Emperor Pei suddenly asked, "Where is Yuan Chengyu? Has he been to Lingnan in the past few years?"
The eunuch replied, "No."
Emperor Pei looked at the eunuch who was serving him personally, "Are you so sure?"
The eunuch forced a smile and said, "Your Majesty, you've forgotten, but you asked the secret guards some time ago."
Emperor Pei asked doubtfully, "Is that so? I already asked?"
Emperor Pei, however, realized that he seemed to remember nothing at all.
The eunuch hurriedly said, "Your Majesty must be a little tired from handling so many affairs every day."
Emperor Pei nodded thoughtfully, without saying anything more.
"Why did Your Majesty mention the Crown Prince of Cheng again? Is Your Majesty worried that the Crown Prince of Cheng was behind it?"
Emperor Pei shook his head. "I always felt that there was something fishy about this."
Emperor Pei couldn't explain why he would mention the Crown Prince of Cheng.
Ultimately, it seemed that Emperor Pei felt he had overlooked something.
The next day, as soon as Emperor Pei finished his morning court session, he heard that Princess Chang Le was waiting for him in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, saying that she had important business to discuss.
When Emperor Pei arrived at the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Pei Zhi immediately knelt down to pay his respects.
"What is it?"
Pei Zhi took out a letter, "This is a letter that I found in the Crown Prince's residence that was not completely burned."
At Emperor Pei's glance, a eunuch went over and took the letter, which was burned down to only a small corner.
The paper was burned, and the remaining words were dirty and not very clear.
A few words are clear, though.
Emperor Pei read out the few words he could make out: "Sister Xie Shuyuan."
"Who is this lady?"
Pei Zhi lowered her head and remained silent.
Eunuch: "This servant remembers that the Fourth Prince's Consort's maiden name seems to be Shuyuan?"
Previously, when the Fourth Prince got married, he also brought his wife to pay their respects.
The eunuch's reminder brought it to Emperor Pei's attention.
"Chang Le, do you know anything about the relationship between the First Prince's wife and the Fourth Prince's family when you're in the capital?"
Pei Zhi hesitated for a moment before answering, "I have attended several gatherings, and my eldest sister-in-law and fourth sister-in-law are just nodding acquaintances, nothing more, not a single word exchanged."
Pei Zhi sighed inwardly, "I never imagined they would correspond with each other in private."
The evidence gathered in the previous investigation pointed to the fourth brother.
Now that another letter has arrived, Emperor Pei can't help but suspect the fourth prince.
"I understand. You may go back now."
Pei Zhi bit her lip, as if she had made up her mind, and knelt before Emperor Pei.
"Father, I have another request."
"What is it?"
"The prince consort has a younger sister who is of marriageable age, and he hopes that the emperor will grant her a marriage."
Who are your husband's family?
“My husband’s family is in the tea business. The pre-rain Longjing tea that I presented to Father Emperor was a gift from them.”
Emperor Pei sneered, "Chang Le, I am the emperor, and you are a princess. I have married you off, but you cannot treat those lowly people as your family."
Emperor Pei said in an icy tone, "You really have the nerve to ask me to bestow a marriage upon two businessmen."
Pei Zhi hurriedly apologized, "Your subject knows that this matter should not have alarmed Father Emperor."
"But before, when I returned from the capital, the Fourth Prince came to see me and said that from now on, he wanted to treat me like a brother and sister."
Pei Zhi stammered, "What else is there to say? In the future, he will give me the highest honor."
"At that time, I did not quite understand what my elder brother meant, so I refused him, which resulted in offending my fourth elder brother."
"The fourth prince sent some people from the Ministry of Revenue to the Qin residence to propose marriage, saying that he wanted to take the princess's sister as a concubine."
As Pei Zhi spoke, her voice began to choke up, "Although I am a princess, I have been married to my husband for a year and there is still no sign of pregnancy."
Pei Zhi said with a mournful voice, "Now, because of myself, my sister-in-law's marriage has been affected. Since ancient times, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law has been difficult. Your Majesty is really deliberately making things difficult for me."
Emperor Pei had not expected that there would be such a thing in between.
With teary eyes, Pei Zhi looked up at Emperor Pei and said, "Father, my beloved elder brother is gone, and my mother is gone too. Only you, Father, can support me in this world."
Pei Zhi persisted, saying, "Your Majesty arranged this marriage for me back then. You can't just ignore it, Father."
Perhaps Pei Zhi had acted too impressively before.
Now that Pei Zhi is crying and pleading in front of Emperor Pei, Emperor Pei is actually a little soft-hearted.
Back then, he really did wrong Chang Le.
Emperor Pei was thinking about the Qin family's vast wealth. He thought that if he married a princess to the Qin family, he could openly ask them for money.
As a result, in the year since Pei Zhi married into the Qin family, Emperor Pei's private treasury has grown considerably.
"Alright, alright, stop crying. Look at you, you've been to the battlefield, how can you still cry like this over these trivial family matters?"
Emperor Pei had a eunuch help Pei Zhi up, and Pei Zhi wiped away her tears with her sleeve.
"No matter what, I am still a woman. Father is the emperor, so naturally he does not know the difficulties I face as a woman."
Yes, Pei Zhi is just a woman, so why did he have so many doubts before?
"Isn't it just an imperial decree? You just tell me the groom's family name, and I'll issue a verbal order, okay?"
Pei Zhi nodded reluctantly, "Father, please bestow some gifts upon them as a token of our appreciation."
"Alright, alright." Emperor Pei nodded repeatedly. "Whatever you say, goes."
"And the fourth prince, Father, you should give him a good scolding later."
Emperor Pei's eyes held a cryptic look. "How does Chang Le hope that Father will punish him?"
“Father needs to warn my brother that we are both his children. As long as Father is alive, we are naturally siblings.”
Pei Zhi suggested that Emperor Pei teach the Fourth Prince a lesson.
Emperor Pei might be somewhat displeased, after all, in his heart, a prince is a prince, and a princess cannot compare to him.
But Pei Zhi's words truly struck a chord with Emperor Pei.
Why is the fourth prince in such a hurry to form cliques when the emperor is still alive?
Are you so eager to make him, the employer and employee, step down?
"I have taken note of this. I will teach him a lesson."
Pei Zhi achieved her goal and finished filing her complaint.
"Then Father, you may continue with your work. I will head back now."
"Wait a minute." Emperor Pei looked at Pei Zhi's belly. "If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten."
"You've been married to the prince consort for over a year, and there's still no sign of pregnancy. What's going on?"
Pei Zhi murmured, "Perhaps it is because I am physically weak that I have never had any children."
"It is always a big deal if a woman cannot have children. Issue my decree to send the imperial physician to the princess's residence to examine her."
The eunuch immediately nodded and accepted the order.
Pei Zhi's expression stiffened slightly. She was perfectly healthy; she just didn't want children.
"Father, I..."
“There’s no room for discussion on this matter. Although you are a princess, you have never had any children, and it’s not easy to explain this to the Qin family.”
Pei Zhi finally understood what it felt like to lift a rock only to drop it on your own foot.
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