Chapter 191
Now that I think about it, it’s really not appropriate to have so many people watching.
King Zhao made a quick decision: "Then let's go to the main courtyard early and study in advance!"
The princess wanted to persuade her again, but Ji Yunqing almost vomited blood. If she let the princess persuade her any further, she would have to stand at the gate of the palace and study.
She quickly stood up and said sincerely, "My Lord, even if you don't feel sorry for me, you should at least feel sorry for the princess, right?"
"The princess usually has to help you manage the huge palace, working day and night, shouldering heavy responsibilities, and working extremely hard.
You don’t have enough rest time to begin with. If I disturb you again in the morning and you don’t get enough rest, even if I have a heart of stone, I can’t help but feel sorry for the princess, Your Majesty!"
The princess never expected that she would hear such words.
The first person who expressed his sympathy for her was not the prince, but a little concubine in the mansion. Even though she knew that Ji was trying to avoid being punished by studying, she couldn't help but feel a warm feeling in her heart.
Without her realizing it, the look she gave Ji Yunqing became softer and softer.
Although she had been a housekeeper since she was a child, and even if she was in charge of the entire palace, it was not as hard as she had imagined.
But she also worked hard for many years!
The princess couldn't help but sigh to King Zhao: "Your Majesty, Ji didn't say anything. Don't be too harsh on her. Besides, Ji is lively by nature, which is not a bad thing."
King Zhao was silent for a long time, and then he said, "Princess, wasn't it you who first proposed this punishment?"
Don't ask me to be too demanding...
how?
What role do I play, sandwiched between you?
The princess finally reacted and belatedly remembered what she had said before.
I felt embarrassed for a moment and didn't know what to say.
Ji Yunqing once again took the initiative to interrupt: "My Lord, the princess must want to teach me a lesson, but she doesn't want to really embarrass me. The princess has always been a soft-hearted person!"
As she spoke, she sighed, fortunately she was a considerate person and knew how to ease the princess's embarrassment at a time like this.
After praising her, she also offered her own suggestion: "Your Majesty, how about we compromise? I will recite in the Osmanthus Courtyard, so as not to disturb the princess' rest or work.
Otherwise, please allow me to go to your front yard every day to recite the female precepts!"
Propose an impossible proposition so that the most acceptable proposition becomes less unacceptable.
Hehe, she is still smart.
King Zhao finally nodded and agreed: "Okay"
Although he knew this would be the result, Ji Yunqing still breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, there is no need for large-scale social death in your own yard.
Ji Yunqing hurriedly said when he saw that the people sent by King Zhao to search had returned.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. I will study in the Osmanthus Courtyard from tomorrow on."
But before he could relax for a second, King Zhao smiled and asked, "What Osmanthus Courtyard? I mean, I want you to study in the front yard every day!"
Ji Yunqing raised his head and stared at King Zhao's handsome and flawless face.
Seeing her expression, King Zhao felt much more relieved.
A hint of ridicule appeared on his handsome face: "Why are you looking at me? Am I that good-looking?"
Not
Ji Yunqing thought expressionlessly, I'm just watching the dog!
This King Zhao is worse than a dog.
But now that he is the boss, Ji Yunqing still has to do a good job on the surface, swallowing his anger and hypocritically saying: "The prince is naturally beautiful, who wouldn't want to see it?"
"Okay, your little mouth is always as sweet as honey. Let's see the results of the search!"
King Zhao looked at Eunuch Shi who had returned from the search with a happy mood, and his expression instantly faded.
"How is the result?"
Eunuch Shi stepped forward respectfully, bowed his head, knelt down and presented a pile of letters and a book.
"Your Highness, this was found in Concubine Ji's study."
The pile of envelopes looked to be at least two feet thick, shocking everyone present.
No, this is really true!
There is not only faith, but so much more.
Seeing so many letters, Concubine Cen, who was grinning foolishly, immediately lost her smile.
At this moment, she wanted to stretch her neck to read the signature.
This, this, this...
She only wrote one letter!
Concubine He couldn't help but said happily: "Your Highness, what is written in this letter? Could it be that they are all... all..." letters of secret communication?
Are you sure there is only one person having an affair?
She raised her snow-white, delicate wrist slightly, revealing a clear emerald jade bracelet. She covered her lips with the handkerchief and said in mock horror, "Oh my God! There are so many!"
