Chapter 23

It’s the Mid-Autumn Festival reunion night again.

The maple leaves have not yet turned red, but several days of autumn rain have completely dispelled the hot air left over from the end of summer.

Emperor Huiyuan, who had been hunting in Nanhaizi during the day, coughed a few more times during the night banquet.

Empress Dowager Jiang knew that it must be because her son had sweated a lot after the autumn hunt and took a cold shower to cool down, so she ordered the palace servants to bring ginger soup to the emperor to drive away the cold.

Empress Dowager Zhang gave Empress Cheng a wink, and Empress Cheng personally picked up the jade pot and poured a cup of bright red wine to offer to Emperor Huiyuan.

When Zhu Mingji took the wine cup, a bloody smell rushed into his nose. Knowing it was deer blood wine, he put the wine cup on the table.

Empress Dowager Zhang: "Deer blood is warming and nourishing. Drinking it right now will warm the Emperor up."

"I know my cousin loves this wine the most." Zhu Mingji looked at Deqing and said, "Have two jars of deer blood wine brought to the tablet of Emperor Hongde." He raised the wine cup and poured the bright red wine onto the ground. "This is the deer blood wine presented to me by the Empress. I will offer it to you, my cousin, and have you drink it."

Empress Dowager Zhang looked unhappy, and she had no way to deal with Zhu Mingji, so she just sulked to herself.

When Empress Dowager Zhang caught a glimpse of a young man toasting Concubine Zhang Gui from the corner of her eye, she was attracted by his handsome and elegant demeanor, so she asked the palace maid beside her.

The palace servant replied softly, "Reporting to the Empress Dowager, that is the younger brother of Concubine Zhang, the Marquis of Yongjia, and the first place winner of the imperial examination during the Huiyuan reign."

"No wonder he looks familiar to me. Since he is a relative's child, bring him here for me to see." Empress Dowager Zhang remembered that the young man's name should be Zhang Xihua.

The palace maid led Zhang Xihua to the desk of Empress Dowager Zhang. Empress Dowager Jiang, Empress Cheng, and Emperor Huiyuan all looked over there.

"You two siblings are both very pretty, but do you have wives?" asked Empress Dowager Zhang.

Zhang Xihua: "I am still in mourning and have never married."

Empress Dowager Zhang nodded. Her nieces were all of average appearance. Her two daughters from her sister's family were pretty, but Cheng Ying became the queen, and Cheng Ying's sister Cheng Yao was promised to Prince Jing as his principal wife. It was a pity.

Marriage is not advisable. It would be better to wait until Zhang Xihua is out of mourning and promise him a high position and generous salary. He will then be willing to serve you wholeheartedly.

Empress Dowager Zhang was making plans in her mind, but she didn't expect that Empress Dowager Jiang's words would make her plans completely fail.

"Xihua, come here. Godmother hasn't seen you for a long time."

Empress Dowager Jiang summoned Zhang Xihua.

After Zhang Xihua bowed to Empress Dowager Zhang, he walked to the desk of Empress Dowager Jiang.

The palace ladies also presented ginger soup to Emperor Huiyuan.

Zhu Mingji put the soup bowl on the table. He had hated the taste of ginger since he was a child, but he couldn't help coughing a few times.

Zhang Xihua was talking to Empress Dowager Jiang.

Empress Dowager Jiang heard her son's cough and advised, "I told them to add plenty of longan and red dates to the ginger soup. The ginger flavor isn't strong. Mingji, at least drink a few sips. Catching a cold is no joke."

Zhu Mingji frowned and gave the bowl of ginger soup to Deqing.

Zhang Xihua took out two loquat and pear candies from her purse, clasped her hands together and presented the candies to the emperor.

Zhu Mingji opened the candy wrapper and ate one candy, then put the other candy into his purse. "This candy is good. I want to reward you."

"It was given to me by Lord Hu's granddaughter. If Your Majesty wants to reward her, please give it to her." Zhang Xihua wanted to laugh when she thought of Zhu Mingji's next reaction.

Zhu Mingji spat the candy in his mouth onto his handkerchief. The cheerful smile on his face instantly vanished. He said coldly, "This candy is too sweet. It's not good. Erlang, don't eat it." He then ordered Deqing, "Go and help the Marquis of Yongjia take out the candy from his pouch. Throw it all away."

Zhang Xihua knew Zhu Mingji would do something like this. "Miss Hu is at the age when she loves to eat candy the most. She thought about it again and again before she was willing to give me two candies. If Your Majesty doesn't like this candy, just return the other one to me."

Empress Dowager Jiang, who was watching the two playing, smiled knowingly and pointed to the granddaughter of Lord Hu to show the emperor. She was a cute little girl of five or six years old with two buns on her head.

Zhu Mingji knew that he had fallen into a trap set by Zhang Xihua, but when he saw Zhang Xihua's curved eyebrows, he couldn't help but curl the corners of his lips. He was in a good mood and rewarded Miss Hu handsomely.

After the night banquet, Zhang Xihua was supposed to leave the palace and go home, but Zhu Mingji grabbed her sleeve and the two walked all the way back to the Qianqing Palace.

There was a duty house for the cabinet ministers outside the gate of the Qianqing Palace, and there was also a duty room in the East Warm Pavilion in the Qianqing Palace. However, the cabinet ministers did not stay overnight in these two places. They were only places for them to wait for the emperor's inquiries during the day.

Zhu Mingji asked Zhang Xihua to choose a place for her to sleep tonight.

"So many eyes in the palace are staring at Your Majesty. Why bother adding more rumors to yourself?" Zhang Xihua knew that even if Zhu Mingji was willing to let her out of the palace at this time, the palace gates had already been locked.

