"Wow! This is Daddy's house. It's so big! So gorgeous! So spectacular!"
Su Ningjie couldn't help but sigh softly as he looked at the towering palace gate.
Looking at the red walls and green tiles, Su Ningwen suddenly understood why his sister and father were persecuted.
This is the center of imperial power. The head of the family here is the emperor, who possesses supreme power and can decide life and death with a single word!
The temptation was too great. No wonder the Second Prince tried every possible means to frame his uncle, the First Prince, and Concubine Cui even thought of ways to poison him.
Just because he was the "eldest son", after his death, the throne fell into the hands of the second prince.
Fortunately, Daddy didn’t grow up in the palace, otherwise he would have been killed as miserably as the eldest prince uncle!
Baili Qingluan got off the carriage and saw the two brothers holding hands, staring at the palace gate with their mouths half open in a daze. She walked over and patted the brothers gently, "Brother Wen, Brother Jie, let's go in quickly."
Su Ningjie came back to his senses and said, "Oh, Aunt Princess, we'll go in now."
Su Ningjie pulled Su Ningwen and walked towards the palace gate. Thinking of Lu Yao, he turned around and came to Lu Yao's side.
"Don't be afraid, second sister. Just stay with me."
Lu Yao nodded slightly and followed Su Ningjie into the palace with Nuan Yu.
Lu Yao entered the palace and looked up. The sentence "Once you enter the palace, it's as deep as the sea" floated into her mind. After a moment, she retracted her gaze and stared at Su Ningjie's little head as he walked into the palace.
Nuan Yu didn't dare to look around. Although the rules of the Lu family were not that strict, she had also seen the rules of the aristocratic families. This was the imperial palace, with even more rules. If you were not careful with your words or actions, you would lose your head!
Li Haiying was quite surprised by the behavior of Lu Yao and her servant. If he didn't know that the Lu family was a merchant family, he would have thought that Lu Yao was a young lady from some aristocratic family.
"My young masters, the East Palace is quite far from the palace gate. Please take the sedan chair..."
In the distance, Yun Gu saw this scene and turned back to the Cining Palace.
"My Lady, I saw it clearly, Baili Qingluan really came."
Empress Dowager Du lay on the bed, pressing her brows, looking impatient. "Feng Jinyi is so lucky! Why did he marry Princess Xiao and pick up the little Prince Fu as his son?"
Yun Gu thought that Prince Shun might have survived a great disaster and would have good fortune in the future, and this good fortune should be good luck.
But she didn't dare say this.
"Your Majesty, I heard today that Master Shun, Hanfeng Yulin, might have sent these four children to Shun."
Hearing this, Empress Dowager Du's eyes shone, "Go and invite the Emperor!"
As Emperor Qianyuan stepped into the Cining Palace, a phoenix pillow hit him in the face and he quickly dodged to the side.
Then another phoenix pillow came crashing down mercilessly.
Emperor Qianyuan raised his hand and caught it.
"Mother, please calm down. There's nothing we can do now. Ayi has revealed his identity to the royal family, and tomorrow he'll have to reveal it to the ministers as well. Only by making Ayi the crown prince can we dissuade the emperor's uncle from carrying out our father's will. Otherwise, Feng Yulin will seize the throne from me! It's better for the country to fall into Ayi's hands than into Feng Yulin's."
Empress Dowager Du exhaled a breath of foul air. "Isn't this what Mother is asking you about? Mother wants to know if you knew for a long time that Prince Shun was your son? And when Yu'er was framed for treason, you conveniently sent Princess Xiao to Prince Shun as his wife?"
"I..." Emperor Qianyuan looked at Empress Dowager Du's sharp eyes that could see through people's hearts, and for a moment he didn't dare to tell the truth, "...it was just a coincidence..."
"It's already this time, and you still don't tell the truth! How can you be so fooled as a queen mother?" Empress Dowager Du picked up the rabbit-fur tribute duster on the bed and wanted to hit Emperor Qianyuan with it, but considering that he was the emperor, she threw the tribute duster away in anger.
