Chapter 44

“Ding-ding-ding-ding!”

When the court was in session, a burst of rapid drum sounds came from Taihe Gate into the hall, startling all the civil and military officials.

Who struck the drum to announce the news?

Here, Li Chenghuan was about to enter the palace when Ao Jingchuan suddenly came over to deliver a message: "Your Majesty, I have found where Eunuch Lin is."

Li Chengqian's anxious heart finally found its place: "Where is it?"

An indescribable expression appeared on Ao Jingchuan's dark face: "It seems to be in the Princess's residence."

Li Chengqian breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."

Ao Jingchuan looked embarrassed again.

To be honest, not very good.

Eunuch Lin has an extraordinary status in the Princess's Mansion.

Wang Dehai listened to the increasingly urgent drumbeats outside and urged, "Your Majesty, please go to court first."

Li Chenghuan nodded with relief, brushed his sleeves and walked into the hall, sat on the dragon chair, and looked down at the officials: "Who is beating the drum outside?"

The eunuch who hurried over to report said, "Your Majesty, yes, the Prince Consort wants to sue the Princess!"

All the civil and military officials were shocked.

Although the Dengwen Drum has not been struck for several years, it has been struck before.

But it is unheard of that the prince consort would go to the court to sue the princess!

Li Chengqian was also somewhat surprised. He had just received the news that Lin Nanjie was in the Princess's residence. It was a bit of a coincidence that Guo Zixu, as the consort of the princess, came to sue the Princess again. "He wants to sue the Princess?"

The young eunuch said tremblingly: "Yes, the prince consort said that he wants to sue the princess for seven crimes, and there are many people gathered outside."

Li Chengqian thought that the matter should not be made into a big deal, so he frowned and said, "Summon the prince consort into the palace."

The eunuch took the order and left. Not long after, he brought Guo Zixu in.

Guo Zixu straightened his back and walked up to the hall with a face full of sorrow and anger: "Your humble servant greets His Majesty!"

Li Chenghuan looked at him solemnly: "I heard that you want to sue the princess. Why?"

Guo Zixu knelt in the hall, his tone angry and firm: "I will sue the princess for not being a good wife and committing the seven crimes of divorce!"

"I have witnesses and physical evidence!"

The ministers looked at each other in bewilderment and whispered, "We have heard that the princess is a dissolute woman, has seven or eight male concubines, and doesn't take the princess's family seriously at all."

"Yes, the eldest princess has bad behavior, and it's no wonder that the prince consort filed a complaint against her."

"When I first fell in love with Guo Zixu, I even broke his legs. The fact that he has endured until now shows how great Guo Zixu's cultivation is!"

The eunuch came in again and reported: "The eldest princess also wants to see the emperor!"

Li Chenghuan was silent for a while: "Princess Xuanchang and the witnesses come into the palace."

Lin Nanqi and Lu Chengzhou followed Li Yunluan walking on the wide palace road in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. They looked at each other and saw nervous expressions on each other's faces.

Lin Nanjie took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally.

It’s over. He didn’t even think about going to Yu?

I'm about to meet the Dog Emperor.

The Dog Emperor will soon find out that he has become one of the Princess's male favorites.

I don't know how many boards to reward.

Lin Nanqi couldn't help but touch his butt secretly and sighed softly.

Lin Nanqi couldn't help but look at Lu Chengzhou. Seeing that he looked even more nervous than him, he couldn't help but ask, "Are you scared too?"

Lu Chengzhou looked like he was about to cry: "When I see my father later, I'm afraid he will beat me to death in front of the emperor."

Lin Nanqi looked at him sympathetically.

Lu Chengzhou murmured, "My father is an old-fashioned man who talks about etiquette every day. If he saw me being a male favorite in the palace, he would definitely beat me to death."

"What about you? Is this your first time in the palace? No wonder you're nervous."

"It's okay, you're just going through the motions. I'm the one who's suffering. I can't even imagine what my dad's expression would be when he sees me."

