Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 628: So Reasonable
What does the existence of ghosts have to do with me... I don't think so!
Zhang Shou was stunned when he heard Zhu Ying talk about Zhang Chen's glorious deeds in the past that had caused chaos in the capital, or in other words, had caused unrest in the capital, and then when she said that the Fourth Prince was bullied by the First and Second Princes in the palace because of the Third Prince (even if the Emperor protected them, there were always places where the Emperor couldn't see). So she suddenly had an idea to raise bees to sting people, an idea that fortunately did not come to fruition.
Both of them are his students. If they cause trouble, it is not necessarily implicated to him as a teacher. After all, they have both parents, and the responsibility of education is not his alone. But as a teacher, he is under a lot of pressure to have two such troublesome students! You know, when Zhang Chen was in Xingtai, he thought of pretending to be the second prince's subordinate to trick the eldest prince, and he put it into practice!
In contrast, Miss Zhu was very good at knowing when to do things. She blocked the gate of the outer court of the Imperial Household Department, but Chu Kuan retreated. Moreover, such an incident would at most offend the entire eunuch group. As for the serious scholars in the court, they would probably just watch the fun happily. The emperor behind the eunuch group would at most call Zhu Ying to scold her!
In fact, because of the news that the lady had locked Zhu Ying in the ancestral hall to reflect on herself, when Zhu Ying later went to see the emperor, the emperor not only scolded her, but even acted as a peacemaker...
Therefore, thinking of the combination of Zhang Chen and the Fourth Prince, Zhang Shou, who had a splitting headache, couldn't help but hold his forehead and groan: "What do these two naughty kids want to do?"
Hearing Zhang Shou directly classify the not-so-young Zhang Chen as a naughty kid, Zhu Ying burst out laughing. Then, she saw with her sharp eyes that the Fourth Prince and Zhang Chen were hooking up, but she did not try to use her brain to clear up Zhang Shou's doubts. Instead, she tilted her head and said, "Speaking of this, because we accidentally rescued Zou Ming that day, the matter of Hailing County Lord and Song Benben was covered up."
Zhang Shou didn't expect Zhu Ying's thoughts to jump so quickly, and he couldn't help but laugh and cry: "Mr. Song had a very pleasant conversation with his future father-in-law. When he came back, he was all smiles, saying that his future father-in-law almost invited him to live at home, but he refused because he was shy. Even if this good story is suppressed by a series of events now, it will definitely cause a heated discussion when the dust settles."
He paused, then smiled and said, "Besides, this matter involves Princess Yongping, so it may not be a bad thing to keep it secret."
Zhu Ying glared at Zhang Shou immediately. "Do you think I want to spread the dispute between Yongping and me? I just thought that even a young man named Song is already married, and Zhang Chen's two younger brothers Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu are waiting for the wedding date, but Zhang Chen's marriage is still unresolved? This guy insisted on having a unique and peerless beauty, disliking this and that, and dragging it on until now!"
"Duke Qin entrusted you with his eldest son's marriage, and it's not just one or two days, but it's been delayed for so long! Zhang Chen is so restless that he wants to make the world chaotic. If there's a powerful woman to take care of him, you don't have to worry about it. As for the fourth prince, it's even simpler. I'll talk to the third prince privately later, and he will definitely keep him under control and not let him leave the palace!"
What else could Zhang Shou say about this idea of cutting off the source of the trouble? As Zhu Ying said, as long as the fourth prince could be locked up in the palace for a month or two, Zhang Chen would probably not be in the capital by then, so there was no need to worry about what the two naughty kids would do when they met. Even if Zhang Chen came back, there was no need to worry. If a man had a powerful wife who could control him, it would be a miracle if he could still be so willful!
Therefore, Zhang Shou took a deep breath and promised firmly : "I had thought of letting things take their own course before, but now it seems that I can't delay it any longer. I have to find a bridle for this fierce horse!"
However, even so, Zhang Shou could only rely on Zhu Ying for specific matters. Otherwise, as a grown man, how could he ride a horse around to look for girls? In that case, it would most likely lead to others watching him! We can't let Ah Liu climb walls and sneak into every household, right? That's not matchmaking, that's peeping Tom!
This time, Zhu Ying really came up with a great idea: "Didn't the emperor plan to choose concubines for the first and second princes, and planned to choose from the fifth rank and below? I will go to the Chief of the Imperial Household Department, Chu Kuan, and ask for the list. Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu hope to get a noble wife so that they can be proud of themselves, but Zhang Chen doesn't care about background. As long as the woman is beautiful and has a unique personality, he won't dislike her."
