Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

a few days later.

In a high-end private room at Lanyue Tower, west of Linqing City.

"Lord Sun, the Imperial Guard Commander Gao booked the entire Lan Yue Tower ten days ago to host a banquet for Lu Chen."

A woman in her early thirties, dressed in a flamboyant manner, gave Sun Dexiu a deep curtsy.

"In the middle of last month, he also hosted a banquet for Lu Chen here, but the venue was not booked out that time."

If it was mid-last month, it would have been about twenty days since I met Lu Chen in Wadian Town.

Lu Chen traveled approximately 900 li (about 450 kilometers) along the official road from Wadian Town to Linqing Prefecture to take up his post.

Lu Bing had no idea that Lu Chen was the son of Emperor Xian and the younger brother of the current emperor; he simply regarded him as an illegitimate child born to his father and mother's maid.

The reason for sending Yuan Xun south to intercept him was to prevent Lu Chen from coming to the capital and coming into contact with "Lady Yousheng".

The reason Lu Chen was given the position of Commander of the Linqing Thousand-Household Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was simply to settle his half-brother.

Since that's the case, as long as Lu Chen obeys orders and goes to Linqing to take up his post, there's absolutely no need to specify when he must arrive.

If officials didn't need to rush, they could travel about 40 or 50 li (20-25 kilometers) on horseback each day to take up their posts, and it would take them about 20 days to reach Linqing.

So, the first time Gao Mingqian hosted Lu Chen at Lan Yue Lou was probably when Lu Chen had just arrived in Linqing.

The appointment letter that Yuan Xun brought to Lu Chen was written by Lu Bing himself. Even if it wasn't explicitly stated, Gao Mingqian, an old fox who had spent half his life in the Embroidered Uniform Guard and had secured the lucrative position of commander of the Linqing Thousand-Household Office, couldn't possibly have missed the clue.

There is a high probability that Gao Mingqian has already figured out Lu Chen's "true identity" from this.

It was expected that a banquet would be held to entertain Lu Chen.

However, this should be enough. After all, in Gao Mingqian's heart, Lu Chen is just Lu Song's illegitimate son and Lu Bing's half-brother.

This old fox would never do anything to offend Lu Chen, but hosting a welcome banquet and treating him like a mascot would be fine.

But half a month later, he actually booked the entire Lan Yue Tower and hosted another banquet for Lu Chen!

Lanyue Tower is one of the most upscale brothels in Linqing Prefecture. Booking it for one night costs over a thousand taels of silver. Although this is not a huge sum of money for a commander of the Linqing Imperial Guard who earns tens of thousands of taels a year, he has no reason to do so!

Ten days ago wasn't an important day. Even if Gao Mingqian wanted to book a whole venue to host a banquet for Lu Chen, it should have been on his birthday!

I personally investigated Lu Chen's background in Chengtian Prefecture. His nineteenth birthday is still about ten days away.

"Aunt Liu, Commander Gao hosted two banquets for Lu Chen here. Who else was there?"

Sun Dexiu looked at the madam of Lanyue Tower, who was actually a spy for the Eastern Depot.

"Did your girls overhear what they were talking about?"

"Lord Sun, Commander Gao is hosting a banquet for guests, and of course I will arrange for my own men to mingle among the ordinary girls to serve them drinks."

The madam quickly replied,

"The first banquet for Lu Chen was hosted by Commander Gao to welcome Lu Chen, who had just arrived in Linqing as the head of the Customs Office. Also present was Lu Chen's direct superior, Commander Shen Xuan."

However, the girls who were sent to accompany him at the drinking party reported that Commander Shen and Commander Gao showed no airs of superiors in front of Lu Chen; in fact, they were practically flattering and trying to please him.

During the meal, Commander Gao repeatedly mentioned that when he was serving in the capital, he was a close friend of Lu Chen's father, Commander Lu Kun.

