Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 500: Didn’t you see that they come and go in pairs?
When the fight just started, he asked if your sword skills were rusty, and after the fight, he praised your martial arts for not having declined at all. This kind of words was naturally fine when used on two warriors, but in the palace... at least Princess Yongping couldn't help but want to turn her head and pretend she didn't hear it. However, what she didn't expect was that Concubine Yu was not angry at all, but actually smiled.
"It's been many years since I've practiced swordplay with the emperor. The emperor's swordsmanship has not deteriorated, but has become more proficient than before." Concubine Yu did not tie her hair up just now, but instead tied her long black hair up high with a silver ring. At this moment, she looked heroic and at least ten years younger than her actual age .
Seeing Concubine Yu handing the sword to Princess Yongping, the emperor came forward. Hearing the praise, the happy emperor pulled her over and said with a smile, "Of course, I remember my father's teachings and practice martial arts and fitness every day. Otherwise, how could I live longer than those old guys?"
Princess Yongping stared in amazement as her father led her mother directly to a side hall at the back. When she looked in the direction, she saw that it was a bathhouse in Yonghe Palace. She couldn't help but feel a little flushed.
Although she knew from the time she was old enough to understand that her mother was the emperor's favorite concubine, and because of this, she was very jealous of the empress, but in her impression , her father didn't seem to stay in Yonghe Palace very often. And because she was raised in Yonghe Palace since she was a child, even if her father stayed, he would often make her fall asleep first. So she didn't see many scenes of real intimacy between her parents.
At this moment, seeing the emperor pulling Concubine Yu away as if no one was around, her usually cold mother did not resist, but followed the emperor's temper without saying a word. She only felt a little sore in her eyes and an indescribable complex emotion in her heart.
Just at this moment, she heard Liu Feng's voice behind her: "Oh, now I can finally explain to the Queen Mother. For several days, the Emperor stayed in the Palace of Heavenly Purity except for attending court and leaving the palace. It's all thanks to you, Princess, for urging the Emperor and Concubine Yu to practice swordplay, otherwise the Emperor might have just sat and talked and gone back."
Princess Yongping couldn't help but smile bitterly. It seemed a bit forced to give her credit for this achievement, didn't it? It should be said that her parents were originally very compatible, otherwise her father wouldn't have shown such a sincere smile from the bottom of his heart just now, and her mother wouldn't have shown her true ability that she had never shown in front of her. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
"If I could become a pair of mandarin ducks, why would I refuse death? I would rather be a mandarin duck than be immortal. Mandarin ducks are really enviable, they come and go in pairs, don't you see?"
After reciting these four sentences, she walked towards her bedroom without looking back.
When she left, Liu Feng could not help but touch his eyebrows in boredom, but then he suddenly realized something. Last year, the emperor personally selected a son-in-law, and Princess Deyang and the other two princesses had already been betrothed, but Princess Yongping still had no one. Now that Zhu Ying was about to marry Zhang Shou, Princess Yongping, who always liked to compete with Zhu Ying in everything, must be very lonely, right?
And seeing the tacit understanding between the emperor and his concubine just now, Princess Yongping must have been stimulated again.
Thinking of this, Liu Feng muttered to himself, "It seems that I have to tell the emperor later. Even if she says it toughly, Princess Yongping actually longs to live with her lover... Wait, oh no, this is bad!"
When Liu Feng woke up from his dream and yelled "Oh no", the emperor and Concubine Yu had already entered the bathhouse. Seeing the empty bathtub, which was so clean and tidy that not even a drop of water could be seen, they both immediately became embarrassed.
The emperor came here on a whim, and Concubine Yu had already prepared to go to bed, but suddenly decided to fight. Now both of them are sweating profusely, but the problem is that hot water is not like fighting, it doesn't heat up so quickly!
Just when Concubine Yu was so embarrassed that she couldn't help shaking off the emperor's hand and turning away, she heard a slight sound and suddenly heard the sound of water flowing from the four sides of the big bath. The water flow was relatively small at first, but gradually it became a little bigger. Obviously, some clever person realized that there was no water in the bath and hurriedly went to boil water.
But even so, the embarrassment just now could not be resolved so quickly, the emperor could only make small talk and told the story of the food tasting at Xinglong Tea House today. But for some reason, he did not focus on Zhang Shou, Liu Zhiyuan and Lu Wan, but on the interesting guy Song Juren.
