The first invitation card Gu Yanshu received was from the Hanlin Academy.
If it hadn't been for the signature at the end of the card—Wen Xuefei, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy—Gu Yanshu would still have been wondering why Wen Qingxiao had sent him an invitation under the name of the Hanlin Academy.
Wen Xuefei was Wen Qingxiao's father. Now that the invitation had been sent, both in terms of courtesy and reason, Gu Yanshu ought to meet with him.
However, before Gu Yanshu could send someone to the Hanlin Academy to reply, he received several more invitation cards in quick succession.
There was one from the Minister of Rites, another from the Minister of Personnel, one from the Grand Master of Imperial Entertainments, and even more from other officials serving in the Hanlin Academy.
Before Gu Yanshu could finish reading through the stack of invitation cards in his hand, Xingren walked in from outside.
"Who else has sent an invitation this time?"
This time, before Xingren could even speak, Gu Yanshu already had a premonition. He calmly picked up his teacup.
"Replying to the Princess Consort, this time it's an invitation from the Chief Grand Secretary."
Xingren bowed slightly and presented the invitation card to Gu Yanshu.
"Pfft— Cough, cough… Who did you say?"
No matter how composed Gu Yanshu usually was, he couldn't help but be startled this time, choking on his tea.
"Replying to the Princess Consort, it's the Chief Grand Secretary."
Xingren repeated his words calmly.
It wasn't that Xingren had better composure than Gu Yanshu—it was just that he had already been shocked once when he first received the invitation.
Hearing the words "Chief Grand Secretary" a second time, Gu Yanshu directly reached out and took the invitation card.
He flipped it open without reading the contents, immediately looking for the signature at the bottom left corner. Sure enough, he found the Chief Grand Secretary's personal seal.
Looking at the invitation in his hand, then at the other cards on the desk, Gu Yanshu felt an unprecedented sense of bewilderment.
What were these people trying to do?
It wasn't strange for Gu Yanshu to react this way. After all, Qin Lu didn't have many close relationships with officials.
Of the few officials he was on good terms with, nine out of ten were military officers.
Yet without exception, every single one of the invitations today had come from civil officials—and not just any civil officials, but high-ranking ones at that.
These people usually had no interaction with Qin Lu. Gu Yanshu had been married to Qin Lu for so long, yet he had never seen any of them visit before, nor had he often heard Qin Lu mention their names.
Now, all of a sudden, they were sending invitations requesting an audience—and all at the same time. It was impossible for Gu Yanshu not to be confused.
Had something changed in the imperial court?
Gu Yanshu speculated silently.
But soon, he dismissed this thought.
If something major had really happened in the court, there was no way the Prince's residence wouldn't have heard about it.
But aside from that, Gu Yanshu truly couldn't think of any other reason that would make these civil officials act so unusually.
Even someone as decisive as Gu Yanshu found it difficult to make a decision on his own this time:
"Leave the invitations here for now. Wait until the Prince returns and have him come here so we can decide together."
Even the invitation from Wen Xuefei, the Hanlin scholar, was set aside again.
"Yes."
Xingren could guess Gu Yanshu's concerns. With a slight bow, he placed the invitation on the desk and quietly withdrew from the study.
After that, Gu Yanshu received several more invitation cards.
He skimmed through them—just like the previous ones, they were all from civil officials.
While waiting for Qin Lu to return, Gu Yanshu took out these invitations and began comparing them carefully.
Soon, he noticed a commonality among these people:
Aside from all being civil officials, almost all of them had served in the court for many years, with two even being veterans who had served under two emperors.
Without exception, all of them were elderly.
Realizing this, Gu Yanshu began to have an inkling of what might be going on.
However, the fleeting thought in his mind slipped away before Gu Yanshu could grasp it, as Qin Lu walked in through the door, interrupting his train of thought.
"I've already heard from Xingren about the invitations," Qin Lu spoke first, even before Gu Yanshu could ask. "It's nothing serious, so no need for concern, Princess Consort."
The tone of Qin Lu's voice made Gu Yanshu sense something:
"Your Highness seems to know the reason these officials sent invitations?"
"Indeed, I do," Qin Lu nodded slightly, not bothering to keep him in suspense. "Actually, it has something to do with His Majesty."
"His Majesty?" The vague feeling that had just surfaced in Gu Yanshu's mind resurfaced.
Qin Lu nodded again, his tone somewhat resigned:
"Didn't the Prince's Residence send His Majesty a pair of reading glasses and a magnifying glass a few days ago?"
Then, Qin Lu proceeded to recount what the emperor had been doing these past few days.
Gu Yanshu listened in astonishment, completely unprepared for the emperor's actions.
It turned out that after receiving the telescope and other items Qin Lu had sent that day, the emperor had first marveled at the telescope.
But constrained by the palace's limited space, the telescope's usefulness was restricted. After admiring it for a while, the emperor reluctantly set it aside.
At that moment, he remembered the reading glasses and magnifying glass sent by the Prince of Li's residence.
So he took them out and tried them.
Once he did, he found them incredibly useful—his vision was no longer blurry, reading became effortless, and he could handle memorials much faster than before.
Thus, these two items became the emperor's new favorites, accompanying him wherever he went.
