Cypress Boat Floating

Compared to the happy family of Concubine Shu, the situation in the Eastern Palace was shrouded in dark clouds.

In the past few days, both Concubine Shu and Lu Zhixing have won the emperor's favor. Even Lu Ciqiu, who is far away in the south city, is often criticized by the emperor. The prince is so angry that he is about to go crazy. He is the legitimate son, while Lu Zhixing and Lu Ciqiu are just illegitimate sons. Why? He is so favored just because of one thing. This makes him feel that his father treats him differently.

But in order to maintain the prince's face, he could only suppress his anger and silently hate them in his heart.

The prince, who was never good at losing his temper in front of outsiders, was sarcastic to his concubines when he returned to the East Palace. This made the princess unhappy, so she ignored him and went to recite scriptures alone behind closed doors.

The Crown Princess closed the door and chanted by herself, but the Crown Prince's concubine Li Muqian seized the opportunity to move up. Everything she had depended on the Crown Prince, and they would rise together and fall together. For this reason, she had to find a way to help the Crown Prince solve his problems, so she took this opportunity to get in front of the Crown Prince and give him advice.

"Your Highness, if you have anything bothering you, please tell me. It's not good for your health to keep it to yourself." Li Muqian's voice was soft and gentle, and it sounded like a gust of wind gently caressing your ears. She herself could be described as charming and attractive.

She has two curved eyebrows on her small face, a pair of eyes that seem to be happy but not happy, which makes people feel itchy. Her small mouth is slightly open and her voice is soft and sweet. Her waist is not thick enough to be held in one hand, and her skin is as white as snow. Any man who sees her will fall at her feet.

She stood beside the prince, and gently stroked his back with her soft little hands. The fragrance from her body passed over the prince's nose, making him feel upset.

The prince pushed her away irritably without saying anything. He was now completely focused on how to regain his father's favor and how to get Lu Zhixing to move on. He had no time to pay attention to her.

"Is it because of the King of Qin?" The prince did not say anything, but Li Muqian, who had followed him for many years, was like a worm in his stomach. She knew what he was worried about just by looking at his movements.

The prince turned his head and glanced at her: "The second brother's family has been too popular recently. If the eighth brother can really control the flood this time, when he comes back, the second brother will be more popular than me. By then, I'm afraid that the emperor will value him more."

Li Muqian walked behind him and gently squeezed his shoulders: "If Prince Qin did nothing wrong in the court, then why don't we make some mistakes for him?"

"The second brother is too smart. He does things without any mistakes. If he finds something wrong, he will deal with it immediately." The prince shook his head. It was obvious that he had done these things before, but they were completely useless. That was why he was so distressed.

"Just because you are not wrong in the court does not mean that you are not wrong at home. I remember that the Princess of Qin is the daughter of Minister Wei. The King of Qin is not wrong, but the Princess of Qin may not be wrong."

"My second brother's sister-in-law is Wei Wangshu. She is the beloved daughter of Wei Wenwei, the Minister of the Secretariat, and a famous talented woman in the capital. Do you think you can let her make a mistake? She has never made a mistake in the five years since she entered the mansion. She is a woman even praised by my father." The prince obviously did not believe that he, the concubine, could find any handle on Wei Wangshu.

Li Muqian smiled and said, "Your Highness, most of the people in the court are your people, and Prince Qin is making drastic changes now. Do you think others will have no problem with him? If you can add fuel to the fire at this time, then everyone will hate him to the core. Who will not stand on your side at that time? When the adults hate him, how can he do anything in the court?"

The prince frowned. If something happened in Lu Zhixing's family, he could indeed mobilize those people in the court who belonged to his camp to impeach Lu Zhixing. However, there were still many neutral people in the court. These old foxes did not take sides and just watched the two of them fighting openly and secretly. In fact, there were some of these people whom he could not afford to offend. If he wanted to unite these people to impeach Lu Zhixing, it would not be easy.

"What are you going to do?"

Li Muqian squatted down beside the prince, gently squeezed his hand, and said, "In order to provide disaster relief, the national treasury has already paid a lot of silver, but the national treasury is not a cash cow. It can't give money whenever it wants, and it can't give as much as it wants. If the Princess of Qin were to ask those officials' wives to raise money for disaster relief in South City at this time, do you think they would be even more disgusted?"

The prince thought about it carefully. This method is feasible, but how can he make Wei Wangshu take the initiative to ask the ladies for donations?

Li Muqian saw the prince's confusion and said, "Your Highness, I'm afraid our Crown Princess has to step in on this matter. The Crown Princess and Princess Qin were good friends before they got married. Given the Crown Princess's personality, when she knows that the money raised is to help the people of South City, and that the Crown Princess has been chanting sutras and worshipping Buddha, I'm sure she will be very happy and will actively discuss it with Princess Qin."

"But if Lin Youqian is involved, then wouldn't all the officials in the court hold a grudge against me for this matter?" The prince frowned. He felt sick when he thought of others putting him and Lu Zhixing together.

"The Crown Princess has a simple and kind nature. If I had talked to her, wouldn't it be better not to let her show her face? Princess Qin is a good friend of the Crown Princess, so I'm sure she won't force the Crown Princess."

