Chapter 517 How many stores are selling goods
The milky white mutton soup is thick but not greasy, sprinkled with half a handful of chopped green onion, a spoonful of dogwood fried in mutton oil, and paired with crispy sesame cakes. It is a rare delicacy in this late autumn season when the temperature drops sharply.
Sun Shaozong used a soup spoon to press the dogwood floating on the surface to the bottom of the soup and crushed out the crispy dogwood seeds inside. He then picked out the softened dogwoods one by one and put them into a small pile on the round table. He then ate them with sesame seed cakes and enjoyed it very much.
Seeing that the bowl of mutton soup was quickly empty, Sun Shaozong was about to ask Shi Liu to add another bowl, when he suddenly noticed Ruan Rong and the others opposite him, stirring the mutton soup back and forth with a spoon, as if they were making something out of it.
He took Ruan Rong's bowl without hesitation, added seasoning and asked, "Why? This mutton soup doesn't suit your taste?"
"It's not that I don't like it, it's just too greasy."
Ruan Rong said, and raised her chin towards Xiangling and You Erjie, saying, "Okay, if you really can't eat any more, ask someone to bring two bowls of rice porridge instead."
Shi Liu, who was standing nearby, hurriedly led people to take away the two bowls of mutton soup and replaced them with two bowls of thin porridge made from green rice.
This was apparently out of consideration for the two girls, but Sun Shaozong and Ruan Rong lived together day and night, so how could he not know what was in her heart - she really wanted to enjoy this intimacy alone, and did not want Sun Shaozong to eat the leftover mutton soup of the two girls.
However, Sun Shaozong would naturally not expose such a harmless little thought.
He pressed the dogwood to the bottom of the bowl in the same way, and looked at the golden dogwood seeds, which slowly floated to the surface with oily spots, and said casually, "There's just been a flower show at the Prison God Temple. If you guys are bored at home, why not go and take a look together?"
You Erjie was fine, but Xiangling was immediately excited. However, she did not dare to agree and just looked at Ruan Rong eagerly.
Ruan Rong hesitated for a while, but still shook her head and said, "Forget it. My nephew and his family are moving out in the next two days. Although they may not need us, it's not a good idea for us to go out and play at this time."
"Then go again in two days."
Sun Shaozong took a bite of the pancake and said vaguely, "This flower show is supervised by Jia Fucheng, and it will last until the tenth day of September."
Ruan Rong nodded, and pinched Xiangling's face, saying with a smile: "This is what you want. Don't forget to write a few more poems for the master, so that he will know that our female teacher was not hired in vain."
When Xiangling heard this, she immediately remembered the task assigned by Sun Shaozong yesterday. Her cheeks suddenly felt hot and she lowered her head to cover herself with the rice porridge.
The family finished their breakfast chatting and laughing. Sun Shaozong asked Ruan Rong again and learned that Sun Chengye and Yu Qian were planning to move their luggage to their new home today and officially move in early the next morning.
He left Zhang Cheng and the carriage at home and rode alone to the Prince's Palace.
Because there was a heavy rain yesterday, the streets were still a little slippery and muddy. Sun Shaozong didn't dare to gallop on his horse after leaving the house. Fortunately, he was not far from the Prince's Mansion. He simply tied the reins and let the horse kick and stomp as it went along the street.
Although the Great Zhou Dynasty is currently facing internal and external troubles, if you only look at the street scene of Shuntian Prefecture, it is much more prosperous than in previous years.
This is actually the follow-up impact of last year's flood. First, many Zhili people stayed in the capital to work hard; second, most of the court's disaster relief materials were transferred and mobilized from the capital, adding a lot of jobs; third, the weather near the capital was good this year, and the people harvested a few more stones of grain, but the price of grain rose instead of falling because of the victims.
To put it bluntly, the current prosperity of the capital is actually built on the suffering of hundreds of thousands of disaster-stricken people in Zhili.
"Hail, Master! Hail, Master!"
Just as I was habitually lamenting the suffering of the people, I suddenly heard some strange voices. I looked up and saw a peddler selling a few bird cages hanging on the roadside.
Thinking of the many birds in the corridor of Rongguo Mansion, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but feel excited, so he kicked his horse's belly and went forward to take a look.
The vendor saw that there was a business coming, so he hurried forward with a big smile on his face, and said with a bow: "Sir, please look at these, I have spent a lot of effort to train them, and they are all very skillful in speaking! Come, quickly greet this sir!"
As he spoke, he took down an ebony cage and teased the parrot with a red collar and green feathers inside.
"Hail, Master! Hail, Master!"
The bird flapped its wings and chirped twice. It was the same bird from before.
“You…”
Sun Shaozong was about to ask the parrot if it could speak anything else, when he suddenly saw a grey sparrow in one of the cages. He couldn't help but wonder, "Why do you have a sparrow here? Could it be that it can also learn to speak like a human?"
