Chapter 219
219
Cheng Zhao noticed the Tenth Prince because he had a very familiar feeling when he first met the Tenth Prince, but he couldn't tell exactly where he felt familiar.
Now the Fourth Prince specifically mentioned their similarities, which stunned everyone present. They all looked at their appearances, but they did not dare to look at them openly, but observed secretly.
Even Cheng Zhao, after hearing what the Fourth Prince said, looked carefully at the Tenth Prince's face, but no matter how he looked left and right, he could not see any similarities between them.
Although the others could not see anything, but considering the tone of the Fourth Prince, they could not help but think that Cheng Zhao was the Emperor's illegitimate son.
Cheng Zhao also saw the meaning of his mockery, "What do you mean?"
"I didn't mean anything. I just said it casually. If you have nothing to hide, you won't think about it in that way." The Fourth Prince didn't say it explicitly, but he still spoke in a sarcastic tone.
"Don't be so sarcastic. Just say whatever you think, unless you don't have the courage to speak it out." Cheng Zhao was never afraid of him. Before returning to Beijing, he always regarded the Fourth Prince and the Fifth Prince as his best friends. He thought they could be friends for life, but the Fourth Prince changed and hurt his heart badly. When he spoke to the Fourth Prince, his tone was also sarcastic.
The fourth prince was doted on by the queen and influenced by the emperor, so his temper gradually became violent.
The emperor intended to make him the crown prince, and he developed a character of being very decisive. Normally, if he was unhappy with someone, he would beat them to death if they were ordinary eunuchs or palace maids. If they were the children of some officials or his own brothers and sisters, he would also beat and scold them, or torture them in some way. Generally, no one dared to provoke him, let alone refute him.
The Fourth Prince already had deep resentment towards Cheng Zhao, and now that Cheng Zhao was questioning him, he was so angry that he pulled out the whip from his waist and swung it at Cheng Zhao.
Cheng Zhao dodged his attack, but the whip hit the campfire nearby. The burning wood flew everywhere and almost hit the children nearby. Cheng Zhao quickly pulled the two
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A child rescued the two of them, and the remaining children were rescued by the four adopted sons of the Cheng family. Although no one was injured, the tent behind them was not so lucky.
The officers and soldiers guarding the area rushed over to put out the fire. Fortunately, they arrived in time and put out the fire quickly. Fortunately, no one was injured and not much of the stuff in the tent was burned.
They made such a big commotion that even the emperor was alarmed. When he came over, he just saw the Fourth Prince about to whip Cheng Zhao.
"Stop!" The emperor was shocked and quickly ordered people to pull them apart. When the Fourth Prince was pulled apart by the eunuchs, he continued to struggle and wanted to hit Cheng Zhao. Cheng Zhao also looked at him weakly, as if he would fight back if Cheng Zhao dared to attack him again.
The emperor has always treated Cheng Zhao as his own child and felt that the Fourth Prince and Cheng Zhao were brothers. He could not bear to see brothers turning against each other.
He called all the princes and the children who were watching to his tent and asked, "What happened? You were so close before, why are you fighting now?"
The other children all hung their heads and dared not say a word.
The emperor turned to look at Cheng Zhao and asked, "What happened? Don't lie."
Cheng Zhao recounted the general course of events, especially repeating what the Fourth Prince had said about him looking a lot like the Tenth Prince and about him having something to hide.
After he finished speaking, the Fourth Prince asked the Emperor excitedly, "Father, are those rumors true? Is Cheng Zhao your child?"
The emperor didn't expect him to say such words, especially in front of so many people. Because the Fourth Prince was the first child born after the emperor traveled through time, he always doted on the Fourth Prince like his own sweetheart, and they had no scruples when talking to each other. Normally, the Fourth Prince would also quarrel with him.
"I really dote on you too much, allowing you to say such things!" The emperor still wanted to maintain his dignity, so he would not personally admit that Cheng Zhao was his child.
When he said this, the Queen happened to rush over. When she heard the Fourth Prince's words and the Emperor's angry questioning, she was so frightened that her heart was trembling. She hurried in, hugged the Fourth Prince, and begged for mercy from the Emperor.
