Chapter 194: Saving People (Two Chapters in One)
Concubine Qiao has been in a bad mood these days.
Just as his son was about to be crowned the crown prince, Magistrate Huang's family suddenly showed up.
If it were anyone else, it would be fine. If persuasion doesn't work, bribe them. If bribery doesn't work, threaten them. If intimidation doesn't work, kill them with a knife.
But Huang's parents did not play by the rules. They risked their lives and went directly to the Dali Temple to beat the drum to appeal for justice.
The beating of the drum of grievance alarmed the whole city. It could not be concealed or hidden. What's more, Huang's father had lost three sons and his wife. He had long since disregarded life and death. He didn't even want his own life, so what was the use of asking for money?
No matter what results Yan Xia found out about this matter, the Third Prince could not escape responsibility. After all, no matter what happened before, whether someone framed him or not, the final blow to Prefect Huang came from him, not his judgment. Prefect Huang would not have been unable to bear the shock, and his heart disease would have relapsed, leading to his death.
Although Emperor Yongjia liked the third prince, to put it bluntly, he had nine sons, and the third prince was just one of them.
If he were an ordinary father, he could indulge in favoritism, but he was the emperor.
His preference is not just what he says, but also depends on the civil and military officials, as well as the opinions of the public.
Besides, Emperor Yongjia’s love for the Third Prince was not to the extent that he was willing to face public criticism for him.
He has fatherly love, but it’s only a little more than that of other princes.
If we were to ask who in this palace knew Emperor Yongjia best, it would definitely be Concubine Qiao.
The more she understood, the more she realized that this matter was an insurmountable hurdle for the Third Prince.
However, the mother and son had come to this point and could no longer turn back. The road ahead was paved with thorns, and looking back was a sea of blood and corpses. If they gritted their teeth and moved forward, they would always be able to overcome the danger. However, if they retreated at this time, they would be shot in the chest.
Concubine Qiao thought about it and decided that if there was anyone in the palace who could truly help her and her son, it would be Concubine Li.
Concubine Qiao is very good at dealing with people. Over the years, she has never been spoiled by her favor. Even though she has become an imperial concubine, she is still humble in front of Concubine Li. Even though Concubine Li secretly calls her a bitch and a witch, she still looks good to her when she sees her.
As everyone knows, ever since the retired emperor went to Changshou Palace without telling anyone else, Concubine Li's temper has been getting worse day by day. After all, the retired emperor didn't make her the queen before he left.
For example, now, after cursing a bitch a few times, Concubine Li still put on a smiling face and summoned Concubine Qiao.
Concubine Qiao did not come empty-handed. She brought two boxes of freshly made facial cream.
These two boxes of facial cream were not made with a recipe from the palace, but were bought from outside the palace by Concubine Qiao at a high price. They were then tested on the faces of more than a dozen palace maids to make sure there was no problem before being presented to Concubine Li.
"I heard there was a woman in her seventies in a remote mountain village, but at first glance she looked only about forty. I went to inquire about her and learned that her father, husband, and son were all herbalists. Initially, she simply ground herbs into powder and applied it to her face to protect her skin, which had been roughened by the mountain wind. Over time, she became more and more adept at using these herbs. Year after year, day after day, she reached the age of a great-grandmother, yet still looked young. However, she lived deep in the mountains, and word of this never spread. Thanks to Your Majesty, my family actually found her and bought this recipe from her."
Concubine Li usually doesn't like people calling her Concubine, as she is not the Queen Mother. The difference of one word makes a world of difference.
Therefore, Concubine Qiao simply called her "Empress".
Concubine Li smiled, a rare sight. She picked up a box of facial cream, sniffed it, and said, "It smells light and pleasant."
She glanced at Concubine Qiao, who looked expectant, and asked calmly, "What has the Third Master been busy with lately? Why haven't I seen him enter the palace?"
Concubine Qiao sighed, "To be honest, Your Majesty, he has wanted to come to the palace to pay his respects to you for a long time, but he is in the center of the storm right now. Not to mention coming to the palace, even going out for tea would be gossiped about behind his back."
Concubine Li snorted coldly: "Let him enter the palace tomorrow. I want to see who dares to say anything about him."
Imperial Concubine Qiao hurriedly said, "Okay, okay, I'll send him a message right away, asking him to come to the palace tomorrow and pay his respects to Your Majesty."
After walking out of Concubine Li's bedroom, Concubine Qiao let out a long breath.
Finally someone allowed the third prince to enter the palace.
Since the incident, Emperor Yongjia has not summoned the third prince, and the third prince has no excuse to enter the palace.