Sure enough, I had heard a long time ago that when my daughter went to be a judge in the Imperial Chef Selection Competition for the first time, she was overwhelmed by a scholar and finally left in tears. It seems that Concubine Yu was indeed very interested in Scholar Song.
She couldn't help but smile as she listened to the emperor telling her in a very gossipy tone how Mr. Song had been arguing with other chefs in the kitchen, making them so angry that they were howling, and then after the porridge was served, he was so speechless that he made the emperor very angry.
She was already quite emotional tonight, and this smile made her look even more charming and moving : "Mingyue has always been very picky. She used to see those talented people at the Yuehua Tower literary gatherings. Among them, there were not only those who later passed the imperial examinations, but also those who were among the top three most famous people in the world. Logically speaking, she would not lose her composure even if she met a very talented person. For example, she treated Yingying's ideal husband Zhang Shou as an ordinary person."
The emperor couldn't help but feel a little annoyed by what Concubine Yu said: "That's right, I used to think Yingying had high standards, but now look... Mingyue's standards are many times higher than Yingying's! I asked her to host the literary gathering in Yuehua Tower so that she could choose her own son-in-law, but she just picked out talents for me!"
"That's because Yingying is always confident, so when she sees someone she likes, she will move forward courageously. But Mingyue...even if she meets the right person in the right place, she may not be willing to do anything for such a perfect husband. In the final analysis..." Concubine Yu paused, her voice lowered, "In the final analysis, she has no sense of security."
The emperor did not ask the princess such a foolish question as why she felt insecure. Instead, he fell silent.
After a long while, the Supreme Emperor finally sighed and said, "In the final analysis, these are all mistakes I made when I was young and frivolous. But now that I have made up my mind to do those things before, Mingyue doesn't have to be so tense anymore. You don't have a son, so I will leave a decree in the future. After a hundred years, I will let her take you out of the palace, and you don't have to stay in this palace anymore..."
Before he could finish his words, the emperor received a sharp glare. Seeing Concubine Yu glaring at him fiercely, he was about to explain, but he only heard Concubine Yu say indifferently: "Since Your Majesty said that practicing martial arts will strengthen your body, why are you rashly talking about a hundred years later ? I am not interested in the future. I care about the present."
"Just like when you wanted Yongping to help manage palace affairs before, she resolutely refused. I know that Your Majesty, you have good intentions in saying that you will not establish a queen, but you should also know that although I have been content with having a daughter since I was a child, I have never thought about becoming a concubine in the future."
The emperor's face turned pale immediately. He knew that Concubine Yu never liked to tell lies, so this was undoubtedly telling him that she had no intention of having any more children, nor of becoming the empress, and she didn't even care who would be the crown prince in the future or who would be handed over to the empire.
Seeing that the bathing pool was already half full of water in a blink of an eye, he suddenly undressed without saying a word, walked straight to the edge of the pool, kicked off his shoes, and jumped in. Seeing this scene, Concubine Yu behind him originally had a flash of eyes and wanted to say something, but then she heard the emperor's exclamation.
She was startled and rushed forward, but she didn't even bother to take off her clothes and jumped into the water to save people. At that moment, she heard the emperor scolding: "Liu Feng, you idiot, are you going to freeze people to death?"
Concubine Yu, who had already entered the water, was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. In this autumn weather, the water was indeed... very cold! Especially at the moment when her clothes were soaked and stuck to her body, she felt even colder. However, when she saw that the water flowing out of the water outlet with phoenix heads carved on all four sides was already misty, it was clear that the water that was injected later was hot water, and she laughed.
"You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry. How can the water boil so quickly... A-choo!"
Hearing Concubine Yu's sneeze, the emperor turned around in a hurry. Seeing Concubine Yu's condition at this moment, he, who had been abstaining from sex for many days, suddenly felt a buzz in his head, and the spark that had been well hidden in his eyes was instantly aroused.
Liu Feng, who was guarding outside the bathhouse, pricked up his ears to listen to the noise inside. After hearing the shouting, there was no sound of cursing, but the sound of splashing water followed. He could not help but wipe the sweat from his forehead, secretly sighing that the work in front of the emperor was really not easy.
