Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 753 Rewards and Gifts
After listening to the conversation between Zhu Ying and the Emperor, the Fourth Prince almost popped his eyes out. He was just thinking about how his father hadn't made any noise on the day of Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying's wedding, but now, the noise was so huge because his father had brought his third brother over the wall to Zhang Garden! He had always this time he missed such an interesting thing!
That’s right, the naughty kid didn’t think there was anything wrong with his father and third brother. He was just annoyed that he couldn’t join in the fun!
However, when he heard footsteps outside and realized that his father might come into the house with his third brother, the fourth prince immediately forgot his frustration and thought of a more serious problem. He was not afraid of being considered unfilial by his father, but he had not done anything that would be praised by others (playing a ghost did not count), so he could not meet his father and third brother yet.
Since he can't appear in front of the two of them in a grand manner, it's better for him to stay away for now!
The naughty boy looked around at the fastest speed, trying to find a closet or a trunk or some other place to hide. However, this new house was too spacious, and the nearest closet was far away from him. He had no confidence that he could get in before his father came in. What made him even more helpless was that this step-out bed was like a small house, with no place under the bed for him to hide!
So, almost as an instinctive reaction, the Fourth Prince kicked off his shoes and threw himself onto the bed behind Zhu Ying, then hid himself under the festive red quilt.
Zhang Shou was immediately furious at this scene, and his first reaction was to rush over and catch the naughty kid. But then he heard the Fourth Prince's voice, which was as soft as a mosquito's hum, but very fast: "Teacher, Sister Yingying, just think of it as me rolling in bed with you, please help me cover it up!"
I only know how to make love... I've never heard of making love in bed! Zhang Shou complained in his heart, and when Zhu Ying pulled him, he reluctantly suppressed the nameless anger in his heart.
So , when the emperor came in, he saw Zhu Ying, who was smiling, and Zhang Shou, who looked uneasy, coming to greet him. The emperor initially thought that Zhang Shou was giving him a cold shoulder, but when he noticed that Zhang Shou kept looking at the bed after the ceremony, he remembered the report from the imperial attendant that the fourth prince had also sneaked into Zhang Garden from the back door.
Since the fourth prince would not show up at the wedding banquet, there was only one place he would go, and that was... Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying's bridal chamber. I didn't expect that he would actually hide on the wedding bed!
Fortunately, in the capital, there is a tradition of having boys roll around on the wedding night to pray for many children and grandchildren, otherwise he really suspected that Zhang Shou would beat the boy's butt in anger! At that time, he would definitely not stop him, but would applaud from the side!
Thinking this in his heart, the emperor pretended not to notice it. He smiled and waved his hand to signal the couple to excuse themselves, but he did not sit down. Instead, he looked at the new house with interest. After a while, he spoke slowly, "I sneaked out with Sanlang, so the fact that I came to your house must not be known to those famous scholars outside, so as not to implicate you."
Although he knew that the emperor's intention was for his own good, Zhang Shou really couldn't feel any gratitude because the emperor first took the crown prince over the wall, and the fourth prince hid on the wedding bed to avoid meeting them later.
This father and son are so troublesome! Can't they learn from the third prince? Look at the apologetic look on the third prince's face. He is simply ashamed of his father and brother...
So Zhang Shou simply turned his head to look at Zhu Ying. Zhu Ying immediately understood that Zhang Shou wanted her, who knew the emperor's character better, to speak up, so she said directly without being pretentious: "Since Ah Liu brought the emperor here personally, there is no need for the emperor to say this, and no one else will know about this."
"Oh, you trust him so much?"
The emperor was asking Zhu Ying, but his eyes were on Zhang Shou. But when he saw Zhang Shou was busy exchanging glances with the third prince, as if they could understand each other without speaking, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous.
The next moment, he only heard Zhu Ying say in a matter-of-fact tone: "Of course, Ah Shou believes in him, and I believe in him too. If we can't even trust him, who else can we trust?"
When Ah Liu heard this, he couldn't help but smile. That was the answer he expected, and it was for the person who could say such words to him that he regarded this place as his home and devoted all his efforts to maintain the peace and tranquility of this home.
The emperor knew what Ah Liu felt outside without having to guess. He shook his head in frustration and then said lightly, "I and Sanlang are here to watch the ceremony. This matter cannot be known to others, but Chen Yongshou will come over to give me a gift for you two. One is the two lines of poetry that Jiu Niang mentioned to my cousin Zhu Jing and that she liked very much. I wrote the words myself this time."
