Mu Chengan took out two things from under the small table and threw one of them to Yuan Jing. Yuan Jing laughed when he saw it: "It turns out that the prince had already considered it. It was me, Yuan Jing, who was overthinking."
"Wu Yi, let's go."
"yes."
The carriage started moving. Yuan Jing played with the mask in his hand for a while, then looked at Mu Chengan's mask, feeling a little unhappy: "Why did you give me a cat mask?"
Mu Chengan did it on purpose. The young boy was like a cat. He pretended to be serious and said, "I just picked it up casually. I didn't notice it. Try it on and see if it fits you."
What else could Yuan Jing say? Although he wanted to take Mu Chengan's tiger-head mask, he couldn't let the dignified King of Zhenbei wear a cat-head mask. Although no one else knew about it, if it got out one day, it would damage the reputation of the King of Zhenbei.
Forget it, let him work harder, so Yuan Jing put the mask on his face. He didn't notice the smile that flashed in Mu Chengan's eyes. He kept staring at him, and then showed a satisfied look. It was worth it that he chose this mask himself, it was indeed a perfect fit.
After arriving at the place, Mu Chengan also put on his tiger-head mask, then took Yuan Jing's hand, and the two got off the car together and joined the crowd to watch the lantern festival.
The two men, one tall and one short, one with a tiger head and the other with a cat head, would make people smile knowingly and think that they might be father and son traveling together. Who would have thought that behind the tiger mask would be the dignified King Zhenbei who was recuperating in the mansion?
Yuan Jing had not had a lot of fun before because he had to protect his grandmother and look after his mother and brother. But this time, he didn't have to enjoy himself. He won two lantern riddle games and won two lanterns. This time, he deliberately gave the lantern with rabbits on it to Mu Cheng'an, and he held the lantern with opera characters on it.
Mu Chengan looked at the rabbit on the rotating lantern and just raised his eyebrows without objecting. In his eyes, the rabbit was Yuan Jing. Now that he was holding it in his hand, was he still afraid that it would run away?
Suddenly, another candied haws was stuffed into her hand. She looked up and saw Yuan Jing holding another one. Although he was wearing a mask, she could still see the playful smile in his eyes, as if he wanted to see her make a fool of herself.
Mu Ancheng gestured to Yuan Jing to look, holding a lantern and a candied haws in his hands, how should he eat it?
Yuan Jing: Did we make a mistake?
Mu Ancheng kindly suggested: "How about I carry both lamps and you feed me?"
Behind the mask, Yuan Jing's face was a little hot. Sure enough, he had met a more powerful person in this life. But in order to avoid being laughed at by this person, Yuan Jing pretended to be calm and said, "Okay, as long as, Ahem, An Cheng, you don't mind."
"Of course not." Mu Ancheng was very happy to hear Yuan Jing call him Ancheng. He took the initiative to let Yuan Jing take the candied haws and motioned him to hand over the lamp.
Both of them only had one hand available, and the other was holding each other's hand. Mu Chengan didn't want to let go. In his words, he was afraid of getting separated, so he had to hold on tightly.
So next, Mu Cheng'an held two lanterns, and Yuan Jing handed the candied haws to his mouth. Mu Cheng'an looked into Yuan Jing's eyes with a smile, opened his mouth and bit off one. Yuan Jing almost couldn't hold the candied haws steadily, but this man was able to eat it without changing his expression.
Yuan Jing took a bite himself. Wow, it was so sour. He had miscalculated.
In the end, the two of them only ate half of it. It was not until Mu Ancheng saw that the small half of Yuan Jing's face that was exposed was wrinkled, so he threw away the rest, and Yuan Jing was relieved.
The candied haws were a good start, and the two of them ate a lot of snacks along the way. They only had a small taste, otherwise they would be so full that they couldn't walk.
Mu Chengan suddenly stopped, and Yuan Jing asked, "Why don't you leave?"
Mu Chengan said: "It's disappointing. I met someone who disappoints me."
Yuan Jing raised his head and followed his gaze, and saw a nobleman holding the hand of a young lady. The young lady's face seemed familiar, and they were surrounded by servants. They looked much more imposing than the King of Zhenbei.
