Chapter 9
When the time came to one stick of incense, the eunuch saw the twenty precious chickens caught by Luo Sanrong and felt angry, but when he thought about the task assigned by him, he finally had to bear the anger of the head of the Prime Minister's Office, and he hated Luo Sanrong even more.
The prime minister hosted a banquet in the front yard, and all the guests invited were his colleagues in the court who stood on the prime minister's side, headed by the Minister of Revenue Sun Xing and the Minister of Rites Xu Jiang, who all flattered Prime Minister Ji Ke.
"Your Excellency Prime Minister, the Queen is pregnant now. When she gives birth to a prince, the court will be..." The Minister of Revenue Sun Xing did not finish his words, but those who understood understood.
The Prime Minister took a sip of wine and acquiesced to his statement. "Look, today, my Prime Minister's Mansion is hosting a banquet, and so many people have come to attend. They are simply attracted by the power of my Prime Minister's Mansion. The people from all over the world come here for profit."
It was hard to tell whether the Prime Minister's words were filled with melancholy or pride, and he raised his head and took another sip of wine.
Loud music filled the air, the dancers' performances were enchanting, the atmosphere was intense, and the ministers were toasting each other. The banquet at the Prime Minister's Residence was even more lively than that at the royal palace.
When the atmosphere was at its peak, a loud arrow pierced through the lively singing and dancing and landed on the pillar diagonally behind the prime minister's seat. The sound startled everyone. Someone shouted "Catch the assassin" and everyone reacted. They called the guards to chase the assassin. The prime minister sat in his seat, still in shock.
At this time, the guards outside the door announced: "The prince has arrived--" This delicate timing made it hard for everyone not to suspect that the assassin was sent by the prince to demonstrate. After all, the relationship between the prince and the prime minister was not good in the eyes of any discerning person. Moreover, the queen was pregnant now, and giving birth to a prince might directly threaten the position of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
Before the guard could recover from his shock, the prince suddenly appeared and was mistaken for an assassin, with a knife pointed at him.
"What? Are you not welcoming me?" Li Yin asked with interest.
The Prime Minister, seeing Li Yin's provocative gaze, had to suppress his anger temporarily and greeted him with a smile: "Your Highness the Crown Prince is honored to visit us. I am sorry for not welcoming you in person."
"After all, this is a banquet held for my unborn brother. How can I not come?" Li Yin emphasized the word "brother" and sat on the main seat vacated by the prime minister.
"Come, I'll offer you all a glass of wine to celebrate the arrival of my younger brother." Li Yin raised his glass.
The lower-ranking ministers had different expressions, but no one raised their glasses. "Why don't you raise your glasses?" Li Yin asked in pretended confusion.
When the atmosphere was dull, a voice suddenly came out: "May I have the honor to drink this glass of wine, Your Highness?" Li Yin looked towards the voice and saw that it was Ji Zeming.
"Of course." Li Yin raised his glass and drank it in one gulp, Ji Zeming also drank it in one gulp, and the atmosphere finally became lively.
*
Under the pavilion, Li Yin and Ji Zeming drank together.
"Long time no see." Li Yin said.
"Long time no see. After returning from Qiping Kingdom, I should have paid my respects to Your Highness." Ji Zeming said with a smile.
"Why bother? We are not in a relationship where we can greet each other, and you are still so bad at lying." Li Yin teased.
Ji Zeming didn't answer, but drank in silence. He asked Weidao, the servant behind Li Yin, "Would you like a drink?"
"You are not allowed to drink while protecting His Highness." Weidao found a reason and refused Ji Zeming.
"That's right. You have always been the most trusted and closest person to His Highness, and that's still the case now." Ji Zeming said with an ambiguous tone.
Li Yin drank a glass of wine and did not deny it.
*
"Princess, this is the eunuch's third examination paper. Please mark it." The eunuch placed the paper on Princess Ming'an's desk.
Princess Ming'an was feeling down because Master Zheng hadn't replied, so she said sullenly, "Put it on the table!"
When the eunuch saw that the princess was unhappy, he quickly put down the test paper and did not dare to disturb her.
[I can't eat, can't sleep, and have no strength, but the imperial physician has examined me and found no symptoms. What's the reason?] The test paper on the top attracted Princess Ming'an, and she couldn't help but carefully read the answers to the questions.
[The reason I can't eat isn't because of the food, the reason I can't sleep isn't because of the bed, the reason I have no strength isn't because I'm sick, it's because I'm in love. Now isn't the time to bear it, but to endure it. Don't treat this love as a love that can't be fulfilled, but as a love that can be treasured. That way, you won't feel any pain...]
Princess Ming'an couldn't help but shed tears when she saw this. This test paper was the only one that accurately expressed her inner feelings. She couldn't help but pour out her suppressed emotions. She hugged the test paper and cried bitterly, "My Master also said something like this."
