Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 117 Accident (please subscribe)

The selection of the Crown Princess will take place in the afternoon of the second day of the Lunar New Year.

Queen Mother Zhou knew how to preserve her health. Besides worshiping Buddha, she would also take a nap at noon.

But even if the examiners wanted to take a nap, the candidates still had to enter the palace before noon, so that Empress Dowager Zhou could see her future granddaughter-in-law as soon as she opened her eyes.

In order to meet this requirement, the girls who are selected to enter the palace must go through a series of necessary "inspection" procedures, which involves observing whether there are birthmarks and scars on the body, whether there is bad breath or "strange fragrance" on the body, or some flaws that cannot be seen on the outside. These need to be completed in advance.

Of course, it is unlikely that the women participating in the selection of the Crown Princess would have such concerns, so except for a few exceptions, most of the more than 40 people who entered the palace were able to receive an audience with the Queen Mother.

It’s not that the royal family is not picky about the future Crown Princess, it’s just that the number of candidates is too small, and if they are too picky, there will be no one left.

At this time, in Deng Chang'en's residence in the city, an old man in his fifties from the Chai family waited for half an hour, and finally saw the person coming out when the sun began to set.

It was Ai Yu whom I had contacted before.

"Didn't I tell you to relax? What are you doing here?"

Ai Yu was in a bad mood.

Clearly I was just collecting money to do the job, and now things haven't progressed, but the other party keeps pestering me, calling out to me all the time like a ghost.

This is considered a big taboo in the eyes of those who hold power.

In fact, the more people collect money but do not do their job, the more they fear being urged by others.

Ai Yu is undoubtedly such a person.

The old man of the Chai family said with a bitter face: "My lord, it's not that I don't know what's good for me, but today I sent my daughter to the Forbidden Palace. Who knew that before I could leave, someone from the Ministry of Rites came to my door and told me that they had temporarily removed her from the list, and the reason given was that she had a hidden illness.

"Isn't this nonsense? My child has skin as white as snow and a dignified figure. She has never been sick since she was a child, let alone any hidden diseases. Isn't this... deliberately picking faults and slapping you in the face?"

Ai Yu frowned: "No way, are the people from the Ministry of Rites deliberately looking for trouble? They don't even give face to Master Deng, who gave them the guts?"

"I don't know the reason, so I have to come to you to ask what happened. The daughters of other families have already entered the palace, but my daughter is still missing..."

The old man from the Chai family was in a terrible headache.

Giving away several thousand taels of silver was a huge sum of money in that era.

Since the route between Luzon and America had not yet been opened, silver from South America had not yet been continuously transported to Ming Dynasty, and the silver on the market had not yet flooded, the value of silver remained at a fairly high level. For ordinary people, it was rare to be able to come up with such a large sum of money.

Who would have thought that it would have been better not to give the money, because there were no problems at all in yesterday's re-election, and there was no situation where the government was deliberately making things difficult. I never expected that today, at the last minute, it would be blocked by someone.

This is quite strange!

The young man following the old man consoled him, "Uncle San, don't worry. We have already established a good relationship with Lord Deng. Lord Ai will not ignore us..."

What this means is that we paid a large sum of money in advance in order to prevent unexpected situations like today's.

Now that we are faced with an emergency, it's time for the money to come in handy, right?
Of course, if someone thinks that the money we gave is not enough, and deliberately uses this as an excuse to blackmail us, hoping that we can pay more money before we can move to the next step... then you are wrong! The money and goods are clear, and we have paid, so we must see the results, otherwise we will not agree.

"Who... who are you?"

Ai Yu was already in a bad mood, and when he heard this, he glared at the young man and asked him.

The old man hurriedly introduced: "This is my brother's child, named Chai Meng, who has passed the examination and became a student."

Ai Yu said in a cold voice: "What kind of place is this? Why is a junior butting in? Do you want to show off your ability? Since you have such a good intention, Lord Deng will not be unfaithful. Let me ask for you right now, so be patient. Hey, today is really weird... We can't even celebrate the New Year, how unlucky!" Originally, Ai Yu was planning to ask Deng Chang'en for instructions.

But thinking that Deng Changen was also a person who took money but did not do anything, he thought again that it would be better for him to go to the Ministry of Rites alone. Under the name of Deng Changen, the people in the Ministry of Rites would not dare to make things difficult for him. He could add the name of the Chai family girl back to the list of candidates for the imperial palace selection and then send her to the palace for selection.

Thinking of this, Ai Yu said, "Take the person with you and send him directly to the palace gate later... I want to see who is so blind that he dares to do this."

"Yes."

After hearing this, the old man from the Chai family finally felt relieved.

He was thinking in his heart that the money was not wasted. It seemed that he was worrying too much. Deng Chang'en was a very important person. Would he be greedy for his several thousand taels of silver?

Is it really possible to take the money and not do the job?
……

……

Ai Yu took the grandfather and grandson of the Chai family to the palace in a carriage, while the luxurious carriage carrying the younger sister of the Chai family followed closely behind.

When they were approaching the Ministry of Rites, Ai Yu asked the grandfather and grandson to get off the car first and wait in a teahouse in Dongjiang Mixiang, while he continued to ride to the gate of the yamen, told the coachman to find a place to park the carriage, and then went into the Ministry of Rites alone to inquire about the situation.

Chai Meng came to the carriage behind, and gave his sister a few simple instructions through the curtain. Then he and the old man entered the teahouse designated by Ai Yu, sat down in a seat by the window, and looked outside from time to time.

"Don't be anxious. If Lord Ai delivers the message in time, we should be able to enter the palace in time." The old man comforted.

Chai Meng said with a bitter face: "Uncle, I wonder if my little sister is cold in the carriage... The clothes she wears today are too thin."

The old man frowned and said, "Since you knew you were going out, why didn't you put on more clothes?"

"This……"

Chai Meng really wanted to say, now that we have entered the palace, the security is tight, and you are wearing three layers of clothes inside and outside, how can they search you?

What's more, there will be further physical examinations later, and it is not suitable to wear it for a long time if you put it on and take it off from time to time.

Besides, if you wear too bulky clothes, how can you show off your beautiful figure as a lady?

You old man, it seems you don't understand young people.

The old man waved his hand and said, "Even if she is frozen, there is nothing we can do. We can't let her get off the car and go into public places... This time, we asked Master Deng to help us. It was a unified decision and generous sponsorship from our Shanxi Merchants Group. They have high hopes for our family... Now it is not just our family's business."

Chai Meng asked: "Could it be that the incident happened because we made a big fuss and caused a lot of trouble?"

The old man remained silent.

Although he could take advantage of his seniority, the nephew in front of him was, after all, a student.

It is nothing for a scholar's family to have a student, especially for a scholarly family, having a student is as easy as drinking boiled water.

But in a merchant family, having a student was as rare as winning the lottery in later generations. In the Chai family, although Chai Meng was young, as a scholar he still had a certain say.

"Wait, then."

The old man finally said helplessly, "God bless you, I hope nothing goes wrong."

The second update is here, please subscribe and support with monthly tickets!



(End of this chapter)