Chapter 119: Secret Frame-up
"How did I make my mother angry?" Yang Huniu was puzzled: "I gave her the imperial wine out of kindness. It is a rare and precious thing."
She had good intentions to honor her mother-in-law, but she didn't expect Rong Fei to cry so hard that she almost fainted. She frowned and finally revealed a little bit of the troubles of a married woman: "But when my mother-in-law cries, she is really... like a woman. It can't be light or heavy. It's really a headache for me."
Tang Ying burst out laughing: "Do you think everyone is like you, rougher than a man?"
Hu Niu disagreed with this, and with a wicked smile, she approached Tang Ying and whispered, "Yingzi, don't say anything, my prince is even more shy than the girl."
Tang Ying slapped her on the head: "Are you bullying the Fourth Prince again?"
"How could I be so cruel? How could I bear to bully such a tender young man?" He was quite conscious of being an elder. "Besides, I am two years older than him. If I bully a little brother, it would bring shame to our Yang family if people knew about it."
"I really didn't realize that you still remember the face of the old Yang family. It has spread all over the palace now . The Fourth Prince's wife and Empress Rong are not getting along. The daughter-in-law is so angry that her mother-in-law can't stop crying. Her eyes are swollen. She can't even go to the Queen's palace to pay respects. Can you be more careful?"
Huniu: "...I can't take her horseback riding or hunting, and there's no hope for me to sit in my mother's palace to amuse her. Oh, getting married is really annoying." She sighed with the melancholy of an experienced person: "Forget it, forget it, let Yuanjian handle it."
The Fourth Prince was even more exhausted by his mother's reaction. He sat in the Qingshuang Palace, which was newly moved into by Concubine Rong, and said helplessly, "Mother, why are you crying? The princess didn't mean it. The news spread all over the palace, and even your son knows about it. If you have something to say, just say it directly. There's no need to keep crying."
When Concubine Rong saw her son, she seemed to have found her backbone, and she choked up and cried, "Your wife...what does your wife mean? The first time she saw Your Majesty, she asked Your Majesty for wine. What kind of daughter-in-law is like this? The whole palace is talking about it as a joke, but she doesn't even realize it. I, as her mother-in-law, taught her the rules, but she actually made trouble and said she wanted to give me a cart of wine. What does she mean?"
The Fourth Prince held his forehead and thought of Yang Huniu's habit since their marriage. When she was in a good mood, she would ask her maid to boil a pot of wine for her to drink, and when she was in a bad mood, she would boil two pots of wine for her to drink. To her, imperial wine was a very rare and good thing. She was willing to send a cart of imperial wine to Qingshuang Palace. She must have made the decision while enduring the pain.
He could almost imagine Yang Huniu's expression at that time. She must have been very unhappy.
Fortunately, although Concubine Rong was crying so hard that she was out of breath, she still firmly rejected her proposal.
"She likes to drink a little when she's free, and she's giving it to you as a gift to show her filial piety, so don't think too much about it."
Rong Fei: "Have a couple of drinks for nothing? What else would she do if she had nothing to do?"
The fourth prince: "Practicing boxing, dancing in the wood warehouse, going to the restaurant to listen to music, going out of the city to hunt..." He found that his wife's spare time life was colorful.
He was too busy to accompany the princess, but Yang Huniu was not a woman who could sit idle in the backyard. Every night when he came home late, he would ask her about her day's itinerary and always listen to her enthusiastically recounting interesting things that happened outside.
Yuan Jian was so happy listening to her that he ate an extra bowl of rice without realizing it. His personal attendant Xiao Luzi even said, "Since the princess got married, our house has become much more lively."
Come to think of it, it’s true.
Upon hearing this, Concubine Rong collapsed again: "...How can this be called a woman? What kind of wife would marry into a family and not stay in the backyard to take care of her husband and children, but go out and have fun every day?"
What her daughter-in-law did greatly challenged her three views.
The fourth prince didn't think that his mother's encouragement was not enough, and he actually said, "I heard that the princess has lived like this since she was a child at the border. When you go to Qingzhou in a while, I'm afraid I will have to adapt to this kind of life."
Rong Fei felt so distressed just thinking about it. She felt that her son was a poor little thing being bullied by his daughter-in-law. She held her son's hand with tears in her eyes and cried, "Son, can we not go to Qingzhou?"
Yuan Jian: "...You have to ask your father about this."
Concubine Rong: “…”
After comforting his mother in the palace, Yuan Jian returned to Prince Qing's Mansion exhausted. He was greeted by two people who were fighting in the yard.
Tang Ying and Yang Huniu each took a stick with the tip covered with lime and started fighting. There were white spots on both sides of their bodies from being poked by the sticks, and the servants who were counting nearby watched excitedly.
"How many moves did the princess lose?"
"Six moves. Didn't you see that the princess has more white spots on her body than Lord Tang?"
"Will the princess lose all the wine in the cart? Or should we find the prince back?"
"...Of these two, which one can the prince afford to offend?"
Yuan Jian almost had cold sweat on his forehead - why did it sound like he felt so pitiful?
"What are you doing?" The captain of the guards Wu Xing asked and shouted. The servants who were watching the fun made way for him and saluted him.
Yuan Jian looked at the scene. The flowers, plants and trees that the Ministry of Works had transplanted last winter were growing well after the spring flowers bloomed. After the summer came, the garden was full of colorful flowers. Now it was as if two monkeys were thrown into the back garden, beating the broken flowers and branches to the ground, as if they had been robbed.
He had a headache: "Stop fighting, you two."
Tang Ying took the lead and took two steps back to signal a truce: "Your master has returned home, so I will spare you today."
Yang Huniu was in high spirits, but she was reluctant to lose the wine to Tang Ying, so she kept chasing her: "No, no, I haven't adjusted myself yet, let's do it again. My prince is here to watch the fight."
