good season

The three generations before Emperor Dayong all revered Taoism. The Tao Te Ching says, "Attain utmost emptiness and hold fast to stillness." Confucianism also says in the Book of Rites, "Cultivate oneself through stillness." Emperor Yongjia enfeoffed the deposed crown prince as Prince Jing, the profound meaning of which is obvious.

Not only did they glorify the deposition as an "opportunity for self-cultivation," but they also demanded that the deposed crown prince become like withered wood and ashes, completely withdrawing from the power arena.

The title bestowed upon Prince Jing was by no means a favor, but rather a way to forever nail the deposed crown prince to the edge of power.

The Prince of Jing's fiefdom was located in Wangyou County, thousands of miles away. Emperor Yongjia decreed that Wangyou County be renamed Jingyou County, and from then on, it became the place where the Prince of Jing was imprisoned.

Despite being both princes, Prince Jing's treatment was worlds apart from that of the Eighth Prince.

The Eighth Prince could have a personal guard of five thousand men, of course, this was done openly and publicly.

The guards of Prince Jing's residence shall not exceed five hundred people, and they shall not interfere in local military and political affairs.

The Eighth Prince was only worried about whether he had enough money to support his private army, while the Prince of Jing was even worried about the expenses of his palace, because his annual salary had been reduced by 70% compared to when he was the Crown Prince, and his meager annual allowance of 3,000 shi (a unit of grain) had to support several hundred people in his palace.

In addition, the eight princes inherited their titles without fail, while the descendants of Prince Jing were demoted in rank, and after five generations, they were reduced to commoners.

With Prince Jing's ignominious departure from the capital, the court officials' second petition to appoint a crown prince was carried out in great fanfare, and the third prince once again declined.

At this moment, in the Fifth Prince's residence, the Fifth Prince sneered repeatedly: "This hypocrite, this despicable villain, what kind of humility is this? It's utterly hypocritical and shameless!"

Eunuch Wang slipped in and whispered, "Fifth Master, the matter of Yang Shengqiu proposing to Miss Feng has been settled, and the two families have already exchanged betrothal gifts."

The Fifth Prince sneered, "This Yang Shengqiu, I really overestimated him before. In order to climb the social ladder, he actually went so far as to marry the concubine's daughter of the Feng family. Heh."

Eunuch Wang hurriedly said, "This old servant has also found out something else. Fifth Master, would you like to hear it for amusement?"

The Fifth Prince glared at him: "You old codger, you're putting on airs in front of me now? Speak your mind, or shut up, I'm annoyed."

Eunuch Wang smiled, took a step closer, and said, "This old servant has heard that Yang Shengqiu and Princess Huiming have an affair."

The Fifth Prince was taken aback, and involuntarily raised his voice: "Really? Who told you that?"

Eunuch Wang smiled mysteriously: "Fifth Master, do you remember Empress Meng?"

A look of confusion flashed across the Fifth Prince's eyes. Who was Empress Meng?

However, he quickly realized that this Empress Meng was none other than the former Crown Princess, Empress Xiaokang.

"I remember, she's been dead for over ten years, is this still related to her?"

Eunuch Wang explained, "After Empress Meng passed away, her dowry was taken back by the Meng family. Before Lord Meng retired and returned to his hometown, he left several shops to Princesses Huixin and Huiming. It is likely because he felt that Empress Meng had no children and the young imperial grandson was no longer with her. He left these shops to the two princesses so that they would be grateful to Empress Meng and would remember her kindness."

The Fifth Prince nodded. Although the Meng family was not extremely wealthy, they were still well-off and could afford to give the two princesses a few shops.

"Go on," the Fifth Prince said, intrigued.

Eunuch Wang continued, "One of the shops was an antique shop located on Kaitai Street. Business was neither good nor bad. Someone saw Yang Shengqiu, the top scholar, enter the shop one after the other with a girl. The top scholar, Yang, was wearing a flower in his hair as he paraded through the street. Many people in the capital had seen him before, so they recognized him at a glance. As for the girl, no one recognized her. However, the girl's attire was a bit strange. She was wearing silk and satin that you couldn't buy in an ordinary silk shop, but she only had a wooden hairpin in her hair!"

The Fifth Prince frowned slightly: "Can't a single wooden hairpin prove that it is Huiming?"

Eunuch Wang smiled and said, "Fifth Master, please don't be impatient. Let this old servant tell you the story in detail. On the night Princess Huiming was sent to Ci'en Temple, she held a wooden hairpin to her neck."

It took the old servant some effort to find out the style of the wooden hairpin from the two old women from that day.

Fifth Master, as you know, the palace maids have incredibly sharp eyes; they can remember anything they've ever seen.

