King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 759: Meeting with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince
After Mei Jingwen finished conveying the imperial edict, he expressed his feelings with a few simple words of flattery and then returned to the palace to report.

Baochai walked up to Zhu Jinghong, took his sleeve and said to everyone, "Sisters, come with me into the hall to pay homage to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

It was of course only natural for everyone in the palace to pay homage to Zhu Jinghong, and everyone was naturally happy to do so.

"Why make it so complicated!" Zhu Jinghong said with a smile.

Baochai replied: "Etiquette cannot be abolished... Your Highness, please!"

"Princess...oh no...Crown Princess, please!" Zhu Jinghong said with a smile.

At this time, Daiyu teased, "Oh... please don't let me go. If you don't leave, I will leave!"

Daiyu was pregnant, with maids supporting her on both sides. She was due to give birth within a month.

Xiangyun came to Daiyu's side, looked at Zhu Jinghong and the others and said, "Did you hear that... Sister Lin is angry. If you keep delaying like this, I will have to make some sarcastic remarks!"

"Baochai, let's stop being polite. If we say a few more words... I'm afraid we'll be drowned in their spit!"

"Why are you still standing there? Hurry up and go into the hall!" Baochai also looked dissatisfied.

"You guys..." Zhu Jinghong, who was isolated, didn't know what to say for a moment.

Then he didn't say anything more, and walked towards the inner house, and finally sat down in the main hall of Yin'an Palace.

Baochai led the way, followed by two concubines, then several selected maids, then several concubines, and of course Zhu Muzhen was also present.

"Daiyu, you are not feeling well, so forget it!" Zhu Jinghong said calmly.

Daiyu was about to give birth, and kneeling at this moment was indeed risky, so it was right for Zhu Jinghong to exempt her from the obligation.

Under the persuasion of Baochai and others, Daiyu did not choose to stand aside, and insisted on bowing instead of kneeling.

"Your humble servant... pays homage to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. May you live a thousand years, a thousand thousand years, a thousand thousand years!"

"Everyone, please stand up!" Zhu Jinghong smiled.

After everyone stood up, Zhu Jinghong also stood up from his chair and said, "I have to go to the palace to express my gratitude. If you have anything to say... I will tell you when I come back!"

"Please do as you please, Prince!" Baochai smiled slightly.

After Zhu Jinghong said goodbye to everyone, he set off for the palace.

The girls chatted and laughed, and then went to Baochai's Tongxin Hall.

Following Baochai, Daiyu sighed, "Sister Bao, it must have been such a hard journey for you!"

Baochai replied: "It was indeed not easy, but at least I have made it through!"

The two of them were walking in front and chatting, followed by Yang Jingting, and on their left and right were Zhang Xiaoyue and Li Huizhen, the latter two of whom were chattering non-stop.

Zhu Jinghong was named the crown prince and would be the emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the future. Even though the two women admired Zhu Jinghong, today's events still shocked them.

While responding to the two women's exclamations, Yang Jingting was thinking about more distant things.

Looking at the back figure in front of her, Yang Jingting silently said in her heart: "Baochai... we have a long way to go!"

In the past two years, she has kept a low profile, following Baochai's wishes in everything, greatly reducing her own threat and focusing on raising and educating her son.

But she has never forgotten the scene of her disastrous defeat in public when she ran for the princess election eight years ago.

A few years ago, she colluded with Chen Zhi to depose Baochai, but failed and was imprisoned, which taught her to lie low.

A gentleman keeps his abilities to himself and waits for the right time to act...

They still have a lot of time to spend together in the future, so she can wait for an opportunity to avenge the disastrous defeat she suffered that year.

After Yang Jingting, it was Xiangyun and Baoqin. The two of them were discussing what their positions would be if Zhu Jinghong really became emperor.

Since Xiangyun had been in the palace before and was familiar with the situation there, she analyzed the "treatment" of each official with Baoqin.

"Oh... there are so many tricks, it's really not easy!" Baoqin sighed.

"Sister... Tell me, what kind of position do you want?"

Xiangyun smiled and asked, "Noble Consort? Consort? Or concubine?"

But Baoqin replied: "As long as I can stay with His Highness, even if it's a noble lady, it's fine!"

"A noble lady? That's a very low rank. Considering the relationship between you and His Highness, you should at least be made a concubine!" Xiangyun said bluntly.

Baoqin has stayed in Beijing for several years. Because she had not entered Prince Xiang's palace before, she had a detached perspective when looking at the struggles in Beijing, like an outsider.

The rise and fall of several royal palaces made her see through the glitz and glamour and she no longer cared too much about these false reputations.

She was a very simple person. She had her heart set on Zhu Jinghong. And since her cousin was going to be the queen, she really didn't care about her own status.

Then Baoqin sighed, "Sister Yun, how high a position does one have to be to be considered high?"

Seeing her unfathomable look, Xiangyun felt strange. Although she was older, she felt that Baoqin seemed more like her sister at this moment.