"Tao Yuzhu? No, the current Yan Zhifu and the little prince?"
"That's them. Don't look at them. Let's go to the river to watch the lanterns." The prince was familiar with the Lantern Festival and knew what programs there were. He didn't want irrelevant people to pollute their eyes and ruin the atmosphere of the night.
Yuan Jing had the same feeling and immediately changed the direction: "Okay, I'll listen to you."
These words pleased Mu Chengan, so he took his hand and changed the route.
As soon as the two figures disappeared on the street, Mu Jinxuan and Yan Zhifu looked over as if they had noticed something, but they saw nothing but heads.
That feeling only flashed by, and neither of them thought about it seriously. Mu Jinxuan said, "The Third Prince is waiting for us in the teahouse in front. Shall we go over and sit for a while?"
"Okay, I'll listen to Brother Jinxuan." Yan Zhifu said softly, looking at Mu Jinxuan.
Fortunately, Yuan Jing left, otherwise if he stayed here and heard Yan Zhifu's voice, he would have goosebumps all over the floor and would have nightmares all night.
Yuan Jing had a lot of fun and was sent back to the Tao family by Mu Ancheng very late. He watched him go into the door and disappear, but the smile on his face did not fade away.
After the Lantern Festival, the Tao family became busy again because the imperial examination was getting closer.
The Tao family couldn't help Yuan Jing with his homework, but they could provide him with a quiet and comfortable environment, especially paying attention to his diet. As the imperial examination approached, Yuan Jing found that his face had become round from eating too much. This time, Yuan Jing once again walked into the examination room with the blessings of his family. What was different from the past was that there was a special person outside the examination room to send him off.
Even though it was just an ordinary Volkswagen carriage parked nearby, with only a corner of the curtain lifted, not even revealing the face of the person inside, but Yuan Jing knew through telepathy that the person looking out of the carriage was none other than Mu Cheng'an, who had also come to take the exam for him, but he had never mentioned this to him when they met before.
Yuan Jing looked there for a few seconds, then touched the jade pendant hanging on his chest. No one had mentioned this jade pendant since they met again. As for the reward for saving his life, Yuan Jing had already received it.
The person disappeared into the examination room, and the curtain of the ordinary carriage was lowered. A faint voice came from the carriage: "Go back."
"Yes." Wu Yi once again acted as a coachman. He was blind and saw nothing.
"It's time to get started."
"Yes, Master."
Mu Cheng'an didn't want to affect Yuan Jing's imperial examination, so he postponed the time of action so that he could concentrate on preparing for the exam.
Now, there is no need for that. His adopted son can't wait any longer and has really asked for an imperial decree to grant him a marriage with that fake woman.
It would be better if the marriage was granted, otherwise he would worry about how to tie the man and woman together, so as to prevent this cheap son from harming other people's good girls.
The imperial examination still consisted of three consecutive sessions, each lasting three days. However, compared with the provincial examination, the weather was still quite cold at this time, and candidates had to sleep in the examination rooms at night. One can imagine how it felt, and many people could not hold out in each imperial examination.
When he finally finished the test and walked out of the examination room, Yuan Jing breathed a sigh of relief. He saw his father waiting outside with a quilt in his arms. When he saw him come out, he quickly ran over, wrapped the quilt around him, and then carried Yuan Jing to a carriage parked on the side. There was also hot soup prepared in the carriage for Yuan Jing to drink and warm up.
Tao Dayong took care of his son for several exams, and he had gained experience. As soon as he saw his son's complexion, he knew that his condition was much better than other candidates. He was worthy of being his son, and his body was better than others. At this time, he forgot that Yuan Jing was weaker than his peers when he was born, which made the old lady think of letting him study.
Yu Xiao and Zou Weiting were also picked up by their families. Yuan Jing waited in the carriage for them to come out and get on his own carriage. He said goodbye to them and then went home with his father. When he got home, his family members asked him about his well-being. Yuan Jing didn't have to think about anything. He took a hot bath, drank a big bowl of meat porridge, and then climbed into bed comfortably to sleep.
