Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 291 Professional Dream Interpreter

Li Zisheng left with a heart full of doubts.

After the people walked away, Queen Mother Zhou couldn't wait to tear off the outer layer of nun's robe. She was still wearing the original robe underneath, but she just put it on casually when Li Zisheng arrived.

It seems unprofessional to pretend.

"Chen Gui, do you understand?"

Queen Mother Zhou suddenly asked.

Chen Gui stared at everything in front of him in amazement, and said tremblingly: "I...I...didn't understand..."

"Did you really not understand, or are you pretending to be confused?"

Queen Mother Zhou asked coldly, "I cannot ask about the affairs of the court casually. Even if the prince comes to me, and even if I know the cause and effect of the matter from you, I still cannot do it too obviously, otherwise I will be accused of interfering in government affairs."

Chen Gui hurriedly said, "The affairs of the inner court and the inner officials are actually your family affairs, and they are not considered as interfering in government affairs."

Queen Mother Zhou shook her head and said, "Even family affairs are hard to manage... I am not the head of the inner palace, and I have never bothered to ask about the affairs of the six palaces. The Wan family was so abominable before, did you think I interfered with her?
"As a woman in the palace, if you don't know how to behave and try to influence government affairs, you will end up like Wan. Look at what happened to her in the end. This is karma and reincarnation!"

Chen Gui said respectfully: "Yes, yes, it is still you, the ancestor, who is at a higher level..."

"But in this case...someone has overstepped the line, openly bullied me, and even wanted to ruin my reputation. It's simply ridiculous!
"Hehe... It's not that my grandson can't afford to suffer, and it's not that I can't afford to suffer either, but how can they fool the emperor just because they want to? Where is the majesty of the emperor? How can he lead the people of the world? Liang Fang is just arrogant because he relies on his favor, and he is used to being domineering. Now it's finally time to deal with him."

When she said this, Queen Mother Zhou looked ferocious.

Chen Gui thought to himself, you, old ancestor, are really ruthless.

But that Zhang Laizhan... also knew how to judge the situation. He was just... a mere student, but he had been in collusion with Li Zisheng for a long time and had been playing double game with Li Zisheng. Now, not only was he respected by all officials and trusted by the crown prince, but he was also favored by the emperor. He even blatantly sneaked into the Hanlin Academy. Considering that the position of historian was a position that only the top scholar could hold, it can be seen how much the emperor valued him.

Good boy, it’s my honor to be able to work for them and join their group.

If I had known this earlier, I shouldn't have waited for people to come to me. I should have visited them instead.

……

……

Li Zisheng left the palace and returned home in a sedan chair. As soon as he entered the house, he called his aide Pang Qing over.

Then Li Zisheng told Pang Qing the truth about Queen Mother Zhou's dream.

Pang Qing smiled and said, "This dream is quite interesting... Rather than calling it a dream, it's more like the Queen Mother made up a story to warn someone... Will anyone really believe this dream?"

"Humph."

Li Zisheng shook his head and said, "You and I don't believe it, but His Majesty, who is known for his benevolence and filial piety, will definitely believe it. That's enough! Didn't you hear it? Tomorrow the Queen Mother will talk to Your Majesty about her dream. She will definitely ask Your Majesty to help interpret the dream. This is to use my mouth to say something."

"What's the matter?"

Pang Qing asked.

Li Zisheng frowned and said, "If I knew, why would I bother with this? Bingkun, you need to raise an army for a thousand days but only use it for a moment. Now is your time to show your abilities."

"I……"

Pang Qing was speechless for a moment.

"You are usually very capable in eating and drinking, why can't you do that now?"

Li Zisheng said disdainfully, "It seems like it's time to replace this useless guy like you..."

Pang Qing pursed his lips and said, "Whether to change it or not, why are you saying this? I know too many of your secrets, why don't you just bury it and save trouble!"

"roll!"

