If not abolished

When the ladies who were still in the West Garden heard that they were going to marry in other countries, they immediately became a mess and chattered loudly. They no longer cared how afraid they were of the two aunts. Everyone became uncontrollable and two of them even started crying.

"I don't want to marry into another country, wuwuwuwu..."

"Why are you crying? This is not a place where you can cry. It is not up to you whether you want to get married or not. If you are chosen, it will be a great thing to bring honor to your family. Wipe your tears and hold them back. Otherwise, if the imperial concubine finds out, your family will be implicated and you will suffer." Aunt Yan said when she saw the crying person.

The frightened concubine quickly covered her mouth, trying to hold back her tears and quickly wiped them away.

Everyone else thought that the first bird to stick its head out would be shot, so luckily they didn't make any move first.

"Aunt, aren't there two people in Chuxiu Palace? Why aren't they among the candidates?" Someone suddenly raised an objection. Since they were going to die, the chances of being selected would be smaller if they pulled a few more people.

Others’ inner thoughts: That’s right, he is such a benefactor.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that Miss Chu and Miss Cao did not come to the banquet, so they will not participate." Aunt explained.

Everyone: If they had known something would go wrong they would not have come. They had been planning to attend the banquet in the hope of being noticed by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. But now, they don’t know whether His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is interested in them or not, but they have been noticed by envoys from other countries. How unlucky they are.

"Okay, that's what happened. The Imperial Concubine said that the two of us should take you back to the palace first to prepare for the marriage."

The concubines were all dejected, not having any of the excitement they had when they first arrived.

"Okay, everyone, cheer up, pack your things, and return to the palace in two hours."

"Yes." The concubines did not dare to resist.

As for Concubine Wang, she originally planned to let Zhu Zhanji choose first, otherwise it would be bad if he was chosen by envoys from other countries.

Zhu Zhanji, however, was not interested and said bluntly: "Just choose it, grandson is not in a hurry, just pick one or two at random when the time comes."

"But..." Before Concubine Wang could finish her words, a palace maid came to report that Aunt Ru had arrived. Concubine Wang had no choice but to stop talking and let Aunt Ru in first.

Ru Gu Gu came in and greeted Concubine Wang and Zhu Zhanji.

"Is everything settled?" Concubine Wang said straight to the point.

"I have just informed all the ladies of the matter, but the list of candidates has not been decided yet. I am stupid, so I have come to ask the Imperial Concubine for advice. I wonder what the criteria and rules are for the selection? I can decide according to this." Aunt Ru was also troubled by the selection of candidates.

"You are right. There is no precedent before. It is really difficult to let you choose suddenly." Concubine Wang understood: "This is the standard rule. The envoys are also seeking a marriage for their own princes. Why not follow the standards of ordinary relatives? You are familiar with appearance, virtue, manners and so on."

"I understand." Aunt Ru suddenly understood.

"Don't let anything happen to the concubines during this period of time," Concubine Wang warned.

"I understand." Seeing that it was almost done, Aunt Ru took her leave.

Zhu Zhanji had almost finished talking about the matter with Concubine Wang, and he was ready to go back.

Concubine Wang suddenly stopped him and said, "Wait a minute, I have something else to ask you."

"Grandmother Wang, please speak." Zhu Zhanji sat down again.

"I am the only one in the whole palace who knows who you really want to marry. I don't understand the current situation. You have dealt with Sun. You don't care about those concubines, but Miss Hu San is far away in Jining. You haven't taken any action for the time being. You are really driving me crazy. I wonder what your plans are next." Concubine Wang asked.

"My grandson doesn't know either. Shanxiang ignores me. I sent her things and letters several times, but she ignored me." Zhu Zhanji was also worried. Now that he had dealt with these messy people and things in the palace, he had to think about how to let Shanxiang enter the palace.

"I really don't know what to say about you. You have so many ideas for the Sun couple you don't like, but when you meet the one you like, you don't know what to do at all?" Concubine Wang complained.

Zhu Zhanji thought: If you don’t like someone, you won’t care about their feelings. If you like someone, you will be very cautious and won’t dare to act rashly for fear of scaring the person away.

Just a complaint, Your Highness the Crown Prince, it seems like you have scared people away from a thousand miles away.

"If she ignores you, won't you go to her to show your presence?"

"My grandson can't go to Jining now."

"Well, I'll think of a way." Concubine Wang thought about it and walked around for a few times, and suddenly: "I got it, when the time comes..." Concubine Wang told him the plan in his ear.

"Will this work?" Zhu Zhanji asked doubtfully.

"There will be no problem. His Majesty has always loved you, and now he feels guilty about you because of Zhanqi's matter. I guess he should agree. You just need to do as I say." Concubine Wang said confidently.

