Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 475: Dispute in the Imperial Court
During dinner, Princess Anyang no longer had the cautious look on her face as she had in the morning. She sat quietly, listening to Li An, Minglan, Li Nan and Liu talking, with a hint of envy in her eyes.

I don’t know when I can integrate into this family.

After dinner, Liu urged Minglan to go for a walk, and Minglan smiled and said, "Sister Ruichu, come along."

Ruichu was stunned at first, then waved her hands in panic and said, "I...I..."

"Let's go." Minglan walked forward and pulled Ruichu out.

After Liu and the others left, Li Nan said, "This girl is also a good girl. Treat her well."

"Dad, why didn't I know that you could judge people? She has only been here for one day, how do you know that she is a good girl?" Li An asked.

"You little brat." Li Nan said unhappily, "I, your father, have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice. Although I have never been to school, I still have a good eye for people. She is the county lady, and she didn't put on airs after entering the house. She was very well-behaved. How can she not be a good girl?"

"Okay, okay, Dad, you have a good eye for people. I will treat her well." Li An said quickly.

Li Nan glared at him and said, "I have discussed it with your mother and will be back in a few days."

"Huh?" Li An was stunned and said, "Why are you in such a hurry?"

He originally thought that Minglan was pregnant, and Li Nan and Liu would not return until the child was born.

I didn't expect that they would want to go back so soon.

"Your eldest brother opened a restaurant in Suzhou, and when we came here, he was also preparing to open a restaurant in Hangzhou. Your sister-in-law is taking care of two children alone, so she can't handle it. You have many servants here, so you don't need us. We will come over when you are about to give birth." Li Nan said.

Li An pondered for a while and said, "Why not wait until the end of the year and come to Bianjing with my eldest brother and his family to celebrate the New Year? By then, the baby will be born soon."

"Your elder brother is very busy now. I don't know if he has time. I will go back and discuss it with him." Li Nan said after thinking for a while.

After chatting with his father for a while, Li An returned to the main courtyard.

I asked the maid to prepare water, took a bath and changed my clothes.

Just as it was done, Minglan came back.

"Sir, my mother just told me that they plan to go back in the next few days. I have tried to persuade them for a long time but to no avail." Minglan said.

"Dad told me, but I couldn't persuade them. Let them be." Li An said.

"I was thinking that my husband is on vacation, so he could take my parents-in-law out for some fun. He can't just come to Bian Jing and stay at home every day," Minglan said.

"Forget it, it's too hot today, let's not bother. I've told Dad to let them and my eldest brother's family come to Bian Jing to celebrate the New Year this year." Li An said.

It was like a furnace outside during the day. Not only his parents, but even he didn't want to go out.

"You can go out in the evening when it's cooler. It won't be that hot then." Minglan said.

"I'll ask later." Li An said.

The two chatted for a while, and Minglan said, "I'm going to take a bath, my lord, please go to Sister Ruichu."

"I'll rest here tonight." said Li An.

"Officer."

Minglan looked at Li An and said seriously, "I know that you feel you owe me, but I can't serve you now, and you treated Ruichu like that last night, so you should go and accompany her, right?"

Li An was moved when he heard this. The more generous Minglan was, the more guilty he felt.

"Go quickly." Minglan urged.

"Then I'll go. You should go to bed early." Li An said.

I went to the west courtyard in the afternoon. Ruichu was sleeping and the two of us didn't talk, but it was still necessary to go over there.

"Yeah." Minglan nodded.

…………

Saiin
Ruichu came back from her walk, took a shower, went to bed, and asked Xiachan to turn off the lights.

"County Lady, it's still early. What if the master comes and sees that the lights are off, he will leave." Xia Chan said.

"The master shouldn't be coming, so turn off the lights." Ruichu said.

"Oh." Upon hearing this, Xia Chan turned off the lights and walked out.

Li An came to the west courtyard, pushed open the door and walked in.

The maid who came to lock the gate of the courtyard hurriedly bowed and said, "Greetings, Master."

"What are you doing?" Li An asked.

"The county lady has gone to bed. I'll come and lock the door," said the maid.

Li An hesitated for a moment and said, "Screen the door."

After saying that, he walked inside.

"Lord."

Xia Chan and Dong Xue hurriedly bowed when they saw Li An coming in.

"Is the county lady asleep?" Li An asked softly.

"The county lady has just gone to bed, so she should not be asleep yet." Xia Chan said, "I will go in and light the lamp."

"Go ahead." Li An nodded slightly.

Xia Chan hurriedly walked in with a lamp, and soon the sound of talking came from the inner room.

Li An waited until the lights in the house came on and then walked in.

"Official!"

Ruichu learned that Li An had arrived and was about to put on her clothes to go out to greet him. When she saw Li An come in, she quickly put down her clothes and saluted.

