back to her parents' home to help prepare for her sister's wedding, and several cousins also went to help. As for Li Tai, he was summoned to the Taifu before he could even sit down and was ordered to preside over the preparations for the man's wedding.
This kind of thing should have been handled by Yuwen Tai's nephews and nephews, but the one getting married this time was his eldest son, and the other sons were much younger, so they naturally couldn't take charge.
The two nephews, Yuwen Dao and Yuwen Hu, were stationed in Longyou and Hedong respectively, and neither of them reported to the court this year. Especially in Hedong where Yuwen Hu was, due to Gao Cheng's assassination last year and the turbulent transfer of the highest power in the Eastern Wei, the affairs have been particularly busy recently. Although they are only separated by a river, they have no time to return to Huazhou.
Among the nephews, Yuchi Jiong is stationed in Chang'an as a general, and Yuchi Gang is not a meticulous and thorough person, so it is naturally difficult for him to take charge of this matter. There are other in-laws, but after counting, they are not as reliable as Li Tai. Of course, Li Tai was only responsible for the specific execution of affairs, and it was Yu Jin who drafted the framework of the charter.
The main process of the wedding had fixed steps, and there were rules for the use of people and things, which was relatively simple. The most tedious and important thing was the arrangement of guests for the wedding banquet and the security of the Taifu. Li Tai was so busy that he almost never touched the ground. He had to personally confirm everything again and again to ensure that there were no mistakes or omissions, and he didn't even have time to go home.
In order to handle such family affairs for the Grand Secretariat, Li Tai had to go in and out of the Taifu Inner Palace. Fortunately, last year, with the donations from the monks of the Shifo Temple, the Taifu was expanded again, especially the Inner Palace was doubled compared to before, and the houses were sufficient, so it was not so difficult to encounter a crowd of female relatives just by walking a few steps.
Li Tai himself certainly knew how to avoid suspicion and did not dare to rush around in the Inner Palace, especially avoiding the living areas of important female relatives such as Princess Feng Yi. But because of frequent in and out, no matter how careful he was, it was inevitable that he would enter the wrong place. Fortunately, he was also an old man in the Taifu, and had been invited to dinner by the Grand Executive many times. Since he did not mean to do it, the female relatives did not blame him too much.
On this day, he led people to the inner palace storehouse to look for a gold-painted step screen, but was told by the eunuch in charge of the storehouse that it had been withdrawn by a lady in the inner palace and had not been returned. Because the former palace was in urgent need, Li Tai could only ask the staff to lead him and others to get it.
However, after entering for a while, the accompanying eunuch came out with an embarrassed look and bowed to Li Tai, saying: "Madam Erzhu said that the slave did not hold the written order in his hand, and I don’t know whether what she said is true or false. It is necessary to let the Duke of Taiyuan come in and report in person before she is willing to hand over the utensils."
Li Tai had never set foot in this area of the inner palace before. He was originally lamenting that the courtyard here was spacious and gorgeous, almost comparable to the residence of Princess Fengyi, and didn’t know who lived there, but he didn’t expect it to be Xiao Erzhu.
Hearing these obviously difficult words, Li Tai also had a headache. He couldn't figure out how he had offended Xiao Erzhu. Could it be that she still resented him for kidnapping her to Guanxi?
But this didn't make sense. She was treated very well in the harem of the Grand Secretariat, but she had long been out of favor in the Eastern Wei because of her style, and was exiled to Lingzhou and imprisoned, and she couldn't even live in Jinyang. What's more, Gao Huan and Gao Cheng, father and son of the Eastern Wei, died one after another, and Jinyang was also in turmoil, which was not as good as the peace and happiness in Huazhou.
Although he couldn't figure it out, in order not to delay the front hall, he could only bite the bullet and walk into the courtyard, and then walked into the warm room under the guidance of the maid. A warm and fragrant breeze blew in his face, and what came into view was Xiao Erzhu lying on the soft couch, with a lazy posture and a bit of charm.