Chapter 411 Self-humiliation

"Your Highness, we have arrived at Prince Xuan's Mansion."

The carriage stopped steadily, and Eunuch Hai stood aside and reported respectfully.

The curtain of the carriage was opened, Xiao Bicheng got out of the carriage, and looked around at Prince Xuan's Palace.

This mansion was gifted by the late emperor and was originally the best territory among all the princes. But now the gate is closed and there is not even a guard to guard it.

From a distance, there was only a hunched old man sweeping slowly with a broom.

It looks desolate and lonely.

Xiao Bicheng raised the corners of his lips slightly, and he was looking forward to seeing his seventeenth uncle looking dejected and wolfish.

With a glance, Chief Steward Hai immediately went over and said to the old man sweeping the floor, "Hurry up and report to the palace that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrived!"

The old man raised his head, frowned, and tilted his ear, as if he couldn't hear clearly. "Who did you say is here?"

Chief Steward Hai patiently repeated loudly, "Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Of course I'm here to see your prince!"

"Who comes to see our prince?"

Chief Steward Hai frowned, his patience running out. "Are you deliberately playing tricks on me?"

The old man showed a look of sudden realization, "Oh, the juggler came to see our prince."

Upon hearing this, Chief Steward Hai's eyebrows instantly raised, and his voice suddenly became sharp, "How dare you! How dare you not take His Royal Highness the Crown Prince seriously? You are simply a troublemaker! What are you still standing there for? Drag this troublemaker away and beat him to death with sticks!"

After all, it was at the gate of Prince Xuan's Palace, and opposite was the street, with many passers-by passing by.

When we saw the prince's carriage stop, many people had already stopped to watch. Now that we heard about the conflict, even more people gathered to watch the excitement.

Seeing the East Palace guards going to arrest the old man, they couldn't help but feel filled with indignation.

"Isn't it normal that the old man can't hear clearly at his age? He was beaten to death for asking a few questions. Is there any law in this world?"

"Shut up, that's His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Your Highness the Crown Prince can take human lives lightly and not take the common people seriously?"

Xiao Bicheng's eyebrows jumped and he cursed him as an idiot.

This kind of bastard should just be dragged to a deserted corner and dealt with. Why make such a fuss?

His eyebrows furrowed, and he shouted coldly: "What are you doing? Let the old man go!"

After being scolded, Eunuch Hai shrank his neck and quickly asked the guards to release the old man.

In order to win back the hearts of the people, Xiao Bicheng put on a complete show and even went over personally to help the old man up.

"How old are you, old man?"

"Ah?" The old man still didn't hear clearly, but after the lesson just now, he didn't dare to answer randomly anymore.

Xiao Bicheng said with a look of pity, "Poor old man, he should be enjoying his retirement, but he has to do such rough work here."

Eunuch Hai had just done something wrong, so in order to atone for his mistake, he immediately took over the conversation cleverly, "Palace maids will be released from the palace to marry when they reach the age of 25, and the noble families will also release people from the palace regularly. I didn't expect that Prince Xuan's palace..."

Having said this, he immediately stopped talking and pretended to have said something wrong.

Xiao Bicheng immediately said righteously, "I believe that the Seventeenth Uncle is not such a person. He was busy with official duties in the past and had no time to care about these trivial matters at home. I thought that everything would be fine after the marriage, but I didn't expect... to encounter such a thing again. I'm afraid he has even less time to ask about these things. Instead, those cunning villains in the mansion took advantage of the opportunity and used these things to seek personal gain."

"Someone, go and call the steward of the mansion out. I don't like the way a villain acts so recklessly. Even though this is Uncle Seventeen's family affair, I will step out of my way and intervene today."

There were old eunuchs staying in the palace, and the aristocratic families had servants who had been used to serving for generations. There were also some elderly people in Prince Xuan's mansion, so it was not a big deal and could be handled privately behind closed doors.

But after Xiao Bicheng said this, things immediately became a big deal.

He didn't say a bad word about Xiao Jinxuan, but every word he said was saying that Xiao Jinxuan was weak and incompetent, which led to the rampage of the villain.

If you can't even clean your own house, how can you clean the world?

Once this incident happened, people couldn't help but wonder, is His Royal Highness Prince Xuan still as wise and powerful as before?

Of course, Xiao Bicheng’s purpose is more than that.

He also wanted to take this opportunity to find out more about his seventeenth uncle.

Eunuch Hai immediately brought his guards and forced open the door of Prince Xuan's mansion.

Not long after, a middle-aged man in a brown shirt, accompanied by his servants, came out quickly and saluted respectfully.

"I am Yan He, the steward of Prince Xuan's Mansion. I have met His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Xiao Bicheng glanced at him and ordered in a stern voice, "Hand over the list of all the servants in your house. I want to review it myself."

"This..." Yan He's forehead was covered with cold sweat.

Xiao Bicheng's voice suddenly became sharp. "What's the matter? Are you going to disobey the order?"