Not only the Queen came, but also the mothers of several other princes, including the mother of the tenth prince.
The mother of the tenth prince was rather special, as she was a boy. Normally, the royal family would not appoint a boy as a concubine, let alone let a prince or princess be born from a boy's belly.
But the emperor broke this rule. At first, he just raised this boy in a summer garden outside the palace for the royal family. He loved this boy very much at that time. Later, when the boy became pregnant with the tenth prince, he secretly let this boy give birth to the tenth prince. Later, when the empress dowager was ill and no one took care of him, he brought this boy and the tenth prince back to the palace and made her a concubine. At present, except for the princess from the neighboring country, his favorite is this boy.
When Cheng Zhao saw the Tenth Prince's mother, he was stunned. He had a very familiar feeling when he looked at the Tenth Prince before. It might be because the Tenth Prince was too young and he couldn't see anything, but his mother looked about 60% similar to Shen Yuntang, especially the demeanor of her every move, as well as her hairstyle and clothing preferences, which were very similar to Shen Yuntang.
If someone who has only seen Shen Yuntang once or twice happened to meet the Tenth Prince's mother, they would definitely mistake her for Shen Yuntang.
Cheng Zhao finally understood the other meaning of the Fourth Prince's words just now. Before, he just thought that the Fourth Prince was implying that he was the Emperor's illegitimate child. Now he realized that the Fourth Prince was also saying that the Emperor had had that kind of relationship with his father in private.
This humiliation made him so angry that he wanted to tear the Fourth Prince's mouth apart. However, even more hateful than the Fourth Prince was the Emperor. Why did he want to find a concubine who looked almost like his father? If the appearance is a coincidence, then how do we explain the expression and clothing?
The more he thought about it, the more disgusted he felt.
Finally, the Emperor punished the Fourth Prince by confining him to his tent for ten days and forbidding him to go out, go hunting, or stay in the carriage when setting out.
When the Fourth Prince left, he glared at Cheng Zhao fiercely.
The emperor also comforted Cheng Zhao and asked someone to count what was burned in Cheng Zhao's tent and replace it with double the amount.
Cheng Yeran and Shen Yuntang also heard about the conflict between the Fourth Prince and Cheng Zhao. They came to take Cheng Zhao back out of concern and happened to see the Tenth Prince's mother.
Before, the concubines all stayed in specific tents, and outsiders like them had no chance to see those concubines. When Cheng Yeran and Shen Yuntang were called to the palace for a banquet, they did meet the queen and two other concubines. This time was the first time he met the mother of the tenth prince.
It was the first time Shen Yuntang saw someone who looked so similar to himself. He was stunned for a moment and did not recognize him immediately.
Cheng Yeran immediately knew what was going on, because even the concubine's expression was very similar to Shen Yuntang's. How could there be such a coincidence in the world? It must have been a deliberate imitation.
The emperor's actions were too obvious, and Cheng Yeran had to take it seriously. He was not only angry, but also felt a sense of crisis. The emperor had only found a substitute now. What if the emperor stopped pretending and snatched Shen Yuntang away?
After that, the emperor would go to see the local scenery in several places they passed by, and he would clear the area every time he traveled, otherwise people would stop on the roadside.
Cheng Yeran and Shen Yuntang did not follow the emperor all the time. When they were walking around on their own, they found that the people here were very strange.
Shen Yuntang asked Cheng Yeran: "Don't you think these people are dressed too well, but they are very thin and their faces don't look like they can eat enough."
Cheng Yeran also noticed it, "How can you buy such nice clothes when you can't even get enough food?"
Shen Yuntang: "Could it be that the local officials did this on purpose to deal with the emperor's trip?"
"It must be. I will report to the emperor and check it out."
One of the main reasons why Cheng Yeran was able to catch corrupt officials so smoothly when he was the prefect was because of the support of the emperor.
Although he is now dissatisfied with the emperor in many ways, one thing is for sure, for the sake of the people, he must do this.
