If not abolished

Just when all the noble ladies in the capital were waiting for the result of the selection of concubines, a major event happened in the palace.

Ever since the day of choosing a concubine, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has been bedridden with a high fever. The imperial physicians have been replaced one after another. If the Crown Prince had not stopped him, Emperor Yongle would have dragged all those imperial physicians out and beheaded them.

In the Qingyun Palace, the Crown Princess stayed by Zhu Zhanji's bedside all the time. However, after a few days, Zhu Zhanji became so thin that he was unrecognizable. The Crown Princess was heartbroken and cried all day long. She also lost a lot of weight.

The imperial physician Liu Guan also lived in the East Palace to treat the crown prince. By the evening, Zhu Zhanji's fever had finally subsided and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. However, they did not expect that in the middle of the night, he had a fever again. The imperial physician was frightened and went to report to Zhu Di, saying that if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince continued like this, he might burn out his body, and what's more, his brain might be damaged.

Zhu Di came to the East Palace overnight and got angry again. He sat there worried to death. This was his most promising heir to the empire. What would he do if something happened to him?

At this moment, Concubine Wang heard the news and hurried over.

"I see you, Your Majesty."

"Get up."

Seeing that Zhu Di had no time to deal with her, Concubine Wang could only speak for herself: "I have an idea. I wonder if it is appropriate?"

Zhu Di knew that she was not the kind of person who would talk nonsense. "Just tell me what you have to say. Do you have any solution?"

"It is said that His Royal Highness has been in good health since he was a child, and he rarely gets sick. This time he got sick suddenly, and the entire Imperial Hospital is helpless. Could it be that he ran into something bad?"

Zhu Di was a pragmatist and never believed in these things, but since it concerned his grandson's life, he had to believe it.

Zhu Di thought for a while and said, "What my beloved concubine said makes sense."

Concubine Wang originally suggested asking the Imperial Observatory to take a look to see if Zhu Zhanji had bumped into anything during this period, but she didn't expect Zhu Di to directly send someone to Qingshou Temple to invite Yao Guangxiao over overnight.

Yao Guangxiao, who was in his seventies, was woken up early in the night. He had already learned the general situation on the way, and by the time he arrived at the palace, it was already daybreak.

When the person arrived, Zhu Di did not exchange pleasantries with him, but asked him to go and see Zhu Zhanji first.

"Your Majesty, please dismiss your attendants."

After everyone left, Yao Guangxiao took Zhu Zhanji's pulse.

Two quarters of an hour later, Yao Guangxiao opened the door and came out, saluted Zhu Di and said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince has woken up."

Upon hearing this, several people rushed in.

When I came in, I saw that the person on the bed had indeed woken up and was sitting up. The fever had subsided, but his face was still a little red.

"Agui, you scared your mother to death." The Crown Princess couldn't hold back and was about to cry.

"My son has made me worry." Zhu Zhanji had just woken up and his voice was a little weak.

Zhu Di was naturally happy that the person had woken up. Seeing that Zhu Zhanji was fine, he went out and called Yao Guangxiao over to ask him what was going on.

Zhu Di asked him to sit down and asked: "In your opinion, is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince sick this time?" After all, Zhu Di himself was an old hand at the art of being thick-skinned. Compared to believing in ghosts and gods, he was more afraid that someone wanted to harm Zhu Zhanji.

Yao Guangxiao twisted his Buddhist beads and said, "Your Highness's illness is indeed not an ordinary illness, nor is it a conspiracy."

Zhu Di frowned, "What's going on?"

"I heard that Your Majesty is choosing a concubine for the Crown Prince. I have just calculated the fortune for him. It is really not suitable for him to choose a concubine in the next one or two years. It will be very bad luck." Yao Guangxiao said in a firm tone.

Zhu Di knew his good friend well and generally would not say anything he was not sure about. But since he said so, it was basically correct.

"Then what's the solution? Can we just not choose a concubine for the next two years?"

Yao Guangxiao stretched out his hand and calculated: "Your Highness's marriage is destined by heaven. It doesn't matter if it's delayed for a year or two. There may be better opportunities."

"Is this true?"

"Of course, Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is fine now. He just needs to have a good rest. I will go back first." Yao Guangxiao said as he stood up.

"okay."

After everyone left, Zhu Di called Concubine Wang and told her what Yao Guangxiao had said, asking her not to mention the matter of selecting a concubine again and to wait two years before talking about it.

"Yes, I understand. What about the person chosen before?"

"Let's talk about it later."

Half a month later

"What, not choosing again? What's going on?" The wife of the Earl of Pengcheng was one of the first people to get the news. She heard from the person who brought the message that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had been in bad luck in the past two years and it was not appropriate to choose a concubine, and the palace said to wait for two years before deciding. How could this be? Wouldn't it be a waste of time this time?

