Chapter 114: Cheer it up Qi Buchen didn’t guess until the end, Yin…
Qi Buchen never guessed until the end that Yinzhen was unexpectedly firm this time and no matter what tricks she used, it was useless.
Yinzhen's good mood did not last for a few days. He came back that night and hugged Qi Buchen tightly again.
Qi Buchen questioned him several times, and Yinzhen hesitated for a long time before quietly telling his wife his speculations: "I secretly arranged for someone to submit an impeachment memorial against Longkodo. The Tong family learned of it immediately and had someone suppress it. Nalan Kuixu is currently serving in the imperial court. He was on duty the day the memorial was submitted."
Yinzhen didn't explain it clearly, but Qi Buchen understood what she hadn't said. Although he knew that Longkodo and Nalan Kuixu had private dealings, it was also possible that it was just a private friendship between the two. However, the result of this test showed that the Nalan family and the Tong family might have secretly established a connection. In addition, Alinga had been in and out with Longkodo and Nalan Kuixu several times. If these families united, no one would believe that Yinzhen didn't have that intention.
Not to mention Prince An Yuele, Prince Kang Jieshu, and the lineage of Prince Su, all of whom have extraordinary influence in the military.
I didn't notice it before, but now that I pay attention to it, I find it terrifying.
Shocked, flustered, and a little confused.
"Chenchen..." He muttered, not knowing what to say.
Qi Buchen probably understood his current state of mind. He embraced him and tried to comfort him, saying gently, "Don't worry if impeachment isn't possible. They wouldn't dare to deal with us openly anyway, so just be careful. As for the rest... we don't know anything. Just focus on your job."
Yinzhen hugged her even tighter, "I'm afraid it won't work... Crown Prince..." It was only after he understood some things that he realized the Crown Prince had been a little too kind to him in the past two years. He used to think the Crown Prince favored him because he was serious about his work, but now that he thought about it, that was certainly a reason, but more likely, it was... a way to win him over...
He accepted it without hesitation, and in the eyes of others, this was a signal of his support for the prince.
Although he originally supported the prince, it was the support of the royalists, not the kind of support that was betting on the succession to the throne.
Qi Buchen understood it immediately. After all, in history, Yinzhen had always supported the prince. But now it seems that Yinzhen probably unconsciously became a member of the prince's party from the beginning.
She paused and whispered to Yinzhen, "That's okay. You have always supported the Emperor." And Kangxi supported the prince.
Yinzhen's eyes suddenly lit up. He really didn't expect the emperor's father to say this. Fu Jin's words opened up a new world for him and made him suddenly enlightened. Yes, he has always been a royalist, and the prince is the heir chosen by the leader of the royalist party, so he should naturally support the prince.
Yinzhen pulled his wife out of his arms and looked at her with sparkling eyes, as if he were looking at a treasure: "Chenchen, you are really... really smart beyond my imagination." He paused, as if dissatisfied with the word, "No, it should be said that you have a broad mind and a wealth of knowledge!"
"Hit the nail on the head, straight to the heart!"
Not only can I understand what he wants to express from his few words, guess what he is worried about, but I can also see the core point from the layers of confusion before he can.
He sighed, "If you were a man, you would stand out from the crowd just by relying on this acumen!"
It was the first time that Qi Buchen was praised like this. She even blushed at the words she used. One knows one's own business. She was able to think of this before Yinzhen only because history was clearly there. When it came to politics, she was a complete novice.
"I'm not as good as you say," Qi Buchen said shyly. "It's just that those in the know are often confused, while those on the sidelines can see things more clearly. Besides, it's because you've been under so much pressure that I can speak so freely. If we were in the other place, I'd probably have collapsed under the pressure long ago."
"You always underestimate yourself." Yinzhen said disapprovingly, "It's not easy for a bystander to see things clearly. Today, how many people can see the current situation clearly?" As far as he knew, at least his good third brother did not notice the undercurrents between his eldest brother and the prince.
