"Minister Qu, you are not arranging this marriage for Fourth Miss Qu, are you?" Pei Yuanjun sneered. There was a kind of cunningness in his eyes that made people afraid to offend. The bloodthirsty aura made Qu Zhizhen's heart tremble.
"This... The marriage is indeed between my daughter and Mr. He San." Qu Zhizhen tried hard to maintain his dignity as a minister and steadied his breathing.
"Is the fourth young lady of your family still able to get married?" Pei Yuanjun curled the corners of his lips sarcastically, and that corner of his lips made Qu Zhizhen inexplicably think of the blood in the cell just now.
"Why... why can't my daughter get married?" Qu Zhizhen asked with a smile, lowering his head, not daring to look at Pei Yuanjun's extremely beautiful face.
"Didn't Lord Qu know about the fact that Concubine Qu invited Fourth Miss Qu into the palace and sent a nanny to take care of her?" Pei Yuanjun asked lazily.
"I know about that."
"When we were in the East Palace, the fourth young lady of your family bumped into me, and then the Dowager Concubine summoned the daughter of the Qu family into the palace and sent a nanny to take care of her. Lord Qu, didn't you make any connection to it?" Pei Yuanjun sneered.
Qu Zhizhen clenched his hands under his sleeves, raised his head in astonishment, and looked at Pei Yuanjun: "Prince...Prince..."
"You still don't understand now, so why should we invite the fourth young lady into the palace?" Pei Yuanjun looked at Qu Zhizhen and asked slowly, with the corners of his thin lips slightly raised.
Qu Zhizhen looked at Pei Yuanjun in disbelief, opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.
"Sir Qu, do you think the fourth young lady of your family can still get married?" Pei Yuanjun asked lazily.
"What does the prince mean..." Qu Zhizhen asked tentatively.
"It's not my intention, it's the palace's intention. Lord Qu is able to become the Minister, which shows that he is a talented person. Do you want me to explain it more clearly?" Pei Yuanjun waved his hand elegantly.
Qu Zhi looked at Pei Yuanjun in shock and doubt. Although Pei Yuanjun was lazy, he did not have the slightest intention of telling a joke. Besides, it was impossible for this person to tell him such a joke.
"Yes... I... I understand." He said hurriedly.
"Your Excellency, the Minister understands, but I think this young man of your house is not a wise man. He may fail because of this one day. For an official, a pair of eyes is very important. What he can see determines how far he can go. If he can only see the inner courtyard, no matter how talented he is, it will be useless. I believe that your Excellency, the Minister, does not need me to tell you this!"
Pei Yuanjun narrowed his eyes, and there was a faint light in his eyes.
Qu Zhizhen stood up suddenly, the hairs on his back standing up: "Your Highness, I am just young and ignorant."
"Ignorant? Even your youngest daughter is married, and he, as her elder brother, is still young and ignorant. Has he been ignorant for too long? How about I work harder and help the Minister to discipline him?" Pei Yuanjun was very lazy, as if he was not asking a person, but a cat or a dog.
Qu Zhizhen hurriedly said: "Thank you, Your Majesty. My son is immature. I will discipline him well when I get back!"
"Discipline? How to discipline?" Pei Yuanjun asked with interest.
"I'll punish you according to the family rules when we get back." Qu Zhizhen gritted his teeth and said fiercely. If he fell into Pei Yuanjun's hands, he would probably be skinned alive if not dead. Ever since Pei Yuanjun said that, Qu Zhizhen knew that this matter would not be resolved so easily, and he couldn't help but become angry with his son.
How could he not understand his son's little thoughts? He said that he was going to the He Mansion to seek justice. It was clear that he wanted to take over his family.
The news that she had discussed marriage with the third son of the He family was spread out, which ruined the reputation of the youngest daughter and even caused Qu Moying to be nailed to the He family's boat, rising and falling with the third son of the He family.
If it were in the past, Qu Zhizhen would at most scold his son afterwards, and leave the rest to chance. Although he had higher expectations for his daughter than before, she was still not as good as his son after all.
But now, Qu Zhizhen no longer dared to underestimate his little daughter.
It can be said that no one will underestimate anything related to Prince Yun.
"That would be great. But I heard that the family sticks in the Qu family are not big. Would you like me to borrow a few from the Western Prison from Minister Qu?" Pei Yuanjun said with a smile, sounding very kind.
The sticks in the West Prison, can ordinary people use them? Thinking of the blood-stained sticks he had just seen, the dry black spots on them were probably blood clots, Qu Zhizhen's scalp tingled, and he kept saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness. I will teach him a severe lesson when I return, and I will never let him do such a thing again."
"That's the best. Someone, go and invite Mr. Qu over." Pei Yuanjun laughed, stood up, and pushed the water lily in front of him: "I'll also trouble Minister Qu to send this water lily to Miss Four. It's not easy for me to grow such beautiful flowers in this West Prison. How much fertilizer do I need?"
The words seemed to be very euphemistic, but Qu Zhizhen looked at the lotus in shock, almost piercing his eyes. What was the so-called flower fertilizer? What kind of flower fertilizer was there in the West Prison
Pei Yuanjun walked up to Qu Zhizhen, stretched out his slender hand and patted Qu Zhizhen on the shoulder, then walked away with a smile.
