The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

The Imperial Palace, inside Anxi Palace.

This place used to be the residence of Concubine Wan, and now it has become Zhu Xiurong's playground. After all, there are not many concubines in the palace. As long as Zhu Xiurong is willing, she can play anywhere in the palace without being under house arrest like her brother.

"boom."

A simple bow and arrow was in her hand. She was not studying that day, but practicing archery.

Of course, the bow and arrow she used was only in the shape of a bow and did not possess any killing power. Even so, it made the eunuchs and palace maids who were accompanying her feel frightened, fearing that she might encounter any accidents.

"It's a hit."

Zhu Xiurong tried for a long time and finally hit the target.

Just as the young eunuch was about to go over and say a few words of flattery, she suddenly put her bow and arrow aside and said reluctantly, "It's boring. It's so boring."

"Your Highness, it's time for you to go back and have dinner," said the young eunuch.

"I'm not hungry. I don't have to eat every time it's time to eat. I want to find something interesting to do. But is there any place in the palace that I haven't been to?"

Zhu Xiurong propped up his head and thought about this problem seriously.

The young eunuch kept silent and dared not speak casually.

"By the way, I have never been to the Eastern Palace. What is it like living there? I heard from my mother that he has the Calabash Brothers and shadow puppet shows..."

Zhu Xiurong's eyes sparkled.

The young eunuch said, "Your Highness, it is inconvenient for you to go to the East Palace."

Zhu Xiurong smiled and said, "We are all in the palace, so why would it be inconvenient for me to go? If my mother finds out, she won't blame me, and my father might even praise me."

The young eunuch thought about it and agreed.

The princess and the prince are treated differently.

The Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace seems like a punching bag all day long, and he looks sad when he sees everyone, while this little princess is really held in the palm of his hand.

Why does the emperor dote on this little princess so much?
"Quick, lead the way for me." Zhu Xiurong said, "No, first find me the clothes you prepared earlier and change into them. Only in this way can I go in unnoticed and take back all the good things of my brother. If I ask him for them, he will definitely not give them to me."

……

……

No one knows a brother better than his sister.

Zhu Xiurong was very aware of her brother's stingy appearance and knew that she would not be welcome there, so she dressed herself up like a little palace maid and followed the team of palace maids to the Duanjing Hall.

Those guarding the Duanjing Hall were all those who were not favored by Zhu Houzhao.

People like Gao Feng, who usually accompanied Zhu Houzhao, were now in the Wenhua Hall reading with him.

Zhu Xiurong followed the little palace maid in, apparently to deliver some clean clothes. Then she went in and started rummaging around. Under the stunned eyes of the little palace maid, she stuffed many of her elder brother's treasured things under the clothes.

Then, using the cover of a change of clothes, he was brought out of the Duanjing Hall in broad daylight.

By the time Zhu Houzhao discovered all this, it was already nightfall.

"Who came in?" Zhu Houzhao asked, "Why is the comic book I was reading gone? And the Ultraman, and the gourd... I have a figurine here, tell me, who touched my things?"

The eunuchs of the Eastern Palace stood there as if they were being punished, not daring to make a sound.

They themselves don't know what mistake they made.

In short, they felt that they had been implicated in some unexpected disaster. You said that if you had lost silver or something valuable, we could understand.

You said you lost your toys... What does this have to do with us?

Gao Feng came out and said, "Your Highness, do you think it is possible..."

He stopped talking halfway through.

Zhu Houzhao frowned and said, "You seem to be like Zhang, telling stories halfway through. Are you trying to spoil my appetite?"

Gao Feng asked, "Could it be that His Majesty sent someone to take it away?"

"What?" Zhu Houzhao frowned and said, "My father will send someone to take away my things? You..."

I was just trying to think of what words to use to scold these people.

Gao Feng said with a wronged look on his face: "Your Highness, ordinary people would not touch those things of yours. Think about it, even if you take them out of the capital, they are not worth any money."

Zhu Houzhao asked, "What do you mean? My things are worthless, right?"

Gao Feng hurriedly asked, "Your Highness, you don't think someone deliberately hid your things? Or stole them? To make you angry?"

After these words were spoken, Zhu Houzhao sat down and seemed to have calmed down.

He pondered for a moment and sighed, "You guys are smart. Come to think of it, who else would send someone to do this without informing me? Help me see, are all the things gone?"

Gao Feng said: "We servants don't know where His Highness is hiding."

