Chapter 43 Going for the Fourth and Sixth Child, That's Going for the First Child
The Seventh Princess nodded: "Okay, then Xiaojiu will draw it herself."
In order to walk faster, Ji Jinyou stretched out his arms to Jin Xing who was following behind him: "Xing Xing, hold me."
Jin Xing stepped forward hurriedly with a smile, picked up her young master, and the group went to Mingzhu Palace.
The Eighth Princess ran all the way to Hibiscus Palace and shouted before she even entered the door: "Mother, Mother!"
The Imperial Concubine was sitting on the couch palace handling affairs. When she heard the Eighth Princess's voice, which was almost out of tune, she immediately rolled her eyes. When she rushed in, she scolded her directly, "Little Eighth Princess, you have become more and more out of character recently. When can you be more dignified?"
Her brother's life was more important, so the Eighth Princess didn't care about being dignified. She ran to the Imperial Concubine in two or three steps, leaned over and whispered in her ear: "Mother, Tongtong said this morning that Fourth Brother..."
After hearing what the Eighth Princess said, the Imperial Concubine's mouth sank. "Okay, I know about this matter. I'll take care of the rest. You go back and take care of Xiaojiu."
Having said that, he threw the account book in his hand on the table, stood up and walked out: "Hongyu, come with me to Fengyi Palace to visit the queen."
Ever since I could hear Xiaojiu and Tongtong talking, every day has been so exciting.
Seeing the Royal Concubine hurried away, the Eighth Princess breathed a sigh of relief, sat down on the couch, picked up the teapot on the table, poured herself a cup of tea, drank it in one gulp, then stood up and walked out to find the Seventh Princess and Xiaojiu.
When the Imperial Concubine arrived at the Empress' Palace, she walked straight in without notifying anyone. Seeing the Empress tidying up her dressing box, she walked over and gave her a look.
The queen waved her hand, dismissed the servants, and then asked, "What happened again?"
The Royal Concubine told the story of the Fourth Prince, and finally gritted her teeth and said, "Last time, they got a prostitute to frame the Sixth Prince, and this time they directly wanted to kill the Fourth Prince. It's really abominable."
The queen's face darkened. "Going for the fourth and sixth brothers means going for the eldest brother. Everyone knows that they have a good relationship with each other."
The Imperial Concubine asked, "Sister, should we inform His Majesty about this matter, or should we let the eldest prince handle it directly?"
The Queen thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty is very concerned about these matters. Now that Tong Tong is here, there's no guarantee that His Majesty will hear about it himself one day. If we hide it from him, he will be unhappy when he finds out. It's better to tell His Majesty and let him make the decision."
"Sister, what you said makes sense." The Imperial Concubine nodded in agreement. "Yesterday, Thirteen received twenty strokes of the cane, five of which were because he listened to Tong Tong's words and went to kill someone without informing Your Majesty in advance. We should be honest with each other."
The Queen stood up and said, "There is no time to waste on this matter. Let's go now."
The empress's foot had not yet healed, so she called for a sedan chair, and the two of them left the Fengyi Palace and headed straight for the Chongde Hall.
Emperor Wen Zhao had just come off court when he saw the two men approaching with serious expressions. He knew something big had happened, so he asked Liang Quan to go out and watch while he opened his mouth to ask what was going on.
The empress told Tong Tong what he had said. When she finished, the imperial concubine knelt before Emperor Wen Zhao and said, "Your Majesty, please save the fourth child."
The Fourth Prince had always been upright, and Emperor Wen Zhao liked this straightforward son who never beat around the bush. When he heard that someone wanted to harm him, he immediately became angry.
With a dark face, he reached out his hand to help the Imperial Concubine up, "What are you doing? The Fourth Prince is also my son. How can I sit back and do nothing?"
After saying this, he said loudly: "Liang Quan, the eldest prince should not have left the palace yet. Go and bring him back to me, immediately."
"Yes, I will send someone to chase him now." Liang Quan responded and ordered a young eunuch who was responsible for running errands to do it.
