good season

Chapter 194 Rescue (Two chapters combined)

Consort Qiao has been in a bad mood these days.

Just as his son was about to be named crown prince, a member of Prefect Huang's family suddenly appeared.

If it were anyone else, it would be fine; if persuasion failed, they would try to bribe them; if bribery failed, they would threaten them; and if threats failed, they would kill them.

But Huang's parents did not play by the rules. They risked their lives and went directly to the Dali Temple to beat the drum to appeal for justice.

The sound of the grievance drum alarmed the entire city. It could not be concealed or hidden. Moreover, Huang's father had lost three sons and his wife. He had long since disregarded life and death. He didn't even care about his life. What use was money to him?

No matter what Yan Xia finds out about this matter, the Third Prince cannot escape responsibility. After all, regardless of what happened before or whether anyone framed him, the final blow to Prefect Huang came from him, not from his judgment. Prefect Huang would not have succumbed to the shock, suffered a relapse of his heart disease, and died.

Although Emperor Yongjia favored the Third Prince, to put it bluntly, he had nine sons, and the Third Prince was just one of them.

If he were an ordinary father, he could indulge his favorites, but he was an emperor.

His preferences weren't something he could simply decide; they also depended on the opinions of civil and military officials, and the general public.

Besides, Emperor Yongjia's affection for the Third Prince was not to the point that he was willing to face public condemnation for him.

Fatherly love exists, but it's only slightly more than that of the other princes.

If we were to ask who in this palace understood Emperor Yongjia best, it would undoubtedly be Consort Qiao.

The more she learned, the more she realized that this matter was a difficult hurdle for the Third Prince to overcome.

However, having come this far, there was no turning back. Ahead lay a path paved with thorns, while turning back meant a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood. If they gritted their teeth and kept going, they could eventually overcome the danger. But if they gave up at this point, it would be like being shot through the chest by an arrow.

After much deliberation, Consort Qiao concluded that if there was anyone in the palace who could truly help her and her son, it would only be Consort Li.

Consort Qiao was shrewd and worldly-wise. Over the years, she never took advantage of the emperor's favor. Even though she had become an imperial consort, she still humbled herself before Consort Li. Even though Consort Li secretly cursed her as a vile and wicked consort, she would still give her a rare and kind look when she saw her.

As everyone knows, ever since the Emperor Emeritus left for Changshou Palace without giving any instructions, Consort Li's temper has grown worse day by day. After all, the Emperor Emeritus did not make her Empress before he left.

For example, right now, after cursing a few times about being a slut, Consort Li still put on a smiling face and summoned Consort Qiao.

Consort Qiao did not come empty-handed; she brought two newly made boxes of face cream.

These two boxes of face cream were not made using a recipe from the palace. Instead, they were purchased from outside the palace at great expense by Consort Qiao. They were tested on the faces of more than a dozen palace maids to ensure there were no problems before being presented to Consort Li.

"I heard that there was a woman in a remote mountain village who was nearly seventy years old, but looked only around forty. So I went to inquire and learned that her father, husband and son were all herbalists. At first, she just ground the herbs into powder and applied them to her face to keep her skin rough from the mountain winds. Over time, she got the hang of it and used the herbs more and more accurately. Year after year, day after day, she reached the age of being a great-grandmother, but she still looked young. However, she lived deep in the mountains, so this matter did not spread. Thanks to Your Majesty, my family actually found her and bought the prescription from her."

Consort Li usually disliked being called Consort Li, since she was not the Empress Dowager. The difference of one word made a world of difference.

Therefore, Consort Qiao simply addressed her as "Your Highness".

A rare smile appeared on Consort Li's face. She picked up a box of face cream, smelled it, and said, "The scent is light and pleasant."

She glanced at Consort Qiao, whose eyes were filled with anticipation, and asked casually, "What has the third prince been busy with lately? I haven't seen him come to the palace."

Consort Qiao sighed: "To be honest, Your Majesty, he has wanted to come to the palace to pay his respects to you for a long time, but he is currently in the eye of the storm. Let alone going to the palace, even going out for tea will cause people to gossip behind his back."

Consort Li snorted coldly: "Let him enter the palace tomorrow. I want to see who dares to say anything to him."

Consort Qiao hurriedly replied, "Very well, I will send someone to deliver a message to him, asking him to come to the palace tomorrow to pay his respects to Your Majesty."

As she stepped out of Consort Li's palace, Consort Qiao let out a long sigh of relief.

Finally, someone allowed the Third Prince to enter the palace.