"Madam, the palace has sent a lot of gifts, would you like to take a look?" The person next to her was waiting for her reply.

The wife of the Marquis of Pengcheng had just stood up in a hurry, and just as she sat down, she said, "Give each person who comes a purse that we prepared."

"Yes."

The more Lady Pengcheng Earl thought about it, the more she felt that this was not a good idea. She couldn't just sit there and wait for death. Who knows when it will end. Besides, Sun had already arrived in the capital. If she waited another two years, there would be too many uncertainties. She had to think of a way to give it a try.

The Lady of Pengcheng immediately ordered a carriage to be harnessed into the palace.

The Crown Princess probably guessed that her mother would come as soon as the reward was given, so she was waiting in the palace early.

"My queen, I heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had a serious illness recently, so I wanted to come and see him. I wonder how His Royal Highness is doing."

The Crown Princess replied calmly, "Agui is fine now. Thank you, mother, for your concern."

"That's good, that's good." After hearing her daughter's tone, Lady Pengcheng didn't know how to respond for a moment.

Seeing her mother hesitate to speak, the Crown Princess deliberately did not respond for a while, leaving her alone for a while before asking, "Mother, why did you rush into the palace today? Could it be that something happened at home?"

"No, no, I received a reward from the palace today, and I came here to thank the queen."

"Since you have already expressed your gratitude, mother, please go back." The Crown Princess did not expose her and continued speaking along with what she said.

The wife of the Marquis of Pengcheng became anxious, "Madam, um, I came here today to ask for something else?"

The Crown Princess thought to herself that it was not that simple. "What are you talking about, mother? I will do my best to help if I can."

"Your Majesty is the most filial. This is what happened. Didn't the girl from the Sun family come to the capital last time? Now that we are not choosing a concubine, it is not convenient to send that girl back home. I am thinking, why not send her to the palace? Firstly, Your Majesty will have someone to take care of her, and secondly, she can learn the rules in the palace. What do you think?" After saying this, Lady Pengcheng Earl looked at the Crown Princess carefully.

The Crown Princess immediately refused: "Not to mention that I already have enough servants around me, His Majesty has expressly forbidden anyone from being allowed to be with Agui, I cannot agree to this."

Mrs. Pengcheng did not expect to be rejected so thoroughly: "It's not for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, it's for Her Majesty to have someone to talk to."

"Could it be that you only want Sun to be a palace maid for the rest of her life, and have no intention of letting her rise to prominence and become a phoenix? If so, then I agree to let her come and serve you for the rest of her life."

"This... Your Majesty doesn't care about your mother's family at all?" Lady Pengcheng Earl said angrily.

"I will naturally take care of those who should be taken care of, but this matter is not okay. Mother, don't even think about it. I don't care whether you send that Miss Sun home or keep her at home. As long as nothing happens, it's fine. If she insists on entering the palace as a concubine, then you can wait until His Majesty chooses a concubine for Agui. I still have to take care of Agui, so I won't entertain mother." After the Crown Princess finished speaking, she went out, leaving the Lady of Pengcheng alone, very angry, and could only leave in shame.

Zhu Zhanji was lying on his bed listening to people reporting this matter, and he almost laughed out of anger. The Zhang family was really persistent in this matter.

The Crown Princess came over and saw that Zhu Zhanji was in good spirits. She was also very happy. She was upset thinking about what had just happened.

Hu Shanxiang, who was at home, also received rewards from the palace, and when she heard about this, she felt relieved.

"The girl seemed very happy to hear that she didn't have to go to the palace."

"I'm naturally happy when I don't have to leave my parents."

"Really?"

"Oh, why are you so talkative?"

Hu Shanxiang calmed down and thought, alas, with so many good girls, Zhu Zhanji was really unlucky. But in this case, she was lucky enough to have escaped a disaster.

The Lantern Festival came in a blink of an eye. Hu Shanxiang had been waiting since the first day of the Lunar New Year. After waiting for more than half a month, she could finally go out to watch the lantern festival.

The Hu family came to the Qinhuai River to watch the lanterns in a grand procession. Hu Rong and Mrs. Hu supported Old Lady Hu together.

"Okay, let these little monkeys play by themselves." As soon as Mrs. Hu said this, Hu Shanxiang took her seventh sister to a lively place.

Riddles are a must at this lantern festival. Hu Shanxiang has no interest in guessing riddles and just enjoys watching others guess them.

"Miss, do you have a favorite lantern? Do you want me to guess it and give it to you?" Zhu Zhanji suddenly spoke from behind, scaring Hu Shanxiang.

"I just discovered that you really like to scare people."

