The day before, Duke Zhao Zhu Jing returned to the capital and entered the palace to meet the emperor. That morning, when Zhu Jing attended court, many high-ranking officials expressed their goodwill with smiles - even though many of the censors who had previously slandered Zhu Jing had done so at their instigation, they still had to do this superficial work.
After the uneventful court meeting ended and the emperor ordered the cabinet and the six ministries to decide on Zhu Jing's reward, the news that the Minister of War Lu Wan had visited the Duke of Zhao's residence the night before spread like wildfire because of Zhang Shou's deliberate leak in the Imperial College. For a time, countless people secretly cursed Lu Wan for being cunning, fickle, and without a bottom line.
Back then, it was Lu Wan who spread rumors about the marriage between his youngest son and Zhu Ying, and asked the censors to attack the father and brother of the youngest son, Lu Sanlang, who had not yet been completely exposed, but had become the proud disciple of Zhang Shou, the future son-in-law of the Duke of Zhao. Lu Wan himself even shamelessly asked Zhang Shou to help decipher several secret letters from the Ministry of War. Now it's even more exaggerated. As soon as Zhu Jing came back, this guy went to visit him.
If you say this is not a way to form a humiliating alliance with empty words and huge sums of money... who would believe it!
So, when Zhu Jing finished the court meeting, went to the palace to pay respects to his aunt, the Queen Mother, and even had lunch in the palace, and then returned home, he received many visits that had not been arranged in advance. Such visits continued until the evening, as if everyone had tacitly calculated the time for the visits, and each visit was followed by another.
Zhu Jing's reaction to these uninvited guests was neither enthusiastic nor cold. After exchanging opinions with each of them on some unimportant issues in the court, the meeting ended in a seemingly friendly manner.
Even the two trusted attendants serving in the study could not help but feel that their master was so tolerant and generous that they could talk and laugh away the grudges even though someone came to their house and said some confusing things.
Little did they know that when Zhu Jing arrived in front of Madam Tai of Qing'an Hall, he was full of murderous intent: "What do they think of me, Zhu Jing? When they wanted to throw dirty water, they threw buckets of dirty water at me. Now that they realize that things are not going well and I am still standing firm, they immediately come to my door to show their goodwill? Do you think this is a slap in the face followed by a sweet date, like a child playing house?"
The lady smiled indifferently, gently turning the Buddhist beads in her hand, and her tone still seemed calm. However, the words she said were not calm at all.
"People's hearts have always been like this. Lu Wan was quite sincere last night, saying that Lord Jiang had some complaints about our Zhu family, who are relatives by marriage, going to war and taking charge of the army, and that he preferred Duke Chu to be the only one in charge, so he instructed him to pick a few people to attack you. As for the matter between Lu Sanlang and Yingying, he was not completely fake. He thought that if it could work out, it would be the best, but if it didn't, it wouldn't matter."
She paused, then laughed and said, "This is similar to what I know. He didn't lie. But he wanted to be my Zhu family's in-law, which was really taken for granted! Not to mention the Lu Sanlang back then, even the current Lu Sanlang is not what Yingying likes, let alone what our family likes. He is the most proud student of Prime Minister Jiang Ge Lao, but he was tricked this time."
"The Jiang guy should quit." Zhu Jing said these six words word by word, and then the frost on his face gradually thawed, but he said helplessly, "I clearly didn't say anything to Zhang Shou. Even if Lu Sanlang secretly told him about Lu Wan's movements, how dare he hint to those guys who are much higher in official positions than him to come to his house to try to resolve the grudge?"