Senior Brother Di was very concerned about this junior fellow apprentice and specially sent his son to check on Yuan Jing's condition. He was afraid that if something went wrong the Tao family wouldn't be able to hire a good doctor, so he even brought the doctor along. The Tao family was very grateful to Senior Brother Di. After the doctor took the boy's pulse, the condition was of course very good, so he didn't even need to prescribe any medicine, just provide him with good food and drink.
When Yuan Jing got up again, he was full of energy. He went to see his senior brother, and then to see Yu Xiao and Zou Weiting. It was great that these two could survive the examination, but they were still lying in bed. They couldn't run around like Yuan Jing, and they were very envious of him.
Another two days passed before the two were able to come out to visit each other. Perhaps they had been holding back for too long, and now that they couldn't move around, both Yu Xiao and Zou Weiting started gossiping.
"Something happened, something big happened!" Yu Xiao shouted from afar before he even reached Yuan Jing's study. Zou Weiting was walking behind him, looking much calmer.
Yuan Jing heard this and walked to the study door to greet them: "What happened that made you so surprised, Yu Xiao?"
Zou Weiting was holding a folding fan in this weather, he really wanted to be elegant but not warm. He just got better, he smiled and said: "It's really not Yu Xiao's fault, even I was shocked when I heard it, the capital will be very lively for a while because of this."
"I won't keep you in suspense, Yuan Jing. You also know that just after the first month of the year, the emperor granted a new marriage to the young prince of Zhenbei Palace. Although the young prince's cancellation of the marriage proposal with the Taifu Mansion had already caused a lot of uproar in the city, no one expected that the woman he had his eyes on was just a young lady who lived in the Yongchang Marquis's Mansion..."
Perhaps because Zou Weiting was talking too slowly and not getting to the point, Yu Xiao simply interrupted and said, "It turns out that Miss Yan has another lover. When they went out of town for horse racing, Miss Yan secretly met with her lover and was caught by the young prince and his men. A conflict broke out among the three of them, and the young prince fell off his horse and was kicked by the horse. Anyway, the scene was chaotic enough. We don't know what the young prince is like now."
Yuan Jing blinked, and blinked again. Needless to say, it was Mu Chengan who took action. He didn't expect that he would choose such a time.
"Look, Yuan Jing, you were also shocked when you heard it. You find it unbelievable, right?" Yu Xiao misinterpreted Yuan Jing's expression and thought that Yuan Jing had the same reaction as he did when he first heard the news, which was that he didn't know how to react.
Yuan Jing rubbed his face and followed his words: "Yes, I am shocked. How will His Majesty react to this? Who is the other young master?"
Zou Weiting sneered and said, "He is the son of Minister Yan. He is quite famous in the capital. Look, he is indeed famous enough."
The son of Minister Yan was a well-known man of both talent and beauty in the capital. Several of his sour poems were admired by many girls in the boudoir. However, Zou Weiting, who had just arrived in the capital and had seen him a few times, sneered at them. He thought that the so-called talented men were like Yan Rushong, which really tarnished the reputation of talented men.
Yuan Jing certainly knew this situation, otherwise how could he have been so fascinated by Tao Yuzhu's past life that he still could not forget the old love after his rebirth and wanted to renew their relationship. However, because she later had better options, she did not break up with Yan Rushong and still kept him on suspense. Perhaps seeing Yan Rushong revolving around her satisfied her vanity.
They should be more satisfied now, right? The romantic scandal between the three of them should have spread all over the streets and alleys, and everyone from the powerful to the ordinary people would be talking about it with relish.
"The emperor is very angry. Yan Rushong and the young lady are now in custody. I guess the emperor needs time to interrogate them. But, Yuan Jing, why did you only ask the emperor and not the Zhenbei Palace? Could it be that..." Yu Xiao looked around, approached Yuan Jing and lowered his voice, "Could it be that you have also heard about that incident?"
Yuan Jing could of course tell that Yu Xiao was referring to Mu Jinxuan's true background. Seeing that Zou Weiting also covered half of his face with a fan to hide his smile, Yuan Jing rolled his eyes helplessly: "Who told the emperor to dote on the young prince so much that he even ruined the marriage he personally granted. It's hard not to believe it."
