Imperial Capital 14. The Protective Second Uncle
Yu Shifu Study
The simple and elegant study was filled with the faint scent of books. Behind the desk, the current Lord Yu Shi, who usually had a refined and elegant expression, had a rare gloomy look, staring at a letter on the desk in deep thought.
"Qingfeng, what do you think this Concubine Xianzhao means?" After a while, Lord Yu Shi raised his head and asked.
Not far from the desk, a handsome young man stood with his hands folded and frowned in thought for a moment before saying, "My son is stupid. Could it be that he did this to save the reputation of Prince Dingguo's Mansion?" Xu Yushi shook his head and said, "In my opinion, the royal family's move is just a slap in the face to Prince Dingguo's Mansion. It's like giving a sweet date after a slap? This approach may be useful for ordinary ministers, but it is useless for Prince Dingguo's Mansion." Xu Qingfeng frowned slightly, and said angrily, "The royal family should not sacrifice my cousin for the sake of it." For generations, the Xu family has had more men than women. The previous generation had a daughter, Ye Li's mother, but in Xu Qingfeng's generation, both branches of the Xu family were sons. Xu Qingfeng, who had been living in the capital, was also very caring towards Ye Li, his cousin whom he often met when he was a child.
Xu Yushi sighed and said, "In the eyes of the royal family, who else can't be sacrificed except themselves? What's more, Li'er has rarely appeared in the capital since your aunt passed away, and her reputation has been almost ruined by that evil woman from the Ye family. Prince Li is naturally unwilling to marry Li'er." Xu Qingfeng snorted coldly and said, "Son, you are right for your cousin not to marry Prince Li. She's taking things for free from her fiancée's shop before they even get married. Is this the royal family's style? If my cousin really marries him, I'm afraid that the little dowry left by us and my aunt will be used up by him." Thinking of what Qingshuang mentioned when she came over, Xu Qingfeng was furious and his opinion of Mo Jingli became even worse.
Xu Yushi raised his hand and stroked the beautiful beard under his lips, nodded and said: "The Prince of Li is indeed not a good match for Li'er. Li'er has always been a person with her own ideas. I think she doesn't think much of Prince of Li, otherwise she wouldn't let the mother and daughter of the Ye family act like that." Thinking of the death of his younger sister, he wanted to take his seriously ill niece back to the Xu family to raise her, but the old woman of the Ye family stopped him. Li'er actually dragged her sick body to send her wet nurse and nanny back to Yunzhou, and lived alone in the isolated Ye Mansion. Although the Queen of Ye wanted to harm her several times, she still let her avoid it smoothly. Now it seems that the niece not only has the intelligence of her younger sister, but also has the strength and sharpness that her younger sister cannot match. This makes Xu Yushi quite proud.
"But Prince Ding..." Prince Li was not satisfactory, but at least he was still a healthy person. The marriage that the emperor was referring to now was not only a humiliation to Prince Ding's Mansion, but also a waste of Xu's bloodline.
"Hmph! Compared to Prince Li, I believe more in the upbringing of Prince Dingguo's Mansion. After all, Prince Ding was raised by the old Prince Dingguo." As he spoke, Xu Yushi lit the candlestick on the table and burned the letters on the table to ashes before saying to his son, "How is the matter of Prince Dingguo's Mansion going these days? When your mother goes to the Ye family in a few days, let her tell Li'er." Xu Qingfeng said helplessly, "Everything else in Prince Dingguo's Mansion is easy to deal with, but Prince Ding rarely interacts with others. The number of people who have seen him in the past few years can be counted on one hand. No useful information can be found out. There is only one piece of news, which says that Prince Ding is a wife-killer. Several of his previous fiancées were killed by him. There was also one who was frightened to death on the night of his marriage."
