"I don't know." Cheng Chi said solemnly.
"Don't know?!" Zhou Shaojin was surprised.
"I really don't know what it is." Cheng Chi said, "Because my second uncle didn't even look at it. When the imperial guards captured the fourth prince, he returned the thing to the emperor."
Zhou Shaojin felt inexplicably relieved and pondered, "Could it be an imperial edict or something?"
"Or a letter asking for help, a secret decree to defend the king... all are possible." Cheng Chi said solemnly, "Although the emperor has seen through the fourth prince's plan, I think he may not think it is a sure thing, and it is possible to keep a hand. Otherwise, the second uncle would not have found anything under the chessboard." He said, thinking, "If I am not wrong, no one in the previous life was aware of the ambition of the fourth prince. He calmly deployed, first killed the life of the crown prince, and then used the matter of establishing a crown prince to pull down the third prince and others. After establishing the crown prince, he began to think of ways to deal with the crown prince. I just don't know whether the crown prince died of illness or was killed by him? But as time goes by, we should also know that after the death of the crown prince, the emperor's state of mind must have changed. He is old. If he establishes a young crown prince again, what if the crown prince dies again? The fourth prince was raised in the Yuan harem, and his previous brothers also had accidents. He was established as the crown prince smoothly.
“It’s possible that the Emperor has noticed the Crown Prince’s death, or it’s possible that he has done something that has made the Emperor very unhappy.
“Then the emperor planned to depose him.
"From what happened this time, he was able to instigate Liu Li to rebel under such circumstances. In his previous life, he had the right time, right place, and right people. You also said that Chen Li became the chief eunuch of the Cining Palace afterwards. He must have known the emperor's plan with the help of Chen Li, so he took advantage of the emperor's physical discomfort to force the emperor to abdicate.
"He was already the crown prince by then, and once the emperor died, he could legitimately succeed to the throne.
“But not everyone in the palace will obey him.
“For example, a commander of the imperial guards like Han Ding must be the emperor’s confidant and the most loyal person to the emperor.
“The Fourth Prince wants to harm the Emperor, and there is no way he can get around Han Ding.
“In the previous life, everyone thought that the fourth prince succeeded to the throne in a normal way.
“That is to say, in previous lives, forcing abdication and the like were all done quietly.
"The fourth prince attacked the emperor's bedroom, but there was no big movement in the imperial city. No one would be able to tell who was a loyal minister and who was a traitor.
"Your Majesty can only make judgments based on his heart.
"He has now discovered the whereabouts of the Fourth Prince. The people from the Ministry of Travel and Elder Yuan were unwilling to write a will for the Fourth Prince, but they still gave the things to the Second Uncle, not to mention that he was plotted against by the Fourth Prince in his previous life.
“He must have handed something over to my second uncle.
"It was this thing that caused the entire Cheng family to be executed."
Zhou Shaojin was puzzled. Thinking of the experience of the Cheng family in the previous life, his eyes suddenly became a little sore. He said, "In the previous life, the second uncle was buried by the Cheng family. If the second uncle died in the palace, the things must not be in his hands. The people of the Cheng family don't know what happened. Even if they know, they dare not say anything without evidence. Why does the emperor still want to anger the Cheng family? Is it because of the second uncle's loyalty to the emperor? He is definitely not a wise emperor!"
She said angrily, but forgot that there had been a lot of changes between this life and the previous life, and the Fourth Prince was now a prisoner.
Cheng Chi smiled and stroked her hair, saying patiently, "Second Uncle was buried by the Cheng family, but that doesn't mean he died at home!"
Zhou Shaojin opened his eyes wide.
Why didn't she think of that
Zhou Shaojin nervously grabbed Cheng Chi's sleeve.
Cheng Chi's voice also lowered: "If Second Uncle died at home, there would be no need for Big Brother to bury Second Uncle quietly. Second Uncle could only have died in the palace.
