Chapter 55: Hooked Nose (Two Chapters in One)
"Your Highness, our shopkeeper said that for the sake of Her Royal Highness the Princess and you, all the food and drink expenses for the Second Young Master in the brothel for the past few days will be waived, but the money he owes cannot be waived. Your Highness, would you like to settle it now, or send someone to deliver the money to us later?"
The guys at Jinbao Casino were polite, but the sarcasm that flashed in their eyes was undeniable.
Prince Consort Xiao asked in a deep voice, "How much silver does he owe?"
The waiter smiled and said, "To answer your Majesty, the Second Young Master doesn't owe much. It's all small amounts, only a mere ten thousand taels."
Xiao Yue, who was lying on the ground pretending to be dead, suddenly sat up and said, "Dad, we can't give them this money. I didn't go to gamble voluntarily. I was caught by them. They forced me to gamble, but I don't know how to gamble. If I don't gamble, they beat me. I have no choice but to gamble. I was forced to do so by them!"
The waiter looked very surprised: "Oh, my second son, you are a grown man with legs on your body. We open the door to do business and you want to come in. Can we stop you?
Besides, you yourself said that all this money was indeed exported from your own hands. Isn't it only natural that you should pay back the debt?"
At this moment, Princess Jiayi heard the news and hurried over. Before she even entered the house, she heard the waiter's words and saw Xiao Yue in such a state of disgrace. Princess Jiayi was furious. She pointed at the waiter and said, "Where did this evil slave come from? How dare he act so presumptuously in my house? Come, kick him out!"
The waiter didn't expect Princess Jiayi to kick him out without saying a word. He hurriedly said, "Your Highness, calm down. Your Highness, calm down. I'm just here to collect the money. I don't have any..."
Before he could finish his words, he saw Princess Jiayi's face full of pain, and she bent over, holding her stomach.
Prince Consort Xiao was horrified and quickly supported her: "Princess, Princess, what's wrong with you?"
Nanny Bai, who came with the eldest princess, hurriedly said, "Quickly call the imperial physician. The eldest princess is having a miscarriage."
Suddenly, people and horses were thrown to the ground. The waiter tried to slip away in the chaos, but Xiao Yue found the strength from nowhere and hugged the waiter's legs. "You liars, I'm going to complain!"
......
But in the end, Prince Consort Xiao released the clerk. As soon as the clerk left, he spread the news that the Princess's Mansion owed 10,000 taels of silver and had not repaid it.
The next day, Prince Consort Xiao sent someone to Jinbao Casino to deliver 12,000 taels of silver to redeem Xiao Yue's IOU.
Princess Jiayi, who had not yet completely gotten over the pain of losing her son, was also angered by this cheap son and had a miscarriage. She was old and this pregnancy was already difficult, so she could not withstand such a torment. Now she can only stay in bed to protect the fetus.
The Princess's Mansion once again became the topic of conversation among the people in the capital. This time, everyone felt sorry for Princess Jiayi, who was the only legitimate princess of this dynasty and a true darling of heaven. Who would have thought that she met the wrong man? Her husband had a concubine, and she had to acknowledge the concubine's son. Her only biological son died. After she finally gave birth to a pearl, she became pregnant again, but was almost miscarried because of the uneducated concubine's son.
When the news reached the palace, Concubine Li felt a little regretful. Why didn't that bitch Jiayi have an abortion? It would have been better if there were two lives.
In fact, there were originally two legitimate princesses in this dynasty, in addition to Princess Jiayi, there was also Princess Jiale.
Jiayi was the daughter of the original queen, and Jiale was the daughter of the successor queen, Wang. Later, Wang was deposed because of the case of the Prince of Wu, and Jiale's status plummeted. Now her status in the palace is not even as good as that of Princess Jiarou, the daughter of Concubine Xu.
Thinking of Princess Jiayi who always looked down upon her, Concubine Li felt extremely angry, but even though she was a concubine, she could not do anything to Princess Jiayi openly.
Fortunately, there is Jiale, and Jiale is not married yet.
Concubine Li asked someone to call Princess Jiale over.
As soon as Emperor Yongjia returned to the harem, he heard that Concubine Li was using Princess Jiale as a punching bag again.
Emperor Yongjia was so angry that he smashed a teacup and said to the empress, "Go and bring Jiale from my mother's palace."
The Queen also felt that Concubine Li's behavior was really not acceptable. As a concubine, why did she always pick on a teenage girl?
Although Concubine Li was very unhappy, she still gave the Queen some face and handed Princess Jiale over to the Queen.
Looking at Princess Jiale who lowered her head and nodded submissively, the queen shook her head helplessly.
This girl doesn’t know whether she will be reincarnated or not.
