Chapter 090
After dinner, Chu Xiuming took Chu Xiuyuan away, and Shen Jin hugged Dongdong, who was yawning after eating, and said, "Mom, I will come to find you after Dongdong falls asleep."
Concubine Chen smiled and said, "The child is more important. I will come back to see you after I get the child to sleep."
Shen Jin smiled and nodded when he heard this, "When the weather gets warmer, we can let the three children play together."
Concubine Chen nodded and left with Shen Hao first.
Chu Xiuming took Chu Xiuyuan to the study room instead of anywhere else. At this time, there were only two brothers in the study room. Chu Xiuyuan asked directly, "Brother, what do you think?"
"Hmm?" Chu Xiuming sat down and began to deal with the affairs of the border town.
Chu Xiuyuan looked at Chu Xiuming and said seriously, "Brother, that is Third Brother's child."
"I understand." Chu Xiuming paused for a moment, then looked at Chu Xiuyuan and said, "I will find it back."
Chu Xiuyuan pursed his lips and said, "Brother, what are your plans?"
Chu Xiuming said, "If we let him lead us away, we will never find the child."
"So brother, you want to find a condition that will force the Prince of England to exchange with you?" Chu Xiuyuan also understood why Chu Xiuming did not answer his question during the discussion yesterday, but instead talked about sending spies to the mountains. Chu Xiuming did not give up the child, he just changed his method.
Chu Xiuming nodded, and Chu Xiuyuan breathed a sigh of relief. He suddenly asked, "Then the Prince of Ying will not do anything desperate, right?"
"Ha." Chu Xiuming sneered, "He won't even have a chance to jump over the wall."
Chu Xiuyuan was completely relieved and did not disturb Chu Xiuming. Instead, he sat beside him and helped Chu Xiuming classify all the matters. After Chu Xiuming finished annotating, he took it and looked at it. He did not look at the annotations directly, but thought about what he would do first, and then looked at the annotations. If it was different from what he thought, he would look at the annotations carefully and think about it again. If he did not understand, he would put it aside and ask Chu Xiuming when he was taking a break. If the meaning was the same, Chu Xiuyuan would happily put it aside.
After finishing the new affairs, Chu Xiuyuan took out those from before Chu Xiuming came back. Chu Xiuming started to read them one by one. Chu Xiuyuan also talked about his thoughts when handling things from time to time.
While the two brothers Chu Xiuming and Chu Xiuyuan were being close in the study, the atmosphere between another pair of brothers in the palace was not so harmonious.
Although Prince Rui took the initiative to bring Princess Rui back to the capital, Emperor Cheng did not let his guard down. Instead, he asked Prince Rui to call back his sons. Prince Rui agreed on the surface, but did not do it at all. Instead, he sat in a chair with his head down, listening to Emperor Cheng talking about his difficulties and the dangers outside.
"Yes." Prince Rui responded respectfully without interrupting Emperor Cheng.
At this time, Princess Rui arrived at the Empress Dowager's palace. When she saw Princess Rui, the Empress Dowager sighed slowly. The Empress Dowager now looked much older than when they had just left Beijing. Even Nanny Zhen was gone, and there were many unfamiliar faces instead.
Although Princess Rui didn't know where Nanny Zhen had gone, she couldn't ask. She just greeted the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother looked at Princess Rui, asked someone to bring tea and cakes, and said, "It's good that you're back. There are anti-people and the Prince of Ying outside. It's so chaotic."
"Yes." Princess Rui smiled and said, "How is mother doing lately?"
"I can eat and sleep, but I am worried about my son's situation outside." The Queen Mother lowered her eyes slightly, fumbling with the bracelet on her wrist with her fingers and said, "Did you go out smoothly?"
Princess Rui picked up some interesting stories along the way and told the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother nodded from time to time, and seemed to be in better spirits. Princess Rui said, "The prince brought back a lot of things for the Queen Mother. I will send them to the Queen Mother tomorrow after I have arranged them."
"Yes." The Queen Mother waved to Princess Rui and said, "Why do you look much thinner?"
Princess Rui stood up and walked to the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother held Princess Rui's hand and looked her up and down, then said, "Indeed, she was hurt."
"I think we were in a hurry on the way back." Princess Rui said softly, "It's the Queen Mother who seems to have lost a lot of weight."
The Queen Mother smiled but said nothing. How could she not lose weight? Ever since Emperor Cheng came to her palace and made a big fuss that day, he had sent away many of the useful people around her. Even Nanny Zhen was punished with ten boards and sent out of the palace. Emperor Cheng said that these people had bewitched her, but...
When the Queen Mother heard the news that Prince Rui had returned, she felt sad and indescribable bitterness in her heart. After all, Prince Rui had always been a loyal child. It was just a pity... it was all a sin.
Princess Rui didn't say anything more. The Queen Mother took off her bracelet and put it on Princess Rui's hand, saying, "This bracelet has been with me for a long time. I'm giving it to you."
"Thank you, mother." Princess Rui's face was full of joy. She shook her head slightly and looked around. She noticed that those palace maids who seemed unfamiliar to her looked at her bracelet carefully, and then she withdrew her gaze.
