Chapter 98: Golden Wind and Jade Dew Meet
On July 15th of the 21st year of the Chengqian reign, the trial of Prime Minister Hu's concubine, Tian, who murdered Prime Minister Hu's wife, Lu, officially began at the Dali Temple in Kyoto...
Mrs. Lu, the wife of Prime Minister Hu, was carried from the Princess's Mansion to the Dali Temple by her legitimate son Hu Yan, who was driven back from his post. She accused Prime Minister Hu in court of favoring his concubine over his wife, and allowing his concubine Tian to abuse her in every way, and even poisoning her!
And he asked for a divorce from Prime Minister Hu in court!
At the same time, Hu Xiang's legitimate son Hu Yan also asked to sever the father-son relationship with Hu Xiang and change his surname to his mother's!
The sensation this lawsuit caused in Kyoto even surpassed the one in which the wife of the Marquis of Pingxi abandoned her role as a wife and gave the mansion to the Marquis of Pingxi and his concubine, while she herself moved into a nunnery...
It spread throughout the streets and alleys of Kyoto in an instant, becoming another hot topic of conversation among the people in the capital!
Everyone witnessed the horrific torture Lu suffered as Hu Yan carried her on his back to the Dali Temple. Zhou Yu and Imperial Physician Cheng also testified that Lu had not only suffered physical injuries but had also been poisoned. If she had been rescued a few days later, she would have died from the poison.
Therefore, whether it was the common people in the capital or the families of the officials, they all expressed deep sympathy for Lu's plight and felt disgusted with Tian's evil deeds. Especially those wives who, like Lu, were irritated by their husbands' extramarital affairs, felt the same way as Lu.
No one knew who had taken the lead, but these ladies had spontaneously united and submitted a letter to the Dali Temple, signed and stamped by over a hundred imperial consorts. They demanded that the Dali Temple severely punish Tian, or else they would file a complaint before the Emperor.
Because of the enormous impact of this case, the officials of the Dali Temple no longer dared to protect Hu Xiang. Ultimately, Tian was sentenced to immediate execution, and Lu was also sentenced to divorce Hu Xiang. However, Hu Yan's request to sever his father-son relationship with Hu Xiang was rejected, but his request to move out of the Xiang Mansion and live with his mother was granted...
Because Prime Minister Hu allowed his concubine to bully the wife, which almost led to her death, Emperor Chengqian punished him with three years of service, three months of confinement, and handed over all affairs to Minister Su and Prime Minister Wang...
…
When Tian was taken to the execution ground, the entire street between the Dali Temple and the execution ground was packed with people, so much so that the Dali Temple had to send people to clear the way for Tian's prison cart to pass. Those rotten vegetable stalks and rotten eggs were thrown at Tian as if they were free. The once bright and beautiful beauty no longer had any of her former charm...
When Tian was executed, no one from Prime Minister Hu's residence came to see her off. Even Tian's biological son, Hu Yi, who was still recovering from his injuries at the residence and had not yet begun serving his sentence, did not come either...
Instead, accompanied by Mu Qingni and Zhou Yu, Lu gave Tian a cup of beheading wine and said, "God has its own way of life, and no one can escape it!"
After presenting the glass of wine, Mrs. Lu said goodbye to everyone, got on the carriage of her son and daughter-in-law waiting outside the execution ground, and went to Hu Yan's post with her son and daughter-in-law.
After divorcing Prime Minister Hu this time, not only was Lu allowed to take away all her dowry that was snatched away by Tian, but more than ten properties in the Prime Minister's Mansion were also awarded to Lu's name. So now Lu is not short of money, and her health has improved a lot. With careful care for another year or two, she will be no different from an ordinary person!
As for the hurt feelings, they could only be smoothed out slowly with the passage of time. Fortunately, Mrs. Lu had a good son and married a good daughter-in-law. They did not treat his mother badly because of his father's power. Instead, they stood up when Mrs. Lu needed them the most and were willing to break with his father to seek justice for his mother!
So, with her son and daughter-in-law by her side, Mrs. Lu should be able to recover soon! Zhou Yu and Mu Qingni, who were seeing Mrs. Lu off, thought the same thing...
