If not abolished

"Your Highness, Your Highness, help me..." Concubine Guo ran over, completely losing her usual dignity and virtue, with her hairpins and ornaments messed up.

The prince frowned when he saw it: "What's going on? Where are the usual etiquettes for concubines?"

Concubine Guo could hear the unhappiness in Zhu Gaochi's tone, but she didn't have time to care about it now. She knelt down after entering the room, crying and shouting: "Your Highness, I was also in a hurry at the moment, and my daughter was taken away. Your Highness, help me!"

The prince was confused for a moment: "What do you mean by taken away? Who took him away?"

"The palace maids said that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince took Kai'er out to play in the afternoon, and she hasn't come back yet." Concubine Guo said as she wiped her tears. The Crown Prince felt very distressed when he saw this and asked someone to help her get up first.

"Zhanji wouldn't do such a senseless thing. He took Kai'er away without saying anything?" The prince understood his son well. Everything had a reason.

After hearing what the Crown Prince said, Concubine Guo knew she could no longer hide it: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince sent someone to tell her to have dinner with the Crown Princess before coming back, but..."

After listening to this, the prince felt that Concubine Guo was being unreasonable, but he couldn't get angry, thinking that she was also worried about the child's young age and couldn't trust others to take care of him: "If that's the case, then why did you talk about helping me just now? Wouldn't it be possible for Zhanji to harm his own brother? What good would it do him? If what happened just now gets out, how will the Eastern Palace face it?" After the prince said this, he suddenly felt a headache and couldn't help pressing his temples.

Concubine Guo's heart skipped a beat. How could it be different from what she thought? "I am worried. He is so young. He will cry and make a fuss after being away from me for so long. I am also worried."

"I understand. You go back first and I will go to the Crown Princess and bring the person back." The Crown Prince made his final decision.

"Yes." Concubine Guo knew that this was the only way, and prepared to leave reluctantly.

"Wait a minute," Zhu Gaochi suddenly said, "Fix your appearance. How will you look when you go out like this?"

On the other side, the Crown Princess saw Zhu Zhanji holding Jiaxing in his arms and walking in with Zhu Zhanqi on the other side. She was a little confused about what was going on.

Zhu Zhanji put the person down, and the three of them saluted her together.

After hearing Zhu Zhanji say that he had played with them for the whole afternoon, the Crown Princess asked someone to change the clothes of the two children, because the clothes they wore in the afternoon were all dirty.

After sending everyone away, the Crown Princess asked, "Why did you suddenly bring your brother here?"

"It's just a warning to Madam Guo. You should know clearly what to say and what not to say." The palace servant brought water for him to wash his hands.

"It's just a few words. Why do you have to be so mean? It would be bad if she went to your father to cry and complain."

"Father is very proud. Madam Guo can't tell Father that she is disrespectful to Mother."

"You, just this once, the child is innocent, don't involve the child in adult matters."

"She is well-behaved and I won't make things difficult for her." Zhu Zhanji wiped his hands and sat down.

The Crown Princess immediately asked someone to prepare dinner, as well as supplementary food for the two children.

"Hey, do you want someone to feed you?"

"Mother, no, I can eat by myself." Zhu Zhankai said while shaking his head, which was so adorable.

"Ye'er is so amazing." The Crown Princess touched his head lovingly.

"Ah, then...then I don't want to be fed either." When Princess Jiaxing heard that her eighth brother didn't need to be fed and was praised by her mother, she said in a baby voice that she didn't need anyone to take care of her either, and after she said that, she looked at the Crown Princess.

The Crown Princess smiled and said, "Really? Jiaxing is great too."

When Jiaxing heard the compliment, he smiled so hard that his eyes could not be seen.

The four of them finished their meal happily.

Just as the Crown Princess was about to have Zhu Zhankai sent back, the Crown Prince arrived.

"Greetings, Your Highness/Father."

"No need to be so polite." The prince waved his hand.

"Crown Princess, please have someone send Kai'er back, otherwise the concubine's noise will give me a headache." The prince said while pressing on both sides.

"We just finished the meal and were about to send him back. Now that the Crown Prince is here, it's just right for you to send him back in person." As she said this, the Crown Princess handed Zhu Zhanjie to Zhu Gaochi, pushed them both out, and immediately closed the door.

"Oh, no, I haven't finished what I wanted to say. What's going on?" The prince was kicked out before he could react. He turned around and saw that Zhu Zhanji was also kicked out. Suddenly, he felt relieved.

"Hey, isn't this our Crown Prince? How come he was kicked out too?" The prince mocked mercilessly.

Zhu Zhanji picked up Jiaxing and said, "Isn't this all because of you?" Then he carried him away.

"Wait a minute, how can this be my fault? It's obviously you who have nothing better to do. Why did you bring your eighth brother out here?" The prince quickly grabbed him and stopped him from leaving.

"Father~" Zhu Zhankai saw that the prince was only concerned with pulling his older brother and left himself behind, so he spoke quickly and looked at the prince harmlessly.

The prince finally realized that he had almost left his youngest son behind, "Can you walk by yourself?"

"I'm sleepy." Zhu Zhankai's voice was soft.