The prince thought about it. Although this plan was not foolproof, he still had to give it a try. If it succeeded, everyone would hate Lu Zhixing. If it failed, he could still explain to his father that he was thinking about the people of Nancheng. Then the matter would probably be resolved like that. Anyway, he could drag Lu Zhixing into the water anyway. Why not do it?

So the prince accepted the suggestion, but there was a problem. Who should tell the princess?

"If the prince trusts me, I will handle this matter. You just need to hear the good news." Li Muqian smiled sweetly and leaned against the prince.

"Of course I trust you, so I'll leave this matter to you. I believe Qian'er won't let me down, right?" The prince was very pleased to have such a concubine by his side to help him solve his problems. The sorrow he had been feeling for many days gradually dissipated. Looking at the soft jade in his arms, he began to be distracted, and walked towards the bed holding the prince's concubine.

After a period of ups and downs.

After Li Muqian served the crown prince, she stood up, cleaned herself up, and went to the crown princess' palace to look for Crown Princess Lin Youqian.

Lin Youqian is the only daughter of General Lin Yan, the Zhenbei General. Since childhood, she has followed her mother to learn music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and she has been a vegetarian and chanting Buddhist scriptures to atone for her father's sins and eliminate his sins.

Lin Youqian is kind and gentle, and speaks in a very low voice. If you don't listen carefully, you might ignore what she is saying. But at the same time, she has inherited her father's tough temper, she is very stubborn, and she is also very straightforward.

As a result, the prince has been sarcastic to them these past two days, taking out the anger he suffered outside on his own family. This made Lin Youqian very unhappy. She simply closed the door and ignored the prince. Anyway, according to her habits, she didn't like to care about these things. So all matters of the Eastern Palace were handled by concubine Li Muqian.

Li Muqian was also a person who knew the rules. Although she was in charge of all matters of the Eastern Palace on behalf of the Crown Princess, she also showed complete respect to Lin Youqian. She would consult her on any important matters and would never marginalize her or completely eliminate her position.

So although Lin Youqian didn't like Li Muqian very much, she didn't resist her that much. Although the two of them didn't have any quarrels, they generally wouldn't go to each other's palace to chat when they had nothing to do.

When Li Muqian arrived at the Crown Princess's palace, she started calling her sister all the time, fearing that Lin Youqian would become cold to her because of the Crown Prince, and that she would not be able to continue arranging things.

"What's going on? Why are you here today?" Lin Youqian's attitude was always cold and indifferent, making it impossible to tell what he liked or disliked.

Lin Youqian had a simple personality before entering the palace. This was a trick her mother taught her to prevent her from being bullied in the palace, which was to pay attention to her expression when meeting outsiders and not let them guess what you were thinking. If your thoughts and hobbies were completely guessed by others, it would be easy for them to harm you. So she got used to it over the years.

Li Muqian waved her handkerchief in the air at the Crown Princess and said coquettishly, "Sister, what are you talking about? I just wanted to chat with you. The Crown Prince has been in a bad mood recently and has lost his temper with us. It's scary."

Lin Youqian didn't even look at her. She didn't like Li Muqian's behavior. She could have just spoken nicely, but she chose to be so pretentious.

"Just tell me if you have anything to say."

"Oh, okay." Li Muqian sighed pretentiously, "I heard that the flood in South City is very serious and many people have suffered. I feel very sad when I hear that. Sister, you often recite sutras, so you know about the flood in South City." After that, Li Muqian used her handkerchief to wipe away the non-existent tears from the corners of her eyes.

Lin Youqian raised his right hand and chanted "Amitabha". He then said, "All living beings are compassionate. No one can escape natural disasters. This is also a disaster that the people of Nancheng are destined to have."

"Yes, according to Buddhism, this should be the cycle of cause and effect. But when I think about those survivors who have nothing to eat and no clothes to wear, and can only sleep in the woods on the mountain, I heard that it is very cold on the mountain in South City at night." Li Muqian said.

Lin Youqian looked sympathetic, "How pitiful. But I heard that my eighth brother has gone to provide disaster relief. With my eighth brother here, the people should be able to survive this disaster."

"The food and money we bring are not enough." Li Muqian took out a bag full of money from her body and said enthusiastically, "Sister, I want to help the people of Nancheng. You see, I heard that Prince Qin is handling this matter now. Why don't you talk to Princess Qin and ask her to organize a donation, so that we can call on the wives of officials to donate some spare money to the people of Nancheng. What do you think?"

Seeing Li Muqian's positive attitude, Lin Youqian was very moved. She also felt sorry for those people and had been thinking about how to help them. Now Li Muqian provided a solution. She thought about it carefully and felt that it seemed feasible.

"Alright, let's go talk to Princess Qin together."

When Li Muqian heard this, she knew that her goal had been achieved, but she couldn't let herself show up. She shook her head slightly and said with a righteous look: "Sister, I am just a concubine, it is inconvenient for me to show up. You can only trouble you to tell the Princess of Qin about this matter. I just did some good deeds, so there is no need to mention me at all."

"Sister, you are so thoughtful. I will go talk to Princess Qin tomorrow." Lin Youqian nodded with satisfaction.

Li Muqian smiled slightly, her goal was achieved.