A traitor

Su Qinglang originally wanted to discuss marriage with Li Huiyuan, but was told that the princess had gone to Concubine Xian's palace.

Thinking that Li Huiyuan had never been on good terms with that concubine Xian, how could she go out of her way today to visit Concubine Xian, Su Qinglang became suspicious, and when she left the palace, she purposely abducted her to Concubine Xian's palace, but she heard the servant in the palace say, The princess never came.

Walking in the palace road, Su Qinglang felt more and more strange about this matter, and was about to walk out of the palace gate, after thinking about it, he turned back.

In the East Palace, the crown prince was ordering people to look for something. He was very pleasantly surprised when he saw Su Qinglang approaching, and immediately stood up and said, "Brother Qinglang, why are you here?"

He greeted the door, and wanted to invite Su Qinglang into the hall with his sideways hand. Su Qinglang saluted him first, and then straightened his waist.

Seeing the mess and chaos in the hall, he asked, "What's the matter, what's missing, Your Highness?"

Li Chengyi hummed, and replied: "The token my father gave me is gone, and that token is for going out of the palace. If it is gone, there will be many troubles in the future."

This matter, Su Qinglang had already expected that the emperor had two tokens for leaving the palace, one was with the imperial concubine Wan Yuzhen, and the other was with Li Chengyi who was the heir apparent. Li Huiyuan also clamored for it at the time.

However, she was still refuted by the emperor on the grounds that she was acting willfully and causing trouble when she left the palace.

Li Huiyuan is not in the palace now, and she must have gone out to play again. There is no need to say more about Wan Yuzhen. She has always hated Wan Yuzhen, and Wan Yuzhen doesn't like her either. People, and I rarely meet her, let alone get her token.

Therefore, the token that Li Huiyuan carried when she left the palace probably belonged to Li Chengyi.

Su Qinglang didn't directly ask about Li Huiyuan's departure from the palace. He first asked about the prince's academic situation, and then chatted with him for a few words before asking insinuatingly: "I haven't seen the princess for a long time, I don't know the princess How is it now?"

Li Chengyi was stunned for a moment, then scratched his head and said, "So, I haven't seen the imperial sister for some time."

Su Qinglang let out an oh, and continued to inquire: "This is strange, the princess always likes to come to play with you, what's the matter these few days?"

Li Chengyi sighed, and then briefly explained the whole story to Su Qinglang.

It turned out that that day, Li Huiyuan went to play with the prince as usual, and saw the prince was studying, so she found a few stones under the window and threw him at him, but this was bumped into by Mrs. Sun, seeing her disturbing the prince's study, Mrs. Sun got angry and reprimanded her several times. Li Huiyuan suddenly felt very wronged, so she made a fuss to the emperor.

The emperor was always happy because of Wan Yuzhen's pregnancy. Faced with Li Huiyuan's crying, he didn't take it to heart, and advised her that Taifu Sun was old and was the prince's mentor, let her bear this trivial matter and let it go. In a blink of an eye, she was concerned about whether the imperial concubine's jade body was tired. How could Li Huiyuan give up when she saw it? head up.

The emperor was troubled by her, but at this moment, he heard that the prince asked to see him. Li Chengyi knew Li Huiyuan's temperament very well. After being reprimanded by Sun Taifu, he would definitely be indignant and try to get revenge. He was afraid that she would gossip and slander Sun Taifu, so he came here The emperor's palace explained the whole story.

Only then did the emperor know that things were not as simple as Li Huiyuan said. Thinking of these years, Li Huiyuan was arrogant and domineering, and repeatedly encouraged and misled the prince.

Seeing the prince's progress now, instead of realizing it, he ran to provoke him, and now he is even more daring and framed important ministers.

Furious for a while, he gave Sun Taifu generous gifts to make amends, and made people watch Li Huiyuan kneeling in the courtyard to reflect.

From then on, Xu Shi hated the prince because of this matter, and Li Huiyuan never came to the prince again.

Speaking of this, Li Chengyi hesitated: "Brother Qinglang, did I go too far in this matter, do you want to apologize to Huangmei?"

Su Qinglang smiled slightly: "No, Your Highness did the right thing, the Emperor even praised you to me today."

"Really?"

Li Chengyi was very happy, then scratched his head again, and said embarrassedly: "In this way, father and others won't be disappointed in me, right?"

Su Qinglang patted him on the shoulder, and continued: "The emperor told me today that in the future, he will gradually hand over the government affairs to His Highness, and asked me to choose a few marriages for His Highness, does His Highness like it? "

Li Chengyi lowered his head and said falteringly: "I don't go out of the palace often, and I haven't met anyone, as long as... be kind and treat me well."

After thinking for a while, he added, "I'll be nice to her too."

Su Qinglang smiled: "Okay, I will try my best to choose a good match for Your Highness. But...you also know that choosing a relative for the royal family is not such an easy task. Sometimes, you have to make some concessions..."

Li Chengyi raised his head to look at him, and after a while, lowered his head again, and said softly, "I understand..."