Not to mention the younger brothers.
"If you hadn't reminded me, I would have..." Yinzhen sighed again.
Qi Buchen comforted him: "It's okay, let's keep our original intentions and do our own things."
Yinzhen shook his head: "It's not that easy." Although Fu Jin was smart, she still didn't understand human nature well enough. She didn't know to what extent those people would go crazy for power.
However, there is no need for Fu Jin to know all this. She just needs to maintain this beautiful life and live a good life. I can always provide her with a stable environment.
Thinking of this, he rubbed Fu Jin's head: "But it doesn't matter, I'm here, you don't have to worry about it."
Qi Buchen could not deny it, but just leaned quietly in his arms and stopped disturbing his thoughts.
After this day, Yinzhen performed his duties more diligently and was more respectful to the prince, but invisibly, his closeness to the prince decreased a bit.
It is not known whether the prince noticed this change, but his attitude towards Yinzhen remained the same.
Nothing went wrong at her home. Qi Buchen didn't know whether her family had carefully avoided Longkodo's revenge, or Longkodo still had some sense and gave up revenge, so she began to pay attention to the reaction of Tong Shilang's family.
There was no movement at Minister Tong's residence, as if the previous impeachment memorial had never existed.
When asked about this, Yinzhen remembered that he had forgotten to tell his wife, "Do you remember Deputy General Han whom I met on Qixi Festival? Madam Tong, who had a conflict with Li in your shop that day, was Deputy General Han's sister. Two years ago, Deputy General Han was transferred from the General Commander of Jieshi, Guangdong to the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Han Army of the Bordered Blue Banner. He was highly appreciated by Prince Jian. I heard that Prince Jian was asked to intervene."
Prince Jian is a yellow belt who holds real power. Longkodo may be arrogant and ignorant of his own limitations, but Tong Guowei will not offend such a person. It is possible that the two forces in secret are still thinking of winning over this person.
Qi Buchen understood and thought that Longkodo might really give up because of this. After all, when it comes to power, Longkodo would never put Li Si'er first, right?
Longkodo was also a little annoyed. Although he was arrogant, he was not stupid and was even quite talented. Otherwise, he would not have stood out among his brothers and been valued and trained by his father Tong Guowei.
He was aware of some of the secret plans at home. Prince Jian could not be offended, and the Fourth Prince could not use his usual simple and crude methods. Some secret methods did not work, so he did not dare to go back home to face his beloved Fourth Prince for some time, for fear that the other party would chase him and ask when he would avenge her.
That day, when he was drinking alone, he happened to meet Alinga. After they had a few drinks, Longkodo vaguely confided a few words about his troubles.
Alinga has never liked this "nephew" who has little respect for him. In addition, he is now in cahoots with Mingzhu's gang. After hearing what Longkodo said, his eyes turned and he thought of a good idea to kill two birds with one stone.
After whispering to Longkodo, the two looked at each other and reached a tacit understanding.
At the same time, Li Si'er had been waiting for good news from Longkodo for a long time. She could no longer bear this anger and simply ignored Longkodo's warnings and prepared to take action herself.
Qi Buchen and Yinzhen were unaware that someone was coming to make things difficult for them. The couple rushed back and forth between home and the palace, exhaustedly coping with the annual Spring Festival.
This year, Concubine De's attitude towards her was even colder. She never even glanced at her from beginning to end. Even the Seventh Princess, with whom she had a good relationship before, now sat quietly by herself and no longer communicated with her. Qi Buchen had only one feeling in Yonghe Palace: she was as if she didn't exist in the eyes of others.
Fortunately, she didn't stay alone in Yonghe Palace for a long time. Most of the time she was with other sisters-in-law. However, although the eldest wife, who had the best relationship with her, was present, her mental state was visibly not good. Qi Buchen was worried that she would faint at any time.