Ji Yunqing's face was full of nervousness, and he was the first to ask: "Eunuch Shi, have you read these letters?"
Eunuch Shi lowered his head even lower, and his voice was slightly shrill: "Replying to Concubine Ji, we only found the letter, but did not open it to check."
With the prince here, who would have the courage to open it in advance?
Good thing you didn't see it.
Ji Yunqing looked at King Zhao with a pair of almond-shaped eyes, and there was a hint of begging in his voice: "Your Highness, there is nothing written here, there is really nothing written, can you please not read it?"
Then, as if she remembered something, she said anxiously, "Didn't you say you were only looking for one letter? I'll take that letter out and take the others back, okay, Your Majesty?"
At the end of her words, there was a hint of pleading in her voice, and her round almond-shaped eyes looked eagerly at the man at the top, waiting for him to speak.
Concubine Qian also saw so many letters and thought something was wrong. She only received news from one letter?
Where do so many come from?
She couldn't help but glance at Ji Yunqing, who was begging the prince in panic.
Seeing how nervous she was, I felt a little relieved.
It seemed that Ji Yunqing was also very resistant to anyone reading these letters.
She boldly speculated, could there be something shameful in this?
Concubine Qian felt relieved. As long as there was nothing bad in it, she would be relieved.
After thinking it through, Concubine Qian couldn't help but urge in a brisk tone: "Your Highness, what exactly is written here? Seeing how Concubine Ji resists, is there really something shameful?"
"Ah~, Your Majesty, don't look~"
Ji Yunqing looked eagerly at King Zhao, then at the letters, wishing he could hide the letters immediately so that no one could see them.
Seeing how nervous she was, King Zhao began to show some interest in the letter which he had originally intended for others to open.
“Bring up the letter”
Eunuch Shi hurriedly presented the tray to the prince himself, his head still lowered, not daring to raise it at all.
King Zhao picked up the top letter and opened it under Ji Yunqing's anxious gaze.
Then his pupils dilated and he couldn't help but let out a soft "hmm".
However, the sound was very soft. Apart from Eunuch Shi who was standing next to him, only the princess who was sitting on the side heard it.
She couldn't help but turn her head to see what was written on the letter, but King Zhao closed the letter paper and she couldn't see a single word.
King Zhao raised his head, his eyes fixed on Ji Yunqing below, his tone was extremely gloomy, and contained a lot of anger: "Ji, look at what is written here!"
Ji Yunqing quickly slid down to her knees, and said with a guilty look on her face: "My Lord, it's all my fault."
"but……"
She boldly raised her head, her round almond eyes and slightly pouty lips made her look even more innocent, and she looked at King Zhao: "Your Highness, I didn't intend for others to see this, I was just confused for a moment, so I couldn't help but write it down..."
After she finished speaking, she did not wait for King Zhao to speak again, and reflected: "I will not dare to do it next time."
This is actually a letter written by Ji Yunqing himself?
And judging from the prince’s angry expression, the content of the letter must be not very good?
But since the content she wrote was disgusting, why didn't the prince punish her?
Concubine Li's lips curved slightly, and she advised with a considerate and gentle look: "My Lord, please don't be angry. I'm sure that Sister Ji was just confused for a moment and didn't do it on purpose. Please give her a chance and don't send her to the farm outside."
Although the princess could not see the contents of the letter, she could understand the prince's emotions.
There was a bit of shame in the anger.
I don't know what's written on it.
She also followed suit and advised: "Your Majesty, Concubine Li is right. This Ji family should just be writing a letter and have no other intentions.
Besides, Concubine Li doesn't often ask for favors from others. Now she is pleading for Ji Shi, which is rare. It can be seen that she is sincere. For Concubine Li's sake, why don't you punish Ji Shi by confining her to her room?"
Concubine Li almost vomited blood. Was she begging for mercy?
She was reminding the prince to send the person to the farm!
Even if I'm not sent to the farm, it would be nice to live with her in the small Buddhist temple in the mansion and chant sutras all day long.
She was about to say something else when Concubine Wen suddenly spoke up with an obvious tone of anger: "Cousin, what exactly is written in this letter? What makes you so angry?"
Yup!
No one dared to ask what was written in the letter, but they also wanted to know.
