"Mother, is there anything else?" Seeing the Queen's look, Pei Luoan asked uneasily.
"It's nothing, actually..." The Queen thought for a moment, but didn't say anything. "Let's just leave it at that. I'm having bad luck today, so how are your affairs going? Do you like Liu Jingyu? She has the support of Duke Qi's Mansion and is the most beloved descendant of Duke Qi. Minister Liu is young and promising, and he might enter the cabinet this year. This will be of great benefit to you."
No matter how you look at it, marrying Liu Jingyu has many advantages, no less than marrying the daughter of a general who assists the country.
"Mother, this matter is not urgent." Pei Luoan frowned and said weakly, "I will wait for the Crown Princess for a while longer."
"What's the hurry? You are the crown prince of the country. You have delayed your wedding for Ji Hanyue. Now you don't have any children. If King Jing marries before you and has children, it will be very disadvantageous to you. You have to think it over. Do you really have to keep a promise for Ji Hanyue?"
The Queen Mother hated her son's sentimentality and said without thinking.
"Mother..."
"Okay, okay, I won't talk about Ji Hanyue. I have no right to interfere in her affairs. But as the crown prince of a country, you have to choose a concubine quickly. Ji Youran is not suitable. She was not suitable in the first place, and she is even less suitable now. She can't even compete with a concubine for a title. What use is she?"
The Queen said indifferently.
"Mother, it can't be Ji Youran's." Pei Luoan comforted the queen.
"That's good. Her current status is high enough for her to be a concubine." The Queen was relieved and nodded. "If she hadn't entered the East Palace so early, with her current ability, she wouldn't even need to be given the title of concubine."
The Queen really disliked Ji Youran. She thought she was petty and incompetent. A large part of the reason for the previous incidents in the Eastern Palace was Ji Youran's poor supervision. One moment a concubine rushed out, the next moment people doubted the reputation of the Crown Prince, and the young lady of the Qu family ran into the prince in the Eastern Palace. All these things showed Ji Youran's incompetence.
It's not just her who is incompetent, her family too. The title of Ling Anbo has fallen into the hands of a bastard. It seems useless no matter how you look at it. The Queen Mother thinks that Ji Youran can only be treated as a plaything and is of no great use.
"Mother, I'll go back first. Please be careful." Pei Luoan didn't want to tell the queen more about Ji Youran, so he stood up.
"Then you should be careful and don't act rashly. Think carefully about the matter of marriage. The Liu family also has this idea, which can just stop Prince Jing from thinking about it." The Queen nodded and reminded again.
"Mother, I understand." Pei Luoan bowed to the queen, then turned and left impatiently. He breathed a sigh of relief only after he walked out of the Pepper Room. He just felt irritated and depressed.
It's not just the assassination attempt that happened today, there's also the marriage that his mother mentioned. Sometimes he feels that he really has no intention of getting married right away, but his mother's wishes and the current situation don't allow him to not get married.
With so many things happening at once, he was so confused that he didn't want to talk about them at all. He just walked away casually, and several eunuchs followed him.
Suddenly Pei Luoan stopped. The sound of a piano came faintly in the wind, which sounded familiar. After standing with his hands behind his back and listening for a while, his expression changed slightly. His calm face showed a bit of anxiety, and he turned around and walked towards the direction of the piano.
After turning two corners, the sound of the piano became clearer. In a pavilion at the corner, a beautiful woman sat sideways, wearing a light purple palace skirt. She sat there dignifiedly, gently plucking the strings of the piano. The sound of the piano was faint. Pei Luoan moved his feet and slowly
Walked over.
When he got closer, the palace maids standing on both sides saw him and were so surprised that they hurried to greet him. Pei Luoan waved his hand, signaling them not to greet him. His eyes fell on the woman's slender silhouette, and his eyes suddenly widened.
The palace maid didn't dare to say anything and just stood there with her head down.
Finally, the sound of the piano stopped. The woman looked up and seemed to have realized something. She turned around and was surprised to see Pei Luoan standing outside the pavilion. She stood up quickly and bowed sideways: "Greetings, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"
"Who are you?" Pei Luoan's gaze fell on the woman's face, and her face, which had been gentle just now, now had a hint of coldness.
When the woman stood up and saw the man's face, the sense of familiarity faded a lot. It was just an image, not the real person!
There was an inexplicable pain in my heart, as if it was pulled hard, painful and sore, and the hands behind my back clenched into fists.
"I am a beauty in the palace, I am..." The woman wanted to introduce herself, but she saw Pei Luoan waved his sleeves and left, and he didn't pay any attention to her. For a moment, she was embarrassed and annoyed, and her face turned red. She was a beauty in the palace, her surname was Yuan, and she had been out of favor since entering the palace. She had seen the prince from afar, and the prince's robe was light yellow.
"Beauty, this is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." The maid dared to speak only after Pei Luoan left.
"How long has your Highness been here?" Concubine Yuan tried hard to calm the shame and anger in her heart and asked slowly.
"The prince has been looking at you for a long time, just listening to the music quietly and not allowing us servants to salute you." A palace maid answered smartly.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince likes the zither very much?" Thinking of the fact that the Crown Prince had been looking at her for a long time just now, Concubine Yuan's face turned red again, and she felt very shy.
