Mother Ruan finished cleaning up the dishes and led the maids back.【26nbsp;】

The ram's horn palace lantern on the small table emits a gentle yellow warm light, which dissipates the cold night a lot. The rain outside has almost stopped, and the sparse chirping of insects gradually begins to sound.

Everything calmed down too quickly, as if the heavy rain was coming with the force of a storm, but it had no choice but to leave, leaving nothing behind except puddles on the ground and a brief impression of people.

"Ahem, the fourth prince is about to ascend the throne, don't worry." In the silence of the room, Cheng Xunxun coughed and was the first to break the silence.

Yu Zhu smiled, not intending to hear anything else from him, and patted his chest: "Amitabha, the dust has finally settled." Considering that the late emperor had just passed away, it was indeed inappropriate to say this.

He couldn't help but stick out his tongue.

"Silly." Cheng Xunxun sat cross-legged on the bed, supporting his chin with his slender fingers, looking at Yu Zhu as if he was hesitant to speak.

After Yu Zhu made the bed, she waited quietly for him to speak, probably already guessing what he wanted to say.

"Do you want to know about the Gong family..." Cheng Xunxun sighed, and slowly said under Yu Zhu's gaze: "And about the Gong family."

"I will listen to what my husband says." Yu Zhu suppressed his curiosity and still carried out the sentence "Husband is the heaven" to the end. However, he saw the man getting out of bed neatly and lifting up the two layers of azure gold thin silk outside.

Jin Lian walked out. Yu Zhu was stunned, maybe he didn't want to say he wanted to run away.

After a while, the vision suddenly became much darker. Yu Zhu looked up in surprise and saw that Cheng Xunxun had returned to the bedside. He stood on the footrest and blew out the small glazed lamp placed beside the bed for the night.

It was put out, but now there was no light at all.

Yuzhu shrank uneasily, hearing the sound of rustling in his ears, and then his waist tightened, and he fell into a generous and warm embrace. However, this posture was really uncomfortable, and lying like this was still uncomfortable.

It hit her hair, so she subconsciously struggled...

"Don't move." The man's voice was deep and deep in the darkness, and it was close to her ear. His warm breath swept through the fine hairs on her ear, and it tickled all the way to the bottom of her heart. As she said this, her hands were still loose.

Clear the pine and leave room for Yuzhu to find a comfortable position.

"The Gong family... can be considered a famous family. You grew up in Beijing, and then went abroad with your father, so you may not have heard much about it." Such a low voice in the dark is really irresistible.

Yu Zhu couldn't help but slow down his breathing and listened to his sermon.

"The head of the Gong family is Gong's father. He is a man full of poems and books. He used his ancestral influence and hard work to become a governor. However, on the eve of leaving Beijing, one of Mrs. Gong's direct children contracted a sudden illness and fell into a coma.

Mr. Gong and Mrs. Gong are extremely anxious, and they must not delay their appointment. However, these two children have always been their treasures, so how can they bear to leave like this." Cheng Xunxun was a little stiff at the beginning, but became calmer as he went on.

"Seeing that the day of taking office was getting closer day by day, I had no choice but to find a way to entrust someone to take care of me. Mr. Gong and his father had been close friends since childhood, and their friendship had been good for many years, so they naturally entrusted him to the government... My father is a good person.

He was generous and agreed happily, and even asked his mother to tidy up two exquisite small yards adjacent to each other. But things changed again this time. It may be that the boy is stronger, and although Gong's younger brother is younger

He recovered very quickly. Mr. Gong and Mrs. Gong were overjoyed, but their schedules were too late, so they only asked their eldest daughter to take their youngest son with them..."

Yu Zhu couldn't help but interrupt: "Is that brother called Xiao Fan? The old lady seems to have mentioned it, and he is in the north now."

Cheng Xunxun twisted a strand of fragrant and smooth black hair around his fingertips and asked curiously: "What did the old lady say?"

