"Father?" Jiuzhu saw Ming Jingzhou didn't say anything and blinked at him in confusion.
Ming Jingzhou came back to his senses, smiled and nodded: "Don't worry, as a minister, father will fulfill his duties and will not let your majesty down."
If it was Prince Chen who disappointed His Majesty, it would have nothing to do with him.
"It's getting late, you should go back first." Ming Jingzhou smiled: "I will take His Highness in first."
"Okay, I won't disturb my father and His Highness." Jiuzhu stepped back a few steps and waved her hand: "You guys go in quickly."
Prince Chen heard the perfunctory tone in Ming Jingzhou's words, raised his eyebrows and smiled at Jiuzhu, then followed Ming Jingzhou into the gate of the Ministry of Rites.
The officials from the Ministry of Rites who met him on the road saw him as if he had seen a ferocious beast. They hurriedly performed their greetings and ran away. Compared with these people, Ming Jingzhou, who was leading the way in front, seemed normal.
"Your Highness, this is where I and my colleagues have our meals. Why don't you go to the room and have a rest first? After I finish my meal, I will report to you about the relevant matters of the Ministry of Rites." Ming Jingzhou put the food box on the ground and respectfully saluted the King of Chen.
"You are welcome, Master Ming." Prince Chen bent down and picked up the food box, then took out a handkerchief to wipe the bottom of the food box. "It just so happens that I haven't had lunch yet, so I am so shameless to eat at the same table with you, Master. I think you won't mind."
Ming Jingzhou: “…”
I dislike it, but I don't dare to say it out loud.
"Your Highness, please." Pushing open the door of the Ministry of Rites' public kitchen, Ming Jingzhou looked at his colleagues who were talking and suddenly stopped talking. They hurriedly threw down their chopsticks and stood up to salute the Prince of Chen. He felt a strange sense of satisfaction in his heart.
That's right, only when we share the same difficulties can we be considered colleagues.
"No need to be polite, my lords. I came here to ask for your advice." The Prince of Chen picked an empty table and put the food box on it. "We will work together in the future. Just treat me as an ordinary colleague."
Everyone knew that the Prince of Chen was just being polite. To them, the Prince of Chen's willingness to be polite was already giving them enough face.
In their expectation, the Prince of Chen might come and leave, or he might order them around, or even give them orders and find fault with them.
The Minister of Rites breathed a sigh of relief. His Royal Highness the Prince of Chen...is not that difficult to serve.
This is human nature. If you have too high expectations of a person, you can't help but find fault with him or her. But if this person has always been arrogant and unreasonable, and suddenly says a few polite words, it will make people feel relieved, and even feel that they are different from others and that is why they deserve this special treatment.
Prince Chen placed all the dishes in the food box on the table and asked the clerk to serve the food. Seeing Ming Jingzhou still standing beside him, he smiled and greeted him, "Master Ming, please sit down and have dinner with us."
Ming Jingzhou looked at the delicious dishes, and his hands hidden in his sleeves trembled a little.
These are all his dishes. They are kept warm with hot water at the bottom of the food boxes so they won’t get cold all the way!
Ming Jingzhou lifted his robe and sat down, then picked up the chopsticks on the table. The bamboo chopsticks snapped and broke into two pieces.
Prince Chen paused in his action of picking up food and stared at the tip of the chopsticks that had fallen on the table.
"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Your Highness." Ming Jingzhou smiled awkwardly and changed to a new pair of chopsticks: "The Ministry of Rites has limited funds, and the bowls and chopsticks are used repeatedly, so they are quite fragile and easy to break, so even a weak person like me often breaks them accidentally."
"I see." Prince Chen picked up the broken chopsticks and threw them into the rattan basket for waste next to him. "My lords all live in poverty. Once I am familiar with the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, I will report to my father and ask him to allocate funds to repair the Ministry of Rites."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Li En, the Minister of Rites, came over with the bowl and chopsticks, and said with a thick face, "I will take Your Highness around later and tell you which places are in a very dilapidated state, so that Your Highness won't get hit on the head by tiles or wall plaster when you accidentally pass by these places in the future."
Prince Chen: “…”
"If Your Highness finds it boring for me to accompany you alone, Lord Ming can also come." Minister of Rites Li En smiled flatteringly at the Prince of Chen: "What do you think, Your Highness?"
Prince Chen was silent, and he began to recall which wrong step he had taken that led him to embark on the journey of asking for funds for the Ministry of Rites.