The Emperor asked the Empress and the Imperial Concubine to sit down, and then asked, "Did Tongtong mention who killed the Fourth Brother?"
The Queen looked at the Imperial Concubine, who shook her head and said, "I just asked Xiao Ba, and she said she didn't know. She only heard Tong Tong say that her fourth brother was going to die, so she rushed here."
"But Xiao Ba said that Tong Tong made this comment after reading some character synopsis, so he probably doesn't know who it is."
Emperor Wen Zhao thought for a moment and said, "Then let's wait for the eldest brother to come over and arrange this matter. Then we can bring Xiao Jiu over and see if we can hear anything else."
---
In the Pearl Palace, the Seventh Princess was pretending to write a letter to the First Prince.
Ji Jinyou was standing on a chair, holding a brush in his chubby hands, painting with great effort.
In light of her previous limited experiences, she became smarter and did not directly paint the scene of the fourth prince being assassinated, but planned to paint it separately.
So she held the brush with her still weak hand and drew a pine tree in a few strokes. She touched it with her little hand and said, "Seventh sister, what is this?"
The Seventh Princess was very cooperative: "Wow, our Little Nine draws so well. Is this a pine tree?"
Ji Jinyou nodded: "What color?"
The Seventh Princess: "Black ink, black pine tree, black pine."
[All right, my seventh sister is really smart, she guessed it right away.] Ji Jinyou nodded with satisfaction, put the paper aside to let it dry, and took another piece of paper to continue drawing.
System: [Of course, the Seventh Princess didn't read all those storybooks in vain.]
Ji Jinyou grasped the pen in her whole little hand and drew an extremely sloppy arrow. Then she drew a stickman on the arrow. The arrow hit the stickman's round belly, and she also drew a few drops of blood.
She picked up the paper and held it in front of the Seventh Princess, pointing with her little hand, "Seventh Sister, what is this?"
The Seventh Princess looked at the crude but clear drawing and immediately answered, "This is a person who was shot by an arrow and died?"
"Seventh sister is so amazing." Ji Jinyou praised with a smile.
The Seventh Princess tried to hold back her laughter. If she couldn't guess it right, she would be very stupid and blind.
Ji Jinyou continued to paint, and then he drew the black pine, the man killed by an arrow, and then he drew a mountain.
The Seventh Princess pretended to write a letter. As she was writing, a light bulb suddenly lit up in her head. Xiaojiu could separate the sheets one by one to draw, so could she also separate them one by one to write?
Thinking of this, she imitated Xiaojiu and started writing a hidden-acrostic poem. She changed the paper after writing a sentence, and then changed the paper after writing another sentence...
So, when the Seventh Princess successfully finished writing a limerick that contained the words "There are thieves lying in wait in Black Pine Ridge to kill your fourth brother, be careful," she jumped up with joy while holding a stack of papers, "Hahaha, I am so smart."
From now on, if someone can't hear what Tong Tong and Xiao Jiu are saying, she can remind them like this.
This sudden laugh frightened Ji Jinyou so much that he shivered and the brush in his hand fell onto the paper. The tip of the brush landed on the mountain that he had just drawn halfway. The ink destroyed the mountain, making it a black mass and it was no longer possible to tell what it was.
She stared at the Seventh Princess jumping around with her big black eyes, and was stunned: [General, what happened to the Seventh Sister? ]
System: [I don't know. Aren't all the people in this palace like this? They are nervous and startled all the time.]
[Hey, when will Seventh Sister grow up?] Ji Jinyou shook his head helplessly, picked up the pen, changed a piece of paper, and continued to draw the mountain.
The little girl spoke in a childish voice, yet acted very mature. The Seventh Princess was amused by her and went back to the table to put the papers in order, pretending to continue writing.
As she was writing, she suddenly realized that the people she cared about seemed to be able to hear what Tong Tong said. So even if she was inspired by Xiao Jiu to come up with this idea, it seemed to be of no use.
When the Eighth Princess came in, she saw the two of them writing and drawing at the table. She walked up to Youyou curiously and asked, "What is Xiaojiu drawing?"