After leaving the East Palace, Su Qinglang returned to the princess's palace, stood outside the door, looking at the two maids in front of him: "Has the princess really gone to Concubine Xian?"

The two maids looked at each other, then lowered their heads and replied in a low voice: "Yes..."

Su Qinglang put his hands behind his back, turned sideways, and said with a straight face: "Think about it carefully, what will be the consequences of lying in front of this official, cover up the princess, deceive the Holy Majesty, are you all going to die? Or do you want this official to bring you You go to Concubine Xian's palace to confront each other, let the emperor personally ask you, where did the princess go?"

The two maids didn't expect that what they just said casually would actually make Su Qinglang fall in love, and they went to Concubine Xian to ask for proof.

Knowing that the matter could not be concealed, he quickly knelt down, lay down on the ground and said, "Lord Su, forgive me, because when the princess left, she told the slave to go to Concubine Xian, but the slave didn't follow, and she didn't know where the princess went. "

Seeing them let go, Su Qinglang raised her lips and smiled, and said condescendingly: "You guys are pushing it cleanly now, let me ask you, you have been serving the princess for so long, haven't you noticed that there is something wrong with the princess recently?"

The two palace maids hesitated for a while, and then looked at each other. Su Qinglang was just suspicious at first, so he deliberately said something.

Now seeing their reaction like this, I know that my previous guess is almost inseparable.

So he scolded in a cold voice: "Presumptuous! If I ask you a question, you have to explain it clearly. If you pretend to be deaf and dumb, do you still want to deceive me?"

The maids immediately bent down and said repeatedly: "My lord, forgive me..."

They were troubled, and after struggling for a while, they slowly said: "Returning to my lord, something is really wrong with the princess these days, because she accidentally picked up the gold medal of His Highness the Crown Prince that day, and she has been out of the palace several times in a row. It was going to be very late, and whenever the slaves asked, the princess said that the emperor's birthday was approaching, and she went to a temple outside the city to pray for the emperor, and the gold medal was not returned to the crown prince..."

"The servants have doubts in their hearts, but they don't dare to ask more questions. Only sister Ping'er knows about the princess, but..."

The maid who was speaking paused for a moment, and then continued: "When this servant was serving tea, I heard the princess and sister Ping'er mentioning some kind of juggling troupe. I held my heart, so I sneaked out again and again..."

The court lady spoke very cryptically, but Su Qinglang still heard the whole story clearly, he suppressed his anger and said, "Do you know that person's name?"

The maid hastily bowed her head and said: "Your Excellency, I only know so much, as for the rest, I really don't know..."

Even if they knew about it, they didn't dare to say the person's name, Su Qinglang didn't want to embarrass them any more, so he said: "Okay, when the princess comes back, tell me that I have been here."

Just as she was about to leave, the palace maid grabbed her clothes and begged on the ground, "My lord, you also know the princess's temperament. The servants said something like this today. The princess will definitely not keep the slaves alive. Please forgive me, sir, and save the two of us!"

Su Qinglang thought for a moment, and said, "Do you know the beauty Wang who is beside the emperor?"

The palace maid nodded, and Su Qinglang said again: "You go to her, just say she is my friend, ask her to show favor, and transfer you to the prince's side."

As he spoke, he handed them the folding fan in his hand: "Beauty Wang will know when she sees this."

The maid took the folding fan with both hands, kowtowed deeply to him, thanked him and went down to pack the things.

Su Qinglang looked at the large characters of Jin Huanghuang on the plaque on the palace gate, thought for a moment, then turned and left.

When I returned to the mansion, I saw the butler greet me, and said: "Your Excellency is only leaving the palace at this time, you haven't eaten dinner yet, I will let someone prepare it for you, my lord."

Su Qinglang said: "Wait first, and tell the guards that someone is visiting tonight, and that person is my distinguished guest, just pretend you didn't see it, don't stop."

The steward sighed, and heard him say again: "Also, tell me, even if you dig three feet in the city of Chang'an, you must find someone for me."

The butler was a little puzzled and asked, "My lord, what kind of person is it?"

Su Qinglang stood still, and Li Huiyuan took the prince's token and went out of the palace several times but was not noticed, presumably pretending to be someone from Wan Yuzhen's palace.

For one thing, the guards had never seen her, so if she changed her palace attire, she would just treat her as an ordinary court lady;

Secondly, the people in the palace have always been afraid of Wan Yuzhen, and never carefully checked the people in her palace, and with Li Huiyuan's character, she would definitely flaunt herself when she was out of the palace, and would not restrain her temper.

So he said: "Let's say it's people from the juggling troupe secretly abducting rich daughters in the city who are seventeen or eighteen years old, and even palace maids in the palace."

The housekeeper was stunned for a moment, seeing Su Qinglang's expression was cold, he suddenly felt that the matter was serious, so he hurriedly said yes.

Just about to turn around and leave, Su Qinglang said, "Wait!"

He thought for a moment, and then continued: "Go to Xiang's mansion again, find son Qin Huan, and tell me that I have someone, and I want him to help me deal with it."