The Royal Merchant of the Red Chamber

Last time, I mentioned that Xue Pan and two princes, Tu Zhen and Tu Huang, went to the palace to discuss the implementation of industrial and commercial miscellaneous taxes by the imperial court. Unexpectedly, they met the loyal and pure prince who had heard about the expedition to Dongying and came to invite Ying, and the ulterior motives. A loyal prince who only cares about artillery and armaments.Xue Pan took the opportunity to tease Prince Zhongchun again. After the hearty jokes, everyone couldn't help but lamented that brothers hadn't gathered together like this for a long time, and they sighed for a while.While discussing staying in the palace for dinner at night, Dai Quan, who was guarding outside the Qianqing Palace, came in bowing and preaching: "Your Majesty Qi Zuo, Concubine Chen Guifei and Qi Guogong Chen Yi are now outside the Qianqing Palace, please see Your Majesty."

Tu Zhen frowned indistinctly, and said in a deep voice: "Concubine Chen is a concubine in the harem, how did she get together with the Duke of Qi? Besides, the Qianqing Palace is where I handle government affairs, and concubines in the harem are not allowed to enter without permission. This matter Do I still need to tell you?"

When Dai Quan heard this, he couldn't help feeling a pain in his heart.Said embarrassingly: "Your Majesty Qizuo, this servant also told Concubine Chen Gui the same way. It's just that Qi Guogong said that the two of them met outside Qianqing Palace by chance. He said that he had something important to meet with the Holy Majesty. This slave has no choice but to..."

Tu Zhen gave Dai Quan a dissatisfied look at the arm holding the teacup.Put the teacup on the dragon table casually.The marble table case and the celadon teacup lightly collided, making a small sound, and everyone couldn't help being shocked.

"Tell Duke Qi and Concubine Chen that I am discussing important matters with the princes today, and I don't have time to see them. Tell them to wait outside by themselves. If they are impatient, just leave."

Dai Quan bowed and responded in a low voice: "No!"

But after a while, everyone heard some faint noises outside.The woman's unique high-pitched voice contained a strong spring girl's sorrow, Xue Pan listened to it for a long time, and said to Tu Zhen with a half-smile, "I'm here to bring you ginseng soup!"

A flash of embarrassment quickly flashed across Tu Zhen's face, he cleared his throat, and deliberately changed the subject: "I just talked about the specific issue of implementing industrial and commercial miscellaneous taxes - the imperial court's control over various local and state capitals is obviously not as strong as it is near the capital. Moreover, some places are too remote, and there are few business transactions, so there is no need to implement miscellaneous taxes for industry and commerce for the time being. Why don’t you think about it carefully, first experiment in a few state capitals, and then slowly push it to the whole country.”

While speaking, the noise outside became louder and louder.It sounded like more than one concubine was making noise outside.Xue Pan got up and walked to the front of the hall, pushed open the door, looked at the ladies and ladies outside, and said in a cold voice: "The Holy Majesty is discussing with several princes in the hall about the important matters of going to Japan. The life and death of the surname must be discussed calmly and slowly. Why is it so noisy outside? If it delays the important affairs of the court, will the empresses go to the court meeting to explain to the ministers in person?"

All of a sudden, the pink beauties outside the hall were silent, each of them lowered their eyebrows and closed their eyes, holding their breath and concentrating.

With a cold face, Xue Pan glanced at Yingying and Yanyan in front of him, all of them were dressed up beautifully, as if they were gods.The maid who was following her was carrying a food box in her hand, and the aroma of the old soup overflowed, making Xue Pan's stomach growl uncontrollably.

Xue Pan swallowed his saliva, smiled at Dai Quan: "I'm a little hungry, you can order the imperial dining room to pass on the meal! The Holy Majesty said that several princes are also eating in the palace today."

Dai Quan responded, and quickly called the little eunuch who was waiting to whisper a few words, and the little eunuch turned around and ran away quickly.

Duke Qi frowned dissatisfiedly behind all the empresses, and sneered at Xue Pan, "Young Master Xue is so extravagant that even your father-in-law can order you to move."

Not to be outdone, Xue Pan laughed back, "Duke Qi is such a blessing. To be able to stand with so many empresses—was it about half an hour?"