Lin Nanqi couldn't laugh, and thought: You just want to see your father, but I want to see the emperor!

He also didn't dare to imagine what expression the Dog Emperor would have when he saw him.

Lin Nanqi looked down at her purple dress and was about to cry.

Under the gaze of the civil and military officials and Li Chenghuan, Li Yunluan walked slowly into the hall, followed by two people.

Li Chenghuan's eyes first fell on his eldest sister Li Yunluan. He also knew about Li Yunluan's taking a male pet, but he just turned a blind eye to it.

The princess is the master and the prince consort is the minister, but they didn't expect that the trouble would come to the palace this time.

Then, his eyes fell on the two men behind Li Yunluan. It seemed that these were his eldest sister's two male favorites.

The two men knelt in the main hall with their heads buried tightly, as if they wanted to bury their heads in the floor tiles.

It seems like I am too embarrassed to face it.

Li Chenghuan saw two men, one wearing green and the other wearing purple. One was tall and strong, and the other was slender and thin. The fabrics looked thin and flimsy, and they had fancy buns on their hair. They looked... not like gentlemen.

The newly appointed Minister of Rites Lu Weitong sneered at the two men's attire and said, "Good men don't serve their country, but instead flirt with each other and become guests. They are simply degrading themselves!"

"That's right! You have no sense of propriety!"

"As parents, we are so ashamed!"

Lu Weitong: "Luckily it wasn't my boy, or I would have skinned him alive!"

Lin Nanjie saw that Lu Chengzhou buried his head even deeper.

Guo Zixu pointed at the two people kneeling on the ground in an angry tone, and said sarcastically: "These two are just two of the princess' nine male favorites. One is the fourth prince, and the other is the ninth prince!"

"You two, raise your heads." A cold voice came from the man sitting on the dragon chair.

Lin Nanjie and Lu Chengzhou looked at each other and saw fear in each other's eyes. They took a deep breath and raised their heads carefully with a fearless attitude.

Lin Nanjie clenched his hands, feeling as if a century had passed, and met Li Chenghuan's gaze with a guilty conscience.

Li Chengqian's gaze froze.

He looked at Lin Nanjie's familiar face, and the worries of the past few days were put aside. Another extremely absurd feeling arose.

The Ninth Young Master?

The eldest sister’s male pet?

Lin Nanjie was wearing a lavender dress with a gauze-like robe on the outside. She looked ethereal and charming when she walked. When she sat, the hem of the gauze robe was spread out, which was very charming. Her waist was tied with a white belt and a white jade buckle, which made her slender waist look extremely slender.

Those eyes looked at him guiltily, their gaze was a little evasive, yet they carefully observed his reaction out of the corner of their eyes, making it difficult for Li Chengqian to ignore it.

Li Chengqian took a breath of cool air.

Missing for four days, where did Lin Nanjie learn this skill of seducing people!

Are you really going to be a male pet? !

Lin Nanjie looked at Li Chenghuan's expression, which was so complicated and difficult to understand, and his heart was pounding.

[What does the dog emperor's expression mean? ]

[Don't you think I'm the eldest princess's man and I'm bullying you? ]

[I am a eunuch, but I was captured and used as a male concubine. It is so hard for me! 】

[It’s all because of that scumbag Guo Zixu! ]

Li Chenghuan felt a little relieved when he heard Lin Nanjie's heartbeat.

Yes, from what Ao Jingchuan had checked these days, Lin Nanqi was most likely in the hands of human traffickers, and somehow he was sold to the Princess's Mansion.

Then I thought that Lin Nanjie was a eunuch, and somehow he became the male concubine.

It is true...

It is not very harmful, but extremely insulting.

Li Chengqian actually felt a little sympathy from the bottom of his heart.

If he wasn't a eunuch, being a male concubine would be more than enough... Pah! Li Chenghuan's eyes dimmed.

What a male pet!

Li Chengqian's face darkened slightly, and he drove away his absurd thoughts.

But it seems that the eldest princess and her husband are completely unaware of this.

