Chapter 226 Anyway, my older sister wouldn't lie to me.
Jiang Wuyu only said one sentence and then stopped, clearly keeping everyone in suspense. Zhou Mujiao then said, "Chen Liangjin is the nineteenth prince."
Why are you so certain?
"If he isn't, then there's no point in mentioning it."
“Ah Jiao is so intelligent, it’s a pity she’s a woman. In the current Liang Dynasty, there’s no room for her to show her abilities.” Jiang Wuyu sighed. “That’s right, Chen Liangjin is indeed the nineteenth prince.”
Chen Liangjin's background was unexpected and quite complicated. When the emperor heard it, he was speechless for a long time.
The "nineteenth prince" in the palace back then was actually the child of Chen's wet nurse.
The wet nurse and her husband were both long-term workers in the Chen family. They didn't want to be slaves for generations, so they took the opportunity to dress their son in the same swaddling clothes as Madam Chen's son and then hand their son over to that palace servant as Lord Chen's son.
Fearing the palace servant wouldn't believe her, the wet nurse put on a show. She pretended to be reluctant to send her master's son to his death, switched the swaddling clothes of the two children, and deliberately let the palace servant notice something amiss, sending him away to switch them back. In this way, she successfully sent her own son into the palace, while she took the nineteenth prince home.
However, Madam Chen always felt that he was not her child and suspected that the wet nurse and Lord Chen were having an affair. Lord Chen was very attentive to the wet nurse's child, so Madam Chen suspected that the child was also Lord Chen's son. She compared the two children together and felt that the wet nurse's son looked more like her. Therefore, she believed that the wet nurse had stolen her child, so she switched the child next to the wet nurse back and switched the child next to her.
Little did she know that this change would make her son the wet nurse's son, while the one beside her would be the nineteenth prince, who had no blood relation to her whatsoever.
The wet nurse and her husband passed away when Young Master Chen was eight years old. The child who was with them from a young age was Si Jiu.
"Madam Chen is unwilling to accept this fact, unwilling to acknowledge Si Jiu, and has driven him out," Jiang Wuyu said. "Now he's in our household, young lady, what do you plan to do with him?"
"What are your plans, Uncle Jiang?"
"Being able to accompany and serve the Nineteenth Prince since childhood, the Chen family's young master, Sijiu, is not disgraced. Moreover, the Chen family has been able to survive until now entirely because of Chen Liangjin. Now that Chen Liangjin is the Nineteenth Prince, he naturally has nothing to do with the Chen family anymore."
Of course, considering the Chen family's merit in raising the nineteenth prince, the Emperor would naturally reward them handsomely. With these rewards, the Chen family wouldn't fall into ruin, and their food, drink, and daily necessities wouldn't differ much from before. However, for the forty-nine, the change in his status brought not good things, but rather a blow.
"so?"
"I plan to send him back to the Nineteenth Prince."
Zhou Mujiao nodded: "Since this is Uncle Jiang's plan, then let's do it this way. Sijiu is good. He has nowhere to go after leaving the Chen family. Let him follow Young Master Chen, uh, follow the Nineteenth Prince. He can learn something. After a few years, when he gets married, he can start his own household."
"However," Jiang Wuyu hesitated for a moment before speaking, "the Nineteenth Prince is unwilling to return to the royal family. The Empress Dowager's idea is for you and Yun Jing to help persuade him."
"I can't do that."
Zhou Mujiao directly refused: "Whether he wants to be a young master of the Chen family or a member of the royal family is his freedom, and others should not and cannot interfere. If there is nothing else, Uncle Jiang, I want to say a few words to Xiao Wu and Xiao Jiu."
Jiang Wuyu nodded and went into the palace, while Zhou Mujiao called Xiao Wu and Xiao Jiu over and asked them what they thought now.
Xiao Wu was already thirteen years old. The little boy's face was full of determination, but also a lot of confusion. He asked Zhou Mujiao, "Sister, I don't like that maternal grandfather. Am I being unfilial?"
"Does Xiao Wu himself feel unfilial?"
“I don’t think so. Because Xiao Wu had never met him before, and he had never cared about me. To me, he was just a stranger. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not liking a stranger. But,” Xiao Wu was distressed, “I heard someone say that I wasn’t sad enough, that I was unfilial.”
"Humans have a mouth, and besides eating, they talk. Of all the words people say every day, 99% of them are nonsense. Only a silly child like you would let other people's nonsense affect your mindset."
Zhou Mujiao patted his shoulder: "Have you forgotten? This isn't the first time we've been accused of being unfilial. Back in Peach Blossom Village, we didn't even go to see Old Lady Zhou off when she died. Didn't many people talk about that then? But so what? Xiao Wu, Xiao Jiu, as human beings, we not only have to be true to heaven and earth and to our conscience, but we also have to be true to ourselves. I hope that no matter what, you will always put yourselves first, understand?"
The two boys seemed to understand, but they both took it all in.
It's okay if you don't understand now, you'll understand when you're older. Anyway, your older sister would never lie to them.
Zhou Mujiao had no intention of staying in the capital for long and planned to leave after seven days. During this time, she met Sister Liu and Boss Tang, explained many things to Wei Xu, and Physician Liu from the palace came to the mansion every day. The Empress Dowager also sent some food to the Li family every day.
Everyone thought she must be extremely sad and tried to cheer her up, but Zhou Mujiao said nothing and simply accepted their kindness.
That afternoon, Uncle Zhao and Aunt Zhao arrived.
Aunt Zhao pulled Zhou Mujiao aside and asked with great concern, "Ajiao, if I may ask you something, what's the deal with this 19th Prince?"
"What? What happened?"
"It's rumored that you and the Nineteenth Prince met when you were still young and have a very good relationship. The Nineteenth Prince even said that he would marry no one but you." Aunt Zhao said worriedly, "It's not that I'm afraid you will abandon Yun Jing, but I'm afraid that if he is really so stubborn, will the Emperor really give in to him?"
"Does Auntie know who that nineteenth prince is?"
Aunt Zhao shook her head blankly.
The couple had been in the capital for a year or two. They weren't exactly familiar with the inner palace, but they did know a little about how many princes the emperor had and which ones were still alive. Back in Peach Blossom County, they had heard the Sixteenth Prince mention that the princes who were the same age as him were the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Princes.
The seventeenth prince was a great general capable of leading troops into battle. Although the eighteenth prince was inferior in many aspects, he was not entirely absent. The nineteenth and twentieth princes, however, both died young at the age of seven or eight.
Now this person who died young has suddenly come back to life and says he will marry no one but Zhou Mujiao. If the Zhao couple didn't trust Zhou Mujiao enough, they might have suspected that she deliberately flirted with him while in the palace.
"The nineteenth prince is Young Master Chen, the one who ranked third in the imperial examination."
It was him?!
The couple exchanged a glance, deeply shocked.
Before the two could learn more, the steward came to report that the nineteenth prince had arrived.
The Zhao couple exchanged another glance, and Aunt Zhao pulled Zhou Mujiao away, saying, "Yun Jing and the Nineteenth Prince became sworn brothers a few years ago, so he has to call your father 'father.' Come on, let your father handle this. We're going back to our room."
Zhou Mujiao smiled and reassured her, "Mother, the Nineteenth Prince came here specifically for me. If he doesn't see me today, he'll come again tomorrow, and if he doesn't see me tomorrow, he'll come again the day after. Why don't we let him in and hear what he has to say?"
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