Before he could finish a sentence, a group of ladies were far away from Qi Guogong in an instant, and kept yelling in their mouths: "Xue Xiaohou is talking nonsense, I am not standing with Qi Guogong."

"...I see that the Holy Majesty is too hard in handling political affairs, so I specially boiled a bowl of ginseng soup for the Holy Majesty to take."

"I also personally made two side dishes for the Holy Majesty..."

"..."

Xue Pan looked at these concubines helplessly, shook his head, and smiled wryly.

Empress Tong was abolished, and now the central palace is vacant. These concubines with a slightly higher status and a slightly better family background naturally couldn't help but come out and jump around.If he could really fall into Tu Zhen's blue eyes, he might be able to rise to the top of the sky, just around the corner.

According to Dai Quan, such scenes have continued almost from the day after the empress was deposed.

From Xue Pan's point of view, it is natural to understand the desire of these concubines and their families to seek profit.It's just that understanding is understanding. Seeing so many rivals in love, Xue Pan still feels uncomfortable.

Thinking of this, Xue Pan pursed his lips angrily.Then he felt his shoulders sink, and when he looked back, he saw Tu Zhen standing behind him with his hands behind his back.Zheng Zheng looked at himself with a half-smile and a little complacency.

Xue Pan hummed twice, flicked his sleeves, turned around and went back in a smooth manner.

Tu Zhen touched his nose, and sent everyone back with a look of embarrassment.

He has been on the throne for four or five years, at the moment when he is in power and majestic, all the concubines saw him with a cold face and a merciless appearance, and they did not dare to pester him.After handing over the food boxes in the hands of the maids to Dai Quan one by one, they filed away disheveledly.Only Qi Guogong, who was behind the crowd, blinked his eyes with a secretive face.

Tu Zhen looked at Qi Guogong indifferently: "Qi Guogong has something to report?"

Qi Guogong Chen Yi came back to his senses, walked up to Tu Zhen, bowed and knelt down and said, "Your Majesty Qi Zuo, old minister—"

"I suddenly remembered that I have allowed Qi Guogong to resign and take care of him." Tu Zhen looked at Qi Guogong who was kneeling on the ground, and said a little abruptly. "I remember that if the princes and princes who are honored at home enter the palace, they must ask for instructions in advance, right?"

Duke Qi was taken aback, and looked up at Tu Zhen. The emperor's eyes were full of silence and indifference, which made Duke Qi's heart flutter.

Tu Zhen waved his hand casually, and said, "Pass down my oral order. From now on, non-employees of the court will not be allowed to enter the palace without an order."

With that said, he turned and entered the Qianqing Palace.

After Tu Zhen left, Dai Quan bowed to promise, and closed the gate of Qianqing Palace tightly.Turning around, he looked at the Duke of Qi on the ground with a mocking smile and said, "Old Duke, get up! It's getting late, you should leave the palace."

Duke Qi stared at the closed gate of Qianqing Palace in a daze, and remained silent.

In the following period of time, Chaozhong naturally went into a frenzy and tossed about.The army to go to Japan set off at the end of February. Xue Zhizhang served as Minister of the Ministry of War and was in charge of logistics control.So I was so busy that I couldn't see anyone all day long.During the national funeral, they were not allowed to listen to Qu'er or watch the theater. Xue Pan was so bored that he couldn't help it, so he had to keep tossing about several shops in his family.After one or two months, the profit has increased a lot.Just tossing and tossing so boringly, the days came to mid-April in a flash.

Now it's Baoyu's birthday.It turns out that Baoqin is also on this day, and the two are the same.Xue Pan was busy giving gifts to Baoqin in the morning, and organized his servants to tidy up the back garden, and prepared melons, fruits, wine and dishes to receive all the boudoir friends who came to celebrate Baoqin's birthday.Baochai has been bored at home for several years, and took this opportunity to play like crazy for a while.Xue Pan is a foreigner, so it's not convenient for him to make do with it.After making arrangements, he left Zhongxinhou's mansion Shi Shiran.He rode his horse all the way to Rongguo Mansion to celebrate Baoyu's birthday.

Mrs. Wang was not at home that day, and Sister Feng also took some time to go back to Wang Ziteng's mansion to visit the elders.Jia's mother was not in good spirits either, so she forced herself to receive Xue Pan and exchanged a few hasty greetings, then ordered Yuanyang to send him to Yihong Courtyard in the garden.