The banquet in the palace did not last for two days, and Kangxi followed the empress dowager to Changchun Garden for a short stay. He did not return to the palace to attend court until after the Lantern Festival. At this time, Yinzhen had already started his work for several days.
Before the end of the first month of the lunar year, Kangxi set out on a tour of Mount Wutai, taking Yinzhen and Yinzhi with him.
Yinzhen still diligently followed the prince to arrange the imperial examinations for the royal family. Although Kangxi's decree last year was to order the royal family to participate in the provincial and metropolitan examinations, there were too many royal family members in the capital. If they all went to the capital to participate in the provincial examinations, not to mention the difficulty of organization, the waste of resources would be heartbreaking. After all, there were not many royal family members who valued knowledge.
Therefore, the prince had already informed Kangxi that he wanted to organize several test exams first to select the next batch of people, and the time was set in February at the beginning of spring.
The location and examiners have been determined, and now it’s time to check the number of applicants.
However, Yinzhen did not have to do these detailed and trivial things himself. He even took time out on the second day of the second lunar month to accompany Qi Buchen to watch a dragon dance competition.
Sitting in the restaurant with the best vantage point, Qi Buchen leaned against the window and watched the long line of people snaking by downstairs, as well as the people slowly moving along with it to watch the excitement. He asked in a completely different tone, "Are these all professional teams?"
Su Peisheng smiled and replied, "Fujin's guess is correct. This annual dragon dance competition is a rare event. Many businesses sponsor prizes, and the rewards are quite generous. Therefore, many people form fixed teams and participate every year just to compete for the rewards."
"Is that so? Then I'll be a sponsor too." Qi Buchen didn't expect that the sponsorship form would appear so early, and said excitedly.
"Sponsor?" Yinzhen chewed on the word and chuckled, "That's quite apt." He called Qi Buchen again, "It's still a while before we start. Let's eat something first."
Before eating, Qi Buchen drank a bowl of brown sugar water first. She had her period. Actually, the pain was not that bad after the two years of recuperation, but Yinzhen seemed to be scared by the previous time. Now, every time it came to this time, he asked her to drink a bowl of brown sugar water every day.
After eating and drinking for a while, the dragon dance competition began. Qi Buchen and others crowded to the window to watch.
Just when the fun was at its peak, Qi Buchen had to leave to deal with personal issues.
"It's all Yinzhen's fault. He insisted on drinking before the party started." Qi Buchen muttered to himself. After taking care of his personal problems at the back of the restaurant, he went upstairs to the private room.
When they reached the third floor, the door of a nearby private room suddenly opened. A woman tried to rush out but was stopped by a hand from behind.
The woman was dressed in cotton clothes, dressed very simply, with her makeup and hair a little messy. After being caught by the hands from behind, she struggled hard and begged, "Master, I am already a wife, please let me go."
A man laughed frivolously, "Didn't your man die a long time ago? Why are you still waiting for him? If you were to marry our prince, you would have all kinds of silks and satins, not to mention anything else, and your beauty would not be overshadowed."
"That's right, our prince takes a liking to you, it's your blessing."
"Come and toast the prince with a glass of wine. Wouldn't it be a joy to eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks in the future?"
"Ha ha ha ha."
A burst of laughter was heard, and judging from the sound, there were quite a few people inside.
Qi Buchen frowned, the scene before her made her very unhappy. Before she could speak, several more people walked to the door, with one person surrounded in the middle. He should be the prince that everyone was talking about. However, these people were a little disheveled and looked a little drunk.
The prince said in a high-sounding manner: "Alright, if they don't want to, how can I force them? But you are a businessman, how can you just give things away and walk away? I have never seen this country food before, so you must stay and teach me how to eat it."
The woman sobbed softly and helplessly. She wanted to refuse but didn't dare.
Qi Buchen couldn't bear it any longer and said coldly: "Even if it's a country thing, if you don't use your mouth to eat it, can you not eat it with your nose?"
