Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 155: Differences between Men and Women
Weinan Earl Zhang Kang readily found another famous restaurant in the capital to entertain Zhang Shou and his four companions. After they had a good meal, Lu Sanlang returned to the Imperial College with a smile on his face, and continued to be his talented and good student. When Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying and Zhu Er said goodbye to Zhang Kang and got on the carriage to go back, Zhu Ying could not help but be curious.
"A Shou, why did Zhang Kang want to see you? This man has always been very low-key. He rarely goes to court. He even rarely interacts with my father and Duke Chu and Duke Qin. So when I heard that he invited you to Tingyu Xiaozhu, I really thought it was abnormal, so I decided to block him at his door!"
Zhu Er couldn't help but look sideways. He dared to block the door of the earl's house without knowing him. If it were me, I would kneel down if Zhang Kang glared at me. That's not all. I will definitely be punished by my grandmother when I go back. But Zhu Ying did this... Just look at Zhang Kang's behavior just now and you will know that she is simply helpless and indulgent. As for when she goes home, it's a miracle that her grandmother and stepmother will scold her!
There is a world of difference between men and women!
Zhang Shou could easily tell from Zhu Er's changing expression that the second young master was jealous and envious. Of course, he would not try to persuade him, but smiled and took out Zhang Kang's note and handed it to Zhu Ying.
"It's nothing serious. Weinan Bo was desperate and wanted to ask me to open a box. Maybe he didn't know where he found the treasure, so he was curious and wanted to open it. Look, it's a fourteen-ring lock with words."
After Zhu Ying took it and took a look at it, she couldn't help but hissed softly, "It's actually this kind of lock! I have several at home, but most of them only have three rings, or at most five rings. When I was a kid, I was curious and played with them. Although each ring has four words, it took me a long time to finally open the three-ring lock. How long will it take to open this fourteen-ring lock?"
Zhu Er also came over to take a curious look, but then he pouted and said, "If you work hard enough, you can grind an iron rod into a needle. I don't believe that you can't open it even if you try stupid methods one by one!"
"I told Weinan Bo before that there are a total of 268,435,456 combinations. If we try them one by one, even if we have the fastest hands, we will have to try for a full ten years without sleep."
Zhu Er was startled. He stared at the note with wide eyes. Seeing Zhu Ying quickly return it to Zhang Shou as if it were a hot potato, he suddenly had an idea and laughed, "Yingying and I can't help with this matter. Lu Sanlang is almost the same!"
Zhang Shou knew that Zhu Er wanted to trick Lu Sanlang, so he laughed and said, "No one can help. It is said that even the teachers have not figured it out. As for me, Weinan Bo is just desperate. I will try it for a few days and then report to Weinan Bo that I can't do anything."
Hearing that Ge Yong had not figured it out either, Zhu Ying became excited: "Who knows! Didn't Grandpa Ge and his men have no idea what to do with the secret letters between the Linhai Camp and the traitors in the Ministry of War? Although Ah Shou may not be better than Grandpa Ge, you are luckier than him!"
Teacher Ge, are your ears itchy and you’re sneezing right now?
Zhang Shou, who was in a dilemma, had such an idea in his mind, and then he shook his head and said, "It's easy as you say, but it's not that easy. Anyway, I don't have any expectations. But I proposed a trade condition to Weinan Bo. I want to see the world map of other countries besides Ming Dynasty. He agreed and said he would take me to see it tomorrow night."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Er shouted, "Isn't this too much of a loss? You helped the emperor solve such a difficult problem as the inscription of the Jiuzhang Hall, and helped Wang Datou decipher those dozen secret letters, but you got very little in return! Zhang Kang, that barbarian, received many rewards from Grandpa Ruizong. Now he is over sixty and has no children. You should ask him for houses, land, gold and silver..."
Zhu Er suddenly stopped talking, coughed several times, and then swallowed the word "beauty".
"Vulgar!" Zhu Ying glared at her second brother, and then said unhappily, "You can wait until Ah Shou unlocks the fourteen-ring lock before asking Weinan Bo for these. Now you should act calm and indifferent to fame and gain. This is called high moral character, don't you understand? Only in this way will people be grateful to you."
Seeing Zhu Er speechless, Zhang Shou was immediately amused: "According to what you said, Yingying, in order to make Weinan Bo grateful to me, shouldn't I try my best to unlock this lock?"
Zhu Ying said confidently, "Of course! As long as you untie it, given the character of the Earl of Weinan, he will definitely give you whatever you want, not to mention houses, land, gold, silver, and beautiful maids. And we are witnesses for you, so he can't deny it even if he wants to!"
After hearing what you said, young lady, even if I really have a clue to solve the problem, I have to say that I am powerless... Otherwise, in the future I will be waiting for a lot of people to come to me with all kinds of strange letters and books and ask me to decipher them!
With this thought flashing through his mind, Zhang Shou smiled and put the note away again, then said with interest: "Yingying, Zhang Chen said before that the Duke Qin's Mansion was rewarded by the palace for catching the thieves. The Duke Zhao's Mansion also directly to Shuntian Prefecture. Now that Wang Dayin has even sentenced the case, why didn't he react to the Duke Zhao's Mansion and Zhu's family?"
