109. Rumors

Rong Se dealt with those beauties neatly and did not leave any of them in the house. The reason was simple. Even though he was rich, Rong Se did not want to support a few more people for no reason. The other, and most important, one was Liang Shenyu.

He originally wanted to take Liang Shenyu's feelings into consideration, but unexpectedly the other party seemed to be unaffected at all and continued to act as usual.

As if he didn't care at all.

It was not until nightfall that Rong Se came back from bathing in the Canglan Nuan Pavilion and saw the pile of memorials on the bedroom table. He went forward and flipped through the memorials that Liang Shenyu had annotated on and would be sent back the next day. When he turned to one of them, his expression became a little subtle.

There was nothing special about the memorial. It was a letter of greeting from the Minister of Taichang Temple. This person was always good at flattery and fawning. The letter of greeting was very long and eloquent, and every word was earnest.

Liang Shenyu's red comment only had one sentence: "Fawning ministers, servile and servile, have brought disaster to the country. They should reflect on themselves."

This is like pointing at someone's nose and accusing him of flattery, and also accusing him of misleading the country, and letting the Minister of the Ministry of Rites reflect on himself.

Although there had been many such memorials of greeting in the past, Liang Shenyu was usually very frugal with words and would simply reply with a "read" and nothing else. This was the first time that Rong Se saw him scolding someone in a memorial.

It was quite novel. After flipping through a few more copies, I found that Liang Shenyu was very targeted, because many of his annotations on the memorials were the same as usual.

Rong Se divided the memorials into two piles, looked at them with lowered eyes, and pinched his chin thoughtfully.

Squeak.

There was the sound of a door being pushed open behind him. Liang Shenyu was wrapped in a thick snow-blue cloak, with his long hair hanging wetly to his waist. After entering the room, he took off the cloak and hung it up, revealing his loose inner garment, which looked quite bohemian and uninhibited.

"What are you looking at, Your Majesty?"

He came forward with a gentle voice.

The slightly cool fingertips clasped Rongse's waist, and the chill came through the thin inner garment. Rongse shivered unconsciously for a moment, then raised her chin towards the memorial with a half-smile.

"Marquis Dingbei, is this considered abusing power for personal gain?"

Liang Shenyu's eyes were gentle. He took the memorial and glanced at it. Then he threw it back casually. He laughed softly and said calmly, "Your Highness has wronged me. This is clearly an official matter."

The man was cold, so Rong Se leaned over to him and warmed him up. His tone was lazy, "Why are you doing things in a professional manner but showing two different faces?"

Liang Shenyu was reluctant to give up the warmth in his arms, so he lowered his eyes and used the dim candlelight to describe the beautiful eyebrows and eyes of the person in his arms. He did not hide the possessiveness surging in his eyes at all, but his tone was still very light.

"Just give them a brief warning, so that they know what their duties as ministers are."

The words carry a lot of weight.

It was clearly a calm tone, but Rong Se could hear extremely obvious displeasure and coldness in it. He even felt that the man who was holding him was like a fierce and domineering wolf, who was confining him in his territory like a territorial circle.

Don't allow anyone to peek or covet it.

Sometimes, Liang Shenyu is very stubborn. When he doesn't show it, he is like a gentle deep pool. Once touched, he will immediately stir up huge waves.

For example, right now.

The chill on Liang Shenyu's body almost disappeared. He unceremoniously held Rong Se in his arms, buried his nose in the crook of Rong Se's neck, and murmured, "Let them all know that you are mine."

Rong Se did not mind Liang Shenyu's unusual concern. He stroked his neck like he was stroking a large dog and said with a half-seriously half-sincerity smile, "What should we do? You might as well marry directly into the palace. Then everyone in the world will know that you are the head of the palace."

It was originally a joke, but Liang Shenyu suddenly stood up, his eyes burning, and responded immediately: "Okay."

Rong Se was slightly shocked, then smiled and said: "You must do it well, otherwise how can you be worthy of the Great Jin God of War."

After that, the two of them were silent for a while and stared at each other for a long time.

Liang Shenyu said softly, "I should be the one to say this. I should invite famous people from all over the world to watch the ceremony, and let the heaven and earth here witness our marriage. It should be dignified and glorious, and will be remembered for thousands of years. Only in this way can I be worthy of you."

Rong Se heard his seriousness and realized that Liang Shenyu was really interested.

In this pedantic, feudal world full of rules and dogmas, Liang Shenyu's thoughts and ideas were all unorthodox, and they were all related to him.

.

For several days in a row, many court officials were trembling with fear during the morning court sessions. They were all officials who had been reprimanded by Liang Shenyu in his memorials.

But they had no idea that it was Marquis Dingbei who wrote it. They all thought it was the Regent King who did it. They felt that they had angered the Regent King and were afraid of ending up like the Xi family and the previous criminals. So they all shrank into the size of quails and became as quiet as chickens.

As a result, the Regent's Palace had a few more days of peace and quiet.

However, rumors about the Regent began to spread among the people, most of which said that the Regent was fond of men and had a penchant for men. As a result, many rumors about the handsome and elegant Marquis Dingbei, who had stayed in the palace for a long time, were also spread about him - and they were all true.

There is indeed something unclear between Liang Shenyu and Rong Se.

But Rong Se's background was always a stain. Even though Yan Shuang's reputation had changed, it was still a fact that he was born in a brothel and had served two kings. So when the rumors spread, people were relatively tolerant of Marquis Dingbei, but used many blasphemous words against Rong Se.

There were countless descriptions of how the Regent Prince had the blood of a prostitute, how he was seductive and dissolute on the couch, and how he used his body to make the Marquis Dingbei so infatuated.