"That's going to be hard for you."
The vendor said jokingly, "Although it can't speak human language, it has a unique ability."
As he spoke, he took down the cage, caught the sparrow from it, neatly tied a thin string around it, and threw the sparrow to the ground. The sparrow flapped its wings, pecked up a small ghost-faced flag from the ground, and swayed its neck up and down, acting very ferociously and in a very professional manner.
This looks pretty good and may please children more than the talking parrot.
Sun Shaozong asked about the price and found out that it was only two taels of silver. He then pointed to his home and asked the vendor to deliver the bird to his house, and then went back to Zhao Zhongji to ask for the money.
When the peddler heard that it was the great judge in person, he naturally did not dare to neglect him. He quickly entrusted his stall to his neighbor and left with the bird in his hand.
But Sun Shaozong set out again and soon arrived at the gate of the Prince's Mansion. Just as he was about to dismount, he saw a young man in a dragon robe and jade belt walking out of the Prince's Mansion.
King of Xinyang?
How dare this guy come to the Prince's Mansion to cause trouble?
Sun Shaozong hurriedly led his horse to the side. After the Prince of Xinyang left, he glanced at Sun Shaozong, probably not recognizing his identity, and got on the sedan chair carried by eight people and left.
After watching the Prince of Xinyang's sedan go away, Sun Shaozong walked to the corner gate in confusion. While handing the reins to the guarding officer of the Dragon Guard, he asked in surprise, "Why is the Prince of Xinyang here again? Didn't His Royal Highness the Crown Prince forbid him to set foot in the palace?"
"I heard that it was the uncle of the emperor who helped smooth things over."
Why would Uncle Zhao try to smooth things over for Prince Xinyang?
Sun Shaozong was even more confused, but the details were not something a gatekeeper could know.
So he stepped over the threshold and entered the mansion, and asked the steward on duty in the front yard. He learned that the prince was having breakfast tea in the flower hall in the backyard, so he hurried over.
He was now the Crown Prince's most trusted confidant, so he had a smooth journey. However, when he arrived at the door of the flower hall, he saw that the Crown Prince was not the only one inside - the Crown Princess was also sitting beside him.
Sun Shaozong was just hesitating whether to send someone in to report. The prince had sharp eyes and had already seen his majestic figure. He immediately stood up and greeted him with a happy expression, "My dear, you came at the right time! I have some doubts here, and I need your help to analyze them."
Seeing that the Crown Princess remained silent and retreated behind the screen, clearly intending to "rule the government from behind the curtain", Sun Shaozong strode in, bowed and said, "Your Highness, your humble servant greets you."
Then, he leaned forward and raised his head slightly, looking straight at the prince and asked, "I wonder what difficulties Your Highness has encountered."
"It's none other than Xinyang Prince Wu Chengxun!"
Speaking of the name of 'Wu Chengxun, the prince's face flashed with disdain, and then he pulled Sun Shaozong to the table and said, "Sit down first, my dear minister, and I will tell you the details!"
Sun Shaozong declined twice according to the rules, and then sat down at the table without any hesitation, and asked curiously: "I heard that Prince Xinyang persuaded the uncle of the emperor to come forward to plead for mercy. What is going on?"
"snort."
The prince sneered, "What you said is right, my dear minister. Wu Chengxun's princess is seriously ill and is said to be dying soon. But this guy is even more shameless than you thought!"
It turned out that after Prince Beijing wrote a letter to "overthrow the cow" a few days ago, Prince Xinyang finally recognized the situation after a struggle - so the Princess of Xinyang, who was fine a few days ago, suddenly became seriously ill and dying yesterday.
This was not all. Prince Xinyang then found Uncle Zhao and expressed explicitly or implicitly that after the mourning period for the girl from the Niu family was over, he was willing to marry Uncle Zhao's concubine's daughter.
The only request he made was that he hoped Uncle Zhao could say a few good words in front of the prince and resolve the misunderstanding between the two brothers.
Uncle Zhao is a short-sighted person - otherwise he wouldn't have almost no presence in the court.
Therefore, when he learned that his illegitimate daughter could become the prince's principal wife, and even have a slight chance to seize the throne of the mother of the country, he was immediately tempted.
This led to the scene where Prince Xinyang returned to the Prince's Mansion this morning.
After hearing this, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but look up to the Prince of Xinyang - it seemed that the Prince of Xinyang was not completely cunning, but he was just stunned by the pie that fell from the sky, so he acted foolishly and impatiently.
"I wonder what Prince Xinyang said to Your Highness just now?"
"What else?"
The prince sneered, "You are just trying to beg for mercy in front of me. With such a little courage, you actually had the nerve to compete with me for the throne. If it weren't for my uncle's face, I would have kicked this shameless guy out long ago!"
Hehe~
He killed his wife for power, and he is certainly a typical scumbag, but didn't you also slept with your uncle's concubine?