At the same time, Prime Minister Hu, who had lost face and his beloved concubine after being accused by his wife and son, was sitting in the inner house of the prime minister's mansion. He sat blankly in front of the dressing mirror where Tian used to sit when she was alive. He held tightly in his hand a hairpin that Tian usually wore. While looking at his distorted self in the mirror, he held the hairpin tighter and tighter, until the hairpin pierced his palm, but he did not move!
…
On the day of Tian's execution, Zhu Xi and his companions had just completed the handover of the Hu Mansion's accounts. The day after rescuing Lu, they returned to Prime Minister Hu's residence to continue reconciling the accounts. By this point, half of Prime Minister Hu's assets had finally been fully transferred to Emperor Chengqian's private treasury. Besides the farms and shops, over 200,000 taels of silver were also collected. At least 100,000 taels of silver had been diverted by the Hu Mansion's accountant, but Zhou Jin meticulously discovered loopholes in the Hu Mansion's accounts and eventually recovered them!
Emperor Chengqian had once again made a fortune. Looking at his already overflowing private treasury, he was so excited that he not only met Zhou Jin in person, but also patted his shoulders meaningfully several times and praised him:
"That's right, like brother, like sister!! Haha, you two are both great!!"
Zhou Jin was puzzled at the time. What did Emperor Chengqian mean by this? What did this have to do with his sister?
Later on, I thought, maybe Emperor Cheng Qian was just remembering how his sister and Mu Qingni had beaten Hu Yi together and blocked the guards of the Hu Mansion, so he even praised his sister. So I didn't take it too seriously...
Instead, thinking of Mu Qingni, he couldn't help but recall the wine date with her. He thought that since he was still in Kyoto, he might as well treat her to a wine dinner today!
So, after leaving Emperor Chengqian, Zhou Jin went straight to the Princess's Mansion with Zhu Xi. Of course, Zhu Xi followed him this time on his own, as Zhou Jin didn't want him at all!
Zhu Xi hadn't seen Zhou Yu for a long time because he had been checking the accounts at the Hu Mansion. When he heard from Zhou Jin that Zhou Yu was still living in the Princess's Mansion, he hurried over...
Zhou Yu had been staying with Mu Qingni at the Princess's residence during this time because he needed to treat Lu. Later, the two of them volunteered to accompany Lu in her lawsuit against Hu Xiang (mainly because they wanted to see the action). The Princess also wanted to hear the aftermath of the lawsuit and wouldn't let them leave, so they never left...
…
When Zhou Jin came over and explained his intentions, saying he wanted to keep his promise to treat Mu Qingni to a drink, Zhou Yu originally wanted to pull Zhu Xi away. She had already vaguely sensed her brother's different attitude towards Mu Qingni, and had also received her brother's suggestive eyes... Therefore, she didn't want to be a light bulb...
But Mu Qingni had been getting along very well with her recently and wouldn't let her leave at all. She even said that drinking would only be more lively when there were more people around!
Zhu Xi also instigated that since they were going to have a lively party, they might as well make it even more lively. They invited Zhou Po, Zhou Dai, Han Qianhu and other friends who had experienced the defense of Fuzhou together to go to the hot spring villa to have fun for a night.
Anyway, Zhou Luo, Zhou Gong and the others are all there now, and Zhou Luo's injuries have almost healed. We can all get drunk and not leave...wouldn't that be great! ?
Zhou Jin thought to himself, "What do you mean by happy?! You're such a light bulb!"
As a result, just when I was thinking of a way to get rid of this guy, I heard Mu Qingni say with a smile:
"Great! That's great! After the defense of Fuzhou City, we all had injuries and couldn't get together properly. Zhou Jin is treating us today, so let's get together and have a good drink!"
Zhou Jin...
………
Thus, Zhou Jin's long-awaited wine date with Mu Qingni for two people inexplicably turned into a date with multiple people...
Looking at Han Qianhu and Zhou Dai, whom I see eight times a day, and the two uncles and two cousins from the Zheng family who heard about their party and came to join in the fun...
Then look at Zhu Xi, who was leaning against his sister and grinning from ear to ear...
What should Zhou Jin do if he feels like beating someone up?
The gathering at the villa was lively. Everyone was barbecuing, drinking, and laughing loudly. It felt like they were back in the military camp. Even Zhou Yu, Zhou Luo, the Zheng family uncles and nephews, who had never served in the military, were infected by the atmosphere and joined in the fun, eating meat and drinking wine with big mouthfuls...
