Chapter 38 Heartbroken

The princess had just returned to her mansion when the news from the spies at the city gate came back.

"The third master of the Chu family had already left the city before the imperial guards sealed the city." The young man with red lips and white teeth helped the princess sit down on the couch, then knelt under the couch and offered her a cup of fragrant tea.

The princess did not accept it. She fiddled with the gold bracelet inlaid with five-colored gemstones on her hand, her eyes wandering to somewhere else. "Chu Changping, this is the last thing I will do for you."

The young man was a little jealous and said, "Your Highness is really loyal to that warrior named Chu." The princess

glanced at him calmly, without any anger on her face, but the young man was so scared that he raised his hand and slapped her twice, "I am a chatterbox, I deserve to die!"

The princess raised the young man's chin with her hand painted with bright red cardamom nails, without any ripples in her eyes, she said, "I have kept you by my side because you are obedient and well-behaved. I just took you out to cruise the lake today, and I ran into the imperial guards when I came back. Do you understand?"

The young man nodded repeatedly, "I understand." The princess

withdrew her hand, She lay back on the couch and said nonchalantly, "Go down."

The young man then rolled out of the hall.

The maid came forward to massage the princess's shoulders. Looking at the box of blood jade agate in the hall, she smiled and said, "The King of Liaoning must have spent a lot of time on this. He knows that you like these items, so he specially collected so many and sent them to you."

The princess only glanced at them indifferently, showing no interest. She was willing to help the Chu family not because of the gift from the King of Liaoning, but simply for that person.

She raised her hand to brush the thin smoke rising from the incense burner. Thinking of the recent changes in the court, she frowned slightly: "This princess does not want to see His Majesty make mistakes again and again. What ridiculous things he has done for a woman!"

First, he sent the daughter of a noble family to the border to be a prostitute, and then he exiled the son of the Lu University scholar. Now if he raids the Chu family, when the truth comes out, won't he be condemned by the people of the world?

The eldest princess was just worried about this matter, and a maidservant outside the palace came hurriedly to deliver a message: "Princess! Something bad has happened! You should go to the palace quickly!"

The maid behind the eldest princess panicked, thinking that the fact that the people of the King of Liaoning sent gifts to them was known by someone in the palace.

The eldest princess looked surprisingly calm. When she stood up and asked the maid to tidy up her fancy dress, she asked the maid, "What happened in the palace?"

The maid said in a panic, "I heard that General Fan molested Concubine Xi after drinking, and His Majesty chopped General Fan in anger. Concubine Fan fainted on the spot, and now His Majesty is going to the empress's palace with a sword!"

"Ridiculous!" The eldest princess couldn't wait for the maid to tidy up her fancy dress, and walked out with her long sleeves dragging, "Prepare the car!"

After the youngest son of the Fan family followed Fan Wei back to Beijing, the Fan family found him a job as a front guard in the palace.

After all, in this world, the people who are most respected and most likely to be promoted are those who are in front of the emperor.

The Fan family holds military power and is at the peak of their power. Even the impeachment letter sent by the Liaonan King from Xizhou a few days ago, plus the folk evidence collected by a group of ministers, only resulted in the youngest son of the Fan family being beaten.

But today, because he touched the emperor's favorite person, he was directly chopped off!

The eldest princess has a headache just thinking about how to appease the Fan family. They are not loyal subjects like the Lu family!

Moreover, the emperor went to the harem, which must be the empress who helped to make Xipin be molested by the youngest son of the Fan family. Getting rid of Xipin and suppressing Concubine Fan is killing two birds with one stone. Why wouldn't the empress do it?

But the princess knew the queen well, this was definitely not a plan the queen could come up with. Otherwise, why did the youngest son of the Fan family, who had served in front of the emperor for so long, flirt with Xipin today? There must be something else behind

this!

It was at this moment that the princess realized the terribleness of the Liaonan king's methods. It was fine if he could find her, but did he have people in the deep palace?

The queen was pregnant with the heir, so even if she made a huge mistake, she couldn't do anything, let alone just plotting against a little concubine. But the emperor took the sword and went to Kunning Palace, and the princess had to worry that her nephew would go crazy again.

At this time, the palace was already in chaos, with the cries of palace maids and eunuchs everywhere.

The new emperor's bright yellow dragon robe was half stained with blood, and the long sword in his hand was also stained with blood.

People in Kunning had heard the news that the new emperor was coming here with a sword in hand. The maid beside the queen cried and advised her to hide in the queen mother's palace as soon as possible.

