Qianqing Palace, East Warm Pavilion.

After hearing the princess's answer, Longqing was a little confused. "Since Jiangnan is so nice, why did you come back so early?"

"How dare you ask me that?" It would have been fine if he hadn't mentioned this, but once he did, the princess's nose almost became crooked with anger. "Didn't you send the eunuch to urge me to come back this month?"

"When did you become so obedient..." Long Qing muttered, and said awkwardly: "I actually left you room for bargaining. As long as you can leave in March, it won't be considered as disobeying my order."

"Hmph, rare." The princess snorted complacently and said, "From now on, I can come and go easily. When I go to Suzhou again, I won't have to ask for leave from you."

"What do you mean?" Long Qing was stunned, thinking, could it be that you have turned into a birdman?

"Do you know how many days it took me to get from Suzhou to Tianjin?" the eldest princess said with a smile.

"How many days?"

"Ten days." The princess was still very shocked and said, "Ships on the sea are really fast. A journey of three or four thousand miles can be reached in ten days. On the contrary, it took five days to travel from Tianjin to the capital on this short canal. You won't know until you compare them. Once you compare them, you will be shocked!"

"So soon?" Longqing was also surprised. At first, he heard the urgent report from the Southern Military Department that Ning An had returned to Beijing by sea, which frightened him so much that he couldn't sleep well for several nights. Now that he thought about it carefully, the departure date reported to the emperor for the eldest princess was the first day of March.

"Better than me, faster than me..." He wanted to say that he was faster than me to go to a certain place. But suddenly he realized with sadness that the farthest he had been was the Tianshou Mountain Imperial Mausoleum, and that was to attend his father's funeral. In addition, he had only been to the overgrown Nanhaizi once, and had never left Beijing since then.

Hum Hum suddenly felt so pitiful. How could this be called being an emperor? This was clearly like being in prison!

He felt like he was suffocating. He took out his anger on the girl: "You can't just go there!"

"Why?" Ning An immediately refused to do it. "Why are you yelling at me?"

"I didn't yell." Long Qing denied it immediately, lowered his voice, and said seriously:

"Do you understand what it means to 'walk along the river often, and you'll get your shoes wet?' If you walk on the night road too much, you'll always run into ghosts, don't you understand?"

"I don't understand." Ning An said in a muffled voice.

"Try it, try it carefully." Longqing thought to himself, "Is it easy for me? As a brother, how can I care about the feelings of a father or a mother? But if my father were still alive, he would have broken your legs and castrated that evildoer and taken him to Nanjing to see the Xiaoling Mausoleum, right?"

Oh, when I think about it this way, I am really kind and benevolent.

~~

However, it is not appropriate for siblings to discuss such topics. Longqing stopped talking and changed the subject: "By the way, you said at Datong Bridge that you were ordered to transport rice to Beijing. Why don't I remember saying this?"

"Hey, I put a few signs on my ship, with my name written on one side. One side said 'by imperial order', and the other side said 'shipping by sea'. As a result, the common people connected them together and read it as 'The eldest princess shipped by sea by imperial order'." Ning An spread his hands with an innocent look on his face.

"Really?" Long Qing looked at his sister suspiciously. Although he was not smart, he was definitely not stupid.

"Of course it's true." Ning An nodded, looked at Long Qing innocently and said, "Seeing so many people cheering, how can I deny it, sister?"

"No." Longqing shook his head. If he denied it, wouldn't it mean that the emperor didn't care about the people? That would be a huge sin.

"So I can only let people announce that the food on the ship was brought from the sea by my brother, and it will all be sold at cost price." The princess seemed to have suffered a great injustice, and she whimpered, "In the end, I didn't make a penny from the food I brought with so much difficulty, and I was even complained by my brother."

"Don't cry, don't cry." Long Qing quickly picked up the handkerchief and handed it to her, carefully explaining: "Actually, I am very happy to hear this. Only sisters in this world can think about their brothers so selflessly."

"It's good that you know." Ning An wiped her tears and asked, "Then how did I offend the emperor?"

"It's not that serious." Longqing waved his hand and said, "Even if you let someone say that there will be more grain arriving in Beijing by sea in the future... I have no objection to this, but I am afraid it will cause controversy in the court."

"Let them talk." Ning An said angrily, "They don't need to provide ships or food. We women pay for it ourselves. Is there anything wrong with feeding the people for our emperor? Just because they are incompetent, others have to just sit there and watch?"

"Alas, the affairs of the court are too complicated, how can we reason with them?" Long Qing said with a wry smile: "It is obviously the right thing to do, but it cannot be done because it will harm the interests of many people. It is a problem that can be solved very simply, but we insist on using complicated and awkward methods because that is in the interests of more people."

He sighed again, stood up and said, "In fact, when I was in the palace, I often heard Master Gao say that it is not difficult to transport grain by sea now. It's just that there are too many interests involved in grain transportation, so every time someone mentions sea transportation again, they will be attacked by everyone. The court occasionally tried to transport grain by sea, but they were obstructed by many parties and ended up in a hasty and unresolved situation."

"We have to give it a try first." Ning An said unconvincedly, "It used to be government-run, and everything had to be done by the court, so there were bottlenecks everywhere."

"If Master Gao comes back, I will support you in doing this." After saying that, Longqing looked at his sister gently and said, "But now that Lords Li and Chen are in power, you will probably be disappointed."