Yu Zhu thought for a while and learned from him the words the old lady used to scold Gong.

"The scolding is not bad. Mr. Gong has been in the Duke's mansion for three years. He has a lively temperament and is not shy or timid at all. He only stayed quiet for two days during his illness. After getting familiar with him, he often called us brother with a smile.

It had been five years since the first sister-in-law passed away at that time. The brother-in-law and sister-in-law had a deep relationship. The eldest brother felt unhappy when he saw his step-brother who was left behind by his sister-in-law. He usually didn't even want to see him. He was so young that he didn't want to see Gong.

She was very fond of her when she was nice to him... Neither my eldest brother nor I have a younger sister, so since she was not too old, we acquiesced in letting her and her adopted brother sit on the bench and watch, and serve us tea during martial arts training.

Dim sum... The Gong family passed down their poems and books on loyalty and filial piety, so who would have thought that she would commit such a heinous crime."

Yu Zhu consoled him: "I don't blame others for this matter, but the most important thing is to find out the reason why she got involved." After a pause, he asked again: "What next?"

"The Gong family suffered a great loss. I was about to return to Beijing after three years. But just when my term was about to expire, we encountered a locust plague. Originally, it would only be affected in terms of performance appraisal, but the disaster relief funds allocated by the imperial court

The money and food were embezzled, and he was involved in it all at once...most of it was the fault of others."

"How can you be wronged so easily when you are such a big official? Can't the investigators of the case find out more clearly?" Yu Zhu was filled with indignation. Those who stole the people's life-saving money could still shift the blame to others.

The corrupt officials who let their concubines buy land while they are free themselves deserve to die.

Cheng Xunxun sneered, "Huh, after what happened, the late emperor was furious, and the civil servants, middle officials, subordinates, and even the censor were all clean, so who else could prove his innocence?

There was no help in times of need, but instead a lot of insinuations were poured out. Even the promotion conducted by the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Household Affairs before the appointment was exposed to be shady... which made matters worse. He was immediately sentenced to death as the culprit.

, and then the clan was also implicated, almost as if their home was ransacked, a lot of ancestral property was taken away overtly or covertly, and many Jinzhi clan members were sentenced to exile... My father also intervened, and it was easy to save the Gong family.

"

Yu Zhu thought about it and realized that it turned out that Mr. Gong's officialdom was not clear enough and he did not have a good relationship with his colleagues and subordinates. That's why he was tragically pushed out as a scapegoat after "sharing the spoils". Otherwise, he would have been the scapegoat.

It is impossible for a governor with such a high rank to be regarded as an outcast. There are countless middle-level officials to choose from. The weak have always been chosen. Mr. Gong is probably one of the kind of upright officials who are a little bit unclean.

, but he cannot belong to any camp, so neither side will help him, and he will only end up like this if something goes wrong.

If you don't know how to be an official, then you shouldn't engage in this high-risk profession. Dental cards and yamen are not that easy to get. Yu Zhu felt sad. In fact, the experiences of Mr. Gong and his father were very similar. It was really

One wrong step and another, a locust plague changed the fate of many people

But if you think about it carefully, my husband didn’t try his best. If he had tried his best to save Gong’s younger brother, who was only five years old when the accident happened, it wouldn’t have been a big problem. I’m afraid it was to avoid suspicion. After all, the female family members could turn a blind eye.

However, it is impossible for a man to succeed. Saving the Gong family is enough to prove that he has done his best, and it will not involve too many forces. If this old man becomes an official, he will definitely have two brushes...

Just as I was lost in thought, I heard again: "Ms. Gong was only thirteen years old at the time. When he heard the news, he immediately locked himself in the room and didn't come out for a whole day. When his mother felt uneasy, he opened the door.

At that time, I discovered that she had left a letter and ran away, saying that she was going to the north to find her clan members...it was only two years later that she was brought back by her eldest brother, covered in filth."