"Agui, Zhanji, well, let me discuss this with you." The prince grabbed him again.

Zhu Zhanji said angrily, "What for?"

"Well, you can help me hold your brother."

"I'm holding Jiaxing. There's no room for two people." Zhu Zhanji refused without even thinking.

"Then how about this, I'll hold Jiaxing and you hold Kaier." The prince proposed a solution.

Zhu Zhanji looked his father up and down and said, "That's even worse. You can hardly walk by yourself. Carry Jiaxing. Don't let her fall and get hurt."

"You...I won't tell you, Jiaxing. Can father hold you?" Seeing that Zhu Zhanji was unmoved, the prince turned to attack his daughter.

"Okay." Jiaxing said and extended his hand to the prince.

"Oh, our Jiaxing is still so well behaved." The prince picked up the person in his arms.

Zhu Zhanji had no choice but to pick up Zhu Zhankai. The two little guys played together for a whole day, but fell asleep after taking only a few steps.

Zhu Gaochi and his son walked slowly on the palace road, the moonlight shining on their faces. Palace servants walked on both sides holding palace lanterns, illuminating the originally dim ground under their feet.

After a while, neither of them spoke. Finally, the prince broke the silence: "Tell me, what did Concubine Guo do to you after what happened today?"

Zhu Zhanji suddenly stopped and said, "My father is getting old, and his thoughts are becoming more and more strange. What can Concubine Guo do to me?"

"No, there are people next to you. Can't you give me some face?" The prince said in a low voice.

Zhu Zhanji continued walking: "Concubine Guo has mentioned during her greetings these days, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that the Crown Princess's mother's family presented a girl to Your Majesty."

"This is indeed her problem. You can't threaten me with my brother. He is your own brother. If the Crown Princess is unhappy, she can tell me. Why use such means?"

Zhu Zhanji sighed, "Father has been so busy these days, how could mother bother you? This is my son's idea alone, and it has nothing to do with mother."

"So you're venting your anger on your mother?"

"Father, we know that mother is unaware of the matter of my uncle's family, but other people don't think so. There have been some discussions behind my uncle's back, and of course there have been people like Concubine Guo who directly said it in front of mother, but mother endured it. However, too much discussion about this matter is not good for anyone. If the Crown Princess is talked about by the concubines, and it gets out, and those people have been selected into the harem, then won't it be rumored that the emperor has robbed the emperor's uncle's family or something?"

"This... is too outrageous. I will go and tell Concubine Guo right now that this matter cannot be made up. I will also ask her to apologize to the Crown Princess." The Crown Prince said indignantly.

"Now you know why your mother is angry. She told you that you were wronged, and you started to blame her as soon as you went there."

"Yes, the Crown Princess has been wronged during this period."

As they were talking, they had already arrived at the entrance of the concubine's courtyard. Zhu Zhanji handed Zhu Zhanqi to the palace maid and took Jiaxing away from Zhu Gaochi's arms.

"Please go in quickly. The Concubine may be anxious."

"Oh, good."

The next day, when Concubine Guo came to pay her respects to the Crown Princess, her attitude was much better, and she even apologized to the Crown Princess separately.

The Crown Princess smiled and said that they were all sisters and it was all over.

Concubine Guo immediately expressed her loyalty to the Crown Princess.

It has been several months since Emperor Yongle asked Hu Rong to return to Beijing to take up his post.

In October, except for the second daughter who was already married, the rest of Hu Rong's family came to the capital together. The streets of Chang'anfang suddenly became crowded, and the carriages blocked the road for a long time. The neighbors couldn't help but come out to take a look out of curiosity.

Hu Shanxiang had been kept at home by her brothers and sisters for the past two months and was unable to go out, which made her feel very bored. Today, she finally managed to go to the city gate early with her two brothers to greet her parents. She was extremely happy.

"Third sister, calm down. It's not a good idea to jump around like that." Hu An held down his sister who was jumping around.

"I just wanted to see if the carriage had arrived." Hu Shanxiang said aggrievedly.

"almost."

After a long while, the Hu family's carriage finally came into view.

"Father," the three siblings of the Hu family trotted over.

"Oh, why are you here? Get in the car quickly." Hu Rong lifted the car curtain and saw his three children, smiling like a flower.

"Father, is grandma in the carriage behind?" Hu Shanxiang asked her grandmother as soon as she came over.

"In the carriage at the back, go ahead."

After hearing this, Hu Shanxiang ran to the back and threw herself into her grandmother's arms.

"Oh, you are so old, but still so naughty." Old Mrs. Hu said this, but she hugged her when she pounced on her.

"Grandma, my son looks just like you." Hu Shanxiang acted coquettishly in the old lady's arms.

"Really? Grandma misses us, too."

"Then when we get home, I'll have a good talk with grandma." Hu Shanxiang got up from the old lady's arms.

"it is good."

"Your Highness, the Hu family's carriages are nowhere to be seen." Wu Cheng and Zhu Zhanji are now on the city wall.

"Stop talking. Then go back."

"Okay, okay." Why does His Highness always like to do this kind of secret observation thing now?

"What are you doing? Are you going back?"

"I'm coming."