On the second day after Xiao Qiheng's legs healed, Emperor Yuan ordered him to return to court. On that day, the East Palace received countless gifts from all parties, and brocade boxes containing treasures, medicinal materials and other rare products occupied two tables.
After many years of absence, Xiao Qiheng once again stood in the court, and Xiao Qiheng did not have the slightest timidity. Regarding Yuan Emperor asking him to analyze the matters reported by the ministers, he talked eloquently, and his words must be right, and he made a lot of targeted suggestions, which won the favor of the ministers. Unanimous praise.
Emperor Yuan was also very satisfied with his performance, and the court praised him several times, and entrusted him with all the important matters of receiving visiting envoys from other countries.
When Xiao Qiyun, who was recuperating in the palace due to his injuries, learned of this, he was so angry that he smashed everything in the room that could be smashed, and the people who were serving in the room that day were beaten to death by him.
Half a month later, a corruption case broke out in Jizhou. The amount was shockingly huge. It not only involved several powerful officials in the court, but also some princes in the palace, such as the sixth prince Xiao Qiyun.
Jizhou is located in a desolate place, and it has been suffering from disasters in recent years. The imperial court provides disaster relief every year. Every year, the local government and disaster relief officials report that the disaster situation has been brought under control.
However, in the corruption case that broke out this time, almost all the silver taels from the imperial court for disaster relief in the past two years have entered the pockets of the officials on the list.
There are many officials involved in this corruption case, Emperor Longyan of the Yuan Dynasty was furious, and ordered a thorough investigation of the case. Because there were two officials supported by Prime Minister Wang, even Prime Minister Wang was suspended from the Fuchu, waiting for the matter to be clarified.
"Bang!"
The exquisite teacup hit the ground and broke into several pieces, and the tea was scattered all over the floor.
The maids and eunuchs serving in the palace knelt down one after another. Eunuch Chen gestured for someone to come forward to clean up, and then comforted in a low voice: "The emperor calm down, don't hurt the dragon's body."
"Calm your anger?!" Emperor Yuan was full of anger, and swept away the folders in his hand, "What kind of dirty things are these bastards doing?! When the matter is found out, I will behead them all!"
At this time, a foreign servant came in to pass the news, saying that Concubine Xuan came to see her and was waiting outside the palace.
Eunuch Chen breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the words, and said to Emperor Yuan, "Your Majesty, Concubine Xuan is here."
Concubine Xuan was pregnant in five months at this time, Emperor Yuan took great care of her, so naturally he would not take his anger out on her, and would not let her go for nothing, restrained his anger, and waved to Eunuch Chen.
Eunuch Chen understood and asked people to clean up the memorials on the ground, while he walked quickly outside the hall, invited Concubine Xuan in, and waved others to go down.
"Your Majesty." With the support of the palace maids, Concubine Xuan walked in front of Emperor Yuan, and smiled slightly, "My concubine pays my respects to the Emperor."
"My concubine is free." Emperor Yuan quickly walked down from the desk, took her hand and sat down beside him, "You are pregnant, how could you still come here?"
Concubine Xuan laughed and said: "The concubine heard that the emperor's appetite has not been very good these few days, so I specially stewed some appetizing orange peel and sake soup to appetize the emperor."
As he spoke, he raised his hand to ask the waiting maid to bring up the food box. Eunuch Chen wanted to step forward to take over, but she waved her hand, took out the food herself, put it in front of Emperor Yuan, and said softly, "Your Majesty, have a taste."
Her craftsmanship is excellent, and the things she delivers every time are also very appetizing to Emperor Yuan. The sour clear soup with the aroma of sake makes people smell the depression in their hearts.
Emperor Yuan relaxed after drinking a cup, patted her hand, and said: "Let the servants do these things in the future, don't tire yourself."
"The people below always can't grasp the heat, and they are afraid that the emperor will not be used to drinking." Concubine Xuan said, her eyes casually glanced at the notes on the case, showing worry, "The emperor is always worried about state affairs these days. It is naturally good to have the world in mind, but Also take good care of your dragon body."
Speaking of this, Emperor Yuan thought of those troubles again, and snorted heavily: "I really gave birth to a group of good sons, who dared to touch the money for disaster relief, and now all the people in Jizhou and even the world are calling me stupid! What a bastard!" thing!"
"Your majesty, please don't say that. Over the years, under your governance, the world is peaceful, which is something everyone knows." Concubine Xuan comforted, "It's just that it's natural for you to take care of the world's affairs by yourself. It's not your fault if you can't take care of it, so don't get angry and ruin the dragon body."
Under her persuasion, Emperor Yuan calmed down a bit, but still said: "There is no one who makes me feel at ease!"
"How could it be? The concubine heard that His Royal Highness entertained foreign envoys this time, and he did a very good job. The envoys were very satisfied. They praised my courteousness and thoughtfulness, and repeatedly praised His Royal Highness for being young and promising." Xuan Guifei said .
Speaking of entertaining foreign envoys, Emperor Yuan was also very satisfied, nodded and said: "This is actually, that is, Qiheng let me rest assured."
"It's all because the emperor taught you well." Concubine Xuan said with a smile.
Her words not only praised His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, but also attributed the credit to Emperor Yuan, which was really reassuring to hear. Eunuch Chen heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Emperor Yuan's expression relaxed a lot.
Concubine Xuan stayed for a while and then left. After she left, Emperor Yuan pondered for a while, and drew up a pen to draw up an imperial decree, ordering Xiao Qiheng to be in charge of disaster relief in Jizhou this year, and to leave in two days without any mistakes.
