053, cruel truth
053, cruel truth
After having a meal with the young master, Lu Mingfei walked out of the private room and left the restaurant. When he left, he did not bother the guards to send him back in a carriage, but walked away on his own.
What Lu Mingfei didn't know was that at that moment, there was a person standing at the window on the second floor, looking down. When he saw him leaving the restaurant, the eyes upstairs were filled with scrutiny.
"Who is this kid?"
"He's just an ordinary pariah. Why is he worthy of your concern, second brother?"
The two people upstairs are the two sons of the current emperor, the second prince Zhao Chen and the third prince Zhao Yu.
When the princes in the palace reach the age of fifteen, they will move out of the palace and build their own residences outside. The third prince, who is now over seventeen years old, and the second prince, who is eighteen years old, have both moved out of the palace to live in the prince's residence two or three years ago.
If there was a common enemy for these brothers, it would definitely be their cousin Zhao Lang. The story of this hatred between cousins dates back to when they were all studying together in the palace. It was only when facing this common enemy, Zhao Lang, that the Second and Third Princes would unite.
Unfortunately, even though they had united over the years, apart from the initial loss they had inflicted on that wolf cub Zhao Lang, they had never gained any advantage from their cousin. It wasn't until Zhao Lang and his other cousins who had come to Beijing to study at the Imperial Academy that their encounters began to decrease.
When the two thought of Zhao Lang's cousin, especially the second prince who had the worst relationship with Zhao Lang, their faces suddenly became gloomy.
"Master, His Royal Highness the Second Prince and His Royal Highness the Third Prince are also in the building right now."
"They are here, don't worry about them."
Zhao Lang also learned about his two cousins drinking tea in the restaurant he opened, but he didn't care about the two defeated men. He still had to do business in the restaurant, so he couldn't let someone poison Zhao Chen and Zhao Yu's tea, could he?
What few people outside know is that he is actually the boss behind this restaurant.
In recent years, he has secretly opened several shops in Kyoto Prefecture, which are mainly used to collect information from various places in Kyoto Prefecture and outside of Kyoto Prefecture. In addition, the Dingwang Mansion also has some farms and shops in Kyoto Prefecture. In his first year in Beijing, his family handed these businesses over to him.
In the past few years since he came to Kyoto Prefecture, Zhao Lang himself understood one thing, that is, he is now in Kyoto Prefecture and has little hope of returning to Beijun. If he encounters any problems here, even if his family wants to help him, it will be too late, so he can only rely on himself for many things.
Another major factor was that he wasn't the only son in the Ding Palace. His father's favorite had always been the eldest son, born to a concubine. Three years ago, his mother gave birth to a second son, his biological brother, who was now two or three years old. If anything happened to him, this biological brother would become the next heir to the Ding Palace. Therefore, he was never irreplaceable.
His half-brother Zhao Rui was four years older than him. He was sixteen this year, so his half-brother Zhao Rui was twenty. Two years ago, under the arrangement of his family, he married the eldest daughter of a lieutenant general in the Northern Commandery as his principal wife. The year before last, he gave birth to his eldest grandson.
Now Zhao Rui worked beside their father and had become his right-hand man. From the letters his mother had written to him years earlier, Zhao Lang had already guessed that his father was planning to train his eldest son to take over the military affairs.
He had been in Kyoto Prefecture for eight years, and he was afraid that few people in Beijun knew that Prince Ding's Mansion had a prince.
Although it is cruel, it is also a fact.
Zhao Lang could also sense that ever since his mother gave birth to their second child, she had neglected him, the eldest. In the past, his mother would send him a letter and some clothes once a month, but that gradually became three months, and then six months. This time, he hadn't received a letter from his mother in over six months.
As for his father, he simply couldn't care less about his son who was thousands of miles away.
During the first two or three years after he arrived in Kyoto, his father would send him a letter every year, along with the letter sent by his mother. But in the past two years, there have been no letters at all. The affection between father and son has become increasingly weaker with the passage of time and distance.
After eight years in Beijing, Zhao Lang had come to understand that relying on others was not enough; only by becoming capable could he gain a foothold in Kyoto. If he could ever return to Beijun, he would need to possess both ability and wealth to wrest back from his half-brother Zhao Rui everything that belonged to him as the Prince of Ding.
However, if he could not return to Beijun in the future, he would probably only be an idler in Kyoto Prefecture, and the emperor would not be able to use them as hostages in the capital.
In a few years, when his family sees that there is no hope for him to return, they will definitely secretly support another legitimate son to replace him. Then his title of crown prince will be in name only, and it will not matter whether he can return or not.
Zhao Lang understood his current situation better than anyone else, and precisely because of this, he desperately wanted to establish his own power, independent of Prince Ding's Palace. However, establishing his own power in Jingdu Prefecture, under the watchful eyes of the emperor and the imperial court, was no easy task.
He wanted to recruit someone to be his helper, preferably someone who would not attract anyone's attention.
At this moment, a face flashed through his mind, and the owner of that face had just left him.
Thinking of Lu Mingfei, Zhao Lang's eyes softened a little. He turned the teacup in his hand around, tilted his head back and drank the wine in the cup.
***
"A-choo!" Lu Mingfei sneezed violently while walking on the road, wondering who on earth was thinking about him?!