Since the incident, Emperor Yongjia has not summoned the Third Prince, and the Third Prince has no excuse to enter the palace.

Fortunately, there was still Consort Li.

The next day, the third prince went to the palace to pay his respects to Consort Li.

Consort Li was not actually close to any of her grandsons. Although grandparents are often close to their grandchildren, they are still her own children. None of these grandsons were related to her by blood, so even if she wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to be close to them.

Relatively speaking, she was the best to the Third Prince.

Of course, he can't compare to a biological grandfather and grandson, but he's much better than other princes.

The main reasons are twofold: first, Consort Qiao is capable of handling affairs; and second, the Third Prince has been sweet-talking and charming since childhood.

Just like today, the Third Prince talked to Consort Li for a long time and made her very happy.

On the third day, Consort Li spoke highly of the Third Prince to Emperor Yongjia.

In short, she is old. Although she has a lot of grandchildren, the only one who truly cares for her is the Third Prince.

You are the emperor, so it doesn't matter who the crown prince is, they are all my grandsons anyway.

However, the court officials have already requested the appointment of the crown prince twice, and everyone in the court and the public believes that the third prince will be the next crown prince. Now that the third prince has an accident and can no longer be the crown prince, what will happen to him?
What Emperor Yongjia disliked most was the interference of the empress dowager in politics. Normally, he would have refuted it, but today, he remained silent.

Consort Li, observing the Emperor's expression, knew that she had actually spoken to his heart.

The emperor also had this idea.

Consort Li sneered inwardly. If I weren't worried that you would die before me, I wouldn't bother with these rotten things. They didn't even come from my womb.

But now, although she is old, she is strong and healthy. Compared to the emperor who looks tired all day long, Consort Li is confident that she will outlive her son.

Therefore, she was also willing to lend a helping hand to the princes who were close to her.

It's better for the third prince to be emperor than for the others.

For example, the fifth prince's mother was no good. She was not only cunning but also shrewish. Then there was the fourth prince's mother, Consort You, who was an eyesore. Just thinking that these two might become empress dowagers in the future made Consort Li want to scratch them to death.

It's so difficult for me to become Empress Dowager, why should I let you two lowly women have it so easy?
No!

Emperor Yongjia had no idea what Consort Li was thinking, but he felt pity for the Third Prince.

The Third Prince didn't actually commit a major mistake. No matter how he judged the case, it would be wrong. It was a setup, seemingly designed for Prefect Huang, but in reality, it was meant to drag the Third Prince into it.

The more Emperor Yongjia thought about it, the angrier he became. The person who had been framed was his own son. How could he not be angry?
In the following days, the Third Prince would enter the palace every day, sometimes tending to the flowers and plants for Consort Li, and sometimes searching for books for the Emperor in the library.

In fact, although the Third Prince entered the palace these past few days, he did not even see Emperor Yongjia. He saw Consort Qiao the most.

But to outsiders, it seems completely the opposite.

The third prince regained the emperor's favor, even more so than before. He used to not come to the palace every day, but now the emperor could not do without him.

When the news reached the Fifth Prince's ears, his brows furrowed deeply. He said to Eunuch Wang, "Send a message to the palace to find out what exactly happened."

At the same time, the fourth prince was also giving orders, but he didn't have any inside contacts in the palace. The only person he could rely on was his birth mother, Consort You.

Unfortunately, Consort You was truly useless. When the person sent by the Fourth Prince came to her for help, she stared in surprise: "What does he want to do? What else does he want to do? Go back and tell him that he is already crippled and should stop causing trouble."

Consort You's words reached the Fourth Prince's ears word for word, and he was so angry that he smashed a table full of porcelain.

Now, if he walks slowly, it's almost impossible to tell that he's lame. In addition, he has deliberately spread the word, so now everyone in the capital, from noble families and nobles to ordinary people, knows that his leg has been healed.

But Consort You still kept saying that he was crippled.

This is his own mother, the one who should be the one to hand him a ladder and help him reach the highest heavens.

Just like Consort Qiao, that's what a prince's birth mother should be like.

The fourth prince's eyes were piercing; in terms of birth mothers, he was clearly inferior to the third and fifth princes.

The third prince's mother was the Imperial Noble Consort, and the fifth prince's mother was the Consort Shu. Just by looking at their ranks, one can see which one the emperor favored more.

The fourth prince stroked his chin, thinking, "If only I could have a different mother."

You can't find a blood relative, but you can find a godparent.

Who is more suitable?

Consort Xian, Consort De?
Or was it Consort Hui?

Or perhaps, the Empress?

