Chapter 10 Having a sense of shame is useless; getting married is the real priority…
In the palace, a young eunuch who had only recently entered the palace suddenly heard a wail. Startled, he shrank back and muttered, "Is some palace servant who has made a mistake about to be sent to the Department of Punishments?"
The eunuch leading the way chuckled upon hearing this: "Within the imperial palace, if a palace servant sent to the Department of Punishments were to make such a racket, he would have been gagged and dragged away long ago. How could we allow him to shout all the way here?"
"Then what is this...?"
"This is His Highness Prince Jin. You've been in the palace for a long time and heard a lot about it, so you'll know. His Highness Prince Jin is always like this, it's nothing unusual."
Then he whispered a few more words of advice: "If you happen to run into him one day, remember to keep your head down, don't listen or look around, and definitely don't laugh out loud."
"Previously, there was an ignorant servant of the Imperial Concubine who laughed at Prince Jin a few times in front of him. His Majesty happened to hear it and immediately sent him to the laundry department. He hasn't come out yet."
"The Imperial Concubine is the most honored person in our palace. Even the servants who have served her for more than ten years are treated this way. If we offend His Highness Prince Jin, we may not even be tolerated by the laundry department."
The young eunuch was subconsciously looking in the direction of the sound when he heard this. He quickly looked away, mumbled a reply, and dared not say anything more.
………………
Qi Jingxuan was dragged all the way to the Imperial Study, and it was only after entering the palace gate that things finally quieted down.
The emperor's face darkened when he heard the ghostly howl from inside the room. Now that he saw the man, he reached for the cup and was about to smash it on the ground.
No sooner had he picked up the cup than Qi Jingxuan knelt down with a thud.
The emperor was afraid that the broken porcelain would hurt his leg, so he ultimately didn't throw the cup away.
Having already picked it up, it would be shameful to just put it down like that. So he pretended to take a sip of tea, then slammed it down again, scolding, "This time you knelt down quite properly! What were you doing before? Did you think that Chen Mingshan was just a sixth-rank lecturer, and that his daughter was easy to bully?"
"I transferred him to the capital because I value his integrity and upright character. Why did you have to provoke him of all people?"
If it were someone else, they might have thought of taking advantage of this opportunity to marry their daughter into the Prince of Jin's household.
At that time, the emperor only needs to issue another imperial decree to grant the marriage, thus saving face for both sides, and the matter will be considered closed.
Given Chen Mingshan's temperament, he would never do such a thing, nor would he agree to the emperor's attempt to appease him.
The emperor was furious at the thought, pointing at Qi Jingxuan and saying, "Scholar Shen only had this one daughter in his entire life, and he doted on her like the apple of his eye. How could you..."
Why did they set their sights on Miss Shen?
He reached out to smash the cup again, wishing the person kneeling before him was his own son. If it weren't his biological son, he would have simply sent him to the Dali Temple for proper handling.
Qi Jingxuan usually argues back whether he's right or wrong, but this time he was unusual and admitted it very readily.
"It is all my fault. I was drunk and ruined Miss Shen's reputation. I beg Your Majesty to grant me this marriage and let me marry Miss Shen. I will treat Miss Shen well for the rest of my life and never let her suffer the slightest grievance!"
The emperor was prepared to hear him retort, but seeing how obedient he was, he stared at him for a long time, his eyes almost popping out.
Is this still the same unruly son he used to have? He seems like a completely different person today.
Could it be that he is truly deeply in love with Miss Shen, to the point that he's even willing to change his bad temper?
If that were the case, the emperor would be quite pleased, but now is certainly not the time to be pleased.
"How dare you say you won't let people suffer? They've already suffered tremendous injustice because of you! Do you think anyone will believe you if you say that now?"
He rebuked.
Qi Jingxuan was sincere; his life was tied to Shen Yan's. If anything happened to Shen Yan, he would be doomed too. How could he not take good care of Shen Yan?
Seeing that the emperor was only scolding him and didn't mention the marriage at all, he crawled a few steps forward and said, "Father, I sincerely want to marry Miss Shen. Please grant me the marriage! I can't wait any longer. I want to marry Miss Shen today!"
They're getting married today!
The emperor was almost amused by his words.
"Have you no shame? Even ordinary families make preparations before taking a concubine. You're marrying a wife, and you think you can just bring her home that very day? Do you think Miss Shen is some cabbage on the street that you can just buy and take home after paying the money?"
"That's not what I meant, I... I really can't wait any longer!"
Qi Jingxuan said that since it was impossible to get married today, he could only settle for second best, saying, "Then please issue a decree now so that we can get married as soon as possible! Then have the Imperial Observatory pick the nearest auspicious day, and on that day I will welcome Miss Shen into the Prince's Mansion!"
The emperor was furious that the man hadn't even explained why he was drunk that day or how he sneaked into the backyard of the Marquis of Cheng'an's residence, yet he was already thinking about having the Imperial Observatory pick a date.
"Is this a question of whether you can wait or not? You bullied Miss Shen the day before, and I bestowed a marriage upon you two without even asking. You made a mistake and didn't receive any punishment, yet you got a princess for nothing, while she was bullied by you and is forced to marry you and give you her whole life."
He patted his face as he spoke, saying, "You may not care about your reputation, but I do!"
To everyone's surprise, Qi Jingxuan immediately followed up with, "Shame is useless, Father! Getting married is the most important thing! Miss Shen is my life, I must be with her at all times, I can't be separated from her for even a moment!"
The emperor was speechless for a long time, unable to catch his breath after being told he was "useless and shameless." He pointed a trembling finger at him and said, "You...you bastard, how could I have given birth to such a thing as you?"