Based on their descriptions, the old servant drew a rough sketch of the wooden hairpin. He then consulted several people from Princess Jiarou's residence who had seen Princess Huiming. They confirmed that Princess Huiming had personally carved the hairpin and perfected its design. The old servant then showed the design to the person who had seen the girl at the antique shop that day, and finally confirmed that this hairpin was the same one he had seen.

Fifth Master, think about it, this wooden hairpin was made by Princess Huiming. How could an ordinary woman obtain it?

Moreover, that was in her own antique shop!

Therefore, it is clear that the woman who secretly met with Yang Shengqiu at the antique shop that day was Princess Huiming!

Eunuch Wang's words were reasonable and well-founded, and the Fifth Prince's smile grew more and more genuine until he finally burst into laughter.

After laughing, he spat several times: "Shameless, utterly shameless! This Yang Shengqiu is even more shameless than the third brother!"
I told you so, Huiming and Huixin usually avoid such lively occasions, so why did they come here so eagerly to offer themselves to me this time? But if Huiming and Yang Shengqiu have an affair, then it makes sense.

Huiming's secret meeting at Yujing Palace wasn't with the boss, but with that bastard Yang Shengqiu!
Ugh, this person is disgusting, even more disgusting than I imagined!
And the third brother, he actually gave such a disgusting guy a big job, and even made him his brother-in-law! I despise him, I truly despise him!

The Fifth Prince thought for a moment, then suddenly stood up, startling Eunuch Wang: "Fifth Prince, this matter cannot be rushed! We need to discuss it carefully."

The Fifth Prince laughed and said, "Old Wang, you're all old and shrewd, but I think the older you get, the more timid you become. Besides, don't you know that I need to think things through? You don't think I'm going to complain to the Emperor, do you? I'm not that stupid. There's a happy occasion in the Feng family, and I'll make sure they have double the joy."

Inside the Ruyi Boat, Fatty Si drank several mouthfuls of cool boiled water and finally stopped panting.

Xiao Zhen glanced at him and said, "You're too fat. Try to eat less."

Fatty Si grinned and said, "I was born with this extra weight. I gain weight even from drinking cold water. I can't lose weight."

"Why did you rush over here?" Xiao Zhen asked.

Fatty Si laughed heartily: "You're absolutely right. I just had someone mention it to Mr. Wang, and that old eunuch went to investigate. He not only went to the antique shop, but also to the palace and Princess Jia Rou's residence. He found out everything about that matter. It's likely that the Fifth Prince already knows everything by now."

Xiao Zhen nodded: "Well done. For that deal, give Eunuch Wang a bigger share of the money. Make the Fifth Prince feel that our purse strings are secure. Money gives people courage, and he knows what he should do."

Ci'en Temple.

As everyone knows, Ci'en Temple is now rarely visited by dignitaries.

Both were built for the royal women, but Zizhu Temple has been renovated twice in the last ten years. The first time was to welcome Princess Jiarou's master, Master Yudan, to Zizhu Temple for cultivation, and the second time was renovated by the Empress and Consort Qiao with their own private funds.

Therefore, Zizhu Temple is magnificent, like a fairyland. In addition to the royal family, the female relatives of high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital would come to Zizhu Temple to offer incense every now and then, and some even lived there for a long time.

On the contrary, Ci'en Temple has not been renovated for decades, and no one dares to mention anything about restoring the Buddha's statue to gold.

Nowadays, the only ones who have left the palace and are still practicing at Ci'en Temple are two of Emperor Dezong's (the father of the retired emperor) old beauties and one of the retired emperor's beauties.

It wasn't that only these three people came to Ci'en Temple to practice after Emperor Dezong; rather, all the others had died, and only these three were able to survive.

Princess Huiming is now the fourth.

She has been at Ci'en Temple for seven days, and during these seven days, she has been confined to a small meditation room.

Her maids and nannies couldn't come with her, not even Chunying, who had grown up with her since childhood. In these seven days, Princess Huiming only saw one person, an old nun who came to bring her food and clean the chamber pot every day.

The old nun had a gloomy face with deep, dense wrinkles, and her gaze toward Princess Huiming was as sharp as a knife.

"You haven't eaten again? What, you can't stomach simple food? Do you still think you're some kind of precious princess? Sent here at such a young age, what good could you be? Shameless slut!"

Princess Huiming was still dressed as an unmarried girl. Those who could be sent here were all of noble birth. If they hadn't done something shameful, why would they have been sent here?
At first, Princess Huiming would try to argue back, but this only earned her more unrestrained insults and abuse from the old nun.

Gradually, she resigned herself to her fate, stopped arguing, and instead huddled in a corner like a quail, letting the old nun vent her anger.