Fortunately, there is Concubine Li.
The next day, the third prince went to the palace to pay his respects to Concubine Li.
In fact, Concubine Li was not very close to these grandchildren. Although they were close to each other through generations, they were still her biological children. None of these grandchildren were related to her by blood, so even if she wanted to be close to them, she couldn't.
Relatively speaking, she was the best to the third prince.
Of course, it can't be compared with biological grandparents and grandchildren, but compared with other princes, it is much better.
The main reasons are, first, that Concubine Qiao is capable, and second, that the Third Prince has been sweet-talking and spoiled since he was a child.
Just like today, the Third Prince chatted with Concubine Li for a lot of times, making her very happy.
So on the third day, Concubine Dowager Li said a lot of good things about the third prince in front of Emperor Yongjia.
In short, she is old, and although she has a lot of grandchildren, the only one she truly cares about is the Third Prince.
You are the emperor, it doesn’t matter who is the crown prince, they are all my grandsons anyway.
However, the court officials have already requested the appointment of the crown prince twice, and everyone in the court and the public believes that the next crown prince will be the third son. Now that something has happened to the third son and he can no longer be the crown prince, what should the third son do?
What Emperor Yongjia hated most was the harem interfering in politics. In the past, he would have refuted it, but today, he remained silent.
Concubine Li observed the emperor's expression and knew that she had actually spoken to his heart.
The emperor also had this idea.
Concubine Li sneered in her heart, if I wasn't worried that you would die before me, I wouldn't bother with these trivial matters, it's not like you crawled out of my belly.
But now, although she is old, she is in good health. Compared with the emperor who looks tired all day long, Concubine Li is confident that she can send her son to his death.
Therefore, she also wanted to help the prince who was close to her.
It is always better for the third prince to be the emperor than for others.
For example, the fifth son, his biological mother is not a good person. Not only is she cunning, but she is also fierce. And the fourth son's biological mother, Concubine You, is just an eyesore. Just thinking that these two may have the opportunity to become the empress dowager in the future, Concubine Li wants to scratch them to death.
It’s so hard for me to become the Queen Mother, why should I let you two bitches do it so easily?
no!
Emperor Yongjia didn't know what Concubine Li was thinking, but he felt sympathy for the third prince.
The third prince actually did not commit a big mistake. No matter how he judged that case, it would be wrong. It was a setup. It seemed to be a setup for Prefect Huang, but in fact it was to drag the third prince into it.
The more Emperor Yongjia thought about it, the angrier he became. He tried every means to prove that the person who was framed was his son. How could he not be angry?
In the next few days, the third prince would go to the palace every day, sometimes to tend the flowers and plants for Concubine Li, and sometimes to go to the library to find books for the emperor.
In fact, although the third prince entered the palace in the past few days, he had not even seen Emperor Yongjia. The person he saw most was Concubine Qiao.
But to outsiders, it seems the exact opposite.
The third prince was once again favored by the emperor, even more than before.
He didn't go to the palace every day before, but now the emperor can't live without him.
When the news reached the Fifth Prince, his brows knitted together, and he said to Eunuch Wang, "Send a message to the palace and ask what's going on."
At the same time, the Fourth Prince was also giving orders, but he had no support from within the palace, so the only person he could mobilize was his biological mother, Concubine You.
But Concubine You was really useless. When the man sent by the Fourth Prince came to her to beg for mercy, she widened her eyes in surprise: "What is he going to do? What else does he want to do? Go back and tell him that he is already disabled and should stop causing trouble."
The Fourth Prince heard every word of Concubine You's words, and he was so angry that he smashed all the porcelain on the table.
Now, as long as he walked slowly, it was almost impossible to tell that he was lame. In addition, he had deliberately spread the word, and now everyone in the capital, from the nobles to the common people, knew that his leg was healed.
But only Concubine You kept saying that he was disabled.
This is his biological mother, the one who should hand him the ladder and help him reach the ninth heaven.
Just like Concubine Qiao, that's what a prince's biological mother should be like.
The fourth prince's eyes were grim. When it came to biological mothers, he was obviously inferior to the third and fifth princes.
The third son's biological mother was the Imperial Noble Consort, and the fifth son's biological mother was the Shufei. Without considering anything else, just looking at their positions, you can tell which one the emperor favors more.
The Fourth Prince stroked his chin and thought, “It would be great if he could have a different mother.”
You can't change your biological father, but you can recognize a biological father.
Who is more suitable?
Xianfei, Defei?
Or Concubine Hui?
Or, the Queen?