Along the way, Xue Pan only felt that the mansion was deserted, and he never thought it was as lively as in previous years.I couldn't help but asked suspiciously: "Today is Baoyu's birthday, and it's a good day for everyone to be lively and lively. Why do I see that the house is deserted, it's not like in previous years."

Yuanyang heard the words, looked back and smiled and said: "Second wife went to Xiu Guogong's mansion for a banquet, and she will be back in the evening. Second Mistress Lian returned to the palace. It must be because of this that the uncle feels that the mansion is much quieter."

Xue Pan couldn't help smiling when he heard this. "That's right, without Feng Yatou, who is like a storyteller, it is indeed a lot quieter."

While talking, the two arrived at Yihong Courtyard.Just seeing Xiren and Qingwen arguing for some reason!

Xue Pan cleared his throat, and shouted, "The birthday guests are here, but Baoyu hasn't come out to 'pick them up'!"

Jia Baoyu was having tea in the room.Hearing greetings from outside and Xue Pan's noisy voice, he walked out with his shoes on, greeted Xue Pan and smiled, "Why did big brother come here? This is just an ordinary day for me as a junior, I didn't intend to alarm you. I didn't expect you to come by yourself."

As he spoke, he ordered Xiren to prepare melons, fruits and good tea.

I haven't seen him for a while, but Xiren's bearing is much better than before.The whole body is covered with official silk brocade, and the dark hair is pulled into an ordinary bun. On the head, there are silk flowers used by the palace, and two red gold hairpins with blooming roses are inserted obliquely.When he walked up to the two of them with the teacup in his hand, Xue Pan smelled a pure scent of rose dew from Xi Ren's body.

Xue Pan frowned subconsciously, his heart trembled, he bowed to Xue Pan cautiously, tiptoedly placed the teacup in the small black lacquer and gold tea tray on the table, and then bowed respectfully. He bowed and turned around to go out.

Xue Pan stared intently for a while, Jia Baoyu elbowed Xue Pan's chest, and Fox asked, "What are you looking at, big brother?"

"It's nothing." Xue Pan came back to his senses, recalled some clips when he watched Dream of Red Mansions, and asked thoughtfully: "Is this kind of practical thing in your family very common?"

"Ah?" Jia Baoyu was a little puzzled, and didn't realize what Xue Pan meant.

Xue Pan rolled his eyes, and continued to ask: "For example, such practical things as rose dew, is it very common in your house? Is it very common?"

Jia Baoyu hooked the corners of his mouth casually, and said, "I thought what big brother was asking, but it turned out to be this. To tell you the truth, although such things are useful, our family has always had—— It's not just our family, it's a family of four kings and eight fathers, whoever's family doesn't have something useful, and it's not decent to go out to socialize."

After a pause, Baoyu said with some complacency: "If you don't tell me, I forgot. There was a lawsuit in the former mansion over this rose dew! Fang Guan'er in my house gave half a bottle of rose dew to me. Wu'er of the Liu family in the small kitchen, but was caught by the maid next to the second sister and framed for stealing the rose dew from his wife's house, and went to arrest the woman who was the head housekeeper of the house. After searching, they also involved Aunt Zhao , Ping'er was afraid of hurting the face of the third sister, so she refused to attack easily. In the end, I stepped forward and took care of all of this. Otherwise, it would be another mess."

As he said that, he told Xue Pan about the chaos that rose dew brought to Fulingshuang, which was supposed to relieve his boredom.

This time, Xue Pan was also slightly impressed by the story.At that time, some commentators said that the restlessness in the family house was a sign of the Jia family's failure.So Xue Pan couldn't help but wake up when he heard Jia Baoyu's two words.After pondering for a moment, he carefully mentioned his words: "I have always heard people say that everything is going well at home. Only when your home is peaceful can you maintain long-term peace and order. For a while, I always feel that there are too many messy things in your home. You'd better take care of it carefully. Take care, don't let the servants run rampant in the name of the master of the house, and end up ruining your family's affairs."

Hearing this, Jia Baoyu stared at Xue Pan in a daze for a long time, then sighed and said, "Big Brother always drives by the Holy Majesty's side, but what bad news did you hear?"