"It's late at night. Why are you still getting dressed? Go to bed. I'll rest here tonight." Li An said.

"I will help you undress, sir." Ruichu said.

"Yeah." Li An nodded.

Ruichu came forward and helped Li An take off his coat, and Li An went straight to the bed.

Ruichu hung her clothes on the screen, climbed onto the bed from the foot of the bed, and said, "Turn off the lights."

"Yes!"

Xia Chan and Dong Xue responded, turned off the lights again, and walked out.

The room fell into silence.

"Last night's..."

"The lady told me what happened last night. It was my fault, not yours truly." Ruichu said hastily.

Upon hearing this, Li An sighed and reached out to hold Rui Chu in his arms.

When Li An's hand touched Ruichu, her body stiffened and then relaxed.

"I won't say anything about my apology. Let's live a good life from now on." Li An said.

"Yeah." Ruichu nodded, tears of excitement flowing from her eyes.

She doesn't ask for much, just wants to live a stable life.

…………

Officials of the Song Dynasty were the most comfortable officials in all dynasties, and this was not only reflected in their salaries.

And on vacation.

Officials of the Song Dynasty spent one-third of the year on vacation.

When Ang Lee married a second wife, he was given a half-month vacation.

After spending a few days together, Li An got to know Ruichu a little bit. Although he couldn't say that he liked her, he accepted her.

Li Nan and Liu returned to Yangzhou five days after the Princess of Anyang entered the palace.

After seeing his parents off, Li An stayed at home with Minglan and Ruichu.

Except for the first three days after his wedding, when Li An rested in Ruichu's room, Li An basically stayed at Minglan's place for two days and Ruichu's place for one day.

After his parents left, Li An asked Ruichu to move to the East Courtyard, but she refused. In her words, the East Courtyard was reserved for her parents-in-law, and they could come and live there anytime.

Li An did not insist after hearing this.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. Early in the morning, after having breakfast, Li An went out to the palace.

In the morning, a carriage stopped at the door of Li's house, and Rulan got out of the carriage.
Rulan came here without informing the doorman in advance. The doorman knew her and did not try to stop her, but he still trotted in to report.

The servant led Rulan to the front hall and served her tea, and Minglan hurried over.

"Fifth sister, why didn't you let people know you were coming? I could have someone prepare some of your favorite snacks." Minglan said with a smile.

"I came here on my grandmother's orders. I came here on purpose just to see how you are doing." Rulan said with a smile.

"Grandma, what a fool! I was living a good life, yet she still carried out surprise inspections." Minglan said angrily.

"Grandmother guessed you would say that. She said you are just like my elder sister, reporting good news but not bad news. If I told her in advance, the maids in the house would have been told by you, and they wouldn't be able to get any information out of me."

Rulan looked at Mama Cui and said, "Mama Cui, Grandmother said that you are an elder by her side and would not lie to her. Tell me, after Princess Anyang came in, did she act like a princess and embarrass Sixth Sister?"

"I was also worried about this at first, but the Princess Anyang is very well-behaved and serves the Madam as a concubine every day. At first I thought it was because the old master and the old lady were around, but after the old master and the old lady left, the Princess remained the same." Mother Cui said.

Rulan imitated Old Lady Sheng, nodded pretentiously, and said, "That's good."

Minglan burst out laughing and said, "Fifth sister, don't imitate grandma."

"Okay, I came to see you with good intentions, but you laughed at me." Rulan said dissatisfiedly.

"Okay, okay, I was wrong." Minglan quickly changed the subject and said, "Fifth sister, did you quarrel with mother-in-law again?"

"How do you know?" Rulan asked in surprise.

"Guessed." Minglan said with a smile.

In fact, this is not difficult to guess. When Princess Anyang just came in, Old Lady Sheng was worried about her situation.

But both Old Lady Sheng and Madam Wang are elders, so it is not convenient for them to come over at this time, so the younger ones have to come.

Although Hai and Minglan were quite familiar with each other, they were not to the point where they could talk about everything.

Hualan was the most suitable sister, but it was Rulan who came.

There was no way that grandma would ask Rulan to go back. The only explanation was that Rulan had returned to the Sheng family in the past few days.

So Mrs. Sheng asked Rulan to come and see how she was doing.

"I'm not going back to complain. I just saw that Brother Jing was preparing for the exam and I didn't want to argue with her and affect Brother Jing's preparations." Rulan said stubbornly.

"Puch."

Minglan couldn't hold it in any longer and laughed, covering her mouth.

"Sixth sister!" Rulan stomped her feet in dissatisfaction.

"I just thought of something else funny. I wasn't laughing at you, Fifth Sister." Minglan said, trying hard to hold back her laughter.

"Humph!" Rulan glared at her in dissatisfaction and said, "Did you know that Molan is also pregnant?"