Moreover, he always referred to Lu Chen as his nephew, and Lu Chen also called him Uncle Gao.

Ten days ago, a banquet was held for Lu Chen. In addition to Commander Gao and Commander Shen, two young people of similar age to Lu Chen also came.

These two had visited Lanyue Tower many times before, and the younger one recognized them at a glance.

One was Gao Ruopu, the youngest son of Commander Gao, and the other was Shen Zhui, the nephew of Commander Shen. Both of them were junior officers in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

However, during both banquets hosted by Lu Chen, the girls under my command only heard the first half of the event. After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Commander Gao would send all the girls away.

They were Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards), very vigilant, and the junior officers wouldn't dare let the young lady use any tricks.

I don't know what they talked about after that.

So, Gao Mingqian booked the entire Lanyue Tower to host a banquet for Lu Chen in order to introduce Gao Ruopu and Shen Zhui to Lu Chen.

This Commander Gao is really willing to go to great lengths to curry favor with Lu Bing.

However, in Lu Bing's eyes, Lu Chen was nothing more than the illegitimate son of his father Lu Song and his mother's maid.

They've been raised in Chengtian Prefecture all these years, and I've never even seen them, let alone developed any feelings for them.

Giving him the position of Commander of the Linqing Thousand-Household Garrison, a lucrative post to settle his half-brother, is already more than enough to honor his deceased father.

Gao Mingqian's attempts to please Lu Chen did earn him some favor from Lu Bing, but that was all; Lu Bing was unlikely to give him much in return.

Doesn't this old fox realize that?

That's unlikely, isn't it?

Since they've guessed Lu Chen's position in Lu Bing's heart, treating him like a lucky charm who only takes money and doesn't do any work, and making sure nothing happens to him, is enough.

Even Lu Chen himself might not receive much care from Lu Bing, so what benefit would it bring to deliberately have his nephews and nieces befriend him?

Could it be?!

"Mother Liu, since you've noticed that Commander Gao's attitude towards Lu Chen is unusual, shouldn't you have sent people to continue investigating?"

Sun Dexiu forcibly suppressed the unease in her heart.

If the worst-case scenario were to actually happen, Gao Mingqian would book the entire Lanyue Tower to host a banquet for Lu Chen, and his flattery and fawning over him would not only be excessive, but far from enough!

Besides this, Gao Mingqian will definitely do even more!

"Lord Sun, I have already inquired about it."

The madam glanced at her superior, Sun Dangtou, the newly appointed head of the Eastern Depot's secret agents in Linqing Prefecture.

"Gao Qianhu also did two other things."

The day after he first hosted a banquet for Lu Chen at Lan Yue Lou, he gave Lu Chen a garden he owned outside the West Gate.

Lu Chen now lives there, and the plaque in the garden has been changed to "Lu Residence".

The garden was purchased by Commander Gao three years ago from a salt merchant for only a few thousand taels of silver. The salt merchant had given it away as a favor to Commander Gao.

In fact, the garden itself alone is worth at least 15,000 taels of silver.

Gao Qianhu once summoned one of my girls from Lanyue Tower to play the zither and sing in that garden. The furniture and decorations in that garden were also very exquisite.

"I've roughly estimated that the gift Gao Qianhu gave to Lu Chen is worth at least 30,000 taels of silver!"

"What was the other thing Gao Mingqian did...?"

Hearing that Gao Mingqian had gone to such lengths to gift Lu Chen a luxury mansion, Sun Dexiu's unease grew stronger.

"Lord Sun, for the first half a month after Lu Chen took office at the Customs Household Office, he had no subordinates."

The madam sensed that something was off with her boss, and quickly replied in a flustered and respectful manner,

"Because Commander Gao dispersed all five squads that Lu Chen was originally supposed to take over and incorporated them into other centurions."

The group of subordinates that Lu Chen had taken over less than ten days ago were all recently transferred from various centurion offices.

Gao Ruopu and Shen Zhui were among them.