"That's right. As the saying goes, deep friendship and loyalty are important, these false reputations are really not worth mentioning. You must know..."

In order to maintain her sister's style, Xiangyun began to talk big and said some seemingly profound words, but in fact she was just "not speaking human language".

Behind them came Zhen Qin, Yinglian, Keqing, Qiqige and Nuomin, and these five people were also chatting with each other.

"Yinglian, come here..." Zhen Qin pulled Yinglian.

"What's wrong?" Yinglian asked softly.

"Come here!" Zhen Qin called again.

So Yinglian stopped and fell behind with Zhen Qin.

After Keqing and the others walked away, Zhen Qin waved away the accompanying maids, then approached Yinglian and whispered, "Yinglian... our chance has come!"

"Opportunity? What opportunity?"

"Oh my dear sister, why are you so stupid? Now our prince has become the crown prince and will become the emperor in the future!"

"So...what chance do we have?" Yinglian asked again. In fact, she had already guessed Zhen Qin's thoughts.

Zhen Qin had tried to win her over several times, but Yinglian always pretended to be stupid and avoided him because she didn't want to get involved in the trouble and only wanted to raise her daughter.

You can say that she has no ambition or that she is not enterprising, but she just has such simple ideas.

What she couldn't understand was why Zhen Qin, who was obviously not very smart, always wanted to stir up trouble.

What Yinglian didn't understand was why Zhen Qin always thought she was stupid and tried to instigate her to be a pawn.

"Sister, once you enter the palace, it's like entering a deep sea, and from then on, there will be many troubles..."

"Yesterday's sweet-scented osmanthus shark's fin was really good. What do you think, Sister Qin?"

"You have to know that if we don't join forces, we will be bullied in the future, so..."

"This morning, Rou'er was making a fuss again. It took me half an hour to coax her back to normal. But Tong'er is not like that..."

These two people, one talked about one thing and the other answered another; one was scheming and the other was chatting about trivial things.

After a while, Zhen Qin completely lost her temper and secretly sighed that a rotten tree cannot be carved. Then she could only choose "backward compatibility" and chatted with Yinglian about parenting tips.

Everyone arrived at Tongxin Hall, and under the arrangement of Yang Jingting, they all paid a visit to Baochai, the Crown Princess.

Although it has not been officially canonized yet, it is a foregone conclusion. Although Baochai has declined again and again, she cannot refuse everyone's kindness.

While everyone was laughing and talking, people had come to pay their respects outside Prince Xiang's mansion, mainly Zhu Jinghong's brothers and uncles.

As for the military heroes, due to the rules set by Zhu Jinghong, even if they wanted to show their loyalty, none of them came at this time. However, the first people to arrive were the Zhongshun King Zhu Xianmo and his family, followed by the Qingyang King and the Jinghai King, and then the Yunyang King, the Xingshan King, the Le'an King...

Of course, there were also three princesses, and even Zhu Jinghong's uncle came.

Because Zhu Jinghong was not there, the princes were led to the Cunxin Hall to serve tea, and only the princesses were allowed to enter the inner house to pay their respects.

Just like the situation before, as soon as these princesses entered the inner hall, their knees seemed to be rooted to the ground, and each of them wanted to kowtow to Baochai.

Just now, the people in the palace were all her own people, so Baochai reluctantly agreed to their greetings. But now, these people are all "outsiders", so Baochai has to be careful.

After all, until the imperial edict to confer the title of Crown Princess was issued, she was not officially recognized as the Crown Princess.

"Sisters, if you continue to worship me, you will be making things difficult for me!"

Baochai said this in a casual manner, but her indifferent tone made everyone present feel a chill in their hearts.

Everyone came here to get closer to the queen, but if they flattered her too much and offended the future queen, it would be more trouble than it was gained.

So after Baochai finished speaking, everyone laughed and found a way to leave, and no longer mentioned the intention to pay their respects.

While everyone was chatting, Zhu Yunsheng felt uncomfortable listening to the flattery in the room, so she came to Baochai's side.

"Sister-in-law, I heard that Sister Lin is about to give birth. I'm going to go see her!"

"Well... go ahead!" Baochai nodded in agreement.

Zhu Yunsheng is the legitimate princess and Baochai's legitimate sister-in-law, so Baochai is extremely tolerant of her.

After leaving Tongxin Hall, Zhu Yunsheng suddenly felt relieved. She didn't know since when she started to hate flattery so much.

Looking back at Tongxin Hall, Zhu Yunsheng thought of his fourth brother, the prince who had passed away less than four months ago.

Things have changed and people have changed, everything is over... Zhu Yunsheng sighed in his heart.

It was when she thought of Zhu Jingyuan that she remembered that Yuanchun did not come today.

To be more precise, no one came from the Anle Palace and the Gongshun Palace, and her fourth brother and sixth brother were both absent.

Accompanied by a maid, Zhu Yunsheng came to Daiyu's courtyard. She left first due to exhaustion, and only Yang Jingting and Keqing accompanied her in Tongxin Hall.

