Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 702: An Accidental Success
After the Guanglu Temple was purged, a large number of officials were removed, and the imperial kitchen was cleaned up, a group of imperial chefs were selected to serve in the palace, and the emperor also adjusted the original small kitchens in each palace. Originally, because the Guanglu Temple adhered to the so-called old system, except for the two cooks in the Qingning Palace who were real cooks invited from outside the palace, the rest were served by eunuchs and palace maids.
After the reform, four imperial chefs took turns to serve in the Qianqing Palace every day, and the concubines in other palaces also benefited from it. They could all order dishes according to the menu, and the Qianqing Palace's small kitchen would send people to deliver them. In addition, because the prince was studying in the Ciqing Palace, the emperor directly assigned two imperial chefs to come, and even adopted a recipe that was said to help the prince grow taller and stronger at the suggestion of Zhu Ying.
Although Zhu Ying confidently told the emperor that this was what his elder brother Zhu Tingfang had used in the past, and that his strong physique today was all thanks to this, he was actually selling Zhang Shou's recipe under the banner of his elder brother... It was obvious that the goat's milk, buffalo milk, and various fresh vegetables and high-protein foods were all specially added by Zhang Shou.
The Third Prince used to be not picky about food and never wasted anything, but today, even though the food in the food box was a combination of meat and vegetables, and was delicious, he couldn't eat a single bit. Not only him, but also the Eastern Palace tutors who used to think that the food in Ciqing Palace was good and always devoured it all, also lost their appetite for the delicious food.
Zhu Tingfang was assassinated by the eldest prince's guard. Will this incident cause a huge disturbance? Will it affect the usually quiet and peaceful Ciqing Palace?
When everyone saw Zhang Shou put down the food box, slowly wiped his mouth and hands with a handkerchief, and then stood up and walked out, some people couldn't help but want to speak. But the one who got ahead of them was the always steady Third Prince: "Teacher, can I go and visit Master Zhu in person?"
Zhang Shou turned around in astonishment, and seeing the Third Prince trying his best to look at him openly, he smiled and said, "I have heard of a custom in a certain dynasty before, which states that the emperor rarely leaves the palace, and even less likely visits the residences of his subjects. Even when a subject is sick, the emperor only sends medicine, not visits him in person. Once the emperor personally visits a patient, it means that the subject is not sick enough to die..."
"But I had no choice but to die."
Seeing the Third Prince was shocked and the others looked at each other in bewilderment, Zhang Shou said calmly, "Of course this is just a legend. Since Eunuch Chu has said that Young Master Zhu has turned danger into safety, then there is probably no damage. Even if there is, it is definitely not serious. If Your Highness the Crown Prince goes to visit him in person, it will only lead to rumors. Maybe someone will curse him to death."
"What's more, before the truth is revealed, the matter involves the guards around the eldest prince, which is easy to arouse speculation. Now that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has gone, the speculation is even more endless. I know that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince not only cares about the eldest son Zhu, but also worries about the fourth prince. After all, the fourth prince is in the outer city. But do you know how many soldiers of the South City Military Department are stationed near the Outer City Public School?"
"Besides, do you know how many Lu family guards live directly in the public school? Do you know how many imperial attendants are patrolling nearby, openly or secretly? Even if that place is not as solid as a rock, it is not much worse."
"The Fourth Prince told me before that he wanted to use himself as bait to lure out some people with ulterior motives. I laughed at him and said that he was overthinking. How stupid must a person be to throw himself into a flame at a time like this? Although I still underestimated the stupidity of some people, after the assassination of Young Master Zhu, there was probably no suspicious person within fifty steps of the Fourth Prince who could get close."
"So, Your Highness, just relax and continue with your studies. The same goes for the others. This is not something you should be concerned about. Just focus on your studies. Even I will not go to visit Master Zhu if I leave the palace now."
At this point, Zhang Shou smiled and said, "Look, I'm not afraid of people saying I don't care about my future brother-in-law's life or death, so what else do you have to worry about? He was able to return victoriously after everyone in the capital said he had died in battle or was missing, so how could he be in trouble this time when facing a jumping clown?"
Chu Kuan saw Zhang Shou calmly bow and then walk away, leaving the whole classroom with different expressions. He secretly sighed that the emperor did not choose the wrong teacher. There were some things that only Zhang Shou dared to say, but he kept silent and quietly prepared to take away the food that the third prince had not touched and let someone redo it. But just as his hand touched the soup bowl, he was stopped by the third prince.
"Eunuch Chu, please help me and everyone else to take the food and soup away and heat them up, and thank the kitchen for their hard work." The third prince nodded to Chu Kuan apologetically, and then said to the group of tutors, "Every grain of rice on the plate is the result of hard work. Even if everyone finishes lunch a little later today, it should not be wasted."