Ji Jinyou's hands didn't stop, and she answered while drawing: "Eighth sister, I'm drawing for fourth brother."
The Eighth Princess looked at the Seventh Princess, and the two exchanged glances and nodded.
"Seventh sister, what are you writing?" The Eighth Princess deliberately said loudly, and her mother-in-law Wen Haitang was picking up her skirt. Seventh Princess pretended not to let her see, picked up a pile of papers on the table and ran away. The Eighth Princess chased her, and the two of them ran into the inner room while fighting.
Ji Jinyou looked up and couldn't help laughing: [Everyone, the seventh and eighth sisters are fighting again.]
System: [They fight all day long, but our Youzi is the best behaved. ]
As soon as the seven or eight princesses entered the inner room, they calmed down and spoke in low voices.
The Seventh Princess: "Have you told mother about Fourth Brother's matter?"
The Eighth Princess: "I heard that Mother went to see the Queen Mother and said that we don't have to worry about this matter."
Seventh Princess: "Xiaojiu wanted to remind Fourth Brother, so I asked her to draw a picture and told Big Brother to bring it over. She will definitely ask us to guess later."
Princess Eight: "Okay, I understand."
The two of them made a plan and pretended to fight and went out. The Seventh Princess put away what she had written and put it in an envelope, preparing to destroy it later.
The two of them lay on Ji Jinyou's left and right, chatting with each other about the two paintings she had drawn.
Princess Eight: "This is a pine tree, and this is a person who was shot dead by an arrow."
Princess Seven: "This is a black pine, a black pine tree."
Ji Jinyou finally finished drawing the mountain in her hand and tapped the paper with her little hand: "Eighth sister, what is this?"
Princess Eight: "Mountain."
Ji Jinyou took the picture of the pine tree and placed the two pictures together.
Without waiting for her to remind her, the Eighth Princess took the initiative to guess: "One is Heishong, one is Shan, Heishong Shan? Why does this name sound so familiar?"
The Eighth Princess pretended to think for a while, then said in surprise, "I remember now, what a coincidence. When Fourth Brother was still here, he was looking at the Kanfu map at home, and I was watching it with him. On his way to the south, there was a place called Hei Song Ling."
As she was talking, the Eighth Princess suddenly covered her chest and said, "Oh no, why is my heart beating so fast? Is something going to happen to Fourth Brother?"
Sometimes there are some inexplicable psychological feelings between relatives. Ji Jinyou didn't think much about it. He picked up the paintings he had drawn and stuffed them into the hands of the Eighth Princess, reminding her: "This painting is for the fourth brother. Let the eldest brother deliver the letter."
"Okay, give me yours too, Seventh Sister. I'll take them all and have someone send them out of the palace." The Eighth Princess took it, folded it quickly, put it in an envelope, then took the envelope handed to her by the Seventh Princess and was about to go out.
Before they could even walk out the door, Sihua came in and reported that His Majesty had asked them to go to Chongde Hall.
The seventh and eighth princesses guessed that it was related to the Fourth Prince, so they agreed. The eighth princess handed the letter to the seventh princess, picked up Xiaojiu and left.
---
A few people came to Chongde Hall and saw that the eldest prince was there. After the ceremony, Ji Jinyou tugged at the sleeve of the seventh princess. When the seventh princess lowered her head to look, she pointed to the letter in her hand and reminded quietly: "To big brother."
The Seventh Princess agreed, walked over, handed the two letters to the First Prince, and winked at him: "Big Brother, these are letters from Xiaojiu and I to Fourth Brother. Please help deliver them to him."
The Eighth Princess also stepped forward and said, "My heart is beating so fast. Our fourth brother is the only one outside. Big brother, you must remind him to be careful on the way back to the capital."
Everyone in the room saw Princess Seven or Eight blinking as she spoke, and they knew she was acting for Little Nine. The Royal Consort also chimed in, saying, "Yes, by the way, you must tell that reckless man, Old Four, not to act impulsively and think twice before acting."