When the imperial edict arrived at the East Palace, Xiao Qiheng was playing chess with Jiang Li. Hearing the summons, he put down the chess pieces in his hand and went out to receive the edict.
After the imperial decree was read out, Eunuch Chen said: "His Royal Highness, accept the decree."
"My son accepts the order." Xiao Qiheng respectfully accepted the imperial order, stood up, and nodded to Eunuch Chen, "Thank you, Eunuch Chen."
This situation was somewhat familiar, and it reminded Eunuch Chen of the last time he went to the Qinghe Hall to proclaim the decree. In less than two months since that time, Xiao Qiheng was no longer the down-and-out prince with crippled legs.
Remembering what the other party said at the beginning, there are still many places to rely on him in the future, Eunuch Chen thought, maybe it will be the other way around.
"His Royal Highness, you are being polite, this is the duty of a slave." Eunuch Chen smiled, his smile was a little more sincere than the previous politeness, he didn't stay too long, and returned after a few greetings.
Xiao Qiheng turned around with the imperial decree, Jiang Li followed behind him, and Xiao Luzi held him back: "Brother Jiang, should we pack up now?"
Everyone in the East Palace knew that Jiang Li was deeply trusted and loved by Xiao Qiheng. Everyone obeyed him, including Xiao Luzi.
"No, you can go to your own business first." Jiang Li said, in fact, his and Xiao Qiheng's things had already been packed two days ago.
Xiaoluzi let out an "hey", turned around and went down.
On the other side, Xiao Qiyun was ordered to be confined in the palace because of his involvement in the corruption case. Now that he learned that the disaster relief matter was handed over to Xiao Qiheng, he was furious. He picked up the teacup at hand and threw it on the head of the eunuch who came to report: " Get out of here!!"
The eunuch was afraid that he would kill again in his rage, so he scrambled out without caring about the bleeding wound on his forehead. In a panic, he bumped into the seventeenth prince Xiao Qiwen at the door, and quickly knelt down to plead guilty: "The slave has no eyes, His Highness the Seventeenth, spare me!!"
Xiao Qiwen waved his hand, motioned him to go down, and walked in: "Brother Liuhuang, what's wrong? Are you so angry? Don't be so angry."
Xiao Qiyun had a gloomy face: "You still have the face to ask me what's wrong?? Do you know that the emperor has ordered Xiao Qiheng to go to Jizhou for disaster relief?! But I can only stay in this palace without leaving!"
"So it's because of this." Xiao Qiwen smiled and said indifferently, "I don't know what is the big deal that makes you so angry."
"Is this still a trivial matter?!" Xiao Qiyun slapped the table. If his leg was not injured, he would have stepped forward to kick Xiao Qiwen to calm down, "In the case of Jizhou, my father grounded me, and my grandfather is waiting for trial in the manor. , you still think this is a trivial matter?!"
"Brother Six Emperors, don't be angry, I haven't finished talking yet." Xiao Qiwen comforted, walked over and closed the door, and said in a low voice, "Isn't His Highness the Crown Prince's trip just an opportunity for us?"
"What do you mean?" Xiao Qiyun frowned.
Xiao Qiwen said: "It's a long way from Kyoto to Jizhou, if something happens accidentally..."
He stopped here, looked at Xiao Qiyun, raised his hand and stroked his neck lightly, making a gesture.
Xiao Qiyun came to understand, his face changed from cloudy to sunny, he touched his chin and sneered, as if he had seen Xiao Qiheng's decapitated appearance: "Xiao Qiheng, I want to see how capable you are."
"So, then the younger brother will go to arrange it?" Xiao Qiwen said.
"Go." Xiao Qiyun had a strong killing intent in his eyes, "Be sure to let him go and never return."
"Naturally." Xiao Qiwen nodded, and when he turned around, with a mocking smile on his lips, he silently cursed "Idiot" and walked away briskly.
at night.
Xiao Qiheng shook away the letter from Zhao Qing, sneered after reading it, and handed it to Jiang Li.
Jiang Li took a look and sighed: "If you don't do it, you won't die."
"What?" Xiao Qiheng looked at him inexplicably, and he found that Jiang Li often inadvertently said some new terms that he hadn't heard before.
"It's a description that means looking for death in a hurry." Jiang Li explained.
Xiao Qiheng asked: "Is it a common saying in your hometown?"
"Yeah." Jiang Li nodded and said with a smile, "We still have a lot of slang, such as cheating, envy, jealousy and so on."
Xiao Qiheng looked at the smile on his face with a trace of nostalgia, stretched out his hand and pulled him into his arms to sit down, and said, "Do you miss your hometown? Let's go back and have a look after we're done."
"Huh?" Jiang Li didn't expect him to say that, and looked up at him, "Go back?"
"Yeah." Xiao Qiheng lowered his head and kissed the tip of his nose, "I also want to visit the place where you were born, and offer incense sticks to your parents."
I want to see the place where you were born and offer incense to your parents.
His words made Jiang Li a little distracted, thinking of his own things in the real world.
I died in an accident. I don't know what happened to the manager, who helped to dispose of my body after death, and whether it was buried next to my parents.
"What's wrong?" Xiao Qiheng noticed his emotional change and asked aloud, "Don't you want to go back?"
"No." Jiang Li shook his head and sighed, "I thought so."
If possible, I also want to take you back to see the place where I was born, and I want to take you to offer incense to my parents.
if you can.