Li Zisheng cursed and said, "Go and invite Lai Zhan over."

Pang Qing was surprised and asked, "Is it necessary to ask that Immortal Zhang about this? Can he guess it?"

"Nonsense! The Queen Mother was giving me some pointers and told me to ask Zhang Laizhan if I didn't understand something. I really believed her... Laizhan and I had a close relationship before, and there wasn't so much bullshit going on. Now I have to pretend to keep my distance, but who would have thought that all this trouble would come!"

Li Zisheng looked as if he couldn't survive without Zhang Laizhan's help, and he looked extremely painful.

Then he added, "Forget it, I'll go find him myself...Where is Zhang Laizhan now?"

"do not know."

Pang Qing answered casually, and seeing that Li Zisheng looked unhappy, he immediately added, "I guess he is either in the Hanlin Academy, or in the mansion, or..."

"Go find it!"

Li Zisheng said firmly, "I will go with you. Let's change into casual clothes and keep a low profile. Let's go to the restaurant at the corner of the street near Lai Zhan's house and wait for him."

……

……

The two men quickly changed into ordinary clothes and arrived at the destination in a carriage under the secret protection of servants. Then Li Zisheng asked Pang Qing to find someone.

Fortunately, Zhang Luan did not go out that day in order to deal with his cousin Zhang Yin who came to visit him. His excuse for not going to the Hanlin Academy was to stay at home to write books. Anyway, the task entrusted to him by the emperor was to revise books, and he had no sense of presence in the Hanlin Academy. Going there would be just a matter of doing the job, so it would be better not to go.

This time, Zhang Luan brought Zhang Yanling with him again, but this was Pang Qing's special request, and the direction was obvious.

"Zhang Hanlin, Second Young Master, when you two go upstairs and see my Taoist master, you must be calm and composed. He has been very anxious these past two days, and I'm afraid he might be in a bad mood and contradict you two."

Pang Qing took precautions in advance.

Zhang Luan seemed a little timid and almost wanted to push his son to take the blame.

He asked cautiously, "Mr. Pang, what's the big deal?"

"What else could it be? Apart from the appointments for the court and the affairs of the Ministry of Public Administration, there is also tomorrow's celebration... Didn't you predict that there would be auspicious signs tomorrow? Others don't believe it!"

Pang Qing said, leading the way, "Please bear with me, both of you."

……

……

The second floor of the wine shop.

When Li Zisheng saw Zhang Luan coming, he seemed very enthusiastic. He came over and took Zhang Luan's hand to the table, straightened Zhang Luan's stool, and almost forced him to sit in the seat.

"I ate here once last time and the food was pretty good. I've asked the restaurant to prepare some wine and food." Li Zisheng said with a smile.

For a moment, Zhang Luan could not accept the attentive Li Zisheng in front of him.

He couldn't help but glance at Pang Qing.

It seems to be saying, didn’t you say before that your Taoist priest has been in a bad mood and has a bad temper recently?
But I see him...

Nothing like it!
"Minister Li, I wonder why you're here?"

Zhang Luan asked hesitantly.

Li Zisheng said with a smile, "Hey, I'm not a minister yet, and I won't be one tomorrow, so don't call me that. Everything has to wait until tomorrow, when everything is arranged properly, and then His Majesty will promote me to the position of minister. Besides, you and I should call each other brothers, and there's no need to be so formal... Lai Zhan, let me ask you, do you know how to interpret dreams?"

"Interpret...interpret the dream?" This time Zhang Luan turned his gaze to his son.

Pang Qing said, "Mr. Zhang, I didn't explain it to you clearly before I came here, and it was also to prevent some things from being known by outsiders. The Queen Mother has a troublesome matter. She had a nightmare last night. Please ask the Taoist to go to Qingning Palace to ask, and then ask him to come back to interpret the dream and report it to His Majesty tomorrow. This is related to tomorrow's celebration, and I hope you can help me."

