Unable to decline, the Empress Dowager had to accept. Thus, the Holy Birthday Festival was celebrated in a lively manner a few days later.
For the Empress Dowager's Holy Birthday Festival, all officials of the Sixth Rank and above in the capital, along with their female dependents, were permitted to enter the palace for the banquet.
Everyone in the Xu Mansion was on the invitation list, but since Chen Wanqing was heavily pregnant, she would not be going this time. Actually, she did not want the female members of her family to enter the palace either. The Xu family was originally part of the Royalist Party, naturally putting them in a different camp from the Empress Dowager. If the Empress Dowager wanted to make things difficult for her grandmother and mother, how could they avoid it?
