Princess Promotion

Fu Hongxuan arrested Zhou Chengxi and immediately went to the palace to meet the emperor.

However, Eunuch Feng told him that Yao Chuguang had left the palace, so Fu Hongxuan had no choice but to take the tied-up Zhou Chengxi to the imperial study to wait for Yao Chuguang.

When I walked into the imperial study, I saw Zhou Mingrui sitting at a small desk, writing and drawing seriously with a small brush.

I don’t know if it was because he was too serious, but Zhou Mingrui didn’t look up the whole time and was immersed in his own world.

Fu Hongxuan didn't bother to interrupt or talk to them, but just found a chair, sat there and closed his eyes in thought.

A strange scene appeared in the imperial study. Zhou Mingrui was quietly doing his homework at the desk, Fu Hongxuan was sitting quietly with his eyes closed, and Zhou Chengxi was quietly crawling while tied up.

There were clearly three living people in the imperial study, but no one made a sound, as if the mute button had been pressed.

The one who broke the quiet scene was Yao Chuguang. She was holding a candied haws in her left hand and a small clay figurine in her right hand, and she walked slowly into the imperial study.

Three pairs of eyes in the hall turned to Yao Chuguang. Yao Chuguang walked up to Fu Hongxuan, pointed at Zhou Chengxi lying on the ground, and asked, "It's fine if you tied him up, but why did you gag him?"

Fu Hongxuan said nothing and went forward to pick the cloth out of Zhou Chengxi's mouth. After a burst of dry heaves, the first words Zhou Chengxi said were: "You bunch of traitorous bastards..."

Yao Chuguang looked at Fu Hongxuan and asked, "How long has he been cursing?"

Fu Hongxuan: "I don't know. I silenced him the moment I caught him."

Yao Chuguang nodded, took a bite of the candied haws in his hand, handed the clay figurine in his other hand to Zhou Mingrui and said, "How's your homework going?"

Zhou Mingrui looked up and saw the little clay figure. His eyes lit up and he nodded, "It's done."

Zhou Mingrui suddenly spoke, causing Fu Hongxuan to involuntarily look at the little clay figure twice more. Only then did he realize that it was actually a monkey wearing animal skin clothes.

He peeked at Zhou Mingrui's homework again and found that he knew every word in it, but he couldn't understand the combination of them. It seemed like he was studying arithmetic, so he asked curiously, "What is he learning?"

Yao Chuguang: "Advanced mathematics."

Since Yao Chuguang taught Zhou Mingrui mathematics, he discovered that Zhou Mingrui had extremely high mathematical talent.

He mastered knowledge in just a few days that would take ordinary people several years to learn, and he was particularly good at mental arithmetic.

I don’t know if it’s because he suddenly developed a skill, but since Zhou Mingrui got into mathematics, he has become obsessed with it and is calculating all the time.

Seeing Zhou Mingrui guarding him day and night, Yao Chuguang couldn't help but ask him to give him questions to do!

This child used to have no other interests or hobbies except daydreaming. Now he is crazy about mathematics. It is not good to be biased towards one subject. We need to find a way to divert his attention.

Yao Chuguang thought about it and decided that telling stories might be a good idea. Increasing Zhou Mingrui's communication with the outside world would be beneficial to his condition.

As for what story to tell, the only long story Yao Chuguang can remember now is Journey to the West.

Yao Chuguang thought that no child could resist that monkey, and it turned out that Zhou Mingrui really liked that monkey brother.

Fu Hongxuan pointed at the monkey clay figurine and asked, "What is this?"

Yao Chuguang and Fu Hongxuan chatted as if nothing had happened while Zhou Chengxi was cursing, completely ignoring Zhou Chengxi.

If someone paid attention, they might be able to curse each other back and forth, but if there was only one person, it would be difficult to persist. Zhou Chengxi's cursing became quieter and quieter.

Zhou Mingrui played with the little clay figurine for a while, then looked up at the candied haws in Yao Chuguang's hand. Yao Chuguang was unmoved and took another bite of the hawthorn.

Fu Hongxuan couldn't stand it anymore and said, "Give him a few!"

Yao Chuguang then handed the last remaining candied haws to Zhou Mingrui. Zhou Mingrui opened his small mouth and leaned closer to the candied haws that he had been staring at for a long time.

"Zhou Mingrui, if you still have any dignity, you are not allowed to eat that woman's food." Zhou Chengxi suddenly burst into anger and roared.

Zhou Mingrui shrank back and lowered his head silently.

Seeing this, Yao Chuguang opened his mouth and ate the last candied haws and said, "It's not that I don't want to give it to you, it's your brother who won't let you eat it."

Fu Hongxuan... complained in his heart, how old is he and still fighting with kids for food.

Yao Chuguang slapped Zhou Mingrui on the head, turned around and looked at Zhou Chengxi, who was lying on the ground in a mess, and asked, "Have you scolded enough? If not, scold me some more. We'll go have dinner first."

Zhou Chengxi...what a twist.

Zhou Chengxi felt deeply powerless. What on earth did this woman want to do?

Could it be that the woman wanted to recruit him to show her kindness and appease the people and officials of the Western Zhou Dynasty?

Fu Hongxuan asked what Zhou Chengxi wanted to ask: "Are we really not going to kill him and eradicate the problem completely?"

Zhou Chengxi's whole body froze. Even though he had told himself countless times to be prepared to die heroically, he was only a twelve-year-old boy after all and could not face death calmly.

Yao Chuguang said as a matter of course: "This is five hundred thousand taels of silver. It's just a few curses. It's no big deal."

Fu Hongxuan nodded in understanding and said, "I was the one who captured Zhou Chengxi, so I will be responsible for all matters related to Zhou Chengxi's ransom."

Yao Chuguang said: "How can we trouble General Fu with such a small matter? Eunuch Feng can just hand over the ransom."

Fu Hongxuan shook his head and said with a righteous look, "Sharing the worries of His Majesty is my duty. It's not hard work at all."

Yao Chuguang's face turned stern and he said, "General Fu, you don't trust me. How can I, the emperor, covet such a small amount of ransom?"

Fu Hongxuan looked at Yao Chuguang and nodded, "Yes."

Yao Chuguang...he really guessed it right.

Now think about it, when Yao Chuguang mentioned 500,000 taels of silver, Fu Hongxuan believed it without even asking any questions.

It turned out that this guy was waiting for her here. If Fu Hongxuan paid the ransom, then the extra ransom could be embezzled.

Yao Chuguang couldn't help but wonder why he had become so shrewd and harder to fool.

Yao Chuguang laid his cards on the table: "You're right, Zhou Chengxi's ransom is one million taels of silver."

Fu Hongxuan was almost so angry that he laughed. This woman was really evil, even like a black shop.