Old Ni came again today, and for the first time, he saw a completely empty rice bowl, not a single grain left.

Finally, she couldn't hold on any longer and started eating.

The old nun glanced at her disdainfully, then turned and left.

For the next two days, Princess Huiming—no, she is now Huiming, and no one here will call her princess.

Huiming would eat every last grain of the food that was delivered to her every day, even if there wasn't a drop of oil in it or if there was sand in the rice. She would force herself to eat it because if she didn't, she would hear even more offensive insults and even beatings.

Yes, every time that old nun came, she would carry a two-foot-long bamboo strip in her hand. The bamboo strip would hit her body and hurt a lot. She could only cover her face with her hands and let the bamboo strip hit her delicate skin.

On the third day, which was the tenth day since Huiming arrived, she finally met the second person.

That was an elderly nun around forty years old, who was also the abbess here, Puxuan. Huiming also learned that the old nun from before was named Pujing.

They were not palace servants, but members of the imperial family.

Pu Xuan was widowed at a young age and had a hard time in her husband's family. Since she had no one left in her own family to rely on, she became a nun at Ci'en Temple.

Pujing's situation was similar to hers, except that she was older when she became a nun.

Pu Xuan looked Hui Ming up and down, his eyes devoid of joy, anger, or emotion.

“Now that you’ve figured it out, let’s start working together from today. As you can see, this is the condition here. There’s no incense offering, and the silver from the palace is limited. If you want to have enough to eat, you have to work. We don’t support idlers here.”

After Pu Xuan finished speaking, he left. Pu Jing took Hui Ming to where she was working and pointed to the pile of monks' robes on the ground: "You don't know how to do other jobs, so let's start with washing clothes."

Huiming had lived a life of luxury since childhood. Even though her status was awkward, she had never suffered a day of hardship, let alone done any manual labor.

On the first day, she tore her clothes in the washing.

He got beaten up.

The clothes were not clean the next day.

He got beaten up.

On the third day, the clothes were still not washed by nightfall.

He got beaten up.

On the fourth day, she woke up late and by the time she got to the canteen, there was no food left.

The temple observes a rule of not eating after noon. Everyone else eats a hearty breakfast, then carries two steamed buns in their pockets. They eat one at noon and secretly eat the other in the evening when no one is watching, and that's how they get through the day.

But Huiming didn't even get to eat breakfast, let alone lunch or dinner.

She was hungry all day, but she still had to keep working.

She fainted by the well, and without asking, she was hit by several bamboo sticks from Pu Jing.

At night, she was woken up from her sleep by someone tapping her on the door. By the dappled moonlight filtering through the broken windowpane, she saw an old face.

"who are you?"

“My surname is Quan. I used to be a beauty in the palace. I’ve been here for ten years.”

Huiming understood. This must be one of the Emperor Emeritus's beauties, one of the batch sent here after the Emperor Emeritus went to the Longevity Palace.

"Quan, Aunt Quan."

The emperor's concubines were not very old, at most like Consort Xu, only in their thirties.

But the person in front of me looks like he's in his fifties or sixties.

Compared to the well-preserved Consort Xu, they look like they're from two different generations.

It is clear that the environment has a profound impact on people.

Aunt Quan patted her and took out a dry, hard steamed bun: "Eat up, you can only survive if you fill your stomach."

Huiming took the steamed bun. He was the only person who had shown her kindness since that incident, and she was very grateful.

"Thank you."

Aunt Quan sighed: "When I first entered the palace, I was framed in the Imperial Garden. Luckily, the Crown Princess happened to pass by and proved my innocence, which is why I was not banished to the Cold Palace."

Unfortunately, good deeds don't always bring good rewards. The Crown Princess passed away at a young age, and I can only remember her great kindness in my heart.

Now that you've arrived, although they haven't revealed your identity, I know who you are. Your features resemble those of Consort Sun.

By the way, Consort Sun and my family are neighbors. I knew her before I entered the palace. Since you were born to Consort Sun, you are also considered the Crown Princess's daughter. I'm not helping you, but repaying a debt of gratitude.

Huiming tried hard to hide the shame on her face. From childhood to adulthood, her sister had told her more than once that their birth mother was killed by the Crown Princess, and that the Crown Princess was their enemy.

It was only right for them to accept the Crown Princess's dowry; it was something the Crown Princess owed to the sisters.

But now, in her current state of destitution, the only help she has received is from the Crown Princess.

That woman has been dead for ten years, yet she is still blessed with good fortune.

Fortunately, the room was dimly lit, and Aunt Quan couldn't see the unusual expression on Huiming's face. She then began to tell Huiming about what had happened at the temple. (End of Chapter)