Qu Zhizhen stood there stiffly, feeling a slight chill on his shoulder, as if a ghost claw had lingered there. It took him a long time to come to his senses, with a cold sweat on his back. If possible, he would never want to come to the West Prison to find the Prince of Yun. Even if he did nothing, his whole spirit was stiff.
Another scream was heard from afar, it was so shrill that it hardly sounded like a human voice, but when I listened carefully, it was clearly a human voice. The hairs on my whole body stood up, the Western Prison was indeed a hell of ghosts.
"Father!" A trembling voice came from behind. Qu Zhizhen turned around and saw a guard standing in front of him with a man. It was Qu Mingcheng.
Qu Mingcheng's face was as pale as snow, without a trace of blood. It was only after he looked at Qu Zhizhen and screamed that he felt like he was coming back to life.
"Father… "
"Let's go!" Qu Zhizhen calmed down, walked forward, picked up the water lily pot, said sternly with a cold face, turned around and walked out. He couldn't stay here for a moment.
Qu Mingcheng's legs felt a little weak, and although he turned around, he couldn't keep up with Qu Zhizhen's pace. He stumbled and almost fell.
I wanted to call him "Father" again, but I saw Qu Zhizhen walked out without looking back. I didn't dare to stay any longer and hurriedly followed him.
After they got outside the door, Qu Zhizhen took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and looked at his son who followed him out. His unsteady appearance made him angry. He raised his hand and slapped Qu Mingcheng hard in the face, causing his face to tilt to one side.
Then he looked at Qu Zhizhen in disbelief: "Father..."
He has never been slapped by his father since he was a child.
"Let's go!" Qu Zhizhen said sternly, and walked towards the carriage parked outside.
Qu Mingcheng covered his face and said with grievance
The slap sobered him up a little, and he was no longer as weak and panicked as before.
The two men got on the carriage and it went all the way back to the mansion.
Qu Zhizhen got off the carriage holding the water lily pot, glanced coldly at his son, and went to the study. Qu Mingcheng followed him dejectedly.
Qu Qiuyan had been waiting at the door of the study room. She saw Qu Zhizhen and Qu Mingcheng coming from afar and was overjoyed. She hurried forward to salute: "Father..."
Qu Zhizhen swung his sleeves, almost hitting her in the face. He snorted coldly, ignored her and went into the study.
“Brother…” Qu Qiuyan’s eyes turned red with grievance. She looked at Qu Mingcheng who was walking over. But Qu Mingcheng was in a difficult situation at the moment and had no time to care about her. He followed her in with a pale face.
Qu Qiuyan wanted to go forward, but was stopped by the servant outside the door: "Miss San, the master and the second young master are discussing something, please don't go in yet."
Thinking of her father's expression just now, Qu Qiuyan didn't dare to act rashly. She could only grit her teeth and wait outside the door. After her father had dealt with her brother's affairs, she could complain to him.
In the study, Qu Zhizhen placed the jar on the desk in front of him, turned around and sat behind the desk, looking at Qu Mingcheng who followed him in and said sternly: "Evil creature, kneel down."
“Father…” Qu Mingcheng didn’t understand why his father, who had always been gentle to him, suddenly became so strict.
"Why don't you kneel down!" Qu Zhizhen picked up the teacup next to him and smashed it hard at Qu Mingcheng's feet. Qu Mingcheng was so scared that he knelt down with a plop.
"You dare to go to the He Mansion to ask about your fourth sister's marriage? Since when has Ying's marriage become your responsibility? I'm sorry to trouble you too, and I don't even consider whether you are worthy of it!" Thinking of what happened in the West Prison just now, Qu Zhizhen felt ashamed. He pointed at Qu Mingcheng and cursed him.
Qu Mingcheng was scolded for no apparent reason, but he still defended himself, "Father... I... I also meant well. The He family cheated on us, so they have to give us an explanation."
"Explanation? Explain what? Who told you that the He family was discussing Ying girl? Why weren't they discussing your third sister?" Qu Zhizhen sneered. His son still wanted to deceive him at this time. He didn't care in the past, not because he couldn't see it, but because he didn't care. But now it's impossible.
"Father, my third sister will definitely be a member of the royal family in the future." Qu Mingcheng looked up, surprised.
"Then how do you know that your fourth sister is not! In fact, your third sister is not as good as your fourth sister in everything, so how can she not be as good as your third sister?" Qu Zhizhen was so angry that he was about to laugh. His two children thought they were good enough, but they never thought that the fourth daughter who grew up in a farm was better than them. So no matter whether it was a son or a daughter, they all had a self-righteous sense of superiority!
"Father...Father, I don't understand what you are saying!" Qu Mingcheng looked up, stunned, his mind in a mess.
"You don't have to understand, just accept the punishment. Come, please enforce the family rules!" Qu Zhizhen said sternly.
A guard had already brought a big stick over. Seeing the stick, Qu Mingcheng almost fainted. He had been beaten since he was a child, but never with such a big stick. Was his father going to cripple or kill him
The problem is that he still doesn't know what went wrong.
"Father… "
"Someone, take him away and beat him twenty times!" Qu Zhizhen gritted his teeth and said cruelly. If he didn't beat him and let that Shura King know, it would not be just twenty times!