The gatekeeper was the one who usually ran errands for Yu Tong. Yu Zizhen had a slight impression of him. At this moment, he was pulling the gloomy-faced middle-aged man hard, signaling him not to block the entrance to the courtyard where Yu Tong worked. "It's not that I don't want to be flexible, it's just that the prince is here to see the chief steward. You'd better come back later!"
The middle-aged man's face was filled with even more sorrow. "Prince...Alas..."
Yu Zizhen:...How come, it seems like she fed this big brother three pounds of Coptis chinensis?
She looked at Yu Tong who was seeing her off.
Yu Tong was a little embarrassed. "This is the gardener who used to take care of the flowers and trees in the third courtyard."
Yu Zizhen raised his eyebrows. No wonder he had this expression when he mentioned her. It turned out that he was the servant from the third courtyard who was driven away by her.
Seeing his miserable expression, as if the sky was about to fall, Yu Zizhen asked Yu Tong, "Why does he have such an expression?"
Yu Tong was even more embarrassed. He lowered his voice and said, "He's the only one in his family who works in the mansion. Now that he's lost his job, his family will soon run out of food."
Yu Zizhen frowned, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Yu Tong had four clear words written on it - Don't fool me.
Yu Tong understood, and he explained vaguely, "This Jiang Yunshan is different from others. He is an outsider, and he is stubborn..."
Facing Yu Zizhen's half-smile, Yu Tong awkwardly changed his tone, "If he wasn't really capable, others would have pushed him out long ago."
Yu Zizhen snorted in an ambiguous tone and walked out of the yard. "Jiang Yunshan, right? Come to Lumingxuan this afternoon and let me see if you're really capable."
Jiang Yunshan and the servant who was pulling him turned around at the same time, with almost identical expressions of guilt and fear on their faces.
Oh my God, when they were talking about their own prince, the prince with a bad temper happened to hear it. What should they do?
Yu Zizhen was amused by the two men's expressions, as if they had seen a ghost. She turned to Yu Tongdao and said, "Please take his indenture with you as well."
Yu Tong replied "Yes" respectfully.
Yu Zizhen waved at him, indicating that he didn't need to see him off, then turned and went to Doctor Feng's yard.
Doctor Feng had just gotten up and was now leisurely practicing the Five Animal Exercises in the yard. When he saw Yu Zizhen, he quickly stopped and came over to greet him.
Yu Zizhen said to him straight to the point: "Please come to my place this afternoon. I have seven new girls here and I would like you to help them take care of their health."
Doctor Feng was very kind when conditions permitted. When he was on duty at the palace in the northern border, he would diagnose illnesses and treat injuries for the palace's guards and servants in his spare time. So when Yu Zizhen asked him to take the pulse of the seven girls, he did not feel insulted because they were just maids.
The two agreed on the time for Doctor Feng to arrive, and then Yu Zizhen took Yaoguang to the palace.
In the carriage, she closed her eyes, seemingly taking the opportunity to rest, but in fact she was listening to the system introduce her classmates to her.
Mr. Jiang had someone give her a similar document last night, but she was busy writing plans and catching up on her homework, so she just glanced at the document Mr. Jiang gave her and put it aside.
Combining the information provided by Mr. Jiang and the system, Yu Zizhen came to the following conclusions:
There are two royal family members in the Southern Study, one is the eldest prince Xiao Yuanjin, and the other is the late emperor's youngest son Xiao Shaoke, who is raised by the empress dowager.
Xiao Shaoke's two study companions were Lu Heng, the nephew of Empress Dowager Da Lu and cousin of Empress Xiao Lu, and Wan Jingrong, the eldest son of Wan Shitai, the Grand Commander of the Left Army of the Five Military Commands Office and Lu's relative.
These two people are not only relatives by marriage, but also have similar temperaments. Relying on the power of the Lu family and the prestige of the empress dowager and the queen in the palace, these two people not only do not take the frail and disabled eldest prince seriously, but also look down on the late emperor's youngest son Xiao Shaoke who depends on the Lu family.
When their teachers were not around, they not only often showed disrespect and contempt to the eldest prince Xiao Yuanjin, but also bullied the late emperor's youngest son Xiao Shaoke in private. They could be said to be the real bullies of the Southern Study.
And the two study companions of the eldest prince Xiao Yuanjin.
Fan Zhongming came from the prominent Fan family. His grandfather Fan Ting was the chief minister of the dynasty. Like his elder brother Lu Tong, Duke Cheng'en, he was also one of the Three Dukes and one of the important ministers appointed by the previous emperor as regents.
In addition, Fan Zhongming also had a father, Fan Bowen, who was the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
In addition to this father and son who serve as officials in the court and hold great power, there are more than a dozen other members of the Fan family serving as officials in various places in Da Qi, and there are countless relatives, old friends, students, and classmates in the family.
Normally, the Lu family should have prevented such a person with a strong family background and extremely intelligent and quick-witted from becoming the eldest prince's companion. The reason they did not do so was because the people of the Fan family had no concept of loyalty to the emperor in their minds. When they did anything, they would only give priority to the interests of their family.
Rather than charging into battle to uphold orthodoxy, they would rather think about how to ensure the eternal prosperity of the Fan family.
For this reason, although Fan Zhongming was one of the eldest prince's study companions, his protection of the eldest prince was very limited and his loyalty was almost non-existent.
He is the qualified eldest grandson of the Fan family. Like his grandfather and father, he will weigh the pros and cons before doing anything and subconsciously put the family's interests first.
The eldest prince's companion, Yang Shixian, was a stark contrast to Fan Zhongming in character. He was as intelligent and clever as Fan Zhongming, and most importantly, he was a master of both civil and military skills.
Influenced by his grandfather, he was dedicated to maintaining the orthodoxy of the royal family. He always protected and was very loyal to the eldest prince, the emperor's eldest son.
His grandfather Yang Zhengde was the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, and his father died early in an assassination. Although there was no evidence, the whole family knew that his father actually died as a result of the Lu family's revenge on his grandfather.
The Yang family's ancestral home is in Jiangnan. Yang Zhengde was born in a humble family and was a representative of the clean/poor officials in the court. At the same time, he was also a staunch royalist, and because of this, he had many conflicts with the Lu family.
The Lu family was powerful, so the Fan family and the Qingliu led by Yang Zhengde had to form an alliance with each other. However, due to their different ideologies, while they were cooperating, they were actually always secretly on guard against each other.
The same was true for Fan Zhongming and Yang Shixian, the eldest prince's study companions. They formed an alliance for the sake of interests, but were always on guard against each other.
In addition to these two factions, there is also Xiao Shaoke, who is independent of either side and has his own faction in the Southern Study.
Xiao Shaoke is the half-brother of Xiao Shaoyuan, the current emperor of Da Qi. His biological mother died early, and he has always been raised by the empress dowager as a backup candidate for the emperor.
However, since the current emperor Xiao Shaoyuan is obedient enough, the Empress Dowager Da Lu has no intention of changing the emperor for the time being, so Xiao Shaoke is not highly regarded by the Empress Dowager.
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