The previous day, when the emperor summoned several ministers to the imperial study for discussions, he casually took out the reading glasses and magnifying glass while reviewing documents.
Every official present in the study was a pillar of the court, most of whom had served the Tianqi Dynasty for ten, twenty, or even thirty years.
Naturally, their courage far exceeded that of newly appointed officials.
Upon seeing these two unfamiliar objects in the emperor's hands, some couldn't resist their curiosity.
One of them stepped forward and asked what these things were.
The emperor, still in high spirits, immediately set aside official business and documents upon hearing the question.
He enthusiastically introduced his two new treasures to the ministers, boasting about them as if they were divine artifacts—unmatched in heaven or on earth.
Most of the ministers in the study were diligent veterans of the Tianqi court, many of whom suffered from age-related vision problems.
Hearing that such miraculous items existed, how could they remain calm?
Some of the bolder ones immediately requested to try them out.
By then, the emperor had already relished the pleasure of showing off his treasures, so he naturally agreed.
With a wave of his hand, he allowed the ministers to experience the items for themselves.
The officials varied in age, and so did their eyesight. Since Gu Yanshu had adjusted the reading glasses slightly weaker to suit the emperor, they didn't work perfectly for some of the older ministers.
However, the magnifying glass, which had no fixed prescription, worked flawlessly for everyone.
After just a brief trial, the ministers fully grasped the benefits of these items and were reluctant to return them.
Seeing this, the emperor snatched them back.
But given that these were all loyal and devoted ministers, the emperor couldn't bear the sight of their longing gazes at the reading glasses and magnifying glass.
He bluntly told them that the items had been sent by the Prince of Li's residence—if they wanted them, they should go ask the Prince of Li.
Having thoroughly enjoyed his moment of showing off, the emperor thus dumped the entire mess onto the Prince of Li's household.
Hence the flood of invitations from high-ranking officials to the Prince of Li's residence today.
"His Majesty truly…"
Even Gu Yanshu was at a loss for words to describe the emperor's behavior.
"If the Princess Consort doesn't wish to meet them, we can simply refuse—"
Seeing Gu Yanshu rubbing his temples, Qin Lu mistakenly assumed he was troubled by the invitations.
But before he could finish, Gu Yanshu cut him off:
"How can we refuse them all? Does Your Highness not realize what kind of impression you leave on these senior officials? This is a rare opportunity—of course we must meet them!"
And indeed, it was a rare opportunity.
Under normal circumstances, if the Prince of Li's residence associated with these court officials, the Crown Prince's faction would undoubtedly seize the chance to accuse them of forming cliques and harboring ulterior motives.
But now, since the emperor had openly sanctioned these officials' requests, no one could find fault with it.
Chastised by Gu Yanshu, Qin Lu didn't dare voice any more objections and left the matter entirely in his hands.
However, with nearly twenty invitations in total, even Gu Yanshu couldn't possibly meet each one individually.
In the end, he simply enlisted Qin Lu's help to write replies to each official.
The responses conveyed that the Prince of Li's residence understood their intentions.
In principle, as pillars of the court, their requests should not be refused.
However, eyeglasses were a special case—each pair needed to be custom-made according to the individual's vision. Therefore, the officials were invited to visit the residence in person.
Coinciding with the nearing completion of the Prince of Li's main residence renovations, the officials were cordially invited to attend a housewarming banquet in five days' time, if they so wished.
Having witnessed the reading glasses and magnifying glass in the imperial study, these high-ranking officials had been yearning for them intensely.
The fact that they had even swallowed their pride to send invitations to the Prince of Li's residence spoke volumes about their desire for these items.
Now that they had received the Prince of Li's invitation, how could they possibly refuse?
They immediately sent replies to the Prince's residence, confirming their attendance at the banquet in five days.
This exchange between the Prince of Li's residence and the officials was conducted openly, without any attempt at concealment.
Naturally, word of it reached the Crown Prince's ears.
Recently, Qin Lu had been frequently sending gifts to the emperor, boosting his favor while simultaneously overshadowing the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince had already been seething with anxiety over this. Now, hearing that so many high-ranking officials were associating with the Prince of Li's residence, how could he remain calm?
In no time, countless tea sets in the Crown Prince's residence met their demise.
"Where does he keep getting all these bizarre things?"
Faced with the Crown Prince's soul-searching question, his advisors exchanged uneasy glances, unsure how to respond.
If they had known what was happening in the Prince of Li's residence, they wouldn't be sitting here.
One advisor had a vague suspicion, but upon seeing the Crown Prince's furious expression, he swallowed his words:
Better not say it. If I bring up Wuying's speculations now, I'll only suffer for it.
While the Crown Prince was busy tearing his hair out in frustration, Gu Yanshu continued writing invitations in his residence.
Every one of the officials who had agreed to attend the housewarming banquet in five days held immense influence and were usually elusive outside of court sessions.
For the Prince of Li's residence to gather them all at once was an exceedingly rare opportunity.
Naturally, they had to seize this chance to let their own associates make an appearance.
Most importantly, they had to send an invitation to Wen Qingxiao as well.
Every one of these high-ranking civil officials was a literary master, commanding immense respect among scholars.
With the Daily Gazette set to launch after the New Year, this was the perfect opportunity for Wen Qingxiao to secure a few extra manuscripts in advance for future use.