As soon as Pang Qing opened the conversation, Li Zisheng immediately told Zhang Luan and his son the truth about the Queen Mother Zhou asking him to interpret a dream. He also expressed his feelings while speaking, probably to the effect that the Queen Mother was getting old and confused, and was causing him trouble for no reason. He was afraid that it would affect future celebrations and miss the auspicious time and auspicious signs.

"Laizhan, it's rare that you can predict that there will be an auspicious sign tomorrow. This is a good omen that His Majesty attaches great importance to. If you make a mistake, wouldn't it be like... messing up the whole situation because of a dream?"

Li Zisheng wanted to push the blame onto Zhang Luan.

Zhang Luan glanced at his son, and seeing Zhang Yanling nodded silently, he immediately said: "Based on this dream, do you think it is true... Previously, I asked someone to advise the prince that there was a situation of inferior materials being passed off as good ones in the Wanhe Temple renovation project. Some people used wood and stone materials dismantled from old houses in Shandong and northern Zhili, pretending to be good materials, and used them in the reconstruction of Wanhe Temple..."

"Is there such a thing?"

Li Zisheng’s eyes widened.

He immediately thought of something.

Zhang Luan sighed and said, "This matter has not been verified clearly, but the general situation is that the contractor of the wood and stone material business is Peng Mianfu, the son of Peng Ge Lao. He and I can barely be considered as classmates in the Imperial College."

"Cough cough."

Li Zisheng coughed and sighed, "No wonder, no wonder, the golden Buddha in the Queen Mother's mouth fell down, broke into pieces and turned into mud. It turned out that she wanted to say 'golden outside, rotten inside'. It was all because of what you and the prince said. Hey, you should have told me earlier, do I need to be confused in front of the Queen Mother?"

Zhang Luan complained, "Minister Li, I mentioned this to you before... You said at the time that the procurement for the palace should not be done by one person, and you said you would arrange it later, but you happened to be too busy at that time... Did you forget?"

"I……"

Li Zisheng suddenly remembered that this seemed to be the case.

But then he frowned and said, "Laizhan, you didn't explain it in detail at that time. How could I know that you were talking about the reconstruction of Wanhe Temple?"

Zhang Luan said, "Didn't we conduct an on-site inspection at that time? Later, I went to Wanhe Temple in person and sent people to carefully check the wood that Peng Mianfu transported to the capital. Only then did I confirm that this was the case. But recently... we couldn't meet, so we were delayed."

"what?"

Li Zisheng looked puzzled and glanced at Pang Qing, meaning, why can't we meet?

Pang Qing smiled and said, "Master Dao, I'm afraid this can't really be blamed on Mr. Zhang... Think about it, because of the two of you pretending to accuse each other, we haven't had any contact for many days. It's not easy for him to visit our house casually."

Li Zisheng sighed, "It would be better to find someone to inform them."

Zhang Luan asked in surprise, "Minister Li, the eunuch Liang Fang from the Imperial Horse Administration is involved in this matter. Are you sure you want to get involved?"

"This……"

Li Zisheng immediately understood what Zhang Luan meant.

Regardless of whether Li Zisheng wants to bring Liang Fang down now, at least he cannot impeach Liang Fang in person. After all, Liang Fang has helped him, so someone else has to do the impeachment openly.

However, the person who impeached Liang Fang this time was changed from Zhang Luan to the crown prince, and the route the crown prince took was unusual, as he went directly to see Queen Dowager Zhou.

"Master Dao, don't bother me. The Queen Mother has pointed out a clear path for you, and you have also found the answer from Mr. Zhang. Doesn't this mean that this matter has been successfully completed?"

Pang Qing analyzed with a smile.

"How does it happen naturally?"

Li Zisheng asked.

Pang Qing said: "In other words, now everything is ready except for the east wind. All that is left is for the Queen Mother to inform His Majesty of this matter. When His Majesty asks you to interpret the dream, then everything will be...smoothly accomplished?"