At first, he just wanted to visit the Ministry of Rites and then find an excuse to tell his father that the Ministry of Rites was not in harmony with him.
"Your Highness?" Li En looked earnestly.
Prince Chen put down his chopsticks and said, "Thank you, sir. I will pay more attention in the future."
Li En nudged Ming Jingzhou lightly with his elbow, hoping that he could speak up and let His Highness understand that the point was not to pay attention to dropped items, but that their Ministry of Rites was in a very dilapidated state and needed money to repair.
Ming Jingzhou lowered his head and ate in an elegant and gentle manner.
He was just a weak, little minister who was hungry and wanted to eat.
After delivering the meal to her father, Jiuzhu got on the carriage to go home in a good mood.
Halfway through the journey, the carriage stopped.
"Miss, there is a carriage from the Pingyuan Marquis's Mansion ahead." Chunfen lifted the curtain and leaned forward to ask Jiuzhu: "Should we give way?"
"Marquis Pingyuan's Mansion?" Jiuzhu leaned out of the window and took a look. Countless servants surrounded the carriage, and passers-by all gave way.
"Let go." Jiuzhu retracted her gaze, lowered the car window curtain, and stopped looking.
Chunfen nodded, turned around and said to the driver, "The young lady has ordered us to give way to the carriage of Pingyuan Marquis's mansion."
The old lady of Pingyuan Marquis Mansion saw the carriage stopped for a while and asked the maid beside her: "What's going on ahead?"
"There is a carriage blocking the road ahead. After the other party knew our identity, they moved out of the way." The maid bent forward to step into the carriage and gently massaged the old lady's shoulders.
"Tell the young ones at home not to spread the news like this when they are outside, lest it bring trouble to the reputation of the queen and His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi." The old lady closed her eyes to rest and hide her fatigue: "Do you know whose carriage it is? Let Wangnan go to thank them in person."
His son is seriously ill, and the eldest grandson is the heir of the Marquis's Mansion. Only if he passes away can the humility of the Marquis's Mansion be demonstrated.
“I am Zheng Wangnan, the young master of Pingyuan Marquis’s Mansion. Thank you for making way for me.” Zheng Wangnan looked at the carriage without the family emblem and bowed on the horse’s back without even getting off the horse.
"Prince Zheng, you are too polite. Elders are respected. As a junior, my lady should let the old lady go first." Chunfen jumped off the carriage and bowed deeply.
Zheng Wangnan looked at the maid and felt vaguely that he seemed to have seen her somewhere before.
"Prince, please." Chunfen waved his sleeves and made a gesture of invitation.
"Thank you, Miss." Because of this vague familiarity, Zheng Wangnan bowed again in the direction of the carriage.
He patted the horse under him and was about to turn around and leave when another person rode towards him on horseback.
"Your Highness the Prince of Qi!" Zheng Wangnan saw the person on the horse clearly, and hurriedly got off the horse and pulled the horse to the side.
"Cousin." The King of Qi noticed the carriage of the Marquis Pingyuan's Mansion and stopped the horse.
All the people in the marquis' mansion who were sitting in the carriage just now got out of the carriage.
"Grandma, please don't be so polite." The King of Qi dismounted from his horse and supported the elderly lady of the Marquis' Mansion. "Where are you and the others going?"
"Your Highness' wedding date is approaching. I am too old and incapable to do anything, so I can only take the younger generation of my family to the temple to pray for blessings, and pray that God will bless Your Highness with continuous blessings and success in everything." The old lady of the Marquis's Mansion looked at the King of Qi with loving eyes: "How is Your Highness these days?"
"Thank you for your concern, grandma. I'm fine. But you've lost weight. If I make you suffer because of my grandson's affairs, how will I deal with it?" The King of Qi noticed that there was a carriage without a family emblem parked in the corner. This carriage was clearly avoiding the carriage of the Pingyuan Marquis's Mansion. "Whose carriage is this?"
The carriage curtain moved, and a young girl in a light lake-colored dress came down, holding the hand of a maid, stepping on a footstool.
"Your Highness the Prince of Qi."
Zheng Wangnan's eyes lit up. It was the lady who turned the tacky hairpin into shining stars.
The women of the Zheng family changed their expressions. The person sitting in this ordinary-looking carriage was actually the Prince Chen’s fiancée? !
Thinking of the Imperial Concubine Su's open protection of her at the Imperial Concubine's birthday banquet, they felt a little uneasy.