Zhang Shou was very sure that after the initial worry, the Third Prince would be able to recover quickly. And he himself was not as worried about Zhu Tingfang's safety as he said.
After all, he was Zhu Ying's closest elder brother, and the wedding date had been set long ago. He was the groom who was going to get married in five days. If something went wrong, it would be a big trouble. After all, he and Zhu Ying's wedding date was right behind, less than half a month away.
So, when the carriage arrived at the public school, he asked Ah Liu to find out where Zhu Tingfang was and then go to visit him on his behalf. He himself would not go, but Ah Liu would go. Isn't this normal? Of course, he also assigned Ah Liu a task that was quite difficult for a teenager.
That is to prepare a suitable gift when visiting someone! Of course, in order to prevent Ah Liu from using the same trick to find Zhu Ying again, he asked a question when he left the palace and confirmed that Zhu Ying was summoned to Qingning Palace to accompany the Queen Mother early this morning!
Ah Liu was of course well aware of Zhang Shou's evil intentions, which he often did not conceal. However, he knew that Zhang Shou did it for his own good. It was not only to train his interpersonal and independent abilities, but also to enable him to accumulate some common sense.
The problem was that he, who called himself a butler, was not interested in things that required a lot of maneuvering, and today Zhang Shou asked about Zhu Ying's whereabouts in front of him, so he had no way to ask the eldest lady for help. After thinking about it, he went straight to the South City Military Department as soon as he left the public school. As a result, he asked at the door and found out that Zhu Tingfang should be in the Duke of Zhao's mansion at this time.
The concierge was a very talkative person who could answer any question he asked. He not only told Ah Liu the whereabouts of Zhu Tingfang, but also gave him a bunch of details about the so-called assassination.
"Hey, Sixth Master, you don't know. People outside are saying that our master and Zhang Dayin of Shuntian Prefecture agreed to relax on the outside but be tight on the inside. He said he went back to sleep in the middle of the night, but in fact he sent out elite soldiers to follow the clues and find out the whereabouts of the book boy beside the second prince by dawn."
"Then Lord Zhu quietly dispatched troops to capture him before dawn, and they captured him in one fell swoop and sent him to the West City Military Department for interrogation. Who would have thought that when Lord Zhu left Zhaoguo Mansion in the morning and rushed to the West City Military Department, he would encounter someone who was trying to stab him with a crossbow. Yes, it was the man named Shi who was beside the eldest prince."
"If Lord Zhu had not made preparations in advance and had ambushed people at high points in the inner and outer cities, always keeping an eye on those evildoers, this guy might have really taken advantage of us! You don't know what the situation was like at that time..."
Seeing that the man was getting more and more excited, not only was his saliva flying, but he was also dancing with joy, so Ah Liu took two small steps, then quietly came to his mount, led the horse and ran away. When he was far away from this chatterbox, he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was fortunate that there was no such a noisy guy at home, and Old Liu was much better at observing people's expressions than others.
Isn't it enough to simply say that Zhu Tingfang was well prepared, so the assassin returned empty-handed?
Since he had asked about Zhu Tingfang, who was in the Duke of Zhao's mansion, Ah Liu was sure that he could not ask Zhu Er for help except Zhu Ying. Otherwise, wouldn't it be stupid for him to go to Zhu Er to buy things and then go back? He couldn't help but think of Zhang Chen, Zhang Wu, and Zhang Lu in his mind, but thinking that this time was different from the last mission, he didn't look for them and went straight to a medicine store in the outer city that was famous for selling medicinal materials.
As soon as he entered the door, he didn't wait for the waiter to greet him and ordered directly: "Four-color tonic, for injured patients with severe deficiency of qi and blood. Don't be long-winded, bring out the best, and I will pay the price." If you are injured, the deficiency of qi and blood should be quite serious, right?
The waiter swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue. He could not help but secretly look at Ah Liu again, and suddenly remembered a famous person in the outer city. He hurriedly agreed and ran away. After a while, the shopkeeper who was originally entertaining another distinguished guest came out in person. When he saw the appearance of the young visitor, his face was immediately filled with smiles.
"Oh, it's Master Six who has come to visit? This is truly an honor to our humble inn..."
Before he could finish his flattering words, Ah Liu interrupted him impatiently, "Four-color tonic, I want the best, and don't talk nonsense."
Although he was rudely choked back, the shopkeeper's expression only changed slightly, and then he immediately smiled again: "Okay, Sixth Master, don't worry, I'll have someone prepare it right away... I have a wild ginseng of sufficient age in our store, which is the treasure of our store. Do you want to take a look..."
