Emperor Zhaode took the lead into the Beique Hall. He first went in alone to see the situation of Queen Tao. After coming out, he summoned the Crown Princess to ask for details. The Crown Princess only replied a few words. Emperor Zhaode suddenly looked around and asked, "Where is Guo Baolin?" ?”
Guo Baolin is the former Aunt Guo, the biological mother of the longevity king Jiang Tianxiao.
Under Qin Chengrui's system, Baolin's position in the harem was not high and he was not qualified to be the head of the first palace. But she had the highest status among the concubines when Emperor Zhaode was still the Duke of Qin. This was because she gave birth to Emperor Zhaode's only concubine. The other concubines who had no children, no matter how favored they were, were only given the low-level status of beauties and talents.
This was not just because Emperor Zhaode was old and had a relatively low regard for beauty. Also because of the Jiang family's consistent style of prioritizing direct descendants over concubines, even if the middle palace has a master, they are not willing to let the side chambers get too much limelight.
Now that the queen was seriously ill, all the beauties and talents were there, but Guo Baolin was not there, and Emperor Zhaode asked him about it. Others just paid it back, but King Shou felt sweat on his forehead and was very worried.
There was a reason for Guo Baolin's absence. The princess said: "If I want to go back to my father, Guo Baolin caught wind and cold two days ago and has not recovered yet. So today I learned that my mother is unwell, and I am afraid that she will be sick if she comes to serve in person." When I felt angry with my mother, I sent someone from the palace to explain the situation to my daughter-in-law, but I never came."
Emperor Zhaode then nodded: "Continue to talk about your mother's condition!" But he did not mention that King Shou would go to Guo Baolin to take care of him.
After the report of the Crown Princess was finished, Emperor Zhaode ordered his daughters-in-law to serve Empress Tao well. Feeling that they had fulfilled their obligations as a wife, he asked Jiang Jinglang: "I still have some memorials that I haven't read before. You can make your own arrangements here. I’m leaving first!”
The prince hurriedly took the lead in sending him off.
Jiang Jingkun watched helplessly as his cousin was being taken away, and couldn't help but raise his voice and asked: "Great-grandfather, can the great-grandson be with the seventeenth brother?"
This question caused a silence in the palace. Brothers Jiang Yadan and Jiang Yashuang frowned slightly and were about to say something to smooth things over. But after Emperor Zhaode stopped and thought about it for a while, he actually waved to him, and then said to the prince: "Later. You go to Funing Palace to pick him up!”
Qiu Yilan stood at the bottom and peeked at her father-in-law's complex expression. She paused and said, "Yes!"
After Emperor Zhaode left with his two great-grandsons, the prince returned to normal and began to arrange service tasks for the male heirs. In the end, he did not arrange anything for King Shou, but said to him: "Baolin has been cold for three days. We haven’t seen each other yet, please go over and take a look! There are many of these people here, and there is no shortage of you.”
King Shou thanked him gratefully and left.
…Similar to the way the Crown Princess arranged for her female family members to accompany her at night, after the shift came out, except for those who wanted to stay that day, everyone else dispersed to deal with the matters at hand—the men on the man’s side were the Crown Prince himself and Jiang Yadan during the day. , but when Jiang Yashuang was about to resign, he was stopped by the prince, who snorted coldly: "The mansion you chose is so far away. It is said that many of the houses in it are not in good condition. Are they being tidied up these days?"
Jiang Yashuang lowered her hands and said, "Yes. But this is just right. I plan to rebuild it according to my own wishes."
"Then now you have to be busy with the palace and take care of several children, and you have to serve your royal grandmother. I wonder how you can keep up?!" The prince said angrily, "Go back and send the children to Dingxihou Mansion or Shi Eight! In case there are no two people in the house who can make the decision, something will happen!"
Qiu Yilan twitched the corner of her mouth and came out to report: "To tell my father, my wife had already sent all the children to Dingxihou Mansion when she entered the palace!"