When the two carriages met just now, they didn't even think about it and just waited for the other side to give way. If Concubine Su knew that they were forcing her future daughter-in-law to get out of the way on the street...
King Qi glanced at the expressions of the Qi family and returned Jiuzhu's half-salute: "Miss Ming."
Jiuzhu turned aside to avoid the greeting, lowered her head and frowned: "Your Highness, I dare not accept your greeting."
"I didn't know it was Miss Ming who passed by just now. The driver was ignorant and delayed Miss Ming's journey." The old lady of the Marquis's Mansion took a step back: "Miss Ming, please."
Jiuzhu smiled and said, "The old lady is an elder, how can a junior disrespect an elder? But now the old lady is talking to His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi, and the junior does not want to disturb her. Please forgive me for leaving first."
The carriage from Pingyuan Marquis's Mansion moved aside, leaving a wide path.
Jiuzhu knelt down and bowed to the old lady of the Marquis' Mansion and the King of Qi: "Thank you, Your Highness the King of Qi, and thank you, old lady."
From beginning to end, she never even glanced at the King of Qi, even though he was famous throughout the capital and countless women were attracted to him.
"She, she is Miss Ming?" Zheng Wangnan stared blankly at the carriage going away, "How could she be Miss Ming?"
Isn’t Miss Ming the Prince Chen’s fiancée?
The King of Qi heard Zheng Wangnan's low murmur and turned to look at him.
"Wang Nan." The old lady said, "Go to the carriage and get the amulet I asked for His Highness."
"Yes." Zheng Wangnan came back to his senses and didn't even have time to mourn the little deer in his heart that died before it was even born.
"Miss." Chunfen carefully observed Jiuzhu's expression: "You don't seem to like the people of Prince Qi and Pingyuan Marquis's Mansion. I thought that even if Miss didn't like a man as elegant, gentle and handsome as His Royal Highness Prince Qi, she wouldn't hate him too much."
Her young lady is so lovely and considerate. She would not target anyone for no reason. There must be something wrong between the King of Qi and the Marquis Pingyuan's Mansion.
"He is very good-looking?" Jiuzhu disagreed: "It is obviously His Royal Highness Prince Chen who is good-looking. When His Royal Highness smiles, his eyes are so bright, like the morning sun."
Chunfen didn't think there was any difference in the way the two princes smiled, after all, they were both princes of noble status.
"Sister Equinox, is it obvious that I hate the way they look?"
"It's not too obvious. Others can't see it, but our family members can see some clues." Chunfen lifted the curtain and looked back. The King of Qi was holding the hand of the old lady of the Marquis's Mansion. There were many women on the roadside, secretly looking at him.
Jiuzhu recalled the struggle and despair when the river water rushed into her mouth and nose eight years ago, "Maybe some people are just born incompatible. If you don't like it, you don't like it. No matter how much you force it, it's useless."
No matter how beautifully the King of Qi smiled, she still couldn't help but think of the river water mixed with the smell of mud.
Dark, damp, and smelling of death.
In the Taiyang Palace, Emperor Longfeng personally drafted two edicts, neither of which was stamped with the imperial seal.
An imperial edict promoted Ming Jingzhou to the title of Ning Kangbo.
An imperial decree designated the daughter of Jin Ming Jingzhou as the county lord.
"Your Majesty, the director of the Imperial Observatory has arrived."
"My dear, after calculating for so long, have you figured it out?"
"Your Majesty, the horoscopes of Miss Ming and His Royal Highness Prince Chen are like clouds and fog dispersing, the moon shining brightly, the sun rising into the sky, the trees flourishing and the vines green, and the trees dying and the vines withering."
"Your Excellency, please speak more bluntly."
"The fates of the two are intertwined, if they are together they will prosper, but if they are apart they will suffer from misfortunes."
Emperor Longfeng chuckled and did not comment on the fate theory: "Then can you calculate a suitable wedding date for the two of you?"
"On the second day of the second month of next spring, the flower god will descend."
"February 2 is also a good day for the dragon to raise its head." Emperor Longfeng chuckled, picked up the imperial seal, and stamped it heavily on the imperial edict to promote Ming Jingzhou to the rank of Ning Kangbo.
The director of the Imperial Observatory lowered his head even lower. Most emperors were sensitive to the word "dragon", so he didn't dare to respond.
"This day is worthy of my son's wedding."
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