The three of them shrugged and laughed in tacit understanding, then put the topic aside. It would not be good to talk about it too much, everything was said without saying anything.
The two of them asked Yuan Jing to go to a restaurant or teahouse outside to sit down. As expected, they could hear a lot of gossip about the grievances and love-hate relationship between these three people. Some of the stories even had a lot of erotic plots, which made people suspect that they had heard them with their own ears while hiding in someone else's bed.
Because of this incident, the attention to the imperial examination that just ended dropped a lot, because the fact that the young prince was quickly granted a marriage after breaking off his engagement had already attracted a lot of attention from people in the capital, and not long after, he caused another jealous affair.
The students who were waiting for the results of the examination were also stunned. The more pedantic ones shouted that it was an insult to society and that the young prince's behavior had ruined the reputation of the Zhenbei Palace for many years.
The Zhenbei Palace has always had a very high reputation among the people. Over the years, it has worked hard to guard the border and made great contributions. Most of the Mu family members died in the battlefield. Now only the Zhenbei Prince is left, and even this little prince is an adopted son. After causing such a thing, no matter whether it is the literati or the warriors, they all have a good impression of this little prince.
This is different from the plot. In the plot, Mu Jinxuan has inherited the throne of the old King of Zhenbei and become the new King of Zhenbei. He holds great power and is not someone that ordinary people can afford to provoke. The reputation of the Zhenbei Palace for many years still extends to him.
But now the old King of Zhenbei is still in power. Although I heard that his health is not very good, as long as he is alive, he is still the patron saint of Daxia. The actions of this young prince are disliked by others.
News soon spread about the health of the young Prince Mu. One of his leg bones was crushed, and after he recovered, the leg was still disabled. Even if the emperor wanted to conceal it, the news spread quickly. Not only would Mu Cheng'an not do as he wished, but his several adult sons were also fanning the flames, causing the old emperor to get so angry that he had a big tantrum in the palace.
He called the secret guard who was in charge of investigating the matter and asked, "Tell me, what happened? Was it Mu Chengan who did it?"
The first person the old emperor suspected was Mu Chengan. After all, he was already guilty. When Mu Chengan was attacked on his way back to Beijing from the border, he not only provided great help to the people who did the attack, but he even sent some of the people who did the attack. No matter how careful he was, he was still worried that Mu Chengan would find out any clues. After all, Mu Chengan came back alive, and if he died, all would be over.
But Mu Cheng'an had been recuperating in the mansion for more than three years since he came back and had done nothing. He gradually let the matter go, but Mu Jinxuan was injured and disabled. This was a serious matter. How would the Zhenbei Army, which obeyed the orders of the King of Zhenbei, obey an heir with a disabled leg who could not go to the battlefield?
So the old emperor suspected that Mu Cheng'an was too cunning and waited for more than three years until everyone relaxed before taking action.
In fact, the old emperor didn't know that Mu Cheng'an had not just been recuperating in the mansion for the past three years, he had done a lot of things.
The secret guard reported the situation honestly: "Prince Zhenbei did not take action, but I found out that several princes intervened."
"Damn it!" The old emperor was so angry that he swept everything on the table in front of him to the ground. "Are they all rebellious? They just can't tolerate Jin Xuan? What kind of obstacle does Jin Xuan have to them?"
If the princes heard this, they would definitely object. How come there was no hindrance? The older the old emperor got, the more confused he became. Anyone with eyes could see that he favored Mu Jinxuan. When he inherited the power of the Zhenbei Palace, he might be able to pass the throne to him without them. By then, which of their sons could fight against Mu Jinxuan, who held great power?
So this matter was pushed by Mu Cheng'an behind the scenes, and several princes got involved, successfully making Mu Jinxuan disabled and directly cutting off his path to the throne.
Therefore, the reason why Mu Jinxuan suffered so much was because of the old emperor. His excessive favoritism made them, who had already doubted Mu Jinxuan's background, unable to hold back and deposed him. It was impossible for the old emperor to put a disabled person on the throne.
