King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 694: The Eastern Palace may take action
Yingchun's physical condition was very poor at the moment, so Zhu Jinghong did not do anything big. The two just hugged and kissed each other and then separated.

But Zhu Jinghong was not in a hurry to leave. He talked with Yingchun for a long time. It was not until late at night that Zhu Jinghong decided to leave.

Yingchun had always been very timid, but when Zhu Jinghong just stood up, she was very bold and grabbed his leather belt.

"Don't go!"

There are only two words, full of dependence, pain, and hope...

The leather belt in Yingchun's hand was like a life-saving straw to her.

Zhu Jinghong sighed. Yingchun was hurt more seriously than he had imagined, and he was fully responsible for it.

Sighing, he sat back on the bed and then put Yingchun back on the couch.

Yingchun still held him, and said with tears in her eyes: "Don't go!"

"Don't worry...I won't leave!" Zhu Jinghong said with a smile.

As he was speaking, Zhu Jinghong also lay down on the bed and held Yingchun in his arms.

Yingchun immediately stretched out her hands and feet and "clamped" Zhu Jinghong tightly, as if she was afraid that he would disappear again.

Lying on Zhu Jinghong's solid chest, Yingchun felt extremely safe and at ease, and she wished this moment could last forever.

After only three or four minutes of Zhu Jinghong's soothing words, Yingchun, who had let down her guard, fell asleep.

After waiting for a few more minutes, when Yingchun fell asleep, Zhu Jinghong wanted to get up, but she was held down and couldn't get up at all.

So he just lay there, and this trip lasted half an hour. He was in mixed feelings throughout the whole process and had trouble falling asleep.

After slowly twisting his body and taking Yingchun's arm away, Zhu Jinghong sat up from the bed, adjusted the quilt for Yingchun, and then got out of bed.

Standing by the bed, Zhu Jinghong looked at Yingchun for a while, sighed, and went downstairs.

At this time, Siqi was still guarding downstairs, and she basically heard all the conversation between Zhu Jinghong and Yingchun.

Seeing Zhu Jinghong coming downstairs, Siqi knelt on the ground again, her heart beating rapidly as she stared at the floor in front of her, until a pair of black boots appeared in front of her, making her so nervous that she almost fainted.

Should I kowtow, should I say something... Siqi was confused.

Although the Rongguo Mansion has many rules, they are still far inferior to those of the royal family. Siqi has not received any special training, so it is normal for her to be confused at this moment.

"Take good care of your girl and give her more guidance... If anything goes wrong, you will be held responsible!"

The voice was indifferent and irresistible.

Siqi was so numb that she just kept bowing and agreeing that she didn't even notice when Zhu Jinghong left.

Slowly raising her head and seeing that there was no one around, Siqi took a few deep breaths, then patted her numb legs and stood up.

After looking outside and making sure that Zhu Jinghong had left, Siqi went to pour herself a glass of water. After drinking it and relieving her tension, she went upstairs.

But when she went upstairs and walked carefully to Yingchun's bed, she found that her girl had opened her eyes.

"Girl, are you awake?" Siqi was deeply surprised.

However, Yingchun did not respond, and tears fell from her eyes again.

"girl……"

Before Siqi could finish her words, Yingchun said, "He's gone!"

"The prince will come again!"

"But he didn't take me away!" Yingchun became even more sad.

Although she is timid, she is not stupid at all and can see many things clearly.

Normally, Zhu Jinghong should give her a legitimate status when he returns, but what is happening now is obviously unreasonable.

Although Zhu Jinghong gave a guarantee, Yingchun still felt uncomfortable. After all, the current situation was worse than she expected.

"Miss... the prince said that you can go to the palace from now on and don't have to stay here all the time!" Siqi comforted.

She was downstairs just now and heard a lot of things, so she said these things.

"But he..."

Yingchun shed tears. She was too sad and didn't want to say anything else.

As the saying goes, those who are involved are often confused, and Yingchun is like this. On the contrary, Siqi, as a bystander, can see things clearly.

After a few moments of silence, Siqi said, "Miss... Actually, you don't have to worry too much. His Royal Highness Prince Xiang will not let you down. On the contrary, because of this matter, you will benefit from it in the future!"

Yingchun found it hard to understand what was said, but it was novel and made her willing to listen, so she stopped crying and turned to look at Siqi.

"I can see that His Royal Highness Prince Xiang feels guilty towards you. From now on, as long as you stick to this rule, you will definitely have a place in the palace!"

"Think about it, you got pregnant because of Prince Xiang, and you miscarried because of him. How could a great hero like him not feel guilty towards you?"

"Think about it again. In such a huge Xiangwang Mansion, would the prince feel guilty towards others?"

"no!"

