"I have been to the Shangshufang, but why is the empress dowager there?" The harem is not allowed to interfere in political affairs, and concubines are not allowed to go to places like the Shangshufang.
"One time, you went to the upper study room and happened to catch the palace serving summer desserts. You insisted on fighting with the Fourth Princess for the plate of crisp watermelon. You couldn't win over the two of you, and you even knocked over other people's food boxes, spilling soup all over the floor. Do you remember?"
It seems possible that this is happening.
The main reason was that Xu Yixing was only six or seven years old at that time, and the fourth princess was the most playful and domineering. The two of them would always destroy something in the palace. Later, they were punished by their father because they tore up the famous calligraphy and paintings that the emperor had placed in the upper study for the princes to copy.
As for the watermelon-grabbing scene, it's a bit too common and I really can't remember it.
"Just assume I remember it. What does this have to do with the Queen Mother?"
"The food box contained seven bowls of iced drinks. Later, my second brother's Ah Fu licked the drinks on the ground and died of poisoning."
Ah Fu is the second prince's little Pekingese. He shakes his head and is very cute. Xu Yixing still remembers him.
"What? Someone wants to kill you guys?" If such a thing really happened, Xu Yixing would not have not heard anything about it. This is the crime of murdering seven princes and exterminating ten clans!
Lu Anyuan shook his head. If it was poisoning, it would not be so easy to cover it up.
"It's sugarcane. It was the fresh fruit presented that year. Because it's difficult to preserve, there wasn't much left when it arrived in the capital, so my father gave it all to my grandmother."
"No, she wanted to kill..."
"Listen to me!" Lu Anyuan frowned. Why didn't this girl listen to him?
"The Empress Dowager squeezed the juice out of it and thought it was delicious, so she wanted to give some to us. However, sugarcane is too sweet and spoils easily. The palace maid who squeezed the juice didn't understand and thought it was just what it looked like, so she gave it to us without any further ado."
"Oh... so it was an accident. Doesn't that mean I'm your savior, and I also saved the unsuspecting Queen Mother?"
Lu Anyuan did not deny it. In fact, even if Xu Yixing had not knocked over the food box, he would not like to drink sweet drinks. However, the same may not be true for other princes.
"After the matter was investigated, Father was still very angry. Although he didn't say it explicitly, you know that the old Queen Mother was not his biological mother. Even though he knew the whole story, Father still had doubts in his heart. It was after that that the Queen Mother began to live in seclusion and she began to age."
"Well... but you are still lucky. God must have sent me to rescue you!" Xu Yixing was really bragging.
However, Lu Anyuan remembered that he and Xu Yixing first met earlier, before the sugarcane juice incident.
That day was Fourth Brother’s birthday, and also his first birthday while fostered with Concubine Ying. Father attached great importance to it and held a banquet for Fourth Brother.
Lu Anyuan was only eight years old at the time, an age when people disliked him the most, so he left the banquet early and went to do his own thing.
What Lu Anyuan did was to take a sharpened small wooden stick and look for earthworm nests everywhere, then mash the earthworms out and cut them into sections. When he got tired of playing with them, he stepped on them and turned them into a pile of earthworm mud.
At that time, his personality was still very twisted and he did not hide his cruelty. Even if his brothers and sisters did not like him, he did not care.
He was in a good mood that day and was about to "cut up" the earthworm, when he saw a little girl in bright clothes walking towards him. However, he had never seen her before and had no impression of who she was.
Maybe it was some noble lady who came to the palace to pay a visit?
Lu Anyuan saw that she was alone and no one was following her, and it seemed that she was lost, so he immediately became evil and prepared to "treat" the child well.
"Hey, who are you looking for? Are you lost?" Lu Anyuan took the initiative to step forward, but the girl seemed reluctant to be approached. She took a step back with some disgust, staring at the boy who was a head taller than her.
This made Lu Anyuan even angrier. It’s ok that my brother and sister dislike me, but who the hell do you think you are to look at me like that?
But the angrier he got, the more innocent his smile became: "Don't be afraid, I am..." He thought of yesterday's archery competition when his master praised Young Master Sun from the Duke's Mansion, and he was so happy that he was like a big rooster. How annoying!
"I'm from the Duke's Mansion. My name is Sun Ziyou. I often come to the palace and I'm very familiar with it. What about you?"
"Xu Yixing." The little girl still looked alert as she softly uttered a name.
"Oh! I know, you are the daughter of General Xu, right! Great, let's go play together, I'll take you!" General Xu is also one of the emperor's favorite ministers. Naturally, the daughter of the man the emperor likes should also die.
"No."
Eh? Why isn't she taking the bait? Lu Anyuan was a little anxious, so he flattered her, "It's very close. Look at that palace. I often go there. There are many beautiful and gentle sisters there. They are all very nice people."
The place Lu Anyuan pointed to was the cold palace. There were indeed many sisters there, but were they gentle and pretty? It was hard to say. If this dead girl could be brought there, who knows how the people inside would torture her!
"Yeah?"
"Of course!"
"Okay then, take me in and let me take a look."
Xu Yixing actually agreed? What a foolish girl, hahahahaha!
So Lu Anyuan led Xu Yixing and personally opened the small side door of the cold palace for her. He smiled and said, "Go in first. I forgot my things over there. I'm going to get them."
So Xu Yixing went in, and Lu Anyuan squatted outside the door, eavesdropping with a crazy look on his face, waiting to hear the child scream.
I can't let her die. I'll go and call someone to save her when the time is right. If anything happens, it will be my grandson's fault, and it won't be my fault.
But after listening for a long time, Lu Anyuan heard no unusual sounds from inside, which was very strange.
So he pushed the gap a little bit, stuck one eye out and looked inside, and the first thing he did was to lose his composure.
The little girl was seen chatting with a fierce-looking "grandmother" with a sweet smile. This was Concubine He, the most vicious woman in the late emperor's reign, who had killed countless concubines and children of the late emperor. How could she chat with Xu Yixing so kindly?
Even the former imperial concubine whom Lu Anyuan feared the most was standing beside Xu Yixing, whispering something to her.
Not fair!
Lu Anyuan clenched his fingers against the door panel. Why? Why did these women either call him a bastard or take advantage of him when they saw him? Why did they treat her like this?
Some time after his mother's death, the little Lu Anyuan actually thought about finding a new mother, so these equally unpopular concubines in the cold palace became his first choice.
——Not for power or anything, Lu Anyuan just wanted to feel the warmth of his mother.
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