She chatted with the Queen Mother for a few more words, and seeing that she looked tired, she helped her to rest. The Queen Mother did not say anything else, but asked someone to fetch a box of cakes that had been prepared long ago, and asked Princess Rui to take it back to the palace. The cakes contained all the things that Prince Rui liked. After knowing that Princess Rui would enter the palace today, the Queen Mother ordered the kitchen to make them.
When Princess Rui left the palace, Prince Rui had not come out yet, so she simply waited in the carriage. Not long after, Prince Rui came over, but he looked a little unhappy. When he saw his wife, he reached out and held her hand, then let the carriage go to Prince Rui's Palace.
No one spoke along the way. Princess Rui also noticed that the king was in a bad mood. When they arrived at the palace, Princess Rui got off the carriage with the food box in her hands. When the king saw her, he asked, "What's wrong?"
"My mother had someone make it specifically for His Majesty," Princess Rui explained softly.
Prince Rui sighed slowly, nodded and took it. If he was facing Emperor Cheng in the study, Prince Rui would have some regrets, but after seeing the box of pastries, that slight regret disappeared. The two of them went straight into the inner room. Prince Rui's Mansion is much quieter now. Even the children left are only Shen Rong and Shen Jing, who is sick and locked up.
After Shen Rong returned to the capital, King Rui ordered her to be locked up. After all, she was his daughter, so her treatment was not bad, she just could not leave her yard.
Everyone helped Prince Rui and Princess Rui to wash and change clothes. After all, Prince Rui's Mansion was managed by Princess Rui. Even though she had not been there for a while, the situation in the mansion was not chaotic. After the two of them changed their clothes, Princess Rui sent everyone out directly, then opened the food box with her own hands and placed out the cakes inside. Several of the cakes inside were Prince Rui's favorites. Prince Rui's expression relaxed a lot after seeing them, but he didn't say anything.
Princess Rui carefully looked at the bracelet and made sure there was nothing hidden inside. Then she took off the bracelet given by the Queen Mother. The King of Rui looked at Princess Rui's actions and asked, "But what happened?"
"My mother... isn't feeling well." Princess Rui's words were relatively euphemistic, but the prince's face had changed. "It's not anything else, but she looks a little tired. Nanny Zhen isn't here to serve my mother. Not only that, there are a few new faces here, and the several maids in my mother's palace are nowhere to be seen."
When Prince Rui heard this, his expression changed again and again, "That's my mother!"
Princess Rui shook her head and carefully examined the bracelet in her hand, saying, "Because there are many unfamiliar faces over there, both I and my mother are cautious when speaking. By the way, is there any news about the second prince?"
"No." Prince Rui said, "His Majesty didn't tell me this. He asked me to call Xuan'er and the others back to the capital."
Princess Rui sighed slowly. They had thought about this situation on the way, and just asked Prince Rui to agree to it and delay it for now. After all, Emperor Cheng had not really issued an order, and they were not disobeying the order. Now they could just say that it was too cold to travel.
Prince Rui's eyes turned red. "Mother...how could he treat her like this?"
It was self-evident who he was. Princess Rui said nothing. After carefully examining the bracelet and finding nothing special, she set her eyes on the pastries. She felt that the Queen Mother had something to tell them today, but because there were Emperor Cheng's people around, she couldn't say it directly, so she used another way.
Prince Rui was still sad about the Queen Mother's matter, and Princess Rui had already started to break and crush pieces of cake. Sure enough, she found a small paper ball inside a piece of cake. She opened the outermost layer of oil paper and found a very thin gauze inside with three words written on it.
"Your Highness, look." After Princess Rui wrote down the three words, she called Prince Rui.
Prince Rui was thinking back to his childhood, when the Queen Mother would always think of the two brothers when she gave him any good things... When he heard Princess Rui's voice, he looked over, was stunned for a moment, took the thing Princess Rui handed over, looked at the words on it and said, "Did the Queen Mother give it to you?"
"Yes." Princess Rui said, "I originally thought that my mother hid something in the bracelet, and these cakes were just a cover. After all, it would be safer to wear the bracelet directly on my hand. But I didn't expect that my mother actually hid something in the cakes."
King Rui nodded and said, "What does this mean?"
"Could it be a place?" Princess Rui said after thinking for a while.
King Rui thought it was possible and said, "Send someone to look for him."
Princess Rui stopped Prince Rui and said, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid that as long as we leave the palace, our every move will be monitored."
"Then..." King Rui hesitated.
Princess Rui just smiled and said, "Why don't you order some authentic Beijing dishes to whet your appetite?"
Prince Rui understood what Princess Rui meant, nodded and said, "Okay! Send someone to..."
Thanks to Chu Xiuming for leaving some people outside for them, otherwise even if there were things given by the Queen Mother, they would have no way to investigate. Even though Prince Rui thought that Emperor Cheng might make things difficult for the Queen Mother, he did not expect that even if they returned, Emperor Cheng would treat the Queen Mother in the same way.
Princess Rui also felt sad. Even if the Queen Mother had many faults, she was truly good to her two sons. But now... this was the cycle of cause and effect.
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