Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 780: Walking into a Trap
Although according to his position as the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan, Ge Yong's face, and his friendship with Zhang Shou, the King of Jiangdu should indeed choose at least one of the three lectures in the public school to listen carefully, however, the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan, who was highly respected in front of the emperor, was not in the mood for that. Because his precious daughter was quarreling with him, and she had not left the boudoir on the second floor for three days!
Therefore, for three consecutive days, the King of Jiangdu did not even go to the Zongzheng Temple, but sighed all day in the palace. It didn't matter that he sighed like this. The Princess of Jiangdu tried to persuade and comfort him at first, but when she got annoyed, she simply went to visit other people's homes. His four sons knew that they could not persuade their sister to come back, and their old father could not be persuaded to come back, so they also hid away completely.
At this moment, King Jiangdu felt that he had become a lonely old man guarding an empty house, and the more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt.
Although there are some families with strict rules these days, their daughters are not only not allowed to go out of the house, but also not allowed to go downstairs, but it is different in Jiangdu Palace. His princess gave birth to four sons before she had this daughter. He holds his only daughter in the palm of his hand for fear of dropping her, and holds her in his mouth for fear of melting her. Whatever his daughter wants to do, he will do his best to make it happen.
For example, the "love at first sight" between Princess Hailing and Mr. Song. Even though he wanted to beat that brat to death at first, as the stubborn Mr. Song visited him again and again and showed his sincerity, King Jiangdu finally relented and gave in.
But now that Hailing County Lord insisted on this, he couldn't agree to it no matter what. Let his innocent daughter learn martial arts? Even if she didn't learn from those rude men, but from Zhu Ying and Ye, it was absolutely impossible! He couldn't bear the thought of his daughter sweating through her heavy clothes due to the harsh training, or even getting hurt a little bit!
Therefore, King Jiangdu made up his mind that he would never show mercy even if the stalemate with Princess Hailing continued. Although he had not seen his daughter for three days and he wanted to grow wings and fly to his daughter's two-story house to bow and invite her down, he had always been helpless with his daughter, so this time he forced himself to hold back.
But Zhu Ying sent people to deliver things to Princess Hailing every day.
He wanted to stop her, but his daughter did not come downstairs. She was well-informed and had sent two maids to guard the door early. Whenever Zhu Ying sent something, they would take it immediately and carry in big boxes and small boxes. He did try to stop her once, but the two maids tried to persuade him earnestly, saying that the county princess might do this and that out of boredom, so he could only let it go.
God knows he was very worried whether there would be dangerous gadgets like hooks and flying knives in the legendary books! With Zhu Ying's personality, it is possible that she would encourage his precious daughter to run away from home! If Zhu Ying was not worthy of being offended, he could not afford to offend the father and son of Zhao Guogong. As for Zhang Shou... that smiling and gentle young man was not easy to offend either. He would have gone to his house to argue.
I don't care what you do, I can even support you with both hands, but can you please not set your sights on my daughter?
Therefore, when he was sighing for the umpteenth time in his study that day, he heard a voice from outside: "Your Majesty, Master Zhang sent a letter saying... to invite you to Tongzhou."
"No!" King Jiangdu blurted out these two words impatiently, just like his previous reaction when someone asked him to go to Zongzheng Temple to make a decision. However, just as the words "let them do whatever they want" came to his lips, he suddenly came to his senses. He suddenly stood up and rushed to the door, opened the door curtain and shouted.
"Who did you just say sent the post?"
The servant outside knew very well how irritable King Jiangdu had been these days, so he was naturally a little careful when he spoke: "Reporting to the king, it's Master Zhang. Master Zhang sent a letter to invite you to visit Tongzhou together!"
"What the hell, how can I have the leisure time? He is the prince's teacher and is so busy all day, how can he have the leisure time?" Although he questioned, the King of Jiangdu's actions were very direct. He snatched the note from the servant and quickly read it through. He found that there was nothing substantial on it, just a brief invitation to go to Tongzhou for a trip to relax.
He was about to dismiss the servant with a gloomy face, but then he suddenly remembered something and immediately looked up and asked, "Who is the messenger? Has he left? If not, please come in. I have something to ask him!"
This word of invitation was naturally very difficult for King Jiangdu, who had been in a very bad mood and got angry easily in the past few days. However, the servant opposite him was complaining in his heart, but he had to bite the bullet and tell the truth. After delivering the invitation, he left. Fortunately, although King Jiangdu's face was gloomy again, he did not curse, but snorted coldly.