"The emperor had no one he could trust, so he handed over the imperial edict or will to his second uncle, which was later discovered by the fourth prince. The second uncle knew that he had no way to fulfill the emperor's will, so he either hid the things or handed them over to someone else, and then he either committed suicide or was killed by the fourth prince. The fourth prince didn't find what he wanted, and he couldn't leave the second uncle's body in the palace, so he had to keep the funeral a secret, return the second uncle's body to the Cheng family first, and then announce the emperor's death.
"Big brother has been in the government for so many years. Although he is sometimes easily influenced and indecisive, he is not a person without vision.
"Whether Second Uncle committed suicide or was murdered, there must be traces on his body. He was transported from the palace, and I don't know what he did wrong... He must not dare to say anything. We can only bury Second Uncle quietly." At this point, Cheng Chi showed some dissatisfaction, "After something like this, anyone would make other plans. Even if they can't get out of it unscathed, they should send a few children out to leave some blood for the Cheng family. Fortunately for him, the emperor promoted him to be a cabinet minister, and he just served as an official peacefully..."
Zhou Shaojin didn't know what to say.
Cheng Chi said: “The Cheng family is under the emperor’s nose.
"After taking control of government affairs and gaining a firm foothold, the emperor began to rectify the civil service.
“The Cheng family has become a thorn in his side at this time.
"If he still can't find that thing, he will be even more worried.
"If it had just happened, he might have just found an excuse to kill the Cheng family officials in Beijing. But two years have passed, who knows whether Second Uncle took the thing out of the palace? And who can guarantee that the Cheng family doesn't know what is written in the thing? He might as well kill them all to silence them, and kill all the Cheng family members, so that he can vent his anger towards Second Uncle..."
Zhou Shaojin thought of the bloody and fearful days in his previous life.
Her tears fell in big drops.
Cheng Chi held her in his arms, sighed heavily, and said, "No matter what, the Fourth Prince's affair has been exposed. Even if the Crown Prince died, the Emperor would not make him the Crown Prince. The crisis of the Cheng family has been resolved. The Seven Stars Hall no longer has any meaning for its existence. The Cheng family has finally become an ordinary farming and reading family. Yun'er," he touched Zhou Shaojin's belly, "and our little baby, can live a peaceful life."
Zhou Shaojin nodded.
He placed his hand on Cheng Chi's hand.
Her two biggest wishes since her rebirth have come true.
Especially to save the Cheng family.
It seemed like a very difficult task in her eyes at that time, but fortunately she found Cheng Chi, and Cheng Chi finally solved the problem step by step.
In her previous life, she only lived to be twenty-five years old.
From now on, she and Cheng Chi will have a long time to live together.
She didn't know what was going to happen.
But as long as there was Cheng Chi, as long as they could be together, she thought, no matter how big the problem was, it couldn't be bigger than the Cheng family being confiscated and exterminated, right? They could always face it together and get through it together.
Zhou Shaojin's belly suddenly had a bulge.
Cheng Chi and Zhou Shaojin were slightly stunned, and it took them a while to realize that it was their baby kicking them!
Zhou Shaojin smiled with his eyebrows curved.
Did the child also feel his father’s joy and couldn’t wait to join in
The two looked at each other and smiled.
※
After all, he was his own child. The emperor did not announce the Fourth Prince's treason to the public, but three days later, during the grand court meeting, the Minister of Public Administration wrote a letter saying that the Fourth Prince had died of illness on the way to Xinyang.
The news had already spread in the court, but the ministers still showed surprise and asked the emperor to mourn and accept the change.
The emperor, who was sitting high in the Golden Throne Hall, had an unclear expression on his face, but he simply asked the clan office to bury the fourth prince with the ceremony of a prince. The fourth prince's eldest son was demoted to a prince of a county and still went to Xinyang to be a fief.
To show his concern, the emperor specially sent well-trained maids and eunuchs from the palace to serve him.
But not long after, the Fourth Prince's eldest son died due to acclimatization, and the Fourth Prince's wife also died of excessive grief.
The fourth prince's second son inherited the title, but died within half a year.
The emperor simply stopped issuing imperial decrees.