"I'm sorry for scaring you again. How about this, whichever one you like, I'll bring it to you to make amends."

"In that case, let's go with the one about [Spring scenery on the river in front of the window]."

"Okay." Zhu Zhanji agreed readily.

When Zhu Zhanji won the lantern, he found something was wrong. Hu Shanxiang saw that he had stopped moving, so she went over to take a look. It was far away just now, and now when she took it down, she found that it was actually a mandarin duck and heron lantern. This... Neither of them was speechless for a while.

It was Hu Shanxiang who broke the awkwardness: "I didn't see it clearly just now, why don't you take it home?"

"How can you do that? I told you it's for you. It's okay. Take it." Zhu Zhanji handed it to her.

Hu Shanxiang didn't take it, but a pair of small hands took it, "Sister, this lamp is so beautiful." Hu Shanyi thought it was beautiful and took it.

"Little sister, return it quickly."

"You've already got it in your hand, why are you taking it back?" Zhu Zhanji stopped her action, and their hands inevitably touched each other. Hu Shanxiang suddenly took her hand back as if she had been electrocuted, while Zhu Zhanji stood there in a daze, and it took him a long time to take his hand back.

"Well, I came out alone today, otherwise I would go shopping with the third girl."

Hu Shanxiang came back to her senses and said, "Okay."

The two people walked side by side without talking. Hu Shanyi in the middle looked at one and then at the other, thinking that these two people were really strange.

No one said anything along the way, but Hu Shanyi kept talking, wanting to buy this, wanting to eat that.

"Okay, no more buying, we want to go back." Hu Shanxiang refused her younger sister's request to buy things again.

"Okay." Hu Shanyi said reluctantly with his head down.

Zhu Zhanji couldn't bear it, so he asked Wu Cheng to buy it and give it to her personally.

Hu Shanyi was extremely happy: "Thank you, brother. You are so kind."

Hu Shanxiang was very disappointed to see that she was bribed in one go.

"Why did you buy two of these?" Hu Shanxiang asked in confusion.

Zhu Zhanji said: "I also have a younger sister at home. She is young and her parents won't let her go out to play, so I had to leave her there for a while."

"I see. It's a blessing to be your sister."

"Third Miss, you are too kind."

On the way back, Hu Shanxiang was struggling with one thing. Should she say it or not? Would it be too abrupt? But since he gave her a painting and a jade pendant, he must have that intention as well. Would it be too impolite to ask directly? But she didn't know when they would meet next time. If she didn't ask, she didn't know when the next time would be. So she just let it go.

Hu Shanxiang suddenly stopped and covered Hu Shanyi's ears with her hands. Zhu Zhanji saw her suddenly stop and also stopped. Thinking something had happened, he looked at her in confusion.

Hu Shanxiang took a deep breath, encouraged herself in her heart, and said quickly, "Sir, are you willing to marry me?"

"What?" Hu Shanxiang spoke too quickly and Zhu Zhanji didn't hear clearly for a moment. Seeing him like this, Hu Shanxiang made a move to leave, but was held back by Zhu Zhanji.

Zhu Zhanji smiled from ear to ear, his joy was evident in his words: "Did you just ask me if I am willing to marry you?"

"You heard it wrong." Hu Shanxiang regretted it now and immediately argued.

"Impossible, I definitely didn't hear it wrong." Zhu Zhanji said firmly.

"Are you willing to do that?" Hu Shanxiang was desperate. Since things had come to this, she might as well ask for an answer.

Zhu Zhanji could hardly suppress his smile.

Seeing that Zhu Zhanji didn't answer for a long time, Hu Shanxiang thought he was refusing: "I am rude, just pretend you didn't hear it."

Hu Shanxiang struggled to break free, but couldn't: "Please let go, sir."

Zhu Zhanji saw that everyone was about to get angry: "No, why would I not want to? I am willing, I am afraid that you are unwilling, but my family has always said that you should establish a career before starting a family. I am afraid that I have to make a career first before I can marry you."

"There's no rush. I'm still young. Since you've agreed, just come and ask for marriage when the time comes."

"it is good."

After Hu Shanxiang returned, Hu Xuan saw that she was holding a lamp like that and questioned her for a long time, but Hu Shanxiang avoided the questions.

She couldn't sleep in bed at night. She was not the only one who couldn't sleep tonight. Zhu Zhanji, who was far away in the palace, was so happy that he couldn't sleep. He just lay down, then got up, put on his clothes, and walked around the East Palace for most of the night. The people on guard wondered what was wrong with the prince. Others didn't know, but Wu Cheng, who had been with him, knew it clearly. This was the first time that the person he liked expressed his feelings to his prince, and he was so excited that he couldn't sleep. So he came out to calm down.