"You don't need to say anything more. I know what you are thinking." The King of Chen raised his chin slightly: "Go back and study hard, do more serious things, and benefit the people. Do you understand?"
The royal playboys nodded blankly. They understood what was said but didn't quite understand the meaning.
Read books, learn calligraphy, and do more serious work. How can His Royal Highness Prince Chen say this?
Or is His Highness actually hinting something to them?
Although they were playboys, they were also royal playboys, with suspicion running through their veins. After exchanging glances, they bowed to the Prince thoughtfully, "Thank you for your reminder, Your Highness. I understand."
"If you understand, stay at home and don't wander around the streets." Prince Chen thought for a moment and said, "If you are really bored, you can go to Hongwen College and donate some books or grow some vegetables."
Hongwen College?
The royal dandies suddenly realized that after May this year, Hongwen Academy would officially recruit students. Although they were not qualified to study there, they could still donate a few books and send some food and oil to show their support for His Majesty in establishing Hongwen Academy.
"Your Highness?" Jiuzhu saw these playboys coming in a hurry and leaving in a hurry. She looked as if she had been greatly inspired by His Highness and asked blankly, "Their expressions seem to be a little strange."
"Did you know that all royal bloodlines have a problem?"
"What's wrong?"
"They are suspicious and have a natural tendency to guess what their superiors are thinking." The Prince smiled and said, "When you are in a higher position than them, they will carefully consider every word you say, and then try their best to do things to please you, in order to seek stability."
"Maybe it's just an ordinary sentence, and it doesn't have any other meaning?"
"They don't dare to gamble." Prince Chen said calmly, "Because they don't know which one is true and which one is false."
Jiuzhu was silent for a long time before she said with emotion: "That's really tiring."
"Don't worry." Prince Chen stopped and looked at her: "I won't let you be so tired."
Jiuzhu was stunned at first, then smiled and nodded: "Yeah!"
What His Highness said always came true, so she never doubted his words.
Seeing the complete trust in Jiuzhu's eyes, Prince Chen smiled. He looked at the heavily guarded palace gate and said, "Go back. Don't see me off."
Jiuzhu stopped and said, "Your Highness, tomorrow is the Queen's coronation ceremony. Mother said that you and the Queen will have a lot of things to do at the ceremony, so I can't go to you."
"Your Highness is the most noble woman in the world, and you own everything in the world." Jiuzhu took out a piece of peach wood carving from his arms: "This carving is made of peach wood. Your Highness, please pass it to Your Highness on my behalf."
"Okay." Prince Chen put the peach wood carving into his arms and said, "In the capital, there is a lively lantern festival every year during the Lantern Festival. You can ask your brother to accompany you for a walk and take a look."
Jiuzhu nodded, looked up and asked him: "Will His Highness come?"
Prince Chen shook his head and said, "Tomorrow is the ceremony for my mother to be crowned as the Queen. I can't leave the palace tonight."
"Oh." Jiuzhu's eyes dimmed slightly, and then she smiled again: "It's okay, I will go with Your Highness again next year."
Prince Chen smiled and got on his horse: "Okay, I will accompany you to watch the Lantern Festival every year from now on."
After parting with Jiuzhu and returning to the palace, Prince Chen went directly to Mingyue Palace and gave the peach wood talisman that Jiuzhu asked him to pass on to Concubine Su Gui: "Mother, this is what Jiuzhu asked my son to give you in advance."
Concubine Su took it and found it was a small ornament carved in the shape of a gourd. There were auspicious clouds and auspicious patterns on the gourd, and the words "Yao Xi" were carved on the bottom.
Yaoxi means the bright and eternal light.
"I heard that people in Lingzhou believe that people who are illuminated by the light will have good luck and be immune to all diseases." Xiangshen said with emotion: "The Lord of Ming County has sent the best wishes to you, Your Majesty."
"Did she carve this peach wood gourd herself?" Concubine Su gently stroked the gourd with a gentle expression.
"My son didn't ask." Prince Chen leaned his head to see what the gourd carving looked like, but was pushed away by Concubine Su.
"Don't look at it if you don't ask." Concubine Su said with disdain: "You don't understand anything, go away."
"Although I didn't ask, I can guess." Prince Chen poured himself a cup of tea and sat down beside him. "Peach wood is favored by Taoists. Ordinary people don't like to use this kind of wood. Ming Xiaozhu has been fostered in a Taoist temple since she was a child. If it wasn't something she carved by hand, why would she let me bring it to you?"
"Yes." Concubine Su found a red rope and tied the gourd. "I have a peach wood gourd carved by Jiuzhu himself. Do you have one?"
The smile on Prince Chen's face froze. He lowered his head and touched the sachet hanging around his waist. Inside was the amulet that Jiuzhu had given him. Then he returned to his usual expression: "How can a son argue with you about this? She is your future daughter-in-law. It is only natural for her to make one or two things for you personally."
"Xiangsi." Concubine Su ignored him and turned to Xiangsi and said, "Smell it. What went bad? Why does it smell sour to me?"
Prince Chen stood up silently, walked a few steps to the door, and then shouted: "Mother, you think too much, I have an amulet that she gave me personally."
After saying this, he ran away, as if he was afraid that Concubine Su would snatch his amulet.
Concubine Su Gui looked at his back, which looked like a wild dog on the loose, chuckled, then lowered her head to look at the gourd in her palm and touched its fat belly.
"My lady, can I help you put it in a box?"
"No." Concubine Su smiled and said, "Tomorrow, I will wear it."
