Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 680: Comfort
In the Zhaoren Hall, Zhu Ying sat on a chair with her chin in her hand, staring at the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince in front of her.
The two little ones had learned before that Lady Dowager Zhao and Madam Zhao had entered the palace one after another, and that they had brought an outsider with them. The Fourth Prince was eager to go and see what was going on, but was held back by the Third Prince. It was not until the Emperor called them brothers to have dinner together that the Fourth Prince could not help but inquire about the matter, but was evaded by the Emperor with a lighthearted answer.
But now, the Madam and Jiu Niang had left. He and his third brother had just finished dinner with their father, and Zhu Ying came with several more people! Four in total. The naughty boy had never seen four people come to the Qianqing Palace at night, and had never even heard of it! Moreover, these people did not look like officials, but small people at first glance.
Don't ask him how he knew that he was a nobody. The naughty kid is no longer the one who knew nothing after living in the deep palace for a long time. He has seen more people and seen more things, so of course he has a little bit of vision - after all, he can tell from the clothes of these people!
However, although he was very curious, the Fourth Prince was driven out of the Qianqing Palace by the Emperor along with his Third Brother, and was also given an unyielding guard, Sister Yingying, whom he could never deal with. He had just said all the nice things, but Zhu Ying remained unmoved. Facing the tight-lipped scene, he was really angry.
"Sister Yingying, Third Brother is the Crown Prince. Even if something big happens, do we have to hide it from him, the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace?"
Although the Third Prince also wanted to know what was going on, the Fourth Prince had tried every possible means and finally pulled up a tiger skin as a banner in front of him. He still had to scold him with a stern face: "Fourth brother, be careful with your words! Even if I am the crown prince, I don't have to tell me everything. Father has his own decision, how can you question his arrangement?"
The fourth prince was still unconvinced and wanted to speak, but his third brother glared at him and he could only shut up. Zhu Ying, who had just been looking at him with a leisurely smile, yawned.
"Okay, don't ask me what happened! Mother just called my second brother and me over before entering the palace and gave us a few instructions. I just accompanied Eunuch Chen to the outer city. I don't know much more than you do."
Seeing that the Fourth Prince was full of disbelief and the Third Prince remained silent, Zhu Ying said lazily, "Of course, at least I know one more unexpected news than you. But the Emperor will definitely tell you in a while, so you two little guys should not be anxious, and don't even think about taking advantage of me. Without the Emperor's order, I won't say anything."
Although she wanted to share the great news that the second prince had died, she still understood the seriousness of the matter! Even if it was Zhang Shou in front of her, she would hold back for the time being and wait for the emperor to express his opinion before she would speak. Not to mention the two brothers, what good would it be to tell them earlier? Maybe the emperor would want to see their true reactions after hearing the news?
She didn't know which person was thinking of making a fortune from such a rare commodity... Of course, there were other possibilities, but she felt that apart from the possibility that the person was really dead, the possibility that someone had kidnapped the second prince and was planning to do something bad was greater.
Seeing the Fourth Prince angrily run to the side and sit down, the Third Prince wanted to urge him to go to bed on the pretext that he had guests tomorrow, but thinking that he would not feel sleepy until he figured out what was going on, he thought about it and changed the subject, talking to Zhu Ying about Zhang Shou's class today. This time, Zhu Ying finally perked up.
Originally they were just making small talk, but as they talked they became more and more interested. Zhu Ying, in particular, had a better memory than the Fourth Prince and told the story very vividly.
Therefore, the Fourth Prince, who had been sulking at the side, could not help but come up and interrupt. For a while, the adult and two children were chattering about Zhang Shou's stories.
As for the matter in the Qianqing Palace, they had forgotten about it until a voice came from outside: "Your Highness the Crown Prince, the Fourth Prince, and Miss Zhu, the Emperor has summoned you."
The fourth prince was the first to jump up as if awakened from a dream, and turned around and tried to run out, but was stopped by the quick-witted Zhu Ying. He was about to protest when Zhu Ying snapped his finger on his head: "It's so cold at night, you're going out to freeze like this, are you crazy? Someone, bring the coat and cloak! Children should be obedient, put them on quickly!"