The old emperor was very angry and asked the secret guards to keep the evidence and continue to keep an eye on his good sons. He only left a personal eunuch to serve him in the bedroom. This eunuch had been with him for many years and knew Mu Jinxuan's life experience very well. After the old emperor was angry, he felt extremely helpless when he thought of the current situation.
"You said, is there really no involvement of the King of Zhenbei?" No matter how you look at it, the one who benefits the most is the King of Zhenbei.
The old eunuch said after careful consideration: "There is no point in the King of Zhenbei's move. After all, he has been unable to produce offspring for a long time. Is it possible that he can adopt another heir? No matter what, after a hundred years, the military power will return to the royal family."
The old emperor also knew this truth. He was just afraid that he would not be able to wait for this day, or that what he would wait for was the King of Zhenbei going to war with him. As long as the King of Zhenbei existed, he would not be able to feel at ease.
The old emperor thought of the culprit who caused this situation, and he became angry again: "I said that woman was not worthy of him, but he was blinded by her and would rather cancel the marriage arranged by the Taifu Mansion to marry her. Now, that fickle bitch, I will make her die a miserable death!"
Not satisfied with the marriage he arranged for her, she is actually having an affair with other men in private. If they really get married, won't she be cuckolding Mu Jinxuan?
If this is true, perhaps it is the retribution for cuckolding a certain prince.
Not only did the old emperor hate Yan Zhifu, the troublemaker, but even at Minister Yan's house, Madam Yan cried until her eyes were swollen, cursing this little witch Yan Zhifu for causing great harm to her son. Her son originally had a good marriage, but he was bewitched by that woman and wanted to marry her. Well, the marriage fell through, but this woman turned around and hooked up with the young prince of the Zhenbei Palace, and kept her son hanging, which finally caused trouble.
"Master, you must save Song'er. Song'er is my life. If anything happens to him, I won't be able to live."
Minister Yan was already anxious, and his head hurt even more when his wife cried: "Cry! You just cry! I told you not to follow his wishes, what did you say? This son was spoiled by you, a woman!"
"What do you mean? How did I spoil Song'er? Why don't you teach him normally?" Madam Yan was not someone to be trifled with. She argued with Minister Yan, "Did I give birth to this son all by myself? I tell you, if anything happens to Song'er, I will never forgive you!"
Minister Yan was afraid of this tigress and had to soften his tone, but he also knew that if Mu Jinxuan was really the emperor's wandering prince and had the emperor's favor, then his son would most likely be in trouble.
The Yongchang Marquis' Mansion was not much better than theirs. Because of the marriage granted by the emperor, Yan Zhifu had a great reputation in the Yongchang Marquis' Mansion. Even the Yongchang Marquis and his wife had to flatter her. As a result, the treatment of Yan Ziming, a person from an outsider, in the Marquis' Mansion was also improved a lot. But who would have thought that he would cause trouble so quickly? When the Yongchang Marquis learned the whole cause and effect of the incident, his legs trembled on the spot.
"It's bad, it's bad, Yan Zhifu that girl has harmed my mansion, what should I do now?"
The Marquis's wife, who had been flattering Yan Zhifu just a moment ago, now had a different expression and gritted her teeth and said, "I shouldn't have listened to my sister-in-law and let them live in the Marquis' Mansion. That girl is a troublemaker. My Lord, before His Majesty asks for punishment, you should quickly drive them out of the Marquis' Mansion and quickly divide the family with my second brother to sever ties with him. Anyway, the only people you are related to are my sister-in-law."
"Is this...really possible?" the Marquis hesitated.
"Why not? Their surname is Yan, but ours is not." The Marquis's wife just wanted to minimize the losses and hoped that the emperor would not implicate the Marquis's family.
"I'm afraid my second brother and his wife won't agree."
"It's not up to them!"
The Marquis and his wife were planning to divide the family property. Meanwhile, Yan Ziming went to ask for a meeting with his aunt.
He had not been able to sleep well since the incident. He had lost weight visibly, and his eyes were dark blue, as if he had a serious illness. He regretted it very much. He should not have believed Tao Yuzhu's evil and asked her to replace his sister. He thought that with his sister's care, he could avoid trouble. But he never expected that Tao Yuzhu would bring even bigger trouble, a big trouble that could destroy the entire Yan family.
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