The queen had a sad face. She was a dignified beauty with picturesque eyebrows and eyes and a graceful temperament.

At this moment, she was stroking her abdomen, with tears in her eyes and sneering, "It would be better for him to kill me as well, and then support the person he loves the most to sit on the throne!"

"Your Majesty, why bother to be angry with His Majesty at this time? You are pregnant with the prince. Once His Majesty's temper subsides, you will just surrender and the matter will be over. Can that bitch Xipin still get the emperor's favor after this? When the little prince is born, His Majesty will have forgotten about that bitch. For the sake of the little prince, His Majesty will not bother with you about these things!" The

eldest palace maid tried to persuade her earnestly, but seeing that the empress was still unmoved, she had to quickly send someone to Cining Palace to invite the empress dowager to come.

When the door of Kunning Palace was kicked open by the new emperor, the empress was still taking the medicine for pregnancy protection in the palace, and there was a meal on the low table in front of her.

Looking at the man holding a long sword and walking into the palace against the light, the empress even had the mood to ask him: "Your Majesty, it's rare for you to come to my Kunning Palace. Jingyi, serve your majesty chopsticks." The maidservant

on the side looked at the long sword in the new emperor's hand, which was still dripping with blood, and tremblingly added a set of bowls and chopsticks on the low table.

The new emperor's eyebrows were sharp, and he kicked over the low table with his foot, and all the exquisite dishes spilled on the ground. The maidservant was also scared and screamed.

After the empress drank the last sip of the pregnancy-preserving medicine, she looked up at the new emperor: "Your Majesty, what are you doing?"

The new emperor pointed the long sword in his hand at her, and his voice was as cold as the thin ice condensed in the Taiye Lake in early winter: "Have I ever told you to be more obedient?"

The empress's eyes were full of sadness and self-mockery: "Your Majesty, why don't you tell me what it means to be obedient? Is it to watch your husband sleep in another woman's palace every night and still smile happily? Or as the master of the six palaces, just because she ate the lychees you gave to the person in the Cangjiao Palace, the palace maids who brought back the lychees will be beaten to death by you?"

The people that the King of Liaoning planted next to the empress were able to successfully incite her to use the youngest son of the Fan family to deal with Jiang Yanxi, and it was thanks to the long-term disagreement between the emperor and the empress.

Every year, the first batch and the last batch of lychees sent to the palace are the rarest.

The last batch of lychees sent to the palace this year only had three plates. One plate was placed in the new emperor's bedroom, and one plate was sent to the empress dowager's palace. The empress naturally thought that the last plate should belong to her. Unexpectedly, the new emperor gave the plate of lychees to Concubine Xi early in the morning.

The people sent by the empress to get the lychees had an argument with the people in Cangjiao Palace, and in the end the lychees were naturally taken away by the empress's people.

The person in Cangjiao Palace felt greatly humiliated and was very displeased with the new emperor for several days. In order to vent her anger, the new emperor could not touch the pregnant empress, so he ordered the palace maid who went to get the lychees that day to be dragged to the Shenxingsi to be executed.

The new emperor was even more furious when he heard the queen's words: "Just because of these, you plotted to kill her? How can a vicious woman be in charge of the six palaces?"

The word "vicious woman" made the queen's tears, which she had been holding back desperately, burst out instantly.

She smiled bitterly, closed her eyes and said: "I don't know what your majesty is talking about. If your majesty thinks that I am a nuisance and wants to make room for a new person, you might as well kill me with a sword!"

The people in her palace had bitten their tongues and committed suicide when they were caught, and there was no evidence.

Now the queen refused to admit it, and the new emperor was furious. He really wanted to kill her with a sword.

But... he couldn't...

not because of the child in her belly, but because of the influence of the queen's family in the court.

The sword tip was against the queen's throat, only a few centimeters away.

Suddenly there was a noise outside the hall, followed by the empress dowager's crying and cursing: "Bastard! You bastard!"

The empress dowager, supported by her personal maid, quickly entered the hall. When she saw the new emperor pointing a sword at the empress, she almost fainted. She took a few steps forward and knocked the sword out of the new emperor's hand, then protected the empress: "This is your empress! She is pregnant with your eldest son! What are you going to do?"

The empress was the niece of the empress dowager's family. Apart from the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, the two were also aunt and niece.

When the empress saw the queen dowager, she finally had a place to vent her grievances and burst into tears immediately: "Mother..."