"People who have been selected by the Imperial Household Department have good family backgrounds at least." Zhang Shou didn't say Zhu Ying was fanciful, but he couldn't help but joked, "But Yingying, you just blocked someone's door last time, and this time you went to their house to ask for the list. How can you be so tolerant?"
"What's the problem? Last time, I blocked his door and went to settle accounts with him because he was plotting against you. I didn't smash the inner court of the Imperial Household Department, and I even took good care of the piles of important documents in it. Chu Kuan still has to thank me! Besides, if you and I hadn't rescued Zou Ming this time, there would be one more life in this strange case of the Imperial Household Department. Wouldn't he still have to thank me? Just for this, a list is nothing!"
"The Third and Fourth Princes are still young anyway. No matter how good the unmarried girls on that list are, their ages are not suitable for them. Of course, if the Emperor asked the Imperial Household Department to select them and leave them to them, Chu Kuan would not give them to me! Since we spent so much effort to select them, it would be a pity to just leave them alone. Wouldn't it be better to let a good family like the Duke of Qin's Mansion propose to marry them?"
This is really reasonable... But Missy is always reasonable...
Zhang Shou once again witnessed Zhu Ying's self-righteousness, and he even felt that even if Zhu Ying brought these words to the emperor, the maverick emperor's eyes would probably light up and he would applaud and praise this idea.
And if it were true that there was no such thing as the emperor arranging marriages for his subjects according to his own wishes in those days, the emperor would probably have been very enthusiastic about matchmaking!
So, he could only cough and say, "Then Yingying, you can give it a try. But you must not take a list to the Duke Qin's mansion..."
"Pooh, pooh! If I take it, Zhang Chen might have the guts to sneak over and look at each one according to the list. That would be terrible! I won't give it to him... Even you, don't even think about peeking at it!" Zhu Ying saw that Zhang Shou was almost choked to death by her, so she laughed and said mischievously, "I'm not afraid that you'll like someone else. I'm only afraid that someone will see you as handsome and elegant and then have evil intentions!"
"I'll take care of this kind of thing. Don't worry about it. It's better to find an opportunity to trick those two naughty kids and see if you can get any information out of them!"
After hearing Zhu Ying say this, she smiled and said goodbye to him, and then turned back directly. However, it seemed that she did not go back to Wenhua Palace, but went to the Silijian in the north to confront Chu Kuan. Zhang Shou could not help but smile, and then turned around and continued to leave the palace.
Ah Liu, who was waiting at Donghuamen, saw many officials filing out, some in groups of three or five, talking among themselves, some walking alone, shaking their heads and sighing, and some even talking loudly while glancing at him from time to time. However, under the countless gazes, whether overt or covert, he always kept a calm face. Until the crowd dispersed, he saw Zhang Shou walking leisurely with his hands folded.
Outside of the long green official robe with wide sleeves was a snow-white fox fur cloak presented by the Duke of Zhao's Mansion. From where he was standing, he could see Zhang Shou walking very leisurely, neither fast nor slow, as if he had just come out of a stroll in the palace.
He walked up to her quickly and asked directly, "Why don't you see the young lady?"
"Just remember Yingying!" Zhang Shou couldn't help but reach out and flicked Ah Liu's forehead, but he didn't dodge. He couldn't help but feel bored. When he saw Yang Hao and Zheng Dang standing next to the carriage not far away, trying to look straight ahead, he couldn't help but say, "Are you really going to keep them as your followers? Didn't you work as a doorman before?"
"They're not smart enough."
Seeing Zhang Shou was immediately amused, Ah Liu said seriously, "The eldest lady said that the concierge needs to have sufficient knowledge and experience to receive guests and see them off, and the lame Anlu said that they both need to practice for ten or eight years before they can be competent. But the madman has honed their martial arts, so it is enough for them to be followers."
Well... Zhang Shou didn't have the time to arrange all these household affairs one by one - Zhu Ying, who had been influenced by the Duke of Zhao's Mansion since childhood, Hua Qi, who mingled between the imperial palace and the Duke of Zhao's Mansion, and Anlu, who had been in the market for many years and could be described by Ah Liu as being untainted by the mud, these three people were at least better at dealing with people than he was in these days.
However, when he got on the carriage and found that Ah Liu was still driving the car, he couldn't help but ask, "I remember that the Duke Zhao's Mansion sent a driver before and used him for a long time. Why are you driving the car yourself recently?"
