Peach Blossom.

Seeing his father's surprised expression, Chen Cuo also leaned over to read the "family letter". The first part was full of greetings and polite words, but the last few sentences were the key points:

"Father, please do not directly write a letter to persuade the emperor to appoint a queen. This will surely anger the emperor and will be counterproductive. It is better to bribe the old guests of Meixiang Pavilion with a large sum of money and spread the story of the singer. Make sure the details are detailed. Then the whole city will know about it and it will become a force to be reckoned with."

After reading it, Chen Cuo couldn't help but smile.

Chen Liang immediately rebuked his son: "What are you laughing at? You should be more respectful when a nobleman writes to you!"

However, Chen Cuo still had that attitude and that smile, "Only your adopted daughter can come up with such an idea!"

"What do you know? Those who achieve great things do not care about trifles! No matter whether the empress is Princess Sirong or Miss Tao, that noble lady Zhang is a noble lady. Why should she work so hard? Isn't she only concerned about the reputation of the emperor? And the country of Chen?" Chen Liang's voice was sonorous and powerful, as if he was praising a great deed.

Chen Cuo just laughed and didn't say anything, "So you plan to listen to her?"

"She was once the top singer in the capital. How many days has she been away from the brothel? Just because she has "amnesia", she thinks she is a decent girl? She wants to rise to fame overnight? How ridiculous!" Chen Liang was full of disdain, and said with certainty: "That Miss Tao is a disaster. She seduced the emperor and confused his mind! No method is too much to deal with her!"

Chen Cuo smiled calmly again: "Why do I feel that Concubine Zhang's skill in bewitching men is not inferior to Miss Tao at all?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Cuo was hit on the head with a hammer.

Then came Chen Liang's stern rebuke: "Mrs. Zhang is pure and righteous, how can you slander her?"

"Okay, just pretend I didn't say anything." Chen Cuo just smiled.

"I have done everything that the Left Prime Minister ordered me to do. I have no right to interfere with what you want to do. But such a bad job..." Chen Cuo flicked his finger on the "family letter" and said with a smile, "Please don't look for me."

After saying that, Chen Cuo bowed to Chen Liang as a gesture of departure and turned to walk towards the back door.

Chen Liang quickly told her: "When you leave this door, keep the "letter" to yourself. Don't mention it to anyone, and don't tell your wife!"

Chen Cuo had already stepped out of the threshold, passed through the back door, and walked towards the backyard.

Chen Liang estimated that Chen Cuo should be able to hear him from this distance, so he ignored it.

He turned around and placed the letter close to the flame on the candlestick, and it burned to ashes in an instant. He then picked up the memorial he had just brought back from outside and browsed through the densely packed signatures on it.

Chen Liang spent a lot of effort to get all these Beijing officials to sign their names. Could it be that he would not submit this memorial just because of Zhang Xiaowan's dissuasion in this letter home?

Even if he was willing to waste his time, he still had to give an explanation to the ministers who signed the document, right? Even if others didn't say anything, Chen Chong would definitely ask him about it in the future.

But he felt that Xiaowan's suggestion made sense. Chen Ji's temper had always been changeable. The long and eloquent memorials from all the civil and military officials in the court might not be more useful than a few rumors!

Chen Liang thought about it and decided that the memorial could not be invalidated. As the head of all officials, this was the most upright way to show loyalty. However, he had to choose the right time.

This time may be when rumors are flying all over the place.

If he openly did those low-class things, not only would Chen Cuo despise him, but Chen Liang would also feel ashamed. What's more, once Chen Ji heard about this, he would probably be in big trouble.

So Chen Liang quietly instructed a few of his most trusted servants to go and find out which previous guests of Meixiangxie had any connection with Tao Ye.

If you don't ask carefully, you won't know. Once you ask, you will find that the number is indeed astonishingly large, and most of these guests are from officials' families or have relatives in officials' families, so they are very suitable for making a big fuss.

More importantly, many of the children of officials tried to take advantage of the situation while buying laughter and listening to music, and the process was naturally unbearable to listen to.

Chen Liang used the gold and silver he had received in bribes to have his servants conceal their identities and secretly bribed the ruffians and beggars in the capital. He spread the stories of Tao Ye's past as a singer on the streets, especially the details about the guests' physical advances, which were told in vivid detail.