"This is the girl's unique advantage!"

Siqi does have unique insights, which shows that she is also a very smart girl.

"So girl, you just have to endure for a while. The longer you endure, the more suffering you will endure. But the sweeter the sweetness will be in the future!"

"Really?" Yingchun couldn't believe it.

"Why would I lie to you?" Siqi replied.

After hearing this, Yingchun finally felt better and stopped crying.

Siqi's words gave her more hope.

"Young lady, you must remember that if the prince comes again in the future, you must say that you are fine!"

"The more he comforts you, the more you have to say it's okay, and show that you don't want to cause him trouble and don't want him to worry about you!"

"In this way... the prince will feel even more guilty towards you. Not only will you be able to escape from this predicament sooner, but you will also benefit greatly in the future!"

Siqi is very concerned about Yingchun's affairs because she also wants to get out of trouble as soon as possible.

"Do you understand?" Siqi asked.

Lying on the bed, Yingchun seemed to understand but nodded anyway.

…………

In a blink of an eye, another two days passed. Zhu Jinghong went to the palace to pay his respects to the queen, and at the same time proposed the idea of ​​guarding the mausoleum to the emperor.

When they returned to the palace, Baochai was the first to find him and ask about the results of guarding the tomb.

"Okay, I said I'd go for three months, and the old man said just go!"

"Just go away?" Baochai was surprised. This statement was very novel.

"Could it be that he is playing tricks on me and wants me to stay for half a year or even a year? Or even three years?" Zhu Jinghong was puzzled.

Just go... This ambiguous statement made things out of control, which made Zhu Jinghong feel very uncomfortable.

"It's possible that you will be gone for ten days or half a month!" Baochai said calmly. In fact, she was not sure.

"hope so!"

He and his wife were chatting when Deng An came into the hall.

"My Lord, Ni Er is here!"

Hearing this, Zhu Jinghong and Baochai exchanged glances, then said, "Tell him to wait in the inner study!"

"Yes!"

After Deng An left, Baochai asked, "Did you call him?"

After nodding, Zhu Jinghong said, "If we sent someone to deliver the message this morning, this guy would have arrived just now. It seems he was waiting in advance!" "Is it about Miaoyu's matters?" Baochai asked.

"Ok!"

After responding, Zhu Jinghong stood up and walked out. He was going to meet Ni Er.

Zhu Jinghong's inner study is actually a side hall of the Yin'an Hall. It is definitely an honor to be received by him here.

Although Ni Er was standing in the study room at this moment, he had already rehearsed many times in his mind how to kneel more smoothly.

He is a sophisticated and smooth person, and he thrives in the Jinyiwei. Over the past year or so, his horizons have been greatly broadened and he has understood the ins and outs of many things.

His greatest gain was that he understood the situation of the succession struggle and realized which camp he was in.

According to his judgment, Zhu Jinghong had at least a 70% chance of succeeding to the throne, which meant that he had a great chance of being able to follow the dragon.

He used to think that it was difficult to quit the job he was in charge of, but now he understands that this job is the ladder of his life.

So he stopped complaining and just thought about getting the job done.

Hearing the footsteps, Ni Er waited for a while, and just when Zhu Jinghong appeared, he knelt down on the ground with a thud.

He knocked his head with a loud bang, then kowtowed and said, "I bow to Your Majesty, may Your Majesty live a thousand years and a thousand thousand years!"

Zhu Jinghong walked to the desk, sat down and said, "Get up!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Ni Er responded.

"I heard that you were promoted to a minor official? Congratulations!" Zhu Jinghong said with a smile.

The small flag officers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were military officers of the eighth rank, and they held enormous power and had a very high social status.

Ni Er bowed again and said, "It is all thanks to the blessing of the prince and the support of Deputy Captain Chen that I can have the place to settle down today!"

He was a newly appointed captain, but he was promoted within a year. This shows how important it is to follow the right people.

The deputy captain Chen of the Ni couple’s army actually refers to Chen Yuntai.

If this person wants to promote a minor flag officer, he only needs to report the vacancy normally.

Although the small flag officers of the Jinyiwei are powerful, they are just small fry to the upper-level officials and are not worth their attention at all.

Zhu Jinghong said calmly: "You have done a good job, so you deserve to be promoted. It shows that Chen Yuntai knows how to use people!"

In Ni Er's opinion, Chen Yuntai can be regarded as a legendary figure. This man is much younger than him, but now he is a deputy captain of the fifth rank, and his promotion speed is faster than a monkey.

Ni Er knew very well that the reason why Deputy Captain Chen was so lucky was because he followed the right person.

Just as Ni Er was about to say something flattering, Zhu Jinghong asked before he could finish his words: "How is the situation over there?"