Emperor Wen Zhao also nodded: "I just heard about it two days ago, that place called... what mountain?"
The eldest prince replied: "Black..."
The Eighth Princess continued: "Song..."
The Seventh Princess continued: "Ling."
Each of them spoke one word at a time, and after a lot of effort, they finally described Hei Songling in its entirety.
Emperor Wen Zhao continued, "Yes, that is the place. I heard that there is a bandit problem recently. Send a team of personal soldiers over there to join the Fourth Prince, and let him wipe out the bandits for me."
"Yes, I will go out of the palace to arrange it now." The eldest prince stood up, bowed, and left with the two letters.
Ji Jinyou originally thought that it would take some effort to successfully remind the person, but she didn't expect it to be so smooth. She was very happy to think that she had saved another person, and her tense shoulders relaxed.
Looking at the chubby little girl, Emperor Wen Zhao felt inexplicably happy and waved his hand: "Xiaojiu, come here, father."
Ji Jinyou walked over, stood in front of him, and looked at him quietly with her head tilted back.
Emperor Wen Zhao stretched out his hand to hug her, but Ji Jinyou twisted her body and dodged his hand, "Youyou, sit by yourself."
Then he walked to the chair and tried to climb up. However, his arms and legs were too short, so he failed after two attempts.
When she turned around, she saw that everyone was looking at her while trying not to laugh. She felt a little embarrassed and stopped crawling. She just stood leaning against the chair, "Youyou, you're too full. Stand for a while."
The little girl's serious look as she tried to make an excuse for herself made everyone laugh.
Ji Jinyou knew that everyone was laughing at her with good intentions, so she chuckled a few times as well.
The eighth princess picked up the little girl, pulled the seventh princess to sit on the couch, and started to play with the chess pieces on the table.
Emperor Wen Zhao was interested in hearing what Xiao Jiu had to say about the Fourth Prince, so he glanced at the Empress and the Royal Consort, who understood and started chatting.
The Imperial Concubine sighed, "This Fourth Brother is just too much. He has been away for several months and has only written me three letters. When he comes back, I will definitely scold him."
The queen advised: "The child has grown up and is no longer as clingy as he was when he was little. It is understandable."
Imperial Concubine: "The fourth child has never been close to me since he was a child."
The Queen laughed, "You were annoyed the whole day when Little Six came to you to act coquettishly. If Little Four was like that, you would be annoyed to death."
The Imperial Concubine imagined for a moment that the big and strong Fourth Brother was clinging to her like the Sixth Brother, and that he was acting coquettishly and called her "Mother" short and sweet. She quickly shook her head and couldn't help laughing: "It's annoying enough."
Ji Jinyou and seven or eight princesses were sitting on the couch playing chess. They listened to the Empress and the Royal Consort chatting happily, and they also pricked up their ears to listen.
But as she listened, the two ladies just smiled and stopped talking, so she couldn't help but ask the system: "Master, I forgot to ask you, do you know who harmed my fourth brother?"
System: [Not unlocked yet, but according to the synopsis, he found out something during his southern tour and offended many local officials in the south. Moreover, those officials have the support of the nobles in Beijing.]
The Empress, the Imperial Consort, and seven or eight princesses all subconsciously looked towards Emperor Wen Zhao.
When Emperor Wen Zhao saw several people looking at him, he nodded slightly without changing his expression, indicating that he had heard it.
A few people were afraid that Xiaojiu would notice something unusual, so they turned back and some continued to drink tea while others continued to play chess.
Ji Jinyou asked: [Who are you talking about, the nobles in the capital?]
System: [I don’t know yet.]
Ji Jinyou: [Okay. Everyone, can you see what will happen tomorrow? ]
System: [Not yet.]
[Tong, didn't you say last time that you wanted to upgrade? Haven't you upgraded yet? ]
[Not yet, we have to wait for the arrangements from above.]
【Oh well.】
Seeing that she couldn't get any more answers, Ji Jinyou was too lazy to ask any more questions. She leaned over to the Eighth Princess next to her and whispered, "Eighth Sister, how long are we going to stay here?"
