"You haven't even married a princess, what do you know about jewelry?" Emperor Longfeng scolded his son with a smile: "Go back to your Zhangliu Palace and don't bother me and your mother."
"Father, you can't say that. Although I don't have a princess yet, I have a fiancée." Prince Chen shamelessly approached Concubine Su and said, "Mother, let me help you take a look at the jewelry sent by the Palace Province this year."
As he spoke, he stretched out his restless hands and began to rummage through the jewelry box.
"Mother is as elegant and noble as a peony. This hairpin is not worthy of your beauty and elegance." Prince Chen picked out a flower-embroidered hairpin and shook his head, "This one won't work either."
"How come the people in the Palace Department are doing their jobs this year?" Prince Chen put down the box of hairpins and frowned. At first he wanted to help Jiuzhu pick out some good things, but after a closer look he found that these jewelry were indeed not suitable for his mother.
What does the Palace Province mean? They are so perfunctory about it.
"Your son will not disturb my father and mother, and will take his leave now." He finally understood why Ming Xiaozhu wanted to roll up his sleeves and hit people when he was angry. Now he also wanted to lift the roof of the Palace Province.
"Where are you going?" Concubine Su looked at him with a smile.
"Let's go take a walk in the Palace." Prince Chen held back his anger in front of his parents and said, "It's almost the New Year, I'm going to go see the people working in the Palace."
"No need to go. Take this box of jewelry to Jiuzhu." Concubine Su suppressed her smile and handed him the box of jewelry that didn't fit her. "I'll ask your father for mercy on your behalf. Let you go to the Ming family and personally pick up your fiancée to enter the palace."
"How can a little girl like her wear all these jewels?" Prince Chen took the heavy jewel box and said, "Mother, you treat your future daughter-in-law like this, aren't you afraid that she will become arrogant because of your favor?"
"You have a point." Concubine Su nodded: "Jiuzhu is the daughter of the Ming family. She has the cold and arrogant blood of a family of civil officials. If I treat her too well..."
Hearing that something was not right with what she said, Prince Chen quickly interrupted her and said, "Mother is the one who has thought it through. If you treat her well now, there will be no conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law after you marry me. It is my son who is short-sighted and did not think things through. Fortunately, mother reminded me."
"Jiuzhu has been fostered in the Taoist temple by the Ming family for many years. Her temperament is different from that of ordinary young ladies from a scholarly family." Prince Chen hid the jewelry box behind him: "I heard that Taoism emphasizes cause and effect. You are good to her, and she is close to you. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are as close as mother and daughter. If other concubines and princesses see you, they will definitely envy you."
He originally wanted his mother to feel that she was the most important in his heart, so that she would not have any opinions about Ming Xiaozhu and the two of them would not get along happily in the future. Unexpectedly, his words were superfluous and seemed to be fanning the flames and sowing discord.
It is said that regulating the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is something a mature man should do, but it seems that his ability is not enough.
Seeing her son talking so much, Concubine Su laughed out loud: "Okay, I'm just teasing you. How can I explain the fate between Jiuzhu and me? Seeing that your marriage with her is imminent, I just hope that you two will live in harmony and happiness after marriage, without any illness or disaster."
"Thank you, mother. I will go and fetch Ming Xiaozhu to the palace right away." Prince Chen winked at Emperor Longfeng beside him and said, "Father, please play with mother slowly. I will take my leave first."
"Go ahead." Seeing his son's toes pointed outward, as if he wanted to fly out of the palace immediately, Emperor Longfeng said, "Let the Dragon Guards go with you. I have already said that you princes are not allowed to leave the palace. If you take the Dragon Guards with you, others will not be able to accuse me of going back on my word."
What this means is that you should save face for your father, whose word is law.
"I will obey my father's holy order." Prince Chen bowed and walked out of the room with a smile. As soon as he left the room, he turned around and ran away.
"Your Highness..." Before Xiang Juan could finish her words, she saw His Royal Highness Prince Chen had already rushed out of the gate of Mingyue Palace. She looked at the eunuch beside her in confusion: "What happened to Your Highness?"
The palace maids and eunuchs shook their heads, guessing that maybe he had gotten some good things from the imperial concubine.
Thinking about how His Majesty had just said not long ago that the Queen was not allowed to send anything to His Highness. Not long after that, His Highness took something from the Queen in front of His Majesty.
For the time being, it is unclear who between His Majesty and the Queen is the one who dotes on the child the most.
"Your Highness, I just saw His Highness Prince Chen leave the palace." The eunuch said to Prince Huai, "Do you think he disobeyed your Majesty's order and sneaked out?"
"It was broad daylight, and even you saw him leaving the palace. You still call this sneaking away?" King Huai said unhappily, "Among the five of us brothers, only the fifth brother has not yet married. I'm afraid that the emperor specially allowed him to leave the palace."
Besides, even if he really sneaked away, his father would definitely turn a blind eye and forgive him in the end. He would not be stupid enough to ask Prince Chen why he was allowed to leave the palace.
"Brother." Prince An and Prince Jing walked into his courtyard and sat down next to him: "We heard that Fifth Brother can leave the palace, and we also want to..."
"No, you don't want to." King Huai interrupted them ruthlessly: "At least I don't want to."
The fact that they had previously kept advisers and spies in the palace was already known clearly to their father. If they left the palace now and something happened again, it would be like yellow mud falling into one's crotch, and it would become true even if they said it was not true.
Smart people should stay in the palace honestly now, don't go anywhere, and don't ask anything. In this way, even if something happens, it has nothing to do with me.
In the past few days, he has been thinking over and over again about the various methods used by the emperor's uncles and aunts to fight for the throne when the late emperor was alive. In the end, he came to the conclusion that his father was right and that the methods used by his brothers were all left over by his uncles and aunts.
