My father is Jiajing

Chapter 485: Emperor Jiajing's Face
Zhao Wenhua, nervously and excitedly, was led by the young eunuch of Prince Yu's Mansion to Zhu Zaigui's study. However, while walking on this road in the palace, Zhao Wenhua was also quietly looking at the layout of Prince Yu's Mansion.

As the Minister of Works, Zhao Wenhua only knew that the regulations of Prince Yu's Mansion were the same as those of Prince Jing's Mansion. But after he finally stepped into Prince Yu's Mansion today, he discovered that there were huge differences between Prince Yu's Mansion and Prince Jing's Mansion.

And these differences are obviously the masterpieces of Prince Yu over the years.

Of course, Zhao Wenhua had no right to interfere with Prince Yu's changes to the configuration of the palace.

Moreover, the changes Zhu Zaigui made were only in common places and did not involve any changes in the ritual system. Therefore, even if some ministers knew that Zhu Zaigui had adjusted the internal layout of the palace, they could not use this as a reason to attack Zhu Zaigui for suspected usurpation of power.

After arriving at Zhu Zaigui's study, Zhao Wenhua took a deep breath, then straightened his official hat and belt. After making sure that he had not been impolite, Zhao Wenhua headed towards the study.

"I, the Minister of Industry, Zhao Wenhua, pay my respects to His Majesty."

Zhao Wenhua walked into the study and, without even raising his head, bowed deeply to Zhu Zaigui, who was sitting in the main seat in the study.

When Zhu Zaigui heard Zhao Wenhua's voice, he looked up at Zhao Wenhua again.

Zhu Zaigui put aside the document he was reading and said, "Minister Zhao, there is no need to be so polite. This is just my private study, not a formal ceremonial occasion. Just bow and pay your respects."

Zhao Wenhua stood up and said to Zhu Zaigui respectfully, "This is the first time I come to see Your Majesty, and Your Majesty also shoulders the important responsibility of regent. As a minister of the court, I must naturally be respectful to Your Majesty, so as to reflect the importance of Your Majesty's regent."

Zhu Zaigui laughed and said, "Alright, alright, I can't argue with you, so don't stand and talk anymore. Just sit on a chair beside me."

Zhao Wenhua bowed to Zhu Zaigui again and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

Then he carefully sat on a chair not too far from Zhu Zaigui. After sitting there, Zhao Wenhua finally looked in the direction of Zhu Zaigui. After seeing Zhu Zaigui's calm look, he couldn't help but admire that Prince Yu really had the qualities to be a leader.

Such magnanimity was something he had never seen or felt in Prince Jing.

Although Zhu Zaigui did not deliberately show off at this moment, and just looked indifferent as usual, it was his attitude and appearance that made Zhao Wenhua feel awe in his heart.

Zhao Wenhua bowed slightly to Zhu Zaigui and said, "I wonder why the prince has summoned me here?"

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "Actually, there is nothing important. Today, His Majesty sent someone to find me a way to climb safely. I drew a safety device called a safety rope for Your Majesty and sent it to Xiyuan."

"Perhaps after His Majesty ordered people to test it, he found it useful, so he asked me to summon you and give you the method of making the safety rope so that you can promote it in the Ministry of Works. In the future, if there is a need for craftsmen to work at heights, they can also use this thing to protect their safety."

When Zhao Wenhua heard what Zhu Zaigui said, he quickly flattered him, "Your Highness is truly a genius. With such a treasure, future craftsmen will no longer have to make mistakes when they have to climb dangerous heights. This is a great merit!"

Zhu Zaigui said, "Minister Zhao, you are too kind. This is just a small gadget. Even without me, others can make similar tools as long as they are willing to use their brains and think more. So, this is not a merit at all."

Zhu Zaigui did not take the contribution of the safety rope seriously, because in his view, there was no shortage of smart people in all dynasties over thousands of years, but these smart people never invented a simple safety equipment like the safety rope.

From this we can see that the smart people in every dynasty were either sophisticated and selfish private craftsmen, or cold-blooded and ruthless people in high positions.

Neither of these two types of people have taken the trouble to study the issue of safety ropes. It can be seen that the lives of those who have to work at heights without safety equipment are not important in their eyes.

Therefore, no one pays attention to such a simple little thing, even after thousands of years of civilization development. This shows how indifferent and cold-blooded human hearts are.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui did not feel any joy at all about such a small invention.

He just felt that in the past ten years since he traveled through time, he seemed to have been assimilated by them. If Emperor Jiajing had not sent people to find him this time, he might never have noticed this simple little thing.