Hearing the stern voice and the charge of disobeying the emperor's order, Yan He did not dare to delay and immediately asked someone to bring the list.

After taking a glance at the list of servants, Xiao Bicheng narrowed his eyes slightly.

None of the Feiyun Guards trained by Xiao Jinxuan were on this list.

It seems that his seventeenth uncle is really cautious.

But he unexpectedly discovered that the old man was not an isolated case. In the Prince Xuan's Palace, from the kitchen to the flower garden, from sweeping to dusting, there were hundreds of servants over sixty years old!

He narrowed his eyes slightly, not expecting the opportunity to come so quickly.

He raised his hand and asked the guards to invite all the old men out.

Seeing the old men standing in a crowded group, he asked Yan He in a cold voice, "Why, is your Prince Xuan's Mansion so poor that you can't even afford servants?"

"No, they..." Yan He wanted to explain, but was interrupted by Xiao Bicheng.

"Ordinary families have a lot of servants, but Uncle Seventeen is a prince, but his house is full of octogenarians doing the work. If others see this, wouldn't they think that the royal family treats him harshly?"

"What's more, Daye advocates respecting the old and loving the young, and governing the world with benevolence and justice. Uncle Seventeen's house is holding them and refusing to let them go. Isn't this against national policy?"

"I will make the decision today to release all these people from the mansion. I will also send people to replace the missing servants!"

This plan undoubtedly kills two birds with one stone. It not only does a good thing and wins the hearts of the people, but most importantly, it can place people in Prince Xuan's palace in a legitimate way.

Just as he was waiting proudly for the gratitude from those old men, he did not expect that upon hearing his words, those old men immediately started to curse him.

"I won't leave. I will stay in Prince Xuan's mansion for the rest of my life. If anyone tries to force me to leave, I will fight him to the death!"

"Who said that His Royal Highness Prince Xuan asked us to do the work? It's obviously us old bones who couldn't sit still and did it on our own accord!"

"I'm going to die here. If anyone tries to drive me away, I'll hit my head and die here!"

Seeing this situation, Xiao Bicheng and others were also dumbfounded.

Eunuch Hai shouted angrily, "How can you be so ungrateful? His Royal Highness let you go and enjoy yourself, and you are not only ungrateful, but you even speak ill of him. You are simply... you are simply unruly people, and you cannot be reasoned with!"

"Bah," an old man spat in his face, "My three sons died in the battlefield. If His Royal Highness Prince Xuan hadn't sent someone to pick me up in the palace, I would have died of illness at home and no one would have known. Letting me out of the palace, isn't that asking me to die?"

"Yes, my son died in the war. I had lost all hope, but I survived because His Royal Highness Prince Xuan said he would take care of me until the end of my life."

"Your Highness, it's really not His Highness Prince Xuan who asked us to work. We don't want to eat and drink for free, and we can't be idle, so we want to do something within our ability. You can beat us or scold us, but please don't blame His Highness Prince Xuan, and don't chase us away."

When these words were spoken, the memories of the ordinary people who were watching were brought back.

"My nephew told me that although His Royal Highness Prince Xuan didn't stay in the military camp for a long time, all the soldiers who followed him praised him highly."

"My family's land was previously occupied by officials, and he was the one who took it back for us."

"My sister's son was kidnapped and almost turned into medicine. It was Prince Xuan and Princess Xuan who saved him..."

Mentioning the previous missing child case, people immediately recall that many rumors at the time were related to Crown Prince Xiao Bicheng.

It is said that he was the mastermind behind the incident. It is said that he had lost his life force and so he captured children to make the antidote.

Originally these rumors had been suppressed, but now they have all been brought out again.

Xiao Bicheng's face turned ashen and he was shaking with anger.

He originally wanted to take this opportunity to suppress his seventeenth uncle, but he did not expect that he would end up bringing humiliation upon himself.

Xiao Jinxuan, Xiao Jinxuan, you really win the hearts of the people!

"If this is the reason, why didn't Manager Yan tell me earlier?" Xiao Bicheng glanced at Yan He with a cold look.

Yan He thought, you should give me a chance to speak.

But he said, "It was my fault for not being considerate enough."

"Forget it. Since it was just a misunderstanding, I will go and apologize to Uncle Seventeen myself." After Xiao Bicheng finished speaking, he walked towards the mansion.

As a prince, he was willing to condescend to apologize to a prince. This gesture immediately changed the views of some people towards him.

But no one noticed that his eyes were full of color under his eyelashes.

There was such a big commotion outside the mansion, could it be that his Seventeenth Uncle didn't hear anything at all? Impossible, Feiyun Guards couldn't be that incompetent.

If he heard it, why didn't he come out? Was he really so immersed in the grief of losing Xie Zhuoning that he didn't want to care about other things?

Or maybe it was all a trick, and the reason why he didn't go out was because he was not in the house at all at the moment!

After entering the courtyard, Xiao Bicheng immediately spoke, "Uncle Seventeen, I'm here to see you!"