97 097
Hunting Tournament
Yongkang held down her son, who rushed into her arms and cried bitterly as soon as he came back, and asked a wet nurse and two young eunuchs who were accompanying the brother and sister to play to kneel on the ground and explain the whole story to her from beginning to end.
Fu Ming turned his head and glared at the three people with warning eyes through his tear-red eyes.
The three of them were afraid of the young master at home, and they hesitated and did not dare to report the young master's insults to Princess Qingyang truthfully.
But Yongkang knew his sister in the palace. She was indeed very powerful. She could calm down her reckless second brother, argue with the left prime minister and the chief censor who were always talking about rules and regulations, and even scare the son of a great hero like Deng Kun into slapping himself in the face. But his sister was a reasonable person and would never teach her nephew a lesson for no reason.
"I'll give you one last chance. If you dare to hide anything, once I find out the truth from somewhere else, you three will be betrayed."
Yongkang turned his son's head and said coldly.
The three of them then told the truth tremblingly.
Yongkang asked the three people to leave, comforted her frightened daughter, and asked her to go back and wash her face first. She took her son to the back room alone.
Yongkang sat on the couch, looking at his son, who had grown into a young man, standing before him. He asked softly, "Which side of your face did your aunt hit you on?"
Fu Ming pointed to his right cheek aggrievedly.
Yongkang touched his son's right cheek, then raised his left hand and slapped his son's left cheek with a "slap".
Fu Ming was stunned and looked at his mother in disbelief.
Yongkang's face was no longer smiling, and he shouted, "Kneel down!"
Fu Ming was even more afraid of his mother, so he knelt down without even daring to disobey. He just asked unconvincedly, "Why did you hit me, mother?"
Yongkang: "Qingyang is my sister, your aunt. Who taught you to disrespect your elders in person? Also, I've thought about becoming an official. Who told you that a woman who wants to be an official is a monster? And who told you that I can't become an official because your aunt won't help me?"
Fu Ming disagreed with all three questions!
He first defended the first question: "So what if it's my aunt? My mother is the eldest princess, and my uncle is the crown prince. Even if I scolded her, she can get angry and give me a lecture, but why did she hit me?"
Yongkang: "Because she's the elder, because she's right, and because she has your royal grandfather's backing! I tell you the truth, if she slaps you and calms down, it's fine. But if she still doesn't calm down and tells your royal grandfather about it, and your royal grandfather gets angry, our family of four might all be kicked out of the palace!"
Yongkang himself is a bully, and he knows very well that if he wants to make a bully understand the rules, he has to make him afraid, and all the etiquette of respecting elders is empty talk.
Fu Ming's resentment was indeed suppressed by her mother. She skipped over the second question and went straight to the third one. "Everyone knows that she is the emperor's favorite little princess. She knows that mother wants to be an official. If she had just gone to the emperor to speak up for mother, how could the emperor not satisfy mother? It's obvious that she doesn't treat mother as a sister and is deliberately making fun of her!"
Yongkang almost wanted to kick his son again. "She's favored because of her own ability. She even got to the position of an official by arguing so well that the Left Prime Minister and the Imperial Censor were both speechless. I didn't ask her for anything, so why would she risk offending the Emperor's grandfather to speak for me? Your uncle is my biological brother, and he doesn't even dare to go, let alone my half-sister."
Yongkang has some affection for her second brother, third brother and sister, but not much. Similarly, she would not ask her three brothers and sisters to treat her wholeheartedly.
She always blamed her father for not being able to become an official. Even though her sister had already used reason to prove that "a princess can serve as an official in the court", her father still did not believe that she had the ability to be a good official and refused to give her a chance.
Fu Ming wilted.
Yongkang twisted his ear and lifted him up, finally asking, "Who told you that women shouldn't be officials? Your father, or someone close to you?"
Fu Ming cried out in pain: "I'll tell you, it was Li Cheng and the others, and some of the disciples outside..."