After all, the prince was not as strict with his daughter-in-law as he was with his son. Hearing this, he nodded: "That's good!" He turned to Jiang Yashuang and said, "Go down!"
When Jiang Yashuang resigned, she turned to Jiang Yadan with fatherly kindness, "Dan'er, you should go back and tidy up, and bring some clothes."
Although Qiu Yilan heard that he was actually concerned about her husband and wife and their son, she was not happy to see the difference in attitude. As he was muttering in his mind, he suddenly heard Chu Yitong beside him say: "To tell you what my father is saying, my wife has already brought her husband's clothes when she entered the palace!"
"You are so attentive, kid!" The prince actually praised her after hearing this, but after saying this, his attention returned to Jiang Yadan. When the prince saw that the father and son were talking about the court affairs, she stood up and said: "We ladies, let's go sit in the side hall and leave them to watch during the day."
When they arrived at the side hall, the Crown Princess asked them to disperse and rest, and took the opportunity to summon the palace servants to ask, "What were the two of them arguing about before?"
The two daughters-in-law didn't know that their mother-in-law was trying to find out their true identities. After they went out, they both looked ugly, but this time there was no quarrel - after all, the father-in-law and mother-in-law were in the palace now, and Jiang Yadan was also there, and she was still quiet. Order it well, otherwise it will annoy the mother-in-law and they will be scolded at most, and it will annoy the father-in-law. It is inconvenient for the father-in-law to directly discipline his daughter-in-law, and he will have to blame his son!
The two sisters-in-law returned to the place where they lived with cold expressions - the terrible thing was that they still lived together - the queen lived alone in a palace, so there was no problem in letting them live in a room each. But they are here to attend to an illness, not on vacation. What if they live in such a comfortable place? So I squeezed into a room. The house is not small, enough for them and their maid to live in, but under one roof, you can imagine the atmosphere!
Fortunately, it was lunch time, and the two did not have a stalemate for long before the Crown Princess sent someone to tell them to come and have a meal together.
After finishing their lunch and rinsing their mouths, the two sisters were thinking about whether to talk to their mother-in-law and how to talk. The Crown Princess spoke first: "Yilan, you were late before. What did Yitong say?"
"..." The two of them were in a stalemate at the same time, looked at each other, and then said cautiously: "Mother, please listen to my wife's explanation..."
"Mother, it's like this..."
The Crown Princess sneered, interrupted their words, and said directly: "At that time, just pinching a few words was not enough, and then I went to put things away, and even started to use my hands?! You guys have taught me a lot! I know you are tolerant. , Grandma is lying on the bed sick, but she is still in the mood to fight over such a trivial matter! Those who don’t know it would think that all of us Jiang family daughters-in-law are unfilial, and we don’t take the old man’s illness seriously!”
The two of them suddenly understood and no longer defended themselves. They both confessed and then begged for mercy again.
"It's not surprising that you came here late today. Just like your father said before, there are so many houses in Beijing, who told you to live so far away?!" The Crown Princess first sneered at Qiu Yilan, "And the ones outside the palace are The elders are here, and you just came, and your sister-in-law said you shouldn't do it! Do you know what it means to be a mother-in-law? But not everyone in this world is a nineteen-year-old. It’s time for your children to know something!”
Qiu Yilan felt depressed and couldn't argue with her mother-in-law, so she said listlessly: "It's my daughter-in-law's fault. Please calm down my mother!"
"You're not good either!" The Crown Princess glanced at her coldly, then pointed the finger at Chu Yitong, scolding, "Don't think I can't see your little tricks! When Yilan was late, everyone except me and The imperial doctor is in the dormitory, and everyone else is waiting for the news. Are you the only one who saw her coming late? So many people didn't say anything, but you still wanted to bring it up. Is this because you were afraid that it would be embarrassing for us in the room? ?! Even if you want to remind your sister-in-law, you can’t do it in private!”
Chu Yitong also felt unlucky. There was obviously no one from the palace on the corridor where the quarrel was taking place. She didn't know where her mother-in-law knew about it. How could she know it so well? She lowered her eyebrows and said submissively: "Daughter-in-law, I know I was wrong, please forgive me!" I was thinking that if I had known this, I really shouldn't have taken action first, and I should have provoked Qiu Yilan to take action first!