When the Fourth Prince thought of the Queen, his eyes lit up.
The queen has only one daughter, she has no son!
Although it is said that the emperor made her his successor because she had no children, the emperor was afraid of her biological son, but what if he was not his biological son?
That was true. She was the queen, and all the princes born to her concubines were her sons.
In the future, she will be regarded as the Queen Mother.
In this case, what difference does it make whether it’s early or late?
The Fourth Prince perked up. He said to his men, "Go check on the Queen's family and report any recent developments, big or small."
Within a few days, the affairs of the Queen's family were discovered.
There are no big things, but there are a lot of small things.
The queen's three nephews all failed in this subject.
The queen had five nephews, two of whom had received official positions at an early age through imperial favor. The other three were still taking the imperial examinations. They were all talented students. If they had passed this time, there would have been three Jinshi in the family. Unfortunately, none of them passed the examination and became trash in the eyes of the peddlers and hawkers.
Therefore, the queen's three nephews stayed indoors every day and studied at home.
The youngest one among them had originally planned to get married after high school, but now that she failed the exam, the girl became unhappy and would cause trouble every now and then, making the young man very anxious.
The Fourth Prince asked people to investigate further, and what they found was shocking. It turned out that the girl already had a childhood sweetheart, a cousin. The cousin and she had been secretly in love, but her family did not agree and forced the engagement for the girl.
The other party is the queen's nephew, and she can't cancel this marriage just because she wants to.
The Fourth Prince found out that the young master was a man who cared a lot about his reputation. He failed to pass the imperial examination and felt ashamed to face people. He almost hanged himself. Fortunately, he was rescued in time by the servants, otherwise he would probably have died.
The Fourth Prince was overjoyed when he heard this, and asked someone to bribe one of the young master's classmates. The classmate hurriedly ran to the young master and half-concealedly told him the story of the girl and her cousin.
In fact, this pair of cousins are just at the stage of flirting with each other. After all, both sides' families are strict, so they have no chance to get close.
However, when this matter came out of the mouth of that classmate, between the lines it conveyed one thing to the young master, that is, the girl was already pregnant with her cousin's child, and the young master was already wearing a cuckold.
As soon as these words were spoken, the young master fainted from anger.
After waking up, the young master walked out of the house. He covered his face with his sleeves and walked around in front of the door of his future wife's family.
It's not that he has deep feelings for the girl. It was his parents' arrangement and the matchmaker's words. They haven't gotten married yet and he doesn't have much feelings for her. He just can't get over it and feels like he's been fooled.
He wanted to argue with the girl, but in the end, he just ran away with his face covered.
On the way, he heard one person say to another: "This is so shameful! If it were me, I would definitely not live in this world!"
Yes, how can he have the face to continue living?
His aunt was the queen, but he failed the imperial examination and brought shame to his aunt.
Now, his fiancée is pregnant with someone else's child. This matter has spread and even his classmates know about it.
Soon, the whole city will know, and everyone will laugh at him. He is a loser, a complete loser.
The young master didn't think much about it and jumped into the Liuguang River.
The Fourth Prince was boating on the lake when he saw someone fall into the water. He ordered the two servants beside him to jump into the water to save the person. Unfortunately, although the two servants jumped in, they were obviously not good swimmers. Not only did they fail to save the person, they also sank.
The fourth prince was shocked and jumped into the water without saying a word.
......
When the Queen heard the news, the Fourth Prince had already rescued the young master, but he himself had a high fever.
The Queen was horrified and quickly sent her capable eunuch to visit the Fourth Prince.
The details of the incident were also reported to Emperor Yongjia through investigation by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
The imperial physician told the Fourth Prince to go out for a walk more often. His health had improved greatly, and if he wanted to recover as before, he couldn't rely solely on medicine, but needed exercise.
Therefore, the Fourth Prince not only practiced martial arts every day, but also rode out of the city or went boating.
Now that the weather is getting colder, the Fourth Prince often comes here to go boating while the Liuguang River is still frozen.
The so-called rafting is not just sitting on the boat and watching the scenery, but paddling yourself, which can exercise your arm strength and endurance.
Yesterday, the Fourth Prince was rowing a boat again and happened to see the young master committing suicide by jumping into the river.
The reason why the young master committed suicide by jumping into the river was also found out. His fiancée had someone else in love, and he failed the college entrance examination. The young master was so depressed that he jumped into the lake.
There is no flaw, the Fourth Prince's rescue was purely accidental.
However, the civil and military officials had a different opinion in their mouths, saying that the emperor had taught his son well and that the fourth prince was kind-hearted and chivalrous.
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