The fourth prince's children received the salary of the Duke of Fuguo and lived with a few nursemaids and eunuchs.
With the wedding of the Crown Prince, these children gradually faded out of the sight of people in the capital.
However, at that time, Zhou Shaojin had already given birth to her second son, Taoger, in October. When the new year came and the first month came, she was happily holding a hundred-day ceremony for the child.
Song Jingran was reinstated and returned to the cabinet to serve as the Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and the Attending Academician of the Hanlin Academy.
With Cheng Shao's recommendation, Cheng Chi was promoted to the third-rank post of Left Vice-Censor of the Censorate, while he himself resigned on the pretext of poor health.
The emperor did not try to persuade him to stay and kept Cheng Shao's household registration in the capital.
From then on, Cheng Shao never left the house and only studied the Book of Changes at home every day. Mrs. Pengcheng felt it was a pity and suggested several times that Cheng Shao teach at the Cheng family's Chaoyang Gate clan school, but Cheng Shao politely declined due to poor health.
Although Tao Ge'er is a boy, it is still good news for the Cheng family, which has few descendants.
Mrs. Guo held Tao'er in her arms, staring at Yun'er with her eyes narrowed into slits as she smiled. She told Zhou Shaojin: "A daughter is a mother's little cotton-padded jacket. You have to work harder and give Yun'er and Tao'er a sister."
Zhou Shaojin blushed and murmured a promise, while Zhou Chujin and others laughed so hard.
Madam Guo asked Zhou Zhen: "Have you found a place for the master to live? Otherwise, just live in your Yuqian Hutong. It's empty anyway. It's close to Chu Jin, so why not live there for a few years and move in when you find a suitable place."
After the incident with the fourth prince, the emperor's energy was not as good as before. Now the crown prince was acting as regent, and Zhou Zhen was promoted to the third rank of Imperial Household Department Minister. He would go to the capital to take up his post after the first month of the year.
Zhou Shaojin was thinking about what was buried under the main room.
It's okay for someone to stay in the guest room occasionally, but what if they move into the main room and notice something's going on
She smiled and said, "It depends on what my father thinks!"
Given Li's personality, he probably wouldn't live in her house.
Madam Guo wanted to persuade him again. A little maid ran in and panted, "A steward named Li who serves the master came over and said that the master and his wife will be here in two hours, and they want to hurry up to hold the hundred-day ceremony for the second master!"
"Oh my! Speak of the devil and he will appear." Old Madam Guo hurriedly called the maid in to help them change clothes. It was the first time for Yun'er and Tao'er to see their grandfather. The maids and old women serving them took care of them. Zhou Shaojin also had to arrange guest rooms. Zhou Chujin asked the old woman who accompanied them to tell Liao Shaotang. Everyone packed up in a hurry and was taken to Xizhimen by Old Madam Guo.
Fortunately, they arrived early.
Everyone sat in the carriage holding hand warmers waiting for Zhou Zhen and others.
There was a woman crying nearby.
Zhou Shaojin lifted the curtain and looked outside.
It turned out that someone was escorting a maid who was being sold.
Zhou Shaojin took one look and then lowered the curtain.
Nanny Shang, who was accompanying them, looked over and was very surprised.
The first one to be beaten was actually Chen Li's adopted daughter who married Cheng Lu.
Chen Li was beaten to death.
Wan Tong and others will never let him go.
Not only was his property confiscated, but Cheng Lu's affairs were also exposed and reported to the provincial education commissioner.
Cheng Lu was once again stripped of his honors and exiled to Xining Wei.
The Fourth Master had already arranged for the officers to "take good care" of Cheng Lu on the road.
I just didn't expect that Liu would end up like this.
She shook her head.
Seeing that Zhou Shaojin was not interested, he did not mention it to her.
Look at Liu, wearing an old coat and with dishevelled hair and dirty face, being driven past them by those officials, and her figure gradually disappeared in the cold wind.
(over)
※
I’m so reluctant to let you all go... After finishing proofreading, I asked myself, is this really the end
~~~~(>_