"No matter whether my handwriting is good or not, those two lines of poetry are very good - 'If I could become a pair of mandarin ducks, I would not refuse to die. I only envy mandarin ducks, not immortals.'"
He paused, and seeing that Zhu Ying was indeed very satisfied, he continued slowly, "The other thing is a pair of long hairpins and two sets of Taoist robes that I bestow upon you two. Zhang Shou, you are very suitable for wearing Taoist robes because of your immortal temperament. You can try dressing up in Taoist costumes with Yingying later. Hey, I guarantee that you will have the charm of Xiao Shi ascending to heaven and Nong Yu accompanying him."
This time, Zhang Shou really wanted to curse.
Xiao Shi and Nong Yu were a couple during the time of Duke Mu of Qin. To put it nicely, they were a harmonious couple who ascended to heaven together. But to put it bluntly... it was just that a charlatan abducted a girl. They were the original blueprint for the abduction-based love stories of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in later generations!
However, after experiencing all the fairy tales and legends, Zhang Shou, who had long lost his romantic cells, was cursing in his heart. Zhu Ying also raised her eyebrows and said, "How can Xiao Shi be compared with A Shou? Apart from playing the flute well and having a good-looking face, he doesn't have A Shou's mind, ambition, or talent."
"What's the point of ascending to immortality by keeping myself safe? I don't want it!"
Seeing the emperor's face sank, Zhang Shou gave the eldest lady a thumbs up, and then followed her husband's lead and said, "Although Yingying praised me too harshly, please forgive me for telling you the truth. Xiao Shi married the Qin's daughter, Nongyu, but he did nothing beneficial to the Qin State. He even kidnapped Nongyu. This is really not very kind."
"This is not the Tang Dynasty. Princess Taiping wanted to escape the forced marriage of the Turkic Khan Mochuo, so she stopped wearing makeup and chose Taoist clothes. For a while, it became a trend for women in the Tang Dynasty. I would also like to advise the emperor that Taoist robes are indeed elegant and beautiful, but they are strange clothes. Once the emperor wears them, the whole world will be in fashion, and history will inevitably say that the emperor loves Taoism."
Zhang Shou was still restrained after all. He did not mention the Taoist Emperor Song Huizong who led to the destruction of his country, nor did he mention the emperors in history who died from taking Taoist elixirs. Of course, he did not mention the Emperor Jiajing who took drugs and had sex with women excessively, to the point that the palace people could no longer tolerate it and rebelled, almost achieving regicide - this emperor had long been fanned to death by the butterfly's wings!
However, Zhang Shou's words were even more disappointing than Zhu Ying's just now. Therefore, the Third Prince realized that his father was already very unhappy, so he spoke quickly.
"What the teacher said is true, and so is what Sister Yingying said, but father doesn't really like Taoist robes that much, but..." He organized his sentences and said awkwardly, "It's just because father said that the teacher is as elegant as bamboo, and wearing a Taoist robe and standing with Sister Yingying should be a perfect match. But the most important thing is that the pair of long hairpins that can be used as weapons can only be matched with Taoist robes."
Zhang Shou almost choked to death on his own saliva. There are many things that are suitable for couples or even married couples, but the emperor chose to give a pair of long hairpins. This is really strange. It turns out that this style is originally matched with Taoist robes! He imagined the scene of pulling out the long hairpins and fighting the enemy in a chic manner when encountering an assassin, but in the end he confirmed a sad fact.
No matter how long the hairpin is, it has a limit. At most, it is the length of a dagger or short knife. Without a handle, he can't control the sword at all, as he only has a few life-saving moves... After all, even those few moves were passed down to Ah Liu by Jiu Niang, and Ah Liu taught him step by step.
Could it be that at that critical moment, he still had time to wrap the long hairpin with some cloth strips so that this dual-purpose decoration and weapon could be more handy?
But Zhu Ying was very satisfied with the Third Prince's explanation, and immediately said with a smile: "It turns out that it can be used as a weapon. That's not bad. Your Majesty finally knows what I like. But there's no need for the Taoist costume..."
Before she could finish her words, the emperor said angrily, "Don't bargain with me! It's up to you whether you wear it or not, but next time I come, you all have to wear it and show it to me. It's a deal!"