The fourth prince's eyes lit up when he thought of the empress.

The Queen had only one daughter; she had no sons!
Although legend has it that the emperor made her his empress because she had no children, what the emperor feared was her own son. But what if he wasn't her biological son?
That's true, she was the Empress, and all the princes born to her concubines were her sons.

In the future, they will all honor her as Empress Dowager.

So what difference does it make whether it's earlier or later?
The fourth prince perked up and said to his subordinates, "Go and investigate the Empress's family. Report on any recent developments, big or small."

A few days later, the Empress's family's affairs were discovered.

Nothing major happened, but there were quite a few minor issues.

The Empress's three nephews all failed the imperial examination.

The Empress had five nephews. Two of them had already received official positions through imperial favor at a young age, while the other three were still taking the imperial examinations. They were all promising students, and if they had passed this time, their family would have had three Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations). Unfortunately, none of them passed the examinations, and they became what the common people called "useless."

Therefore, the Empress's three nephews have been staying at home all day, reading.

The youngest of them was originally planning to get married after passing the high school entrance exam, but now that she has failed, the girl has become difficult and keeps causing trouble, leaving the young master in a state of utter distress.

The fourth prince sent people to investigate further, and what they found was astonishing. It turned out that the girl already had a childhood sweetheart cousin, and the two were secretly in love. Unfortunately, their families disapproved and forced the girl into an arranged marriage.

The other party is the Empress's nephew, and this marriage is not something she can simply cancel.

The fourth prince discovered that the young master was an extremely proud man. He had failed the imperial examination and felt ashamed to face anyone, so he almost hanged himself. Fortunately, the servants saved him in time, otherwise he might have already died.

The fourth prince was overjoyed upon hearing this and had someone bribe one of the young master's classmates. The classmate hurriedly ran to the young master and half-concealedly told him about the girl and her cousin.

Actually, the cousins ​​were only in the stage of exchanging glances, since both families were very strict and they didn't have the opportunity to get closer.

However, when this story came from that classmate, it conveyed one thing to the young master: the girl was already pregnant with his cousin's child, and the young master was being cuckolded.

Upon hearing this, the young master was so angry that he fainted.

After waking up, the young master went out of the house, covered his face with his sleeve, and walked around in front of his future in-laws' house.

It wasn't that he was deeply in love with the girl; it was an arranged marriage, and they weren't married yet, so there wasn't much affection between them. He just couldn't get over it and felt like he'd been played.

He wanted to confront the girl, but in the end, he covered his face and ran away.

On the way, he overheard one person say to another, "It's so shameful! If it were me, I definitely wouldn't have lived to see this!"

Yes, how can he possibly have the face to continue living?

His aunt was an empress, yet he failed the imperial examination, utterly disgracing his aunt.

Now, his fiancée is pregnant with another man's child, and the news has spread to the point that even his classmates know about it.

Soon, the whole city will know, and everyone will laugh at him. He is a loser, a complete and utter loser.

Without much thought, the young master leaped into the Flowing Light River.

The fourth prince was boating on the lake when he saw someone fall into the water. He ordered his servants to jump in and save the person. Unfortunately, although the two servants jumped in, they were obviously not good swimmers. Not only did they fail to save the person, but they also sank themselves.

The fourth prince was shocked and jumped into the water without saying a word.

When the Empress heard the news, the Fourth Prince had already rescued the young master, but he himself had developed a high fever.

The Empress was greatly alarmed and immediately sent her trusted eunuch to the Fourth Prince's residence to inquire about his whereabouts.

The details of that time were also investigated by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and sent to Emperor Yongjia.

The imperial physician advised the fourth prince to go out more. His health had greatly improved, and to fully recover, he couldn't rely solely on medication; he needed more exercise.

Therefore, the fourth prince not only practiced martial arts every day, but also rode out of the city on horseback or went boating.

Now that the weather is getting colder, the Fourth Prince often comes to go boating on the Liuguang River before it freezes over.

Boating is not just about sitting on a boat and looking at the scenery; it's about paddling yourself, which helps you build arm strength and endurance.

Yesterday, the Fourth Prince was rowing a boat when he happened to see the young master drown himself in the river.

The reason why the young master committed suicide by drowning was also found out: his fiancée had someone else in her heart, and coupled with his failure to pass the imperial examination, the young master couldn't think straight and jumped into the lake.

There were no flaws; the Fourth Prince's rescue was purely accidental.

However, the officials and military officers interpreted it differently, saying that the emperor was a good father and that the fourth prince was kind-hearted and chivalrous.