"You're going to tell me or not!"
"Mother, please calm down. I did know long ago that Ayi was Rui'an's child. A few years ago, I received an anonymous letter saying that Rui'an's child was still alive and in the Su family's home in Guihua Village, Xishui County... I had a hunch that Dongjun was behind this, trying every possible means to move Rui'an's tomb back to Dongjun. I ignored it at first, but then I remembered that Dongfang Yinzhang was trying to assassinate you the night Rui'an had a difficult birth. I had no choice but to take it seriously, so I went to Guihua Village, Xishui County, under the guise of leaving the palace incognito to observe the people's sentiments, to investigate..."
"Why didn't you tell your mother at the beginning? You should have dealt with him when he was blind and disabled. Today, my son and I wouldn't be controlled by Shangguan Yu and others!" The more Empress Dowager Du spoke, the angrier she became!
"Mother, he was blind and disabled at the time, and could not accomplish anything. He was also old, and had four children with physical disabilities. He didn't need to take care of them. They would not survive. I was thinking of sending him a wife to take care of him, but who knew that Princess Xiao had studied medicine on her own during her three years of mourning..."
Emperor Qianyuan felt a little regretful, but he had to do this. Otherwise, it would be a big trouble if the anonymous person revealed Su Xingyi's identity to the Dongjun royal family!
"Why Princess Xiao and not other noble ladies? You should know that Princess Xiao is Yu'er's fiancée!" Empress Dowager Du couldn't understand why Emperor Qianyuan did this?
"The anonymous individual specifically demanded that Princess Xiao marry him, otherwise he would reveal Su Xingyi's identity to the Dongjun Imperial Family. This is why I was forced to issue this absurd imperial decree."
"The anonymous person must be Feng Yulin, right?"
"It was him. It was he who dug Ayi out from under the sycamore tree and bought a dead baby to bury under the tree..." Emperor Qianyuan recounted in detail what happened in the inner room today.
Empress Dowager Du looked dejected. Her Du family was doomed and she was filled with hatred.
My methods back then were too merciful!
Ruian should have been forced to suffer a difficult labor and not be able to give birth to the baby, and the baby should have died in the womb, then the situation today would not have happened.
"You should step back. Mother is tired."
Empress Dowager Du closed her eyes after she finished speaking. She was really tired.
Today was a huge shock to her. After decades of planning, her Du family was destined to decline and might even cease to exist!
Empress Dowager Du rested for a whole month. When she woke up, she found that the world had changed.
East Palace
"Dad, are you never going back to Huayang County again?"
Su Ningjie took Su Ningwen on a careful tour of the entire East Palace.
"We need to return rare ingredients and medicinal herb planting bases. Baiyaotang is still in its infancy, and these are all important matters for people's livelihood."
Su Ningwen: "Dad, you may not have time to return to Huayang County. At least before Xiaowu and the full moon, you can't leave the capital. These livelihood projects were previously the good deeds our family wanted to do for the people of Huayang County. Now Dad's status is different. He is the prince. The land enclosed across the country to plant medicinal herb bases is officially run by the court."
"Third brother, if we do this in the name of the imperial court, then those mountains suitable for growing medicinal herbs belong to the imperial court. Doesn't that mean we don't need to spend money to buy them from the government?"
Su Ningwen looked at Su Xingyi who was thinking for a moment, "Dad, is it true that we don't need to spend money as my second brother said?"
Su Xingyi thought about it and felt that there was really no need to spend money. Saving tens of thousands of taels of silver was equivalent to saving tens of thousands of taels of cost. Not only could the people enjoy affordable medicinal materials, but the original plan of spreading the hundred medicines throughout Beiyi within ten years could be achieved several years earlier.
Not only that, the money can also be used to train more doctors.
"Yes! No need to spend money!"
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