Although he muttered that he was afraid of nothing when they were so close, the Fourth Prince still did not dare to disobey the Demon Queen, and obediently wrapped himself in the coat brought by the palace servants, while the Third Prince also hurriedly dressed. But when they went out, the Fourth Prince walked too fast, stepped on empty air, and fell forward involuntarily. As a result, Zhu Ying caught him with a hand, saving the little guy from the embarrassment of falling on his face.
Zhu Ying, who was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, simply held the hands of the Fourth Prince, and then took the hands of the Third Prince, and then said unhappily: "Be careful with your steps when it gets dark, don't be reckless! Okay, follow me and walk slowly."
Although the Fourth Prince was proud of being an adult, he could not break free from Zhu Ying and could only follow her helplessly. The Third Prince looked at the others who followed him and saw that everyone pretended not to see anything. He could not help but look up at Zhu Ying again and saw that she was glaring at her fourth brother. No matter how he looked at her, she looked like a child who had not grown up.
But this seemingly immature sister Yingying said that the Fourth Prince was reckless...
Zhu Ying didn't know that the Third Prince was criticizing her. She only knew that if she sent the two brothers to the Palace of Heavenly Purity to accompany the Emperor, she could go back. After probably having lost a son, the Emperor needed the Third and Fourth Princes more than her.
Sure enough, when she brought the two brothers into the Qianqing Palace, she saw that the people she had brought were gone. The huge place seemed empty. Only the emperor was sitting alone on the throne. In the dim light, she couldn't see the expression on the emperor's face, but she felt a sense of loneliness coming over her.
She instinctively let go, and the naughty child beside her immediately let go and ran to the emperor, pouring out all the words that had been suppressed in his heart: "Father, what is going on? Why are there so many people coming to the palace at night? If there is really something, my third brother, the crown prince, and I are already grown up, and we are willing to help you solve your problems!"
Seeing that the Fourth Prince had brought him in as soon as he opened his mouth, the Third Prince felt helpless and could only take a few quick steps forward, then bowed and asked, "Father, although I am not very knowledgeable, if you have any instructions , I will do my best."
"I don't have anything for you to do."
When the emperor said this, after asking questions one by one, his increasingly heavy mood finally eased a little. He glanced at the fourth prince who was holding his hand and refused to let go, then looked down at the polite third prince under the throne, and when he saw Zhu Ying quietly preparing to leave, he coughed.
"Yingying, I didn't let you leave."
Zhu Ying, who was about to slip away, stopped immediately. She smiled helplessly and said, "Your Majesty, it's so late now. It's enough to have the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince accompany you. I have to go back quickly, otherwise my grandmother and mother will be worried! I don't know when my father will go back. When he finds that only my second brother is left, will he think something has happened?"
"Your grandmother and mother went home early, so they might have already arrived home. As for your father, he was cleaning up old files and personnel in the Ministry of War. Anyway, he was busy cleaning up all kinds of things, so it was common for him to stay out all night. You don't need to worry about him. Even if he went back, your second brother is tough. Are you still afraid that he will be beaten?"
The emperor directly teased Zhu Er for a few words, and then said lightly: "Your second brother was not good at literature or martial arts in the past, but he was also a well-known playboy in the capital. He was far inferior to your eldest brother. He even almost arranged your marriage. But after all, he has a good nature, so with the guidance of your ideal husband, he finally took the right path."
"Unlike my Erlang, who is self-righteous, arrogant, deceiving superiors and subordinates, acting recklessly, only knowing how to cause trouble, and never knowing how to correct his mistakes. Now he has ended up with a fate that is uncertain whether he will live or die!"
When the fourth prince heard the words "unknown whether he is alive or dead", the third prince suddenly came to his senses. He looked up in shock and asked instinctively: "Father, why is my second brother's life or death unknown? Didn't he take a boat to Qiongzhou? Could it be that the boat is on the sea..."
Seeing that the Third Prince stopped talking at this point and showed a look of panic on his face, the Emperor smiled and said, "The ship must have had an accident at sea. A boat owned by the Guangdong Song family happened to rescue a boatman at sea. The boatman said that the ship had sunk, and after they cast their nets and fished out a few things, they dared not neglect it and quickly tried to find a way to return and report the news."