The new emperor was already very angry about the Chu family's affairs, and now his beloved woman was being framed again. His whole head was buzzing, and the empress's crying made him even more irritated. He turned his head, looked at the empress dowager coldly and said: "This empress was chosen by you, mother, for your son, not by me myself."

"Bullshit!"

The queen dowager's eyes turned red with rage, and she raised her hand and slapped the new emperor.

After the fight, the Queen Mother looked at her hands and was stunned: "My son..."

The new emperor licked his lips and tasted the blood at the corner of his mouth. He ordered the people around him: "Send the Queen Mother back to Cining Palace." The Queen Mother

was afraid that he would really attack the Queen, so she was frightened and said loudly: "Have you forgotten how much effort your uncle made for you to ascend to the throne?"

This made the new emperor's eyes completely cold. In the two years since he ascended the throne, the Queen Mother's family took advantage of this merit to make countless advances.

The relatives of the emperor's wife were in power and tried to use him as a puppet emperor. He deliberately supported the Fan family in order to suppress the arrogance of the Queen Mother's family.

He said, "I remember all of my uncle's achievements, so I don't need my mother to remind me." The

queen mother was so angry that her heart ached. She pointed at him and said, "You..."

The new emperor glanced at the people around him coldly and said, "You can't hear what I say, right? Send the queen mother back to Cining Palace!"

The palace servants had to escort the queen mother away.

The queen fell on the phoenix couch, her face as if she was dead, and she asked him with tears in her eyes, "Since Your Majesty hates me so much, why did you propose to marry me..."

The new emperor ignored him and said coldly, "The queen has no virtue. From now on, you will be confined to Kunning Palace."

The queen looked at his back as he left without mercy and burst into tears.

When the eldest princess entered the palace, the farce in the palace had ended.

The princess looked at the new emperor sitting on the dragon chair and scolded: "You shouldn't have killed Fan Shengnian at this time."

The new emperor raised his gloomy and treacherous eyes: "He touched my woman, he deserves to die!"

"Then why didn't you kill him when the civil and military officials impeached him a few days ago?" The princess questioned: "If you act like this, who will believe in you in the future? Fan Shengnian deserves to die, but he shouldn't die for this reason! If you convict him and behead him for the previous impeachment, it will be a warning to the Fan family and an explanation to the civil and military officials of the whole court!"

"But you killed him because he flirted with the concubines. What do you want the court officials to think? The court officials will only think that you are an unkind monarch! You don't feel pain unless the charcoal fire falls on your feet!"

The new emperor explained: "When the King of Liaoning impeached Fan Shengnian, Fan Wei handed over the Songzhou military token to protect Fan Shengnian."

The eldest princess asked him: "So the Songzhou military token is not as good as a concubine in your harem?"

The new emperor closed his eyes heavily: "Aunt, Xipin is innocent. She was just involved in this conspiracy. There are hidden spikes of the King of Liaoning in the palace, and I have found them all."

The eldest princess laughed in anger: "She is innocent? Which stupid thing you did was not caused by her? That is a disaster!"

The new emperor suddenly said: "Chu Changping escaped from the capital. Xiao Qian said that it was your aunt who blocked him at Duhe Avenue. I have been waiting for him for nearly a quarter of an hour."

The princess did not show any panic on her face. She met the new emperor's gaze and said, "Your Majesty, are you doubting me?"

The new emperor did not answer. The princess smiled and straightened her sleeves. "Commander Xiao's men hit my carriage, and I don't even want a decent compensation? No wonder Commander Xiao dared to treat me like that. I guess I am already an outsider in your majesty's eyes. Chu Changping refused the marriage proposal in the Golden Palace. Do I have to rush to help him now?"

She left with a wave of her sleeves and said, "Your Majesty, just treat the person you love as if I have not entered the palace today!"

The new emperor then signaled the chief eunuch to stop the princess and softened his tone, "Aunt, calm down. Many things today are too coincidental."

"Aunt is my closest relative in the world. If aunt doesn't do good for me, who else in the world will do good for me?" He stood up and apologized to the princess: "I just said something wrong."

The princess looked at the new emperor with a little sadness in her eyes. After

all, he was the only blood of her brother left in this world, and he was also the child she watched grow up. It can be said that the princess knows the new emperor better than the queen mother.

She knows that since he succeeded to the throne, he has been treating the Fan family like a mad dog in order to check and balance the foreign relatives, and also to sharpen a sharp blade that he can use without any need to fire. In

these years, no matter who he wanted to secretly leave and deal with, it was the Fan family who stepped in. Anyway, he gave the Fan family absolute tolerance and power, and all the insults were borne by the Fan family, just like sending the Jiang family's legitimate daughter to the army as a prostitute, and it was left to the Fan family to deal with the aftermath.

