Chapter 1428: Shou Yuan

In the Ministry of Revenue, Zhou Shuren was fiddling with an abacus and couldn't help pulling his hair. He pushed the abacus away irritably, and the noise was so loud that the emperor heard it before he even entered the room.

"What could make the Minister angry?"

Zhou Shuren, "......"

He really comes in a hurry. If you know, you would think he is dissatisfied with something!

Zhou Shuren's eyes darkened. This was the bad thing about ancient times. The emperor had the greatest power, and the emperor and the retired emperor had a smooth journey. He was unhappy in his heart, but he had to pretend on his face. He said in a depressed tone, "I am worried about money."

If he had known earlier, he would not have been so willing to give money to the emperor. Now he wants to tear down the emperor's greenhouse.

The retired emperor did not think much about it. He knew Zhou Shuren's dilemma. Man proposes, God disposes. The emperor had planned everything, but unexpected things happened. The river reconstruction could not be completed in one go. Up to now, five states had suffered floods. Three states had not completed the river repair, but two states were rebuilding at a fast speed. What's the point of cutting corners? A flood would destroy everything.

The Emperor gestured for Zhou Shuren to sit down, "The Crown Prince will arrive in the capital tomorrow."

Zhou Shuren was stunned, "So fast?"

He calculated that it would take at least four days to reach the capital.

Emperor Retired, "The prince left alone."

Zhou Shuren understood. The emperor told him this because Mingrui and the crown prince returned to Beijing together. "I thank the emperor for his grace."

After the prince was assassinated, the people around the prince were the safest. This time the prince left secretly alone, and the team he left behind became a target.

The Emperor said, "Don't go out when your grandson comes back. The Prince of Qi will be in the capital in four days."

Zhou Shuren understood that Mingrui was safe with the prince. If he showed off outside, it would be too ostentatious and would make people hate him. "Yes, I understand."

"Um."

Zhou Shuren felt much better, "Your Majesty, if you are here to ask for money, I really don't have any."

Don't think that if you bring him good news, he will get excited and negotiate everything, but he won't give in on money.

The emperor pulled the corner of his mouth and twitched his beard, "I just came to chat with you."

Zhou Shuren, "Chat?"

What to talk about? His sons and grandsons are filial and the Zhou family is doing well. He is only concerned about his youngest son and worried about his third son. There is really nothing else to talk about.

The Emperor, "The princes are getting old."

He stayed in the palace for a long time this year. After a long time, he went to check on the princes' homework when he had nothing to do. However, he found it boring after going there a few times.

Zhou Shuren stroked his beard. People are biased. The emperor is biased towards the legitimate son from the bottom of his heart. Even though the son of Prince Qi is also a grandson, the emperor really won't care much about him.

Human hearts are so small, how could they take everything to heart, especially for someone like the emperor who has the most power and willfulness.

The retired emperor only cared about the empress's son, and would only see the other concubines' children if they wanted to. Now that they were living in the palace, the princes were like a cat seeing a fish, and they all wanted to please him. However, the retired emperor felt that the princes had more thoughts.

Zhou Shuren felt that there was no normal family relationship in the royal family. "Time flies so fast, and the princes are also at the age to study harder."

The Emperor, "...Shu Ren is right."

Instead of spending time thinking, you might as well spend more time on reading. The books compiled by Mrs. Zhou Shuren are good.

Zhou Shuren continued, "Now that our country is trading with many countries, foreign princes and princesses are all learning Chinese. I have always thought that it is convenient to learn another language."

The Emperor raised his eyes to Zhou Shuren and thought to himself, "You are right, it is not good for a prince to need a translator. You really need to learn a few more languages."

Zhou Shuren didn't realize how evil his heart was at all. He was doing it for the good of the princes. Instead of thinking about the throne, they might as well learn more and see the outside world. However, how many languages ​​the princes learned was none of his business.

The emperor didn't want to continue the conversation, as he felt that if he continued, his grandchildren would be in even greater trouble.

The emperor stopped talking and a look of pity flashed across Zhou Shuren's eyes.

In the evening, Zhou Shuren returned home in a good mood. Zhulan saw him and said, "Let me guess why you are so happy."

Zhou Shuren hummed, "You guess."

Zhulan smiled, "Mingrui will arrive in the capital tomorrow."

Zhou Shuren, "How do you know?"

He didn't believe it was just a guess, how could it be so accurate.

Zhu Lan smiled and said, "The Fourth Prince came to the mansion today to pick up Linxi and Ze'er and take them back to the palace. The Fourth Prince said so."

The queen also wanted to do the Zhou family a favor.

Zhou Shuren, "My news came from the Emperor."

Zhu Lan said, "It's not easy for the queen either. She has to worry about her family even when she's pregnant."

Zhou Shuren whispered, "This pregnancy of the Queen will probably affect her life span."

"How do you know?"

"The head of the academy has been guarding the empress the whole time. The emperor did not wait for the crown prince to return to the capital to deal with Wen Qingfeng. It can be seen that the empress's condition is not good."

Zhulan recalled how the Queen looked when she was pregnant. She was indeed very tired during pregnancy and had a miscarriage. She sighed and said, "I don't know if the Queen will regret it."

Did the queen regret it? She did regret it. She regretted not having prevented the birth of her second son, which caused her health to become so poor. During this pregnancy, she overestimated her own health and underestimated the troubles her family would cause. Now that her belly was so big, she could only grit her teeth and wait for the baby to be born.

The queen touched her belly and said, "You must have a daughter."

She should just insist on waiting for the baby to be born. As for her life span, it's all fate. She shouldn't have gotten pregnant earlier or later, but now she is pregnant. This is fate.

When the Emperor came in, he saw the Empress touching her belly with a gentle expression. She did not dislike the child because it affected her life span. "Did the child bother you today?"

The queen looked up and said, "This child is very obedient. It's my body that's failing."

Since she stopped vomiting, her children have never bothered her again.

The emperor raised his hand and placed it on the queen's hand. The baby in his belly moved and kicked right into the queen's palm. The queen asked in surprise, "Did your emperor feel it?"

The sharp look that he had in the court was no longer there. "I feel it."

The queen's spirits improved a lot, and she smiled, "The child heard what we said."

The emperor said, "You will be able to see your son tomorrow, so don't worry too much in the future."

The queen nodded, "Yes, I made the emperor worry."

"You are my wife, and you are pregnant. If I don't worry about you, who will?"

The queen looked up at the emperor who was becoming more and more majestic, and told herself that the emperor had been good enough to her. "Ouch, our little princess kicked her foot again."

The emperor smiled, "This child is quite lively today."

The next day, the prince and his entourage arrived in Beijing in a low-profile manner. The emperor sent someone to take the prince away, and Mingrui and Shangguan Liu were also secretly taken back home.

Mingrui was surrounded when he returned home. His grandmother and mother were relieved only after they confirmed that he was not injured.

Mingrui touched his face and breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the wound on his face was not deep and it would heal in a few days, otherwise his grandmother and mother would definitely cry.