The light brown ginger soup in the small white jade bowl must have been added with brown sugar. Luo Shenyuan leaned over to her mouth and said, "Drink some first."
Yi Ning wanted to laugh: "Why, are you afraid that I will poison you?"
He knocked Yining on the head and said, "Drink quickly. You're so cold."
Yining could only drink the ginger soup from his hand. He saw her lips move slightly, then touched by the glistening sugar liquid, and then refused to drink it. Luo Shenyuan took it again, and for him, it was just a matter of drinking it in one gulp. After finishing it, he put it on the small table.
"I'm holding off so the Emperor can punish me," Luo Shenyuan said. "The censors went a bit too far this time, and the Emperor is looking displeased. I've been waiting for this moment. With my father-in-law's covert help, not only can I clear the charge of treason, but I'll also earn the Emperor's sympathy, making my promotion to Minister of State much easier. Tomorrow's court session will be filled with drama."
When Yi Ning heard this, she immediately realized that Luo Shenyuan must be seeking greater benefits for himself.
Luo Shenyuan played with the small bowl, his eyes slightly fixed.
The emperor personally stepped down from the dragon throne to support him, saying that he was a pillar of talent. He also scolded Xu Yongqing, the official in the Ministry of Personnel who led the group.
Lu Jiaxue said nothing, but stood beside and looked at Wei Ling with a half-smile.
Yi Ning thought of the scene her uncle had just described and really wanted to witness the intense scene with her own eyes. She sincerely admired Luo Shenyuan. No wonder he was the Prime Minister at such a young age. With such a character!
"...Did the Emperor really smash the censor's head?"
"The emperor has been annoyed by these people for a long time. He will destroy them if he has the chance," said Luo Shenyuan.
Yi Ning was still worried about Lu Jiaxue, so she asked Luo Shenyuan, "This matter... Lu Jiaxue should be the mastermind, and he should be behind those people. Has he been confessed?"
Luo Shenyuan said calmly: "How dare those people?"
Luo Yining pondered for a moment. "I was with him at the time and heard that he wanted to use Zeng Yingkun to harm you. Now you've benefited from the Pingyuan Fort incident, and there's no telling what he'll do. He's always been a scoundrel, and he'll achieve his goals no matter what..."
"Stop talking." Luo Shenyuan said suddenly.
Luo Yining was a little slow to react. Luo Shenyuan sighed, "I don't like you mentioning him. Don't mention him anymore, okay?"
In fact, Third Brother still cares about her being abducted by Lu Jiaxue. After all, few men can not care.
"Okay," she said with a smile after a pause, "then I won't mention him again."
Luo Shenyuan stroked her head and said, "Go to sleep. No one can hurt me."
*
They had to get up early for the morning court the next day, and he had already left when Yining got up.
She asked Madam Fan to take some to the front hall to worship the statue of Confucius, and then brought some freshly made walnut-filled chestnut cakes to Lin Hairu to pay her respects. Lin Hairu was leaning against her pillow, tapping her calf with a beauty hammer, seemingly absent-minded. Seeing Yining approach, she beckoned her to sit next to her.
This mother-in-law was the best. When Yi Ning was in the Ningyuan Marquis's mansion, there was not only the Marquis's wife but also the old lady, all of whom wanted to control their daughter-in-law. Her three sisters-in-law were all born into prominent families, but she was the only one born into a humble family, so she had no temper to argue with them.
Yi Ning suddenly remembered what Lu Jiaxue had said: "...Do you think it's so easy to marry a bastard from a marquis's mansion? You don't come from a high-class family. How could it be possible if I weren't here?"
What he said must be true. When he said it, his expression was serious. It was indeed not her crying that led to the marriage.
Lin Hairu was living a comfortable life now. With Luo Shenyuan's support and the birth of Nan Ge'er, aside from Aunt Qiao occasionally annoying her, there wasn't much else to worry about. Yi Ning took the beauty hammer and massaged her legs: "What are you thinking about? Why are you so lost in thought?"
"I wonder how Sister Lian could have married into such a high position, and she hasn't even shown up yet—" Lin Hairu sighed and straightened up. "Mrs. Qiao went to see your father and said that my monthly allowance was too little, and she wanted a few hundred taels of silver to buy her a headdress. Your father told me about it last night and gave me a scolding."
"He still sees Aunt Qiao now?" Yining paused with the hammer in her hand. She thought Aunt Qiao had completely fallen out of favor.
"Men are always soft-hearted. They'll cry a few times and then not see each other." Lin Hairu didn't care; he was her husband after all. But after so many years, she didn't have the energy to care anymore. It would be better to turn a blind eye and pretend not to notice.
Yi Ning thought for a while, then asked about Lin Mao's status as the magistrate of Gaomi County.
Lin Hairu perked up and showed her a letter from Lin Mao. It was from Lin Mao, writing to his parents in Yangzhou. Ever since his son became an official, the Lin family had treated him with utmost respect. Lin Mao's letters were copied and sent to his aunts, as he was the first in the family to hold an official position in the capital. This fellow didn't feel at all like he'd been demoted to Gaomi County. His letters were travelogues: a day trip to a certain mountain, a two-day trip to a certain lake, a trip to the countryside in the Jiashen year. He described everything he'd seen and heard along the way, what he'd eaten, in eloquent and elegant prose.
Yi Ning laughed so hard that her stomach hurt. She returned the letter to Lin Hairu and said, "Tell your uncles to save all the letters he wrote. When he comes back, they will publish a biography of Lin Mao or something like that, so that it will be recorded in history forever."
"He was demoted, and the happiest person was his grandfather, who said it would be better for him to go to the local government and serve as a parent official to help the people. But how could he help the people with his condition?" Lin Hairu scoffed, "I'm afraid the people will get rid of him."
Brother Nan woke up and was carried out, jumping into his mother's arms.
Everyone in the Luo family was anxiously waiting for news from the palace.
At noon, news arrived from the palace that Luo Shenyuan, for his meritorious service in pacifying the border, had been rewarded with five hundred acres of fertile land, two thousand taels of gold, and five thousand taels of silver. The censor who had denounced him was given ten strokes of the cane in court for falsely accusing a loyal and honest person. The entire Luo household was shaken.
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