She knew that although the Crown Princess pointed out that she knew they had done something, she did not mention it when they were scolding each other. The main reason was because she was the one who made the first move - she was the sister-in-law, and it was wrong to want to beat her sister-in-law, but where was the order of elder and younger? , it’s not too much. On the other hand, if Qiu Yilan hits her first, the problem will be bigger!
After listening to the Crown Princess's lesson with a sigh in her heart, she apologized to each other as requested by the Crown Princess. After that, the Crown Princess said coldly: "You know how I treat you as a mother! Whether at home or outside the home, As long as I can love you, I can't think of anything I can't do - I don't ask you to be filial and considerate to me. Anyway, I have no shortage of people to serve you! I just ask you to be more devoted to your husband and raise your children, and in addition, there is harmony between the sisters-in-law! "
She looked at her daughters-in-law sternly and raised her voice, "Next time, let me know that you are so ignorant... I won't embarrass you, just don't come to ask me for help in the future!"
"My daughter-in-law doesn't dare!" The two sisters hurriedly coaxed, "This time it was my daughter-in-law who was confused for a moment, but she will never do it next time! Please mother, please don't be angry again, everything is our fault!"
The Crown Princess reprimanded them sternly again, and then snorted: "Go back to the house and reflect on it!"
As they walked out the door in disgrace, the two sisters-in-law immediately glared at each other again - but this time they didn't say anything and didn't dare to quarrel again, they just snorted coldly in their hearts - they had only walked a few steps when they saw King Shou coming in a hurry. There was sweat on his forehead, and his expression could not hide his anxiety. When he saw them, he immediately asked: "Where is the Crown Princess? Will it be convenient for me to see you?"
"My mother is inside. As for whether it is convenient or not, we don't know." Chu Yitong calmed down and asked doubtfully, "Uncle Eighth, what's wrong with you?"
"Baolin is not well!" King Shou was upset, but thinking that it would be difficult to talk to the two nieces and nephews in the future, and not daring to look at the younger generation, he said a few words and hurried towards the side hall where the Crown Princess was. !
"Guo Baolin is still young and has never been a sickly person. Why is his health so bad?" Chu Yitong couldn't help but be surprised.
Qiu Yilan glanced at the palace people around her and said, "Yes, Baolin was fine the past two days!"
"You think Uncle Eight would be in trouble if he cared about you?"
"I guess, well, I hope both grandma and Baolin will get well soon!"
"It will definitely be fine!"
The two sisters-in-law walked away chatting as if they had never been in love, as if they had reconciled. When they reached a place where there were no palace guests, they suddenly stopped talking, as if the previous conversation had been nothing but joy. hallucination.
... This situation continued throughout the whole waiting process until the next day when the two of them handed over their shifts and left the palace. There was a section of road between Huijun Prince's Mansion and Chongjun Prince's Mansion that overlapped, but the two teams of carriages and horses were clearly distinct. , which shows how unfamiliar it is!
Up to this point it was just a personal feud between the two sisters-in-law.
However, none of them expected that King Shou's previous anxiety and worries would actually come true - just two or three days later, news came out from the palace that Guo Baolin had died of illness!
It was not a big deal for Baolin to die of illness. Because she died suddenly, Emperor Zhaode was busy, and Queen Tao, who had a more important position, also fell ill. Therefore, Emperor Zhaode did not even visit her in person during her illness before her death - none of these are important. What is important is that she is the biological mother of King Shou.
So after she died, King Shou had to observe filial piety.
As for the post of Minister of the Ministry of War that King Shou currently holds, of course he has to find a replacement.
"My son often walks to the Crown Princess when he has time to test the Crown Princess's tone of voice!" King Huainan sent a private message to his daughter;
"I am now the Minister of the Ministry of War. This time King Shou observes his filial piety, I don't know if I can be promoted?" This is Qiu Jinglan.