It doesn't matter if it's cold water or warm water, but it can't be empty. If the big bath is always empty, the emperor and his concubine will let him go, and the empress dowager will not let him go! At the moment, the urgently boiled water is constantly being poured into the bath, so it shouldn't get cold. Of course, he still has to tell those guys to prevent them from adding too much hot water in a panic, which would burn people to death!
After a refreshing bath, the emperor and Concubine Yu finally sat down on the wide floor in front of the big bed in the bedroom with their knees hugged, just as they had done in the past.
At this moment, all the people including Liu Feng were sent away. The emperor then told him what Zhu Ying had said to him in the Qianqing Palace in the evening - there was no doubt that it was Zhang Shou who asked Zhu Ying to report it to him. When he told Concubine Yu about it, his face was full of emotion and sighs.
"Zhang Shou is really lucky to have met the current emperor. If it had been fifteen or twenty years earlier, I would have applauded his wonderful ideas and given him a high position, even at the cost of fighting with those old men in the court."
At this point, the emperor paused, and then said lightly: "Of course, he will be strangled to death in the bird's nest by a bunch of people, just like the young men who died in the Ye Wang Rebellion."
After so many years, the emperor was able to mention the turmoil as if nothing had happened, and Concubine Yu was able to remain calm when hearing about the turmoil that almost changed her life.
Moreover, the person they were talking about at this time was Zhang Shou, who was born on the same day as her and Jiu Niang's daughter and was also the son of their savior. Naturally, she did not want to remain silent, let alone be able to do so.
"I don't know how Zhang Shou grew up in the countryside, and I don't know how he could have the knowledge he has today. But I know that Your Majesty has always been upset about not being able to protect the young people you valued back then. In this case, why don't you trust Zhang Shou a little more? You know, he has never let you down."
"You are right." The emperor laughed and said calmly, "If he had other ideas, he would not have let Yingying tell me that I could register these sea escorts under the name of the Ministry of War and place civil and military officials I trust among them as supervisors... His idea is very clear. He knows that the world is so big, but he is stubbornly confined to the so-called Celestial Empire. Isn't it ridiculous?"
"I am just worried that with such a fast and big step, can the people I have promoted in the court over the years and the foundation they have laid hold on? And among these people, how many are opponents who pretend to obey but secretly disobey? And how many people outside are like the King Ye and King Lu who have been waiting for me to show my flaws, waiting to stab me with that sharp knife?"
"I don't like to look ahead and behind, but what happened in the past forced me to look ahead and behind. For example..."
The emperor leaned back and leaned against the edge of the bed in an unmannerly manner. "For example, I still don't know whether I should ask the headmaster of Yuzhang Academy, Hong, to marry his daughter, Hong, to Dalang. Even if her father doesn't care, I don't want to wait until things get out of hand before I have to clean up the mess. Just like when Dalang got into trouble in Cangzhou."
Yu Fei knew that the emperor was willful and impulsive, but he was frank and direct, which was rare in the royal family, and had a very soft heart. However, such a soft heart had been gradually hardened by the years of his imperial career. But in many cases, as long as he was allowed, the emperor would often behave like an ordinary father and an ordinary husband.
Just as the emperor had ridiculed her before, he was not a qualified emperor. But throughout history, there were many emperors, and the number of incompetent and mediocre emperors far exceeded the number of wise and enlightened emperors. Even those so-called wise and enlightened emperors were often short-lived, and they would become incompetent and mediocre emperors again when they got old.
However, she likes such a living person, not a cold and hard emperor...
Therefore, Concubine Yu smiled and said in a very calm tone: "I heard that Hong came to the capital with her father. Why don't you meet her? If she is really a good girl and is willing to marry the eldest prince, and then persuade him to come back, then they will be together. But if her father is just selfish, then the emperor can find another good marriage for her."
"A forced melon is not sweet. Everything must be done with the consent of both parties. As for Zhang Shou's matter, it's the same. If he is willing, the emperor is willing too. Why should he care about others? Zhang Shou is not a hot-blooded boy. He can protect himself, and Duke Zhao can also protect his son-in-law."
The emperor burst into laughter at Concubine Yu's words. After laughing, he pointed at the woman who was still as frank as before, nodded happily and said, "Okay, I will listen to you. However, now that I have finished worrying about other people's affairs, tell me, is our daughter's attitude towards the Song man really the same as Zhang Shou said to Yingying, purely unwilling and meaningless?"
