Chapter 286 That's My Cousin
There were three guests coming to the Bo's house. The hostess of the backyard personally prepared accommodation for them, and the bedding and other items were all brand new.
"Oh my God, the two princes really want to stay here?" Huang Yan'er said in surprise.
"Just stay here occasionally." Li Tian arranged everything, asked the little girl to come and play with him later, and began to look at the account book.
"That's incredible!" Huang Yan'er said, "When I was a child, I heard from my elders that a prince passed by our village and stayed overnight at Muramasa's house. The next day, the prince left, and Muramasa's family found a Ganoderma lucidum growing at the head of the bed."
“That’s bacteria.”
Jiang Qingzhi came in.
"Uncle, what is fungus?"
"mushroom."
"The elders said that Ganoderma lucidum can only be seen by blessed people, it can't be a mushroom!" Huang Yaner was very serious.
Jiang Qingzhi smiled, "Song Zhenzong liked these things, and officials from all over the country gave him a lot of them. He couldn't finish eating thousands of pounds of Ganoderma lucidum in several lifetimes, and eventually they all turned into rotten wood. If there is something in this world that only blessed people can see, it must be friendship."
He quietly held his wife's hand.
Li Tian's pretty face turned slightly red and she glanced at Huang Yaner.
"Loyalty?" Huang Yan'er noticed Jiang Qingzhi's little action and quickly left.
"I'll leave tomorrow." Jiang Qingzhi said softly.
Since they got married, the two have been apart for most of the time, so Jiang Qingzhi couldn't help feeling a little guilty.
"Where are you going? Never mind, it must be a confidential matter, don't tell me." Li Tian looked at the account book, but he was absent-minded and his face was red.
"We'll go north, but this time it's not far, and it will probably be done in a few days." Jiang Qingzhi said softly, "It's getting late."
"It's just past noon!"
"It's not too hot or too cold, it's a good time to take a nap."
"Husband..."
Huang Yan'er stood outside the door, listening to the noise inside becoming increasingly intense, and her face turned red.
Before she got married, Chang had called her to talk alone, and asked her to pay more attention to the couple's situation when she had nothing to do. If they didn't talk for a few days, she should quietly send someone to report.
——Marrying a daughter is a lot of work. Sometimes you worry that she is too weak and will be bullied by her husband. Sometimes you worry that she is too strong and will be ignored by her husband. Oh! It is so difficult to be a woman!
Huang Yan'er felt that her lady was overthinking it. Ever since his wife got married, Jiang Qingzhi had completely given up on the affairs of the backyard. He almost always left all the household matters, big or small, that did not require his help, to Li Tian.
This kind of hands-off attitude was seen by later generations as male chauvinism and not caring about household affairs. But at this moment, it was a move to show consideration for his wife.
The clouds cleared and the rain stopped. Li Tian asked, "Your Majesty, are you depressed?"
"He's a little disappointed." Jiang Qingzhi touched her smooth back. "There's only hatred in his eyes right now. If he doesn't vent his hatred, what's the point of the Ming Dynasty, what's the point of the country's destiny..."
"This is what a father should be like! Do you still have to consider the overall situation?" Li Tian moved to make herself more comfortable lying on him, "What would happen if I changed my husband?"
Jiang Qingzhi said without hesitation: "I will hang those people on the road."
……
"His Majesty."
Concubine Lu Jing came with a food box.
Emperor Jiajing recited scriptures softly.
Concubine Lu walked in slowly and Huang Jin took a few steps back.
"Eat something, Your Majesty!" Concubine Lu Jing put the food box on the ground and said softly, "Everyone is dead, and the living should live well, so that they can rest in peace in the afterlife. You are ruining your body like this..."
"I never thought that one day I would see my child's internal organs with my own eyes."
The Jiajing Emperor's voice was hoarse but calm, "That day I asked the veterans of the Ministry of Justice, and they said that only an autopsy could reveal some clues, and it had to be done quickly, because when the weather gets hot... nothing can be found.
I sat there all night, my mind filled with my son's appearance from childhood to adulthood. I have seen him... fifty-nine times, and each time he seemed to grow taller. I..."
"Your Majesty." Concubine Lu Jing said softly, "The prince will surely understand your painstaking efforts."
"Two dragons cannot meet. This sentence has separated me from the father and son. I often wonder whether this is true or not. But the prince died just after he was crowned. I refuse to believe it!"
Emperor Jiajing touched the scripture, and Concubine Lu discovered that it was a handwritten copy.
"I want the prince to die peacefully, but as a father, I am unwilling to let him die in obscurity. After sitting there all night, I decided to perform an autopsy. I feel that this is a father's responsibility. But when the knife was placed on my son's chest and abdomen, I..."
Concubine Lu looked up and was shocked to find that Emperor Jiajing was already in tears.
"My heart ached so much that I wished I could just die at that moment!"
"His Majesty!"
"The coroner lived up to my expectations and found something." Emperor Jiajing wiped away his cold tears, "Those people put a medicine in my son's food. If there was a compatible medicine, there would be no problem. But without a compatible medicine, the medicine would be highly poisonous. The imperial doctors were helpless. From the time my son was poisoned to his death, it took only more than an hour."
Emperor Jiajing stood up slowly and said, "I have arrested all the people around the prince. Under severe torture, no one admitted to the crime."
Concubine Lu Jing said: "That must be a dead soldier."