Everyone in the room then noticed Qi Buchen standing at the stairs. The leader's eyes lit up, and he looked up and down Qi Buchen's waist and chest with an expression of finding prey. He didn't care about Qi Buchen's sarcasm just now, and smiled coquettishly: "This young lady is right, I am stupid."
When going out today, Qi Buchen did not wear Manchu clothing, but wore Han clothes. He originally did it just because he liked it, but he didn't expect that he would be treated as a soft persimmon now?
Lan Hui, who was following Qi Buchen, stepped forward to block the disgusting gaze and shouted angrily, "How dare you! This is the Fourth Lady, how dare you offend her!"
Qi Buchen said with a cold face: "Let go of this lady!"
"Fourth Concubine?!"
The people in the box looked at each other in surprise and confusion.
One of the people who drank the most suddenly burped and shouted, "Whose Fourth Lady is this?"
This voice seemed to wake up the others. They looked at Qi Buchen's Han Chinese clothing and smiled meaningfully.
The man in the lead, who was called the Prince, took two steps out of the door, blocking the direction Qi Buchen was going, and looked at him even more presumptuously: "Young lady, this dress is quite new. It must have cost a lot, right? Can your husband afford your expenses?"
"How dare you! Do you think you can criticize the Fourth Prince?" Lan Hui was furious.
"Puff." The man who came out seemed to be amused. "You little maid, you really pretend to be like that. But it doesn't matter. I am kind-hearted and will tell you for free that the wife of a Manchu family would not wear the clothes your wife is wearing."
Qi Buchen's face turned even colder: "This Fu Jin advises you to get out of the way quickly, don't let yourself regret it."
This man was even happier: "Young lady, you really want to be a concubine? It's not impossible. Why don't you kick out your 'brother' and follow me? As long as you serve me well, I can let you be a prince's concubine."
Qi Buchen was about to speak when the person in front of him suddenly put on a mask of pain, then screamed in pain and fell to the side.
"court death!"
It’s Yinzhen.
He only took a glance and saw that the concubine was firmly protected by Lan Hui behind her. He did not rush over immediately, but walked to the fallen person and stepped on the person's face without mercy: "The concubine of a prince? Ha! Let me see what kind of prince you are!"
Everyone in the box was stunned by this sudden change. They only reacted at this moment and hurried out to stop Yinzhen, shouting non-stop.
"How dare you! This is Prince Wen!"
"Where did this lunatic come from? Let Prince Wen go!"
"You're courting death!"
Without Yinzhen's orders, Su Peisheng and others stepped forward to stop the group of people.
Yinzhen narrowed his eyes and stepped harder: "Prince Wen? Who was I then? Turns out I was a thief."
“How dare you!” Prince Wen finally recovered from the severe pain of the sudden attack and cursed incoherently, grabbing Yinzhen’s leg. “Who are you? How dare you…”
"I am your ancestor!" Yinzhen kicked him in the waist without waiting for him to touch him.
"Ah!" Prince Wen let out a tragic scream.
Yinzhen didn't stop, kicking the same place again and again.
Qi Buchen saw that if he continued kicking like this, something bad would happen, so he quickly stepped forward to hold Yinzhen back and said, "Alright, alright."
Yinzhen looked at her with a dark face, as if questioning why she was pleading for such a scumbag. He had just waited for his wife for a long time without her returning, so he wanted to come out to see if something had happened. At first, he only saw someone at the stairs. Because he was blocked by Prince Wen, he didn't see Qi Buchen and walked slowly. But after taking two steps, he heard Qi Buchen's voice warning him not to regret it. Then he heard the frivolous words that made him furious, which led to his subsequent actions.
At this moment, he felt that beating Prince Wen to death would not be an exaggeration, but Lady Fu Jin stopped him.
Qi Buchen said helplessly: "If you hit him again, he will be beaten to death. He is a prince after all. It is not worth it for you to be scolded for him."
Prince Wen, Qi Buchen remembered this person, the grandson of Prince Su Haoge and Mingzhu's second son-in-law.
