good season

In the past, whether they came to act as matchmakers or to recommend themselves, they would all gather in front of Nie. Nie was not only Zhao Tinghan's biological mother, but also the Princess of Liang, the most noble woman in Liang.

But the situation is different now. Nie refuses to see guests, which is equivalent to telling everyone that Nie is under house arrest.

So these people turned to Zhao Yunnuan. Although her brother's marriage was not decided by her sister, Zhao Yunnuan was not an ordinary sister. She was the eldest princess, and the eldest princess in charge of the royal guards.

She and Zhao Tinghan are twin siblings, and are closer than ordinary siblings.

If he could win the favor of this eldest princess, even if he didn't expect her to say good things to Zhao Tinghan, he could at least avoid her from interfering.

Therefore, when Zhao Tingxuan came over, this was the scene he saw.

A mother and daughter came out, and there were two or three more pairs of mother and daughter waiting to go in.

Zhao Tingxuan was stunned. Do these people all want to marry the eldest brother?

Don’t they know that Big Brother doesn’t have much time left?

In fact, ever since Zhao Tinghan moved into the royal mausoleum, there have been rumors among officials in Liang that the prince's illness may not be as serious as the legend says.

After all, if he was really dying, he would have no energy to manage government affairs. However, the documents sent from Wang Ling not only had Zhao Tinghan's personal comments, but also his seal.

Of course, you can also say that there was someone else who reviewed the documents and just used Zhao Tinghan's name, but it is true that Zhao Tinghan summoned officials to Wang Ling. Could it be that the Zhao Tinghan those officials saw was also fake?

It was precisely because of the private rumors among officials that the women in the harem had confidence, not the confidence of staying with the prince forever, but the confidence of being able to conceive a child before the prince passed away.

This prince might actually have the ability to carry on the family line, but let's give it a try. If he fails, can't he still be adopted?

In fact, if Zhao Tingxuan paid more attention to the outside news, he would easily guess that Zhao Tinghan would not die for a while.

However, perhaps because he had heard too much from Nie, the fact that Zhao Tinghan did not have much time left was already deeply rooted in his mind.

Therefore, when he learned today that many ladies from prominent families wanted to marry Zhao Tinghan, he was quite surprised.

Suddenly he thought of the royal family members in the capital who wanted to adopt a child for Zhao Tinghan, and his heart sank.

Yes, even if the eldest brother did not leave any biological children before his death, there were still many families in the royal family who wanted to adopt children under his name.

As long as there is such a child, no matter whether he is Zhao Tinghan's biological son or not, in the eyes of the emperor and the Zhao clan, this child is a member of the Zhao family, a descendant of the royal family, and he is qualified to inherit the throne.

Once the child inherited the throne, he, as the uncle, would do as his mother had said, take his meager family property and go to a county town far away from Liangdu, where the only people who would come and go would be minor officials and their families. Unless there was a wedding or funeral in the Liang Palace, he would have no chance to return to Liangdu.

Zhao Tingxuan didn't dare to think about it anymore, nor did he want to tell Zhao Yunnuan about the adoption. He just felt his head buzzing and wanted to go back to his own palace, but after a few steps he turned back and went towards Suining Palace.

In less than a moment, Zhao Yunnuan found out that Zhao Tingxuan came to Duanxiu Palace but did not enter.

At the same time, she also knew that Zhao Tingxuan's face looked very bad, and finally he went in the direction of Suining Palace.

Zhao Yunnuan immediately asked someone to investigate, and that evening, news from Suining Palace came back.

"A letter from the capital?"

"adopt?"

Zhao Yunnuan frowned slightly. She knew about the adoption, but who sent this letter?

Zhao Sheng took money to do the job, which was part of her and Zhao Tinghan's plan, but what about that letter?

The first thing Zhao Yunnuan thought of was the Duke of Weiguo’s Mansion.

Nie had only been to the capital when she was young, and she had such a personality. Even though the Nie family had a long history with the Duke of Weiguo's Mansion, there had been no news of any correspondence between Nie and the women of the Duke of Weiguo's Mansion over the years.

The Duke of Wei's Mansion and the Prince of Liang's Mansion were distant relatives, and they exchanged gifts during festivals. Every time the maids from the Duke of Wei's Mansion came to give gifts, although Nie would reward them, she had never summoned them alone.

If this letter did not come from the Duke of Weiguo's Mansion, then Zhao Yunnuan would have no idea who sent it to Nie.

"Check, check now!"

However, it was not easy to investigate this matter because the letter was not sent by post, but was sent by a special courier from the capital to Liang.

Even Nie's reply letter was taken away by the person who delivered the letter.

