In order to do this well, Er Liu ran around every day, looking for people who could make cloth and looking for a suitable place to rent.
Jiang Tuantuan was thinking about how to sell it, to whom, and where to sell it.
These are big problems. Otherwise, if you can’t sell the products, you will lose a lot of money.
Besides, she is not rich enough to spend money lavishly.
In the palace, a hunchbacked old woman was carrying a lunch box to the Shangshen Bureau to get food. The place was bustling with people, and the palace maids and eunuchs who came to get food were scrambling to squeeze into the kitchen, fearing that they would have leftovers or get cold rice and be punished by their master when they returned.
A new palace maid had her feet stepped on several times and was crying as she walked while carrying her lunch box.
But when the old nanny arrived, all the palace maids and eunuchs made way for her to pass.
The chef asked, "What would you like to eat today? We have braised duck heads, steamed carp, stir-fried vegetables, and various porridges."
The old lady took a look, picked out the most inconspicuous dish of spicy stir-fried cucumber strips, paired it with a bowl of porridge, and left with it.
After the old nanny left, the palace maids and eunuchs huddled together again, making a commotion. The new cook from the Imperial Kitchen asked curiously, "Who was that nanny just now? Isn't she usually the one serving meals to the master? Why did you ask her what she wanted to eat?"
The chef tapped him with a spoon and said, "She is of a very special status. She was the maidservant who came with the late Empress, and the late Empress was the Holy Mother of the current Emperor. The Emperor missed her dearly, so he gave her many gifts and even prepared for her to leave the palace to live out her days."
He said, "But Nanny doesn't want to leave. She wants to stay in the late Queen's former residence, so His Majesty treats Nanny very well. For example, the maids in other palaces eat leftovers, but Nanny can eat freshly cooked food. As long as she doesn't get into trouble, not even the head of the Imperial Household Department can control her."
The young cook exclaimed in admiration: "Our Majesty is truly a filial man."
But the chef smiled helplessly. He had been in the palace for nearly thirty years, and the waters here were very deep.
The old nanny was walking slowly back along the palace wall. As luck would have it, she ran into the emperor's dragon sedan chair. The old nanny knelt down and kowtowed. The emperor happened to notice her out of the corner of his eye and slowly sat up straight. "Mammy, are you all right?"
The old nanny bowed her head and replied, "Everything is fine with this servant."
The emperor nodded and left. The palace maids and eunuchs around him saw this and showed even more respect to the nanny. It was not an ordinary person who could make the emperor express his concern.
But the old lady sighed silently in her heart.
Returning to the late queen's palace, sitting in front of her tombstone, the nanny opened her lunch box and said dejectedly as she ate, "Miss, this is your favorite spicy stir-fried cucumber when you were alive. I wonder if you can enjoy it in the afterlife. I ran into His Majesty on the way back. He was still the same, though more kind and gentle, but I know that this is not his true nature."
"You suffered a lot during your lifetime. You loved the late emperor with all your heart, but on the day you gave birth, you were consorting with Concubine Liang. Because of your low status at the time, your child was snatched away by Concubine Liang. Later, the Liang family rebelled, and the late emperor executed all nine generations of their clan. Concubine Liang also died, and the child was finally returned to you, but he was already ten years old by then."
"I remember one rainy day when he collapsed and yelled at you, blaming you for not wanting him, for abandoning him to someone else. He also blamed his father, the Emperor, for being obsessed with women and becoming increasingly aloof and cold, even bloodthirsty. When you learned of this, you tried every possible way to compensate him and show your love for him. You even became Empress and begged the Emperor to make him Crown Prince."
The old nanny placed the finished meal into a square box and knelt before the tombstone, her eyes glistening with tears as she continued to murmur, "After being named Crown Prince, he became much closer to you. He studied hard, learning how to be an excellent emperor, hoping to attract the attention of his father, but his father extremely favored other children, no matter how outstanding he was."
"Perhaps the seeds of that tragedy were sown here."
As the prince grew up, the late emperor also grew older. But one day, you became pregnant again. The late emperor was extremely excited and felt that he was very powerful for being able to make someone pregnant. You also carefully protected the hard-earned child in your belly.
Therefore, he had less time to accompany the prince, and the late emperor became more and more incompetent, fond of women, greedy for food and wine, and his health was deteriorating. Although the prince felt some resentment in his heart, he still tried his best to be a good prince and help the late emperor manage the country.
However, the other children favored by the late emperor had other ideas at this time. They joined hands to deal with the prince. Everyone was acting to show the late emperor that they were trying to frame the prince. At first, the late emperor did not believe that the prince would do this, and even questioned him in front of everyone. The prince was shocked. He did not expect that even his own father did not believe him.
The prince replied coldly: "I did not do these things. Someone is wrongly accusing me."
After saying this, he looked at his fourth brother beside him with a meaningful look.
The late emperor also looked over. The fourth brother was the late emperor's most beloved son. The fourth brother immediately ran forward, hugged the late emperor's arm, and burst into tears, shouting that he was innocent and asked why the prince looked at him like that.
My fourth brother, who loves crying and making trouble and had some poor health when he was young, has always won more favor from the late emperor. The late emperor thought that he was crying and making trouble with me, which was a sign of affection, so he glared at the prince and said, "Don't doubt your fourth brother. He will never wrongly accuse you."
The prince clenched his fists angrily and said nothing, while the fourth brother secretly revealed a smug expression.
It was originally thought that the crown prince could be deposed through these things, but the late emperor never did so. In addition, the old ministers of the previous dynasty also opposed it, thinking that the crown prince was the foundation of the country and could not be abolished, so the crown prince reluctantly held on to his position.
At this moment, no matter how angry or resentful he was, he did not attack his brothers.
The old ministers of the previous dynasty carefully analyzed the emperor's sons. After all, the current prince was the most suitable. Although he was a bit cold and unkind, he at least had some merits in governing the country. The remaining sons were either cowardly or had no choice but to eat, drink and have fun. The fourth brother's biggest problem was that he was stupid and easily believed the slander of others.
Therefore, he was not suitable to be the emperor, and the late emperor himself was actually clear about it.
Things took a turn that night. Seeing that the crown prince was still fine, a group of people led by the fourth brother, the fourth prince, decided to take drastic measures and directly pull the crown prince down. They instigated the fourth prince to slander the crown prince for wanting to rebel.
The Fourth Prince was unwilling at first. He thought it was too risky and he didn't dare to do it. But the people around him kept talking about it in his ears, so the Fourth Prince agreed.
They spread false news that the prince was colluding with the general and secretly stationed a large number of troops outside the city, waiting for everything to be ready so that they could break into the palace and seize the throne.
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