"Why is it dirty?" Yu Zhu felt that this Gong lady looked very much like the heroine in the novel. How many people can have such a grand and ups and downs life?

Cheng Xunxun's tone was indifferent: "What she said was that she dressed up as a man and followed the caravan to the north, but she couldn't see her younger brother, and the money was not enough. She suffered a lot before returning to the capital. She was almost exposed as a woman.

He was poisoned by others, but he was able to escape thanks to his encounter with his elder brother. In the end, he knelt at the door of Siqian Hall and begged his mother to take him in."

"Of course I have to take him in, but it's such a coincidence that I happened to meet him...I wonder if he's disheveled or not." Yu Zhu couldn't say anything else.

In the darkness, Cheng Xunxun glanced at Yu Zhu approvingly, stretched out his hand and patted her smooth and fat back, "In half a month, the eldest brother will marry her to fill in the house."

Yu Zhu suddenly wanted to ask, did you like Gong at that time? After all, you participated in her beautiful years from the age of ten to thirteen... After moving her lips, she still didn't say it. In fact, it was probably, maybe,

There should be some, forget it, if you know what to do so clearly, it’s better to be a little confused while living. There is a saying, deep love will not last long, wisdom will be hurt.

I silently recited the golden mean and fell asleep soundly next to Cheng Xunxun's warm arms. Tomorrow will be another beautiful day.

…

Early the next morning, word spread throughout the streets and alleys of the capital that the new emperor was finally announced, and every household breathed a sigh of relief. The fight between gods and mortals suffered, and Amitabha was finally settled. Now the border is stable, and there is nothing serious except the Yuzhou flood.

Disaster, now that the new emperor is young and strong, the next few decades will be smooth sailing.

The people's wishes are very simple. As long as they can't afford the disaster of weapons, the rest can be tolerated. The high-ranking families, including the nobles and nobles, are also busy worshiping their ancestors and Bodhisattvas, and by the way, they praise the four princes for their destiny.

The disaster has been eliminated. As for those rebellious ministers and traitors, they dare to raise dead soldiers and wander around my house to scare people. They are really unforgivable. They have written papers asking for a heavy sentence for the fifth prince to increase the power of heaven.

The fourth prince, who was only one step away from the enthronement ceremony, was sitting in front of the imperial court, turning a blind eye to the piles of such tricks. There were still a lot of things waiting for him to be busy. Who has the time to listen to these overt and covert flatteries?

Being accused of murdering the late emperor is enough, any more would be a waste.

The most important thing is the funeral ceremony of the late emperor, which is extremely trivial and troublesome, but if it is not handled well and others find out the faults, it is a great unfilial piety, so we should not be careless at all.

In order to show filial piety, when the Queen Mother dies, she has to observe mourning for the country for one year. If the emperor dies, like the common people, the new emperor must observe mourning for three years, and the common people must accompany him within three years. He must not take exams, not be an official, and not get married.

Marry. However, this is obviously impossible to implement. It doesn't matter if it delays the people. If the imperial court has been in such a state of almost collapse for three years, what will happen in the world?

I don’t know what kind of chaos it will become. So some emperors began to change things early. After they succeeded to the throne, several emperors in the previous generations all wanted to avoid disturbing the people. They issued an edict to the world that all noble families and officials above the fourth rank should observe three days of mourning.

During the month, rituals and music are prohibited, weddings and banquets are banned, but officials are ordered to go to mourning at regular intervals... As long as the folk don't go too far, it's fine.

Half a month later, the new emperor's enthronement ceremony will be held. The reign title will be changed to Yuan Xi, and Concubine An will be honored as the Holy Mother Empress Dowager. The remaining concubines in the harem of the former emperor will be rewarded according to their rank. At the same time, the fourth prince's concubine Fu will be enthroned as the empress.

.(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to subscribe and reward. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
Chapter completed!