The palace banquet ended on an exceptionally amicable note, and Yun Zhao returned to Hua E Building, very satisfied.
Upon her return, she called Zhang Maoquan in to ask him a few questions, mainly about whether there had been any issues with the Palace Attendants on duty that day.
"Your Grace, they were assigned two to a shift, and no matter what happened, both were forbidden from leaving their posts at the same time. None of the Palace Attendants dared to abandon their duties today," Zhang Maoquan replied, his head bowed. "One of them did have an upset stomach, but a standby Palace Attendant Your Grace had arranged in advance immediately filled in for them."
Since the standby Palace Attendants were chosen at random on the spot, bribing them in advance was impossible. With dozens of them, it wasn't feasible to buy every single one.
When the banquet concluded successfully, Yun Zhao knew her arrangements had paid off. Just as she had expected, there were no incidents.