However, after he found the emperor and explained the matter, the emperor said that he was thinking too much. After Cheng Yeran's strong persuasion, the emperor said that he would send Cheng Yeran here to investigate after they returned to Beijing.
The time they had here was limited, only five days in total. Cheng Yeran privately asked his lawyer to contact the people and secretly donate some money to them to help them get through the difficult times temporarily.
Later they went to several other places and found that most of the conditions were similar to that city.
Cheng Yeran couldn't stay too long, so he asked Du Fengchen and the master to investigate secretly. He also sent them more people. When they saw the poor people, they gave them some money and food.
When Shen Yuntang heard about his plan, he also took out a lot of money and asked people to buy some food to distribute.
They traveled to many places along the way and finally arrived at their hometown village.
The village is completely different from before they left. Not only is there a fertilizer factory in the village, but the second brother and the eldest brother have opened a dried tofu factory together. They use sealed glass jars to store tofu for longer periods of time, and the village is gradually becoming prosperous.
They were notified in advance of the emperor's trip and even built a temporary palace on the mountain in the village.
The official here is still the County Magistrate Chen. He is a good official and will not make things difficult for the villagers. If they have money, they can donate more, and if they don’t have money, they don’t have to give. It is all voluntary.
But Lord Chen had no way to prevent them from avoiding corvée labor. When corvée labor was levied, the people here basically spent money to hire workers and craftsmen from outside to build the palace.
Among them, Shen Yuntang's parents are already the richest family in the province. They are not used to life in the city and have always lived in the village. Shen's father and mother donated a lot of money, which was sent back by Shen Yuntang before.
They thought that they must not let the emperor find fault with the palace here. After all, this was Shen Yuntang and Cheng Yeran's hometown. If the emperor was not satisfied with the living conditions and took his anger out on Cheng Yeran, that would be terrible.
Although Shen Yuntang always wrote to them saying that he was doing business and making a lot of money, in his parents' eyes, as a boy, it was good enough for him to take care of the rear house, not to do business. He was probably like the wives of officials in the county town, buying a few shops and having people help manage them and collecting debts every year.
After the emperor and his team entered the village, the emperor changed his behavior as in other areas. In the past, in other areas, the emperor never chose to stay in villages, let alone chat with the people. Every time he went out, he would first drive away the people on the street, as he was afraid that there might be assassins mixed in.
But after entering the village of Cheng Yeran's hometown, he not only did not drive the villagers away, but also asked the villagers to come forward and talk to him, and his tone and demeanor were very friendly.
The people were originally very scared, but when they saw Cheng Yeran beside the emperor, they felt that it was because of Cheng Yeran that the emperor was so kind to them.
Everyone in the village knew that Cheng Yeran had become the prime minister. He was a person from their village, so they all felt proud and honored. They had completely forgotten how they had despised and bullied Cheng Yeran in the past.
When the emperor saw that the villagers were so afraid of him and spoke in a fawning and flattering manner, he felt very satisfied and felt that he had gotten rid of his anger.
Moreover, his position is different now. Looking at this group of people who are like ants, he feels relieved about what happened in the past. These people in front of him do not deserve his hatred at all.
The emperor looked at Cheng Yeran standing aside, and suddenly remembered that he is the emperor now. The villagers’ attitude towards him is that they are afraid of his identity as the emperor, and Cheng Yeran is the former him. He wondered how Cheng Yeran would be treated by the villagers now that he is the prime minister.
He asked several villagers what they thought of Cheng Yeran.
Although the villagers treated Cheng Yeran badly in the past, now he is the prime minister. How can they say he is bad? What's more, all the profitable industries in the village are related to Cheng Yeran. The village has built roads, the school is bigger, and the children can go to school for free. Cheng Yeran's status as prime minister makes outsiders dare not bully them.
Because of the interests at stake, they cannot say anything bad about Cheng Yeran.
They kept praising Cheng Yeran to the emperor.
"We used the fertilizer made by Mr. Cheng, and our grain production increased several times. We never went hungry again."
