Chapter 62: Adult Changes
When Huan Yanbo heard the emperor's decree, his head buzzed and he could not quite accept this reality.
He looked up blankly at the officials sitting in the main seats, trying to find the familiar flattering smiles on their faces, or an officer coming forward to open the lock.
But no.
Not only that, Yuan Jian, who was sitting on the side and listening, asked with a smile: "Cousin Huan, you asked me to wait for you to come out a few days ago. Now it seems that we cousins may not be able to get together for a while."
"You're talking nonsense!" Huan Yanbo struggled to rush over and beat him up: "It's all your fault! It's all your fault!"
His uncle the Emperor has always loved him, and coupled with the Grand Princess's constant pampering, he developed a domineering and overbearing character, and he doesn't take others seriously.
Ever since he was detained and imprisoned, his mother, the Princess Royal, had sent someone to secretly tell him to be patient and that he would be released after a few more days.
So Huan Yanbo put his heart at ease and ordered the jailers around in prison. The jailers served him like a master, bringing him tea and water. The bedding was sent from the Princess's mansion, and he only had to ask the girls from the Yuanyang Tower to come in and serve him .
During this time, when the Fourth Prince was inspecting the prison, he passed by his cell and hurried forward, but was stopped by him: "Yuan Jian, don't think that I can't get out of the cell after entering it. It's just that my uncle can't save face and detained me for a few days. You just wait for me!"
This threatening remark just passed by Yuan Jian's ears. He was no longer as cowardly as before. He smiled and accepted the challenge: "Okay, I'll wait for you to come out."
At this moment, he was about to pounce on the Fourth Prince like a madman, tearing and beating him. The Minister of Justice Mu Qingquan, who had just read out the imperial edict, was frightened, fearing that he would hurt the Fourth Prince, and urged him hurriedly: "Take the prisoner away!"
The officers hurried forward to stop him. They had been bossed around by him recently and had suffered a lot of humiliation. His Majesty had issued an order, so they had no more worries. They went up to drag him away. Seeing that he was struggling like a mad dog, they lost their grip. Two people dragged him away. His wrists were shackled, and he glared with a pair of vicious eyes and shouted: "How dare you! Let me go--"
"Master Huan, I advise you to take a break." Officer A tried his best but still couldn't drag him. Seeing that no one in the hall spoke up for him, he said in a bad tone: "Your Highness, the son of a phoenix and the grandson of a dragon, you are now a commoner. It's time to recognize your own identity."
This sentence was like the last straw that broke the camel's back. Huan Yanbo went completely crazy. He used all his strength to jump up, staring at the officer with bloodshot eyes and hitting him with the yoke: "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!"
Mu Qingquan was anxious: "Hurry up, drag him away!"
Officer B hit him on the back with a stick. Someone started it and no one stopped him, so other officers immediately joined in and beat him to the ground in front of Yuan Jian. He was completely unable to fight back and collapsed to the ground.
He was fat to begin with, and looked even more miserable after being beaten. He stared at Yuan Jian with a blank look in his eyes, but was dragged away by the officers like a dead dog, leaving a trail of blood under his body.
When Yuan Jian thought of this scene, he felt relieved.
"Second brother, you should have come to see what he looked like at that time!"
After he came out of the Ministry of Justice, he sent someone to the Fu Mansion to send invitations to Fu Chen and Tang Ying, inviting them to a family dinner, and he went back to the mansion to make arrangements.
Tang Ying was sitting in the yard in a daze when she received the note from Yuan Jian.
Zhang Qing rarely saw her looking worried, so he handed her the note and asked, "What are you worried about?"
"Master Fu..." She hesitated to speak, but decided not to mention it. She opened the post and found that it was Yuan Jian who invited her. She couldn't help but smile: "What happy event has happened to the Fourth Prince that he has to specially invite me to a banquet?"
Zhang Qing smiled and said, "I think the case is closed. It looks like the verdict was pretty good."
As Zhang Qing had guessed, Yuan Jian was delighted when he mentioned Huan Yanbo's miserable appearance: "...He was still harboring delusions before, but I didn't expect that my father would be so ruthless this time. Thanks to my second brother's clever plan, the two old foxes, the Minister of Revenue and the Minister of Works, also stood firmly on my side!" He couldn't help but blushing when he mentioned this, and felt quite embarrassed.
The Fourth Prince behaved properly and had never done such a thing. The two ministers only thought that the Fourth Prince was hinting in a subtle way, not knowing that it was not easy for him to achieve this.
When Tang Ying was giving him advice, she said, "Your Highness risked his life to cause a scene in the Golden Palace. If he appears to be too easy to talk to later and no officials stand up to speak for Your Highness, if the Grand Princess pleads for mercy a few more times, maybe His Majesty will give in." She gave him advice like this and that.
At that time, the Fourth Prince was still a little hesitant: "...Will this be a bad idea?"
Tang Ying rolled her eyes at him and said, "It's just to make them pay a little interest for their snobbery. If you had sued them in the Golden Palace that day, how could they have ended up well? Weren't you afraid that there were too many targets and Huan Yanbo would escape punishment?"
The Fourth Prince has no foundation in the court. Instead of making enemies, it is better to find a temporary ally to lend him a helping hand.
The two of them were talking happily when a servant brought Fu Chen in.
When Tang Ying saw Fu Chen, she quickly stood up and asked with her eyes: What's going on, Sir Fu?
