Zhu Jingshen, the son of King Kang, has always been a suspicious person, but if there is something he can't figure out, as long as he takes it to heart, he must make it clear before he can feel at ease.

The Dongyang Marquis Mansion is not arrogant to him, but he doesn't value him either, in general, he is just mediocre, no different from other families in Beijing, at most he will not laugh at him openly, but he doesn't respect him much. Now the prince of the Hou Mansion actually took the initiative to stand up and apologize for the fault of his relatives, and asked the relatives who made the mistake to apologize, which is really weird. In the eyes of others, Dongyang Houfu acting like this will only make people think that his family knows etiquette and etiquette, and his family style is upright, not the kind of snob who praises the high and the low, no wonder the royal family will choose his daughter as the crown princess. But who is Zhu Jingshen? Where would such good words be believed? He left the gate of the Hou Mansion and got on the horse, and before he had walked out of a mile, he called the people who accompanied him over and asked.

He came out of the palace directly, because today is the Shangyuan Festival, and the emperor made a clear decree to have fun with the people, so the palace gate key time is much later than usual, the queen knows that he is going out of the palace to the Dongyang Marquis Mansion to go to the banquet, in order to prevent him from walking at night, the guards will encounter any trouble if there are fewer people, so he generously sent a lot of people to follow. It's just that he has been in the palace for many years, and he can't say that he has any dignity for a long time, except for the people designated by the queen, the others are just some honest and stupid eunuchs, because they don't know how to drill the camp, they will be pushed to the top by their companions, and after listening to his questioning, few people can react.

Seeing this, Zhu Jingshen was angry, gritted his teeth and said, "I mean, when I entered the Dongyang Hou Mansion, was there any suspicious person at the gate?" Who saw me fall off my horse? According to his conjecture, he fell in front of the gate of the Dongyang Hou Mansion, although the fall was not heavy, but if the Hou Mansion who guarded the door reported it, the Hou Shizi of Dongyang should take advantage of the time when the guests were still in Qi, and apologize to himself as soon as possible, and would not wait until the time when the banquet was about to end, at that time, there were the most people, and none of the guests left early. But he waited until the banquet was over, and before that, he knew that he wanted to separate the second son of Chou Chengbo from himself, so it can be seen that he knew that there was a gap between the two, and if he said that he had no idea what was happening in front of his house, he would never believe it. It can be seen that during the banquet, someone must have made a suggestion to the Hou Shizi of Dongyang and persuaded him to apologize to himself.

Who could this person be? And for what purpose? Zhu Jingshen knew that he was just a powerless prince, his parents died early, the domain was in name only, and even the royal property was returned to the treasury, but he was raised by the queen under his knees, except for the nurse and a girl, and a few disgraceful entourage, there was no trustworthy subordinate. Nominally, he was the prince, but he was about to be fifteen years old, and the emperor never said a word about attacking the king. Whether inside or outside the palace, anyone with a discerning eye knows that he has no future. Who will plot against him?

If it is because of sympathy and pity, it is even more unreasonable. Who is not a human spirit in the circle of the powerful in the capital? Who would go against the royal will and sympathize with him as a powerless and unpopular imp? Even if there was originally, they were all bored with his nonsense and estranged early......

Zhu Jingshen was puzzled there, but the eunuchs looked at each other, and the accompanying guards waited impatiently in front, and rode back to urge: "Lord Shizi, it's not too early, please go back to the palace quickly, if the palace gate is under the key, you can't enter, and it alarms the saint and the queen, isn't it another sin?" ”

Zhu Jingshen had always had some scruples about the guards sent by these queens, and when he heard this, he put on a reluctant expression and said, "I know, I know, what to urge?" Then he waved him back and cleared the way, and rode his horse to follow.

When he returned to the palace, he went to the queen for a turn, and then retired and returned to the palace where he lived. Qiu Tan greeted him with half anger and half resentment: "The prince is back, are the lanterns beautiful?" I'm doing needlework in the palace alone, and I'm suffocating to death, and you don't take me to play."

The nurse turned in from the apse, and when she heard the words, she scolded: "Dead girl, don't talk nonsense, what do you look like on such an occasion?" Then while helping Zhu Jingshen change his clothes, he supported his daughter to fetch water and send a handkerchief, and waited for Zhu Jingshen to freshen up.

After a busy time, Zhu Jingshen changed into his usual clothes at home, drank hot tea again, and his whole body warmed up, so he got on the kang cross-legged and sighed comfortably. At this time, the nurse suddenly screamed, hugged the clothes he had just changed and rushed over and asked, "What's the matter?" How can there be so much dust? Could it be that he fell again? Qiu Tan was also taken aback, hurriedly came over to look up and down, and then secretly glanced outside, and saw that there were no outsiders in front of him, so he lowered his voice and asked: "Lord Shizi, you are here again, I have already advised you, even if you want to make a bitter plan, you don't need to hurt yourself twice for three days, so it is easy to make people suspicious of you to answer me, why did you do it again?" ”

Zhu Jingshen gritted his teeth and said, "Dead girl, do you think I made it myself?" I really fell" and then told me about the things I encountered in front of the Dongyang Hou Mansion, and I didn't forget to mention the matter of the Dongyang Hou Shizi's apology.