"Mr. Cheng also donated money to build a school in the village. That school is better than any school in the county town. He also invited teachers to come and teach. My child passed the imperial examination last year. That was all thanks to Mr. Cheng."
The villagers praised Cheng Yeran one after another, wishing to praise him to the sky. The emperor was also happy to hear it, as if he was
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He seemed happy as if he had been praised, but when he heard a villager talking about Cheng Yeran's past, his face suddenly sank.
An older villager said: "Mr. Cheng was not a good person when he was young. He was lazy, greedy, and very narrow-minded. But after he got married, his personality changed drastically and he suddenly became very motivated."
"It is said that Shen Fulang brings prosperity to his wife, but it also depends on whether Master Cheng can stand firm on his own."
"Your Majesty, please don't misunderstand us as lying and deliberately picking nice words to praise Master Cheng. Since Master Cheng got married, he seems to have become a different person and has become better and better. If he is still as stupid as before, we still won't say a good word about him."
"Enough!" The emperor's expression suddenly changed. He looked at the surprised eyes of the crowd, and worried that they would find out something, so he softened his attitude, "I am tired, you all should leave."
Cheng Yeran also withdrew. After leaving the emperor's palace, he was taken away by the Shen family. Shen Yuntang and Cheng Zhao did not come to the palace. After entering the village, they went directly to the Shen family and lived there.
The Shen family has changed now. They have built a large courtyard and have servants to serve them. It looks very impressive.
Before Shen Yuntang came back, he was worried that his parents would suffer and was reluctant to spend money. Now that he sees his parents enjoying life like this, he realizes that his worries were unnecessary.
When his parents saw Shen Yuntang, they hugged him and cried for a long time. They no longer ignored their children as they did before. In the past, life was hard at home and his parents had to work every day until they were numb from exhaustion. They also had to divide their energy to take care of six children. It was inevitable that they did not take good care of them and did not give each child much love.
Since I no longer have to work and my personality has changed as I’ve grown older, I have plenty of time every day to love my children.
They usually care about their eldest and second brothers in various ways and worry about their children. The children in their families have calluses on their ears from listening to their nagging every day.
They were used to expressing their feelings to their children. When Shen Yuntang came back, they hugged him and cried, saying out many things in their heart.
After Shen Yuntang felt their enthusiasm, he felt a little uncomfortable.
His parents asked him many questions with concern, and asked him whether Cheng Yeran had taken a concubine. If so, they advised him to be more generous, saying that there is no man who is not unfaithful. They also said that he only gave birth to one child for Cheng Yeran, and that he was selfish and weak, so it would be better for him to take more concubines and have more children. Anyway, no matter who gave birth to the children, he would be the mistress and those children would be his children.
This made Shen Yuntang very speechless, but these old traditions had been rooted in his parents' minds for decades and could not be changed in a short time. It would be a waste of words to talk too much, and he might even be brainwashed by his parents. He quickly changed the subject and said, "Dad and mom haven't met Xingxing yet, I'll call him over. Later, we had another daughter named Azhu and four adopted sons. There are many people in our family, and it's lively."
When the parents heard that they could see their grandson, they were extremely happy and asked, "When did you give birth to your daughter? Why didn't you tell us?"
Shen Yuntang wanted to treat Ah Zhu as his own daughter, and was struggling over whether or not to tell his parents that Ah Zhu was adopted. He was so conflicted that he did not mention it in the letter, thinking that he would decide next time whether the child was born or adopted. As a result, he kept putting it off and never told his parents.
"I was too busy and didn't have time to tell you." Shen Yuntang made up an excuse, but in the end he didn't tell her that he picked up Ah Zhu.
He wanted to keep this matter secret for the time being. If everyone in the family knew about it, or if someone let it slip and let Ah Zhu know, he was afraid that she wouldn't be able to bear it.
Even if I tell Ah Zhu, I have to wait until she grows up a little.
He brought Cheng Zhao and Ah Zhu in, and the four adopted sons followed them in.
