good season

Chapter 34 Return to Beijing
One lie must be covered up with countless lies.

This sentence is reflected in Princess Jiayi and Prince Consort Xiao.

Therefore, Xiao Yue thought that he was born in a drama troupe and even performed on stage.

With such an origin, even if the father's family is prominent, the family will not be accepted.

The reason why Xiao Yue never asked about his own life experience again was because he was sad and had given up on himself.

He was very smart, but he refused to use his intelligence on studying. When he was nine years old, he quietly left home and became a disciple of the famous actress Xiao Huangying. He stayed in the troupe for half a month until Prince Consort Xiao found him.

From then on, he truly became a laughing stock in the capital.

When Xiao Zhen thought of the admiration in Xiao Yue's eyes when he looked at him, his heart ached.

Xiao Zhen didn't know how he left the Observatory, and he tossed and turned that night.

The next day, the Prince of Liang's palace sent someone to deliver the news that the angel had arrived.

Princess Jiayi and Prince Consort Xiao, dressed neatly, finally walked down from the Observatory and went to Prince Liang's Mansion to pay their respects.

However, Princess Jiayi looked haggard and without any makeup, and Prince Consort Xiao had dark eyes. The couple looked like completely different people compared to when they first came to Prince Liang's Mansion.

However, all the guests who came to pay their respects could understand it, as they had all received the news that the eldest princess's son Xiao Zhen had passed away.

The saddest thing in the world is seeing the young die before the elderly.

Although the eldest princess and Prince Consort Xiao are not yet old enough to have gray hair, Xiao Zhen is their only legitimate son.

The eldest princess was staggering and nearly fainted several times. After a quick condolence, she returned to Wisteria Villa accompanied by Prince Consort Xiao.

In addition to Eunuch Peng who read the imperial edict, the other people who came to Liang this time included clan leader Zhao Chen.

The great-grandfather of Zhao Chen and the great-grandfather of King Liang were brothers. Although he was twenty years older than King Liang, they were of the same generation.

Although he was not the oldest in the royal family, his branch had lived in the capital since the founding of the dynasty and enjoyed high prestige among the clan members. Therefore, starting from the generation of Zhao Chen's grandfather, the position of clan leader came from their branch.

Zhao Chen brought a handwritten letter from Zhao Tinghan, the prince of Liang. Zhao Tinghan was already frail and sickly. He fell ill upon hearing the bad news about his father and was unable to return for the funeral.

As for the people in Prince Liang's Mansion, after hearing the news, they had different thoughts.

The kings of Liang in all dynasties started building their mausoleums at the age of 35. King Liang is 41 years old this year, and his mausoleum was just completed last year. Perhaps even King Liang himself did not expect that he would move in so soon.

The envoys sent by the other princes have all arrived.

Three days later, Prince Liang had a grand funeral. Since the eldest son Zhao Tinghan did not come back to attend the funeral, the second son Zhao Tingxuan became the one holding the pots and banners.

Long after the funeral, the incident was still being discussed.

Zhao Tingxuan's waving of the flag was like a signal, indicating that the succession of the Liang Palace might change.

Right after the funeral of Prince Liang, Zhao Chen and Eunuch Peng returned to the capital, along with Princess Jiayi and Prince Consort Xiao.

As everyone knows, the Princess and Prince Consort Xiao should have returned to the capital long ago, but were delayed until now because of Prince Consort Xiao's illness. Who would have thought that she couldn't even see her son for the last time.

Other guests also said goodbye. On the official road outside Liangdu, teams of carriages and horses galloped past, raising a cloud of dust. After the death of King Liang, the people of Liang mourned for 28 days. Although the mourning period had not yet passed and the sound of drums and music could not be heard in the city, the people still had to work hard for their lives, such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, and the fireworks of the world.

Only the Prince Liang's Palace, shrouded in mourning, remained silent.

After the funeral, Princess Nie of Prince Liang fell ill.

This time she claimed to be sick not only because the eldest princess Zhao Yunnuan did not allow her to come out, but she was indeed ill.

It was more likely that Nie's illness was caused by fright rather than excessive sadness.

That day, Nanny Zhang hanged herself in her room. Zhao Yunnuan did not have anyone take her body down, so when Nie rushed over, all she saw was the corpse dangling from the beam.

Nanny Zhang’s body was hung in Suining Palace for a whole night!
During this time, Nanny Zheng asked the eunuch to take the body down, but before the eunuch could do anything, he was stopped by people sent by Zhao Yunnuan. Zhao Yunnuan wanted to hang the body here so that everyone in Suining Palace would be afraid to look at it.

The body was not carried away until noon of the next day. Although the body was gone, no one dared to enter the room where Nanny Zhang had lived.

From then on, Nie had the same dream every night. In the dream, she walked into the room where the corpse was hanging. When she looked up, she saw Nanny Zhang grinning at her with a weird smile.

It's interesting to say that Nie knew that Nie Qionghua had instructed Nanny Zhang, Aunt Li and others to poison King Liang, and she also witnessed with her own eyes the tragic scene of Nie Qionghua being eaten by rats. However, the one who gave her nightmares every night was neither King Liang nor Nie Qionghua, but Nanny Zhang, whom she usually didn't even bother to look at.

Due to fear and insomnia, Nie fell ill.

Upon learning that she was ill, Zhao Yunnuan and Zhao Tingxuan both came to take care of her.

The so-called attending to the sick was nothing more than taking the medicine bowl from the maid and bringing it to her bedside.

But even if it was just a small favor, Nie was reluctant to let Zhao Tingxuan stay here.

"With your elder brother away, the palace will rely on you. Don't come to the East Road all the time. You should seize the time to get closer to Zuo Changshi and the other local officials. You should meet them while they are still in Liangdu."

Zhao Tingxuan was overwhelmed. As the second son in the palace, although his elder brother was not around, he had lived in his elder brother's shadow since he was a child. Neither the palace officials nor the local officials took him seriously. Their attitude towards him was polite but distant, and he didn't want to deal with them.

He would rather stay in Suining Palace to take care of his sick mother.

But Nie did not allow him to stay here, so Zhao Tingxuan had no choice but to leave Suining Palace.

Watching Zhao Tingxuan's departing back, Zhao Yunnuan smiled and said to Nie: "Mother, please stop worrying. I don't think my second brother is thinking about this."

Nie glared at her, then suddenly remembered something and asked, "Where's Qingqing? Why didn't she come to take care of him? Come to think of it, I haven't seen her in the past two days."

Zhao Yunnuan said calmly: "I asked her to go back to Baihe Mountain."

"What?" Nie sat up and stared at Zhao Yunnuan in disbelief. "You asked her to go back to Baihe Mountain at this time?"

Zhao Yunnuan: "Does mother want her to come and take care of you? You have me and Axuan, and so many maids and servants, do you still need her to take care of you? If you think you don't have enough people to serve you, I will transfer another 20 or 30 people to you."

Zhao Yunnuan was about to go and mobilize people, but Nie quickly signaled to let Madam Zheng stop her.

She was not stupid. By agreeing to Zhao Yunnuan transferring people over, she meant that she had tacitly agreed that Zhao Yunnuan would keep spies around her.

Zhao Yunnuan said: "Since mother thinks that there are enough people, then I don't need to mobilize the army. Mother, just focus on recuperating. You have Zuo Changshi in the palace and me in the army, so mother can rest assured."

(End of this chapter)