"I told you, I want the best." Ah Liu repeated impatiently, "It's up to you to decide what's suitable for the injured patient!"
Faced with such an answer that Ah Liu repeatedly emphasized, the shopkeeper finally understood what was going on. He stopped flattering and signaled the clerk next to him to come over and accompany him, while he hurried to the back. However, after sending an older clerk to the warehouse to find those precious supplements, he came to the back and respectfully apologized to the distinguished guest.
"Master Kong Jiu, I'm really sorry. The person outside is the steward Xiaoliu of Master Zhang's family. He must be going to visit Master Zhu on behalf of Master Zhang. As soon as he arrived, he asked for the best tonic. The waiter outside was unsure and had to call me out. I have already promised to take out the wild ginseng with the oldest age in the store, which is said to be able to prolong life..."
The guest of honor treated by the shopkeeper was none other than Mr. Kong Jiu, the cousin of Mr. Kong, who was now a doctor of the Imperial Academy of Rites. He was in his early thirties and had a handsome appearance. He immediately smiled and said sensibly, "I am just here to see if there is any good Gastrodia elata for my mother. How can it compare to the great event of the Zhu family in the Zhaoguo Mansion? Shopkeeper, just go ahead and do your work. I will come next time."
At this point, he smiled and said, "My brother and Master Zhang had a little disagreement before, so I'll just go through the back door."
After the shopkeeper apologized again and again, Master Kong Jiu went out the back door with great grace. When the waiter notified him to drive his carriage around to the back alley, he immediately ordered after getting in the carriage: "Quick, go back home! Send someone to deliver a letter to my eldest brother, asking him to come back as soon as possible and tell him that I have an urgent matter..."
After thinking about it, he still felt that this was not urgent enough, so he said simply: "Just say that mom is suddenly not feeling well!"
Although as a son, it was a bit too much to use his own mother as an excuse, but when Master Kong Jiu thought of the information just revealed by the shopkeeper, he couldn't help but feel his heart pounding. He felt that this might be an opportunity to change the situation in the court.
You know, the emperor's favor for the Duke of Zhao and his son is simply beyond measure. Both the former Jiang Ge Lao and his cousin Kong Daxueshi have been trying to weaken it, but it has backfired. It was not until the life stories of Zhu Ying and Princess Yongping were exposed not long ago that his cousin could not help but lament that the Zhu family had actually arranged the foreshadowing long ago.
Emperors of all dynasties were mostly wary of their foreign relatives, but the current emperor, because of the entanglement between Zhu Ying and Princess Yongping's life experiences, has always done the opposite. Not only has he always been close to the Zhu family, he even loves Zhang Shou as well.
Seeing that Zhu Jing had been stripped of his military power and transferred to the Ministry of War, Zhu Tingfang was ordered to take charge of the Five Cities Military Division, which was at the peak of his career. If Zhu Tingfang was not just slightly injured as rumored by the outside world, but was seriously injured and dying, wouldn't that be wonderful?
Of course, this could be someone else's trick. But as far as he knew, the Ah Liu next to Zhang Shou, in terms of fighting ability, there were probably no more than a handful of people in the entire capital who could rival him, but if it came to cunning... probably, not counting those old hands, more than half of the people in the entire capital were better than this Ah Liu.
Because they are fighting with wits instead of strength, but this guy is recognized as using strength to defeat cleverness! He is also famous for not understanding romance. The last time he was in a certain weapons shop, his reaction to a cute girl buying a slingshot was nine out of thirteen! I think when Zhang Shou sent someone out, he didn't have time to explain too much, so people didn't pay attention and revealed such a clear tone!
Ah Liu didn't know that people had made up so many reasons and backgrounds for his purchase of supplements. In the past, when he was in the village, whenever someone got injured or sick while doing farm work or other things, Wu would always send some medicine or even supplements to them - although most of those supplements were just red dates and longans, the villagers were still very grateful.
If that is the case, then now that Zhu Tingfang has been assassinated, wouldn't it be the most appropriate thing for Zhang Shou to ask him to go and offer condolences?
Holding the four-color tonic that the shopkeeper claimed was the most expensive in the store, leaving a note for ten strings of cash and asking someone to withdraw the rest of the money from Zhang Garden, Ah Liu rode his horse straight to Xuanwu Gate after leaving the store. When he entered the inner city from Xuanwu Gate, he saw that the streets were obviously much more heavily guarded, and people from the West City Military Department could be seen patrolling everywhere. With his excellent hearing, he even caught a sound.
"I heard that Master Zhu was seriously injured and dying!"