The princess sighed, "Your Majesty, if the water is clear, there will be no fish, but if the water is rotten, there will be no fish either."

The court was now in chaos because of the Fan family.

The new emperor said, "I know what my aunt said, but... I am really puzzled by the sudden support of the Chu family by the King of Liaoning."

After all, the Chu family, except for Chu Changping, really had nothing else to use.

The princess didn't figure this out, but she didn't want the new emperor to target the Chu family anymore. She said, "Your Majesty, you should first think about how to give an explanation to the Fan and Jiang families."

Although the princess looked down on Xipin, she was the illegitimate daughter of Minister Jiang. The Fan family lost a life, and if Fan Wei wanted to resign, the Jiang family would have to lose a life as well.

It seems only reasonable for a concubine to commit suicide after being humiliated.

Three days later, when the news from the capital reached Xizhou again, Feng Shuo was training troops in the Xizhou camp.

After reading the secret letter, he handed it to Chi Qing, who was looking around, without saying a word.

Chi Qing looked at the secret letter and clicked his tongue twice, "This little emperor is really a lovesick man. He kept the news of his favorite concubine being molested a secret. Announce to the world that Fan Shengnian fell into the Taiye Lake and drowned after getting drunk. The Fan family is not as easy to control as the Lu family. Without the support of the Lu family, the new emperor may also have rebellious intentions. I think there will be something interesting to watch in the capital."

Feng Shuo, dressed in black armor, shone brightly under the sun. He looked at the people not far away. The soldiers who were training in the military training ground said, "Xizhou City has been under strict martial law recently. All outsiders should be carefully checked."

Chi Qing knew that he was afraid that the young emperor would send people to kill the Jiang family's daughter if he knew that she was still alive. He said sadly, "For Chu Changping, we have lost a lot of manpower and financial resources this time."

Not to mention the money that was spent, most of the hidden stings planted in the capital have been pulled out. This is the result of many years of operation.

If the hidden stings in the palace were still there, the secret letter that was delivered to them today should have arrived in Xizhou yesterday.

Feng Shuo did not respond.

Chi Qing fanned himself painfully while he started to talk nonsense again: "But I think the eldest daughter of the Jiang family is quite infatuated. When she pretended to be an ordinary person, didn't she say that she came to Xizhou to find a fiancé? Isn't the Chen Ergou she mentioned Lu Linyuan?"

Feng Shuo, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped. Chi Qing almost bumped into his back.

He touched his nose and looked at Feng Shuo blankly.

Feng Shuo said, "She and the boy from the Lu family are no longer engaged."

Chi Qing was stunned for a while after hearing his nonsense, and suddenly a gleam of light flashed in his foxy eyes.

You are so annoying!

Jiang Yanyi never saw Feng Shuo again after that day.

She returned the whole carriage of gifts he gave her intact.

Days passed one by one. She was busy every day with all the matters of opening the store, but when she was free, she would inexplicably think of the look in his eyes when he left that day, and the blood oozing from the gauze on his hand. After finishing her work

that day, she sat in the yard again, lost in thought.

"Huahua?"

"Huahua?"

Qiu Kui called Jiang Yanyi several times before she responded, "What's wrong?"

"Why is Huahua always in a daze recently?"

Jiang Yanyi looked a little embarrassed and put a strand of hair behind her ear: "Is that so?"

Qiu Kui nodded vigorously: "Yes!"

Jiang Yanyi got up and scooped a bucket of water from the water tank to prepare to water the peppers, "Maybe winter is coming, people are a little lazy."

She took the watering can to the corner of the yard, and then she found that the peppers were already completely red.

Jiang Yanyi was overjoyed: "Qiukui, come and see!"

Qiukui's face turned red with excitement when she saw the bright red peppers, and she asked: "Can we make delicious food?"

Jiang Yanyi shook her head: "Not now."

One pepper plant is too little, and they must start planting and cultivating as soon as possible.

However, the weather outside the customs is getting colder and colder. When she woke up this morning, she found that there was frost on the eaves, and her breath was white.

In this era, there is no film, and it is impossible to build a greenhouse to grow seedlings.

She thought for a while and said: "Let's go out and have a look at the flower market."

Those vendors who sell expensive flowers and plants must have measures to keep the flowers and plants warm in winter. You can go and learn it yourself, and then come back and follow their example.