If the beating was really serious, it would be difficult for Yinzhen to explain.
Seeing that Yinzhen was still unwilling to give up, Qi Buchen could only whisper, "If this gets out of hand, and people know that you hit him because of me, what will people say? They'll definitely say I'm a seductress, a shrew, and you won't stand a good chance. There's no need to break a porcelain vase over a mouse. It's not worth it."
After hearing this, Yinzhen finally calmed down and asked her why she was stuck here.
Qi Buchen then told Yinzhen the whole story. When he looked into the box, he saw that the young lady was kneeling at the door and trembling with fear.
Yinzhen looked at Prince Wen, who was still wailing on the ground, and his lackeys who had been severely punished by Su Peisheng and others, and walked up to Prince Wen: "Open your dog eyes and see who I am."
Prince Wen had been beaten for such a long time and had not yet seen clearly what the person who beat him looked like. Now that he took a closer look, he was immediately scared to death.
Of course he knew the Fourth Prince. So, that being said, the young lady who just claimed to be the Fourth Lady...
Prince Wen's pupils shrank and he cried out in his heart that something was wrong.
Yinzhen didn't miss his reaction and sneered, "It seems you know me, very good."
"Fourth Prince, please forgive me!" Prince Wen begged repeatedly, "I was drunk and said some nonsense. I had no intention of offending the Fourth Lady! Please be magnanimous. I will definitely give you a generous gift to apologize later!"
Qi Buchen looked at Prince Wen's attitude and found it a bit strange. Even if Yinzhen was a prince, he didn't have to be so afraid, right? Not to mention his wife's family, even if he was Haoge's grandson, he didn't have to be so humble.
Little did she know that there was a reason why Prince Wen acted like this.
Although Prince Wen's status seems noble, he is a family man who knows his own business. He inherited the title from his brother, and his brother died at a young age, which was actually related to him. Thinking of the thief that Yinzhen mentioned just now, Prince Wen was very suspicious that he knew something, and how could he not be frightened.
Secondly, although he married Mingzhu's second daughter and had a powerful in-law family, this in-law family was both a help and a constraint. To please his wife, he acted elegantly at home, never touching the maids, which pleased his wife greatly. The Nalan family also provided him with considerable assistance. But he actually had a particular preference: he liked married women! However, married women were always harder to find, so he usually targeted widows. This young woman today was precisely the reason he had his eye on her.
He has kept many mistresses outside these years, and he would never dare let his wife find out about this. He also wants to get more benefits from the Nalan family, and his wife, who is like a bridge, must not be in trouble.
Thinking of this, Prince Wen became even more humble: "I was blind to recognize the great man. Please forgive me this time."
Yinzhen was also a little surprised by his overly submissive attitude, and guessed that there must be a reason behind it. He was originally thinking about how to ensure that Prince Wen would not involve the concubine in today's incident. Now that Prince Wen was able to take the initiative to admit his mistake, it would be easier for him to deal with him.
"From now on, don't let me hear any rumors about you, otherwise..." Yinzhen narrowed his eyes and looked down at Prince Wen condescendingly.
Prince Wen breathed a sigh of relief and nodded vigorously, "Don't worry, from now on, I will stay far away from where you appear. I will never appear before you, and I will never let you hear any news about me."
Yinzhen snorted coldly: "For the sake of Prince Su, I will let you go today!" In fact, the title of Prince Su had long become history.
"Thank you, thank you!" Prince Wen stood up and nodded.
"Let's go." Yinzhen was impatient to stay here any longer and signaled Qi Buchen.
Qi Buchen didn't move, pointing to the door of the box: "Wait, she..."
Yinzhen looked back and realized that his wife had softened her heart again. He said unhappily, "Su Peisheng, bring the people up." Then he went downstairs first.
Qi Buchen touched her nose and knew that this person was angry with her.
Okay, chase her and coax her.
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