Then Zhu Houzhao went personally to the places where he had hidden the fun things and looked at them one by one.

The more I look at it, the colder I feel inside.

"Father, oh father, you really don't leave your son a way to survive. All the good things I have are taken away. Was it the Jinyiwei? Or the Jinwuwei? Or did one of you find them for them? Who of you betrayed me?" Zhu Houzhao was very angry.

Gao Feng said, "Your Highness, what are you talking about?"

Zhu Houzhao said angrily: "If one of you hadn't betrayed me, even if my father had sent people to look for me, would he have been able to find me so thoroughly? Ouch... my glass ball, only my glass ball is still there."

Later, Zhu Houzhao found that the box of his glass balls was still intact in the cabinet. He was very surprised.

At least I left one for myself.

Gao Feng said with a sad face: "Your Highness, we are all with you in Wenhua Palace today. No one stayed here. I didn't hear that Your Majesty sent anyone here before. This matter... is a little strange."

Zhu Houzhao said, "Father wouldn't send someone here secretly, would he? No, I can't say for sure. Father wants to teach me a lesson. Why did I give birth to such a father?"

Several eunuchs were so frightened that their faces turned pale.

From what you said, it seems that you are very dissatisfied with your father.

But here's the thing.

Who gave birth to whom?

Zhu Houzhao said, "I have lost all my good stuff. Keep an eye on it. If anyone comes and arrests someone, I will teach them a lesson in person! Besides... that Zhang is not in Beijing recently, so I can't ask him for... this life... Fortunately, my map is still there, but I'm afraid that my father will not even leave it to me! Recently, I can only study the map more."

……

……

Zhu Houzhao was depressed for two days because his things were "confiscated".

But at noon that day, when I went to Kunning Palace to have lunch with my mother, I saw my sister playing with a gourd: "Monster, I call your name, do you dare to answer?"

When Zhu Houzhao saw the gourd, he jumped up and asked sternly, "Who gave it to you?"

Empress Zhang asked, "Prince, what are you doing?"

Zhu Houzhao also realized that he had lost his composure. He thought, if this wasn't given to her by her father, who else could it be?
Then he pretended to be deep and didn't say a word during the meal. He didn't see Zhu Youtang until the end of lunch, so before leaving, he went to find Zhu Xiurong.

"Imperial sister, this thing of yours... was given to you by our father, right?" Zhu Houzhao said with a smug look and a smile.

Zhu Xiurong said: "No."

Zhu Houzhao rolled his eyes at her and said, "Child, why don't you tell the truth? In fact, this gourd was mine before, and it should be used like this. I always hang it on your head so that you can sing louder."

"Really? This thing is meant to sing?" Zhu Xiurong looked puzzled.

Zhu Houzhao smiled and said, "How about you give it to me and I'll show you how to do it?"

Zhu Xiurong laughed and said, "Brother Emperor, who are you trying to fool? If I give it to you, will you give it back to me?"

Zhu Houdao frowned and said, "What you are taking now is my things. You are a thief if you take it without asking for permission. Do you know that?"

Originally, Zhu Houzhao just wanted to scare his sister, but he found that this trick worked quite well. He obviously noticed that his sister's expression was not right and her face color changed.

Zhu Houzhao then successfully took the gourd from his sister's hand, and said proudly: "That's right, there are still some parts of this gourd that have not been repaired. I will repair it for you when I go back, and then give it to you later. What do you think?"

Zhu Xiurong pouted and said, "Not good."

Zhu Houzhao said: "How can you, a child, be angry with your brother? Besides, I am the crown prince, the heir to the throne, and you are the minister. Even if this thing was given to you by my father, you have to give it to me if I ask for it."

"Wow……"

Zhu Xiurong burst into tears immediately and ran inside to find Queen Zhang.

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he thought that this was bad news, so he quickly put the gourd down and ran away.

After he ran out, several eunuchs who were unaware of the situation hurriedly chased after him.

"Your Highness, slow down." Gao Feng shouted while chasing from behind.

Zhu Houzhao did not give any explanation and ran for a long time before stopping, panting and saying, "Fortunately I ran fast. If I ran slower and was caught by my mother, I would be in trouble. If my father knew about it, I would have to serve in the small dark room again! That girl is such a troublemaker. It would be better if she was not around."

Gao Feng said: "Your Highness, that thing... is it yours?"

