Chapter 52
The mansion holding a sword.
After welcoming Xu Jin, Commander Zuo withdrew the imperial guards and returned to the palace with Eunuch Yu to report.
Xu Jin rode his horse to the gate of the marquis' mansion.
The gate was closed, and the stone lions in front of the gate looked smooth and clean, but there was dust in some small places. There was no one around, and the atmosphere was silent.
Xu Jin dismounted and walked to the gate. Before he raised his hand to knock on the door, it suddenly opened.
Old Madam Hou stood upright behind the door, her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair had become much whiter than when the couple last met.
The two looked at each other for a moment, and Xu Jin's lips trembled slightly.
"Come in."
Madam Hou only said this, and walked with Xu Jin inside, past the main hall, to the small house at the innermost part.
The place where the shrine should have been placed was blocked by a curtain, and a small tablet was placed inside. Madam Hou lifted the curtain, and the tablet was revealed, with two vertical lines of words on it:
The spirit tablet of her beloved daughter Xu Yueqing was erected by her mother Wu Siwan.
Xu Jin held his breath, and his mountain-like body hunched over for the first time. He walked silently to the memorial tablet and held the tablet in his arms.
Gradually, he began to tremble all over.
Madam Hou said, "Yueqing is a concubine and cannot be buried in the ancestral tomb... I can't snatch her away from the palace, so I set up a tablet here. I think she always likes home more."
Xu Jin slowly squatted down holding the tablet and sat crookedly on the cushion.
I received the news of my daughter's death. It was the first time I saw her again in more than two years.
Time did not settle the pain, but instead made the hatred ferment. Xu Jin's hair became mottled and his face was covered with tear marks.
"I'll kill them!! I'll kill them! I won't let anyone from the Zhang family go!" Xu Jin's eyes were bloodshot. "Zhang Fanming, I'm not only going to kill his son, I'm going to kill his entire family! I'm going to let him experience the pain of losing a loved one!"
He didn't believe in that bullshit prophecy. The Zhang family and the hand that he couldn't see and was controlling in secret were all stained with his daughter's blood.
He killed Zhang Shiming with a smile at the city gate.
Who knew that the hatred in his heart at that time was like a beast breaking out of a cage. How could Zhang Shiming do that!
Madam Hou turned her head away, took a deep breath, raised her hand to wipe away the tears on her face, and exhaled with a trembling breath.
She squatted down and said.
"I saw my little grandson."
Xu Jin raised his head.
Madam Hou raised her hand and indicated a height. "He is this tall, and looks a lot like Yueqing when he was a child. No matter what you are going to do when you come to the capital this time, you must meet him first."
"This child has lived in Ju'an Palace for more than two years. He is thin and sickly. When Yueqing was pregnant, she sent a message to you and me. She loves this child as much as we love her."
She held Xu Jin's hand.
"Meet him and then make a decision."
Madam Hou talked about many things in Beijing, some of which she had already mentioned in the letter, but she said them again. She did not try to pull Xu Jin out of his sadness. How could she force the old man to do something that she herself could not do?
Xu Jin listened, but his back remained hunched.
In the end, Old Madam Hou had nothing more to say and was choked with sobs.
Xu Jin hugged the tablet and burst into tears.
"Nannan... come back, Dad will take you back to the northern border... to ride the most heroic warhorse once again..."
-
Astronomy Department.
Zhang Chansi was correcting the math problems handed in by Qu Dubian.
He still got full marks, which was remarkable, and he made rapid progress. He made some mistakes in details occasionally, but after guidance, he would never make the same mistake again next time. The Seventh Prince's talent in mathematics was simply the best among all the people she had ever seen.
The emissary outside came in hurriedly and reported: "Deputy Chief, the Chief has sent a sign into the palace. He wants to accuse the Sword-wielding Marquis of killing someone at the gate of Kyoto."
Zhang Chan thought for a moment.
"Kill someone."
"The chief said that the Sword-wielding Marquis killed his son, but when he killed him he said that it was an assassin from the Northern Frontier."
"After being beaten, my brain doesn't work well anymore," Zhang Chansi put down her pen.
Si Shi: "Deputy Si Shi, do you want to go and take a look?"
The Zhang family is also Zhang Chansi's clan family, and Zhang Fanming is her blood uncle. A single move in a noble family affects the entire body, and this relationship is unavoidable.
Zhang Chansi: "Where is this?"
Si Shi: "Of course it's the imperial palace."
"That's right," Zhang Chansi said calmly, "If all the ministers in this palace who have been wronged can go directly to the palace to find His Majesty, then there is no need for the laws of the Great Zhou to exist."
Not long.
A reprimand order came to Zhang Fanming.
Eunuch Yu: "Your Majesty has ordered that if you have any grievances, the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice will investigate. Similarly, if the Sword-Bearing Marquis has made any mistakes, the Imperial Censor will impeach him. Without evidence, you are not respecting the procedure by bypassing the yamen and going directly to the Emperor. Considering that you have not recovered from your injuries, you can go home on your own."
Zhang Fanming said angrily, "That's my child! There's no body left, so how can there be any evidence? If you want to authenticate, Eunuch Yu and Commander Zuo were both there, didn't you recognize him? Don't you know if he's an assassin from Northern Frontier or if he has any martial arts skills?"
Eunuch Yu was embarrassed: "We have always been in the palace, how can we know what the assassins from the northern border look like? Lord Zhang, please don't embarrass me. I am just a messenger."
As he was speaking, crackling sounds of explosions were heard from all over the palace.
Eunuch Yu said, "The Fengxian Hall has been cleaned and firecrackers are being set off. I have to go back quickly. Your Majesty has been tired all day and needs to rest well."
After saying that, he turned around and led his men inside.
The palace gates were shut tightly.