You say she can't do that? She was reincarnated into the queen's belly and her father is the emperor!
It is said that she will be reincarnated. When she was still a child, her mother was deposed and her father, the emperor, ignored her.
That night, the Empress spoke to Emperor Yongjia about Princess Jiale's marriage: "Next year is the year of the imperial examination. I would like to ask Your Majesty to choose a consort for Jiale from among the newly-minted Jinshi. She is not young anymore. When I was her age, I had already given birth to four princesses."
Emperor Yongjia nodded in satisfaction. "Since Zitong is so thoughtful, I'll do as you say. Next year, I'll select a newly-minted Jinshi (a successful candidate) as my consort. Huiming and Huixin are also of the age to choose their own consorts. Once the list is released next year, I'll compile a list of those who are still unmarried and have Zitong personally select one."
The Queen smiled and knelt in greeting, "I thank Your Majesty on behalf of the three young ladies."
Emperor Yongjia quickly helped her up. "Huiming and Huixin are my nieces. Although Jiale is my sister, she is about the same age as my daughters. I have always treated her as a child. I am busy with state affairs, so Zitong will have to take care of their marriages."
......
After having dinner in the Queen's Palace, Emperor Yongjia went to Concubine Qiao.
Over the years, no matter where he stayed, dinner would be served in the Queen's Palace.
After seeing off Emperor Yongjia, the empress sat under the lamp, silent and motionless.
The queen was also the successor to the empress dowager. Like the deposed Queen Wang, she also had only one daughter.
Whenever the Empress saw the helpless Princess Jiale, she would think of her own daughter. If anything happened to her, her daughter would be the next Jiale. No, her daughter would be even more pitiful than Jiale, because the Emperor Retired was far more merciful than the Yongjia Emperor. He could ignore Jiale, but he would not give her away as a gift to a foreign country. However, the Yongjia Emperor...
The queen subconsciously touched her belly. A few years ago, she was still hoping to give birth to a prince, but now, she hoped that Emperor Yongjia would not spend the night with her. She was worried that she would get pregnant. It would be fine if she gave birth to another princess, but what if it was a prince?
The queen didn't dare to think further, she was afraid.
Emperor Yongjia already had nine princes. If she gave birth to another one, there would be ten.
Her son is the youngest, how can he fight against his adult brothers? Can such a small child avoid those open and hidden attacks?
Moreover, Emperor Yongjia probably didn't want her to give birth to a son. There would be too many sons, but only one position. No father would want to see siblings killing each other. After all, she was the queen, and her son was competitive.
The Queen sighed and said to the nanny beside her, "Jiayi is having a miscarriage. Go out of the palace to see her tomorrow."
The next day, all the gifts from Emperor Yongjia and the Empress were sent to the Princess's Mansion. Even Concubine Li, the concubines and imperial concubines in the palace, as well as Concubine Qiao and others, all sent generous gifts.
The queen not only sent her trusted nanny over, but also asked the fourth princess to come along.
The fourth princess was only seven years old. She was brought up very well and behaved like a little adult in every move.
Princess Jiayi liked the fourth princess very much and would not let go of her. She wanted to have a daughter like her.
Her daughter must be more beautiful than the Fourth Princess. Although the Fourth Princess is cute, her nose is hooked like that of Emperor Yongjia. A girl with a hooked nose is not really good-looking.
Not only the fourth princess, but all nine sons and seven daughters of Emperor Yongjia had the same hooked nose, which wasted their biological mother's beautiful face.
Perhaps pregnant women always have wild thoughts. At this moment, looking at the fourth princess's hooked nose, Princess Jiayi's thoughts were wandering wildly.
Neither the retired emperor nor Concubine Li had hooked noses, and neither did the other brothers and sisters. Princess Jiayi had seen the portraits of the ancestors and the concubines, and had not seen anyone with a hooked nose. So who did the second brother inherit the hooked nose from?
This inheritance was quite powerful and actually changed the royal genes. All future royal descendants, regardless of gender, would have a hooked nose.
Princess Jiayi shuddered and subconsciously touched her nose. Fortunately, it was fortunate that I was born decades earlier.
Although the palace sent many rewards, which seemed to bring unlimited respect to the Princess's Mansion, everyone understood that every reward the palace sent to the Princess was a slap in the face of Prince Consort Xiao.
The reason why the eldest princess had a miscarriage was because of them, the father and the son.
First, Prince Consort Xiao secretly crossed Chencang, and second, he failed to educate his son well.
Therefore, Prince Consort Xiao took the initiative to submit a letter of apology, and Emperor Yongjia fined him three months' salary.
His salary was not even enough to cover the money Xiao Yue spent on gambling.
