King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 791 Zhu Yunsheng's Sadness
While Zhu Jinghong was talking to Baochai, Zhu Yunsheng also received a reply from the palace.

Although it was the Queen's response, Zhu Yunsheng knew that Zhu Jinghong didn't want to see her. After all, it was very difficult for him to get drunk.

"Your Highness, the Queen has ordered us to take you back to the palace!"

Unexpectedly, Zhu Yunsheng replied: "Since Brother Thirteen doesn't want to see me, I will wait here for him to wake up!"

At this time, the female official spoke again: "Your Highness, the Queen has ordered us to take you back to the palace!"

What she emphasized here was the imperial decree. If it was an order, it must be obeyed, otherwise it would be a serious crime of disobeying the order.

Imperial decree... Zhu Yunsheng hadn't heard this word for a long time since his mother passed away.

Liang Yi on the side was very clear about the current situation, so he knew that he really had to stop. He and his wife could not bear the consequences of going against the imperial decree.

"We will go back to the palace now. Thank you, Queen, for your consideration!"

After replying, Liang Yi showed his masculine side and forcibly helped Zhu Yunsheng walk out.

The female officials who came out to deliver the message, along with a team of eunuchs from the palace, went out with Zhu Yunsheng and his wife.

Zhu Yunsheng wanted to say something, but was blocked by Liang Yi. This was because people from the palace were right next to him and he could not say anything that should not be said.

Liang Yi could tolerate Zhu Yunsheng's suffering, and she also understood Liang Yi's difficulties at the moment, so although she was extremely sad and angry, she did not make trouble anymore.

At this moment in the Fengxian Hall, the emperor and the empress were sitting opposite each other, and Zhu Jinghong had explained the whole situation to Baochai.

"Alas... He is tying himself up in knots. Compared to the extermination of the clan by the late emperor and the great ancestor, you are being extremely kind and merciful by only punishing him!"

Baochai was not flattering when she said this, because objectively speaking, it was true.

Emperor Taizu Zhu Shenzhuo killed the entire family of the emperor's brother, while Zhu Xianming beheaded the entire families of his two legitimate brothers, involving hundreds of lives.

Zhu Jinghong only killed Zhu Jingyuan, and he did so because the other party had attempted to murder him many times. This was indeed a very restrained act.

Looking up at the portraits of the late emperor and empress, Zhu Jinghong sighed, "I'm afraid my parents won't forgive me!"

Zhu Xianming has been repeating similar words for twenty years. Zhu Jinghong used to think he was being pretentious, but now after experiencing it personally, he no longer thinks so.

Baochai didn't know how to explain this, and the hall fell silent for a while.

After a while, she finally spoke: "Sheng'er was originally a smart person, but since the death of the fourth brother, she seems to have become a different person!"

Zhu Jinghong also saw through Zhu Yunsheng's changes, and he could more or less understand why his sister had changed.

In Zhu Yunsheng's opinion, any of his three brothers can be emperor, but they should not fight each other to the death, after all, they were all born from the same mother.

However, this is a delusion. Zhu Yunsheng was born in a royal family and still has such delusions, which makes him seem immature to a certain extent.

But Zhu Jinghong also believed that if he was the losing party, his younger sister would protect him more, so he was very tolerant of Zhu Yunsheng's "overstepping" behavior.

"There are some things I don't know whether I should say or not!"

"Speak!" said Zhu Jinghong.

"Old Six's family reported a death in the early morning. Sheng'er will definitely suspect you when she finds out. I'm afraid some trouble will arise again. You must make plans early!"

"First, it will prevent her from committing a serious offense that will make the matter difficult to resolve; second, it will also avoid hurting your wisdom!"

Baochai spoke cautiously, so her words seemed very vague, but Zhu Jinghong understood what she meant.

"What do you think we should do?"

After a few moments of silence, Baochai said, "It's hard for me to say. You have to make the decision on matters between you two siblings!"

This involves the relationship between brother and sister, and Zhu Jinghong has to make the decision on how to deal with it.

Although she is a married sister-in-law, if Baochai really offends someone and that person "makes a scene" at her, she will lose face if Zhu Jinghong does not punish her severely.

Zhu Jinghong understood Baochai's worries. After thinking for a while, he said, "Upon hearing that the sixth sister had passed away, the third sister was heartbroken and then fell ill!"

"Do you want to confine him in your house on the pretext of illness?" Baochai revealed the key point.

"Ok!"

"Oh... this does save trouble, but if you don't let her go to see off the sixth brother, I'm afraid she will resent you for the rest of her life!" Baochai reminded again.

Zhu Jinghong said, "Just keep her for the first two days, and when she accepts it... then let her go!"

After nodding slightly, Baochai didn't say much. The two of them sat in Fengxian Hall for a while before leaving together and returning to their bedroom.

According to Zhu Jinghong's arrangement, Zhu Jingyuan died at the beginning of the Yin hour (three o'clock in the morning). After the time, Chen Zhi officially announced the news of his death to the public.

Inside Prince Gongshun's palace, the already few eunuchs and maids wailed, and then each of them got busy.