"Okay." Zhu Zhanji didn't have any good ideas, so he could only try this.

After Zhu Zhanji left, Concubine Wang whispered, "I will have to step in at the critical moment."

In the afternoon, Zhu Di came to inquire about Zhu Zhanji's situation.

"My beloved, how was your conversation with Agui?" Zhu Di came in anxiously without waiting for anyone to go in and report.

"Your Majesty, why did Your Majesty come in so hastily without waiting for someone to pass on your message?" Concubine Wang was also startled and quickly got up and packed her luggage.

Zhu Di helped her to sit up, "I can't wait any longer, how is Agui, is he okay?"

"Alas," Concubine Wang sighed before she could say anything.

"Is it not so good?" Zhu Di's heart skipped a beat when he saw her expression.

"This... I don't know how to tell Your Majesty." Concubine Wang seemed to have something to hide.

"I'll go and see it myself." Zhu Di was impatient and stood up to go out.

Concubine Wang had seen the fire before, so she quickly grabbed the man and said, "Your Majesty, Agui is in a bad mood right now. Wouldn't it make him feel worse if you went over there?"

"Then what do you say we should do? You can't let a dignified His Royal Highness the Crown Prince become depressed because of a woman, right?" Zhu Zhanji said irritably.

"You care about Agui, and I have always regarded him as my own grandson, and I also care about him." Concubine Wang continued, "Just now, I thought about it and came up with a solution, but I don't know if it is a solution."

"Please speak, my beloved concubine." Zhu Di knew that she was not the kind of person who would give rash advice, so he sat back immediately.

"Now the palace has become Agui's sad place. Whenever Agui stays in the palace, he will think of those little things. Not only that, in the future, he will have to watch the girl he once loved marry his cousin. These things are undoubtedly a pain in Agui's heart. How can Agui be in a good mood for a while? So, I thought, why not let Agui leave the palace to travel for a while, go to the local area to understand the people's sentiments, so that he will not be in the capital, so that he will not think about those things often, and it will also be good to go out and relax. What do you think?"

"What you said makes sense, but if we let Agui go out alone, what if something dangerous happens?" Zhu Di was still a little worried about Zhu Zhanji's safety.

"We will not let Agui go to any dangerous places. We will send more people to accompany him. Besides, when Your Majesty was Agui's age, he was granted the title of King of Yan. It would be good for Agui to go out and gain some experience."

"That's different. I grew up in the army." Zhu Di retorted.

"Okay, since His Majesty thinks it's not possible, then forget it. Let Agui be sad and upset." Concubine Wang said deliberately angrily.

"That's not what I meant. I need to think about this matter more." Zhu Di didn't want his grandson to be unhappy, but this was not something that could be done just by saying it.

"Then Your Majesty, please think about it carefully." Concubine Wang also understood that this could not be accomplished all at once.

Now let’s talk about the concubines. After returning to Chuxiu Palace, each of them looked uglier than the other.

Chu Xuanying was just going out, and when she saw them coming back, she greeted them, "You're back. How was the banquet? Was the performance a success?"

But no one answered her, and several people looked at her unkindly. She asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? I don't know how you got so lucky to escape. Cao Wanyi injured her leg, but you are fine. Why didn't you go to the palace banquet?" The man said, and bumped into Chu Xuanying's shoulder as he walked past her.

Others also ignored her.

Chu Xuanying had no idea what was going on and returned to her room in a daze. Cao Wanyi was reading a book on the bed. When she saw her come back, she called her, but Chu Xuanying ignored her.

"Xuanying, what's wrong with you?" Cao Wanyi had no choice but to raise her voice and call her.

Chu Xuanying finally came back to her senses. "Ah, sister, what did you say?"

"What's wrong with you? Didn't you say you were going out to get some water? Why did you come back looking so distracted? What happened?" Cao Wanyi asked several questions in a row.

"Sister," after Chu Xuanying came to her senses, she immediately walked to the bedside and told Cao Wanyi what had just happened.

"You mean they just came back and said something like that?"

"Yeah, what do you think happened to them?"

"Maybe something happened at the banquet?" Cao Wanyi guessed.

"What could that be?" Chu Xuanying asked.

"Judging from their behavior, it's probably not a good thing, otherwise they wouldn't treat you like this. And they said that you didn't say that Gong Yan escaped, which is even more telling. In order not to offend them, you'd better not go out today if you can," Cao Wanyi suggested.

"Okay, I'll listen to my sister." Chu Xuanying nodded.

"Does it hurt?" Cao Wanyi asked with concern.

"It's okay. I just had a little pain when I was hit. I feel much better now."

"Let's check to see if there are any bruises later."

"Well, it seems that there is nothing good about going to the palace banquet this time."

"Hush, it would be terrible if someone heard you saying that."