eurekapd Chapter 287: No Choice (2)
Chapter 287: No Choice (2)
The carriage from Prince Shen's mansion was the last to leave the palace. Zhou Yingning was asked by Fanghua to stay and take care of her, and even if Hu was unwilling, there was nothing she could do. Now thinking about everything that happened in Kunning Palace, it seemed like a dream.
Everything was fine at first. She had listened to that piece of music countless times, and when she knew it was about to end, she breathed a sigh of relief. She felt indescribably proud thinking that the whole capital would praise the Third Miss of the Prince's Mansion for her character, appearance and talent tomorrow.
But how could the string break? She checked it once when she left home and again before going on stage. She was also afraid that someone might tamper with it, so the zither had always been in the hands of a maid in the palace of the Concubine Xian.
Could it be true, as the imperial physician said, that Yingning used too much force and caused the strings to loosen and even break? How could this be possible? A weak woman was just pressing the strings, not chopping wood. How much force could she have used?
But how could it be explained otherwise? If it was just broken, it would be nothing, but the string was bounced away and injured Princess Fanghua.
Fortunately, it was just a scratch on the corner of the forehead, which was long but shallow. The imperial physician said that it would not leave scars if the medicine was applied properly, and he also prescribed some tranquilizers. When he left, Yingning was squatting there, boiling medicine with a wronged look on her face.
Zhou Yiheng sat at the head of the main hall of Junyueju with a sullen face. Mrs. Hu wiped her tears and recounted the whole story in detail.
Zhou Ming and Xie Fen couldn't believe it after hearing it. Xie Fen turned to ask Meng Wan, but Meng Wan shook his head and said nothing.
Zhou Zheng also sat there with a livid face. He rarely had such an expression. What happened today? Hongzhe had finally arranged the Chengtian Palace, but because Meng Juan messed things up, Meng Qi did not attend the palace banquet today, which caught them off guard. The whole plan was disrupted. More importantly, after King Jing received the news that Hongzhe was fully confident, he used a chess piece hidden deep in Chengtian Palace.
Without Meng Qi, the plot against Prince Rui was much weaker. Watching Prince Rui and Prince Duan leave the hall one after another, and then only Prince Rui came back without Prince Duan, Zhou Zheng had a bad feeling.
Things were not going well outside, and I didn’t expect that an accident would happen in the harem as well.
"Where is the piano?" Zhou Yiheng asked.
"It was smashed by Princess Fanghua on the spot." Mrs. Hu pressed her temple. That was the ancient zither that she had spent a lot of money to find. It was the only one in the entire Xia Dynasty.
"Did it fall?" Zhou Zheng turned his head and said, "Mom, have you and Third Sister confirmed that the piano is in good condition when you leave?"
"Of course, Madam Qin also gave her some individual instructions, especially on the final beat."
The shivering little girl kneeling on the ground crawled two steps to Zhou Zheng's feet. There was still blood on her forehead from the bump.
"I really checked it very carefully. Last night I even oiled it carefully and checked each string. I dare not be careless at all." The little girl crawled to Hu's feet again. "The princess also saw it with her own eyes. I handed the zither to the female official in the palace of the virtuous concubine."
Mrs. Hu looked at the girl holding the zither and waved her hands in disgust, "Lock her up first."
Mother Hong agreed and walked forward to drag the little girl out.
"That's strange. He was fine when he left home. Not only did this girl check him, but Madam Qin also checked him. Third sister even practiced twice and there was nothing wrong with him. When he arrived at the palace, it was the Empress Xianfei who took him over. Could it be..." Zhou Yu said with a smile.
"No, the virtuous concubine will not make mistakes," said Mrs. Hu coldly.
Zhou Yu clapped his hands and stood up. "Then we can only say that Third Sister is unlucky. Father, if there is nothing else, we should go back first. We haven't even had a hot meal all day."
Zhou Yiheng rubbed his forehead, "Why are you so anxious? What's wrong with Prince Duan? Do you know what happened? Why didn't I see him from the time he left the table to the end of the banquet?"
Zhou Yu was surprised. "What do you mean, father? I have been with Gao Yang and Li He the whole time. I don't even know when Prince Duan went out or when Prince Rui came back. You might as well ask my third brother instead of asking me."
Zhou Zheng looked up at Zhou Yu. On the way to Chengtian Temple after eating Yuanxiao, he heard those playboys talking about everything. Some of them even walked around the northwest corner. After they came back, they all looked mysterious.
If Li He was not the nephew of Concubine Xian and was not in the palace, he would have suspected whether Zhou Yu was doing something intentionally.
Seeing that Zhou Yiheng didn't respond to Zhou Yu's words, Xie Fen stood up and said, "Just now I heard from my second brother that I'm afraid everyone didn't eat well. How about my daughter-in-law ask the kitchen to make something hot?"
Zhou Yiheng nodded. Today's events were too unexpected. Halfway through the banquet, Prince Duan and Prince Rui left one after another, and the emperor did not ask much. After Prince Rui came back alone, he did not know what he said to the emperor. The emperor's face was already very unhappy. After hearing the news sent by Kunning Palace, the emperor stood up and left in anger.
Before he left, he seemed to say to the prince, "Take him there."
