The beauties went to their masters and reported the current situation in the Eastern Palace and the Crown Prince's various baffling actions. The masters felt they could not linger there any longer, so they withdrew their people without hesitation.
When Zheng Duoyu went to make arrangements, only a young girl remained. The girl agreed to go to the pagoda to pray for the prince.
Several imperial guards also felt that there was no future in staying in the East Palace, but since they were the Empress's men, they didn't know what to do and had no choice but to continue staying in the East Palace.
After Xiao Sheng finished doing all this, he and Leng Yu returned safely to the Li family.
Xu Ningyou pushed Li Xingran's cot to the martial arts training ground to watch Li Ting practice with a broadsword.
Wow, Daddy's so awesome! It looks so good!
When Xiao Sheng returned, he saw this scene: the Grand Tutor was wielding his knife with effortless skill, his teacher's wife was watching with a smile on her face, and Li Xingran was cheering.
This scene is heartwarming and beautiful.
Therefore, Xiao Sheng became even more determined to become emperor. Because if he didn't work hard, everything he had in front of him would vanish.
"Grand Tutor, Sheng'er is back. The matter has been settled, and no evidence has been left behind." Xiao Sheng respectfully reported his mission from the previous night to Li Ting.
"You've worked hard. Are you scared?" Li Ting's face showed a kind of fatherly love that Xiao Sheng had never felt before.
For a moment, Xiao Sheng didn't know how to answer.
Finally, the subconscious voice burst out: "I'm afraid, but I have to finish it!"
"Very good, you've grown."
[This cannon fodder prince, in the book he suffered so much, having to blame himself for everything just to barely survive to his teens. Now it seems he was simply lacking in support!]
It's said that boys inherit their intelligence from their mothers. A woman as intelligent as Zhao Yunshu is highly unlikely to have a dull-witted son. Xiao Sheng in the book knows how to protect himself by damaging his own reputation; unloved and neglected by his father, he's already exhausted himself just to be alive.
[In the book, if the Crown Prince wasn't evil, the Emperor wasn't an accomplice to tyranny, and the officials of Nanchen Kingdom could all resist the temptation of opium, wouldn't Xiao Ding's character be a plot hole?]
"Grand Tutor, today I also dealt with those ten beauties from the Eastern Palace. When I return to the palace next time, they should all have returned to their respective masters, right? Is there any way to find out their whereabouts? We can also guard against them."
"Leave this matter to me."
"Sheng'er, did you make these decisions on your own, or did someone teach you?" Li Ting looked at Xiao Sheng with a meaningful gaze.
"Reporting to the Grand Tutor, it was all Sheng'er's own idea. There are too many idle people in the Eastern Palace, and I don't want Zhao Yunwan to find out about my current situation. Moreover, my mother still has several old friends in the palace, and I want to bring them all to the Eastern Palace for protection."
“The idea is good, but the palace is not safe. Here’s what we’ll do: when Ruan Ruan was born, our family sold off a lot of servants. I’m planning to ask the matchmaker to bring me some people with clean backgrounds. Then we can arrange for those palace servants to come to the Li family. That way we can protect them without any problems.”
"Sheng'er thanks Grand Tutor, but Grand Tutor's considerations are indeed more thorough."
[Even the cannon fodder prince is making progress, that's good. Our family is getting further and further away from being wiped out. Father wants to buy servants, and among the people the matchmaker brought, several are from the Great Yue Kingdom, and four from the Great Liang Kingdom as well. In the book, Father even picked them all out.]
Li Ting's heart skipped a beat. It seemed that he would have to give Ruan Ruan a general idea before doing anything in the future, otherwise he might accidentally fall into Zhao Yunwan's trap.
"Sheng'er, today you go with those rascals to Tingquan Villa to listen to a lecture. Experience the elegance of scholars."
Li Ting was still thinking about the matter Luo Nanchuan had asked him to handle last time. He decided to have the Crown Prince go there personally, and let Luo Nanchuan choose for himself.
Several days passed without anything happening.
After six days of tranquility, Shen Qingqing went to check on the garden on a sunny afternoon and found that all the opium had wilted.
This batch of opium is the only opium remaining in the palace.
The number of people the Queen needs to control is increasing, so the consumption of opium is also increasing. The existing opium is almost used up, and they are just waiting for this batch to grow.
Who would have thought such a turn of events would occur? Shen Qingqing had been guarding opium in this cold palace for several years, and had never encountered anything like this before.
She became anxious and hurriedly asked someone to inquire about the situation in the garden these past few days.
After Qianmian and his group severed the roots of the opium poppy and left, a heavy rain fell. All traces of the garden were washed away. The message was relayed to the Queen.
Upon receiving the news, Zhao Yunwan immediately summoned Lu Dacheng to Kunning Palace.
"Teacher, all the opium in the cold palace has withered and died."
"How could this be? We were the first to plant opium in the Cold Palace, and it has never withered or died! Could someone have tampered with it?"
"According to Shen Qingqing, there has been nothing unusual in the Cold Palace recently; not even a bird has flown there."
"I'll go take a look later."
"Your Majesty, have you heard about what happened in the Eastern Palace?" Lu Dacheng was not worried about Ophiopogon japonicus now; he was more worried about the changes in Xiao Sheng.
"I've heard about it. He's just a kid, nothing to be afraid of. Besides, that's just his normal bout of madness," Zhao Yunwan said dismissively.
Xiao Ding had just returned from the Imperial Academy when he heard Physician Lu discussing Xiao Sheng with his mother. He remained silent and listened from the side.
Since his hasty escape from the Li family last time, Xiao Ding seems like a completely different person.
In the past, even at a young age, he was a gentleman, respectful of etiquette, studious and ambitious. Everyone in the entire capital praised him.
Despite his exceptional talent, he could not become the crown prince, nor the master of this imperial city.
He was unwilling to give up. After returning from the Li family, he studied even harder, and the other members of the royal family in the Imperial Academy all admired him greatly.
He had heard that Luo Bingqian, the son of Luo Nanchuan, the owner of Tingquan Manor, was a man of great literary talent, and that Luo Nanchuan was a great Confucian scholar in the Nanchen Kingdom.
Recently, while listening to the teacher's lecture at the Imperial Academy, Xiao Ding heard that the prince's study companions could not serve in official positions for life. So he thought of appointing Luo Bingqian as the prince's study companion, so that for the rest of their lives, Luo Nanchuan and Luo Bingqian would be on his side.
If a clever person cannot become an official, then he can only depend on others.
If Xiao Ding were to become emperor, then Luo Bingqian could change his fate and rise to prominence!
"Teacher, let's go to the Cold Palace now and see what the cause is. Let's see if there's any way to remedy the situation."
Upon arriving at the Cold Palace garden, Shen Qingqing prostrated herself on the ground, begging Zhao Yunwan for her life. Zhao Yunwan maintained a cold expression, but dared not unleash her anger.
They were afraid of attracting attention.
Upon entering the garden, Zhao Yunwan saw all the opium-laced plants lying on the ground.
Under the scorching sun, all the opium died.
With heavy rains these past few days and now blazing sunshine, the combination of these two extreme weather conditions often leads to root rot in plants.
Lu Dacheng pulled up a few plants to check if there were any human factors involved.
But that one was completely rotten and could no longer be seen to be its original shape.
The Empress was so angry that she slapped Shen Qingqing several times. "Useless! You can't even keep an eye on the garden. What use are you to me?"
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