Defense
"Your Majesty should trust your brother! Your Highness should trust your uncle!"
Prince Xin went around in circles, getting confused. After going in a circle, he came back to his original point and kept muttering these few words.
The king repeatedly shouted that he was innocent and loyal. He had been imprisoned for many years, threatened by Guo, scolded by the new king, and faced the life and death of his mother's family. How could the princess, the concubine, the princess, and the county lady hold back their tears?
The golden hairpin passed by, and a brilliant orange-black light appeared on the horizon of Chang'an.
In Taiji Palace, the Saint and the Queen are still waiting for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to return to the palace to report.
If you go at noon, you may not be able to return by dusk, and then you will go around in circles and take detours, which will definitely make you miss the time.
Your Highness the Crown Prince, the officials of the Eastern Palace are in front of me, and I am walking slowly in the hall, pretending to linger.
Prince Xin, the Princess, and the Ruren didn't understand what I meant, so I could only look at Princess Yuyang and the Princess of Shouyang County. The princess also looked at me for a long time with her watery eyes. After a while, I turned my eyes away. The princess came back to her senses and interrupted her father, the king, saying, "My lady, you are always by the queen's side, but the saintly queen has something else to tell your father?"
I pondered how to say what I should say, then stepped back half a step. I bowed to each member of the Li royal family. The princess delivered the message, and I immediately took it up. "As the princess said, I was blessed by the royal family and was fortunate to be raised by the Queen. The Queen is kind and indulges me. I was so bold that I even shamelessly called the Queen of the Central Palace "A'mother" in private. A while ago, during the court celebrations and the ladies of honor, everyone called her "Queen". In front of outsiders, I dared not flatter her and would only call her "Mother" even if it cost me my life. I am the daughter of a minister, and this is the way a minister should act. Even if it is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, when meeting my father in the court, I would first call him "Saint" or "Your Majesty"... Your Majesty, you are of noble status, the son of the Queen, the descendant of the Emperor, and the younger brother of the Saint. But there are even more noble people in the Taiji Palace. In front of outsiders, with outsiders present, Your Majesty should also humbly call me "Your Majesty"..."
"That's just nonsense!" I bowed again and said, "When I came here today, the sage told me to tell you that Erlang asked Sanlang to take care of himself and his body. After a while, he would come to the palace to chat and have fun, and go out of the city to ride horses and feast. Erlang asked Sanlang if that was okay?"
I have made it clear what the saints were thinking and calculating, using soft and hard words, and conveyed them to King Xin.
The king opened his eyes and said only one sentence at the end, "Your humble servant... no... Sanlang... can... can... can..."
The sky gradually darkened, and at the last moment before the inner door closed, the prince's carriage rushed back to Taiji Palace.
After entering the palace, the prince abandoned his carriage and walked away. I also got off the carriage and followed him on foot.
The doors of the Eastern Palace were still open, and the Crown Prince was going to the Lizheng Hall to meet the Saint Queen.
The eunuch Zhu Buxiu led the way. Eunuch Zhu was a favored eunuch who usually did not care about worldly affairs. He led the way but ended up taking the wrong path. The eunuch led the prince on a long journey, from daytime to night, from no lights to lights. I pretended to be stupid and acted ignorant, for fear that if I spoke out, I would point out Eunuch Zhu's fault and make him bear a grudge against me.
Eunuch Zhu holds the lantern in front, the lotus breeze from the five lakes gently blows the lantern, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince walks along the rivers and lakes.
It was pitch black as it was the Ghost Festival, a time of pardoning sins. The palace maids and moon maidens were releasing river lanterns on the shore.
Floating lights on the flowing water, fireflies like stars, Tai Chi is full of crape myrtle stars, and Chang'an also has Luoyang flowers.
The souls of the previous dynasty were entrusting themselves to the river lanterns, with twinkling green fireflies, colorful crape myrtles, and swaying red flowers. I was mesmerized by the sight. The prince walked very slowly, and I followed him leisurely.
If Your Highness walks slowly, I will walk slowly too. If the Crown Prince stops, I will stop too, and we will learn to keep pace.
The prince stopped and I stared at the river lanterns in a daze. I only heard Eunuch Zhu calling me, "Madam...Madam Yan..."
I looked over when I heard the sound and saw the prince handing me something. I held it in my hands and took it.
It is the prince's jade talisman.
His Highness said, "It's dirty."
I took a handkerchief and wiped it.
The jade talisman was clean. I looked at the prince and returned the jade talisman to him. He looked at the river lanterns from the side of the East Palace and said, "He doesn't want the jade talisman anymore!"
The Eastern Palace loves cleanliness and does not tolerate filth.
