Chapter 28
Who do you think she is? A groom?
Do you really intend to nail her to the pillar of shame, make her disgraceful deeds as the emperor's favorite known to the world, record it in history books, and pass it down through the ages?
"You better be more careful."
Zhang Xihua poked Zhu Mingji hard in the chest.
"You're a man, and I'm a man too. You're planning to throw yourself out there and let the world know you're more interested in handsome men than power, but I can't be shameless. I'm going to make three rules with you. If anyone knows we're in this relationship, you'll get out."
"What kind of relationship?" Zhu Mingji asked knowingly.
Zhang Xihua stood on tiptoe, held his face with both hands, and kissed him hard on the lips.
"Are you satisfied with the relationship?"
Zhu Mingji raised the corner of his lips, "It seems that I have to sentence Deqing to death. Only he knows that you and I have this kind of relationship."
Zhang Xihua couldn't bear it, "Deqing is an exception, let's skip him."
"Okay, I'll listen to you."
Zhu Mingji said with a smile.
*
On the fifth day of the third month of the third year of Huiyuan, Zhang Jianren's body was found floating on the surface of the lotus pond by a night watchwoman, but Second Wife Jiaohong and her two children had disappeared.
Chen, the housekeeper of the Zhang Mansion, came to Menlou Hutong to ask Madam Jiang and Zhang Xihua to go back and take charge of the situation.
They moved back to Zhang's house in Zhengchongbeifang.
Mrs. Jiang ordered someone to report to the police. After the coroner examined the body, he told everyone in the Zhang family that Zhang Jianren was first poisoned by arsenic and then fell into the lotus pond. Zhang Jianren died of poisoning, not drowning.
After checking the storehouse in the mansion, almost all the gold and silver jewelry that could be taken away had disappeared.
Zhang Jianren's death was treated as a murder case by the government.
Mrs. Jiang didn't care whether the case could be solved or not. She just regarded the gold and silver jewelry taken away by Jiaohong and her two sons as a gift to thank them for killing the scoundrel Zhang Jianren.
If it weren't for Zhang Jianren, her husband wouldn't have died so young, causing her to be a widow for so many years. She had worked so hard to raise her three daughters to adulthood. It can only be said that evildoers will be punished by God, and Zhang Jianren's death was not unjust.
Zhang Jianren's death was also within Zhang Xihua's expectations.
Jiaohong's two children, Xingchun and Taochun, both have curly hair. Curly hair is a dominant gene, and no one in the Zhang family has curly hair. This shows that Jiaohong had an affair with someone else behind Zhang Jianren's back and gave birth to a pair of children.
Zhang Xihua sent people to investigate openly and secretly, and she actually found out who Jiaohong's adulterer was. She then set up a trap to deliberately lure Zhang Jianren into witnessing Jiaohong and her adulterer with his own eyes. Then it was a dog-eat-dog situation. No matter whether Jiaohong or Zhang Jianren survived, both of them were involved in murder cases and would be punished by the laws of the Ming Dynasty.
Once the hidden danger of Zhang Jianren was eliminated, and both Old Master Zhang and Old Madam Zhang were no longer alive, Mrs. Jiang, who had been worried for so many years about Zhang Xihua disguising herself as a man, felt much more relaxed. She was the well-deserved mistress of the Zhang family.
Madam Jiang then sent Madam Xue with a group of maids and servants to the Duke Cao's mansion in Yingtian Prefecture, Nanzhili to pick up Madam Li. Half a month later, Madam Li was nowhere to be seen on the returning carriage.
Madam Xue reported to Madam Jiang, "As soon as we entered the gates of Yingtian Prefecture, we saw a magnificent wedding procession. After asking passersby, we learned that Madam Li had remarried to the Governor-General of Zhejiang, Hu Yinglong. Madam, please advise me, Madam, whether I should return to the Hu Mansion to pay my respects to Madam Li and pass on a message."
"Hu Yinglong." Madam Jiang pondered for a moment, then smiled. "Back then, Hu Yinglong was a poor scholar, so Duke Cao's mansion refused to give Madam Li to him. That's why Madam Li married into our family and became the second wife. So many years have passed, and Hu Yinglong has become a high-ranking official. It's a beautiful thing for Madam Li to marry him again. Madam Li and I have been sisters-in-law for many years. If she finds a good home, then let her go. Raising Erlang is raising one, and raising Dalang, Erlang, and Sanlang is also raising three."
A dozen days later, Madam Jiang was having Madam Xue distribute the monthly wages to the servants when a maid came in and said, "Madam, the Hu family's wife has sent someone to take the eldest and third sons to visit the Hu family in Zhejiang."
Mrs. Jiang went to the West Garden again to urge the maids and old women to pack bags for the brothers Zhang Xuanhua and Zhang Anhua, and earnestly told Zhang Anhua to take good care of Zhang Xuanhua, and patiently coaxed Zhang Xuanhua to listen to Zhang Anhua.
Before leaving, Zhang Anhua pulled his stupid brother to kneel down and kowtow to Mrs. Jiang.
Mrs. Jiang stepped forward to help her two nephews up, but Zhang Anhua insisted on pulling Zhang Xuanhua and kowtowed three times to Mrs. Jiang.
Zhang Anhua: "After my mother remarried, my great aunt treated my brother and me like her own children. My brother and I are grateful for her devotion to us."
Mrs. Jiang's eyes welled with tears. "Da Lang, San Lang, if you go to the Hu family in Zhejiang and see your mother, don't complain about her remarrying. If you suffer any grievances there, please bear it for now and don't make your mother feel embarrassed. Bring the grievances you have swallowed back home and tell your aunt, okay?"
Zhang Anhua nodded in agreement, and Zhang Xuanhua followed suit.