When talking about business, Ni Er suddenly became serious, hunched over and replied, "Your Majesty, I have been closely monitoring this matter and have made great progress in the past year!"

Zhu Jinghong took the tea from Deng An, took a sip, then raised his head and said, "Tell me about it!"

"In the past year, we have discovered more than 150 people who are connected to Miaoyu's gang!"

"Excluding the thirty or so people from last year, there are a total of 120 new people!"

Zhu Jinghong was indeed surprised by such a large increase in the number of people. Logically speaking, Miaoyu did not have such great power to stuff so many people into the palace within a year, and it was even more impossible that there were so many secret agents in the imperial city.

So Zhu Jinghong guessed...it might be that the Eastern Palace helped!

"Of the 120 new people, 61 of them... entered the Imperial City in the past three months!"

It is outrageous to cram ten people into the palace every month, and it is even more exaggerated to cram twenty people in.

Therefore, Zhu Jinghong had good reason to suspect that the Eastern Palace might have been involved in this matter.

He already knew about this, and Lao Liu also knew about it... Zhu Jinghong thought to himself.

Putting down the teacup, Zhu Jinghong continued: "Let's talk about these 150 people!"

"In reply to Your Majesty, among these more than one hundred people... there are sixty-three eunuchs, thirty-five of whom are serving in the outer court!"

"There are another thirty-four palace maids, all serving in the outer court!"

The so-called outer court is also inside the imperial palace, and these people can do many things.

"Keep talking!" Zhu Jinghong frowned.

"Forty-five soldiers from the Guards Division were also found to have colluded with these people!"

The soldiers of the Yiwei Division are responsible for the security of the area between the imperial city and the imperial palace. Although these people have no right to enter the palace, they can cause great damage if used properly.

"Old Four is really bold... He places people in place so quickly, isn't he afraid of being discovered by the old man?" Zhu Jinghong was secretly surprised.

But he changed his mind and thought that considering the size of the Eastern Palace, it would be unlikely to be exposed as long as he was careful and cautious.

The emperor is so busy with his daily affairs that it is impossible for him to pay attention to these things.

The reason why Zhu Jinghong knew about this was purely by coincidence, as he discovered Miaoyu's identity at the beginning.

Ni Er was still analyzing. He spoke very carefully throughout the whole process, and Zhu Jinghong listened quietly.

After he finished speaking, Zhu Jinghong ordered: "Continue to pay close attention, be careful and cautious, and don't alert the enemy!"

"I understand!" Ni Er replied.

In fact, he didn't understand that if he exposed this matter now, the Eastern Palace would be defeated in one fell swoop, and the possibility of Prince Xiang's Mansion taking the throne would be even greater.

In fact, this is easy to understand, because Zhu Jinghong understood that the prince and the sixth son’s families were the "buffer zones" between him and the emperor.

If these two ended their political lives, it would lead to a confrontation between the emperor and Zhu Jinghong, the two power centers, which would undoubtedly be a disaster for both sides.

So in Zhu Jinghong's view, there was no need for him to take the initiative to squeeze out the Crown Prince Rui and Prince Rui, and he could just let them fend for themselves.

Just as he told Baochai, as long as the old man doesn't deal with him in advance and maintains the current situation to the end, he can easily get rid of the fourth and sixth sons.

It can be said that Zhu Jinghong’s current angle and direction of consideration are very different from before.

After Ni Er left, Zhu Jinghong ordered Deng An, "We need to send someone to keep an eye on Ni Er, and send someone from the palace!"

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. I have already arranged it!" Deng An replied.

"Ok!"

Just at this moment, Baochai came out from the inner room of the study. She came with Zhu Jinghong.

"Greetings, Her Majesty!" Deng An bowed quickly.

"You go and guard outside!" Baochai ordered.

"Yes!"

After Deng An left, Baochai said, "Here comes the opportunity...Aren't you tempted?"

Zhu Jinghong knew what Baochai meant, so he replied: "It's not the right time yet!"

"I'm afraid something might happen if we wait any longer!" Baochai said worriedly. She had heard almost all of the conversation in the study just now.

"If the fourth and sixth brothers fall, can I go up?"

"If I go up, will the old man be at ease?"

These two questions made Baochai instantly understand what Zhu Jinghong was worried about, and she had to admit that Zhu Jinghong thought further.

"If Father finds out... then we can only see what happens!"

"Will the Rui Palace pick them out?"

Zhu Jinghong replied: "I am the biggest threat to them now. I don't think Lao Liu will touch the crown prince. He would like the crown prince to kill me and this old man!"

As the external environment changes, people's ideas will also change, and this is true for Zhu Jinghong and Zhu Jingyuan as well.

Baochai sighed, "Alas... this family is really..."

(End of this chapter)