At this moment, Xiao Zhen, no, Master Zhen, who was far away in the capital, was sitting on the second floor of Ruyixuan, negotiating business with someone in that hard-to-book private room.

Sitting opposite him was a middle-aged man with a fair face and no beard, and coming with this middle-aged man were Deng Zheng, the eldest son of Duke Dingguo, and Zhu Qing, the second son of Marquis Baoqing.

Deng Zheng and Zhu Qing called the middle-aged man Mr. Wang.

Not long ago, Deng Zheng invested in a business of the Zhen family. In less than a month, he made 10,000 taels of silver. This water business is indeed very profitable.

Deng Zheng was different from those playboys in the capital. He was recognized as a promising son of nobles. Not only did he have a respectable job in the Jinwu Guard, but he also did not indulge in drinking, whoring or gambling. The biggest stain in his life was the incident when he accompanied the Fourth Prince on a hunting trip to Shiji Mountain, which resulted in one death and one disability.

Because of that incident, all the people who were traveling with him were severely punished. Not only was Deng Zheng fined one year's salary, but the originally designated position of pacification also fell into the hands of someone else.

The Duke Dingguo's Mansion simply let him reflect on his mistakes behind closed doors. Although they said reflect on his mistakes behind closed doors, they were actually just waiting for the emperor's anger to subside. Fortunately, as the news of Princess Jiayi's pregnancy spread, the emperor was very pleased and Deng Zheng regained his freedom.

The first thing he did after he came out was to find money.

There is no way. After something like this happens, it is too difficult to get out of it intact.

What outsiders saw was only that the emperor fined him one year's salary, but they didn't know that after the incident, the Duke Dingguo's Mansion gave 10,000 taels of silver each to the Princess' Mansion and the Fourth Prince's Mansion. That would have been fine, but the Fourth Prince's two shameless uncles found the Duke Dingguo's Mansion again and extorted 10,000 taels of silver. Together with the money they paid to bribe the emperor's close ministers and eunuchs, the total amount they paid was no less than 40,000 taels of silver.

Although Deng Zheng is the prince, the Dingguo Mansion has not been divided. If the money is taken out by the royal family, the other branches will definitely not agree. Even his mother will not agree. After all, he has four younger brothers, both legitimate and illegitimate.

So these 40,000 taels were Deng Zheng’s own money. In order to pay the compensation, he took out all the New Year’s money he had received since childhood, and even borrowed 8,000 taels from friends.

It is conceivable that the ten thousand taels that Master Zhen helped Deng Zheng earn was like timely help to him.

Zhu Qing, the second son of Marquis Baoqing who came with Deng Zheng, was from the Marquis Baoqing Mansion, where he lost the entire street and simply bought the gambling house to become the boss himself.

Unlike the infamous prince of Baoqing, the second son Zhu Qing is like a breath of fresh air among the children of nobles. He has been an excellent student since childhood and, like Deng Zheng, is a recognized good boy.

But Zhu Qing, like Deng Zheng, was short of money.

Baoqinghou Mansion is the richest among the nobles, but not everyone is eligible to enjoy the money of Baoqinghou Mansion. Baoqinghou's son is notorious, and he is also the apple of his grandmother's eye and his parents' eye.

He could use the money in the mansion at will, but his younger brothers could not.

For example, Zhu Qing’s monthly salary is ten taels.

Ten taels of silver might be a whole year's expenses for an ordinary family, but for Zhu Qing, who was in the aristocratic circle, these ten taels of silver were just a table of banquet at Ruyixuan.

The first person Deng Zheng thought of after making money was Zhu Qing. Zhu Qing had no capital, so Deng Zheng lent him money. Now they both do business with Master Zhen.

There are many people who want to get a share in the Zhen family's business. After all, the money can be made quickly. Although Master Zhen has repeatedly emphasized that they are doing a legitimate business, no one believes it. The Zhen family is the leader of pirates. If you say that they make clean money, I'm afraid only they themselves believe it.

But the Zhen family is able to launder dirty money into clean money. You can say they are lawless criminals or collusion between officials and businessmen, but the Zhen family has this ability. Those dirty money stained with blood will be laundered as cleanly as possible after passing through the Zhen family's boat.

Ordinary people could only treat this kind of thing as a topic of conversation after dinner, but the dignitaries in the capital immediately took action. The Zhen family's main family was too far away, but Master Zhen, as the spokesperson of the Zhen family, was now in the capital.

However, Master Zhen is very cautious in choosing his partners. To date, there are only three people who can truly do business with him and make money.

Deng Zheng and Zhu Qing solemnly introduced Mr. Wang. Although they did not mention Mr. Wang's background, their words were telling Master Zhen that the person behind Mr. Wang was of great importance.

Mr. Zhen knew what was going on, and he spoke about business with Mr. Wang in a neither humble nor arrogant manner, which made Mr. Wang very satisfied.