When sending her two nephews to the carriage, Mrs. Jiang stuffed several gold bars into their sleeves.
Only when the carriage had gone away did Mrs. Jiang burst into tears. Just then she saw Zhang Xihua riding home on horseback.
Zhang Xihua dismounted, handed the reins and whip to the servant, and came over to greet Madam Jiang.
Mrs. Jiang thought of her mother's seventieth birthday and said, "Tomorrow we'll go to your maternal grandmother's house to celebrate. Your two aunts will definitely drag me into the discussion of marriage again. You must behave properly and not cause any trouble."
Zhang Xihua nodded in agreement.
The next day, Zhang Xihua got up early and asked Qingque to pick out a simple bamboo-leaf green brocade robe for him to wear.
After breakfast, Zhang Xihua went to the Jiang Mansion with Mrs. Jiang.
After passing through the main gate and the second gate and entering the main hall of the inner house where Old Madam Jiang lived, the female members of the Jiang family in the hall smiled so hard when they saw Madam Jiang. While chatting with Madam Jiang, they glanced at Zhang Xihua out of the corner of their eyes.
Zhang Xihua hurried forward and greeted Old Lady Jiang who was sitting in the middle, and then called out to her two aunts and four unmarried cousins one by one.
The four girls from the Jiang family blushed and wanted to look at Zhang Xihua more, but they were afraid that the elders present would laugh at them for being unrestrained, so they sat upright and looked straight ahead.
Zhang Xihua talked with Old Mrs. Jiang for a while, and then suggested going to the front yard to play tossing pots with the three cousins of the Jiang family.
Old Lady Jiang ordered the servants following Zhang Xihua to take good care of him.
When Zhang Xihua stepped out of the door, she ran into the women of the Xu family who came to celebrate the birthday, including Xu Baoyin.
Although the Xu and Zhang families were not on good terms, Xiao Jiang called Zhang Xihua "Erlang" first, and Zhang Xihua also had to greet Xiao Jiang.
When Xu Baoyin saw Zhang Xihua looking at her with eyes that were so tight that they could be stretched, she was about to open her mouth when she was interrupted by Xu Minde's wife Jiang Xuelan.
Jiang Xuelan is the eldest daughter of the Jiang family's main branch. She knows that her mother, Min, intends to marry one of her two younger sisters to Zhang Xihua. She also knows that Xu Baoyin became Prince Jing's concubine because she wanted to marry Zhang Xihua but failed. She was not willing to let Xu Baoyin say a word to Zhang Xihua and forcibly dragged Xu Baoyin into the main hall.
After the birthday banquet started, Zhang Xihua was forced to drink a lot of wine by the young men of the Jiang family. She felt a little dizzy, so she took Qingque and Feiyue for a walk in the garden.
Seeing the familiar figure in the pavilion ahead, Zhang Xihua turned around to leave, but Xu Baoyin in the pavilion ran over and blocked her way.
Xu Baoyin knelt directly in front of Zhang Xihua and looked up at her pitifully.
"Erlang, since we grew up together, please help me."
Xu Baoyin rolled up her sleeves, revealing two arms covered in scars: burns, whip marks, teeth marks, and knife scars...
Zhang Xihua stepped back a few steps and ordered Qingque and Feiyue to keep watch before saying to Xu Baoyin, "You have a father, mother, and two brothers. You don't ask for help from your own family, but you come to ask a stranger like me?"
Xu Baoyin choked up and said, "My father, mother, and two brothers love me and have come to Prince Jing's mansion to plead for me several times, but Prince Jing is not a human being and beats them without mercy. I really have no other choice. I want to escape Prince Jing's torture, so I come to you for help. The princess was forced by Prince Jing to become a nun. I wanted to follow her, but Prince Jing said that if I dared to do that, he would strangle my daughter to death."
"You should tell this to the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice. How can I help you?" Zhang Xihua was not a heartless person, but he did not dare to agree to Xu Baoyin openly.
"Empress Cheng in the palace has been childless, so Empress Dowager Zhang came up with an idea. She wanted Empress Cheng to follow the example of ordinary women who had difficulty conceiving and adopt a daughter first, so that the adopted daughter could bring her a child." Xu Baoyin kowtowed to Zhang Xihua. "If you, Erlang, are willing to speak to Empress Cheng, she will definitely agree to choose my daughter as her adopted daughter. As long as I have no reservations, I don't mind fighting to the death with Prince Jing."
"Empress Cheng is an inner court lady, and I am an outsider. I can't help you with this." Zhang Xihua said.
"Erlang, if you won't help me, I will—"
"You're going to spread the word that I'm a woman?" Zhang Xihua sneered. "What I hate most in my life is people threatening me. Xu Baoyin, you've brought this upon yourself. If you really want to go around singing about being a woman, ask yourself if you're worthy of my mother's love and trust."
"Erlang, as we are both women, can't you have some mercy on me?" Xu Baoyin pulled Zhang Xihua's sleeve.
"Let me show you a clear path. Prince Jing loves beautiful women, and that's his weakness. You can't panic and ask for help everywhere. Only you can save yourself." Zhang Xihua lowered his voice. "There's a secret medicine on the black market that came from foreign countries called snake fragrance seeds. It becomes highly toxic when it comes into contact with Albizia julibrissin pollen."
After Zhang Xihua finished speaking, he turned away.
Xu Baoyin kowtowed several more times towards Zhang Xihua's back.
Erlang was still as tough on the outside but soft on the inside. She hadn't misjudged him.
In exchange for saving her daughter, Empress Cheng asked her to commit suicide and falsely accuse Erlang of having an affair with her, so that she could control Erlang.
She won't do it.
She said that she would keep Erlang's secret even in death.
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