If not abolished

Zhu Zhanji just came back before the palace was handed over. After leaving Hu's house, he went to the street to buy some things and brought them to his mother. After he came back, he asked someone to deliver them to her.

After returning, Zhu Zhanji's mind was filled with the image of Hu Shanxiang playing Chui Wan in the afternoon. She was lively and wanton, with a bright smile that would make a little girl mad. He never knew she was like this. He remembered that in the second year after he ascended the throne, a Chui Wan competition was held in the palace. At that time, he never heard Shanxiang say that she was so good at Chui Wan. At that time, she just sat there and watched, without showing any interest. Yes, she was never a person who could flatter the superiors. Besides, even if she said she could, would he let her play? He never tried to understand her. Even at that time, he was thinking of various reasons to depose the queen.

Thinking of his previous life, Zhu Zhanji felt a little sad for Hu Shanxiang, and he was even more determined not to depose the queen this time.

Thinking of what Hu Xuan had let slip, Hu Shanwei wanted Shanxiang to enter the palace. If she did, it would be almost impossible for her to become the Crown Prince's Consort in the future. He had to stop this. What should he do?

On the other hand, when Hu Shanwei returned home, he heard from his subordinates that the second master brought a friend to the mansion today and watched the second master and the third girl playing chuiwan on the rockery. After hearing this, Hu Shanwei called his brother over to ask about the situation.

When Hu Xuan was called in front of Hu Shanwei, he was still very nervous, thinking, what should I do if my elder sister knows what happened this afternoon? On the way there, he asked someone to ask his brother if he had come back, and to save him if he did.

After a long while, Hu Xuan appeared in front of Hu Shanwei.

Hu Xuan looked at his elder sister sitting there drinking tea. She looked fine. He breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to sit down next to her.

"Stand still." Hu Shanwei said sternly.

Hu Xuan didn't dare to move, "Big sister."

"What did you do today?" Hu Shanwei did not ask directly, wanting him to explain himself.

"Today is a day off. I promised my third sister that I would play chuiwan with her, so I came back early and played with her for more than an hour. Then I didn't do anything. What happened?" Hu Xuan's voice was a little trembling.

Seeing that he hadn't said anything yet, Hu Shanwei asked again, "Are you alone?"

"Yes, yes." Hu Xuan felt guilty and prayed in his heart that his brother would come back soon.

"determine."

Hu Xuan's clothes were soaked from behind, and he was about to deny it when someone outside said that the master was coming.

Hu An walked in and saw what was happening in the hall. He cursed Hu Xuan in his heart.

Brother, you are finally back, Hu Xuan looked at Hu An and said with his eyes.

Brat, I'll settle the score with you later. Hu An responded with his eyes.

"Since you are here, sit down."

"Yes."

"Sister, can I sit down?" Hu Xuan said in a naughty way.

Hu Shanwei gave him a murderous look and said with a smile, "Tell the truth and sit down, otherwise, you will suffer the consequences."

"I haven't done anything wrong recently!" Hu Xuan said in an innocent tone.

"You're not going to tell me yet, right? Well, let me ask you, who did you bring home this afternoon? And you went in through the side door, like a thief. Hmm?" Hu Shanwei went straight to the point.

"Just a colleague. Friend, come to my house and sit down."

"I'll sit for a while, sit for a while, and then sit on the rockery to watch you and Third Sister play hammer ball." Hu Shanwei heard that he was still quibbling and slammed the table in anger.

"I, I..." Hu Xuan couldn't explain clearly.

Hearing this, Hu An could not help but frown and asked, "Hu Xuan, what do you want to do? Brothers and sisters have not sat together since they were seven years old, and you dare to bring a boy from outside to your home and let him secretly see your third sister. Do you want to ruin your family's reputation? If others know about this, how will your brothers and sisters discuss marriage in the future? Your second sister is still waiting to be married in Jining. If my father and mother find out, they will break your legs."

Hu Xuan was so frightened that his legs went weak and he almost couldn't stand. Only then did he realize the seriousness of the matter and could only stammer, "It was... it was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. His Royal Highness... suddenly said he was coming home and couldn't let anyone know. He also heard that my third sister and I were playing chuiwan, so he... he said he wanted to watch from the side. I... I didn't want to..."

"What? It's His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?" Hu Shanwei said in surprise.

Hu Shanwei and Hu An looked at each other, then at Hu Xuan at the same time. Hu An said, "No matter what, what you did today was wrong. I will punish you by making you kneel in the Buddhist temple for one night."

"Got it." Hu Xuan lowered his head.

After Hu Xuan left, Hu Shanwei and Hu An came to the study and discussed today's events for a long time, but they could not figure out what the Crown Prince wanted to do by doing this?

Hu Shanwei couldn't help but think of the time when the crown prince suddenly went to the Shanggong Bureau and said something without any reason. Not long after, his two younger brothers were selected as young soldiers. Could it be that this time too...

The time is almost up. In a few days, I will go to the Imperial Concubine to ask about the matter of my third sister entering the palace. If the Crown Prince really intends to do something, he should take action. Now we can only wait and see.

Zhu Zhanji stayed awake all night, thinking of all kinds of ways, but couldn't think of any good plan. It would be too easy to arouse suspicion if he interfered in the affairs of a woman outside the palace for no reason. But what if Shanxiang entered the palace?