When Emperor Longfeng canonized Concubine Su as empress, those who were most offended were not the civil officials or military generals, but some officials from aristocratic families.
"Your Majesty first built the Hongwen Academy to recruit students from poor families all over the world, and then appointed Concubine Su Guifei, who came from a humble family, as the empress. What was his intention?"
"Is it possible that His Majesty can no longer tolerate aristocratic families like us?"
"You don't have to think too much. None of the concubines in His Majesty's palace are from aristocratic families." One of them drank a sip of wine lazily, "Over the years, no matter whether they are from aristocratic families or poor families, as long as they have talent, they have been valued by His Majesty. Don't always focus on Concubine Su. There are only a few women in the harem, and everyone here is a man. Who doesn't want to pamper the woman he likes the most?"
"I suspect you are an undercover agent sent by His Majesty to our aristocratic family circle." Another aristocratic family head couldn't help but say, "We are discussing important matters, not those men and women's matters."
"You can confer the title of Consort Su. It's a matter between men and women after all. You didn't stand up to oppose it at the New Year's Eve banquet. What's the point of saying this now?" The head of the aristocratic family who was drinking put down his wine glass and stood up nonchalantly: "Everyone, it's been the fourteenth year of Dacheng Longfeng. It's been hundreds of years since the aristocratic families and the emperor shared the world. Everyone, take a break."
"Du Qingke, you are simply a disgrace to your family!"
Du Qingke replied slowly, "Why are you scolding me when we were just talking nicely? If you really don't want His Majesty to promote people from humble backgrounds, you can solve the problem from the root."
"How to solve it?"
"It's a done deal to enthronize Concubine Su as the empress, so there's no need for any further fuss." Du Qingke raised her eyebrows and smiled, "But Hongwen Academy hasn't started recruiting students yet. If something goes wrong, like a poor student having a conflict with a royal kid, and things get serious, the establishment of the academy will have to be postponed."
"It's useless to cut down the tree and prune it." Du Qingke shook her head: "You have to cut it off from the root, do you understand?"
After saying this, he shook his sleeves and walked away with lazy steps.
Being with these fools who are trying to restore the glory of the family, he often feels superior in terms of brains.
With such a brain, are you still worried that Your Majesty will suppress the aristocratic families?
Your Majesty, is it worth it to worry about these idiots?
He is like an old cat looking in the mirror, thinking he is a tiger.
The Lantern Festival in the fourteenth year of Longfeng was held with exceptional grandness and liveliness. Before daybreak, the city was already hung with lanterns of various colors. Some lantern shops even had phoenix lanterns specially hung at their doors to celebrate today's coronation ceremony.
They didn't know what kind of person Concubine Su was, but since His Majesty was so kind, the empress he appointed must be good. Moreover, she was the biological mother of the overbearing prince, so she couldn't be wrong.
The most important point is that this is a major event that is celebrated by the whole world. Businesses take the opportunity to hold events to sell things and also bring good luck. Why not do it?
For ordinary people, as long as His Majesty can let them live a peaceful and stable life, even if he wants to anoint a peach tree as queen, people can make up a bizarre love story and find a way to make money from it.
Ordinary people joined in the fun. Royal relatives, court ministers, and ladies of honor dressed according to their rank early in the morning and hurried to the Jincheng Hall to attend the first ceremony of conferring the empress during the Longfeng year.
Logically speaking, Su was crowned as empress through the imperial concubine's canon, which made her inferior to the legitimate empress who entered the palace through the Suzaku main gate. However, Your Majesty gave Su all the honors of a legitimate empress.
Whether it was the phoenix chariot, the phoenix costume, or the etiquette, everything was carried out according to the highest standards for enthroning an empress.
This was also Jiuzhu's first time witnessing the grandeur of royal ceremony.
In the entire square of the Jincheng Palace, men on the left and women on the right were lined up in an orderly manner, respectful and solemn, with no end in sight.
The red carpet was laid out and flowers paved the way. Jiuzhu stood at the first place in the row of county chairmen and saw the queen, supported by His Royal Highness the Prince of Chen, walking slowly on the flowers on the red carpet.
When passing by her, the queen paused slightly, turned around and smiled at her.
Countless people saw this scene in full view of the public.
Empress Su was so satisfied with the future daughter-in-law of the Ming family that she even did not forget to give her face at the coronation ceremony.
Sun Caiyao stood at the end of the seats of the prince's consorts. She looked at Ming Jiuzhu, who was wearing a goose yellow county princess skirt. She stretched out her hand to catch a petal that floated from somewhere, and stood in a daze.
None of her dreams came true. The only thing that remained the same was the extremely close relationship between Ming Jiuzhu and Su Guifei.
The ceremonial officer on the stage read out the praise article that His Majesty had personally written for Concubine Su, and every sentence was filled with a man's preference for a woman.
"Greetings to Her Majesty the Queen, may you live for thousands of years and thousands of years."
Jiuzhu knelt down like everyone else and performed the ritual of three bows and nine kowtows. Then she saw a beautiful flower fall in front of her and put it in her pocket.
It's a pity that such beautiful flowers are stepped on by so many people.
After the ceremony of crowning the queen was over, Jiuzhu had just taken two steps when people came up to her and complimented her hair, her clothes, and some even praised the beauty of her handkerchief.
"These... are all made by the Palace Department. If the ladies like them, they can go to the Palace Department to get the drawings." They are all clothes designed according to rank, what's so special about them?
Everyone complimenting Jiuzhu: "..."
What's going on with the future Princess Chen? I wonder if this is a way of getting close to others that everyone knows?
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