At the same time, the last sentence in Lin Nanjie's voice, "scumbag", also reminded Li Chengxuan that Guo Zixu's lawsuit might be full of lies.

Li Chenghuan's mind turned back and forth for a few times. He cleared his throat and was about to speak when he was suddenly interrupted by a mournful cry.

"ah--!"

The entire court was shocked by the shout, and everyone's eyes turned to the new Minister of Rites Lu Weitong. No one knew what had happened that made a court official so disregard his image and shout him out on the spot.

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Lu Weitong looking at the two male pets as if he had seen a ghost, his face extremely pale.

Officials who have worked with Lu Wei understand this clearly.

Lu Weitong was a person who most observed the ancestral etiquette and laws, and he always talked about etiquette and laws. Naturally, he was extremely disgusted when he saw such a disgraceful thing.

But I didn't expect that Lord Lu had become so shameless as to lose his composure in front of the Emperor and all the officials.

The officials nearby quickly supported Lu Weitong and said, "Lord Lu, calm down, calm down. These two people have fallen into depravity. Why are you angry for them?"

Lu Weitong pointed at Lu Chengzhou: "You! You..."

Lu Chengzhou clenched his teeth and didn't dare to look at Lu Weitong.

All the civil and military officials of the Manchu court and the emperor were present. Lu Weitong's old face turned red, like a rooster with its neck strangled. He kept saying "you" for a long time without uttering a word.

At this moment, the sharp-eyed official saw the other person's face clearly and his eyes widened instantly: "Auspicious... auspicious!"

"Auspicious sign?" When Supervisor Qintian heard the word "auspicious sign", he immediately became interested.

The official quickly pointed it out to Chen Yanzhi and lowered his voice: "The male pet on the left is not Xiangrui... It's not the eunuch Lin in front of you!"

"What!" Chen Yanzhi's eyes widened immediately, and he pinched his thigh in shock, "Oh my God, the princess has taken Xiangrui as her male pet?!"

The two of them thought of the same thing at the same time and stared at each other.

"He's a eunuch!"

"Perhaps the eldest princess has a special hobby?" The official's voice became weak.

Chen Yanzhi had an expression as if he had gotten something for nothing: "That's a little deity..."

Lin Nanjie felt embarrassed and wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it.

Guo Zixu and Li Yunluan were covered in mist.

What auspicious sign?

Guo Zixu felt that the attention of the ministers around him was getting out of control, so he immediately shouted to the emperor: "I want to sue the princess! She has violated the seven grounds for divorce! She has been married for three years and has no children, this is the first! She does not serve her parents-in-law, speaks ill of her mother-in-law, and lets the guards push her around, this is the second! Not only that, the princess also accepts male favorites, does not observe the code of conduct for women, does not follow the rules of etiquette, and is arrogant and licentious, this is the third!"

"There are so many things that cannot be listed in detail. According to etiquette and law, it would not be too much to demote me to a commoner. I beg to divorce the princess. Your Majesty, please make the decision!"

Li Yunluan listened to Guo Zixu's merciless words and could not hide her anger: "Don't push me too far!"

"You're going too far?" Guo Zixu lifted his robe, revealing his left leg, and sneered, "It was the princess who broke my leg! Who is going too far?"

"I have tolerated your Highness for three years, but you have never stopped. Even if Zixu is demoted and imprisoned today, I will seek justice!"

Everyone's eyes were focused on Guo Zixu's left leg, and some officials couldn't bear to look away.

Zhao Mingchuan, the official of the Ministry of Personnel, stepped forward and said, "It is indeed the eldest princess who has gone too far. When she first saw Zixu, she even broke his left leg in order to force him to marry the princess!"

"Zi Xu was originally a man of extraordinary talent and beauty, and he was very charming and suave. But since then, he has been dragging his left leg with a limp. Who wouldn't feel sorry for him? I didn't expect that after the marriage, the princess would still bully the Guo family like this."

"The emperor breaks the law and is guilty of the same crime as the common people. I beg the emperor to punish the princess according to the laws of Daqi!"