The Eighth Princess also asked in a low voice: "Xiaojiu wants to go play?"
Ji Jinyou nodded: "Father, it's so boring here."
Everyone just sat there doing nothing. The two ladies stopped chatting and there was no point at all.
"Okay, let's go play then." The Eighth Princess whispered, then stood up and saluted the people sitting at the top: "Father, Queen Mother, Mother Consort, your sons and ministers will take their leave first."
Emperor Wen Zhao had just returned from the previous court and had a lot of things to deal with. Seeing that Yi Wa Yi Tong was no longer chatting, he nodded and agreed: "Go."
The seventh princess picked up the fat baby, and the three of them bowed and walked out.
Knowing that Emperor Wen Zhao was still busy, the Empress and the Imperial Consort also stood up and left.
---
The fifteenth prince got up in the morning, washed up, and the eunuch placed breakfast beside him. He had no appetite and didn't want to eat, so he climbed up a tree, looked up at the sky in a daze.
Shun Fei brought two bowls of wontons and saw the little boy on the tree. She smiled and waved, "Fifteen, come down and eat wontons. I made them this morning. They are stuffed with mutton. They are delicious."
The Fifteenth Prince thought of how Concubine Dun had been so kind to him in the past, and felt sad. He jumped down from the tree and bowed, "Thank you, Concubine Shun. I am not hungry. Please give it to my Fourteenth Brother. I will take my leave now."
Having said that, he turned around and went back into the hall.
Shun Fei sighed: "This child, he used to be so naughty, but now he is so listless."
She was concerned about her son's injuries, and had no time to care about anything else. She took the food box from the palace maid and carried it into the east side hall: "Son, are you feeling better?"
The fourteenth prince raised his head while lying on the couch, "Mother, I am much better now."
Shun Fei asked a few more questions with concern, and seeing that there was really no serious problem, she felt relieved and brought out the wontons: "I saw Shiwu in the courtyard just now, and I called him to eat wontons, but he refused and went back to his room."
Then she took the bowl and sat on the couch, "Come, let your mother feed you."
The fourteenth prince shook his head: "Mother, please go back first. I am not hungry now. I will eat by myself later."
Shun Fei thought about some things that needed to be done in the palace, so she put the bowl on the table and said, "Okay, then mother will go back first."
Then he gave a few more instructions and left.
After Concubine Shun left, the Fourteenth Prince asked the eunuch beside him to call the Fifteenth Prince over, but the Fifteenth Prince refused to come.
He asked the eunuch to deliver a bowl of wontons, not asking for fifteen yuan, and did not even open the door.
The Fourteenth Prince thought about it, climbed up from the couch, limped over and knocked on the door. After knocking for a long time, the door opened from the inside.
The fifteenth prince's eyes were red, and it was obvious that he had just cried. His face was dark and his tone was not very good: "Are you upset? I already said I don't want to eat."
The fourteenth prince smiled and said, "If you don't want to eat, then I won't eat either. I'll be hungry with you."
The two looked at each other in a stalemate for a long time, and then they couldn't help laughing.
Fifteenth Prince walked out, took the food box from Fourteenth Prince, helped him into the house, and the two of them went to the couch, one sitting and the other lying on the couch, each holding a bowl of wontons and eating it all.
The Thirteenth Prince was beaten with twenty boards and was much more seriously injured than the Fourteenth Prince. He lay on the bed and, under the persuasion of the eunuch beside him, pinched his nose and drank a bowl of extremely bitter medicine, which almost made him vomit.
His face was pale, and he lay weakly on the side of the bed. It took him a while to recover. He moved inside and asked, "I heard Concubine Shun's voice just now. Did she come again?"
The eunuch replied, "Yes, I came to deliver wontons, and left after a while."
The Thirteenth Prince looked unhappy: "Didn't you tell me to bring me a bowl?"
The eunuch shook his head and said, "No, Concubine Shun did ask the Fifteenth Prince to eat it, but he refused."
The Thirteenth Prince clenched his fists.