"Father is too partial." Prince An held it in for a while, still feeling a little uncomfortable: "We agreed that no one is allowed to leave the palace, so why can Yun Duqing go out?"
King Huai looked at him sideways. At this age, he realized that his father was partial to him?
"Second brother, you should get used to this kind of thing sooner." The usually quiet Prince Jing said calmly, "If you are not happy, let's go to Fourth Brother's room to cook a hot pot?"
"I can't tell, Third Brother." King Huai put his hand on his shoulder: "You are quite good at having fun."
"I'm not." Prince Jing waved his hands quickly: "I just noticed that everyone is in a good mood every time they go to Fourth Brother's house to eat hot pot..."
"No need to explain, we all understand." King Huai nodded: "You are right, let's go to Fourth Brother's room and cook the hot pot now."
King Huai left as soon as he said he would. He took his two younger brothers with him. Just as they reached the gate of the courtyard, they saw a man sitting under a tree drinking tea. He exuded such an otherworldly energy that it seemed as if he could ascend to heaven and become an immortal on the spot.
"Big brother, second brother, third brother." Yun Yanze looked up at the three of them and smiled slightly: "The palace banquet is coming soon, why don't you have a cup of light tea and sit and watch the clouds roll by?"
King Huai looked up at the gray sky, listened to the whistling wind in the palace alleys, then turned around and left.
There's something wrong!
Who are you trying to disgust by pretending to be so pretentious?
When Prince An and Prince Jing saw Prince Huai leave, they were in no position to leave or stay, so they could only smile awkwardly.
They forgot that the reason they dared to cook hot pot in fourth brother's room was because fifth brother was there. The fifth brother is not here at the moment, and they... don't dare to offend this younger brother who has a good reputation among the civil officials.
Not every prince is Yun Duqing.
As the New Year was approaching, Jiuzhu gave the little white horse a bath. Because I was afraid it would feel cold, I even brought a brazier when giving it a bath.
After wiping the water off the horse's hair with a dry towel, Jiuzhu touched the little white horse's head, and the little white horse rubbed against her affectionately.
"Good boy, good boy." The horse hair rubbed against her body and it felt a little itchy. Jiuzhu smiled and took a few steps back.
"Miss." Xiang Juan ran to the stable panting, "Prince Chen is here to visit."
"The prince is here?" Jiuzhu was overjoyed. She took two steps, turned around and saw the pony following her. She simply led it to the front hall.
When Prince Chen saw Jiuzhu leading some small animal in, if he hadn't seen the reins on the animal, he would have almost blurted out "Your dog is quite strong."
"Your Highness." Jiuzhu walked up to Prince Chen and asked, "Why did you leave the palace?"
She heard from other sisters that the five princes were locked up in the palace and no one was allowed to go out. How did His Highness get out?
Suddenly, her expression changed and she asked in a low voice: "Your Highness, you didn't sneak out, did you?"
"What are you thinking about in your little head?" Prince Chen laughed. "The palace is heavily guarded. The outer wall is thicker than the house and several feet high. Even if I have wings, I can't sneak out."
It’s good that he didn’t sneak out.
Jiuzhu breathed a sigh of relief: "Then your highness left the palace, is there something important to do?"
"This." Prince Chen pointed to the jewelry box on the table: "This is for you."
When Jiuzhu got the jewelry box in her hand, Prince Chen smiled and said, "Open it and take a look."
Jiuzhu opened it and saw a box full of jewelry. She blinked and looked at Prince Chen and the jewelry: "Your Highness?"
"I'm here to take you to the palace." Prince Chen clapped his hands, and the palace maids and eunuchs brought out a newly made palace skirt without a colorful cloak.
"Try it on." He was too embarrassed to say that he had asked the clothing department to make it specially for Jiuzhu: "The skirt of this palace dress is not long, so it is more convenient to walk in. Go back to your room and change into it. If it fits you well, you can wear it to the palace banquet tonight."
"Okay." Jiuzhu handed the reins of the little white horse to Prince Chen: "Your Highness, wait for me. I will change it right away."
Prince Chen looked at the reins in his palm, then looked at the silly little pony that was not even as tall as his legs, and reached out to touch its mane.
Not long after, Jiuzhu came back after changing her clothes. She lifted her skirt and walked in front of him: "Your Highness, I'm changed."
The young girl was wearing a brightly colored palace skirt with intertwined branches entwined on the hem of her skirt. In the eyes of Prince Chen, there was no scene in the world more vivid than this moment.
"It looks good." He stood up and walked in front of Jiuzhu, with the same intertwined branches pattern faintly visible on his sleeves: "It looks good."
He took out a jade piece worn by women from his sleeve, bent down and tied it around Jiuzhu's waist.
After fastening the jade pendant, he stood up and looked down at her: "Ming Xiaozhu."
"Hmm?" Jiuzhu raised her head and looked into his eyes.
"Please wear the jade carefully, don't lose it." He pointed to his waist, where a similar piece of jade was hanging. "It's New Year's Day, so I want good luck. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I understand." Jiuzhu touched the jade pendant and nodded obediently: "Don't worry, Your Highness, I will definitely keep it well."
Prince Chen was afraid that she would put it away now, so he emphasized: "But you still have to wear it at the palace banquet tonight."
Jiuzhu stopped when he was about to take off the jade pendant.
He smiled, hesitated, and stretched out his hand to her: "Come on, follow me into the palace."
Jiuzhu put her hand into King Chen's palm without thinking, looked up at him and smiled.
The two hands were gently clasped together, and even the ten fingers were too embarrassed to be entangled together.
Outside the door, Shen stood under a tree, looking at the man and woman smiling at each other, and did not go out.
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