After Zhao Mingchuan finished speaking, five or six officials who had a good personal relationship with Guo Zixu echoed him, saying, "We kindly ask the emperor to deal with him according to the law!"

Li Chengqian did not respond to the minister's words immediately, but looked at Li Yunluan: "Princess, do you have anything to say?"

Li Yunluan looked at Guo Zixu's broken leg, and a thousand words flashed through her mind. Finally, she closed her eyes and suppressed her words: "I have nothing to say."

Li Chengqian sighed inwardly, knowing that Li Yunluan must be unable to defend herself because she had broken Guo Zixu's leg.

Zhao Mingchuan took another step forward and said, "In this case, Your Majesty, please allow the two to divorce according to the law."

Li Chengqian looked at Lu Weitong and said, "My dear Lu, you have just been appointed as the Minister of Rites. What do you think should be done about this matter?"

Lu Weitong was called and stepped out with firm steps.

Lu Chengzhou tried to wink at Lu Weitong, but unfortunately Lu Weitong's eyes were firm and he was not affected by Li Chengzhou at all.

Lu Wei said, "I have also heard about what happened three years ago. Guo Zixu took the imperial examination and won the top three. Because of his outstanding talent and appearance, many ministers in the capital were interested in him. At that time, the princess also fell in love with Guo Zixu and asked the late emperor to arrange a marriage for him. Who would have thought that Guo Zixu had a childhood sweetheart who lived far away in his hometown and rejected the princess's kindness. The princess was so angry that she sent someone to beat Guo Zixu, accidentally injuring his leg and leaving him disabled from then on."

"Although there is no rule that disabled people cannot serve as officials, for a man, it is really outrageous to go from being a favored son of heaven to a disabled person who can be laughed at by everyone. The eldest princess's behavior is really outrageous."

"If she had compensated me properly after marriage, it would have been fine. But she still disrespected her parents-in-law and took in many male lovers. She has been childless for three years. She is really lacking in virtue! She is bullying others by taking advantage of her power!"

"So in my opinion, the two should be allowed to divorce, and the eldest princess should be demoted to a commoner and not be bullied at will!"

Lu Weitong's words were clear and logical, and other officials saw that Lu Weitong dared to say so, and they also spoke up: "I second the motion!"

Guo Zixu's eyes flashed with pride, and he bowed to the ground: "I beg the emperor to make a fair judgment!"

Li Chengqian took a deep breath and looked at Li Yunluan: "Princess, do you want to defend yourself?"

Li Yunluan clenched her fingers, her heart aching, but she could not get rid of the worry that Guo Zixu was dragging his limp leg.

She trembled and said, "No..."

Li Chengqian looked at Guo Zixu's lame leg and sighed deeply.

The emperor is subject to the same punishment as the common people if he breaks the law.

It is undeniable that the eldest sister broke Guo Zixu's leg.

But as a commoner, no one could force him to make a decision, and Li Chengqian's eyes turned cold.

He spoke in a deep voice: "This is a family affair of the royal family. The eldest princess and her husband are not on good terms, and I have approved their divorce. As for her demotion to a commoner, I think it needs further discussion."

Lu Weitong disagreed: "Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. Not only did the princess break the prince consort's leg, but she also angered the scholars of the world. This matter has a terrible impact. Please think twice!"

The ministers nodded secretly.

Yes, the crux of the matter does not lie in a small family matter, but in the dignity of scholars all over the world.

Guo Zixu dared to strike the drum today, which was equivalent to straightening the back of a scholar!

Li Chenghuan didn't say anything; he was thinking of a solution.

Lin Nanqi puffed up his cheeks and looked as if he wanted to burn a hole in Guo Zixu's back.

[The problem is, Guo Zixu is not lame at all! ]

The tangle and depression in Li Chengqian's heart were instantly dispelled by these words. He looked at Lin Nanjie in disbelief, his eyes slightly brightened, and at the same time he was extremely shocked.

Guo Zixu,

He's not lame?!