So when Zhao Wenhua said that this was a merit, Zhu Zaigui still blushed. He felt that he had changed and began to ignore human life.

Zhao Wenhua felt the feeling emanating from Zhu Zaigui, and it didn't seem to be quite right. He couldn't help but feel a pang in his heart, thinking that he had said something wrong.

Zhao Wenhua quickly added: "Your Majesty, did you just say that His Majesty sent someone to you to make this safety rope?"

Zhu Zaiqi looked at Zhao Wenhua's enthusiasm and nodded, "Yes, is there any problem?"

Zhao Wenhua's expression suddenly became nervous, and he looked around inside and outside, as if he had something important to say.

Seeing this, Zhu Zaigui waved his hand and asked the secretary in the study and the eunuchs waiting outside the study to leave.

"Speak now. If there is anything you cannot say, just say it. Now it's just you and me, there is no Six Ears."

Zhu Zaigui comforted Zhao Wenhua and allowed him to speak out his nervousness without any worries.

Zhao Wenhua quickly stood up and bowed to Zhu Zaigui, "Your Highness, I have something important to report! Some time ago, I found a report from the head of the Ministry of Works that Yan Shifan used ordinary wood to impersonate golden nanmu as the main beam of your majesty's new palace. I dare not neglect this report in the slightest and immediately forwarded it to the Ministry of Public Administration."

"Now the prince said that His Majesty wants you to make a safety rope to climb up. I guess this matter may be related to the memorial I found earlier! So I am worried that if Your Majesty is risking his life to investigate Yan Shifan's crime, what will happen?"

When Zhu Zaigui heard what Zhao Wenhua said, he immediately stood up, and his voice became a little higher unconsciously, "What?! What did you say?! Are all the words you just said true?"

Zhao Wenhua said excitedly: "Every word I say is true, I dare not say a single lie!"

Zhu Zaigui's heart suddenly began to beat fast. He never expected that Zhao Wenhua's pledge of allegiance was so cruel and it directly touched the heart of Emperor Jiajing.

By now, everyone in and outside the capital knew that Emperor Jiajing was obsessed with the new Wanshou Palace. He even ordered all officials to write congratulatory messages to celebrate the completion of his new palace.

He hasn't even started collecting congratulatory messages yet, and already someone has come out to say that his new palace is a "defective product" that was built with shoddy workmanship. Who can tolerate this?
And isn’t the emperor’s face also face?
Can this matter be revealed?

So Zhu Zaigui's heart could not help but become nervous. He stared at Zhao Wenhua and said angrily, "When did you send this memorial to the Tongzhengsi?"

Zhao Wenhua said anxiously, "About five days ago."

When Zhu Zaigui heard that it was five days ago, he suddenly remembered that he had arranged Yu Huatian to keep an eye on the Xu family, and he compared all the information he had.

If Zhu Zaigui's guess was correct, Xu Jie should have known about this matter by now, and there were even quite a few people who knew about it. You have to know that Emperor Jiajing was an emperor who cared a lot about his reputation. Even if Yan Shifan had deceived him, he had his own means and methods to deal with Yan Shifan.

But if someone pushed him to deal with Yan Shifan, no matter whether the beam was made of golden nanmu or not, Emperor Jiajing would think that someone was deliberately challenging his authority and wanted to slap him in the face.

How could Emperor Jiajing endure such humiliation?
Therefore, it can be seen that if Emperor Jiajing discovered that the beams of the main hall of the new palace were not made of golden nanmu, and he continued to be suspicious, it would be a disaster.

Zhu Zai said to Zhao Wenhua, "You must keep this matter to yourself. Remember that you have never told me this. Now you must immediately return to the Ministry of Works and arrest the person in charge of the Ministry of Works you mentioned. No one is allowed to see him without the order of Your Majesty. Do you understand?"

Zhao Wenhua never expected Zhu Zaigui to suddenly become so serious. It seems that the problem here is more serious than he imagined.

Zhao Wenhua immediately bowed and said, "I understand. I will do it right away!"

Zhu Zaiqi hummed, "It must be quick!"

Zhao Wenhua quickly said, "I'm leaving now," and left in a hurry.

When Zhao Wenhua walked away, Zhu Zaiqi sat in his chair helplessly and sighed, "What is this all about?"

Then Zhu Zaigui also thought of Yu Huatian. He really wanted to slap himself. Why did he send Yu Huatian to keep an eye on the Xu family?