Dad and Mom had never met Cheng Zhao and had always kept in touch through letters. However, writing letters was not the same as seeing him in person. When Dad and Mom saw Cheng Zhao, they couldn't help but hug him and Ah Zhu and cried.
Mother Shen touched Cheng Zhao's head and said, "You are almost grown into a big boy."
She looked at Ah Zhu again. This little girl was pretty and well-behaved. She was the type of little girl that the elders liked the most, but she was a little shy. She kept pulling Shen Yuntang's sleeve and hiding behind him.
Mother Shen kindly squatted down and touched her head. Just as she was about to say something, she noticed that one of Ah Zhu's hands was missing three fingers. She felt extremely distressed. Just as she was about to pick up Ah Zhu and talk about her fingers, Cheng Yeran came back.
While everyone went to see Cheng Yeran, Shen Yuntang hurriedly told his parents not to mention the matter of Ah Zhu's finger, and not to show any sympathetic tone.
When they were at home, they never felt that Ah Zhu was disabled, and they would never bring up this matter on their own initiative, so that Ah Zhu would not feel that she was different.
After Cheng Yeran came back, the food at home was ready and they could start the feast.
The Shen family prepared a welcoming banquet for them. Not only their parents and two brothers were invited, but also some relatives and the village chief, and several tables were set up.
When Cheng Yeran passed the imperial examination and became a scholar, the Shen family held a party. Although many people came at that time, the food was very ordinary. It is different now. Now they are richer and the food is much more luxurious.
Mother Shen pulled a few children over to their side, looked at how they were dressed, and was worried that they might not be used to the food, but when she saw that they were eating with relish, she felt relieved.
Cheng Yeran was dragged by Shen's father to drink. He had been an official for so many years, but his alcohol tolerance had not increased. After drinking a small glass, he told his father that he couldn't drink anymore. Others wanted to toast, but after hearing him say that, they gave up.
When he passed the imperial examination and became a scholar, his family held a banquet and these people forced him to drink a lot. Shen Yuntang also drank too much. Now that his status and position are different, everyone has become more cautious.
Shen's father and mother told them to stay after they finished eating and prepared an empty room for them.
Cheng Yeran said that he wanted to move back with Shen Yuntang, but there was only one room in their house, so they left the child here and the two of them took Ah Zhu back to live.
My parents said they wanted to keep Ah Zhu here, and they would have no problem looking after several children. Ah Zhu was playing with her two cousins. Although she was still very reserved, the two cousins were very gentle and she rarely rejected her temper.
When Shen Yuntang asked her if she wanted to stay, Ah Zhu was having a great time and said she was willing to stay.
The two of them went back to their own home.
The house was exactly the same as when I left, and it was even cleaner.
They remember that they always stayed on the kang in winter.
The weather is hot now, and there is no kang heated, so the two of them moved the table into the yard, drank tea there, and planned to have dinner there in the evening.
Time seemed to have gone back to a long time ago, when Cheng Yeran had just traveled through time. The difference was that at that time he had to grow vegetables, raise chickens and ducks, and sell dried tofu every day.
Life is easy now, and all that’s left is to enjoy it. “After a few years, we’ll go home and retire.”
After Shen Yuntang finished speaking, he saw Cheng Yeran's worried face, as if he was thinking about something, and asked him: "What happened just now?"
Cheng Yeran nodded: "Just now, His Majesty called many villagers over to question them, and asked them a lot about their opinions on me."
Shen Yuntang thought about the past when fellow villagers often spread gossip about Cheng Yeran, and he became a little worried, "Did they say something bad about you?"
Cheng Yeran shook his head: "On the contrary, they praised me."
Shen Yuntang was puzzled: "Then why do you still look like this?"
"I find it a little strange. The emperor was very happy when the villagers praised me. But when they mentioned my past, saying that I was lazy and that I was not as good as I am now, the emperor got angry, as if he was being scolded." Cheng Yeran connected the emperor's attitude towards him since he became an official, the emperor's attitude towards Cheng Zhao, and the emperor's reaction today, and came up with a bold hypothesis in his mind.
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