A traitor

The imperial concubine was pregnant, and the emperor was very happy, and ordered the House of Internal Affairs to buy ritual utensils for the future prince according to the prince's specifications.

Su Qinglang, as the minister of the Ministry of Rites, naturally wanted to remind him of such an outrageous matter, so he joined hands with several ministers in the court to hand over the memorial to the emperor.

Originally, the emperor was in high spirits, but Su Qinglang poured cold water on his head, and he was very unhappy.

But seeing several ministers admonishing him together, and his words and deeds were indeed wrong, no matter how reluctant he was, he could only follow Su Qinglang's suggestion and order people to halve the ritual utensils bestowed by the emperor.

This incident made people in the court wonder for a while. After all, the Minister of Rites and the imperial concubine always wore a pair of trousers, and they were grasshoppers on a rope. The great honor of the little prince was stopped abruptly.

Later, I saw Su Qinglang admonishing him, saying that the harem was empty and had not been accepted into a new lord for many years. Now that the imperial concubine is pregnant, it is inconvenient for her to be distracted from serving the emperor.

So it was suggested that the emperor recruit more beautiful women to enrich the harem, and then everyone suddenly realized that Mr. Su and the imperial concubine should be red-faced, and now they are planning to draw their salaries from the bottom of the pot and fight to the death.

The two of them dog-eat-dog, everyone watched the excitement, and naturally watched from the sidelines, but Qin Jian, seeing that Su Qinglang treated Wan Yuzhen like this, thought it was because he was angry that Wan Yuzhen had secretly conceived a child, so that he would be hurt by the incident in the future, so he took this opportunity Torn faces with Wan Yuzhen and completely drew a line.

So Qin Jian didn't say anything about it, he just followed Su Qinglang's momentum and inserted Du Shiqi in.

After working hard inside and out for a few days, Su Qinglang presented the imperial gift list, and the emperor didn't have any opinion after reading it, so he ordered him to proceed.

When he came out of the imperial study, he thought that he hadn't seen the crown prince for a long time, and remembered what he heard from Sun Zizhong a few days ago that Li Chengyi had made great progress in his studies. After thinking about it, he turned and walked towards the East Palace.

Walking to the East Palace, the surroundings were quiet, without the noisy scenes of the past, Su Qinglang felt very relieved.

Walking to the window of the study room, through the gap, I saw Li Chengyi studying with the tutor. The tutor who taught the lessons had sharp eyes. When he saw Su Qinglang, he just wanted to stop and salute, but Su Qinglang booed him first, winking at him. He looked at Li Chengyi and motioned him to continue.

After reading for a while, seeing Li Chengyi put down the book, he was silent for a moment, and asked: "Teacher, in the future... can I really be a good emperor?"

Hearing him ask such a question, the Tai Tuo almost peed in fright, and asked with a trembling voice: "Your Highness...Your Highness, why do you ask such a question?"

Li Chengyi continued: "I... I just heard that Concubine Wan Gui has an imperial heir, not only the father, but even the courtiers are very happy..."

He lowered his head, his voice became softer and softer, and finally he said sadly: "They should really hope that the person who is the prince now is not me, but him?"

The Tai Tu's legs softened, he wiped off his cold sweat and said, "How... how could this be so, don't think too much, Your Highness."

"Did I overthink it?"

Li Chengyi murmured: "These days, I have learned something from the Taifus, so I know how much nonsense I used to be. The reason why my father tolerated me is because I am his only prince, right? Now Concubine Wan Gui has an emperor. Si, father... will he still love me like before?"

"I heard that in the court, someone has moved Yi Chu's mind."

He paused, then laughed at himself: "If that's the case, it's a good thing, anyway, I'm useless."

When the Taifu heard the words, the book fell to the ground, and he knelt down with a plop: "Your Highness must not have such thoughts, I am terrified, and I didn't hear anything!"

Su Qinglang stood outside the window, seeing this scene shook his head, sighed again, stepped out, stood at the door and said: "It's almost noon, Master Qi, morning class is not over yet, just work hard, It’s not such a diligent method.”

Seeing Su Qinglang, Li Chengyi was pleasantly surprised, and immediately stood up: "Brother Qinglang..."

Su Qinglang looked at Lord Qi who was kneeling on the ground, pretending he didn't hear what he said just now, he said to him: "Master Qi, you have to combine work and rest when studying, let's end today's class."

Upon hearing the words, Master Qi hurriedly said yes as if he had received an amnesty, got up from the ground, went to the desk to pack his things, hurriedly said goodbye and left.

Seeing him walking away, Su Qinglang looked at Li Chengyi and said: "Your Highness has made progress in learning, but he doesn't know how to guard against others. If today's words, let him learn from someone who cares, and spread it to the emperor, what will the emperor think?" , what should your Highness do?"

Although Li Chengyi was close to Su Qinglang, he was still a little afraid when Su Qinglang was serious.

Shrunk back, bowed his head and said, "I see."

Seeing him like this, Su Qinglang smiled lightly, and said kindly: "I heard that His Highness has improved in his studies recently, so I came to take a look."

Li Chengyi was a little embarrassed when he heard this: "It's all taught by the grand master, but unfortunately I'm really stupid, and I haven't learned much."