Isn't this just looking for trouble?
But there was still time to make amends. Zhu Zaigui immediately called Meng Chong in and instructed him, "Go find Yu Huatian and tell him that no matter what information you find out, even if it's nothing, you must immediately report to Huang Jin and not say a word to the palace."

Meng Chong didn't know what was going on, but Zhu Zaigui's serious expression still frightened him.

Meng Chong did not dare to hesitate at all, and quickly turned around and retreated to find Yu Huatian according to Zhu Zaigui's order.

At the same time, Zhu Zaigui was also thinking frantically, wondering what kind of political storm this incident would lead to.

But after careful consideration, Zhu Zaigui decided to write down the conversation between him and Zhao Wenhua word for word in a memorial and send it to the Western Garden, so that Emperor Jiajing would understand that his son had no hidden thoughts and no selfish motives.

Only in this way could he avoid being suspected by Emperor Jiajing when he launched a political storm. He had a part in this matter.

You have to know that once Emperor Jiajing became suspicious and thought that Zhu Zaigui was behind this matter, the whole thing would be exposed.

Therefore, for now, the only way to gain trust is to be honest.

Just as Zhu Zaigui was writing the memorial in a hurry, Emperor Jiajing finally tied himself up with a safety rope against all odds, and then began to climb up under the horrified gaze of everyone.

At the same time, Huang Jin and a group of people were also working hard to hold up a huge net below. No one knew how many layers of quilts were laid under the net, as if they were really afraid that something might happen to Emperor Jiajing.

However, when Emperor Jiajing saw them like this, he couldn't help but snorted arrogantly, "What a fuss! Haven't you tried it before and found it's fine? Why are you so scared when you come to me?"

Emperor Jiajing didn't want to pay attention to these people. Now that his safety was guaranteed, he naturally wanted to go and see for himself to see whether it was real or not.

So, under the watchful eyes of everyone, Emperor Jiajing climbed up to the highest point of the wooden frame little by little. When he was within reach of the main beam of the hall, Emperor Jiajing had also prepared all the safety measures of the safety rope.

Then Emperor Jiajing took out a dagger from somewhere and scraped the gold-painted beam hard, scraping off a small piece of wood. He then stuffed the piece of wood into his chest pocket and climbed down slowly.

Moreover, when climbing down, Emperor Jiajing deliberately looked back a few more times, as if he really liked the feeling of being high above.

This shows that Emperor Jiajing was not afraid of heights, and was even somewhat excited about this "extreme" challenge.

If Zhu Zaigui knew about this, he might even build a hot air balloon for him and let him sit in the big basket of the hot air balloon to experience even greater excitement.

However, even if Zhu Zaigui could do such a thing, he would not do it. What if Emperor Jiajing floated away and finally fell somewhere and turned into a ball of meat paste? That would be a disaster.

You have to know that in the feudal era, filial piety could kill people, and even the emperor was no exception.

So it’s better not to look for trouble, just do your best in peace and stability.

It's only a few years anyway, so there's really no need to take risks.

Emperor Jiajing came down from the height with a trace of regret. Huang Jin came over quickly, "Your Majesty, are you okay? It's all my fault that I'm too fat. I deserve to die!"

Emperor Jiajing laughed and said, "Why should I blame you? Even if you were thinner, I still wouldn't let you go up. Let's all go."

Emperor Jiajing asked everyone to disperse, and then he and Huang Jin slowly returned to Yuxi Palace.

After arriving at the Jade Palace, Emperor Jiajing said to Huang Jin: "Go find me a piece of golden nanmu wood, the kind that has not been polished."

Huang Jin didn't know what was going on when he heard what Emperor Jiajing said. He quickly said, "Your Majesty, wait a moment. I'll go find him right away."

Just after Huang Jin left, Emperor Jiajing took out from his chest pocket the piece of wood he had scraped off the beam of the main hall of the Wanshou Palace.

Emperor Jiajing looked at the piece of wood carefully. Before it was polished, the texture on the piece of wood was not clear.

So Emperor Jiajing wanted to make a comparison. After Huang Jin found the real golden nanmu wood pieces, he polished the two pieces of wood together to see if the textures after polishing were similar. If they were consistent, it would mean that the beam was genuine, and the matter could be covered up quietly.

If there is any inconsistency, it means Yan Shifan is seeking death!

Emperor Jiajing would certainly find another way to kill him and would never let the world know that his new palace was a defective product. After all, Emperor Jiajing could not afford to lose face.

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(End of this chapter)