"I am sorry for not welcoming you, my distinguished guest. I hope the princess will forgive me!"

Seeing Daiyu smiling, Zhu Yunsheng felt much better. He then said with a straight face, "What do you mean by rude? I see you are accompanying my Thirteenth Brother and acting like a concubine to the Crown Prince!"

Motioning the princess to take a seat, Daiyu stroked her belly and said, "How dare I, in front of Her Royal Highness the Princess!"

"Okay...if you keep talking, I'm going to feel sick!"

"Why did you think of visiting me?"

"Why...can't I come see you?"

"Maybe you're bored over there, so you come here to find some peace and quiet!"

Daiyu did not make false polite remarks when speaking to Zhu Yunsheng, and directly told him the truth.

That was why Zhu Yunsheng was willing to come and talk to her, and the same was true for Xiangyun.

Taking the tea from the maid, Zhu Yunsheng replied, "I couldn't bear to hear those words, so I came out for a walk and happened to come to you. I didn't come here just to get some peace and quiet!"

"Did you tell Sister Bao when you came out?" Daiyu asked.

This is a very interesting question. Most people would not be able to understand the deeper meaning behind it, and Zhu Yunsheng is certainly not one of them.

"I told you when we left, I still understand this point!"

After hearing this, Daiyu finally felt relieved. She was afraid that Zhu Yunsheng would leave directly and ruin her relationship with Baochai.

A few months ago, during the funeral of Crown Prince Zhangdao, Zhu Yunsheng asked inappropriate questions. Daiyu already knew the details, so Zhu Yunsheng asked this question.

"That's good!"

Just as Daiyu finished her words, she heard a cheerful voice coming from outside: "Okay... let me go back first, but you guys are whispering here, I caught you!"

They both knew who was outside without even looking.

Looking at Xiangyun entering the house, Zhu Yunsheng was filled with mixed emotions, simply because there were so many familiar faces in this palace.

They said they would be sisters for life, but in the end, they all became her sisters-in-law...

"Humph, maybe he knew I was coming and hid away on purpose!"

After entering the house, Xiangyun asked with a smile: "Since I have already hidden away, why should I come now?"

"Perhaps you are afraid that I will punish you, so you feel uneasy and come to me to apologize!"

Before Zhu Yunsheng finished speaking, Xiangyun was already three steps away from her.

"Princess, you have guessed it all. I am here to apologize!"

"Why don't you kneel down!" Zhu Yunsheng continued.

"Your Highness, please... forgive me!"

As soon as the words of forgiveness were spoken, Xiangyun rushed over and started playing with Zhu Yunsheng and the other one, laughing and having a lot of fun.

And looking at Daiyu from the side, she also had a smile on her face and looked very happy.

After the two of them were tired of playing, they sat down and talked, chatting about the interesting things that happened when they were together in the past, which was several years ago.

Back in Prince Anle's Palace, Zhu Muchun's wife, Wang, was kneeling in front of Yuanchun, begging her to go to Prince Xiang's Palace.

However, Yuanchun did not agree. On the one hand, she did not want to go, and on the other hand, she could not go.

The first reason is easy to understand. When you see Baochai become the Crown Princess, she, as a former Crown Princess, feels very embarrassed.

As for the latter reason, it is because the situation of the meeting between the two princesses can easily backfire if not handled properly, and there is a high probability of failure.

"Mother, are you going to sit idly by and watch the palace suffer disaster in the future?" Wang begged bitterly.

Yuanchun had already explained the reason, but Wang thought it was just an excuse, so she still had no intention of leaving.

Seeing that she couldn't be persuaded to leave, Yuanchun could only choose to leave by herself. She didn't want to explain any more to this stupid woman.

The royal family does not consider family background when selecting concubines. The father of Princess Anle, Wang, was just an ordinary student, so his knowledge was very limited. There were only a few people as smart as Chen Zhi.

Wang came to the Princess's main hall and reported the situation to Zhu Muchun, who then said, "If she doesn't go...you go!"

"me……"

Wang had been married into the royal family for two years, but had been confined to the East Palace before that. Although she had experienced many big scenes, her narrow social circle made her a little shy.

Zhu Muchun sighed: "It's no big deal, just say more good things!"

Today, Zhu Jinghong was conferred the title of Crown Prince. The fire in Zhu Muchun's heart had been extinguished, and he abandoned those unrealistic thoughts.

Sighing, Zhu Muchun said, "Forget it, I'll go too. We'll have to rely on ourselves from now on!"

Obviously, Zhu Muchun was still somewhat reluctant to go to Prince Xiang's Mansion, but he had to bow to reality.

Back in Prince Gongshun's Palace, Chen Zhi, as a smart person, wanted to go to Prince Xiang's Palace, but Zhu Jingyuan refused to allow anyone to go.

Whoever goes will die, so everyone has no choice but to not go.

This made Chen Zhi very angry, but in the end there was nothing she could do about it.

(End of this chapter)