"Knowing how to be humble is also a kind of progress. It doesn't matter if you learn slowly. As long as you are willing to learn, Your Highness will one day achieve success."

Li Chengyi still couldn't believe it, and asked tentatively: "Really?"

Su Qinglang smiled: "As the old saying goes, when you are farewell for three days, you should treat each other with admiration. The changes in His Highness may not be easy to notice. I haven't seen His Highness for a few months, and I can clearly see His Highness's conversation, which is different from the past. There is a big difference, even Mrs. Sun praised His Highness for his progress, how dare a humble official lie to His Highness?"

Li Chengyi was very happy, scratched his head, and was even more embarrassed: "I want to do this, maybe make my father happier, and make myself more useful."

"but……"

He said, lowering his head, and silently added: "Father has not visited me for quite some time, if I have a younger brother, I will not come here in the future."

Hearing this, Su Qinglang paused for a moment, walked towards him, and said in a gentle voice: "Your Highness, I once said that this road will be difficult. However, no matter how difficult or dangerous it is, I will accompany Your Highness. .”

Li Chengyi raised his head, was stunned for a moment, and said again: "I thought, brother Qinglang, you are angry with me and you won't talk to me anymore."

Su Qinglang smiled softly: "People are not afraid of making mistakes, as long as they make sure that there will be no second time. Your Highness has made such progress, and the minister is too late to be happy, so how can he be angry?"

The two were talking in the room, and they heard someone outside say: "The servant came here on the order of the mother, I don't know if Mr. Su is here?"

Su Qinglang and Li Chengyi glanced at each other, and walked towards the door, but saw a half-hundred servant coming towards him, came up to him and saluted him: "Your Majesty knows that Mr. Su has entered the palace, and I think it's been a long time since I saw him." Master Su, I sent my servants to invite Master Su to the palace."

Thinking of what Su Qinglang did to offend Wan Yuzhen these days, Li Chengyi was a little worried: "Qing..."

But was stopped by Su Qinglang's eyes, raised his lips and smiled, turned to the servant and said: "I also want to visit my mother, so it's just right."

After leaving with that servant, he came to Wan Yuzhen's palace not long after.

There was no one in the hall, only Wan Yuzhen was sitting on the imperial concubine's couch, eating lychees.

Su Qinglang came to the hall and saluted her: "My minister sees your empress."

Wan Yuzhen didn't respond, but just gave the servant a wink, and the servant immediately understood, saluted her, and walked out the door.

Seeing her silence for a long time, Su Qinglang said slowly: "Lychee is cold, and it's easy to get angry if you eat it. Your Majesty is pregnant, so you should eat less raw and cold food in the future."

Wan Yuzhen continued: "I thought Master Su would like to let me eat more. Unexpectedly, Master Su still cares about Bengong."

Su Qinglang replied: "The empress is a body of ten thousand gold, and now she is pregnant with an emperor's heir. As a minister, Qinglang must be careful."

Wan Yuzhen snorted, and said bluntly: "This child does not belong to the emperor."

Su Qinglang raised his head, then lowered his head, and said: "Since the empress has made plans, I will not talk about it anymore, as long as the empress has no complaints or regrets."

"This child was given to me by God..."

As Wan Yuzhen spoke, she gently stroked her lower abdomen with her fingers: "You are not a woman, so naturally you don't know what it's like to be a mother."

"I want to give him everything, I want him to get everything. However, this palace has never thought about letting him be the emperor."

"I have been trapped in this palace all my life, how could I inflict this pain on this child? I only hope that he can be an ordinary person."

Su Qinglang answered calmly: "Your Majesty, you should know that this child is destined to be extraordinary from the moment he appeared, and your Majesty is also very clear about what will meet him in the future.

Not to mention that if something goes wrong and the deeds are revealed, if the emperor favors him too much in the future, even if he does not hesitate to save it for him, empress, even if she doesn't want to, is there a way to stop it? "

"So, you help outsiders deal with me?"

Wan Yuzhen stood up, restrained anger in her noble demeanor: "Master Su, you and I have supported each other for many years, even if there is no friendship, there should be some sympathy. In the backyard of the Palace, should I discuss it with the Palace first?"

Su Qinglang raised his eyes, and replied: "Weichen believes that the empress has no intention of being a monopoly, let alone the ambition of being easy to store. However, trust is something that cannot be seen, touched, and never actually held in your hands." It's reliable, the empress has added a confidant to my minister, in order to ensure safety, I have to do something to regulate this confidant to a safe area. At least, let me have the ability to contain him in the future."

Wan Yuzhen was silent for a long time, then slowly clapped her hands, and snorted coldly: "As expected of Mr. Su, he is really meticulous and thorough, and doesn't give anyone a chance."

She paused, turned around again, turned her back to Su Qinglang and said with her hands behind her back: "I heard that there are riots in Qinzhou. The emperor has been upset about this recently. Since Mr. Su is so enthusiastic, go ask the emperor to fight, you If you can come back alive, I will not be responsible for what happened before, if you don't go, you know what I will do."

Su Qinglang was silent for a moment, then bowed to her and said, "Thank you, ma'am."