"As for the reaction in the palace... That night when you and I came back from Zhao Garden, I went home to see my grandmother and mother. The palace rewarded my grandmother and mother with two pieces of Shu brocade, two pieces of Yun brocade, two strings of red sandalwood Buddhist beads, and some small miscellaneous items. They also specifically rewarded me with a string of southern pearls, a pair of jade bi disks, two red gold necklaces inlaid with gemstones, and a set of four treasures for the study for my second brother."
At this point, Zhu Ying didn't notice Zhu Er's miserable expression when he heard about the Four Treasures of the Study, and suddenly realized, "The palace gives rewards to my family every other day, and I didn't pay attention to it because I was in a hurry to go to your place that night. So it turned out that it was a reward for us to capture the rebels?"
Zhang Shou originally thought that the emperor wanted to highlight Zhang Chen’s contribution, but only then did he realize that it was not that the Duke of Zhao’s Mansion did not receive any rewards, but that the eldest lady had been rewarded too many times and was simply ignored!
Sure enough, Zhu Ying slapped her thigh in annoyance right after that—but the one who was grinning was the unlucky Zhu Er, because Zhu Ying slapped him directly on the leg: "No wonder my grandmother told me the other day that you might get a promotion soon! I even forgot to tell you!"
"Promotion or something like that doesn't matter." Zhang Shou smiled and said calmly, "I hope that Wang Dayin's killing of a chicken to scare the monkeys can teach those petty thieves a profound lesson."
"That's right!" Zhu Ying was immediately furious. "Although Zheng Huai'en was beaten with a stick and Wang Datou wrote a letter requesting that he be removed from the clan as punishment, this matter has not yet come to a conclusion! Tomorrow I will go to the palace and ask the emperor to do justice. Zheng Huai'en has simply brought shame to the clan. If he is not severely punished, these clan members will become even more rotten in the future!"
Seeing his sister's murderous intent, Zhu Er coughed unnaturally, trying to remind her not to act so fierce in front of her fiancé. Sure enough, he saw Zhang Shou shaking his head in disapproval: "Since Wang Dayin has already made a report, we just need to wait for the result. It would be strange if Zheng Huaien's parents didn't go to the palace to plead for mercy, so don't go and make trouble again."
"His father deserved it! What grandson of Emperor Yingzong? That's because all of Emperor Yingzong's sons killed each other, leaving only him. Grandpa Ruizong made him the heir and king to show respect to Emperor Yingzong. But Zheng Huai'en is still jumping up and down and even has his eyes on me, humph!"
After a while of losing her temper, Zhu Ying finally agreed to Zhang Shou not to talk about Zheng Huai'en. But she remembered that she had used provocation to drive Princess Yongping back to the palace before , and she didn't know whether her mortal enemy had investigated the assassination case. However, it was unnecessary to go to the palace for this matter, so it was better to find an opportunity to wait and see.
Princess Yongping was very picky, and she had never been reported to have a crush on any man. Besides Princess Yongping, the other two princesses of marriageable age had no plans to marry because their mothers were both timid and cautious. She might as well go to the emperor and ask him to personally decide, so that the Ministry of Rites would not make random choices.
Princesses of this dynasty have no trouble finding a husband. Unless their husbands can become high-ranking officials such as the Minister of State or the Grand Secretary, they can compete for other high-ranking positions based on their own abilities and it will not affect their future.
When the carriage stopped in front of the Ge Mansion as Zhang Shou had ordered, Zhu Er watched Zhang Shou go in and the carriage started again. He then said earnestly, "My sister, even if you are doing this for Zhang Shou's own good, you are too vicious. Just like how you went to block the Weinan Lord today and then went to Tingyu Cottage. If I were Ah Shou, I would have exploded a long time ago!"
"How can you be Ah Shou? You are so far away!" Zhu Ying blocked Zhu Er's words in a bad mood, but then she muttered in a low voice, "I have been like this from the beginning. Ah Shou has never thought there is anything wrong with me."
"When he thinks you're not good enough, it will be too late!" Zhu Er changed his face to a serious one, but after he said it, he felt a little tangled in his heart. He clearly felt that Zhang Shou was not worthy of Zhu Ying, so why was he now worried that his sister had a bad temper and would be disliked in the future?
At this time, he heard Zhu Ying say, "So many flaws were found in Haidian Zhaoyuan. I have informed my grandmother and mother before, and I am personally checking all the family businesses to see if there are any other bad apples. Second brother, I went to three or four shops yesterday and today, and they all had some problems. I'm telling you in advance, think about it yourself, and see if there are any problems with the people you employ."
Before the dumbfounded Zhu Er could react, Zhu Ying muttered in a low voice: "A Shou helped me recruit so many people in the beginning. Although plans cannot keep up with changes, I have to take this opportunity to take stock of my dowry and private property. Otherwise, how can I recruit soldiers and cultivate my own team? I have to pay attention to their lifelong events!"
I, the second son of the Duke of Zhao, don’t even have my own team, and you’re already planning to recruit soldiers and build a team?
Moreover, you actually pay attention to other people's life-long events. What about the life-long events of me, your second brother?
Thinking of his limited monthly allowance and Zhu Ying's dressing box which was filled to the brim with goodies and could never be put in it, Zhu Er felt that he, a grown man, was so miserable.