Qiu Tan opened his mouth wide, looking dumbfounded: "Someone actually apologized to the prince for such a trivial matter?" Even Miss Cha is not so solemn. No wonder everyone says that the family style of the Dongyang Hou Mansion is upright, and his family is really a good person," said after that, his eyes turned red, "The eldest lady of his family has become the crown princess, maybe the prince will live better in the palace in the future." ”

The nurse glanced at her, then turned to Zhu Jingshen and said in a low voice: "This matter is not very reasonable, if the prince of Dongyang Hou knew about this matter, he privately compensated you, and pulled the son of the uncle's mansion to apologize to you, then it would be okay, he actually did it in front of all the guests...... Isn't this a blatant slap in the face of his relative? The Hou Mansion of Dongyang has nothing to do with the prince, in the past, when the prince was still there, he had the intention to invite the Hou Ye to give a lecture at the academy, but the Hou Ye categorically refused, and the prince was annoyed by it for several days. Could it be that the prince of Dongyang Hou and the son of the Bofu did not deal with each other in the first place? ”

Zhu Jingshen sneered: "The two of them are going to be in-laws, how can they not deal with each other?" The prince of Dongyang Hou is about to get married, and he is married to the eldest lady of the Bofu of Choucheng, and I heard that he is here tonight. Her brother was shouting everywhere that he wanted to kiss the Hou Shizi of Dongyang, and looking at the appearance of the Shizi, it didn't seem to be unhappy. It was clear that someone had said something to him during the period, so he suddenly changed his attitude. That's what I don't understand, who is it? I was at the table, and no one paid attention to me, I didn't know anything about the outside, I didn't dare to ask those guards, and the little eunuchs waiting below were stupid, so I couldn't ask no matter how I asked. ”

The nurse thought about it for a while, and then said: "Leave this matter to the old slave, the old slave will inquire" Zhu Jingshen raised his eyebrows and agreed.

When I got up early the next morning, the nurse really inquired, and rushed over while waiting for Zhu Jingshen to get dressed, while avoiding everyone and replying: "Among the little eunuchs who went out of the palace with the prince yesterday, there was one who accompanied the prince when he went to check the family Zhuangzi, according to him, when the prince arrived in front of the Dongyang Hou Mansion, there was a female guest's carriage waiting at the gate, and when the second prince of the Castle City Bofu rode by, the wind was too strong, and the curtain of the carriage was lifted, and he happened to see a person sitting in the car. It is the maid I met on the Zhuangzi of the Cha family last time, as if the master's family is surnamed Gu. Lord Shizi, did you say it would be the Miss Gu Jiu you met last time? ”

Zhu Jingshen's hand paused: "How could it be her?" Then he remembered that Wen Yi and Du Yuanru had a relationship, and they were friends with the Ruan family sisters, and it was not a strange thing to be invited to the Dongyang Hou Mansion, so he smiled and said: "If it is her, it is really possible." Isn't this Gu Jiu just a bad person? The puzzle in his heart was solved, and he was in a very relaxed mood, but he couldn't help but scold: "But she is also too kind-hearted, the last time I teased her like that, I obviously made her so angry that she couldn't speak, and even her girl was so angry that she trembled, why did she meet her yesterday, and she was kind again?" This matter has nothing to do with her, what kind of mouth does she have? ”

Qiu Tan took a cup of Jianlian red date tea, and said unevenly: "It's really strange that the prince is saying this, the young lady is just holding grievances for you, such a good person is now extremely rare." Why are you still scolding her? ”

Zhu Jingshen took half of the tea and drank it, and glanced at her: "You girl, say you are stupid, you are still not convinced." Yesterday, it was just the son of the Prince's Mansion and the Yuyang Eldest Princess's Mansion who offended me, I had already thought of a way to make them suffer a big loss, the subordinates of the Dongyang Hou Mansion have no rules, I will at most make them lose face, and also let the people in the capital take a look, this prince is not a good bully, but I didn't expect the prince of Dongyang Hou to make amends to me in public, so that I had to pretend to be generous, and extinguished the heart of revenge. It's all Gu Jiu's trouble, and I'm so angry that I have nowhere to go."

Qiu Tan laughed and said: "In this way, if it is really this Miss Gu Jiu who is speaking for you behind your back, we will thank her, if it weren't for her kindness, I don't know what idea the prince would come up with.

