Chapter 781 Private Transfer
Just now, Eunuch Chang came upstairs and saw a maid guarding the door of one of the rooms.
He recognized that it was the maidservant beside Princess Jiaoyang. The maid looked sneaky and uneasy, as if she was keeping watch for someone.
Eunuch Chang immediately ordered his men to quietly take down the maid, then he sealed the door and eavesdropped on the conversation between Prince Jing and Princess Jiaoyang. He happened to hear Princess Jiaoyang say -
"I'm so disappointed, can you comfort me?"
With that coquettish tone and these words, even a fool could know what the two were doing in the room.
After being surprised, Eunuch Chang immediately ordered someone to go downstairs and inform the emperor of the matter.
The emperor didn't think much about it and thought that the two were having a private meeting upstairs.
Although private transactions are against etiquette, if the two people are really interested in each other, there is nothing wrong with arranging a marriage between them.
Anyway, the emperor didn't like either of them, so it was just right to let them get together so that they wouldn't harm others anymore.
So he asked someone to pass a message to Eunuch Chang, asking him to call Prince Jing and Princess Jiaoyang down directly.
When Prince Jing and Princess Jiaoyang came down from upstairs, they both looked unhappy.
Especially Prince Jing, his face was extremely pale.
People who didn't know would think he was seriously ill.
The song just ended and the dancers bowed and retreated.
The emperor waved his hand, signaling the musicians to stop playing.
The laughter at the banquet also subsided.
Prince Jing and Princess Jiaoyang walked to the center of the hall and saluted the emperor.
Eunuch Chang walked quickly to the emperor and repeated to him word for word the conversation he had just overheard on the second floor.
The emperor didn't react at first, but when he heard Eunuch Chang's last words, his face instantly darkened, and his whole body seemed to be covered with a layer of frost, frighteningly cold.
His reaction was so huge that Xiao Xixi couldn't help but stop eating and look at him in surprise.
"What happened?"
Luo Qinghan did not answer, but stared at Prince Jing and Princess Jiaoyang with cold eyes.
If eyes could turn into knives, these two people would have been covered in blood on the spot.
When Princess Hua'an saw her daughter and Prince Jing coming down from the second floor at the same time, she immediately had a bad feeling.
She stood up and said in a reproachful tone.
"Yuran, what's wrong with you? Didn't you say you were going upstairs to change clothes? Why are you back at this time?"
As she said this, she was about to pull Princess Jiaoyang back to her seat.
Luo Qinghan said coldly: "Aunt, don't be anxious. I have a few words to ask Princess Jiaoyang."
The emperor had spoken, so no matter how uneasy Princess Hua An felt, she could only shut up and sit back in disappointment.
Now she could only pray silently in her heart, hoping that her premonition was wrong and that her daughter did not cause any trouble.
Luo Qinghan looked at Princess Jiaoyang expressionlessly and asked in a cold voice.
"Why are you upstairs with Prince Jing?"
His voice was as cold as ice, which made Princess Jiaoyang shiver in her heart.
Even though she was usually flamboyant, she couldn't help feeling scared at this moment.
She said with a trembling voice.
"I have something to say to Prince Jing alone, so I asked him to meet me upstairs."
Luo Qinghan pressed: "What do you want to say to him?"
Princess Jiaoyang was trembling and couldn't answer.
Regarding the things about Prince Jing and the Imperial Concubine, she only dared to say a few words in private, not in front of so many people. After all, she was just guessing, without any real evidence.
Her appearance of wanting to say something but not daring to do so was seen by others as a sign of guilt.
Everyone had long heard that Princess Jiaoyang was interested in Prince Jing. Now it seemed that the two of them had probably already secretly made an agreement with each other.
Having sex without a matchmaker is really shameless!
Those who came to the banquet today were all royal family members. In terms of seniority, most of the people present were elders of Prince Jing and Princess Jiaoyang.
They looked at the two men and kept shaking their heads.
Princess Hua'an was extremely anxious.
She tried to stand up and speak for her daughter several times, but was blocked by the emperor's cold eyes.
No one dared to interrupt until the emperor gave in.
In the end, Princess Hua'an could only look to the Empress Dowager, her eyes full of requests for help.
The Empress Dowager felt sorry for her daughter, so she sighed and said.
"Your Majesty, today is the first day of the new year. It's not too late to talk about it later. Don't let this kind of thing ruin the good omen of the year."
If it were any other trivial matter, the emperor would be willing to give the Empress Dowager this face.
But what they should never do is to throw dirty water on the imperial concubine, Princess Jiaoyang and Prince Jing.
Thinking of what Princess Jiaoyang said about the Imperial Concubine having an affair with Prince Jing, every word seemed to be poisoned and filled with malice.
If those words were to get out, whether true or false, it would be an indelible stigma for the imperial concubine.
Luo Qinghan would never allow anyone to have the chance to harm the imperial concubine.
He gave the order coldly without even looking at the Empress Dowager.
"Prince Jing and Princess Jiaoyang secretly had sex without a matchmaker, defiling the palace and disrupting the ancestral rituals and laws.
She was stripped of her title of Princess Jiaoyang, demoted to Princess County, and sentenced to reflect on her mistakes behind closed doors for three months.
Prince Jing will be demoted to a county prince and given twenty lashes of the cane!"
When these words were spoken, everyone present was shocked.
Prince Jing had just been demoted from a prince to a prince of a county. How long has it been since then, and he is being demoted from a prince of a county to a prince of a county again.
This demotion is too fast!
Not to mention that he had to be beaten with twenty sticks.
The Prince of Jing County is a prince after all, and he grew up in a pampered environment. After these twenty beatings of the board, he won't be able to leave the house for at least a year or two.
The point is that being beaten with a stick in front of so many clan members is so embarrassing!
Princess Hua'an could no longer sit still, she stood up in a hurry and begged anxiously.
"Your Majesty, please forgive her this time because she is young and ignorant."
Xia Yuran was so frightened that she collapsed on the ground, her face as pale as paper.
When she heard her mother's words, she woke up as if from a dream, and quickly knelt down, crying and begging for mercy.
"It was my fault. I shouldn't have done that. Please have mercy on me, Your Majesty. Please have mercy on me, Your Majesty!"
Luo Yanzhi also knelt down, enduring the humiliation and begging for mercy from the emperor.
However, no matter how they begged, the emperor was not going to show mercy.
Two strong eunuchs came in, dragged Luo Yanzhi out, and beat him with a stick one after another.
The emperor did not have anyone blocking Luo Yanzhi's mouth, allowing his shouts to echo in the palace.
Everyone present was silent.
The atmosphere was extremely depressing.
The Empress Dowager was annoyed when she saw that the Emperor did not even give her face, but she did not want to quarrel with the Emperor in front of so many people, so she left early on the pretext of not having enough energy, hoping to avoid seeing anything.
The others actually wanted to leave, but the emperor was still sitting there.
If the emperor doesn't move, who dares to leave?
So everyone had no choice but to continue sitting there.
Outside the palace, Luo Yanzhi's screams continued, one after another, and were particularly miserable.
Xia Yuran was trembling all over, extremely frightened.
She knew that the reason why the emperor was so angry was not because of the private dealings between her and Luo Yanzhi, but because of what she said to Luo Yanzhi.
What she said involved the imperial concubine.
The emperor is establishing his authority.
He wanted to make Xia Yuran understand what he could say and what he couldn't say.
…
The text sets the royal title to be divided into three levels, with Prince being the highest, followed by Duke of a County, and finally Prince of a County, and no more below that.
Good morning everyone!
Pose well and ask for monthly tickets~
(End of this chapter)
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