King Zhao had now returned to his normal expression: "Humph, there's nothing written, just some nonsense!"
Everyone watched as King Zhao finished speaking and waved his hands to have all the letters put away, not allowing anyone to look at them: "..."
Who would believe this?
Anyway, it definitely wouldn't be about having an affair with a man outside of her husband's family, otherwise the prince wouldn't have reacted like this.
But no one dared to rush up and ask like Concubine Wen did, they could only secretly feel curious.
She was thinking that she would find an opportunity to ask the maids in Osmanthus Courtyard for some news later, but unfortunately, the prince had collected all the letters and they could not see them.
At this time, someone suddenly thought of a solution.
Concubine Wang secretly poked Concubine Qian with her finger, signaling her to come out and test it out.
But Concubine Qian was not stupid. It was obvious that the letter had been replaced long ago, and it was a deliberate trick to trick her.
What a scheming person!
But just because Concubine Qian didn't want to stand up didn't mean she could be a coward. Concubine Wang secretly poked her for a while, but found that there was no response.
Concubine Qian looked calm, as if she was unaware of what was happening around her.
Don't want to go?
The concubine Wang sneered in her heart, this is not up to you!
He simply pinched a small piece of soft flesh on Qian Shiqi's abdomen. After noticing the other party's body trembling with pain, he threatened in a low voice: "Hurry up and stand up. If you don't obey..."
Concubine Qian shuddered and stood out tremblingly.
"Your Majesty!"
Obviously, Concubine Qian's voice was not loud, but everyone at the scene looked at her in unison. The various looks made Concubine Qian's mind go blank and she was unable to think of anything.
So stupid!
Concubine Wang was sitting aside, and she secretly cursed Concubine Qian in her heart.
There were too many people watching at the moment, so she didn't even have the chance to poke Concubine Qian with her finger to remind her.
Fortunately, Concubine Qian finally reacted, and when she looked up, she saw King Zhao's extremely cold expression.
Somehow, she felt uneasy.
But she also shook her head fiercely. Wasn't this the expression she had every time she saw the prince?
There's nothing to be afraid of.
The top priority now is to find a way to deal with Ji Yunqing. It is impossible to bring her down today, but we can still try to make the prince suspicious of her.
This was the second best option that had been agreed upon long ago.
The matter of the pair of men's boots could not be pinned on Ji Yunqing - who could have guessed that Ji Yunqing was so disappointing that he couldn't even make a pair of boots?
Now she could only find a way to make the prince believe that the letter really existed!
"Your Highness, according to what the maid said, there is only one letter. Maybe these letters were deliberately put out by Concubine Ji to cover up the truth. The real letter has not been found yet."
As soon as she said this, not to mention other people's reactions, Eunuch Shi was the first to become dissatisfied.
Isn't this clearly saying that he is not doing his job well?
He kowtowed respectfully to King Zhao and said, "Your Majesty, I personally searched Concubine Ji's courtyard, and I personally searched the study room to make sure nothing was missed."
He bowed to Concubine Ji and said, "Please rest assured, Concubine Ji, your courtyard is fine. The servants were very careful when searching, and those who were impatient and flustered were not called over."
Ji Yunqing was stunned. She didn't expect that Eunuch Shi was so attentive, so she smiled and thanked him: "Thank you, Eunuch Shi. I was thinking that if the things in the yard are too worn out, should I ask the prince for some new ones?"
Should I ask the prince for it?
Eunuch Shi's mouth twitched. Fortunately, he thought of it in advance.
According to her style of doing things, if nothing went wrong this time, she would have thought “Should I ask for it?” Since she has this idea, she will definitely ask for compensation from the prince!
The prince will not blame Concubine Ji, but he may dislike him for his incompetence and it will be easy for him to deal with him.
Concubine Qian was so angry when she saw this scene.
It was like this again. Every time she asked a question, it would inexplicably go off the topic.
"Your Highness, since Concubine Qian insists that there is a letter, but we can't find it, why not ask the maid to see if she still remembers the contents? Didn't they say that the maid only heard a few words?"
Concubine Li's eyes fell on the maid, and the maid trembled inexplicably.
She had been kneeling by the side and no one paid any attention to her, but now she looked up in panic: "Now that Concubine Li has mentioned this, I remember it now. I did hear the master mutter a few words before, but I am stupid and can only barely remember a few words."