Chapter 106: Second Madam has a lover?
Tingcha was already half asleep, and was awakened by the sound of carriage wheels. He then heard his second master's scolding, so he rubbed his eyes and took another look.
The carriage curtain was blown up by the wind, and the man's silhouette was vaguely visible. Tingcha pointed at the carriage and stammered, "Second Master, look, the man sitting inside... is a handsome man! Does the Second Madam have a lover?"
The carriage did not stop, and the driver treated them as beggars talking nonsense on the street. Jiang Xu did not even look at the two people in the dark.
Lu Changqing bit his lips hard until the sweet and fishy taste of blood filled his mouth.
Even though Fang Qianxue had scolded him, embarrassed him in public, and divorced him, he always felt that Fang Qianxue had been waiting for him. As long as he gave up Xu Miaoyan and turned back, he and Fang Qianxue could go back to the days when they were husband and wife.
But today, the man in the carriage deeply hurt his heart and made him realize that Fang Qianxue seemed to no longer be waiting for him there.
Lu Changqing felt uneasy. His idea of remarrying seemed like a joke at this moment.
"Second Master, shall we go back?" Tingcha asked carefully, "It's already late at night."
Lu Changqing was drunk today. He didn't see Fang Qianxue and refused to go home. He wandered around the street all night.
"Tingcha, do you recognize the man in the carriage just now?" Lu Changqing asked.
"I don't recognize him, but he's really good-looking, a handsome young man." Tingcha remembered that the man didn't seem to be wearing an outer robe, only an inner garment, and sighed, "The second lady must have been having a tryst with that man just now, so she didn't see you."
"You don't recognize him, but I do." Lu Changqing suddenly revealed a ferocious sneer, "He is Jiang Xu, the son of Liaoyuan Marquis Jiang Tianxing. He has been a hostage in Shangjing since he was a child. Humph, as a hostage, he dares to flirt with other women. I will make him taste the taste of being ruined!"
The next day, rumors began to spread in Shangjing City that Guan Qianxue, the female seal holder of Shou'an Palace, had secretly met with Jiang Xu, the eldest son of Liaoyuan Hou at night. This incident caused a sensation in Shangjing.
There were even some gossipers who made the details of their tryst exaggerate, saying that Qilin took Jiang Xu to Fang's house at night to have a tryst with Fang Qianxue, and after the two of them were intimate, Jiang Xu was sent back by carriage in the late night.
Jiang Xu and Fang Qianxue were both unmarried, so the censor could not say anything. However, the rumor became more and more intense, and soon everyone in the city knew about it. Fang Qianxue's reputation was definitely affected. The women in Shangjing City were envious when they saw Fang Qianxue, while the men looked at her with contempt.
"Lord Fang, the princess invites you to enjoy the flowers." As soon as she came out of the palace that day, she saw a eunuch riding towards her.
"Got it." Fang Qianxue nodded, "I'll be there right away."
Then he let the carriage follow the eunuch's horse to the princess's palace.
"Sir, this rumor is too outrageous!" Cui Shuang complained, "It's all Qilin's fault for taking the initiative. Why don't you explain? You and Young Marquis Jiang were talking about serious matters!"
"Instead of letting people guess what I discussed with Jiang Xu, it's better to let them think that we are in love." Fang Qianxue casually flipped through a few teachers' resumes and letters of recommendation. She finally made up her mind to hire a teacher for Fang Qingyuan and Fang Qingyao.
If a person does not learn, he will not know etiquette. The two little kids should also start elementary education. However, she has interviewed several failed candidates in the past few days. Although they are failed candidates, they should be more than capable of teaching the two little kids. She offered a lot of tuition, but they all found a reason to reject her. Some said that they had young children, some said that their mothers were sick, and some said that they did not get along well with Fang Qingyuan and Fang Qingyao.
Moreover, the way those scholars looked at her was not to say that they were looking at a street rat, but at least there was a hint of contempt in them, and one of them even put on an attitude of "wealth and honor cannot corrupt me".
Fang Qianxue later thought that it was probably those rumors that affected her image among the scholars, so people thought she was a slut and were unwilling to come to the Fang Mansion to teach.
These few days she had no choice but to ask someone to find a few teachers whose families were short of money, hoping that she could persuade one of them.
Before they knew it, the carriage arrived at the Princess's Mansion.
Fang Qianxue got off the carriage and followed the eunuch to see the eldest princess.
"Qianxue, you're here! Come meet Xingchen and Yian."
The weather was hot, and Xiao Mingjie was sitting in the pavilion in the garden feeding the fish. Lin Baoyue and Lin Xingchen were also sitting below eating melons.
"Godmother! Young Master, County Lady," Fang Qianxue led the maid into the waterside pavilion and immediately caught sight of the man in black beside her. She knelt down and saluted, "Uncle."
"Fang...Sister Fang." Lin Xingchen couldn't take his eyes off her.
Lin Baoyue looked at her with a strange look.
Xiao Mingzhe just glanced at her and then looked away.
"The melons are pretty good this year," Xiao Mingjie casually picked a topic, "so I wanted to invite you to try some."
"Aren't we here to enjoy the flowers?" Fang Qianxue asked with a smile.
"Well, I just missed you," Xiao Mingjie took her hand and sat down, then asked, "What are you busy with recently?"
"Your Majesty ordered the three courts to review the Fang family's case. Naturally, I am looking for evidence to overturn the Fang family's verdict." Fang Qianxue shook her head gently, "But it's not that easy to find. This case involves many people, and there are not many people alive."
"Speaking of Xiao Chi, he is indeed my favorite nephew. When I was a child, a fortune teller said that he would live to be ninety-nine years old. More than a year ago, he sent someone to give me Jiangning's spiritual silk satin on my birthday." Xiao Mingjie sighed as she looked into the void in the distance, "Who knew..."
Originally, sympathizing with and missing the traitors was a serious crime, but at the moment there were only a few of them in the pavilion, so Xiao Mingjie did not hide anything and said whatever she wanted to say.
"Even a tiger doesn't eat its own cubs. What happened to my royal brother over the years?" Xiao Mingzhe finally found the opportunity to interrupt.
"That's right!" Lin Baoyue said, "There used to be a lot of cousins, but there are fewer and fewer in recent years."
"You are still too young and don't understand many things," Xiao Mingjie said, "It's not that my brother is heartless, but that he has given all his love to the late queen."
"Who is the former queen?" Lin Xingchen asked.
"The former Queen Yu was of humble origins, the daughter of a minor official. My brother was only a prince at the time, but he insisted on making her his principal wife after she gave birth to a son, and promised that his future heir would only be born from the Yu family."
"What happened next?" Fang Qianxue asked.
"Later, my brother ascended the throne and Yu became the empress, and her son was made the crown prince. But within a year, both mother and son died," Xiao Mingjie recalled. "In order to ensure that my brother had many children, my mother had stuffed a lot of people into his harem, some of whom gave birth to sons. As for who killed Yu, no one knows. My brother couldn't find the culprit, so he killed all the concubines who gave birth to sons, along with their sons, in a rage. That was the first time he killed his sons."
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