Chapter 50 To go or not to go, that is the question
As Zhu Hao finished speaking, even Zhu Youluo, who had been stern and serious before, couldn't help but be moved.
If it were someone else, he would at most praise him for sacrificing his life to save his master, but Zhu Hao took actual action. When life and death were at stake in the fire, he put the only wet blanket on his son instead of himself...
Yuan Zonggao said with a smile: "Prince Xing, heroes have always emerged from youth. Zhu Hao is indeed the descendant of a loyal and righteous man. He has inherited his father's legacy and should be rewarded."
Zhu Youqiu nodded but still said nothing. It seemed that he let Yuan Zonggao make all the decisions.
"Well, Zhu Hao, the prince really appreciates your act of saving people today, and will reward you with twenty taels of silver as a reward." Yuan Zonggao said.
"Thank you very much."
Zhu Hao bowed again, but his expression remained calm and unmoved, as if the twenty taels of silver were not important to him.
That's the character.
The orphan and his widow were held hostage by the family. If you gave me 20 taels of silver, wouldn't it end up in the hands of the Zhu family? I risked my life to save people just to win the 20 taels of silver for the family?
Who are you insulting?
Yuan Zonggao had expected that Zhu Hao was not interested in this, so he continued to ask: "Zhu Hao, what are your plans for the next step?"
Zhu Hao blurted out: "I want to leave the palace, I...I want to go home."
"Oh? You don't want to stay in the palace to study?"
Yuan Zonggao was a little surprised and asked.
Zhu Hao stared at Yuan Zonggao with eyes like he was looking at a monster, and said with lingering fear: "I originally wanted to enter the palace to study hard, but the people in the palace don't seem to welcome me... I was lucky this time and was able to get out of the fire. If it happens again... Please, Lord Wang and Mr. Yuan, please show mercy and let me leave the palace. I don't want the reward."
Retreat to advance!
Yuan Zonggao, stop pretending in front of me. When asking me about my next plan, why don’t you just ask me directly whether I still want to stay in the palace to gather intelligence?
Giving me a little reward is considered as a reward for my kindness in saving the world. Do you really think I am a seven-year-old child?
Yuan Zonggao sighed, "You are very talented in studying, but unfortunately you have impure motives for entering the palace. The fire this time may be caused by the falling of the revolving lantern in your room. Don't think that someone is trying to murder you. But since you have decided to leave, the palace cannot keep you. Go back and pack up. We will prepare 20 taels of silver for you to take with you when you leave."
"Um."
Zhu Hao nodded heavily , without any reluctance at all.
But then a sad look appeared on Zhu Hao's face. Seeing this, Yuan Zonggao sighed and said, "It seems that the things you brought were burned in the fire. How about this, the mansion will give you another five taels of silver to buy your clothes. Okay, you can go down first."
"Students please leave!"
Zhu Hao bowed without any hesitation and left.
…
…
After watching Zhu Hao disappear at the door of the study, Yuan Zonggao turned his head, smiled at Zhu Youlang, and asked, "Prince Xing, what is your impression of him?"
Zhu Youqiu frowned slightly, shook his head and did not answer.
"Prince Xing, I have a suggestion. Why don't we keep this little guy in the palace and let him study with the prince in the future?" Yuan Zonggao's words surprised Zhu Youqiu.
Zhu Youju stared in astonishment, "Yuan Changshi, he is from the Jinyiwei Zhu family. You said before that we should be on guard against him. Did you mean that he should be kept just because he rescued people from the fire? That's not what you said before."
Yuan Zonggao stroked his long beard and said, "I was just testing him earlier to see if he was willing to stay in the palace and if he had any bad intentions. But he took the initiative to leave. I guess he was really afraid of something happening."
"oh."
Zhu Youqi looked at Yuan Zonggao in surprise, with a strange expression, as if to say, "Yuan Changshi, you actually went to test a child? Is that necessary?"
"Perhaps Prince Xing is puzzled about keeping him. In fact, I think it is very simple to send him out of the palace. But will the Jinyiwei stop there? Of course not! If we send away a child who is in the open and has feelings for the prince, how will we deal with more spies with ulterior motives who sneak in in the future?" Yuan Zonggao stated his reasons.
Zhu Youqiu stood up and paced back and forth for a long time before he nodded.
Yuan Zonggao continued, "Initially, we accepted the proposal of the two little princes to select study companions so that the Jinyiwei would have the opportunity to send people in so that we could take targeted precautions. Now it seems that if we treat Zhu Hao like a plague, the Jinyiwei will not get the intelligence they want and will sooner or later find another way..."
"Given Zhu Hao's bad relationship with the Zhu family and his loyal character, it won't be harmful even if he contacts the prince. Instead, he can pass on the information we want to send out..."
Zhu Youqi interrupted: "What Yuan Changshi meant was... to ask him to send some false news from time to time?"
“It may not be false.”
Yuan Zonggao smiled and said, "In fact, what the Jinyiwei want to know most is the situation of the prince. As long as they think that the prince is mediocre and has no ambition to fight for power and profit, and they find that there are not many secrets in the palace, they can report to the higher-ups, and the Xingwang Palace will not become the target of public criticism."
Zhu Youqiu admired Yuan Zonggao's wisdom and nodded in agreement.
"And I really admire Zhu Hao. He is talented and loyal to his friends. If he stays in the palace and studies with the prince, it may help the prince's studies."
Yuan Zonggao meant that if Zhu Houcong wanted to succeed, he needed to grow up with people of both good character and good academic performance. As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together." If he always played chess with bad chess players, even a child prodigy would eventually become a bad chess player.
Zhu Youqiu was still worried: "He is always with the prince, what if he does something wrong? Many things are beyond his control, what if someone asks him to harm the prince?"