"Only the people arranged by that bitch can do this." Emperor Jiajing said, "That bitch hates me to the core, but she doesn't think about how I respected her when I first ascended the throne. My mother even took the initiative to lower her head and give in to her everywhere. But she is aggressive and pushes forward. She colluded with Yang Tinghe and others in an attempt to undermine me and seize power."
Concubine Lu Jing thought of that period of time and couldn't help but sigh: "Why should a woman get involved in those things!"
"The previous emperor passed away. She felt that the throne belonged to her family. I should be content with taking advantage of her and let her have whatever she wanted. Yang Tinghe was shrewd and knew what she was thinking. The two of them hit it off immediately. One in the palace and the other in the court joined forces to suppress me. But I am the emperor!"
Emperor Jiajing said grimly: "If I had retreated a step at that time, my body would have been cold by now." "They wouldn't dare, would they?" Concubine Lu shuddered.
"Power can drive people crazy. Why did Yang Tinghe lose his integrity in his later years? Wasn't it for power? That bitch kept talking about the late emperor and my son all the time. Did she really think she suppressed me for the sake of the late emperor? People are dead, why did she seize power? It was just for her own selfishness! Bitch!"
Bah!
The whisk fell to the ground, and the eyes of Emperor Jiajing were filled with coldness. "Does she think I am made of clay? Her two brothers are arrogant and debauched, doing all kinds of evil. I took advantage of the situation to capture them, and wanted to shake hands and make peace with her, but she still colluded with the ministers outside the court, thinking that I didn't know!"
The Taoist priest immediately killed one of Empress Dowager Zhang's brothers.
"She then realized that I was not afraid to be ruthless, but just couldn't bear it. She panicked and wanted to make peace, but I had already seen through this woman's character!"
"From then on, she cursed me and my child every day in the palace. I thought it was just a woman throwing tantrums, but I didn't expect..."
During those years, the Taoist priest was childless, which made Empress Dowager Jiang anxious.
After finally having children, they all died young.
But Zhu Zaigang survived.
This made Empress Dowager Jiang and Emperor Jiajing very happy.
"My first son died young, and all the children that followed died one after another as if they were cursed. I..."
Emperor Jiajing said, "I have consoled myself countless times that this is the price an emperor has to pay. In the palace, in the court, in the martial arts world... those people are waiting for me to bow my head and hand over power to them. Then they open their mouths wide and devour the Ming Dynasty like gluttons. Can I let go?"
He looked at Concubine Lu Jing, "Is it possible for me to let go?"
Concubine Lu shook her head, "No."
"I thought they would come after me, so I retired to the West Garden. I never left the palace unless necessary, and I pushed the prime minister to the front to avoid conflicts with them. I have been forbearing, but they hid in the dark and spied on me. Just when I was feeling proud..."
The corners of Emperor Jiajing's eyes were trembling, and he slowly squatted down.
Covering his face with his hands, he said, "They killed my child, they killed my child!"
"His Majesty."
Concubine Lu squatted down slowly, tears welling up in her eyes.
There was a eunuch waiting outside the door. Huang Jin walked over, asked a few questions in a low voice, and came back to report.
"Your Majesty, Chang Wei Bo has assembled three hundred cavalrymen from the Tiger Guards Left Guard and has already set out."
Emperor Jiajing looked up.
"Long Wilbur said that's my nephew!"
……
Changping Prefecture.
A group of people gathered outside a mansion, pointing and talking. Several officials hurried over, went in to search, and came out with ugly faces.
"Li Xian's entire family is missing."
The Li family was a wealthy family in Changping Prefecture. Their ancestors could be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty. It was said that they had served as a sixth-rank official in the Yuan Dynasty. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Li family disdained to serve Emperor Gaozu. When they saw that the Yuan Dynasty had no hope of returning, they lowered their status and let their children and grandchildren take the imperial examinations.
The head of the Li family in this generation was called Li Xian. He had passed the imperial examination but unfortunately could not make any further progress. A juren could become an official, but Li Xian disdained this. He relied on his family's wealth and made friends with local officials. Within ten years, he became a local tycoon.
Ma Xing, the prefect of Changping Prefecture, is over 30 years old. At this age, he is in charge of a prefecture in the capital, and his future is limitless.
But at this moment, his fair face was filled with a livid look. "Run away?"
The official who reported back nodded and said, "Someone heard some noise in the middle of the night three days ago, but no one asked about it."
"How could so many people in the Li family escape without making a sound?" Ma Xing asked coldly, "Also, why did Li Xian flee so far away?"
The official smiled bitterly, "I don't know, but...some trouble has just happened in the capital, I think..."
"First, search for the Li family immediately." Ma Xing looked indifferent, as if he had never had any friendship with the Li family. "Second, report it to the higher authorities and say that a local noble family, the Li family, suddenly escaped, and our Changping Prefecture is doing its best to hunt them down. File it first!"
"Yes." The official understood.
"Also, I think Li has been on the run for many days and has long been missing. But we must still do our best to hunt him down! Don't slack off!"
The official smiled and said, “Yes.”
Now that Li had run away, some of the things that happened in the past naturally went with him.
The officials left, and Ma Xing stood in the middle of the hall, smiling, "The capital had already paved the way for me. Li Xian ran away... well done!"
"Zhizhou."
The official who had just left came back.
Looks ugly.
"What's the matter?"
"Hundreds of riders came outside and asked about Li's affairs."
"Hmm? Who's leading the team?"
"Chang Wei Bo Jiang Qingzhi!"
……
Asking for votes.
(End of this chapter)