"Send someone to deliver a message, saying I know and will definitely go back."
The King of Jiangdu finally accepted Zhang Shou's invitation, which was undoubtedly very good news for the King's Palace of Jiangdu. After all, no one wanted the master of the house to have a stern face all day long, but still stay at home and find faults every day out of anger.
Even the Jiangdu Princess, who was biased towards her daughter and had actually agreed, was still hindered by her husband's stubborn mind. After returning from her visit, she couldn't help but chant a few Buddhist prayers. As for the four brothers of the Hailing County Lord, they were even more excited. Everyone thought of... their father, who looked like the King of Hell, could finally disappear for a few days!
The next morning, the King of Jiangdu finished washing up early, ate a few mouthfuls of breakfast to fill his stomach, and then hurried out the door. Knowing that he was not in a hurry to see Zhang Shou, but hoped to use Zhang Shou to make the Princess of Hailing give up the idea, the Princess of Jiangdu did not think of stopping him at all, but quickly sent a mother to tell the people who followed him today.
Her master was now full of complaints and grievances. If he took out his anger on Zhang Shou, wouldn't that cause big trouble? She had to be careful and restrained. She didn't want Zhu Ying, who loved her husband so much, to come to her door!
Prince Jiangdu thought he had arrived early enough and was planning to take advantage of Zhang Shou's invitation to go to Zhang Garden. However, he did not expect that just as he walked to the second gate, the attendant who had been sent to the stable to prepare the carriage and horses came hurriedly and reported an unexpected news to him, saying that Zhang Shou had arrived.
"Master Zhang is already waiting for me outside the door?" The unbelievable King Jiangdu even asked back. Seeing that the attendant nodded desperately, he snorted coldly, "At such a young age, he knows to arrive early for the appointment. He is really respectful to the elderly... But I am not old yet, do I need him to be so attentive?"
Zhang Shou, a son-in-law with top-notch character, appearance and talent, was unexpectedly chosen early by Duke of Zhao Zhu Jing. King Jiangdu once regretted not making a move earlier, but if he thought about it, Zhang Shou would be just a country boy if he made a move earlier, and he also knew that this was hindsight.
However, when he walked out of the gate and saw the handsome young man wearing white fox fur standing beside the carriage, who looked very pleasing to the eye, he had the same thought again. However, since Mr. Zhang was married now, this thought was fleeting. He was about to go up and mock him with a sullen face, but he did not expect that Zhang Shou would directly hold his hand after greeting him.
"Today's weather is perfect. Since the king is here, why not ride in the same carriage?"
The King of Jiangdu had a lot to say, so Zhang Shou's proposal was exactly what he wanted. However, he still had some reserve, and after raising his chin slightly, he snorted and got into the car. When Zhang Shou got in and sat down, the curtain was lowered, and the door was closed, he coughed and wanted to open the skylight to speak frankly, but he didn't expect Zhang Shou to hand him a food box.
"You've set off on your journey so early in the morning. Your Majesty probably doesn't have time to have a good breakfast, right? This is what Brother Song made specially for you, his future father-in-law, early in the morning. Would you like to try his cooking?"
Although he would complain about Song Juren, his future son-in-law, in front of his wife, sons, and even daughters, King Jiangdu would not do so in front of Zhang Shou for the sake of face. On the contrary, Zhang Shou emphasized that this was the breakfast that Song Juren had made for him early in the morning, and he couldn't help but praise Song Juren with a smile, but he muttered in his heart that a gentleman should stay away from the kitchen.
Song Juren often honored him, so he had tasted radish cakes before. But now, in the cold weather, in the warm carriage, he tasted the dessert that was slightly different in taste due to the charcoal fire, but it was still delicious in his mouth. The mood of King Jiangdu improved unconsciously. It was good for a son-in-law to honor his father-in-law.
Moreover, Zhang Shou was really a very good companion, for he spoke eloquently about interesting anecdotes from previous lectures at the public school, about how Scholar Kong met the big guy Zhang, about the dilemma of the scholar who couldn't explain his reason clearly when faced with a soldier, and about how the famous scholars who were giving lectures were trying their best to attract attention. Even though he initially only thought about how to start talking about the Princess of Hailing, he was unknowingly drawn into the conversation by Zhang Shou.