In the past, no matter what Concubine Shun did for Fourteenth, he had a share of it, and she always treated him as her own son.
Now that he has been beaten like this, Concubine Shun has come to Jingming Palace twice but has never come to see him. It is obvious that Fourteenth must have said something to her.
He asked again: "Why was there such a loud knock on the door just now? What was going on?"
The eunuch did not hide it: "The Fourteenth Prince went to deliver wontons to the Fifteenth Prince himself, and now the two are eating in the house."
The Thirteenth Prince was so angry that he pounded his fist on the bed. Clearly, the things that would happen in the future hadn't happened yet, and he hadn't harmed the Fourteenth Prince, but the Fourteenth Prince had the guts to be the first to break off relations with him.
Fine, let's break off the relationship. Who is afraid of him? No one can live without him, right?
The Thirteenth Prince was so angry that he went mad, but he completely forgot that he had just taken a knife and killed someone yesterday because of something that had not happened in the future.
The Fourteenth Prince had no idea what the Thirteenth Prince was thinking. After eating the wontons, he stayed with the Fifteenth Prince and refused to leave.
The fifteenth prince did not chase him. He sat on the doorstep, leaned against the door frame, and looked at the sky.
Two little boys, one lost his mother, the other lost his brother, one was lying on the couch, the other was sitting at the door, both in a daze.
After a moment's silence, two palace maids suddenly came in from the doorway. The one walking at the back walked in with her head very low. She walked in too hastily and stepped on the heel of the one in front of her. Both of them stumbled and almost fell.
The fifteenth prince heard the noise and looked over. He recognized at a glance that the palace maid behind was actually the thirteenth prince's mother, Concubine Li.
At the same time, the guilty Concubine Li also looked over. When their eyes met, Concubine Li was stunned.
The fifteenth prince was also stunned, but he quickly stood up, turned around and went back to the house, pretending not to see it.
He disliked Thirteen and disliked Concubine Li even more, but that didn't mean he liked to meddle in other people's affairs. He already had enough troubles of his own, and he didn't want to meddle in other people's affairs.
When Concubine Li saw the fifteenth prince return to his room, she breathed a sigh of relief and quickened her pace into the main hall.
As soon as she entered the room, she saw the Thirteenth Prince lying on the bed with a pale face, still wiping his tears. She felt so distressed that she rushed over to him, sobbing, "My son, my son."
When the Thirteenth Prince saw Concubine Li, he was surprised, happy, and aggrieved. He immediately cried out, "Mother, why did you come just now? I was in so much pain that I couldn't sleep all night."
The young eunuch was startled, and hurriedly bowed and greeted, then went out to guard.
Concubine Li is still under house arrest. If anyone knew about this, it would be a serious crime of disobeying the imperial order.
Concubine Li squatted beside the bed and touched the Thirteenth Prince's head. The mother and daughter cried to each other for a long time before they stopped.
Concubine Li took out a handkerchief and wiped the tears from the Thirteenth Prince's eyes: "Don't blame me, it was your father who ordered me to do this, and I dare not disobey."
She originally wanted to ask Concubine Shun to help her keep an eye on Thirteen, but when her personal maid went to ask Concubine Shun about Thirteen's situation, Concubine Shun was hesitant and couldn't give a definite answer.
When the palace maid went back and told her about this, she guessed that Concubine Shun must not have come to see her. She was really worried, so she found an opportunity and sneaked out disguised as a palace maid.
The Thirteenth Prince then noticed that Concubine Li was wearing the clothes of a palace maid. He looked worried and said, "Mother, please go back soon. I am not in so much pain, I just miss you."
Concubine Li asked, "Did Concubine Shun not come to see you?"
The Thirteenth Prince was angry with the Fourteenth Prince. He nodded when he heard this and said, "No, she came to Jingming Palace twice and never came to see me."
Concubine Li looked fierce: "Okay, okay, okay, you little bitch, wait for me to come back."
As he was speaking, he heard a childish voice coming from outside: "Fifteenth brother, are you here? Seventh sister and eighth sister and I are here to see you."
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