The jade talisman was originally free from filth and dirt, but it became dirty after being fiddled with by someone like me. Naturally, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will not want it anymore.
In Taiji Palace, first comes His Majesty the Emperor, then His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and finally the Empress.
The world belongs to these three people. Throwing a piece of jade or smashing a talisman, how can there be merit or demerit or right or wrong?
At the edge of the East China Sea Pool, I clutched the jade talisman and took a few steps closer to the water. I was used to losing jade talismans. In a split second, with a splash, the jade talisman of the previous dynasty's crown prince and the jade talisman of the current dynasty's crown prince were buried together in the East China Sea Pool...
Behind me, Eunuch Zhu cried out "ouch!" and it seemed that his feet tripped and he fell to the ground, extinguishing the lamp.
I turned around and could only see the person's body but not his face.
The world is quiet, allowing me to offend the superiors. I speak frankly and ask the prince, "Brother, are you thirsty? I want tea, but it can't quench my thirst..."
I wish that eunuch’s hat will roll off.
Princess Jiang, Mrs. Qian, Princess Yuyang, and Lady Shouyang, cannot see the Holy Empress, and dare not disturb His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. They can only cry and beg me, and shed fewer tears and say fewer words. If they don't cry and beg, their entire family will be exiled and their entire clan will be executed. I have persuaded this and that, and agreed to this and that, and I have long been thirsty and can no longer bear it.
How could I have the heart to look at the lotus lanterns? I wished I could blow out the river lanterns and scoop up some lake water from the lotus body.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not scold me, but just strode towards Lizheng Palace. Prince Xin was better than four people, and the Crown Prince was more tired than me in dealing with them.
I followed slowly, and Eunuch Zhu picked up the small hat and lantern and hurried after him.
When I entered the Lizheng Hall, I paid my respects to the teapot and teacup before I even paid my respects to the Saintly Empress. The Empress came out from behind the screen and asked, "He Nu, why didn't you leave any tea for Li'er?"
The prince entered the hall before me and drank the tea in a rage. The palace maid who served him tea whispered to me.
Your Highness the East Palace, you are going to make me die of thirst.
The prince said nothing, and I said nothing either. The queen ordered the maid to make tea.
It was this time that the Empress became even more aware of the discord between the Eastern Palace and me, and it was only then that everyone inside and outside the Taiji Palace learned that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and I were at odds.
The sage laughed through the screen, shaking the empress's chambers. The master said, "Prince Xin is foolish and talkative. He has killed the emperor's two ministers with anger and the empress's two servants with thirst. Empress, if I agree with you today, then it will be you and me fighting over tea in the palace! Your son is ice, my son is speechless. Only Li Sanlang, a summer insect, can make them talk..."
The Lord laughed uncontrollably, and the Queen said with a smirk, "How can a brother or a father speak of his younger brother's children like this?"
The sage did not listen and continued to laugh.
A few days later, the sage issued an edict that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, with his noble status and high power, no longer needed to wear the fish talisman.
In the early years of the Li Dynasty, only ministers had to wear fish tokens when entering the palace. The princes and nobles of all places had eunuchs or subordinates, and they were surrounded by slaves within five steps, so they did not need fish tokens or tortoise tokens.
A few dynasties ago, a scandal occurred, which led to the order that the princes of each prefecture should wear fish and turtles on their waists.
The man from the Li family had the same narrow face, the same high eyebrows, the same peach blossom and willow leaf eyes. He was twenty years old and wore a crown and a fu hat. If he had a beard, he would be even harder to recognize.
There is a ten-year age gap between father and son, dozens of years between elder brother and younger brother, the same age as grandfather and grandson, and the same generation as grandfather. No matter whether they are lewd dragons, good dragons, evil dragons, or imprisoned dragons, everyone has the appearance of a dragon. There are endless descendants, fathers, sons, and brothers, and most of them are in Chang'an. I often live in Prince Qing's Mansion. Several young masters cannot tell them apart, so how can the city gate guards see clearly?
During a palace banquet, five princes rode their horses into the palace alone. Prince Li raped a palace maid, but no one could find out who did it. Even the humiliated maid could not identify the culprit.
Now, 70% of the royal family has died, leaving the late emperor's branch in Luoyang as 10%, those who follow the emperor and are content with their lot as 10%, and distant relatives beyond the fifth degree of mourning as the remaining 10%.
The Crown Prince looks like a porcelain figurine, has the face of a ruler, holds his head high and brows confident, which is completely different from the others. Why does he need a fish token to indicate his identity?
Throw all those broken, dirty, useless, harmful, and unpopular things to me, and I will throw them all into the East China Sea Pool without saying a word.
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