The imperial study was peaceful and quiet, with only the scent of ambergris burning by the window, which was elegant and had a hint of fragrance, very soothing and relaxing.
"Your Majesty, the Prince of Yun is here." A eunuch came in with his head bowed to report.
"Announce!" The emperor put down the memorial in his hand, a smile appeared on his pale face, he turned his head and coughed softly a few times, his eyes fell on Pei Yuanjun who was walking slowly towards him.
"Your Majesty!" Pei Yuanjun strode forward and saluted.
"Please sit down first!" The emperor waved his hand and said kindly.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Pei Yuanjun sat down on the side and looked up at Emperor Jingde. "What is the matter with Your Majesty?"
"I heard that you bumped into a young lady from an aristocratic family in the East Palace and injured her. How is she? The injury is serious. Do you want me to send a few more doctors to take a look? Don't let this delicate young lady get hurt. If something does happen, I can't explain it to my subjects, so I can only ask you to accept it."
Emperor Jingde said with a smile, his expression was a little tired, but very peaceful.
The chief eunuch Li Quan standing beside him also looked at Pei Yuanjun with a smile. After the emperor heard the news, he immediately sent someone to summon the Prince of Yun. Others did not understand the meaning of this, but Li Quan understood it clearly. The emperor really hoped that the fourth Miss Qu would be a little weaker, so that the emperor would have the opportunity to push the matter onto the Prince of Yun.
Compared with other princes, the emperor is more concerned about the marriage of Prince Yun.
If the prince can be persuaded to give in on the marriage, the emperor doesn't mind having one more lady.
"Your Majesty, it was really just an accident!" Pei Yuanjun explained with a cold face, his beautiful eyes showing a bit of displeasure, "I don't know how you bumped into me."
"It was just an accident?" Emperor Jingde raised his eyebrows, expressing his disbelief at Pei Yuanjun's words. Seeing Pei Yuanjun's face becoming increasingly cold, he said helplessly, "Even if it was just an accident, you can't let a good young lady bear such a reputation, right?"
"Your Majesty, the two of them didn't bump into each other, so how can there be a bad reputation?" Pei Yuanjun frowned and said impatiently.
"You know you didn't bump into him, but it would be bad if it got out. The lady also wants to have a reputation. If such bad words get out, how can she get married?" Emperor Jingde said with a smile, as if he wanted to put the blame on Pei Yuanjun.
"Your Majesty, it was really just an accident, and the incident happened in the East Palace. The prince will definitely discipline his subordinates." Pei Yuanjun said without giving in.
"But today is different from the past. Many people went to the Crown Prince's Mansion today. The Crown Prince is concerned about the Crown Princess, so he is not as clear-headed as in the past. Your matter, not to mention me, even the outside world has already known about it. Are you going to let the young lady live a secluded life from now on?"
The emperor refused to give in.
"Your Majesty..." Pei Yuanjun raised his handsome eyebrows, becoming more and more impatient, "Your Majesty, are you going to force me to return to the border?"
"Even if we go back to the border, we must take the person with us." Such a thing rarely happens, and the emperor does not intend to let Pei Yuanjun go just like that.
No matter how you look at it or think about it, there seems to be something wrong with this matter. If Pei Yuanjun really had no feelings for this young lady, he would never have asked people to help her up, and even sent a message to the prince to ask the imperial physician to treat her. This was the first time that Emperor Jingde heard that Pei Yuanjun treated a woman differently.
In this case, Jingde
The emperor would never let Pei Yuanjun marry him.
It is rare to find a woman who can make Pei Yuanjun treat her differently. Emperor Jingde has been looking for one for so many years but has not found one. He has repeatedly wanted to arrange a marriage for Pei Yuanjun, but he is unwilling. Emperor Jingde sees it and is anxious, but he can't force her to do it.
"If the emperor thinks it's ok to let her go to a nunnery to practice asceticism, then that's fine. She's just the daughter of a small minister." Pei Yuanjun said indifferently, leaning back, with a bit of displeasure, laziness and coldness on his handsome face.
This behavior is similar to his usual behavior. Could it be that there is really no meaning in it
Emperor Jingde looked at Pei Yuanjun hesitantly, wanting to confirm what he meant, but Pei Yuanjun's face had returned to its usual indifference.
"Prince of Yun, you are already an adult. When your uncle left the capital, he repeatedly asked me to find a good marriage for you. How come you haven't found anyone yet? I don't believe that there is not a single lady from aristocratic families in the capital that you like!"
Emperor Jingde said helplessly, frowning.
"Your Majesty, what father said was just a polite remark." Pei Yuanjun said indifferently.
"How could it be just a polite remark? Look, there is no woman in the palace now, not even as good as the Crown Prince. Although the Crown Prince had a deep love for the Crown Princess before, he still kept several palace maids by his side, although they had no official status." Emperor Jingde said earnestly.
"Your Majesty, these are all trivial matters. I have something to report to Your Majesty." Pei Yuanjun waved his hand indifferently, took out a memorial from his arms, stood up and presented it.
Upon hearing that it was an important matter, Li Quan hurried forward to take it, carefully presented it to Emperor Jingde, opened it for him, and then stepped aside.