In the past two days, Wu Cheng clearly felt that the Crown Prince seemed to be troubled by something. Alas, the young master was becoming more and more incomprehensible. As a personal steward, he was unable to share the master's worries. What future did he have? Wu Cheng was extremely worried about his future.

"Your Highness, the Crown Princess told you not to read for too long. You should take a proper rest and take a walk." Wu Cheng reminded.

Zhu Zhanji looked at him sitting there holding a book, but his mind was not on the book. Hearing Wu Cheng's reminder, he put down the book and nodded.

He stood up and said, "Then go and pay your respects to your mother."

"Ah? Now..." Wu Cheng thought, is this the time to pay respects? He looked up at the setting sun. It was really hard to guess what his master was thinking. Life is not easy.

Zhu Zhanji walked quickly and in a short while, he arrived at the main hall of Rouyi Palace.

"The son has met his mother."

"Agui, why are you here at this hour?"

"I came here because I missed my mother."

Sure enough, the Crown Princess was extremely happy after hearing this. Her eldest son had become much closer to her recently, and Zhang was very happy to see this.

"You are so sweet-talking, but don't try to coax your mother, me." The Crown Princess said with a smile.

"How could that be? When has my son ever told a lie? This is the truth."

"it is good."

"Is mother busy?" Zhu Zhanji saw Zhang sitting at the table, seemingly handling some business.

"Yes. There are some palace affairs. If you had come earlier, I would still be at your grandmother's place."

"That son came at the right time." Zhu Zhanji then thought that perhaps the Imperial Concubine could help him prevent Shanxiang from entering the palace.

It was already late, so Zhu Zhanji accompanied the Crown Princess for dinner before leaving.

On the second day, Zhu Zhanji went to pay his respects to Concubine Wang early in the morning.

"Grandson pays respects to grandmother."

"Hurry up and sit down. Agui, you're here so early, but have you eaten yet? Try some of grandma's snacks and see if they suit your taste."

"Hmm, very delicious." Zhu Zhanji took a piece and took a bite and said.

"It's delicious. I'll have someone bring some back for you later."

"Thank you, Grandma."

"Agui, what's the matter with you?"

"Grandson does have a favor to ask." Zhu Zhanji looked at the people around him.

Concubine Wang gave a wink and the head maid took her people out.

"Agui can speak now."

"Actually, it's still related to the Hu family."

"Oh, I am curious about the Hu family. I have only seen Concubine Hu before. I don't know which daughter they have that Agui cares about so much."

"I heard that Lady Hu intends to have the third daughter of the Hu family enter the palace as a female official, so my grandson wants to..."

"Do you want me to cross out her name?" asked Concubine Wang.

"It's best not to participate in the minor election."

"This is a bit difficult to handle. It's not right to prevent people from participating without a reason. Besides, Lady Hu is a female official of the fifth rank. I'm afraid it won't work without a good explanation." Concubine Wang said with some embarrassment.

"Grandson also knows how difficult this matter is, so aren't I here to ask for help from my grandmother?"

"You are so in love with Miss Hu San. You have never even met her, but you are deeply in love with her and think a lot about her. You don't intend to choose her as your principal wife in the future, do you?" Concubine Wang asked tentatively.

"That's indeed what I meant." Zhu Zhanji didn't care about Concubine Wang's test and said the truth.

"This... I heard that the third daughter of the Hu family is only eight or nine years old. His Majesty will definitely choose a concubine for you in a year or two. The third daughter of the Hu family is too young."

"Don't worry about this, grandma. I have already come up with a plan. Besides, how could I not have seen him before? I saw him in a dream before. I saw him at her house a few days ago, and he was exactly the same as in my dream. Grandma, please help your grandma." Zhu Zhanji said coquettishly.

"You, you have your reasons. Your mother was saying a few days ago that the Crown Prince has been worried about the military supplies for His Majesty's frontline. I thought that in order to save money, we should not hold a small selection this year. The people in the palace are enough now, so we can hold a small selection next year. If you still can't come up with a solution after a year, I can't help you."

(Note: The Ming Dynasty palace was divided into two types: the Grand Selection and the Minor Selection. The Grand Selection was generally for the emperor to select his concubines. The Ming Dynasty emperor selected 5,000 concubines from the public. The Minor Selection was generally to fill the vacancies of palace maids, and it could also select concubines. Most of the time, it was for selecting palace maids, and the number of people was relatively small.)

"Thank you, grandma. You are really a kind person." Zhu Zhanji said happily. There is no better way than this.

"That's great. I'm really curious about this Miss Hu. I don't know when Agui will get what he wants. When the time comes, I must let grandma see the person that our Agui has seen in his dream."

"Of course, I'll have to thank my grandmother when the time comes."

"Okay, Grandma is waiting."

Two days later, when Hu Shanwei was reporting palace affairs to Concubine Wang, he told her that he wanted his third sister to participate in the selection.

"Hu Shang Gong, I was just about to tell you that since His Majesty is away at war this year, I have decided not to hold a small selection this year. This way the palace can save some money."

"That's what the Queen said."

After reporting on palace affairs, Hu Shanwei was about to leave but was stopped by Concubine Wang.

"Mrs. Hu, your sister is very lucky, so don't rush into it."

"Yes."