She suddenly realized that the handwriting on the test paper was almost exactly the same as that of Master Zheng. In order to verify her guess, she took out the letter for comparison. The result was as she expected. The letter was written by "Master Zheng".
"Someone come here." Ming An hurriedly called for someone. She wanted to see what difficulties this "Master Zheng" had that made him not reply to her letter.
*
After Li Yin and Ji Zeming finished drinking, their eyes became sober. On the way back to the palace, Li Yin and Wei Dao wanted to get some fresh air in the pavilion. They leaned on the railing and looked out without saying a word.
Li Yin, Wei Dao, and Ji Zeming grew up together, played together, and over time, they became close friends. But when did they change? When the prime minister took control of the government, and the emperor's father was cowardly and incompetent, they could no longer bear the grudge against Ji Zeming. The three of them tacitly agreed that their friendship had ended and they gradually drifted apart.
Luo Sanrong was carrying a chicken back to the eunuch's residence. This chicken was the one she had caught with great effort in the Prime Minister's Mansion. Seeing that there were so many pheasants, the housekeeper of the Prime Minister's Mansion kindly allowed Luo Sanrong to take one away. In the end, Luo Sanrong chose the one that had cost her so much effort. Ji Zeming learned about the situation and thoughtfully asked Luo Sanrong to use the kitchen of the Prime Minister's Mansion to cook the chicken and take it away. Luo Sanrong chose the method she was best at and made it into a roast chicken.
Suddenly, I saw two familiar faces sitting in the pavilion and greeted them enthusiastically: "Master Li, Master Wei..."
Li Yin and Wei Dao were not in a good mood before they came, so they did not look at Luo Sanrong in a good mood, but the carefree Luo Sanrong did not pay any attention at all.
"Guess what this is?" Luo Sanying diligently took out the roast chicken that had been packed in the Prime Minister's Mansion.
Li Yin was not in the mood to guess, and signaled Luo Sanrong with his eyes to answer directly.
"This is the pheasant I specially roasted from the Prime Minister's Mansion. It is said that this pheasant is specially raised in the Prime Minister's Mansion and eats better than humans! How about it? Do you want to try it..." Luo Sanrong worked hard to "sell" his roast chicken.
When Li Yin heard that it was the chicken from the Prime Minister's Mansion, he became even more upset and pushed the roast chicken further away.
"How can you trample on my feelings like this? I gave you this precious roast chicken because I saw that you were sad." Luo Sanying straightened the roast chicken and pushed it towards Li Yin again.
"What?" Li Yin asked.
Luo Sanrong said bluntly, "I think you're probably sad about something. Even when you're sad, you need to fill your stomach. If you're still hungry when you're sad, won't you be even sadder?"
"Don't measure things with your low standards. I've never been hungry." Li Yin stood up and prepared to leave, feeling flustered as his thoughts were exposed.
"I don't know if you have ever been hungry, but I feel that you are suffering. To comfort a hungry person, you only need to give him food, but it is difficult to comfort a person who is hungry in his heart, because a person who is hungry in his heart will lie and say that it doesn't matter and he doesn't care." Luo Sanrong tore open the roast chicken.
"What?" Li Yin asked with interest when he heard this for the first time.
"To cure those who are very hungry, we must get comfort from those who are emotionally rich. I, Luo Sanrong, am the person with the richest emotions in the entire Xia'an country. How about getting some comfort from my heart?" After saying that, Luo Sanrong handed a chicken leg to Li Yin.
Li Yin did not say anything and sat down silently. Seeing Li Yin sitting down, Weidao also sat down silently. The two of them listened quietly to Luo Sanying's chatter. Indeed, Li Yin's mood was much better.
"Do you know? I met the prince today?" Luo Sanying said casually.
"Have you met the prince?" Li Yin and Weidao put down their chicken legs and asked in unison.
"It was the back of the head. I didn't see the front of the face."
Li Yin and Wei Dao exhaled at the same time.
"By the way, do you know what the Crown Prince's nickname is?" Luo Sanying asked again.
Upon hearing this, Li Yin couldn't help but smile, and speculated, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is brave and fearless, and handsome. His nickname must be the one that best reflects these characteristics of his!"
Luo Sanrong said with a smile: "It's not..."
At this time, Weidao picked up the chicken and said expressionlessly, "Stingy guy."
Upon hearing this, Luo Sanrong clapped his hands and laughed, "Yes, how did you know?" He didn't notice Li Yin's expression as he continued, "Our prince is also known as 'half-orc'. It's because he has half human and half beast blood flowing through his body. Sometimes he acts like a normal human, and sometimes he acts like a wild beast, so he's called half-orc."
Hearing this, the usually serious Weidao chuckled, and Luo Sanrong commented, "So you can laugh!"
Li Yin looked at Weidao with murderous eyes. Weidao immediately restrained his expression, pretended nothing happened, and continued to eat chicken.
But no matter what, Li Yin and Luo Sanrong felt much better after chatting.
......
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