Yuan Jian: “…”
"Master Tang, do you want to reconsider the date for Minister Qin's execution?"
"Your Highness, please wait for me." Tang Ying heard that there was official business, so he stopped fighting and turned around to ask the servant who was counting: "How many jars of wine did I win?"
The servants who were counting were all slaves in Prince Qing's mansion. They looked at Princess Qing with a murderous gaze and said hesitantly: "Three... Four..."
Tang Ying: "If you don't behave, I'll cut off your tongues!"
The servant simply closed his eyes and said solemnly , "Seven altars!"
Tang Ying smiled and threw down the stick and tossed him a piece of silver: "Be good, this is your reward."
Yang Huniu: "Yingzi, you are cheating again!" This girl is so mean that she even dares to scare the servants in her house.
Tang Ying patted the white spots on her body and said, "I'm willing to accept the loss. Princess, please send someone to deliver the lost wine to my house." She turned around and left Yang Huniu, whose face had changed with heartache, and went to the study in the front yard with Yuan Jian: "My house received a large sum of money a few days ago. The person who sent the gift asked to spare Minister Qin's life and said that he wanted to delay it a little longer."
"There are also several groups of people coming to my house to give gifts, hoping to save Minister Qin's life. I don't know if they are from the same family."
The guilt of Minister Qin has been ascertained, but there is another debate in the court about sentencing. The Emperor of Southern Qi is extremely angry and makes it clear that he wants Minister Qin's life, but people continue to send gifts to the Tang Mansion, the Fu Mansion and the Prince Qing Mansion.
Tang Ying was very confused: "Is it useful to delay? There has been no amnesty recently." Among them, a group of people gave gifts very high-profile, and repeatedly said that if Qin Shangshu's life could be saved, his prince would definitely be grateful to Tang Zhangshi.
It sounds like someone from the Second Prince's Mansion.
The Fourth Prince: "What about the valuable gifts? You refused them all?"
Tang Ying smiled: "How could I do that? How could I reject a gift that someone has carefully selected? I asked the gatekeeper to leave the invitation with it."
The fourth prince was extremely worried: "... This is not a good idea, right? What if father knew about this?"
Tang Ying: "Oh, I secretly transported the things to the Forbidden Cavalry Division in the middle of the night, and then transported them into the palace and delivered to His Majesty the next day." She also said self-deprecatingly: "I don't know whether it was used to fill His Majesty's private treasury or the national treasury. Maybe I was born to be a poor man. I dare not accept money and things that are delivered to my door." She always felt that she had lost hundreds of millions and missed the opportunity to become a billionaire. She felt sad.
Yuan Jian: "Pfft - Second brother is really talented!"
This is a brilliant move!
The next day, he also learned from Tang Ying's behavior and accepted all the gifts. He then presented them to the Southern Qi Emperor and acted timidly and honestly: "If I don't accept them, those people will block the door and come every day. I have no choice but to accept them. I feel relieved when I hand them over to my father."
The Southern Qi Emperor's face turned pale: "These ignorant people!"
He had received generous gifts "forwarded" by Tang Ying and Fu Chen for several days in a row. Now, with the gifts received by Yuan Jian, he was even more determined to execute Minister Qin.
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Hong Xiang secretly made an appointment with the Second Prince and informed him: "Your Highness, please do not send anyone to send gifts to Tang Ying to ask for Lord Qin's life. This little bitch turned around and sent all the gifts to the palace."
The second prince was puzzled: "When did I send a gift to Tang Ying?"
Hong Xiang said cautiously, "... I don't know about that, but I went to Tang Ying's room and saw her sorting out the gift list. I asked her a few questions and she said that it was a valuable gift sent by His Highness's family. She also said that His Highness was loyal and righteous and was willing to run around for his father-in-law, but it was a pity...he met the wrong person."
Before she entered the Second Prince's Palace, she was extremely jealous of the principal wife Qin Xinmei and wished that Minister Qin would die in prison.
The second prince was shocked: "Are you sure? You didn't lie to me?"
Hongxiang's cheeks were flushed and there were two pools of tears in her eyes. She defended herself in a delicate voice: "I have given my heart to Your Highness a long time ago and only hope for the best for You. When I heard about this, I rushed to inform Your Highness, but Your Highness is so suspicious of me. It shows that it's hard to be a good person." Tears rolled down her fair cheeks. The beauty shedding tears was quite pleasing to the eye.
Unfortunately, Yuan Lang had no intention of lingering and turned a blind eye to the beautiful scenery. He took her hand and comforted her: "It's all my fault. I was a little panicked when I heard it. I don't know who went to such great lengths to deal with me. Don't cry."
Hongxiang thought that she had done something good and wanted to taste some sweetness, so she snuggled into Yuanlang's arms, played with the jade pendant on his waist, and asked tenderly, "When are you going to take me into your house, Your Highness?"
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Yuan Lang was preoccupied with lawsuits, so he had no time to care about such a small matter. Besides, from the beginning to the end, he had never thought of taking Hongxiang into his house. She had plotted against him in his last life, so there was no reason for him to keep her by his side in this life. Regardless of loyalty or treachery, who knows what kind of ulterior motives a person from the Imperial Cavalry Department might have, and it was hard to guard against them.
"It's not appropriate for me to interfere in the affairs of the Cavalry Banning Department right now. I'm not familiar with Director Tang, and she may not let you go. I have to slowly think of a solution, right?"
Yuan Lang's consolation was halfhearted. After saying a few words, he was about to leave: "This matter can't be delayed any longer. It's thanks to you that you reported the news to me." He touched his body, pulled off the jade pendant he was carrying and stuffed it into her hand before leaving.