"Cough cough."

Li Zisheng started coughing violently again.

Zhang Luan asked with concern: "Minister Li, have you been ill recently?"

"Yes, a little bit..." Li Zisheng said with a bitter face, "I'm so busy running around. For the matter of the empress dowager's title, I really forgot to eat and sleep, working day and night..."

When Pang Qing heard this, he rolled his eyes.

just you?

You’re really good at pretending!

You were still sleeping in the villa surrounded by makeup last night.

Li Zisheng sighed again: "But after your guidance, I now understand everything. Someone is using inferior products to replace good ones in the reconstruction of Wanhe Temple, taking the opportunity to make money, and the Queen Mother will go to Wanhe Temple to burn incense before the Buddha Bathing Festival on the eighth day of the first lunar month. The prince went to tell the Queen Mother the truth with benevolence and filial piety, and then the Queen Mother wanted to talk to His Majesty about this matter, so she found me first..."

Zhang Luan nodded: "That's roughly it."

Li Zisheng said, "Why go to so much trouble to get me involved and let me join the game... What does this mean?"

Pang Qing said, "Master Dao, don't you understand this? The Queen Mother doesn't want to be accused of interfering in state affairs, and she doesn't even want to be blamed, so she's going around in circles like this."

"You went through so much trouble to go around in circles, and then you just got me involved?"

Li Zisheng looked somewhat dissatisfied.

Pang Qing smiled and said, "The Queen Mother wanted His Majesty to do this, but she was afraid that His Majesty would not understand what her so-called dream meant, so she asked you to interpret her dream in advance to pave the way... Doesn't this just reflect the Queen Mother's trust in you?"

"I can see that the older this person gets, the more cunning he becomes, and he's very cunning..."

Li Zisheng shook his head.

"Master, please be careful with your words." Pang Qing reminded.

"What are you afraid of?"

Li Zisheng spat and said, "We are all family, so what's wrong with speaking out? I've been used by someone, but I still pretend to know nothing and act like a grandson! Really... Come on, let's keep in touch next time. If you have anything, you can tell me first."

Zhang Luan also felt relieved at this time, probably thinking that he could handle it easily without his son's reminders.

Zhang Luan smiled and said, "Of course. But from this point of view, Minister Li, you have helped both the Queen Mother and the Crown Prince in this matter, and also helped His Majesty to solve his problems. It can be said that you have...killed two birds with one stone."

“Hehe, but I will offend Liang Fang.”

Li Zisheng said in annoyance, "This man has many tricks. Who would provoke such a powerful enemy for no reason? Lai Zhan, you must be careful. If Liang Fang knew that you were targeting him and always wanted to kill him, I'm afraid he would not show mercy to you. Especially this incident, it is very likely that he will fall into an irretrievable situation. What if the dog jumps over the wall in desperation? You know, for a mad dog, it can do anything."

Zhang Luan was horrified: "What should I do?"

Li Zisheng sighed, "Take more people with you when you go out, and don't walk on the side roads. After all, he can't do anything to you in broad daylight. But if you are standing in danger, you can't blame others... Bingkun, transfer a few people over to help secretly watch and see if anyone is doing harm to Mr. Zhang."

Zhang Luan said, "Minister Li, you are making fun of me."

"No, no, no, Lai Zhan, please don't misunderstand me. I am just concerned about you. Besides, I am still waiting for the auspicious sign you predicted to ask for favor from His Majesty tomorrow. Liang Fang's loss of power is also a good thing for me. But... Alas!"

Li Zisheng was speechless at this time.

It was obvious that the prince's position was more secure, and Zhang Luan had previously hinted to him that the emperor's condition would become more serious. Once Liang Fang fell, he had no choice.

Even if you don't want to follow the prince, you have to do it.

What can I do but sigh?

(End of this chapter)