Only Zhou Jin was holding a wine jar, leaning against an apricot tree in the yard, feeling somewhat lost...
Seeing this, Mu Qingni took out a palm-sized wine jar, which contained the villa's private collection of fine wine, and walked up to Zhou Jin, who had been feeling a bit depressed all night, and waved the wine jar in her hand towards him... and said with a smile:
"Where's the delicious wine you promised me?"
What? You want to get rid of her with just a few jars of Du Kang wine?
Seeing her coming over, Zhou Jin also raised the wine jar in his hand and clinked it with hers. Then, blinking a pair of pitiful eyes, he leaned his head over under the influence of alcohol and whispered to Mu Qingni in her ear:
"Qingni, wouldn't it be a waste to let these rough guys drink that delicious grape wine? Why don't we drink it when it's just the two of us?
Next time, let’s not have these people, okay?!”
A gentle call from Qingni made Mu Qingni's heart tremble slightly. The breath with a slight smell of alcohol on Mu Qingni's ear made her feel a little itchy...
Mu Qingni...
I couldn't figure out what was going on in my mind. I knew Zhou Jin had crossed the line, but looking at his slightly drunk face, I couldn't bear to blame him...
But, what does this person mean by saying this? ...
"I really like the dagger you gave me last time!" Mu Qingni gently avoided Zhou Jin's approaching face and smiled at him.
Zhou Jin's downcast eyes flickered before he smiled again and said, "I knew you would like it!"
Seeing Mu Qingni smiling with her eyebrows curved, he couldn't help but reach out and rub her head, just like he usually rubbed little Zhou Ying, and then, while Mu Qingni was dumbfounded, he said lovingly:
"What else do you like? Tell me and I'll buy it for you!"
After kneading it, I felt that it felt very good, so I kneaded it again...
Mu Qingni...
The people around...
Oh my god! What did they just see?! Zhou Jin actually dared to touch General Mu's head! More than once! Isn't this the same as touching a tiger's head... Ugh! No, no, how can General Mu's head be the same as that...
But that wasn't the point. The key point was that after being touched, General Mu was just stunned? He didn't even hit anyone?!
Several men or young men who hadn't yet married, simultaneously sensed something in the atmosphere between the two of them, and then rolled their eyes...
Zhou Dai and Zhou Luo: Holy crap! Their boss is so powerful! He even dares to covet General Mu!
Zheng Wen and Zheng Wu: Is Jin-ge going to get married? But they, as his uncle, still haven't found a wife yet!
Zheng Ping and Zheng An: Same as above.
Han Degong: He said Zhou Jin was a rare talent! Look! He even dares to covet the Phoenix in the sky!
Zhou Po: When the golden wind and jade dew meet, it is better than countless things in the world!
Zhu Xi: What's wrong? What happened? How come he just grilled several skewers of tender venison for Yu, and suddenly everyone's acting weird?
Zhou Yu: You fool!
…
That night, everyone was a little drunk. Captain Han and his men still had a few days to go before returning to the barracks, and Zhou Po had specifically asked for leave before coming over, so the party lasted until very late, and then everyone settled down at the villa...
The next day, everyone woke up late without any prior arrangement!!
The result!! Everyone just got up...
Zhou Zelin came rushing over on horseback in a panic.
Everyone... was horrified! Something big must have happened to make Zhou Zelin look like that!
Everyone rushed over, but before they could ask anything, they heard Zhou Zelin shout:
"Hurry! Where's Ayu?! Come with me! The imperial edict has arrived! The angel went to the courtyard west of the city, and the emperor has granted Ayu a marriage with the fifth grandson!"
Everyone...!!!
Zhou Jin...!!!
Zhu Xi...!!!
Zhou Yu… Damn it!! It's all because she's been so busy these days, and then she got caught up in the gossip about Madam Lu and Madam Tian…she actually forgot about this matter!
The author has something to say:
Cai Cai's new book "Fei Shi Yan Ran" is now in pre-collection. Please go to the author's homepage and add it to your favorites! Please, please! Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution between 2022-07-25 16:54:01 and 2022-07-26 08:04:21~
Thanks to the little angel who cast the mine: Wangxian 1;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