"Nonsense!" Xu Yushi scolded. As a Yushi, the old man of the Xu family had many students all over the world, so he naturally knew more than ordinary people. For example, the first fiancée of Prince Ding was chosen by the old queen before he got into trouble, but she did not die of illness as outsiders said, but entered the palace as the current favorite concubine. For another example, the second fiancée was appointed by the current queen mother, and she was originally a sickly person, so it was not surprising that she did not live past the age of 15. The only possibility that the one who died after getting married was that he was frightened to death was very small in Xu Yushi's opinion. When Prince Ding returned to the court injured, he saw him from a distance. Although the wound on his face was a bit ugly, it was far from being scary enough to scare people to death. "Forget it, you go see your mother. I will go to visit Prince Ding in person later. Now I have to write a memorial."
"Write a memorial? Who does Dad want to impeach?" Xu Qingfeng asked curiously.
Xu Yushi's gaunt face showed a hint of sneer as he said, "Impeaching Minister Ye for not educating his daughters properly and allowing the four daughters to have private relations with Prince Li before he cancelled his engagement." The Great Chu Dynasty clearly stipulated that censors would not be punished. As long as the censors' accusations were not fabricated or slanderous, the emperor would not punish them no matter what they said. Who among the nobles in the capital didn't know about the affair between Prince Li and the fourth daughter of the Ye family? But the Ye family didn't care, so others naturally pretended not to know. Now that someone has made a blatant memorial, those idle Yushis and some upright scholars who can't stand this will naturally not miss this opportunity. On the surface, it was Minister Ye who was impeached, but in fact, the final incident definitely pointed to Ye Ying and Prince Li. I’m afraid that in the end, even the fact that Prince Li took away his ex-fiancée’s belongings for no reason cannot be concealed.
"Will this create enemies for Li'er?" Xu Qingfeng frowned and asked worriedly.
Xu Yushi smiled faintly and said, "Do you think Prince Li feels guilty about Li'er? At least we should show our Xu family's position to Prince Li and the emperor." The Xu family was clearly trying to protect their niece. "Since we can't figure out what Concubine Xianzhao means, let's find something for Prince Li's mansion to do, so that they won't be idle and want to plot against your cousin." In Xu Yushi's mind, he couldn't understand why Prince Li gave up his niece to marry the fourth daughter of the Ye family. Apart from their looks, in terms of status, one is the eldest daughter and the other is the daughter of a concubine. In terms of intelligence and virtue, Ye Ying, who can only use her beauty to seduce people, would have been punished to kneel in the ancestral hall in the Xu family. Even if we talk about dowry, even if the Ye family spent all their money to buy it, it might not be as rich as the one the Xu family gave to Li'er. The difference between a newly emerged upstart and a century-old family is not a little bit.
After hearing what his father said, Xu Qingfeng couldn't help but smile and said, "Father is really thoughtful. I'll take my leave now."
Watching his son close the door and leave, Xu Yushi sighed slightly and picked up his pen to write a memorial. He has sons. His eldest son Qingrui followed his old father back to Yunzhou and studied in front of his father. His second son Qingfeng has been with him since he was a child. Although he and his wife both come from a family of scholars, Qingfeng has a talent for martial arts since he was a child, but his literary talent is just average. Thinking of what Ye Li said to him when she came to pay New Year's greetings last year, he couldn't help but smile bitterly: Could it be that the Xu family, with a century-old scholarly tradition, is really going to produce a military general? After stopping to think for a long time, Xu Yushi finally put down his pen, stood up and walked to the bookshelf on the side. He skillfully pulled out a book from the third layer and looked down at the vigorous handwriting on the book - "Taizu Bingdian", and said loudly: "Come here."
Soon, the waiter outside the door pushed the door open and called respectfully, "Master."
"Send this book to the second young master, and tell him to finish reading it within this year. Also, send me a review every month."
The servant took the book and left respectfully without asking any questions.
Soon, Xu Qingfeng's hearty laughter could be heard from a distance. Apparently, he had not walked far when the servant caught up with him. "Thank you, father. I will obey your orders!"
"You little bastard, you are so disrespectful!" Xu Yushi cursed in a low voice, but a relieved smile appeared on his face.
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