The situation in the palace has been resolved, but the eldest princess is still bedridden to protect her pregnancy.
That night, Prince Consort Xiao wanted to sleep with the eldest princess, but was stopped outside by Nanny Bai. Prince Consort Xiao knelt until midnight and finally had to return to the Xiao Mansion next door.
The next day, the news spread like wildfire.
After hearing this, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department immediately ordered someone to design a new pattern. Seeing that Princess Jiayi was about to get a divorce, at least before the new prince came, there should no longer be twin flowers on the gold ingot given to her, so as not to arouse the prince's anger.
The stalemate lasted for another two days, and Prince Consort Xiao finally made a choice.
The Xiao family in the capital, that is, Prince Consort Xiao's own branch, has split up.
Although it was called a division of the family, in fact, only Xiao Yue was separated. After all, Xiao Zhen was already dead, and the baby in the eldest princess's belly was unknown whether it was a boy or a girl. Now Prince Consort Xiao only had Xiao Yue as his son.
Although he was the only son, Xiao Yue was born out of wedlock after all, so he didn't get much.
Moreover, a few days ago, Prince Consort Xiao had just paid off his gambling debt of 10,000 taels.
In the end, Xiao Yue got five thousand taels of silver and a shop from Prince Consort Xiao.
That night, Xiao Yue was forcibly taken to the Jinbao gambling house by a few playboys. The next morning, Xiao Yue came out with his clothes intact, but the attendant of the Prince of Baoqing was also with him.
The long-time attendant followed Xiao Yue to close the shop.
It turned out that that night, Xiao Yue not only lost all the 5,000 taels he got from the division of the family property, but also lost the shop to the son of the Marquis of Baoqing.
This matter soon spread throughout the capital. Prince Consort Xiao was furious. He picked up a stick and led people to look for Xiao Yue all over the capital, claiming that he would beat Xiao Yue to death.
After searching for several days, Xiao Yue disappeared without a trace, as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth.
Not long after, someone said that in the opera troupe heading south, they saw a Huadan singer who looked very much like Xiao Yue.
However, the truth of this matter cannot be verified. Whether it is the Princess's Mansion or the Xiao family, they would rather believe that Xiao Yue was hacked to death by debt collectors than admit that Xiao Yue was an actor.
There were endless new things happening in the capital, and soon people's attention was diverted.
Something happened to Censor Jin!
Ever since he hit his head against the pillar in the court that day, although Censor Jin has been recuperating at home, his reputation has risen much higher than before.
Normally, this would be the moment when Censor Jin would be in high spirits, but now, he was like a chicken waiting to be slaughtered, with his head hanging and looking listless.
Nephew Jin's personality changed drastically since he learned about his life experience.
In the past, in order to live more comfortably in the mansion, he had to please his uncle, Censor Jin. In front of his uncle, he pretended to be humble. Whenever he came back from outside, he would bring a few snacks that his uncle liked to eat, or fake ink blocks bought from roadside stalls. When his uncle found out that it was a fake, his face turned red and he looked embarrassed, which always reminded Uncle Jin of his sister-in-law when she was young.
But now, when he knew that his uncle was not his uncle but his biological father, nephew Jin's mentality changed.
He no longer wanted to be a good and obedient nephew.
He first scolded his mother, Mrs. Jin, saying that she was a woman who wanted to be a saint and that she even had a child but still had to live under someone else's roof, which was too shameful.
Even a clay figure has its own personality, not to mention that since Mrs. Jin decided to come to the capital, she has never thought of living under someone else's roof and living in silence for the rest of her life.
She's not here to join, she's here to destroy!
She was Censor Jin's first woman, equivalent to his original wife.
And Mrs. Tao is just a bitch who steals other people's husbands.
Now her son told her that this matter was no longer a secret and other people knew about it too.
Mrs. Jin was like a blind man who had touched ivory. A knife, a sharp knife.
With a knife in hand, she has nothing to fear.
She immediately wanted to confront Mrs. Tao, but Mrs. Tao was not at home.
Mrs. Tao had to run the shop and also manage the farm outside the city, so she was often busy outside.
In Jin Yushi's opinion, Mrs. Tao was restless, which made him ashamed to speak of it.
In the eyes of Mrs. Jin, Mrs. Tao did not enjoy herself at home, but instead went out into the world to do business, smelling of money. No wonder her brother-in-law looked down on her, she deserved it.
Therefore, when Mrs. Tao was not in the house, neither Censor Jin, nor the eldest sister-in-law and nephew had any suspicions.
Moreover, when they need money on a daily basis, they just reach out and take it. As for how the money is earned, they never ask, nor do they bother to ask.
What is money?
It's just some garbage.
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