Although I encountered the mentally challenged Zheng family, buying clothes and jewelry was still a pleasant experience. It was just that when Sixth Brother paid the bill, his hands were shaking slightly.
"Sister." Ming Cunfu touched his half-empty purse and said to Jiuzhu, "Go wait for me in the carriage. I'll go to the bookstore opposite to buy some books."
"Okay." Jiuzhu touched the newly bought hairpin on her temples and nodded in a good mood.
Looking at the smile on his sister's face, Ming Cunfu began to reflect on whether he was too stingy. As long as his sister was happy, how could he be stingy with the money?
"I'll be back soon." Ming Cunfu told Chunfen: "Take good care of the young lady."
"Don't worry, brother. I will definitely wait for you in the carriage." Jiuzhu waved her hand: "Just go pick the books."
"Then I'll be back soon."
The carriage was parked outside the clothing shop. As Jiuzhu walked to the side of the carriage, she heard a woman screaming.
"Bugs, bugs."
"It jumped onto my clothes, get rid of it!"
Seeing the woman so frightened that her face turned pale, Jiuzhu kept shaking her sleeves, walked quickly forward, and caught the insect on the woman's sleeve.
"Don't be afraid, girl. It's just a cricket." Jiuzhu hid the cricket behind him, so that the girl would not continue to look at it and get scared.
"Thank you." The fear on the woman's face gradually disappeared. After thanking Jiuzhu, she hurriedly climbed into her own carriage.
"Little girl, that's my family's ever-victorious general."
Jiuzhu looked back at the entrance of the clothing shop. The purple-robed young man she had seen before was holding a cricket cage in his hand and looking at her with a smile.
"your?"
"Of course." The young man in purple robe spread out his palms, "Well, this kind of thing that betrayed its master and escaped should be left to me, its master, to deal with."
"Oh." Jiuzhu trotted up to him and put the cricket into the man's slightly white and tender palm.
The "ever-victorious general" struggled to move twice in the purple-robed young man's palm, and then became completely motionless.
"That..." Jiuzhu silently took a step back, secretly looked at the purple-robed young man's expression, and took another small step back: "Maybe I was not careful just now and used a little more strength."
To make her words more authentic, she compared the fingernail-sized distance between her thumb and index finger: "It's really just a little bit."
The young man in purple robe raised his eyebrows slightly and threw the body of the "Ever-Victorious General" into the cricket cage. An attendant following him hurriedly took the cage, and another attendant handed over a clean brocade handkerchief.
Jiuzhu saw the other party slowly wiping his hands with a handkerchief, then rummaged in his purse and took out a piece of silver. After thinking about it, he felt that the piece of silver was a bit too big, so he threw it back into his purse and continued to rummage around in it. Finally, he found a smaller grain of silver, walked quickly forward and stuffed it into the palm of the young man in purple robe, then moved a few steps away from him as quickly as possible.
"What a big piece of silver." The purple-robed young man picked up a silver grain smaller than a fingernail with his two fingers and sighed, "The girl is so generous."
Jiuzhu was reluctant to part with the silver grains, but who told her not to bring any copper coins with her?
"It's nothing." Jiuzhu suppressed her heartache and turned her head away from the silver grains on the other's fingertips: "This is the funeral expenses for Cricket."
The purple-robed young man's attendant's hands, holding the cricket cage, were trembling slightly. But he was a dedicated attendant in the palace and must not show any emotion before his master spoke.
"All right." The young man in purple robe casually put the silver coins into his waist: "According to the lady's wishes, I will definitely give General Changsheng a grand funeral."
"Um..." Jiuzhu bowed to the purple-robed young man and apologized: "I'm sorry."
Although it was not intentional, she did accidentally crush the cricket to death.
It’s her fault for not having seen enough of the world. She didn’t know that people in the capital would raise crickets as pets.
"Forget it." The young man in purple robes jumped on his horse and took the whip handed to him by the attendant: "It's a thing that will die anyway."
He raised his whip and was about to leave, but suddenly turned around and looked at the golden hairpin on Jiuzhu's temples: "Who are you from? I have never seen you before."
Jiuzhu looked at the young man in purple robe with her dark eyes, and took small steps back to her own carriage.
What's wrong with boys in Beijing? They ask girls their names as soon as they have a disagreement?
Noticing the little girl's actions, the young man in purple robe sighed and wondered who raised this little girl to be so naive. When you get married in the future, won’t you be bullied like a child by your in-laws?
After Jiuzhu saw the purple-robed young man looking at her with a look that indicated a rabbit about to be roasted, she whipped the horse and left, finally confirming one thing.
The problem isn't with her, it's with the entire capital.
"Sister." Ming Cunfu came over holding a few books: "Let's go home."
"Um."
Sitting in the carriage, Jiuzhu held her purse in pain and said, "Sixth brother, I just accidentally killed someone else's cricket and paid for the funeral."
"What cricket?" Ming Cunfu knew that some playboys in the capital liked to raise crickets and enjoyed fighting crickets.
"The master calls him the Ever-Victorious General."
"What?" Ming Cunfu, who was originally lazily, sat up straight in an instant: "General Changsheng?"