"Why didn't you say this when I pulled your sleeve just now? Now there are rumors everywhere, it's too late for you to say anything." The dragon's nest in the bedroom was burning fiercely. Zhu Mingji took off his cloak and outer clothes and sat on the couch. Now he and Erlang were able to be alone, and he was in a better mood.

"I don't want to embarrass Your Majesty in public. If that happens, more people will see Your Majesty pulling my sleeve and leaving." Zhang Xihua was sweating all over. He only took off his cloak and did not take off his outer clothes.

"What are you doing standing there like a daze? Come sit next to me. You're so far away from me. Are you afraid that I'll eat you?" Zhu Mingji stared at Zhang Xihua with a half-smile.

Zhang Xihua felt uneasy under his burning gaze, so she moved a square stool in front of the couch and sat down.

"Look at you." Zhu Mingji sneered, "Erlang, I see you've improved a lot. Now you know how to protect my face. You're not like before, when you just get on top of me and beat me up."

"I also dislike Your Majesty very much now. I am afraid that if I injure Your Majesty, Your Majesty will have to cancel the morning court tomorrow. I cannot bear the responsibility for delaying state affairs." Zhang Xihua said sitting upright.

"I know you are thinking of me. Xu Pingzhi has already told me that the idea of ​​'The Book of Filial Piety' was yours. But now I have another difficult matter. I want to replace the chief executives of the two capitals and thirteen provinces with my own people. But the Minister of Personnel Gao Yue is the confidant of Empress Dowager Zhang. Such a big personnel transfer cannot go beyond his approval anyway." Zhu Mingji also became serious.

"Since Gao Yue is Empress Dowager Zhang's confidant, Your Majesty knows better than I who is the middleman who can connect the harem with the former dynasty." Zhang Xihua said.

"I also want to start with Huang Yu, the eunuch who holds the seal of the Imperial Household Department, but it is not easy to let dogs bite each other and let the two dogs kill each other," said Zhu Mingji.

"Gao Yue came from a humble background. He didn't rank high in the imperial examinations and was initially destined for a post as an official in the outer court. It was only after marrying the sister of Prime Minister Cheng that he was able to begin his career as an official in the capital. Huang Yu, on the other hand, was the son of a high-ranking official. His father's crime implicated him and he became a palace eunuch. Before entering the palace, Huang Yu was engaged to Gao Yue's wife."

Zhang Xihua also learned about this by chance from Chen Fuzhou's men. Because Gao Yue proposed to reduce the number of Jinyiwei in the Northern Pacification Division and increase the number of Dongchang factory guards, when Chen Fuzhou was drinking with her privately, his men scolded Gao Yue for picking up a slut that a servant didn't want as a mistress. When she asked in detail, she learned about the relationship between Gao Yue and Huang Yu.

After finishing the serious business, Zhu Mingji began to talk about personal matters with Zhang Xihua.

He took out a memorial from under his pillow and handed it to Zhang Xihua to read.

Zhang Xihua opened the letter and saw that it was a diary recording her life in Beijing.

"Zhu Mingji, do you find it interesting to do this? Why do you have to record in detail even how many times I defecated in a day? You pervert!"

Zhang Xihua angrily threw the memorial at Zhu Mingji.

Zhu Mingji cried out in pain and took the memorial in his hand.

"This is the evidence that you're cheating on me. I only see you once every few months, but you meet up with that wretch every three or five days. Do you think I'm dead?"

Zhang Xihua felt that Zhu Mingji's anger was inexplicable. "What do you mean by cheating on me? I'm not your wife, I'm your subject. You only see me once every few months because you're the emperor, and the emperor should stay in the imperial city to summon those he should summon every day. Chen Fuzhou is my uncle, is it wrong for me to see my uncle?"

"You just think Chen Fuzhou is your uncle?"

"Your Majesty, what else do you think I can regard him as?"

"Is there really nothing going on between you and Shen Fuzhou?"

"If there really is something wrong, what can Your Majesty do to us?"

Zhu Mingji took a deep breath; jealousy had made him lose his mind.

"I can't do anything to you, but I can kill all nine clans of his family who sank the boat."

Zhang Xihua blew on his fingers, walked to the front of the couch, and flicked Zhu Mingji's forehead hard.

"I may speak in anger, but Your Majesty cannot. If Your Majesty remains unrepentant, I will move my entire family to Yazhou and live as a barbarian rather than live in the capital and endure this bullshit."

Zhu Mingji rubbed his forehead which was red from being hit, hugged Zhang Xihua's waist shamelessly, and rubbed his cheek against Zhang Xihua's chest.

In Zhang Xihua's eyes, his behavior just now was like a big cat that had been wronged and was acting coquettishly in her arms for comfort.

She couldn't help but soften her heart.

"Erlang, can you touch my head?" Zhu Mingji kept sniffing the pleasant scent of laurel dew on Zhang Xihua's body.

Zhang Xihua stroked his hair gently.

"Your Majesty, getting angry will only hurt yourself, and so will I."

"I won't make you angry anymore. Promise me that you won't fall in love with anyone other than me, okay?" Zhu Mingji almost begged.

When he was the prince of Xiang Wang, his movements were not as restricted as they are now. As long as he wanted to see Erlang, he could see him anytime and anywhere.

He was fed up with this feeling of constant anxiety and the pain of wanting to see Erlang but not being able to do so.

Why isn't Erlang a woman? If Erlang were a woman, he could make Erlang his wife and never let Erlang leave his sight.

Or maybe he could be a woman, and when Erlang was tired, he would make the bed for him; when Erlang was thirsty, he would pour tea for him; when Erlang was hungry, he would cook delicious food for him...

"Erlang, I just want to be the most ordinary couple with you in this world." Zhu Mingji took the initiative to say this after not hearing his response for a long time.