Because it was the harem, Zhou Yiheng and Zhou Zheng could do nothing no matter how anxious they were about Princess Fanghua being accidentally injured by Zhou Yingning. They could only wait. They were shocked, scared, hungry and tired.
"No need to bother you, sister-in-law. Let's go back to Qinghe Garden and have a bite." Zhou Yu went to see Zhou Yiheng after he finished speaking. Zhou Yiheng also knew that he couldn't get anything out of his son. "Let's go back. I really don't know what happened between Prince Duan and Prince Rui today. Let's wait and hear the news from the palace tomorrow."
Meng Wan stood up and followed Zhou Yu to bow and take his leave.
Mrs. Hu looked at Meng Wan's cloak and her head began to hurt again. Was she really reluctant to do it or did she know something?
After a while, Mother Hong directed the little girl to bring bowls of steaming hot shredded chicken noodles. Everyone, who had been hungry for a day, sat down and began to eat in silence.
Zhou Ming had already eaten, but he didn't want to just sit there, so he simply ate another bowl, while Xie Fen was busy serving food to the others.
After dinner, Zhou Yiheng sent Zhou Ming and Zhou Zheng back, leaving only the couple in the room.
"Your Highness, will Yingning be okay?" Hu asked worriedly.
"No, but it's inevitable. No matter what the reason, everyone saw Yingning hurt Princess Fanghua." Zhou Yiheng patted the armrest of the chair gently, "Unfortunately, the zither was smashed by Princess Fanghua, so there's no way to verify it even if we want to."
"Your Highness, do you suspect someone has done something wrong?" Hu thought of Fanghua, covering her forehead with her hands, and walked angrily to Zhou Yingning. She raised her hand to hit Zhou Yingning, but was stopped by Princess Yong'an who was following closely behind her. Fanghua turned around, picked up the zither and threw it to the ground.
"How else to explain it?"
"But you just saw that we didn't miss any link." Mrs. Hu was also puzzled. "The maid of the virtuous concubine has always been with the virtuous concubine. She has a good relationship with Princess Jing on weekdays. Princess Jing even asked her to pay more attention to today's palace banquet."
Zhou Yiheng nodded, "Maybe it's God's will. I didn't agree with you letting Yingning take the spotlight at the time. A young lady from the Prince's Mansion doesn't need it. It's just icing on the cake."
Hu heard the hidden anger in Zhou Yiheng's voice, and sighed, "I am doing this for the prince, and for our palace."
After saying that, she stood up and said, "Since I married the prince, I have been taking care of the inner house and the clan, so that the prince will not be distracted. Although I don't know what the prince is planning for the court, every time I hear something, I am always terrified and always want to do something for the prince."
Zhou Yiheng walked to the kang and sat down. That's right, the court is really changing now. No one can figure out the emperor's temperament, and no one dares to figure it out. Years ago, he almost punched a hole in the prince's head because of the disaster relief grain issue, but today he praised the prince in front of everyone, and even hinted that he wanted the prince to worship the ancestors on behalf of him during the Qingming Festival.
The emperor's several adult sons are all eyeing that position covetously, and each of them has a group of followers, all ready to take action.
When everyone knew that Zhou Zheng and Hong Zhe were close, Hu said that she had taken a liking to the youngest son of the Duke of Zhongguo's Mansion. Thinking of the Duke of Zhongguo's Mansion's status in the capital, he thought that he could be used. He wanted to make it impossible for people to see the movements and intentions of the Prince of Shen's Mansion.
Therefore, the more complicated the illusion is, the better.
But the Duke Zhongguo Mansion has always served the emperor, and their in-laws are not from the noble families or the princes and ministers. Zhou Yiheng is not optimistic about Hu's wishful thinking. But seeing that Meng Zewen is indeed a rare young talent, just like Hu said, he must give it a try.
Unexpectedly, the carefully planned palace banquet for Zhou Yingning to shine ended in disgrace. Outsiders would not think whether it was because of the zither, they only knew that Zhou Yingning pulled the strings too hard and injured the princess.
Who could have been hurt, but Princess Fanghua, a person who would rub her forehead and think she was unlucky whenever anyone mentioned her.
Princess Fanghua's mother was the emperor's cousin. Although they were five years apart in age, they were childhood sweethearts and had a very good relationship. After the emperor ascended the throne, she was given the title of Shufei. However, although this Shufei was loved by the emperor, she had no luck with having children. In more than ten years, she gave birth to three sons but failed to raise them.
Because of this, the emperor loved her very much. In addition, he had a deep affection for her since childhood. Even when the imperial physician said that she could not get pregnant again, the emperor still did not give up looking for medicine for her. Just when the emperor was thinking about adopting a child and raising it under the name of Concubine Shu, Concubine Shu was pregnant again. This was a surprise and fear for Concubine Shu, who was already 34 years old. After all, she was old. She was afraid that she would not be able to give birth to the child, and even more afraid that she would not be able to raise the child well.
Due to her old age and the fact that she had to take medicine all the time, Concubine Shu's pregnancy was not in good condition. She gave birth to Princess Fanghua before the full term. Because she had no strength, the midwife used too much force when pulling Fanghua out, causing her right foot to become lame.
The concubine Shu, who gave birth to Princess Fanghua, also passed away soon after. The emperor was very sad and took Princess Fanghua to Kunning Palace to raise her.