Zhu Houzhao said sternly, "If it's not mine, who else could it belong to? Even the scratches on it are the same. Father is so unfair. He confiscated my things and gave them directly to my sister. How could he not consider my feelings? It makes me so sad."

……

……

Zhu Xiurong was not as pampered as Zhu Houzhao thought.

She just felt that she was wrong and was afraid of being scolded by her brother, so she cried first to show her respect, and then she went in to find Empress Zhang to explain the whole story.

Then that day even Zhu Youtang knew the whole story.

Only Zhu Houzhao was kept in the dark. He thought he had violated a taboo and was afraid that his old father would hold him accountable.

"My son, I have no objection to you going to your brother's place. You taking his things...it's not considered stealing, but you are still a little bit mischievous."

Zhu Youtang wanted to blame his daughter, but when he saw her pitiful appearance, all his anger disappeared instantly.

Then I thought my daughter looked very much like my wife, both with big eyes, which made them look a bit playful.

Unlike my wife, my daughter has a more quirky personality.

Zhu Xiurong said: "Now that my brother has seen it, should I apologize to him?"

Zhu Youtang was furious when he thought of his son. He said, "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't know that he was wasting his time playing with things! No wonder he can't keep up with his studies recently. It seems that he is playing with these things every day! Even so, he still wants to leave the palace every day? How can I find military lessons for him? What kind of consultant can he become?"

Empress Zhang quickly persuaded: "Your Majesty, the child is still young."

"Xiu Rong is still young, is the prince still young? When I was his age, I understood everything. When did I become like him and get involved in so many things that are useless to my studies?"

Zhu Youtang became angrier as he spoke.

Zhu Xiurong asked: "Do we need to return those things to my brother?"

Zhu Youtang said, "Let's talk about this later. It's time to punish that brat! Queen, don't be nice to him! I heard that he has been coming to you every day in the past few days! If you don't pay attention to him for a while, he will think he can fly to the sky! But he doesn't even have strong wings yet!"

Empress Zhang said, "It was my fault."

Zhu Youtang said, "Xiu Rong, if you want to go, just go openly. You can even go to Wenhua Hall and find a screen to separate you. You can listen to the class if you want to, and do whatever you want to do there. But you must not affect the teacher's teaching, understand?"

"Know it."

Zhu Xiurong didn't expect that he would turn a disaster into a blessing.

She actually obtained the highest authority of action in the palace, and even opened up the last "secret realm".

……

……

The next day, Zhu Xiurong excitedly ran to Wenhua Hall to attend classes.

Of course, she could not keep up with Zhu Houzhao's academic progress, and she did not like listening to the contents of the classics, history, and collections. She preferred to find someone to explain the previous books and lesson plans to her.

When Zhu Houzhao came out to go to the toilet, he found his sister hiding behind the screen.

He walked over and asked, "Who asked you to come?"

Zhu Xiurong said, "My father asked me to come here. He said that as long as it does not affect the teacher's teaching, I can do whatever I want."

"You really are..." Zhu Houzhao sighed helplessly, "Fine, whatever you want."

"Brother Emperor, there is something else I want to tell you." Zhu Xiurong said.

Zhu Houzhao said: "I'm busy, let's talk about it when I come back."

"No, I want to say it, and I want to say it now." Zhu Xiurong didn't care that his brother was in a hurry to go to the toilet, and blocked his way and said, "I took those things from you before. I have admitted my mistake to the emperor, but the emperor does not allow me to return the things to you."

"What did you say?" Zhu Houzhao widened his eyes.

Zhu Xiurong said, "I was really bored that day, so I changed into a palace maid's clothes and went to your place and took some of your things. You are right, I was wrong, it was the behavior of a thief, I will change from now on."

Zhu Houzhao was at a loss for words, so he asked, "Did you take all of them?"

"Yeah." Zhu Xiurong nodded.

Zhu Houzhao asked: "How did you find it?"

Zhu Xiurong said: "I just flipped through it casually."

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, his nose was crooked with anger: "I hid it so well, and you actually found it? You...you...can become a famous bandit!"

This made Zhu Xiurong look puzzled.

Is this difficult?

"Then why didn't you take my glass beads?" Zhu Houzhao suddenly asked, "You didn't open the cabinet?"

Zhu Xiurong curled her lips and said, "I have plenty of colored glass beads. My father asked Mr. Zhang to make a lot for me. I can pile them up in a whole room. What are your colored glass beads for? I have no use for them." (End of this chapter)