Chapter 17: Courage
After Hu Shanxiang's birthday, Zhu Yuhuan immediately threw himself into his career, and every day when he had free time, he would mingle with the craftsmen. If they were not still in the imperial city, Zhu Yuhuan, dressed in cloth and wearing a straw hat, would look no different from an ordinary girl. Even those craftsmen who used to be respectful to Zhu Yuhuan would have let down their guard against him long ago.
Although the craftsmen always remembered that Zhu Yuhuan was a princess, their attitude towards her was much closer than before, and they even talked to Zhu Yuhuan about how the people outside lived.
The reason was that the charity hall proposed by Zhu Yuhuan received an imperial plaque written by Zhu Zhanji and was managed by the queen herself.
Princess Shunde not only cared about the people's livelihood, but also persuaded the emperor and empress to turn their attention to ordinary people. For them, Zhu Yuhuan was naturally a line of advice full of their hopes.
Zhu Yuhuan naturally understood their thoughts.
The reason why she did all this was not very noble. At best, it was for her own survival. However, being able to help them invisibly was also a small contribution she made.
"Sister—I brought snacks!"
Zhu Yuhuan was originally checking the cooled parts with the craftsmen when she vaguely heard a familiar voice. She looked up and saw Zhu Youtong standing not far away.
Huai En, who was standing by, noticed Zhu Yuhuan's gaze and hurried forward to ask, "Why is the little princess here? Who took the little princess out of the palace?"
Zhu Youtong grumbled aggrievedly, "Mother has been very busy these days, my sister has been out early and back late, and even when Empress Wu is in the palace, my father is always there, so there's no one to accompany me..."
Hu Shanxiang was now busy with the affairs of the charity hall, so naturally she couldn't be with her daughter as often as before. Although Zhu Youtong was happy not to have to constantly remind her of her studies, she couldn't help but feel lonely without Hu Shanxiang's company. Wu Miaosu had been a frequent visitor before, but after the Qianqiu Festival, Zhu Zhanji also often visited her palace. Zhu Youtong didn't have a close relationship with her father, so seeing this scene, she naturally didn't want to run into Zhu Zhanji again.
He took out Zhu Yuhuan's ivory card, handed it to Huai En, and said, "I came out with this. I heard that my sister was here, so I wanted to come and see."
Huai'en then remembered that Zhu Yuhuan had left the ivory token for leaving the palace in the house for the convenience of work. Zhu Youtong would run to Zhu Yuhuan when she had nothing to do, and the palace people had long been accustomed to it. No wonder she easily got the ivory token and left the palace. If it were someone else, someone would have reported it to Zhu Yuhuan long ago.
The palace servants were so lax that they easily let the naive Second Princess escape from the palace...
Zhu Yuhuan finished the work at hand, then walked over to Zhu Youtong, took off his hat and put it on her head, and said with a smile: "It's so hot, don't let yourself get tanned."
Zhu Youtong reached out to hold down her hat, and looked up to see Zhu Yuhuan wearing a net scarf. Even in her plain clothes, she looked quite heroic. She couldn't help but praise him, "Sister, you're so pretty!"
Seeing her sweet talk, Zhu Yuhuan said with a smile, "You are the only one who is sweet-talking. How did you get out of this little girl?"
Huai En immediately repeated what Zhu Youtong had just said. Zhu Yuhuan said with a smile, "You are quite courageous."
Zhu Youtong said confidently: "If I were really brave, I would have left the palace with the ivory card."
Zhu Yuhuan grumbled inwardly, "Do you think the guards at the gates of the imperial city are fools? You just look at the cards without asking why..."
She had to practice horse riding and archery in the afternoon. Now she happened to meet Zhu Youtong. She thought the little girl would be bored alone, so she might as well take her to the horse farm to play, after all, they were already here.