She didn't know that Yuan Jian had also invited Fu Chen, so she rode over directly after receiving the invitation. However, she didn't know that Fu Chen had sent two invitations to the door, and the other one was taken away by Zhang Qing who had just entered the door. Yuan wanted to come together, but she had already run away.
Yuan Jian recently met a clerk in the Ministry of Justice who loved gossip. He was not arrogant, so the clerk told all the public habits of various adults in the capital as anecdotes. Speaking of Commander Fu of the Imperial Cavalry Department, he said a few words: "This adult may be carved from ice. He is cold and unkind. He has no sense of worldly affairs. He doesn't usually interact with people. I don't know how many people have brought expensive gifts to curry favor with him, but they were all turned away. He doesn't easily go to banquets. He is not young anymore, but he doesn't even have a wife. It seems that he wants to take root in the Imperial Cavalry Department. Maybe he can even become a small commander."
The clerk told Yuan Jian this as a joke. With these words as a basis, although the invitation to the Fourth Prince's banquet had been sent out, there was no guarantee that he would come. When he saw Second Brother Zhang coming alone, he felt that he had fulfilled his duties of courtesy and was certain that Lord Fu would not come, so he completely relaxed.
Talking about his recent experiences, he felt a kind of stolen joy from having accomplished something bad. Although this went against the education he had received, it also gave him an unprecedented happiness.
When Lord Fu stepped into the main hall, it was like adding a basin of ice water to boiling water. The boiling, joyful atmosphere disappeared instantly.
Fu Chen: “…”
"I wonder what joke the Fourth Prince is telling, but I can hear you two laughing from afar?"
Yuan Jian said, "Nothing much. Today, the case of Huan Yanbo was decided. I am very grateful to Master Fu and Brother Zhang for their advice. I want to invite you two to my house for a simple meal to express my gratitude."
"Your Highness, you are too polite!" Fu Chen said lightly. He always felt that the Fourth Prince was not telling the truth, but seeing that Tang Ying's expression was still a little evasive, he wondered if she had come to her senses with the bracelet in her hand, and thought that there was some secret between her and the Fourth Prince. He felt uncomfortable at the moment.
The dinner at the Fourth Prince's Mansion was very sumptuous. After years in the army, Tang Ying had an extremely cherished attitude towards food - anyone who ate from the same big pot and had experienced hunger and famine when the city was besieged would probably have an unusual feeling about food - she ate up the food in no time at all, even carefully picking up the crumbs of snacks with her hands. Compared with Fu Chen and the Fourth Prince, her eating style was extremely unrefined.
"Eat slowly, no one is going to snatch the food from you." Lord Fu was originally full of suspicion and displeasure, but every time he ate at the same table with her, he couldn't help but feel soft-hearted.
He had also slept in the wild, and had missed meal times when he was on official business out of Beijing, so he had to grab a bite to eat. He also knew that when military pay was insufficient, the soldiers in the camp would receive limited food, not to mention that the Battle of White City took place when the army was short of food.
Even a self-disciplined person like Tang Yao had sunken cheeks due to hunger, let alone Miss Tang, who must have also suffered from hunger.
Seeing that she was enjoying the meal, the Fourth Prince said considerately, "Don't worry, Second Brother. Since you like the food in my house, come over whenever you want to eat and let the cook make it for you. Pack two boxes of snacks when you leave so you can fill your stomach if you get hungry in the middle of the night."
Tang Ying immediately became happy, smiling as if someone had handed her a mountain of gold and silver: "That's great!"
Lord Fu thought to himself: You refused to accept the gift I gave you, but you smiled so brightly when others gave you two boxes of snacks. Is there any difference in the degree of closeness between me and the Fourth Prince?
The worst thing about everything is thinking too much.
Sir Fu is overthinking this.
Tang Ying was heartless and ruthless, but she still felt it was inappropriate to take away valuable items, so she refused.
Before leaving, the Fourth Prince personally handed the snack box to Tang Ying, and received a reminder from Master Fu: "The Grand Princess has only one son. Whoever hurts her son is her enemy. Your Highness must be careful."
Tang Ying, who had received the snacks, felt that since she was eating and taking, she should still make some contribution. After thinking about it, she expressed her concerns: "I don't think this matter is over yet. The Grand Princess may not want her son to be exiled thousands of miles away. I will send someone to keep an eye on him."
Baozi and the others have nothing to do anyway, so why not go begging somewhere?
The remaining concerns in Yuan Jian's mind immediately disappeared, and he hurriedly bowed to the two of them: "Thank you, Lord Fu, for your reminder, and thank you, second brother." He personally escorted the two of them out the door.
The two rode their horses slowly back home, and Master Fu couldn't help but ask, "Did the mansion owe you a snack?"
Tang Ying tilted her head, the lights from the shops on the street reflected in her clear eyes, revealing an indescribable seriousness: "Sir, do you think... the snacks in the mansion are delicious?"
Fu Chen: “…”
Tang Ying: "Sir, even though I come from a remote area and have never eaten anything good, you can't fool me with Uncle Wen's cooking skills, right?"
The next day, Master Fu sent someone to the old house to poach the maid who was best at making snacks from Madam Fu.
The servants in the Fu Mansion were stunned - why did the master suddenly change his personality?
And brought a mistress into the house?
Wasn't he the most impatient with those old women and maids in the past?
Tang Ying was eating the snacks newly made by the cook at the Fu Mansion, secretly suspecting that this was the result of her talking too much.