Even if there were people like Lan Ying and Yun Chu to stop them, there was no such thing as an impenetrable wall. These words inevitably reached Rong Se's ears.

"Your Highness, do you want me to handle this matter properly?" Yun Chu looked unhappy, without a smile on his face. When he had a cold face, he looked even more gloomy than Yun Zhi, who always had a stern face.

Rong Se was studying the new menu of Fu Sheng Lou after the fall. He didn't even raise his head and didn't care. "Let them say whatever they want. They are right. Liang Shenyu and I have always had this kind of relationship. We are upright and honest. Let them say whatever they want."

Yun Chu said in a deep voice: "Prince, three people can make a tiger, and gossip can melt gold. You should know that even if it is just gossip, it is enough to ruin a person's reputation. These people will not care about the relationship between you and the marquis. As long as they know that you are two men and that you are not from a high family, they can use this to slander you at will. In the long run, it will be bad for your reputation."

"I didn't care about them accusing me of being a tyrant before, and now I'm naturally not afraid of them scolding me for being dissolute." Rong Se finally raised his head, his expression natural, and it was hard to tell whether he was happy or angry. "Right and wrong, merits and demerits can only be left to future generations to judge. How can I care about what others say, Yun Chu, I have a clear conscience. And..."

Rong Se paused, and his eyes suddenly softened.

"At least some of this is true, such as Liang Shenyu and I. I knew from the moment the rumor spread that this situation would happen sooner or later. I am not afraid."

In the past, many people had speculated about the relationship between the Prince Regent and the Marquis of Dingbei, but even the officials who met each other every morning in the court could not guess it, or they simply could not believe that the Prince Regent and the Marquis of Dingbei would come to this point.

After Liang Shenyu angrily rebuked those officials who sent people to the palace or even proposed marriage, Rong Se ordered Lan Ying to spread the news of his relationship with Marquis Dingbei to the public.

Therefore, the current situation can be said to have been brought about by Rong Se himself.

“But, Your Majesty,” Yun Chu frowned, “You have finally turned your reputation around, and now…”

"I am still the regent king." Rong Se continued calmly, "No one dares to talk about these things in front of me. Yun Chu, what I care least about is how others evaluate me. That is their business. I just need to do my job."

After all, Rongse was also a food blogger back then. When he first started uploading videos, there were always some shortcomings, so he was often criticized or even scolded. Rongse no longer cared about other people's meaningless comments, otherwise he would have been so angry that he would have died.

Yun Chu was speechless and said weakly, "You are doing this for Marquis Dingbei, right?"

Rong Se nodded calmly, his expression softened slightly.

"It's also for my own good. There are many women in Jinjing who admire Marquis Dingbei. Now, everyone in the city knows that Marquis Dingbei is the one I like." Rong Se couldn't help laughing when he said this, and said slowly and long: "No one will dare to compete with me for someone, right?"

What is this called? The action of force is mutual.

Yun Chu was completely speechless. After a long silence, he sighed, "...I understand."

The prince's action is probably a kind of... declaration of sovereignty.

After confirming Rong Se's attitude, Yun Chu said nothing more. Before leaving, Rong Se even instructed: "Tell the kitchen to buy some meat. Pork, beef, or mutton are all fine. Buy more."

"Yes." Yun Chu hesitated for a moment, "What does the prince want to do?"

Rong Se glanced at the prepared menu again and said, "Winter is coming in a month, let's make some meat jerky."

Yun Chu responded and retreated.

.

Liang Shenyu had also heard about the recent rumors in the capital, and he also heard a lot of offensive remarks against the Regent among the Jinbei cavalry. He became furious and severely punished several people with unclean words as a warning to others.

For the whole day, Marquis Dingbei's face was gloomy and cold, as if a dark cloud covered the sun. He was more ruthless in training than usual, and even personally fought and severely beat up several Qiangzhou generals who came with the army.

Several generals gathered together with bruised faces and noses, complaining bitterly to Wu Jie, but Wu Jie looked indifferent and said in a cold voice: "It's just a minor punishment. Don't forget why you got beaten today. The mouths of your subordinates have been tightly covered. If you dare to speak nonsense and disrespect the Regent Prince again, the Marquis will be angry and no one can save you."

After a moment of silence, someone whispered, "We all followed the Marquis through thick and thin, so what's the Regent King? Why is he so worthy of the Marquis getting so angry over him?"

Wu Jie's face darkened, and the scars on his face looked even more ferocious. He said in a deep voice: "Since you are brothers who have been through life and death with the Marquis, you should not embarrass the Marquis. The Regent King is a descendant of the royal family. How can you compare with him?"

Several generals shrank their necks, but ended up being blasted out by Wu Jie.

Song Yan, who had just entered the room, also heard about what happened in the army today, and frowned and said, "What's wrong with these people? When will it be their turn to make decisions about my affairs? They dare to ask me to choose between them and the Regent. They are really shameless. But Wu Jie, I heard that someone wants to propose marriage to you these two days-"

Seeing that he was about to stop talking, Wu Jie took out a bag of candy and quickly stuffed a piece of crispy candy into Song Yan's mouth, successfully shutting him up.

"Wu Jie——" Song Yan said incoherently, "Next time, wait until I finish speaking before giving it to me."

Wu Jie was silent for a moment, then uttered one word: "Noisy."

Song Yan: “…?”

Wu Jie glanced at him and said, "I didn't say we were getting married."

Song Yan nodded modestly, speaking sparingly: "Oh."

Wu Jie: “…”