Before long, this rumor had spread throughout the city and was heard by palace maids who were out on business, so it was passed back into the palace, becoming more and more outrageous.

At this time, Chen Liang sent a memorial of remonstrance from all the civil and military officials in the court to Chen Ji.

While Tao Ye was walking in the palace, she heard rumors about herself that she had never heard of before.

Under the flower stand, two little palace maids were chatting with gusto.

"Where on earth did he touch Miss Tao?"

"I heard that it was touched here..." The maid laughed and gestured on her body with her hands.

Tao Ye, Cai Ling and others walked behind the flower stand. Upon hearing this, Tao Ye blushed in front of the palace maids.

Before Tao Ye could say anything, Cai Ling cursed first: "You bastard, come out!"

The two little palace maids were startled and hurriedly walked out from in front of the flower stand and knelt together in front of Tao Ye.

Cai Ling scolded again: "Slap your face!"

"Wait a moment." Tao Ye stopped Cai Ling's order and looked at the two maids curiously: "When did you just talk about this?"

The two maids looked at each other, not daring to answer, but had to answer: "It's... it's what happened when the young lady was in Meixiangxie..."

"Meixiangxie? What place is that?" Tao Ye's face was full of confusion and he turned to look at Cai Ling.

Cai Ling had no choice but to tell him: "Meixiangxie is the most famous brothel in the capital."

"Oh...Is that so?" Tao Ye smiled coldly and asked the kneeling maid: "How did you 'hear' about the brothel in the deep palace?"

The maidservant knocked her head to the ground and started crying out of fear: "I didn't mean it... I just heard it from others. They said that people on the street were talking about you..."

Tao Ye remained silent. She already understood that someone outside was deliberately spreading rumors.

At this point, a few rumors can still stump her? Tao Ye turned around and walked towards the Xuanji Palace.

Cai Ling and others hurriedly followed Tao Ye and walked back together.

When she arrived at Xuanji Palace, Tao Ye did not return to her room, but ran straight to the main hall. Without waiting for Zhuo Jin, who was guarding the gate, to react, she kicked the door open.

Inside the hall, Chen Ji, who was sitting at the desk, was startled by the sound of kicking the door. Tao Ye had refused to meet him for many days, and he did not expect that Tao Ye would suddenly and rudely break in.

But he was still happy about Tao Ye's appearance, and he stood up and walked towards Tao Ye, "Tao Ye, you are finally willing to see me?"

Cai Ling and other maids followed Tao Ye and knelt down to salute Chen Ji.

"If the emperor doesn't want to make me the queen, so be it! There's no need to let people ruin my reputation behind my back!" Tao Ye glared at Chen Ji, pouted, and yelled in public.

"What do you mean?" Chen Ji was confused and turned his gaze to Cai Ling behind Tao Ye.

Cai Ling hurriedly informed him, "Your Majesty, there are palace servants in the palace who are making false accusations about Miss Tao's stay at Meixiang Pavilion, saying that they heard rumors from outside the palace, which is extremely unbearable."

Chen Ji was immediately furious when he heard this: "Who is so bold? Beat him to death immediately!"

"Except for the emperor, who else has such courage?" Tao Ye snorted and continued to sneer coldly: "It's obvious that the emperor wants to enthrone Princess Si Rong as the queen, but he can't report it to me, so he asked people to say something and deliberately let me hear it so that I will retreat!"

"How could I do such a thing? What kind of logic is this?" Chen Ji was speechless.

Tao Ye, however, seemed to have confirmed the source of the rumor, and just accused Chen Ji of all sorts of crimes: "Why am I illogical? Why didn't there exist such rumors before I mentioned the idea of ​​establishing the queen? Why are there rumors everywhere now? Isn't the purpose of these rumors to prevent me from becoming the queen?"

Chen Ji looked at Tao Ye helplessly and promised earnestly: "I understand. I will find out where the rumor came from. Please don't accuse me casually, okay?"

Tao Ye still yelled in dissatisfaction: "If I had known this would happen, I would not have wanted the position of Queen! Now that people are saying that I did this and that with other men, how can I leave the palace and get married in the future?"