The prince is handsome and in the prime of his life. Compared to him, the emperor is too old.
"I don't know, but I heard... the Crown Princess likes the zither very much. She once played it on the Queen's birthday celebration, and everyone who heard it praised it." The maid replied.
"Crown Princess?" Lady Yuan tasted it carefully, and then asked curiously, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is deeply in love with the Crown Princess, is it true?"
"I don't know about this, but it must be true. I heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is extremely good to His Royal Highness the Crown Princess." The palace maid didn't dare to say anything more, but only said what everyone was saying.
Concubine Yuan stopped talking and just sat there quietly. Thinking of the tenderness that flashed in the Crown Prince's eyes when she saw him just now, she felt intoxicated at a moment. It was a pity that such a talented and beautiful couple were now separated forever, leaving His Royal Highness the Crown Prince alone to guard the East Palace, missing the Crown Princess every night. It really made people feel pity.
Seeing how affectionate His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is, one can tell that the Crown Princess must also be a very beautiful woman. It's a pity that she has a tragic fate.
"I heard that there is a concubine in the Eastern Palace, and she is the cousin of the Crown Princess?" Concubine Yuan thought for a while and asked curiously.
"There is such a concubine, but it sounds like the Queen doesn't like her very much." The maid laughed.
"Why? Wasn't he said to have excellent character? He entered the Eastern Palace to take care of the Crown Princess. Why doesn't the Queen like him?" Concubine Yuan became more and more curious.
"I really don't know about this. I just said that the Queen doesn't like it." The palace maid didn't dare to say anything more. Some things were just guesses for them. After all, she was just a palace maid. If she said something wrong, she might lose her head. No one in the palace dared to talk nonsense.
I have said so much about this Lady Yuan because she is as beautiful as a flower, more beautiful than most of the concubines in the palace, and she is also a young lady.
When Chun was young, she might be favored in the future. In order to curry favor with her, the palace maids also hinted at some things.
Seeing that she couldn't get any more information out of him, Lady Yuan said no more and had the musical instruments packed up and taken back.
This encounter was truly an accident, but sometimes who can tell whether it was truly an accident or inevitable...
Pei Luoan's mood became worse and worse. After casually wandering around the palace, he wanted to go back. He felt inexplicably depressed and irritated in his heart.
But before he left the palace, he was summoned to the imperial study by the eunuch.
The emperor sat on a high throne, looking at his eldest son coming in with a gloomy face. Pei Yuanjun sat on the side with an elegant and natural look, as if he didn't have any anger. Only when he raised his eyes could one see the coldness in them. He was simply a bloodthirsty devil.
When the crown prince of the current dynasty met his gaze, he felt inexplicably nervous.
Pei Luoan became more and more aggrieved and angry, but he had to suppress all his emotions deep in his heart, not daring to show any of them.
After Pei Luoan had performed his greetings, the emperor spoke: "Prince, you should take care of the affairs of the Ministry of Justice."
"Yes, father, it is I who am in charge of this matter." Pei Luoan calmed himself down and answered.
"Don't you know that there is one less notorious bandit in your Ministry of Justice's prison?" The emperor looked unfriendly and stared at his eldest son with burning eyes.
"Father, I really didn't know. It was only after the fact that the people from the Ministry of Justice reported to us and discovered that one death row prisoner was missing." Pei Luoan replied.
He had just found out that the assassin was a notorious bandit and a death row prisoner. He was very angry about this when he was outside the palace.
The Ministry of Justice cannot escape the blame for making such a huge mistake.
"Your Highness, may I ask how a death row prisoner could escape from the Ministry of Justice without anyone's help? And why would he want to assassinate a completely unrelated lady? If he really escaped, shouldn't he have fled far away? Why did he do such a thing?" Pei Yuanjun said lazily.
"Uncle Wang, I don't know about this matter, but I have already asked people from the Ministry of Justice to investigate. If there are any clues, they must be reported to Uncle Wang." Pei Luoan said gently, and his answer was very cautious. Facing Pei Yuanjun, he dared not be careless.
"If I hadn't happened to pass by, Fourth Miss Qu would have died this time. I'm really surprised that the person I like is so unstable that I have to use a bandit to assassinate her." Pei Yuanjun said indifferently, with a sinister look in his handsome eyes. "If they can't find out, what's the point of the people from the Ministry of Justice coming here! I've already asked the people from the West Prison to go to the Qu Mansion and ask this Fourth Miss Qu who she has offended in the past, and who is going to come to take her life!"
Who could a young lady like Qu Moying offend? Apart from the Second Madam Qu, there was really no one else. But the Second Madam Qu was just a female relative who had always stayed in the inner court. How could she have the ability to reach out to the Ministry of Justice? This matter seemed more like it was because of Pei Yuanjun.
Because Pei Yuanjun had previously promised to allow Qu Moying to enter Prince Yun's Mansion, which brought today's disaster to the fourth Miss Qu
Although this matter has not been made public, several important people in the palace know about it.
"The Ministry of Justice is so lax now that it can't even keep an eye on one person. Who on earth wants to harm Prince Yun? The Crown Prince can't even handle this matter, right?" the Emperor said sternly.
They forced this matter to the level of murdering Pei Yuanjun.
Cold sweat broke out on Pei Luoan's forehead, and a trace of resentment flashed through his heart!