Of course, it also led to the ditch...
Therefore, Zhang Shou, who had mastered the rhythm, made full use of his ability to talk nonsense, one topic after another, in short, he fully mobilized the attention of King Jiangdu, so that he would not think of the original purpose - or even if he thought of it, he would not find a chance to interrupt. Although he paid the price of dry mouth, he succeeded.
If the Princess of Jiangdu and her four sons were here, they would definitely lament that the old problem of the King of Jiangdu had come back. This Grand Master had always been quick to anger, or he would do whatever he wanted, so it was rare that he could hold back his anger for several days because of the matter of the daughter of the Princess of Hailing County.
So, when the carriage had gone through a long journey, Prince Jiangdu listened to Zhang Shou's stories and even dozed off in the middle. When he finally heard the announcement from outside that they had arrived in Tongzhou, he yawned and opened the curtains, and then he suddenly realized a problem.
What was he doing all along the way? Why did he seem to have forgotten to ask Zhang Shou about the matter with Hailing County Master?
King Jiangdu's eyes widened for a moment, and then he suddenly realized that this was not the Tongzhou city he had imagined, but... a desolate wilderness! At that moment, King Jiangdu couldn't help but wonder if Zhang Shou had tricked him out and was planning to use some means to force him to submit...
But the next moment, he only heard Zhang Shou smile and say: "It is not appropriate for us to go through the city in such a conspicuous way. So if King Jiangdu does not mind, can we change clothes in this carriage? Although the village chief of Baijia Village knows me, ordinary villagers do not know the truth."
This time, King Jiangdu finally couldn't agree so easily. He frowned and asked angrily, "Master Zhang, where exactly did you take me to? What village chief? What unknown... What's going on?"
"What's going on? Didn't you ask the king to come with me to visit the fourth prince who made a bet with Zhang Chen and was out looking for talent?" Seeing that the King of Jiangdu was about to pop his eyes out, Zhang Shou pretended to be surprised and asked, "Did the king not read my invitation carefully? I invited you to come and see the fourth prince and Zhang Chen together."
I saw it clearly, there is no such thing! King Jiangdu was so angry that veins on his forehead bulged, and then he sneered and reached for the post in his arms. But when he unfolded it in front of Zhang Shou with an arrogant look on his face, wanting to expose this nonsense, he only took a glance and was completely stunned.
The vague invitation on the post actually clearly stated that he was invited to go to Tongzhou to visit the Fourth Prince...
King Jiangdu stared at the line of words that he had never seen before, and then suddenly raised his head and glared at Zhang Shou, as if he wanted to swallow this trickster. However, all he saw was Zhang Shou's innocent eyes. However, he didn't think that it was because he was too concerned and was dazzled... He wasn't old enough for that!
He suppressed his anger and said word by word: "Okay, okay! I will change clothes with you and go to see Zheng Yan." If I find out that this kid is playing under a legitimate name, I will never let you go! I don't care if he is the prince's most beloved brother. I am now a father who has no place to vent his anger for his daughter!
When King Jiangdu took off his brocade robe in the carriage, changed into a fur robe, and got off wearing a fur hat, not long after, he saw Zhang Shou also got off the carriage, but he only took off his fox fur coat and changed into a half-worn coat, and put on a Confucian scarf on his head.
After seeing the man approaching, although he had not looked in the mirror to see his current appearance, the King of Jiangdu still said in a low voice : "What is Master Zhang planning to pretend to be with me? I have said it, I have traveled so far in the cold weather for that boy, and I have done my best. If you want to do something else that is difficult for you, then I can't accompany you."
"You don't need to pretend. All you need to do is say that you are Zheng Yan's uncle. As for me, I am of course Zheng Yan's teacher."
Zhang Shou chuckled and then said lightly, "He is here because he had a quarrel with his family and wanted to do something to impress his family. Zhang Chen is his cousin... Oh, Miss Ye is the judge. She is a native of Tongzhou and is quite famous. In addition, the landlord who owns the large piece of land in Baijia Village is a relative of her Ye family, so it is not surprising."
Hearing that the famous Ye was also here, the King of Jiangdu, who had not heard of the details before, changed his expression slightly, and then he could not help but feel a little hope... There was nothing he could do about Zhu Ying. Maybe he could talk to Ye later and let her tell the little girl in his family that learning martial arts was not suitable for her? Oh, this trip was really worth it!