"What do you mean by 'leaving the palace and getting married'? You can only marry me!" Chen Ji shouted at Tao Ye in an emphatically tone.

Tao Ye acted furious and roared at Chen Ji even louder: "The Emperor doesn't want me to be the Queen, nor does he want me to marry someone else, so he uses such despicable means to force me to be a concubine who can be bullied by others?"

Chen Ji was almost stunned by this inexplicable accusation. He looked at Tao Ye weakly and didn't know how to explain.

"I'm telling you, I won't do it! If you force me again, I'll just die!" Tao Ye said, walked forward angrily, and pushed Chen Ji away.

Chen Ji was caught off guard and his lower back hit the corner of the table, causing him to grimace in pain.

Tao Ye was still angry and turned away.

"Tao Ye, it really wasn't me..." Chen Ji put his hand on the table and watched Tao Ye leave the main hall.

The maids all followed in a hurry, only Cai Ling looked back at Chen Ji with a little worry in her eyes, but she still quickly followed.

Zhuo Jin hurried over to support Chen Ji and asked in fear, "Your Majesty... Your Majesty, are you okay? Do you want to summon the imperial physician?"

"No need..." Chen Ji held his waist with one hand and pressed the table with the other, and slowly walked back to his seat.

Zhuo Jin helped Chen Ji sit down and quickly rubbed Chen Ji's waist.

Chen Ji endured the pain and picked up the memorial handed to him by Chen Liang from the table.

Before Tao Ye came in, he was reading a memorial from the ministers advising against the appointment of a queen. The memorial was full of affirmation and praise for Si Rong, which made him very unhappy. He didn't expect Tao Ye to suddenly come in and make a scene, which made him feel even more aggrieved.

"Who on earth is so bold that he dares to openly slander my Tao Ye?" Chen Ji muttered to himself, checking the signatures of officials one by one at the end of the memorial.

After looking through them one by one, he found that, except for Ma Da, almost all the officials in the capital seemed to be on the list. So many people were against making Tao Ye the queen, how could he find the source of the rumor?

He lowered his head again and saw Secretary Chen's name on the memorial. He suddenly remembered that Secretary Chen was always the best at finding out gossip.

Chen Ji immediately ordered Zhuo Jin: "Send Secretary Chen here."

Later, Secretary Chen came to Xuanji Palace.

Chen Ji sat on a chair, holding the memorial of joint remonstration, and asked Chen Mi indignantly: "You are also against my making Tao Ye the empress?"

Secretary Chen hurriedly knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. My teacher asked me to write my name on it. I cannot disobey my teacher's order, so I have no choice but to agree."

Chen Ji sneered: "Master... are you talking about Chen Chong?"

"Exactly."

Chen Ji nodded and asked again: "I heard that rumors about Tao Ye are spreading everywhere. Do you know?"

Secretary Chen replied with some embarrassment: "Your Majesty...I have heard about it too."

"Then do you know who spread the rumor?"

"I don't know about this yet."

"Didn't you say that if you use your heart, you will be well-informed? I want to know who is slandering Tao Ye behind the scenes. Please help me find out."

Secretary Chen bowed his hands and smiled, saying, "Your Majesty, please calm down. There are ways to investigate. However, the person who can do such a thing is either loyal to you or loyal to Princess Si Rong. If you find out, do you really want to punish him?"

Chen Ji hesitated for a moment and did not respond immediately. The Chen Kingdom was newly established and its foundation was not stable. The whole court was full of meritorious officials. How could they be convicted casually?

Moreover, the punishment must be in accordance with the law. The so-called "rumor-mongering" is actually difficult to establish. It is true that Tao Ye worked as a singer in Mei Xiang Xie, and it is also true that she was pursued by male guests. The rumor-mongers are at most exaggerating. If they are punished for this, it will only make Tao Ye's reputation worse!

Thinking of this, Chen Ji couldn't help but frown.

Secretary Chen smiled and said, "If the emperor just hates rumors, then... as long as Meixiangxie disappears, how long can the rumors about Meixiangxie spread?"

"Hmm?" Chen Ji suddenly didn't understand, looked up at Secretary Chen, and said, "Speak clearly."

Across the table, Secretary Chen said softly: "Your Majesty, didn't you ask me to investigate Boss Shen last time? I found something strange..."