"The birth is already done, there's no use saying these things now, Father! Just hurry up and grant Miss Shen a marriage, I'm eager to marry her!"
Qi Jingxuan urged.
"What good is your rush!"
The emperor cursed angrily.
"Given Shen Mingshan's temperament, do you think he'd agree to marry his daughter to you just because I issue an imperial decree?"
"If I dare to issue this imperial edict, he would dare to disobey and defy it, and even dare to join the censors of the Censorate in cursing me, believe it or not."
"The so-called divine right of kings is just a nice-sounding phrase. Do you really think I'm the emperor, that I can do whatever I want with a single imperial edict and everyone will obey me?"
If the emperor were truly that powerful, there wouldn't have been so many overthrown dynasties, and the throne wouldn't have been for the Qi family.
Qi Jingxuan was stunned upon hearing this, his knees buckled, and he slumped to the ground.
He hadn't thought that far ahead; he only considered that his father's words would be the most effective. If even his father's imperial decree was useless, how could he possibly marry Shen Yan?
"What should I do now? I'm really in a hurry to marry her..."
He murmured.
How would I know?
The Emperor said.
"It's one thing for you to cause minor trouble in the past, and I can always find a way to clean up your messes. But now you've bullied someone's daughter like this, and you want to take the opportunity to marry her and pretend nothing happened?"
"Let me tell you, not only will you suffer this time, but I will also be implicated! At least half of the memorials impeaching you tomorrow will be filled with insults directed at me!"
He couldn't help but bring up old grievances again: "Tell me how many times I've been scolded for you over the years. There was the time you pushed someone into the river, and the time you burned down someone's house... and when you were five years old, you cut off the Grand Tutor's beard..."
"If history books ever condemn me as a tyrant, it'll probably be because of you!"
He kept rambling on, but Qi Jingxuan didn't hear a single word he said.
His mind was filled with thoughts of how to marry Shen Yan, and if he couldn't marry her right away, how to prevent her from committing suicide.
After much thought, he couldn't come up with a good solution, so he said to the emperor, "Father, please transfer two palace maids from the palace to the Shen family. No, transfer several more. Tell them to take good care of Miss Shen, keep a close eye on her, and never leave her side for a moment!"
The emperor was in the middle of a tirade when he was abruptly interrupted, and instinctively asked, "What are you arranging for the palace maids to do?"
"To prevent Miss Shen from committing suicide."
Qi Jingxuan said.
“Although I have already made it clear that it was all my fault, Miss Shen is, after all, a woman, and it is inevitable that she will be talked about when something like this happens. I am afraid that someone will say some nasty things to her ears, which may cause her to have no choice but to commit suicide.”
The emperor was taken aback, but nodded after regaining his senses.
The current situation is already quite ugly; if Shen Yan were to commit suicide, things would become even more unbearable.
At that time, everyone will say that his son drove the person to death, and even if he has extraordinary abilities, he will find it difficult to change the situation.
The emperor nodded, about to agree, when Qi Jingxuan added, "Also, send an imperial physician over."
Imperial Physician
The emperor frowned and looked him up and down a few times: "You...you really did...you..."
He was a man too, and he knew that if a man was really drunk, he probably couldn't do anything. If he could, he probably wasn't really drunk; he was just using alcohol as an excuse to commit violence.
According to Marquis Cheng'an, he had someone check the bed afterward and found no other traces on it where Qi Jingxuan and Shen Yan had lain.
The emperor initially thought that Qi Jingxuan was simply drunk and confused, and had kidnapped someone, but now that he had asked him to arrange for an imperial physician to go, he couldn't help but think more about it.
"No," Qi Jingxuan shook his head. "I'm afraid that if Miss Chen really tries to commit suicide, with the imperial physician by her side, there might still be time to save her. Otherwise, if we wait until we find out something has happened before sending someone over, it will definitely be too late."
This made some sense, and the emperor agreed after a moment's thought. He summoned palace servants and arranged for palace maids and imperial physicians to go to the Shen family.
Qi Jingxuan recalled his experiences in his previous lives. As long as he sent someone to keep a close eye on Shen Yan, she should not have died in the past two days, so there was no need to worry too much for the time being.
But if he doesn't want to repeat the same mistake, he can't just wait around; he has to come up with a solution in the next two days.
Placing his hopes on others would never lead to success; he could only feel at ease if he personally kept an eye on Shen Yan.
The only way he could personally keep an eye on Shen Yan was to have her marry him. If Shen Yan didn't marry him, how could he possibly keep an eye on her? He couldn't very well move into the Shen family home, could he?
Even if he wanted to, he would need the Shen family's consent.
Qi Jingxuan knelt on the ground, deep in thought. Just when he was so troubled that his black hair was about to fall out, a sudden inspiration struck him, and he slapped his thigh: "I've got it!"
After saying that, he scrambled to his feet and ran outside.
The emperor, who had just finished giving instructions to the palace servants, was startled and hurriedly asked, "Where are you going?"
But before anyone could respond, Qi Jingxuan had already dashed out of the palace gate.
The emperor stamped his foot in anger and said to Fu Shun, "Have someone keep an eye on him and don't let him cause trouble at the Shen family again!"
Fu Shun agreed and hurriedly gave the instructions.
………………
Qi Jingxuan ran all the way out of the palace and headed straight for the Shen family.
Those who came from the palace tried to stop them, but just then, Shen Mingshan came out of the Shen family to fetch a doctor, and the two sides met on the road.
Upon seeing Shen Mingshan, Qi Jingxuan was overjoyed. He rushed forward and exclaimed, "Lord Shen, if you are unwilling to marry your daughter to me, then I will marry into your family!"
A note from the author:
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I'm sending out red envelopes (cash gifts) until the next chapter update!
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