How could his father have time to take care of him? When he was an official, he was busy with his duties, going out early and coming back late, and going out to meet friends on his days off. Now that his father has been dismissed from his post, he spends all day thinking about how to please his mother and uncle, hoping to earn a job again.
Li Cheng is the young eunuch beside Fu Ming.
Yongkang directly called over all the attendants brought by the family of four, and told them the crimes of Li Cheng's four young eunuchs that his son had confessed. He asked Fu Kui to punish each of the four with twenty lashes to serve as a warning to others.
After everyone left, Fu Kui glanced at his wife, whose face was filled with gloom, and whispered, "Although Ming-ge'er deserves a lesson, Qingyang has humiliated you in public. Are you really just going to let it go?"
It was so strange. The princess he knew was not this reasonable and good-tempered.
Yongkang glared at him: "If you don't want to settle, what are you going to do?"
As long as her father is alive, she will never act like the eldest sister in front of her younger sister. When her younger brother ascends the throne in the future, she will have her own way to make her younger sister learn to respect her.
Fu Kui had no plans to do anything, and he had no right to do anything. He was just asking casually.
Yongkang was disgusted by his cowardly behavior and reminded him, "Find an opportunity to teach the Fan brothers a lesson. Be smart and don't be too obvious."
If the news of her keeping a male lover had not been spread by Fu Kui, the gossip, which led to her probably never being able to find a son of a meritorious official or noble family to be her new husband, and Fu Daonian and Fu Shu were well-known and could continue to serve their brother in the future, Yongkang would have divorced Fu Kui long ago.
Fu Kui: “…”
Seventeen-year-old Fan Huaizhong was even stronger and more muscular than him. How could he teach him a lesson?
.
Early the next morning, Yongkang took Fu Ming to apologize to his sister, saying that she had severely punished the servants around her son, and would punish Fu Ming to reflect on his mistakes in seclusion for ten days after returning.
Qingyang looked at Fu Ming and said, "I've already punished Ming'er. Since he's already admitted his mistake, please don't punish him any more. He only comes to Xiyuan once a year, so let him have fun with Xi'er and Ying'er."
Yongkang: "No, he has to be locked up for a few days to change his temper. Sister, you don't need to plead for him."
Qingyang couldn't persuade him, so he brought up the matter of the female official: "Sister, do you still want to enter the court?"
Yongkang immediately pulled up his sleeves to cover his face, tilting his head and saying, "Sister, please don't mention this. I'm really embarrassed. It's all my fault for not knowing my own limitations and going to the emperor to get scolded. I even caused your eldest brother to get sick. After all this trouble, I gave up on it a long time ago. I just didn't expect the servants in the mansion to gossip about it and cause that idiot Ming'er to blame you. God knows, I really don't mean to blame you at all!"
Qingyang smiled and said, "Don't worry, sister. I won't misunderstand you. I just have my own difficulties. I don't mean to stand by and watch."
Yongkang lowered his sleeves and looked at his sister with pity. "I understand. I've heard about how the Imperial Censor gave you a hard time at the Jinshi Banquet. Just focus on your duties. I don't need your help. Just don't misunderstand me because of Ming'er's stupid words."
Because Qingyang was about to resume her duties today, Yongkang politely declined her sister's invitation to have breakfast with her, and took her son to visit her brother again to let him know that she was a fair person. Only then did the mother and son return to the South Station.
When the news reached Emperor Xingwu, he was quite satisfied.
Regardless of whether the eldest daughter sincerely apologized to her younger sister or was just going through the motions, it was enough for her to admit her mistake. Emperor Xingwu did not want to get involved in the conflicts between his children unless they became serious. The younger daughter was not a clay figure who needed her father's support for every little thing.
.