In the entire capital, apart from the ridiculous Prince Chen, who else would dare to give a cricket such a name?
"How much did you pay?" He swallowed his dry throat.
"I lost such a big piece of silver as compensation." Jiuzhu stretched out his little finger and measured half the distance of his nail.
Ming Cunfu breathed a sigh of relief instantly. It was so cheap, he must not be the undefeated general of Prince Chen.
It is said that the Prince of Chen spent nearly a hundred gold coins to buy a cricket and named it the Ever-Victorious General. If it really is this prince's cricket, the little money my sister has might only be enough to bury a few of the cricket's legs.
A few days later, Jiuzhu was drinking tea with her mother at home when she saw her father walk in with a serious expression.
"What happened?" Shen asked casually.
"These are just some trivial matters in the court." Ming Jingzhou forced a smile and took two sips of the remaining tea in front of Shen. "Today, someone made a petition in the court, hoping that Your Majesty would appoint a crown prince. Prince Huai and Prince Qi were the most popular."
"Where is His Majesty?" Shen took a piece of cake and handed it to Ming Jingzhou.
"His Majesty is furious." Ming Jingzhou sat down at the table, ate the cakes with the remaining tea, and turned to look at his daughter.
Jiuju looked at him in confusion.
"Alas." Ming Jingzhou sighed.
All the other princes had people recommending them, except for my daughter's fiancé, who was disliked by the civil officials and the military generals, so no one recommended him.
"What's the matter?" Jiuzhu reached out and gently patted Ming Jingzhou's back: "Is it because His Majesty is not satisfied with the prince you recommended, father?"
Ming Jingzhou shook his head silently. If it were really just like this, he would not have sighed.
"Didn't you say that His Majesty is only fifty-one now?" Jiuzhu didn't understand why the court officials were in a hurry for the emperor to appoint a crown prince. What's the difference between this and those people in the folk who point at their energetic elders and say, "I think you will die sooner or later, so divide the family property in advance?"
Ming Jingzhou nodded.
"Your Majesty is in high spirits, with the country and the people as your companions, and even the order to mobilize troops is in your hands." Jiuzhu looked at Ming Jingzhou in confusion: "What good will it bring to Your Majesty to appoint a crown prince so early?"
"But now that the princes have all reached adulthood, His Majesty favors Concubine Su. I'm afraid that even the kingdom will be taken away by this mother and son."
"They are all sons of His Majesty, why can't Prince Chen..."
Shen stuffed a piece of crispy candy into Jiuzhu's mouth and whispered, "Jiuzhu, be good and don't talk about court affairs."
Jiuzhu bit the candy with a crunching sound. She could talk about King Qi and King Huai, so why couldn’t she talk about King Chen?
Jiuzhu felt uncomfortable when she thought that even a little kid dared to say that the imperial concubine was a witch. Her Majesty and Prince Chen are so kind, how can they resist the oppression from these people in the capital?
"The Prince's behavior is very absurd." When talking about his future son-in-law, Ming Jingzhou's forehead wrinkled a few more times: "It is said that the prince of Pingyuan Marquis made him unhappy a few days ago, so he brought him into the school to copy books."
"What's wrong with copying books?" Shen was a little surprised. The way Prince Chen dealt with people this time was gentler than before.
"He asked Zheng Wangnan to go to the class for young children."
It is hard to say whether this method is severe or not, but it is definitely extremely insulting.
"That must be because Zheng Wangnan did something really excessive, which is why the King of Chen acted like this." Jiuzhu said firmly, "The King of Chen is gentle and kind, he will definitely not punish people for no reason."
Shen and Ming Jingzhou both looked at Jiuzhu.
My girl, what kind of bizarre misunderstandings do you have about the character of the Prince of Chen?
"That Zheng Wangnan, my daughter met him last time when she went out with Sixth Brother." Jiuzhu recounted what happened. "Not only did he laugh at the tacky hairpin I chose, he also wanted to ask me where I was from."
"I suspect," she stroked her chin, her expression profound and her eyes full of wisdom, "he wants to find out where I am from in order to make fun of our whole family."
"Nonsense, what does a man know about jewelry?" Shen Shi was determined not to tolerate anyone saying that their daughter, who had finally been found, was not good: "Such an ignorant man should be sent to a children's enlightenment class.
"Ma'am, it's Class A."
That is the enlightenment class for the youngest age.
"This...are other children influenced by him?" She remembered that a distant relative's child was in the kindergarten's first-class class.
Every child is precious, don’t let Zheng Wangnan lead them astray.
"That's not necessary..." Ming Jingzhou coughed dryly, changed the subject, and turned to ask Jiuzhu: "Jiuzhu, where did you hear that His Royal Highness the Prince of Chen is... gentle and kind?"
Why are there such outrageous rumors in the capital?
"Isn't this true?"
Ming Jingzhou: “…”
This rumor is a million miles away from the truth.
Fortunately, at least the gap is not as huge as the ends of the earth.
In fact, the statement "His Royal Highness the Prince is gentle and kind" is half true.
For example, the four words "Your Highness the Prince of Chen".
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