About two quarters of an hour into the palace banquet, Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou, who were despised for not lowering themselves to curry favor with the powerful, followed Mu Hanzhi and Madam Mu to pay their respects and toast to the emperor, empress, concubines, the crown prince, the crown princess, princes, princes' wives, princesses and other members of the royal family.
The emperor admired Bai Jingzhou very much. As the emperor who ruled the world, he treated Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan with such courtesy, it was natural that other people would not make things difficult for the young couple.
When Gu Wenxuan came to pay her a visit, the Queen rewarded her with a pair of jade bracelets with excellent water content. Concubine De, Concubine Shu, the Crown Princess, the Prince's wife, the Princess and others followed suit, and each gave Gu Wenxuan a valuable piece of jewelry as a gift.
Gu Wenxuan was enjoying receiving gifts, and even bending down to greet people didn't seem bothersome at all.
The same thing happened on Bai Jingzhou's side. In addition to the emperor and the crown prince, who had already dealt with Bai Jingzhou, the emperor's other two sons also gave Bai Jingzhou jade pendants and jade rings as gifts.
The two were led around by Mu Hanzhi and his wife, and received nine valuable ornaments. Then they were called by the emperor and empress to talk.
They chatted with Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan about the imperial examinations, farming, animal husbandry, martial arts, and the local customs and practices of Xingzhou. There was not a single topic that the two of them could answer smoothly.
This meticulous care made Gu Wenxuan like the emperor and the empress even more.
The Crown Prince, Mu Hanzhi and others were also not idle. At the appropriate time, they would join in with a smile and say a few words.
So in the eyes of others, it seemed that the royal family members and Mu Hanzhi and his wife were all talking about the topics that Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou were good at.
This special treatment made the officials and their families, who had previously secretly mocked Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan as "unpresentable country bumpkins", feel as if they had eaten dozens of tons of lemons in one breath, and each of them was so sour that they turned into lemon spirits on the spot.
It was not until then that they realized that these two country folk, whom they looked down upon, were actually very popular in front of the emperor and empress.
Why should they try so hard to curry favor with others like them? They have already curried favor with the emperor, empress and prince, whom they wanted to curry favor with but had no way to do so.
With these three big mountains protecting them, people can certainly just treat the palace banquet as an ordinary party for them to eat, drink and have fun.
Everyone felt jealous, but they pretended not to be jealous at all and continued to do what they were doing.
Fortunately, this situation did not last too long. After about a quarter of an hour, the emperor waved his hand to signal them to leave.
Mu Hanzhi and his wife bowed and were about to take Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou downstairs. However, before they could take a step, seven of the acrobats who had performed the acrobatics earlier came with weapons in hand and rushed towards the platform where the emperor, empress, prince and others were.
Something strange happened suddenly, and everyone in the hall cried out in surprise. While Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou turned around without regard for etiquette, the emperor, empress, prince and others who were about to be approached by the assassin also showed expressions of disgust, shock, fear and the like.
The eunuch who had been standing beside the emperor shouted shrilly, "Protect the emperor - protect the emperor -", and the generals in the hall stood up one after another and rushed towards the platform. However, the five actors who had not rushed towards the platform before stopped several unarmed generals below the platform.
The guards outside the palace wanted to come in as soon as they heard the noise, but a group of men in black who appeared from nowhere rushed towards them and entangled them before they could act.
Both the emperor and the prince had fought on the battlefield. When the assassin attacked, the father and son did not panic. Instead, they stood up at the same time and prepared to fight.
However, they were unarmed after all, and it was difficult for them to deal with seven assassins at the same time relying solely on their flesh and blood.
Mu Hanzhi and the eunuchs and palace maids serving on the high platform shouted "Your Majesty", "Your Highness" and "Your Majesty" while risking their lives to use their flesh and blood to help block the knife.
Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan frowned. They never dreamed that they would encounter such a scene when they were merely invited to the palace to attend a banquet.
The two men looked at each other, and Bai Jingzhou retreated to the table belonging to the emperor and empress. He kept taking cutlery from the table and then threw them hard at the group of assassins who had already pounced on the platform and were less than three meters away from the emperor.
Gu Wenxuan directly overturned the table. She grabbed a table with one hand, and then picked up two extremely heavy tables and smashed them on the assassin's head.
She moved extremely fast, with great strength and precision. She smashed the seven assassins with a whack-a-mole technique, and without exception, their heads burst open.
Before losing consciousness, the assassins who subconsciously dodged to avoid Bai Jingzhou's tableware attack regretted it very much - if they had known they would be hit anyway, they would rather be hit by the bowls, plates, cups and cups thrown by Bai Jingzhou, at least that thing would not kill them after just one hit.
What this group of assassins didn't know was that although the thing was small in size, if it was in the hands of the extremely powerful Gu Wenxuan, instead of in the hands of Bai Jingzhou who only had the strength of a normal adult, they would still be "destroyed with one hit."
The group of anxious generals below the stage and the five assassins who were responsible for blocking the reinforcements did not expect the situation to develop in this way. They watched helplessly as Gu Wenxuan dealt with the seven assassins and then swung the table towards their five enemies.
The five men obviously had a tacit understanding with each other. Two of them tried to stop Gu Wenxuan, while the other three wanted to bypass Gu Wenxuan and go to the high platform to continue assassinating the emperor and others.
However, Gu Wenxuan's reaction speed once again refreshed the perception of everyone present. At the moment when the five assassins tried to act separately, she directly used the table in her right hand to hit the heads of the two people who tried to entangle her.
The remaining three people had just sprinted two steps towards her side and rear, and the two tables in her hands flew towards the two people who chose to go around to the right.
As for the assassin who circled to the left, Gu Wenxuan exerted force on his feet and sprinted directly towards him.
The two men who were going around to the right were hit by the table she threw, and their heads burst and they fell down. The assassin who was going around to the left saw that the situation was not good, and suddenly increased his speed and rushed towards the emperor, the prince and others.
However, before he could rush to the outer human wall formed by Mu Hanzhi and several eunuchs, Gu Wenxuan picked up another table and hit him on the back of the head and back with a bang.
The hard and heavy solid wood table, carrying with it a huge force from Gu Wenxuan, smashed the assassin to pieces, causing blood to splatter and he fell forward uncontrollably.
The sword in his hand fell to the ground with a clang as he lost consciousness. The same went for the weapons of the other assassins, whether swords or spears, which fell casually beside their original owners.