Emperor Jingde took a look and his face straightened, "Is there any unusual movement in the northern border?"
"Yes, someone in Northern Xinjiang is plotting a rebellion. In the past few days, they have already reached the royal city of Northern Xinjiang. The King of Northern Xinjiang has asked us for help." Pei Yuanjun nodded.
"Should we rescue him?" The emperor read the whole letter quickly and asked after a moment of hesitation. In fact, this was not really a letter for help sent by the King of Northern Frontier, but information obtained by spies.
"The Northern Frontier has always been a major concern for us, and the King of the Northern Frontier has never been very respectful to us. Although we have defeated him time and time again, he still provokes us again and again, and sometimes deliberately says that it was done by bandits. At this moment, I think we should wait and see what happens. What do you think, Your Majesty?"
Pei Yuanjun said lightly.
Emperor Jingde thought about it, nodded, and handed the memorial in his hand forward, "Let you handle this matter. If there are any memorials from the Northern Frontier, please read them first and then report."
"Your Majesty, I obey your orders, but if the memorial from Northern Xinjiang is not delivered through the proper channels, I may not be able to receive it." Pei Yuanjun nodded. He had fought with Northern Xinjiang before and had a better understanding of its affairs.
He would actually prefer to see chaos in the Northern Frontier, to prevent the various tribes in the Northern Frontier from uniting and attacking. The people in the Northern Frontier have always been barbaric, and although they are a small united country, their military power is not small, and they have always been a hidden danger to the Great Zhou.
Besides, those people also fled to the northern border, which is a serious threat...
"I... know." Emperor Jingde nodded heavily. He knew what Pei Yuanjun meant. If it was a legitimate letter, it would be a letter from the country. But if it was a private letter for help, he would have to check it carefully. The affairs of the Northern Frontier seemed to be just the affairs of the Northern Frontier at the moment, but who knew when it would become...
About their own affairs.
The officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty never had a good impression of the Northern Frontier. No matter who helped the Northern Frontier to send letters privately, Emperor Jingde would not be happy.
"Your Majesty, it may not have been handed over directly. It may have been just an accident." Pei Yuanjun reminded Emperor Jingde implicitly again.
"I understand, you go and handle this matter!" Emperor Jingde's expression turned cold, with a hint of anger on his face. This so-called "accident" was of course not a real accident. It meant that there were people in the country who had a good relationship with Northern Xinjiang, or that Northern Xinjiang had people in Da Zhou and could even reach out to Da Zhou.
The meaning behind this is what Emperor Jingde hates to see the most.
"Yes, I'll take my leave!" Pei Yuanjun said, bowing to Emperor Jingde and preparing to leave.
"Wait a minute, how do you solve your problem?" Emperor Jingde hurriedly called him and asked with a serious face, not letting him get away with it.
"Your Majesty..."
Pei Yuanjun frowned helplessly, his handsome face full of displeasure, and it was very forced.
"Yuan Jun, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but this young lady is extremely pitiful. She lost her mother when she was young. I heard that Minister Qu didn't care about her at all. She also injured her eyes and couldn't make a living in the mansion. Her engagement was also broken off before. She looks extremely pitiful. Can you really bear to watch this young lady being sent to a nunnery?"
Emperor Jingde played the emotional card, looking sad for Qu Moying. He glanced at Pei Yuanjun and saw that he had stopped walking. There was a hint of hesitation in his eyes. Then he said earnestly: "Why don't you hint to the Qu family first? When your wife comes to marry, give her a concubine position. How about that?"
The daughter of the Minister's mansion, who also has an eye disease, certainly cannot be the principal wife of the Prince of Yun, but she can be a concubine. It is not easy to get Pei Yuanjun to agree, so how could Emperor Jingde let her go? Now that he has agreed to make her a concubine, would it be too late to marry a principal wife
As long as Pei Yuanjun gave in, everything could be discussed from then on. Emperor Jingde was afraid that he would insist that there was no woman he liked, and the marriage would be delayed again and again, with no one knowing when it would end. Now was a good opportunity, and he couldn't let it slip away. This was why Emperor Jingde immediately sent someone to summon Pei Yuanjun after hearing about this.
"Your Majesty, we can talk about this later, but in the future... this kind of thing should not happen again!" Pei Yuanjun said with a cold face.
If it wasn't the emperor's intention this time, he would never have gone there.
This incident was an accident, but it was more than just an accident!
"Okay, okay, let's talk about it later. There's no rush. I heard that Miss Qu is not very old." The emperor laughed and agreed all the way. He was very satisfied in his heart. Sure enough, this young lady from the Qu family was different from others. At least she didn't refuse outright, which was equivalent to accepting the matter.
This had never happened before, and the emperor was very pleased.
Pei Yuanjun had a gloomy face, turned around and strode away. Seeing him running away, Emperor Jingde smiled more and more gratified, and then he started coughing loudly, and his pale face turned red. He hurriedly served tea, then stood behind Emperor Jingde and patted him on the back.
"Your Majesty, don't worry, the Prince will definitely get better and better!" Li Quan whispered to comfort Emperor Jingde.
Emperor Jingde finally stopped coughing, looked at the door of the imperial study, sighed softly, and a trace of sadness flashed in his eyes, "I'm sorry for him!"