Although his own children were not bad looking, and Princess Yongping was a rare beauty, couldn't he find a pair like Zhu Ying and Zhang Shou, a perfect match with both talent and appearance? He didn't expect to find out who was his biological daughter, Zhu Ying or Princess Yongping, in his lifetime, but at least when he died, he would have a scroll of Zhu Ying and Zhang Shou's portraits to accompany him to his mausoleum.
Just like when the news of the "death" of the eldest prince and the second prince came, he stared at the portraits of the two of them when they were still able to at least act filially for several days.
Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying looked at each other in bewilderment at the emperor's tough statement, and the third prince quickly tried to smooth things over again, "Teacher, Sister Yingying, I'll have Chen Yongshou bring the gifts I sent you. They're not expensive gold and jade jewelry or study treasures, but ten sets of ancient books that Eunuch Chu accompanied me to the Ancient and Modern Collection Library to pick out."
Seeing Zhang Shou's horrified expression, he thought that Zhang Shou thought these things were too precious, and hurriedly explained: "These are all copied. Although they are precious, there is no risk of them being lost. Moreover..."
He smiled naively, but then looked at his father: "This is also because of his father's nod that I should follow Eunuch Chu to choose."
In other words, this is the emperor's real gift? Zhu Ying's lips finally curled up, and she bowed with a smile, "Then I would like to thank the emperor and the crown prince for their deep friendship! Both gifts are very good, and Ah Shou and I like them very much."
This is simply a lie, at least I am not that impressed by your gift, the emperor… But although Zhang Shou had many thoughts in his mind, he still followed suit and paid his respects. He thought that after the business was done, the emperor and the third prince would not stay in the new house any longer, but he never expected that the emperor looked around for a while, and finally sat down on the brocade cushion in front of the bed.
At this moment, he didn't know whether the Fourth Prince had lifted the quilt a little to listen to the movements outside, whether he had seen the emperor's behavior, and whether his heartbeat and breathing had almost stopped. But he was really helpless because the emperor treated him as if he were not an outsider - or, in other words, he acted like a future father-in-law.
Zhu Ying smiled and went forward to sit on the wedding bed. She playfully rummaged in the quilt, which frightened the Fourth Prince into breaking out in a sweat. She then pulled out a handful of peanuts, red dates, longans and lotus seeds, and immediately said to the Emperor, "The things Your Majesty gave to my eldest brother spread quickly throughout the capital. Look, Your Majesty, they are all over the place today."
Zhang Shou couldn't help but complain, "Your Majesty, you don't know, just because of the good intention of having a son soon, there is no sign of peanuts for the new year, and the price is almost skyrocketing."
The emperor glanced at the bulging quilt and knew that the fourth prince must be frightened. He smiled. When Zhu Ying mentioned the reward, he was naturally very proud. He didn't care about Zhang Shou's complaints and smiled.
"I just had this idea earlier... Hehe, actually there are more things that have a new character like peanuts, but these four are all round, which is rare. Don't underestimate this roundness, a happy family reunion is what every family in the world hopes for the most."
At this point, the emperor finally showed a somewhat disappointed expression. However, he quickly suppressed his emotion with great self-control and smiled: "But, Zhang Shou, you don't have to worry. You are still young, you can learn from your father-in-law and have children later. Look at your eldest brother-in-law Zhu Tingfang, he was born late, but he has taken all the glory of this generation of young people in the capital."
Zhang Shou glanced at Zhu Ying, whose face immediately turned red, and then he coughed and said, "Your Majesty, regarding the birth of the child, I intend to let nature take its course, but if possible, I do hope to have the baby later. Yingying is still young, and so am I. If we have a child too early, I will be too busy to take care of it, and she will have to stay at home and play with a little kid all day long."
"At this age, you should be free to do whatever you want. When you are tired, you can come back to have a baby. Wouldn't it be better for the two of us to accompany him to grow up peacefully? By then, the affairs outside will be taken care of by my many students. The affairs of the girls' school should be on the right track. Yingying won't have to be her iron-faced inspector anymore, feeling sorry for her failure."
Seeing Zhu Ying's beautiful eyes sparkling with joy, the emperor finally believed that the couple was a match made in heaven. Blinded by the light on such a good day, he finally stopped torturing the poor fourth prince under the quilt and stood up. Before leaving, he said casually, "Ah Shou, remember to read the book Sanlang sent you."
