Chapter 1229: Chapter 36: Happy Debts (Part 12)
"...You!"
Princess Yinchuan was about to explode with rage.
Why was it that everyone she ran into was someone infuriating to this degree?!
She walked on again.
Su Yang continued to follow.
"If you keep following me, I’ll scream that you’re molesting me!" Princess Yinchuan ground her teeth as she spoke.
"..."
Su Yang lightly tapped Princess Yinchuan on the forehead with the folded fan in his hand.
So stupid it was almost impressive.
If she really shouted that, it would be like cooking the rice until it was done.
In the distance, the Nanlin Crown Prince had just finished his lessons and was walking this way hand in hand with his little Imperial Sister, Princess Zhaoning.
Princess Jing Mountain had been married to Zhao Xu for eleven years and had borne him two sons and a daughter.
The eldest son was conferred as Nanlin Crown Prince when he turned one; this year he had just turned ten.
His brows and eyes greatly resembled Zhao Xu’s, and every movement carried an air of nobility.
Their daughter, Princess Zhaoning, had just turned six; she was carved of pink jade, adorable no matter how one looked at her.
The second son was only two.
The Nanlin Palace was very quiet. Not long after Princess Jing Mountain married in, she became pregnant, and because she had Beimo behind her, if Beimo hadn’t pressured Nanliang back then, Zhao Xu wouldn’t know how much more suffering he would have endured to overthrow the old court.
The ministers left from the previous dynasty didn’t dare force Zhao Xu to choose concubines.
After the Eldest Prince was born and the court had stabilized somewhat, those ministers began to stir restlessly, wanting to stuff their daughters at Zhao Xu.
Zhao Xu suppressed them for two years and was tormented into a headache, so he finally yielded to those ministers and selected concubines.
He had promised Princess Jing Mountain that he would not take more than three concubines.
He summoned all the ministers’ daughters who had been pushing him to take concubines into the palace, let them fight among themselves, and then picked three from them.
During that period, the Beimo Capital was in a foul, smoky mess.
The ministers, for their daughters’ sake, fought each other to the death—you stepped on me, I stepped on you.
Zhao Xu simply sat on the mountain watching tigers fight, and took the opportunity to promote quite a few of his own trusted men.
In the end, the three chosen were all daughters of illustrious aristocratic families.
He did as the court wished and chose concubines to be sent into the harem, but after entering the palace for half a year, let alone seeing Zhao Xu’s face, it was hard even to catch a glimpse of Princess Jing Mountain.
Those ministers got anxious and urged the Emperor to spread his branches and leaves; with only the Crown Prince under his knees, his offspring were far too few.
They couldn’t voice the ugly words, but everyone was worried.
Especially whenever the Crown Prince fell ill, the ministers’ hearts and livers all trembled along with him.
If anything happened to the Crown Prince, there wouldn’t even be someone to inherit the throne.
But they had made Zhao Xu choose concubines, and Zhao Xu had chosen.
He didn’t favor anyone—were they going to make decisions about that too?!
Reaching their hands out that far, weren’t they afraid they’d get them broken.
Those concubines languished in the palace for three years, and while Princess Jing Mountain was pregnant with the Little Princess, Zhao Xu never stepped into their bedchambers even once.
They completely lost hope as well and voluntarily requested to leave the palace.
Zhao Xu was a broad-minded man; he had been waiting for this day.
Since they chose to leave of their own will, he had no reason to refuse. Remembering that they had blocked arrows for him for three years, he conferred them all as County Princesses and permitted them to return home and marry.
Not only did he allow them to marry, once their matches were decided, Zhao Xu even bestowed the marriages personally.
With their precedent, no more ministers lost their heads enough to push their daughters into the palace.
This time they were released after only three years; next time it might not be so easy.
The Emperor and the Empress were deeply devoted, the Crown Prince was robust, intelligent, and steady, and the Empress’s position was as solid as an iron bastion.
Why should they send a daughter into the palace to be an eyesore to the Empress and earn the Crown Prince’s resentment?
The ministers finally thought it through—
The Imperial Palace became especially cold and quiet.
Fortunately, another young prince was born, and Prime Minister Zhao and Princess Consort Ling were slightly relieved.
They themselves could not say such things as telling Zhao Xu to take more concubines, but they were also worried that Zhao Xu’s heirs under his knees were too few.
The Little Princess had few playmates. Every day when her Crown Prince brother went to lessons, as it neared dismissal, she would go to where he studied to pick him up, then go together to eat with Father Emperor and Mother Empress, and by the way play a bit with her little imperial brother.
In the heat, the shade of the trees here was dense. Afraid the sun would scorch his little Imperial Sister, the Crown Prince took her along this path.
The palace maids and eunuchs followed ten steps behind.
The Crown Prince hadn’t expected that aside from the two of them there would be others on this path, and his ears were sharp—he caught Princess Yinchuan saying "molesting."
The little face of the Crown Prince grew solemn.
This was the Imperial Palace.
In such an important place, someone actually dared harass a young lady?!
They really had the gall of bears and leopards.
"Men, seize him for me!" The Crown Prince pointed at Su Yang.
The two little eunuchs quickly stepped forward to grab Su Yang.
Su Yang, "..."
The two little eunuchs wanted to grab him?
Did he really look that weak?
Su Yang looked at the two eunuchs, then shifted his gaze to the Nanlin Crown Prince, Yuan Hao, who was walking over behind them.
Su Yang smiled and said, "You’re Yuan Hao?"
The Nanlin Crown Prince was stunned.
As the Crown Prince, aside from his own Father Emperor and Mother Empress, he had truly never experienced having someone directly call him by his given name.
The little eunuch scolded sharply, "Insolence!"
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