Zhang Fanming was still lying on a bamboo bed that was convenient for him to carry, and he shouted at the palace gate: "Your Majesty!!!"
But he was no longer in charge of the Astronomical Observatory. In the imperial city of Kyoto, there was no corpse and no solid evidence. Which government office would dare to cause trouble for the Sword-wielding Marquis at this juncture?
Separated by a wall.
Eunuch Yu looked up at the sky.
He flicked his whisk and said with a smile: "Today is a good day. You guys, your smiles are not pretty enough. Look at me, be more festive!"
"We usually tell you to eat more during the New Year so that you can look plumper. The nobles will be happy, right? Some of you are as skinny as bamboo poles. If you smile at the nobles, people who don't know you would think you are begging for food."
"Smile, smile, eh~that's right!"
Bundles of bamboo were chopped down and placed on the brazier. The bamboo made a sound when heated, and the bitter bamboo fragrance filled every corner of the palace.
Everyone inside must be smiling, and all crying will remain outside the palace walls.
-
Purple Palace.
After cleaning the Fengxian Hall, Concubine Xuan did not return to Shunning Palace, but followed the emperor to the Zichen Hall.
"Tomorrow night, will Xiao Qi come with me to the annual banquet for all officials, or will Your Majesty bring him?"
Emperor Chongzhao was also thinking about this.
"I have a question. I always thought that Xiao Qi was sticking to you one-sidedly, and you didn't want to raise him. Why did you suddenly decide to raise him?"
"No one would reject such a child," said Concubine Xuan. "Your Majesty has raised the child for such a long time, so you should know it clearly."
Emperor Chongzhao: "Xiaoqi is indeed... hard to describe, he is different from other princes. He is not easy to raise, and sometimes he is very stubborn. If he makes you angry, please be gentle."
"?" Concubine Xuan was puzzled. "Why does your majesty think that I would beat children? For so many years, I have never done that except for beating pests when farming."
Emperor Chongzhao was silent for a moment, tried hard for a while, and said tenderly: "Well, let's consider it as compensation for the child we lost..."
Concubine Xuan interrupted with a smile: "Your Majesty, at first, you and I were just friends. I married into the palace because the late emperor granted me a marriage, and I had no choice. Even if there was some affection later, it disappeared with the departure of the child. You and I know each other's temperament, so don't act pretentiously."
"If it weren't for Xiao Qi's matter, Your Majesty and I would probably never speak to each other again in this life. Your Majesty feels awkward, and so do I. It would be better for us to get along like we did before entering the palace."
Emperor Chongzhao coughed twice to cover up.
"That's a bit too straightforward."
Princess Xuan took a sip of tea. It was cold. She was still like this after all these years. The red date milk tea that Xiaoqi sent her was still more delicious.
"I am not the biological mother, so I am still a little bit inferior. Xiaoqi depends on Your Majesty. Your Majesty and I are in a cooperative relationship. We will raise this child together."
As soon as these words were spoken, Emperor Chongzhao's idea of throwing away the burden after finding a mother for Qu Dubian instantly disappeared.
He sighed: "Xiao Qi really can't leave me. So be it."
"Raising a prince requires royal family records, so we have to wait until after the New Year. It would be against the rules for you to attend the New Year banquet, so let him follow me first."
Concubine Xuan: "All is fine."
The two of them were discussing the child issue in the Zichen Hall, while on the other side they were in the West Warm Pavilion.
Qu Watanabe was counting the ostrich feathers he had picked up.
Not much, but ostrich feathers are a good material for making clothes. They are more expensive than down jackets in later generations, and there is basically no static electricity. In his previous life, one of his dance costumes was made of ostrich feathers.
"One, two..."
Dahei sniffed around, and Qu Dubian gently pushed its head away, "Dahei, don't mess around."
The thickest and warmest clothes in the Great Zhou Dynasty now are cotton-padded clothes. He really wants to make down jackets, but the premise for down jackets to benefit the people is that industrial technology can support large-scale processing of duck down, goose down and other materials. Otherwise, it is only something that the nobles can enjoy.
Moreover, he had heard Master Fang mention this in his lectures that people had long been making clothes with feathers of birds and animals as fillings, called feather clothes or animal clothes, for keeping warm, but the smell was unacceptable and they were not popular.
He is just a child now, and if he knows too much he will be regarded as a monster.
He counted the ostrich's feathers because they were beautiful and he wanted to make a shuttlecock. He had a good appetite and even Sister Zhiyi had been eating a little too much recently.
Madam Guo was worried that her sister would have indigestion, but she didn't want her to eat too much hawthorn, after all, eating too much would hurt the stomach.
He made a shuttlecock and gave it to his sister so that she could exercise more and they could play together.
Definitely the most beautiful feather shuttlecock in the harem!
He was very serious about his work, and only realized that he had to go to Shunning Palace for dinner when it was dark, but Emperor Chongzhao did not ask him to go.
The annual banquet is tomorrow night. It's the first time that Concubine Xuan has attended it in several years. She has other things to do and cannot take care of the children.
After the meal, Qu Watanabe continued to fiddle with his unfinished shuttlecock on the bed.
Emperor Chongzhao took out a few round and lovely gold ingots and placed them in front of him.
Qu Watanabe: “?”
Emperor Chongzhao snorted, "Take the flowers, give them to whoever you want, but don't harm my bedposts again!"
"Father, you are so generous," Qu Du praised as he put away the gold ingots and hid them all in his little socks. Seeing this, Emperor Chongzhao's face twisted. "I'm giving it to you, and no one will steal it. What's wrong with you putting it there openly?"
Qu Duanbian didn't say anything. He moved little by little to the bedpost and chuckled.
"But this one seems to be more valuable."
Emperor Chongzhao: “…”
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