"Am I not a good driver?" Ah Liu, who was sitting in the driver's seat outside, asked sullenly. He realized that Zhang Shou didn't say anything, as if he was choking. Then he continued to mutter, "I don't like sitting in the carriage. Riding a horse outside, Master, it's not convenient for you to tell me anything. It's cold, and we can't keep the curtains closed all the time!"
Zhang Shou couldn't even complain about such a reason. He could only sigh in his heart that no powerful people in the capital had such an all-round bodyguard, but he had one. If he still said that the emperor did not take good care of him, it would be totally unacceptable.
He could hear the cold wind whistling outside. He sat in the carriage with a hand warmer in his pocket. Although he couldn't feel warm at all, he didn't feel cold at least. As the carriage moved forward, he thought about the scenes in today's lecture. He couldn't help but ask the questions that he hadn't asked during the days of recuperation.
"Ah Liu, it was fine that you beat up the Fourth Prince Zheng Yan that day, but you were really ruthless when you beat me!"
"You told me to beat him up, young master." Ah Liu muttered in a low voice, as if he was aggrieved. "I wanted to stop when the Fourth Prince tried to stop me. Who told you to ask Yang Hao and Zheng Dang to drag him away?"
This really became my fault! Zhang Shou couldn't help but feel bitter, but he had to take the initiative to find the reason for Ah Liu: "Isn't it because you know Yuquan is proficient in martial arts and medicine, and pretending to fight will be exposed?"
"Can you pretend to hit someone?"
If he had been choked once before, then Zhang Shou was choked for real this time! It turned out that in Ah Liu's simple understanding, beating someone must be real, and it is absolutely impossible to pretend!
He took a deep breath and decided to popularize the so-called acting from all angles... or the key to acting. Who knows, maybe something like this will happen again in the future? But after he said a lot, he got a speechless answer: "The rest of the madman's words are crazy, I'm too lazy to listen, but he said one thing that I think is very right."
"If you can avoid fighting, don't do it. Once you do it, you will be ruthless... It's better not to fight than to pretend."
This really makes sense... No way! Zhang Shou was furious when he heard this, but then Ah Liu's voice came from outside: "Master, if you are angry, I will beat you back twice as much as I did!"
Zhang Shou's heart skipped a beat. He was really afraid that Ah Liu would get too hung up on this, so he quickly stopped him and said, "What do you mean by double the amount? Stop talking nonsense! I'm counting on you to save my life in an emergency, so don't do anything rash! Your body and hair are given to you by your parents... What I mean is that you should cherish yourself and don't take yourself lightly, understand?"
Ah Liu, who was waving his whip outside, was startled for a moment, and then a faint smile appeared on his lips. Yang Hao and Zheng Dang, who were riding horses beside him, saw his smile and shivered in fear at the same time, and their horses almost collided with each other.
Can Ah Liu, who never smiles in the village and is even more ferocious and strict in the capital, scarier than a ghost, smile?
Although the ceremony of enthroning the Crown Prince is tomorrow, the students of Jiuzhang Hall are not qualified to participate at all. However, their teacher Zhang Shou is also the teacher of the Third Prince, and many of them have been classmates of the Third Prince. In the future, they will take turns to study in the Eastern Palace according to their grades.
Therefore, on this day, most of them who lived in Xiao's house received the most important gift in their lives. A set of brand new clothes that fit their body size. It was a jade-colored Hangzhou silk, a Confucian shirt with wide sleeves and black edges, plus a black ribbon soft scarf hanging belt for the head.
Along with the outfit, they also received an order - the prince will be enthroned tomorrow and will be given a ceremony at Ciqing Palace, and the attendants will go to Ciqing Palace to perform the ceremony. Although they did not have the opportunity to watch the ceremony at Fengtian Palace, this was already an extremely unusual opportunity. For a moment, countless students from humble backgrounds burst into tears of joy.
When Zhang Shou returned to Zhang Garden, he saw Wu tidying up his court dress. Although he rarely attended court, the four major outfits of court dress, sacrificial dress, official dress, and daily dress, which were so-called civil servants, were indispensable. Especially since he had to attend court meetings most of the time, such as the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, the first day of the lunar month, the birthday of the emperor, and the winter solstice, so he wore court dress quite often.
But at this moment, he suddenly discovered that his court dress seemed to be brand new!
He was just wondering when Wu came forward and said with a smile, "This is the new court dress that has just been delivered. Ah Shou, you have changed three sets of court dresses in the past year!"