"I have just asked the surviving boatman in person. He said that the boat suddenly sank at night, the main sail was on fire, and the bottom cabin was flooded. At that time, everything was in chaos. He was an inconspicuous little sailor. On the way, he ran into a servant of Erlang and picked up a badge. Later, he didn't care about so much. He just put his things in his pocket and jumped into the sea in a panic."
"After jumping into the sea, he tried to swim to the shore, relying on his good swimming ability, but it was in vain. Fortunately, he was extremely lucky. Even though he was frozen and fell asleep halfway, he was able to drift down the river. He happened to meet the Guangdong Song family's boat in broad daylight. Fortunately, there was a doctor on the boat and enough medicine, so he was able to save his life."
"He admitted that the Guangdong Song family's efforts to salvage and rescue people in the surrounding waters were in vain, because he himself did not know how long he had been drifting with the current. The things that the Song family salvaged were probably all the things he brought out, and a lot of them were lost in the sea."
At this point, the emperor ignored the dumbfounded expressions of the third and fourth princes. Seeing Zhu Ying frowning and pondering, he continued, "Erlang was suddenly driven out of the capital by me. He had time to pack up a lot of valuables and rewarded them on the ship to win people's hearts. Even the embroidered ribbon and the messy tassels were given by him to the sailor!"
"If he had been so generous earlier, he wouldn't have let his own prince's villa be in such a mess!"
The Third Prince finally sorted out the general context. He took a deep breath and asked, "Father, what you mean is that we cannot be sure whether the ship sank or not, and if it did, where it happened, right?"
"That's right."
The emperor nodded approvingly to his prince, then sighed helplessly: "The little sailor said that he was frightened and was the first to jump into the water. He completely forgot that this was the sea and not a river. It was also very cold. Before the ship sank, he swam very far away, so he was not dragged into the whirlpool by the noise of the shipwreck."
"After being rescued, he didn't know how long he had been drifting in the sea, because he was so scared at first that he forgot the days, and then he fell asleep in the middle. Because it was night, he didn't know where the ship sank, so he had to tell the people on the Song's ship that the ship had sunk not long ago and was nearby. After others salvaged some things, he found that they were from his body, but he didn't dare to tell anyone."
"If I hadn't met them one by one before, he wouldn't have told the truth. After I threatened him with two sentences and he told me the truth, he kept kowtowing and said that he still had parents at home and he only hoped that I would spare his parents when I chopped off his head. This was only his second time going out to sea and he didn't know the stars, so he couldn't calculate the distance."
"He only knew that after setting sail from Tianjin, the wind was not strong and the ship was not moving fast. He heard from the old sailors on the ship that they could speed up after passing Shandong. But in fact, three days after setting sail, the sails caught fire and all four bottom holds were flooded."
Seeing that his father remembered every word of a little sailor, the third prince felt uncomfortable. He knew very well that, after all, his father was not a heartless emperor.
Although he and the Second Prince had no feelings for each other at all, and this royal brother was not even as important to him as a finger of the Fourth Prince, when he thought of his father's mood at that moment, and saw that one of his father's hands was tightly holding the Fourth Prince's hand from beginning to end, he could not help but walk forward and gently held his father's other hand.
"Father, maybe things are not that bad... Maybe my second brother was rescued like that sailor?"
That idiot ca n't swim! Zhu Ying complained in her heart, but she would not do such a stupid thing as stabbing the emperor in the heart. Although she would not go forward to shake hands and comfort him like the two little guys, she thought that it would be better to let people think about the problem calmly instead of letting the emperor continue to be sad because of the father-son relationship.
"Your Majesty, I've heard from my father and elder brother that sea routes are always risky, and most of the time you have to look at the wind direction, but even so it's better than relying on just one canal. That's why Taizu used both sea and canal in his early years, but sea transport is usually done by fleets. Although the Second Prince was demoted to Qiongzhou Prefecture as a punishment, why was there only one ship when he left Tianjin?"
Seeing the emperor was slightly stunned, she continued, "And the most important thing is, if we really send people to investigate carefully, then let alone ten days and a half months, maybe a year and a half, or even three to five years, we won't be able to determine whether the second prince is alive or dead. And with this little time, there might be a bunch of people in the folk who would cheat people under the banner of the second prince, or even occupy the mountain and become kings."