There is a fenced enclosure in the Western Garden, where small animals such as gazelles, roe deer, rabbits, and pheasants are usually kept for the nobles to hunt at any time. Only with the emperor's order will tigers, leopards, wolves, wild boars and other ferocious beasts specially raised for the Western Garden, or rare animals such as foxes and martens that are difficult to catch because of their agility, be released in.
In mid-June, Emperor Xingwu summoned all the royal relatives, civil and military ministers, and their families to the outside of the enclosure to watch today's hunting competition.
Also arriving were a group of unmarried young military officers and sons of noble families from the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Army, and the four major military camps, all selected by Emperor Xingwu in advance. A total of fifty-two people. Qingyang looked around and saw many familiar faces. Not to mention Zhang Su, twenty-year-old Lü Chaoguang, twenty-two-year-old Li Fuyuan, nineteen-year-old Xue Yanzheng, twenty-year-old Hou Xiao, and seventeen-year-old Fan Huaizhong were all sons of noble families and high-ranking military officers. Twenty-three-year-old Cheng Zhixu and twenty-year-old Gao Dechang were among Qingyang's selected Imperial Guards. Qingyang was relatively unfamiliar with the young military officers from the Imperial Army and the Imperial Camps, but most of them looked familiar.
When fifty-two young men, each of whom looked tall and mighty at first glance, were lined up neatly in front of everyone, smart people immediately realized that Emperor Xingwu probably wanted to use this hunting competition to choose a son-in-law for the only unmarried little princess. Otherwise, why would he insist on being young and unmarried?
Qin Ren wasn't stupid. He understood his father's intentions and found it hard to dislike the plump Li Fuyuan among the other heroic men. He whispered to his second brother sitting next to him, "Why is he here too?"
Qin Bing: "...He's the son of a noble family, and he's unmarried. Which of these conditions doesn't he meet?"
Qin Ren still stared at Li Fuyuan from afar.
Qin Bing wasn't worried at all: "With someone like him, are you still worried about him winning the championship? It's just that father wants to give Jining Marquis Mansion some face, so he lets him make up the numbers."
Qin Ren's gaze immediately shifted to Fan Huaizhong. He didn't look like someone who was just there to make up the numbers! Although he respected Fan Zhong and didn't judge the Fan brothers by appearance, it was inappropriate for Fan Huaizhong to stand with his sister.
Qin Bing didn't think too much about it. He was simply excited by the tigers and leopards released into the hunting grounds. He left his seat and asked his father, "Father, I also want to compete with all of you new martial arts talents. I hope you will grant me permission!"
Qin Ren's eyes lit up. His second brother was a master of riding and shooting, even Zhang Su was inferior to him. As long as his second brother was eliminated, as long as he prevented Fan Huaizhong from taking first place, then the emperor would have a legitimate reason to set different conditions for choosing a consort for his sister. Oh, and there was also Zhang Su. If Zhang Su could come in second...
Qin Ren was stunned. Would Zhang Su have the chance to become his sister's consort? Would he be willing to do so?
After careful recollection, Qin Ren couldn't guess what his good brother was thinking at all. Zhang Su treated his sister well, as if she were his own sister, but Zhang Su never had any extra affection for her. In more than two years in Yunzhou, she wrote him several letters, but Zhang Su never took the initiative to ask about his sister's recent situation.
Qin Ren looked at his younger sister who was sitting next to his eldest and second sisters-in-law, and saw that his younger sister was looking at the young men openly, as if she wanted to temporarily choose one that she liked.
At this time, Emperor Xingwu successively approved the admission requests of Qin Bing, Deng Tai, Fu Kui and Fan Huaian.
Noticing his father glancing at him, Qin Ren shrank his neck in time.
He couldn't help with this matter. Even if his sister told him who she liked, if Qin Renzhen came in to help the other party, it would only hold the other party back.
【Author’s words】
I have a low fever, so I definitely can't update twice a week, but I really can't let you all down if I don't, so I will continue to update once a week today!
100 little red envelopes, see you tomorrow!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com