"But I have already said it," Ning An met the emperor's gaze and said with a distressed face: "If it can't be done, it doesn't matter if I, a woman, break my promise, but the emperor has kept his word and cannot go back on his word..."

"Alas, you are forcing me to take the lead." Longqing smiled bitterly. He could lose face in front of the ministers, but he could not lose his prestige in front of the people.

Of course, the opposite is also true. The ministers can disrespect him in the court, but they cannot undermine his prestige among the people.

After all, maintaining the authority of His Majesty the Emperor is in the interests of everyone in the Ming Dynasty.

So after much thought, Emperor Longqing felt that he could still make a small opening.

"How about this, I will draft a special decree and order you to take full charge of this matter on behalf of the palace... Let's not say it's grain transport, let's say it's to transport rice from Jiangnan to solve the urgent problem." Longqing said carefully, "Add 'once the grain transport is restored, or the grain supply in the capital is normal, then stop purchasing', then it should not be sealed and returned."

Ning An felt aggrieved for him, but he also knew that this was the limit of his brother's ability. He replied gloomily, "Okay, you put money into it and still pretend to be a grandson, what's wrong with the Ming Dynasty?"

"What's wrong? I'm sick." Long Qing also snorted and said, "I want to ask Master Gao to come back and treat me, but some people are afraid of him like a snake!"

Thinking that among those who opposed Gao Gong's return, there was also Master Chen, whom he trusted and relied on. Long Qing stopped talking kindly, waved his hand in a bored manner and said, "Forget it, my sister finally came back, why bother to say these things to spoil the fun."

The brother and sister talked for a long time, and then the emperor said to Ning An: "You should go meet your sister-in-law first. She has been talking about you for a long time. Come back and have dinner with us."

"Okay." Ning An responded and left.

Longqing then instructed Teng Xiang to call the three younger generations in.

~~

By the time the young eunuch came to the front hall to bring the message, the fat boy was already calling Zhao Hao "Brother Zhao".

There was nothing he could do. The cartoon Zhao Hao had shown him only had the first episode. He hadn't seen the second episode yet, which made the little fat boy scratch his head and pester Mr. Zhao to ask what the ending was.

"Has the Nine-Colored Deer King been caught?" The Crown Prince kept asking, "Will he be made into a fur coat?"

Yes, what Master Zhao showed the fat boy was the story of "The Deer King's Previous Life". This story was once adapted into the animated film "The Nine-Colored Deer" by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, which left a deep impression on Zhao Hao, a boy of the same age.

Moreover, this is a story of 'a man who kindly rescued a drowning person, but was betrayed by this person', and Master Zhao felt that he had taken advantage of the fat boy.

Of course, his idol, Zhang Xianggong, is the beautiful Nine-Colored Deer King.

So Mr. Zhao thought about it and decided to use this film as a blueprint and let Xu Yuanchun make an animated film for the little fat boy to watch. Let's see if he can continue to use this subtle way to brainwash the little fat boy, so that he will not be so cold-hearted when he grows up, and do less ungrateful and immoral things.

After all, six or seven years old is when a person's three views begin to take shape. Perhaps a seed planted in childhood for three years will bear good fruit in the future.

Of course, Mr. Zhao didn't know if this plan would work. But even if he couldn't change the little fat man, at least he could build a relationship with the future emperor. So this time, he wouldn't lose anyway.

As for why it is divided into two parts, of course it is to whet the kid's appetite so that he will think about me day and night.

So Mr. Zhao told the fat boy with an embarrassed look on his face, "Wait a little longer, the next episode has not been produced yet."

After all, Zhu Yijun was still young, and he didn't know how to ask him for the script, so he just believed it foolishly.

Just as they were about to ask when the next episode would come out, a young eunuch came in and said that His Majesty had summoned them.

"I'm going too?" The little fat man pointed at his chin.

"Yes, Your Highness." The young eunuch gave him a very affirmative answer.

"Oh..." Zhu Yijun was like a deflated ball, and seemed very reluctant to go.

Zhao Hao couldn't help but feel a little strange. Even if Emperor Longqing was put in 400 years later, he would be a model of a loving father, right? Why wouldn't this kid want to see him?

Young Master Zhao didn't even think about it. Second Master Zhao was simply a kind father among kind fathers. He still didn't want to get too close?

Isn't that different? I'm already an adult!

Master Zhao cast an inquiring look at Li Mingyue.

But the young county lady gave him a look that said, 'You'll know soon.'

~~

Sure enough, when he met the emperor, Zhao Hao understood.

The little fat boy, who had insisted on being carried on Feng Bao's back outside and refused to move a step, got down from his father's arms as soon as he entered the east warm room, walked in properly, and kowtowed to his father in a baby voice.

Emperor Longqing was so moved by his son's adorable look that he hugged him and kissed him again and again.

Young Master Zhao was stunned. He didn't expect that the Crown Prince, who was full of foul language and rude just now, would suddenly become a well-behaved boy that everyone loves. Even his voice changed, and it was a seamless switch!

It's not like he hasn't seen actors before, but he has never seen one this small.

It turns out that the fat boy didn't want to see his father, but he didn't want to see his father in front of him.

After all, for a drama lover, is there anything more embarrassing than having his or her performance seen through?

Then maybe you just have to keep performing even though you know you will be seen through.

ps. Third update, please give me your monthly vote!