Yuan Zonggao narrowed his eyes and said, "Let him interact with the Third Prince more. I think he won't be able to tell the identity of the Crown Prince for a while. Also, be careful... If he really wanted to hurt the Crown Prince, he wouldn't have helped him this time. Besides, if someone really wanted to harm the Crown Prince, even if it wasn't Zhu Hao, it would be hard to guard against it, right?"
Zhu Youqiu's face was filled with sorrow.
His eldest son died of illness shortly after he was born, and the cause of death is still unknown. There must be more than one spy, Zhu Hao, in the palace. If the Jinyiwei really want to harm people , the Xingwang Mansion cannot prevent it at all. The main strategy now is to continue to create confusion so that people can't tell the true identities of Zhu San and Zhu Si.
"Choose the lesser of two evils. Prince Xing, I will meet with Zhu Hao later and instill some loyalty in him, so that he can work for the palace. This way, we can also know the movements of the Jinyiwei in reverse, which is much better than being controlled by others now... What do you think?"
Yuan Zonggao told the ultimate plan.
The biggest purpose of keeping Zhu Hao is to make him act as a double agent.
The palace wanted to take advantage of Zhu Hao's young age and limited experience to find out all the arrangements made by the Jinyiwei against the palace and turn the passive situation into the active one.
Zhu Youqiu nodded without saying anything else, which meant that the matter was left entirely to Yuan Zonggao to handle.
…
…
Zhu Hao walked out the door.
Lu Song was a little nervous outside. He was afraid that after Zhu Hao met Zhu Youlu and Yuan Zonggao, he would not be able to withstand the repeated questioning and would reveal his identity.
"Master Zhu, what's wrong?"
Lu Song found that no one was following him, so he hurried over and asked in a low voice.
Zhu Hao spread his hands and said, "Prince Xing rewarded me with twenty taels of silver... I asked to leave the palace and go home, and Yuan Changshi agreed."
"Well?"
Lu Song was a little confused.
You offered to leave?
Zhu Hao said: "The palace is too dangerous. I was able to escape today, but I may not be so lucky next time. I am just a child. I entered the palace to study... Life is much more important than studying."
It makes sense.
Lu Song nodded.
There is nothing wrong with this statement.
But if it was really Zhu Hao who took the initiative to leave and left the palace voluntarily, then would the arson incident have anything to do with Zhu Hao?
This kid set fire just to tell others that he was in danger in the palace and had to leave early?
What Lu Song was most worried about was that Zhu Hao planned everything in order to stay in the palace and get close to the little prince.
That doesn't make sense.
But he still breathed a sigh of relief unconsciously. If Zhu Haozhen left, no one in the palace would know his identity anymore, and he wouldn't have to worry about being discovered when they met secretly in the future.
"Lu Dianzhang, what are you standing there for? Why don't you take me out of the house quickly? I was scared today. I'm afraid I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life." Zhu Hao looked impatient.
"Um."
Lu Song was eager to send this little plague god out of Prince Xing's Palace.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the two of them walked out of the backyard, a maid came and said, "Lu Dianzhang, the prince wants you to come over."
Lu Song looked at Zhu Hao and saw people from the palace's ceremonial guard department outside the door. He immediately called his men to come and send Zhu Hao to the yard where the craftsmen gathered, and he followed the maid to see Zhu Youluo.
…
…
The study room of Prince Xing’s Mansion.
"Prince Xing, Lu Dianzhang is here."
Yuan Zonggao smiled and said, "Lu Dianzhang played a great role in putting out the fire today... Fortunately, he was there, so the prince was safe and sound."
"Um."
Zhu Youqiu nodded, his eyes full of admiration.
Lu Song knelt on one knee and saluted, looking very terrified. He thought to himself, hadn't he been praised just now? He also said that he would increase his salary for three months. Compared with Zhu Hao, who was rewarded with 20 taels of silver at a time, it was not equal at all. It was obvious that he was regarded as the first meritorious...
No, I wasn’t the one who made the greatest contribution, so why should I want to take credit for it?
Yuan Zonggao's face suddenly darkened: "Although you have done a great job in putting out the fire, I heard that you were also in the East Courtyard today. You were still responsible for not notifying the arsonist in advance."
Only then did Lu Song realize that the praise was fake and the criticism was real.
"I am incompetent."
Lu Song knelt on both knees instead of one, and kowtowed to apologize.
After all, it was he who invited Jianmaohao to drink, and he went out to urinate right under his nose, but ended up setting the fire. It is just an excuse to say that he has nothing to do with this matter.
Lu Song is a person who will admit his mistakes whenever he makes them.
Yuan Zonggao was very satisfied with Lu Song's performance and nodded in praise: "But you can't be blamed for this. After all, no one knew that something like this would happen... Let's leave it at that. You can help Zhu Hao make arrangements later. His residence has been burned down. You can arrange a place for him near the Royal Palace Guards' quarters and we will relocate him later."
"ah?"
Lu Song was stunned.
Didn’t Zhu Hao say he wanted to leave the palace?
Why did Yuan Zonggao say that the boy would not leave and even arranged accommodation for him?
"Lu Dianzhang, what are your concerns?"
Yuan Zonggao didn't expect Lu Song to react so strongly to Zhu Hao staying in the palace.
Lu Song immediately realized that he had lost his composure and hurriedly explained: "I think that although Zhu Hao has made great contributions in saving people, the fire was all caused by him. If he continues to stay in the palace...it may cause more trouble in the future."
Yuan Zonggao said: "What you said makes sense, but he has made great contributions in saving the prince. If we send him away, it will violate the principle of clear rewards and punishments in the Prince Xing's Palace... You don't have to doubt it, just follow my orders!"