"Hugh has to talk nonsense" The nurse scolded her, and was about to teach her another lesson, but she heard the people in the palace outside enter the door, and they were busy talking, pretending to be busy. Qiu Tan also quickly withdrew the red date tea and replaced it with a few plates of dim sum.

The palace people came to send a message to Zhu Jingshen, and the crown prince Zhu Jingkun was going to summon him (from seven to nine o'clock in the morning) and asked him to go to the East Palace to wait earlier. Zhu Jingshen frowned: "I'm afraid I want to ask about yesterday, right?" I was depressed in my heart, and I didn't care about eating breakfast, so I went to the Queen Mother and the Queen's Palace to ask for peace, and it was not until the beginning of the morning that I went to the East Palace.

Zhu Jingkun was not there, and after a while, he came back, followed by many officials of the East Palace, holding a bunch of papers. Zhu Jingshen stepped forward to salute, and the former just waved his hand: "I still have something to do here, you go to the side hall to drink tea, and I will have someone pass you in a while." Zhu Jingshen responded with a smile, and when he left the main hall, his face became gloomy.

Now that Zhu Jingkun has been crowned the crown prince, the emperor will gradually transfer the government affairs to him to deal with, so although it is during the New Year's holiday, the yamen of the various ministries has not yet opened the yamen, and he has a group of subordinate officials of the East Palace also have many documents to dispose of, some are to be handed over after the year, some are excerpts to be played, and some are urgent matters related to the military situation in northern Xinjiang, although the emperor does not intend to hand over full authority to him to dispose of, but also signaled him to know more. Zhu Jingkun was busy for a long time, until it was almost lunch time, and he felt hungry in his stomach, so he stopped and asked people to prepare meals and entertain a group of subordinate officials, but he hurriedly ate half full, remembering that Zhu Jingshen was still in the side hall, so he moved over.

Zhu Jingshen was hungry for a long time, but the prince had a clear order, and he couldn't go, so he wanted to peek at the door, and the inner eunuch guarding there would also stop him, so when he saw Zhu Jingkun, he finally resisted the impulse in his heart and saluted him respectfully.

Zhu Jingkun didn't care about his etiquette, and asked directly: "Yesterday, you went to the Dongyang Hou Mansion, who were the guests?" What did you say during the meal? ”

Zhu Jingshen lowered his head, seemed to be very honest, said them one by one, and then smiled: "Could it be that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is thinking about the crown princess?" It's a pity I didn't see her yesterday. The female guests are all in the garden, I am sitting at the big table outside, and no one pays attention to me, I can only listen to other people's jokes stupidly, they are all wind and snow, and there are many things I don't understand, it is really suffocating."

Zhu Jingkun ignored his complaints, and still asked, "You don't understand?" What are the words? There are so many people here, and most of them are the sons of nobles, is it possible that no one really says some news about the current situation? ”

Zhu Jingshen paused, and said with a smile: "It's not nothing, such as the happy events of various royal mansions...... I was afraid that His Highness would not be happy to hear it, so I didn't mention it. As for the ones I don't understand, they're just meat words, man...... I'm young, and I'm not a fool, and I don't know what they mean, but I know it's not a good thing, and I'm not stupid enough to ask people and make people laugh. Dongyang Hou Mansion scholarly heirloom, I didn't expect his son to be this one" gave a few more examples, and pulled out a few famous gentlemen in the capital who had a good conversation with Dongyang Hou Shizi, as if he was worried that these facts were not enough to prove his words, and he even said his own skirmish with the second son of Chou Chengbo.

Zhu Jingkun listened, but he didn't get angry, but stretched his brows: "Although Dongyang Hou is a decent person, his son is young after all, and it is common for him to be fun-loving. As for the ...... of the Domain Who doesn't have an annoying relative? He smiled and didn't say any more.

Zhu Jingshen secretly breathed a sigh of relief for the Dongyang Hou Mansion in his heart. He is a person with clear grievances, and if the Hou Shizi of Dongyang treats him politely, he will return the favor to the other party, of course, that's all.

Zhu Jingkun glanced at him, saw him smiling and grinning, snorted coldly in his heart, but showed a kind smile on his face: "You don't play in front of me haha, let's be honest, you won't really sit all night last night, right?" Who did you meet at the table? The people who checked the house...... Can you go? ”

Zhu Jingshen's heart sank, and he still said with a smile on his face: "None of the people from the Cha family have gone, how could His Highness suddenly ask about his family?" ”

"Oh? Really? Zhu Jingkun raised his eyebrows, "I also said that you are going to see his children, otherwise, on such an occasion, you have always been able to push it, how could you agree to go to the banquet?" He stared at Zhu Jingshen and smiled meaningfully, "Speaking of which...... The girl of the Cha family is almost old enough to get married, I heard that you are childhood sweethearts. The former son was at the queen's mother's place, didn't she still mention your family affairs? How? Could it be that you are looking at a noble girl from another family? ”