Because there were not enough people, the task of reporting the death fell on the palace guards.

The guards might shirk their responsibilities on other matters, but they were all willing to report the death because it meant the drudgery was over.

In addition to the special person who reported to the palace, the first to receive the news were members of the royal family, followed by the families of various military honors, and then the officials in Beijing.

Reporting a death is not an easy task. More than a dozen guards ran through the entire process, and it was dawn when they finished.

Zhu Jingyuan's death actually had nothing to do with most people. The civil officials were afraid of being suspected and did not dare to come, and the military heroes were hostile to him and would not come either. Only members of the royal family went to pay their respects one after another.

The ones who arrived the fastest were Zhu Jingchun and Zhu Jinghao. They also brought their respective princesses with them, and also sent people from their respective palaces to help.

It was because of these two that other princes, generals, princesses and daughters of the royal family came to Prince Gongshun's mansion to pay their respects one after another.

A group of Zhu family men are currently discussing matters in Chengyun Hall, and they have not yet come to an idea on how to arrange the funeral.

Originally, Zhu Muyu should have been in charge of this matter, but the sudden change made him feel at a loss. In addition, all his uncles and grandfathers were talking at once, which made him even more confused and he sat there in a daze.

Zhu Muyu is very frightened now. Compared to the grief over his father's death, he is more worried about the fate of his family, so he is also waiting for the imperial decree.

An hour and a half had passed since I went to the palace to report the death, so the imperial edict should have been on the way.

Not everyone has a God's perspective, and not everyone has a keen political sense, so at this moment most people in the hall really thought that Lao Liu died of illness.

Apart from the two Zhu Jingchun brothers, only the old silver coin Zhongshun King Zhu Xianmo was present and he roughly guessed what was going on.

He is old now and naturally does not want to be involved in these things, so he sat there like a clay sculpture the whole time, even squinting his eyes as if he was asleep.

He is the elder, so no one dares to say anything to him, so he is happy to take advantage of his seniority.

"Your Highnesses, His Majesty...Eunuch Yu from the palace is here!"

Everyone present knew who Eunuch Yu in the palace was, so they all stopped talking, straightened their robes and went out to greet him. They knew that the imperial edict had arrived.

Zhu Xiantan, who looked old and frail just now, suddenly became energetic at this moment. After standing up, he even squeezed to the front.

The chief eunuch Yu Hai, surrounded by eunuchs and guards, had already entered the Chengyun Gate, and a group of princes had already come to the steps to greet them. The person who greeted them on the spot was naturally Zhu Muyu, who walked forward tremblingly, then knelt down and kowtowed, saying: "Your Majesty, I, Zhu Muyu, wish you the best!"

The others also knelt down to greet him. Yu Hai stood there with his hands folded in front of him. He glanced at the whole audience and said, "Your Majesty, your Majesty, be well!"

Immediately afterwards, Yu Hai took out a bright yellow paper from his arms. This was undoubtedly an informal imperial edict, but it was slightly more formal than an oral order.

“Imperial Decree…”

As Yu Hai uttered these two words, all the princes of the Zhu family knelt on the ground again, feeling the coolness of the ground in this cold winter.

"I was shocked to hear that King Gongshun passed away. I am deeply saddened that the court has lost a wise king, and I am even more grieved to lose a limb..."

After hearing the opening sentence of the imperial edict, Zhu Muyu's originally uneasy heart calmed down a little. This at least proved that the emperor would not add any more charges to him openly. Of course, the premise was that he was sensible enough.

At this moment, Zhu Muyu thought of the memorial in his arms, which was a masterpiece he spent a whole night working on and was his gift to his uncle the emperor.

"Considering that the young Crown Prince Gongshun is not very good at handling things, I order the Kings of Qingyang and Jinghai to assist in handling the funeral affairs. I decree this!"

"Your Highness, I accept your order and thank you for your grace. Long live the Emperor!"

After the decree was read, Yu Hai handed the things to Zhu Muyu, and then said: "Prince Gongshun passed away, His Majesty was extremely sad, and specially ordered our family to come to offer sacrifices on his behalf!"

Zhu Jinghong was the emperor, so naturally he didn't need to come in person to pay tribute. Sending an imperial envoy was a very appropriate arrangement.

Zhu Jingyuan's mourning hall was set up in Yin'an Hall. Next, Zhu Muyu led Yu Hai there, while the Zhu Jingchun brothers arranged the funeral ceremonies.

Since the imperial edict required them to handle it, they had the right to issue orders. Originally, this matter had to be done by the two of them, because there was no one available in Prince Gongshun's palace.

Yu Hai only stayed for more than ten minutes before returning to the palace to report. Under the handling of Zhu Jingchun and the other two, the funeral arrangements at Prince Gongshun's mansion went on smoothly.

They were both very young, but their arrangements were very clear and organized. The Zhongshun King Zhu Xianmo, who was watching from the sidelines, had reason to guess that these two might have been well prepared.

"The late emperor chose me, and I have been acting like a brother to him all my life. It seems that the current emperor... chose the two of them!" Zhu Xianmo thought secretly.