"Fourth sister is also pregnant? When did it happen?" Minglan asked in surprise.

"It was a letter sent by the Earl of Yongchang's Mansion a few days ago. But she is used to lying, so who knows whether it is true or not." Rulan curled her lips.

"No matter how dumb Fourth Sister is, she can't lie about something like this, right? And the doctor hired by the Earl of Yongchang's Mansion must be the one they usually use, so how could it be fake?" Minglan said.

"Then I don't know. I heard that our fourth brother-in-law's concubine is pregnant and he has ignored Molan. Who knows if she did this to win favor." Rulan pouted.

"Forget it, let's not talk about her." Minglan shook her head.

She is different from Rulan. Rulan and Molan have been fighting for many years and have accumulated deep resentment.

Although it has not reached the point where it's either you or me, and after they got married, the resentment is not that deep.

But Rulan would feel happy whenever she heard that Molan was not doing well.

Minglan's attitude towards Molan is indifferent. She won't be happy when she knows Molan is doing badly, nor will she be unhappy when she knows she is doing well.

…………

Time flies, and autumn has arrived in the blink of an eye. This period of time can be said to be full of happy events.

Not long after Li An married the Princess of Anyang County, Sheng Changfeng got married.

Then Shen Congxing and Marquis Zhongjing's younger brother married the daughter of Duke Yingguo and Xiao Shen respectively.

Speaking of which, both the Zhang family and the Zheng family of Zhongjinghou had originally intended to form an alliance through marriage.

But the Duke of England was reluctant to give up his daughter, so the matter was never settled.

I heard that the two families had originally agreed on a date and asked a matchmaker to come and propose the marriage.

However, a rebellion broke out in Jiangnan, and Duke Ying was ordered to suppress it, so the marriage was delayed.

Later, a series of events happened, and the two people who were originally going to become husband and wife ended up becoming relatives.

Although it was a bit of fate, it was a win for both the Zhang and Zheng families.

After all, one is the queen's younger brother and the other is the queen's younger sister.

When Zhao Ceying ascends the throne in the future, the prosperity of the Zhang and Zheng families will be guaranteed for several generations.

At the end of October, the additional special examination ended, and Qi Heng and Wen Yanjing were also on the list.

Ang Lee also attended the couple's celebratory banquet.

During this period, the court seemed calm, but in fact there were undercurrents.

Last month, Zhao Zongquan proposed to reform the Xijiao Camp.

The Western Suburbs Camp is a general term. Although all of them are stationed in the western suburbs outside the city of Bianjing, they are divided into five camps: front, back, left, right and center.

The so-called reform is to disrupt and reorganize the five battalions, separate them, and place and promote his own confidants.

The Queen Mother did not object to this matter. At this time, she was quite satisfied with Zhao Zongquan's performance during this period and had no intention of seizing power.

In addition, according to the system of the Song Dynasty, the empress dowager held the imperial seal in her hands and was not worried that the military power would be out of her control.

Zhao Zongquan felt that he had already taken control of the military power, and since he had been on the throne for more than half a year, he was no longer willing to be a puppet.

At the morning court session that day, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites submitted a memorial stating that Zhao Zongquan should posthumously confer titles on his biological father and mother.

At first no one thought there was any problem. Although Zhao Zongquan had been adopted by the late emperor and the empress dowager, it was not a problem for him to posthumously confer the title of prince on his biological father now that he was the emperor.

However, when the emperor asked about how to address his biological father and mother, Grand Chancellor Han Zhang stepped forward and said, "I think we must address the late Prince Pu as our Emperor Father!"

As soon as Han Zhang said this, the whole hall fell silent and you could hear a pin drop.

Even the queen mother, who was dozing behind the curtain, suddenly opened her eyes.

In the Book of Rites, father, mother, and wife are their titles when they are alive. After they die, they are called Kao, Bi, and Pin.

In ancient times, after parents passed away, the words "deceased father" and "deceased mother" would be written on the tombstone.

Han Zhang told Zhao Zongquan to call his biological father, the former Prince Pu, "Huang Kao", which means he should call him father.

However, Zhao Zongquan had already been adopted by the previous emperor, and calling him that was clearly against etiquette.

An official immediately retorted: "If Your Majesty calls your biological father the Imperial Father, why do you call him the Late Emperor?"

Others denounced Han Zhang for being a traitor and a disloyal person to his king and father.

Han Zhang said calmly: "Your Majesty calls his biological father the Imperial Father and the late emperor the Imperial Uncle."

"boom!"

The Queen Mother could no longer bear it, slammed the table and stood up, shouting, "Does Your Majesty really want to do this?"

"Mother, calm down!"

Zhao Zongquan quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "We are just discussing this now. I don't have this intention."

.

(End of this chapter)