"Tanghulu, Tanghulu..."
"Brother, give me two strings of candied haws."
"Okay. Here, your candied haws."
The peddler picked two strings of candied haws from the haystack in his hand and gave them to the young boy in front of him. He took the few copper coins handed over by the young boy and put them into the small bag on his waist, and continued to sell the candied haws here.
Lu Mingfei, who had bought some candied haws, returned to his stall with two strings of candied haws. After returning, he greeted his father and mother, then took the two strings of candied haws to the sesame seed cake shop run by his adoptive parents.
After greeting his adoptive father and mother, he walked into the inner courtyard.
Seeing the two naughty boys playing with tricycles in the yard, he shouted, "Bean buns, sugar cakes, look what I brought back for you."
"elder brother!"
“It’s candied haws!”
The two children turned their heads at the same time, and when they saw the two strings of candied haws in their brother's hand, their voices became louder and louder.
This time, their brother didn't need to wave at them. Both children threw away their tricycles and ran towards their brother.
The tricycle was the two boys' new toy. Lu Mingfei had drawn the blueprint for it, and his father had made it out of wood. Although it was made of wood, it was more than enough to support the weight of a child.
"I want it, I want it!"
"Brother, give it to me!"
"Okay, don't fight over it. One string for each of you. Everyone gets a share." Lu Mingfei shared the candied haws in his hand between the two boys. Doubao is his younger brother, whose nickname is Doubao and whose full name is Lu Mingrui.
Tanggao is the child of his adoptive parents. His nickname is Tanggao and his real name is Lu Mingcong.
The two younger brothers are the same age, three this year, a full ten years younger than their older brother. The dark-skinned sugar cake is the older brother, and the white-skinned bean bun is the younger brother, a month apart. When his stepmother left the confinement room after giving birth, his mother gave birth to her second child. Because of their similar age, the two children were raised together, and now that they've grown up, they play together every day.
Because he was kidnapped by human traffickers when he was a child, the adults in his family kept a close eye on his two younger children.
When the two children were young, the adults had no time to take care of them, so they put a small bed in the pancake shop and put the two children in it to sleep. When they woke up, the two children would whisper to each other in the bed.
When the children grew a little and began to crawl and walk, they refused to stay in their cribs. The adults had no choice but to lock them in the yard to play. The back door was locked, and the front door led to the shop. There were always adults there, so there was no need to worry about the children escaping and disappearing on the street.
Their businesses are busy in the morning and closed in the afternoon, so the adults from both families take turns looking after the two children in the morning. In the afternoon, they are free and can take the two children to play at whichever house they want to go, and often take the children out for a stroll.
Knowing that his parents were busy and his adoptive father and mother were also busy, Lu Mingfei would come and take care of his two younger brothers when he was free.
Although these two little boys are a little naughty sometimes, they are also very easy to take care of. As long as you give them something delicious, the two little guys will sit down and eat obediently and won't run around.
At this moment, the two children took the candied haws that he bought for them and ran out of the store to tell the adults that after he bought the candied haws, he came back and sat in a row on the doorstep, happily eating them with his little feet swinging.
Before they even finished the candied haws in their hands, Candy was already thinking about the next meal of candied haws. They tilted their chubby little head and asked their eldest brother, who was standing in front of them and staring at them, "Brother, can I have another string of candied haws tomorrow?"
"It depends on your performance. If you perform well today, I can buy you some if you still want to eat it tomorrow." Lu Mingfei has plenty of pocket money now, so he is willing to buy snacks for his two younger brothers.
His money did not come from his parents, but from the royalties he earned from writing storybooks. Since his parents did not want his money, he kept it for himself and spent it on his own. He usually used his own money to buy books and pens.
There are many scholars in Kyoto who make money by writing storybooks. So if you want your storybooks to catch the eye of the bookstore owner, the stories you write must be novel and attractive.
Fortunately, he had earned his living by writing novels when he was in college in his previous life, so he was still able to write stories that would satisfy the shopkeeper and be liked by readers. In the past three years, he had made a little money by writing storybooks.
Doubao licked the candied haws in his hand, rolled his eyes, and discussed with his brother: "Brother, I don't want to eat candied haws tomorrow, I want to eat candy men!"
"Hey, you picked it yourself?" Lu Mingfei reached out and touched the nose of the brat and asked.
"Brother, brother, I don't want candied haws anymore. I want a candy man!" Tanggao followed his brother and changed his mind.
As soon as she came over, Xu Yueniang heard her own boy yelling for candy figurines. Seeing that the boy was eating a candied haws in his hand and yelling for candy figurines again, she said to her eldest adopted son, "Mingfei, don't spoil these two boys. You've spoiled them to the point of lawlessness."
"No, they are both very obedient." Lu Mingfei said with a smile.
"Mom, I'm being obedient!" Tanggao turned his head and looked back at his mother, protesting.
"You're the only one who's obedient?" Xu Yueniang laughed, not believing her son's words. She knew better than anyone how naughty this boy was.
"..." Tanggao bit his own candied haws with a sullen look on his face. Author's words: Thanks to Bole 9492239 (9492239) for supporting me, mua! To know more exciting content, please leave me a message on Liancheng Reading
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