After leaving Ruyixuan, Mr. Wang returned to the mansion and went straight to see the fifth prince.

This Mr. Wang is Eunuch Wang, a close confidant of the Fifth Prince.

"What about that person?" the fifth prince asked calmly.

Mr. Wang said respectfully, "He is a sensible person who knows when to advance and when to retreat."

The fifth prince said, "Don't worry, let him go for now and we'll talk about it in a few days."

But after a few days, the Fifth Prince heard that the Third Prince's men had also gone to the private room in Ruyixuan.

Now that private room has been booked by Master Zhen.

The fifth prince said in a cold voice: "Didn't he go to review the troops? He is not in the capital, but he still wants to reach out to us."

The "he" that the fifth prince mentioned was, of course, the third prince who recently inspected the military camp on behalf of the emperor.

Although the princes seem to be in a good position, in fact each of them is very short of money.

They have to maintain retainers, win over court officials, and support some people who are not visible to the public. All of these require money, and the rewards given by the palace are simply a drop in the bucket.

Ever since Master Zhen appeared in the capital, the Fifth Prince began to pay attention to him and sent people to Fujian to investigate the eighteen generations of Zhen family's ancestors.

Of course, this is an exaggeration. The Zhen family has been pirates for generations, and it is not difficult to find out.

The Fifth Prince was very cautious. He even chose to send Mr. Wang to meet Master Zhen when the Third Prince was not in the capital.

Unexpectedly, although the third prince was not there, he had a backup plan.

The Fifth Prince was very angry. The capital he was going to use to do business with Master Zhen was raised by Concubine Shu, a total of 50,000 taels. With this money, he could support another hundred or eighty people on the farm.

The fifth prince decided not to wait any longer, so he sent Mr. Wang to meet Master Zhen.

This time, the talks between the two sides went very smoothly. The day after Mr. Wang delivered the silver, the Fifth Prince received a tip-off that the people sent by Master Zhen had already gone to Fujian.

At the same time, a guest came to the famous haunted house, Su Ji Teahouse, located in Xiaoshiqiao.

The guest was a fat old man with white hair and beard and a big belly. He was leaning on the rattan chair used by Su Datou, swinging his feet and eating melon seeds, spitting out the shells all over the floor.

This was the scene that Master Zhen saw as he came in. He walked around the melon seed shells with disdain and found a slightly cleaner place to sit down.

"Why are you here with me instead of enjoying yourself in the land of comfort?"

The fat old man sighed: "Although the land of gentleness is nice, those beauties get pregnant too easily. Xiao Cui and Xiao Hua are both pregnant. Alas."

Master Zhen: "Isn't this good? You have so many sons, you can raise two more."

The fat old man: "It's no use giving birth to so many useless sons. I will send all those sons to your house and exchange you with your father. This way I can die without regrets."

Master Zhen: "You wishful thinking, you want my father to raise your son for you? My father is poor, he can't even support me. Oh, now I am your son, you can die without regrets."

"You little rascal, how do you talk to your godfather? By the way, where did the newly received 50,000 taels come from? Which prodigal son sent it to you?" asked the fat old man.

Master Zhen: "Then don't worry about it. Anyway, it's either rich or noble."

Fat old man: "They don't have to be rich, they just have to be expensive. No matter how rich they are, they are not as rich as me."

He sniffed: "Cheap, I have an idea, I don't know..."

Master Zhen shook his head: "No!"

The fat old man felt very aggrieved, he really liked this adopted son, but when his son frowned, he was a little scared.

This old man is the famous Mr. Zhen Wuduo.

No one would have thought that he was in the capital. As early as when he heard the news of Xiao Zhen's "death", he had quietly come to the capital.

He is Xiao Zhen's godfather, and even Princess Jiayi and Prince Consort Xiao don't know about this.

That year, Xiao Zhen secretly went to Wu to meet his cousin. On the way back, he met Old Man Zhen. Old Man Zhen fell in love with him at first sight and said frankly that this was the girl of his dreams (son's son). He forced Xiao Zhen to be his adopted son at an age when he was old enough to be Xiao Zhen's grandfather.

Over the past ten years, although the father and son seldom met, they kept in touch through letters. Zhen Wuduo had many sons, but Xiao Zhen was the one who suited his temper the most. Upon learning that Xiao Zhen had died, Zhen Wuduo was so sad that he didn't eat meat for several days and lost several pounds.

However, after he saw the living Xiao Zhen, the few pounds he had lost gained back many times over.

"You little brat, you didn't even let me finish my words. I wanted you to accompany me to Wudi, and that's not even possible?" Zhen Wuduo said aggrievedly. (End of this chapter)