Zhu Yuhuan took her sister's hand and walked towards the horse farm. Seeing that Zhu Youtong was looking at everything with interest, she did not want to disturb her sister who had mustered up the courage to run away on her own. She just said, "Don't sneak out like this next time. Mother will be worried if she can't find you."
Zhu Youtong, who was originally looking around, felt a little guilty after hearing this. He twisted his toes and after a long time, he came to Zhu Yuhuan and asked in a low voice: "Sister, did Empress Sun make you angry?"
Zhu Yuhuan was confused by her words and asked, "Who told you this?"
Zhu Youtong met her sister's bright eyes and stammered, "That's what I thought... These days, when I go to play with Hanjia, Hanjia is always busy... Empress Sun and Jiajia are both afraid of my sister, so I think maybe Empress Sun has made my sister angry, so Jiajia doesn't want to play with me..."
Zhu Yuhuan was a little amused after hearing this, wondering why he had such an image in his sister's eyes. It sounded as if he could eat Sun Mengqiu alive.
But thinking that Zhu Youtong was only a child after all, and probably had such an opinion because he was "the one who has the final say", Zhu Yuhuan could only say: "The Imperial Concubine is the elder, how could she make me angry? Hanjia has long reached the age of starting to learn and teach, and the Imperial Concubine wants to train her to become a talent, so Hanjia has no time to play with you."
Zhu Youtong suddenly realized and said, "So that's how it is... Then I'll go find Jiajia when she's resting! I can already play a few notes of the pipa that Empress Wu gave me, according to the gongche notation. When Jiajia is free, I'll play the pipa for her!"
Zhu Yuhuan looked at her carefree look and shook his head in amusement.
If only this little girl could grow up so easily.
The two sisters were walking on the palace road when they saw from afar some palace servants carrying several wooden boxes. They seemed to be rewards from Zhu Zhanji to someone, and they couldn't help but feel curious.
Zhu Youtong pulled Zhu Yuhuan's sleeve and asked curiously, "Are these things for the charity?"
Zhu Yuhuan shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be."
Why would a charity need rewards? It would be better to just give some money...
The leading eunuch recognized the famous Princess Shunde at a glance and immediately stepped forward to greet her with a smile.
Zhu Yuhuan, as always, was pleasant and affable. He asked with a smile, "Who did Daddy give this as a reward? It looks even better than the one Daddy gave to Uncle Five."
The eunuch smiled and replied, "The King of Han previously wrote a letter extolling his virtues in benefiting the country and safeguarding the people, which Your Majesty greatly admired. These silks, precious stones, and jade are gifts to the King of Han. Your Majesty has ordered us to take them from the inner transport warehouse and have them delivered to Le'an Prefecture by express horseback."
Hearing the eunuch's answer, Zhu Yuhuan raised his eyebrows slightly and said in admiration, "The Prince of Han is truly smart, capable, and unique. No wonder my father thinks so highly of him."
The eunuch echoed a few times, then hurriedly took the order and left, not forgetting to say, "Princess, please give your regards to the Empress on my behalf."
Zhu Yuhuan smiled and agreed: "Of course."
Zhu Youtong said with some envy, "Such a big box, there must be a lot of interesting things in it. Last time, Jiajia took out a feather I had never seen before. It seems to be from that internal transportation warehouse..."
Zhu Yuhuan was amused when she heard this and said, "Next time I go outside the palace, I'll help you find some interesting feathers and save them to make a shuttlecock for you. Then we can play with each other."
She couldn't help but sigh in her heart that Zhu Zhanji was really willing to spend a lot of money to fool the King of Han, and even opened the Neichengyunku, which was the emperor's own small treasury.
In addition, Zhu Yuhuan cared about another thing.
The eunuch just now was not the eunuch in charge of the inner transport warehouse, but an ordinary eunuch. However, he was well aware of the matter of the memorial submitted by the King of Han and could speak of it so freely. It can be seen that Zhu Zhanji valued eunuchs even more than Zhu Di did.
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