For most of the first month of the lunar calendar, His Majesty seemed to show concern for Yinreng again. At first, no one noticed, but later His Majesty still thought about Yinreng in everything. When he went to Cining Palace to pay his respects to the Empress Dowager, he would always call the Crown Prince to his side. At various family banquets, he would also have Yinreng lead the toasts.
Judging from this, he seems to trust and value Yinreng even more than he did when Yinreng was not the Crown Prince.
Li Chenjiao had naturally heard about the news, but she clicked her tongue and didn't find it particularly enviable or surprising.
To put it bluntly, it all depends on the Emperor's mood. When he's in a good mood, he'll find everyone agreeable, right? Now that the Crown Prince has been deposed, who knows, the Emperor might start thinking about all the good things the Crown Prince did in the past?
Who knows?
Sure enough, a few days later, it was heard that the Tenth Prince, Prince Dun, had also been eating with His Majesty for two or three days in a row. No one could figure out what His Majesty was thinking.
If we really want to talk about the connection between these two, it's probably that these two gentlemen had a big fight with each other last year.
Wasn't it because of this incident that the Crown Prince was deposed? After thinking it over, everyone found this situation even stranger.
For most of the first month of the lunar calendar, these two princes were favored by the emperor. People tried to figure out what the emperor was thinking for the past two weeks, but they could only sigh and say, "The emperor's will is unpredictable."
Third Master also thought about it a lot, and he even considered that it might be because Yinreng and the Tenth Prince had fought.
The fights between the brothers were all things from when they were kids. Maybe it was because Yinreng and the Tenth Prince got into a fight that made Father Emperor remember their past...
But when the Third Master looked around, he saw his eldest brother, Prince Zhi, and realized he couldn't beat him, he simply couldn't.
The older brother pinched him like he was a little chick.
Yinreng? He had just fought with the Tenth Prince. He didn't want to get hurt if he fought again. Besides, Yinreng was getting on the Emperor's good side lately. The Third Prince shook his head silently.
The fourth one? To be honest, he might not even be able to beat him...
Third Master swallowed silently, the first image that popped into his mind was Fourth Master's cold face.
Finally, after the fourth brother had gathered all his brothers, he realized he couldn't beat the older ones and couldn't fight the younger ones, so he quietly gave up.
However, among the brothers, only Third Master probably had such thoughts.
In the first month of the lunar calendar, the second wife of Prince Zhi became pregnant, and it had been three months since then. This should have been in September of last year, not long after Prince Zhi returned to the capital after completing his disaster relief mission.
Originally, this should have been a joyous occasion, but unfortunately, Prince Hongyu, the son of the former Fujin Jieluo, fell ill again. The imperial physician said that Prince Hongyu was once in critical condition...
By the Lantern Festival, Prince Hongyu's health had not improved. His Majesty personally dispatched countless imperial physicians to guard him day and night, and it is said that Prince Zhi also stayed by Prince Hongyu's side without taking off his clothes.
The new wife is pregnant, but the child left by the former wife is critically ill. It's truly heartbreaking.
Li Chenjiao had no time to care about those things, and two days before the Lantern Festival, a letter arrived from home.
She had actually been planning ahead, expecting it to be around the Lantern Festival, but she hadn't received a letter from her mother and father yet, which made Li Chenjiao a little worried.
It turned out that the heavy snow around Zhili made the official roads difficult to travel, which caused a delay of several days.
I happened to run into my brother's family on the way. My brother and sister-in-law had set off from the south earlier, but in principle they should have arrived later than my father and mother. This heavy snow brought the whole family together.
After reading the letter, Li Chenjiao couldn't help but smile.
"How are everything arranged?" Li Chenjiao put the letter away.
"The house is rented. As instructed by the master, Xiao Luzi rented it under his name for two years. All the furniture and items have been prepared..."
Li Chenjiao hummed in agreement: "Thanks to Second Uncle's help, we'll pick out some nice things from the storeroom for Second Aunt's birthday in the spring. Second Aunt doesn't like gold jewelry, so we'll send her some jade of good quality. I remember there's a pair of pink jade pendants with excellent clarity in the storeroom, let's go with those."
High-quality pink jade is rare, and the color can easily become vulgar. Qiu Hu remembers that pair of pink jade pendants. Because of their exceptional quality, Li Chenjiao often played with them.
Qiu Hu agreed, and then mentioned another matter: "Xiao Luzi said that when he went to rent a house, he ran into Fu Lu from the front yard. When asked later, Fu Lu didn't hide anything and said that the master had instructed him to make arrangements in advance..."
Li Chenjiao was surprised again.
There were many things to do during the New Year holidays. Li Chenjiao had only seen the Fourth Master once in the past half month. She didn't expect the Fourth Master to remember that her father and brothers had returned to the capital to report on their duties.
Unexpectedly, the Fourth Master remembered.
"When I have some free time, I must invite Fourth Master over for a proper meal to express my gratitude," Li Chenjiao said with a smile, her tone gentle.
Li Chenjiao heard from Xiao Luzi that her father, brothers, mother, and sisters-in-law arrived in the capital on the nineteenth day of the first lunar month.
When Xiao Luzi returned with the message, Fourth Master was talking to Li Wenye, Li Chenjiao's father, in the front yard.
However, Li Wenye was not a flatterer, and he did not ask much about his daughter's recent situation at the Fourth Prince's residence, for fear that the Fourth Prince would feel that he was overstepping his bounds and meddling in family affairs.
The way Fourth Prince spoke to Li Wenye was somewhat like how he usually spoke to his father, the Emperor—stiff and polite.
However, in his conversation with Li Wenye, Li Wenye seemed more like the man he was when reporting to his father, the Emperor…
Ahem, that's a bit inappropriate...
Li Wenye perfectly matched the Fourth Prince's impression of a Han Chinese scholar-official: slender with a beautiful beard, and although he was over fifty, his eyes were still clear, and he spoke with neither arrogance nor servility.
The father and daughter look nothing alike.
When Fourth Master arrived at the East Courtyard that evening, he saw Li Chenjiao's smiling face and couldn't help but think about her again.
The father and daughter do look quite different.
One was always serious and never smiled, while the other never stopped smiling.
No wonder... no wonder Li Chenjiao wasn't afraid of him when she first entered the manor. Oh, from beginning to end, Li Chenjiao was never really afraid of her...
The Fourth Prince's mind was racing, but his face remained expressionless and calm as he walked down the corridor with his hands behind his back.
Fourth Master glanced at the two puddles of snow under the eaves.
One of the Fourth Masters recognized him; it was Dongli, and he looked quite imposing.
As for the other one, if you really want to say it, he really is... neither human nor ghost...
Fourth Master twitched his lips: "Whose masterpiece was that?"
Xiao Luzi was leading the way, and when he heard Fourth Master's question, he quickly stopped and turned around.
He paused, then said cautiously, "It was piled up by the second princess."
"What's piled up is..." persimmons?
Xiao Luzi straightened her head: "It's you, Second Princess said she missed you lately, so she specially made this for you..."
Fourth Master looked down and around, but in the end, he resisted the urge to grab a handful of snow.
Fourth Master examined him carefully, then twitched his lips: "Quite good. This child has talent..."
"It's cold in the first month of the lunar year, so don't let the princes and princesses go out in the wind and get cold."
Xiao Luzi had just breathed a sigh of relief when he suddenly heard Fourth Master say that again. This time, Fourth Master didn't linger and went straight inside.
This is truly against my will...
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