Being mortal enemies with one's own brothers but having close relations with one's half-brothers has been the practice of the Zhu family for nearly a hundred years.

"I've had such a hard time acting in my life, now it's the turn of these two guys, they're going to have a lot of trouble in the future!"

Zhu Xiantan was in a very relaxed state of mind. He had indeed been liberated and could live for himself for the rest of his life.

Back in the Tongxin Hall of the palace, all the female members of the royal family were there, surrounding the tearful Chen Zhi and trying to comfort her.

Last night, Chen Zhi's tears had dried up, but even so she still had to cry because she had to continue the show.

After learning that their husbands were in charge of the funeral, the two princesses Xu and Zhao also began to give orders in the inner house, completely ignoring their sister-in-law Chen Zhi.

Just at this time, someone outside announced that Crown Princess Zhang Dao had arrived, so Chen Zhi stopped crying and went out to greet her.

Yuanchun was the person Chen Zhi hated the most, but now compared with the people around her, when she saw Yuanchun again, Chen Zhi not only did not feel hatred for her, but felt extremely close to her.

Why is it so? We are all just wanderers in this world!

"Fourth sister-in-law..."

Chen Zhi had called Yuanchun "Fourth Sister-in-law" many times, but this time her words were truly filled with tears of affection, and in the end she actually threw herself into Yuanchun's arms.

"My Sixth Brother's wife, I feel so sorry for you... I feel so sorry for you!"

Yuanchun has deeply experienced the pain of losing her husband. At this moment, she and Chen Zhi feel similarly and no longer regard each other as enemies.

"Fourth sister-in-law, Sixth Master has been ill for a long time. He died suddenly last night without even saying a few words..."

"He has such a cruel heart, leaving us like this..."

Chen Zhi cried and said that this was what she should do, while Yuanchun comforted her softly.

Back in the residence of the imperial son-in-law and commander Liang, Zhu Yunsheng was furious in the inner house, but was stopped in the room by Liang Yi, and all the servants outside the room were called away.

"I'm not sick, I want to go see Sixth Brother!"

"Madam, Princess, Your Highness... I beg you, please be in peace. This is the will of the Emperor. How can we disobey it?"

"No, I want to see my Thirteenth Brother. I want to go to the palace to find out..."

The two of them kept quarreling like this for a full half hour, and in the end Zhu Yunsheng still couldn't walk out of the room. Liang Yi knew his limits at the critical moment and would not let him make a big mistake.

Finally, they both got tired, so they sat down on the couch.

"Ma'am, I don't understand..."

Liang Yi started talking, but seeing that Zhu Yunsheng had no intention of responding, he continued, "You are extremely intelligent, but why have you always overstepped your bounds and done things that are taboo in the past two years?"

"You are the emperor's biological sister. According to what you said before, you and I will not only live a life of wealth and honor, but our children and grandchildren will also have a bright future. But why do you..."

Liang Yi had been harboring this question for two years. He knew that Zhu Yunsheng was taking family affection into consideration, but he still felt that his wife had gone too far.

There was silence in the room for a while, Zhu Yunsheng recalled the past, and then slowly said: "In the seventeenth year of Zhengtong, my mother was seriously ill, and I often went to the palace to serve her!"

"At that time, my mother often looked worried, so I asked her what she was worried about."

Seeing his wife looking at him, Liang Yi replied: "The emperor was thousands of miles away at that time, and the queen must have missed her young son!"

After staring at Liang Yi for a while, Zhu Yunsheng replied: "Yes... but not entirely!"

"The Queen Mother was worried about the three brothers, and they ended up fighting each other and had no good ending!"

"That day I told my mother that if my father made my thirteenth brother his heir, my three brothers would all have a good ending!"

"Although my mother was surprised that I could see through the matter of the crown prince, she still said to me...Thirteenth Brother may seem reckless, but he is actually tough and ruthless. He may not treat me well in the future!"

Hearing these words, Liang Yi was really shocked. He was impressed by the wisdom and foresight of the late queen.

"So I asked my mother again, what if my fourth and sixth brothers were chosen as heirs? My mother said that if that were the case, they would not have a good ending!"

"Then my mother told me that my thirteenth brother and I grew up together and have a close relationship, and I have deep feelings for the concubines in the palace. In the future, I should protect my fourth and sixth brothers and not let them fight to the death!"

"Before my mother passed away, she called me into the palace alone to give me some instructions. She was still thinking about this matter!"

When Zhu Yunsheng said this, her eyes were already filled with tears. Thinking of her loving mother already made her sad, and now she felt even more uncomfortable and guilty for not being able to fulfill her mother's instructions.

"Last night, my Thirteenth Brother and I were only separated by a palace gate, but I couldn't see him... I failed to save my Sixth Brother. I failed to live up to my mother's wishes. I am unfilial!"

Seeing that Zhu Yunsheng was really sad, Liang Yi was also extremely distressed. He suddenly felt that his wife was very pitiful and had suffered a misery that was rare in the world.

Getting into Liang Yi's arms, Zhu Yunsheng cried, "There's just one palace gate, just one palace gate, just... just that little bit!"

(End of this chapter)