Sun Shaozong secretly complained in his heart, but said solemnly: "Your Highness, you must not underestimate the enemy! In my humble opinion, the Prince of Xinyang is probably a bit scheming."
"Of course he has his own intentions!"
The prince sneered, "Otherwise, the Niu family girl wouldn't have married my uncle's daughter before she died!"
At this point, he threw his eyes disdainfully behind the screen and said angrily: "Such a shameless and cowardly bandit, how could someone have the nerve to persuade me to spend his thousands of gold coins to buy horse bones."
Sun Shaozong knew that he was mocking the Crown Princess, so how could he dare to agree with this topic?
He pretended to be ignorant and grinned, and asked, "Is it really decided?"
"What?"
"Is this to say that the marriage between Prince Xinyang and the concubine's daughter of the uncle of the Zhao Kingdom has really been decided?"
"Of course..."
The prince was halfway through his speech when he felt that Sun Shaozong would not speak without a purpose, so he frowned and said hesitantly: "Could he dare to go back on his word?"
Sun Shaozong said: "After all, the Niu family girl is not dead yet, and he has to wait until the Niu family girl's mourning period is over before proposing. What's the problem with delaying it for two or three years?"
"During this period, Uncle Zhao will never spread the news of the engagement for the sake of his family's reputation."
"If His Highness is about to ascend the throne, he will naturally not regret it, but will make a big fuss about the wedding."
"But if the concubines in the palace gave birth to other princes..."
Sun Shaozong paused for a moment, and after the crown prince's face turned pale, he continued, "Since he can lower his face to marry the concubine of the Zhao family, he can naturally secretly seek to marry the girls of the Wang family, the Li family, and the Liu family!"
These three families, together with the Jia family of Rongguo Mansion, are the maiden families of the four "seed players".
"What a thief!"
The prince slammed the table and jumped up, pacing back and forth, angrily cursing: "I thought he was repentant, but I never thought he had such a plan!"
The more he spoke, the angrier he became. He suddenly kicked the stool over and shouted angrily, "Come here, quickly bring back the uncle of the emperor...!"
"Your Highness, wait a minute!"
Sun Shaozong hurriedly stopped him and said, "This is just my speculation. He may not be sure..."
The prince raised his hand and said without question, "My dear minister, you have always been very accurate in your predictions. I'm sure you will be right this time! Moreover, with that fellow's shamelessness, he is definitely capable of selling his goods to several families!"
As he said this, he was about to order someone to invite Uncle Zhao to come so that he could expose the true face of Prince Xinyang in person.
"Your Highness."
Sun Shaozong tried to stop him again, saying, "I made this inference not because I want you to break up with the Prince of Xinyang, but because I hope you can take advantage of our situation and tie him to death!"
"Tied to death on us?"
The prince asked suspiciously, "What do you mean by that?"
"Although Prince Xinyang was a pawn put forward by His Majesty to divide the princes and the Niu family, he does not have any real power, but he is a noble. If you can recruit him as a lackey, firstly, it will consolidate His Majesty's prestige; secondly, it will also show His Majesty's ability to control people; thirdly..."
Sun Shaozong laughed sinisterly and said, "If there is anything dangerous, you might as well use the Prince of Xinyang as a shield or a guide stone!"
At its core, it is actually a suggestion for the prince to spend a fortune on horse bones and agree to Prince Xinyang's surrender.
However, in the eyes of the Crown Prince, Sun Shaozong's words were much more pleasing to the ear than those of the Crown Princess, so he asked without thinking, "Then how can I turn the tables?"
Sun Shaozong smiled and said, "First, send someone to monitor Prince Xinyang's every move. If Prince Xinyang is indeed as I expected, and is secretly connected with the families of the four concubines, Your Highness can use this as evidence to make Prince Xinyang submit."
"If Prince Xinyang has no such intentions, we might as well use his name to secretly help him make a move - after all, we have Uncle Zhao as a witness, so he can't explain himself even if he has a lot of mouths."
"Hahaha!"
After hearing this, the prince couldn't help but burst into laughter. He personally picked up the pot and poured a cup of tea for Sun Shaozong, praising him: "My dear, you are indeed my Zifang! Come, come, I will use tea instead of wine, let's drink this cup!"
As he said this, he tilted his head back and poured the tea into his mouth.
After both of them put down their teacups, the prince found another stool to sit on and asked casually, "By the way, my dear, how did you come here at such a coincidence?"
Finally, we can get to the point!
Sun Shaozong immediately stood up and said solemnly: "In fact, I came here to confess my crime to Your Highness."
"Confess a crime? What crime?"
The prince was completely confused.
But Sun Shaozong bowed and said, "The other day, I secretly used your Highness's name to refuse the King Zhongshun's request to help me frame the Niu family of Zhenguo Mansion."
"What?!"
The prince's face suddenly darkened, and he said angrily: "Don't you know that I really want to tear the Niu family into pieces?!"
