Deep Palace Pet Peach Blossom Flawless

Lan Qingwu stayed in the imperial camp for another day and night before Emperor Shenwu let her return to his own camp.

That afternoon, Gao Lanyan came to the tent to pay her a visit. The two of them got together, and the serving palace servants retreated to the entrance of the tent.

Gao Lanyan smiled brightly: "I came here yesterday. The palace maids who stayed behind said that the noble lady was accompanying the emperor, so I had no choice but to come again today."

Lan Qingwu smiled faintly: "Since we are alone, I will call you Lanlan and you can call me Qingqing."

Gao Lanyan clapped her hands and smiled, "Very good."

Lan Qingwu looked at her and said, "You are as lively as I thought you were. You don't look as frail as I thought you would be when you were little."

Gao Lanyan said: "It's all thanks to the method you told me in the letter, which allowed me to dance more and find something I like. Otherwise, if I had just listened to what the people around me said and not been allowed to leave the house for ten days or half a month, I wouldn't be so healthy. But you, you were in good health as a child, but you fell seriously ill when you were about to come of age, and now you look weak too." She frowned.

Lan Qingwu could only smile bitterly in his heart, "Let's not talk about this anymore. Don't you have a three-year-old daughter? Why don't you bring her here?"

Gao Lanyan said: "I'll bring her over to show you next time. She's at the age of being naughty now." Although she said this, a gentle smile appeared on her face.

Her expression straightened slightly before she continued, "What about Lin Shaojie? I heard in your letter that you carefully selected a reliable man, but in the end, the engagement was just a verbal one. You were left waiting for several years, and then he broke off the engagement right after he passed the imperial examination. I'm starting to doubt if this is the same person you're talking about!"

Lan Qingwu: "..." It's definitely not the same person. She wrote to Lanlan and told her that it was Yun Heng, but later it was Lin Shaojie who took charge of the family. She had never met this Lin Shaojie. She couldn't tell Lanlan this.

She sighed softly, "My family was wrong. They thought his family had a rule against taking concubines... Let's not talk about him anymore. It's not worth it. Let's talk about something else."

The two of them whispered again, talking about the Qingciyuan they had founded in the imperial city.

In the imperial camp, Jiang Qi, Qian Hui, Wei Yanting, Prince Ding, and others were all gathered. Rongguogong's son, Jiang Qi, was reporting the mad horse incident to Emperor Shenwu: "The horse did take the drug that made it mad. But nothing unusual has happened at the stables. The palace servants who look after the horses have checked one by one and found nothing. Besides, the various concubines in the harem went to the stables to select and inspect horses..."

Emperor Shenwu's eyes darkened. "Who in the harem has been to the horse farm? Who has been there the most?"

Jiang Qi said, "Empress Chen, Concubine Liang, Lady Li, Lady Li, and Lady Wei. Of these, Concubine Liang and Lady Li have been there the most. Concubine Liang comes from a family of military commanders, and Lady Li has been practicing horseback riding lately."

Emperor Shenwu was in deep thought. It sounded like there was nothing wrong. Qian Hui checked the people coming and going, but found nothing.

"Li Xiang, King Zhao'an and King Kang." Emperor Shenwu said expressionlessly.

Prince An and Prince Kang were brought to the imperial camp, dripping wet. They had been held in buckets of cold water to sober up, but now, sober and trembling, they knelt on the ground in the camp. The other ministers had already left the tents, leaving only Prince Ding behind. It was best not to meddle in the emperor's family affairs.

The two men saluted Emperor Shenwu. Prince An looked a little ashamed, while Prince Kang looked flustered.

Emperor Shenwu said coldly, "Are you sober?"

Prince An felt ashamed and dared not say anything more: "Your Majesty, please punish me."

Prince Kang felt a dull pain in his chest and fell to the ground, saying, "Your Majesty, I beg your Majesty to punish me, but I never meant to offend you. Please, for my father's sake, forgive me this time."

Emperor Shenwu's face was as gloomy as water: "Father? You still have the nerve to mention father? If it weren't for father, I would have locked you up in the clan house long ago! Let you know, there have been piles of memorials impeaching you, and I suppressed them all for you. Let me ask you, why were you two drinking in the outer camp?" The prince had his own tent, which was close to the outer camp and was not the tent where the prince lived at all.

Finally, Emperor Shenwu confined the two men to their respective tents, and continued to confine them in his own palace after returning to the imperial city. Afterwards, he said to Prince An: "Have you ever taken care of the three children your late wife left you? You are drunk all day long. How long has it been since you paid your respects to the Queen Mother?" He has not fulfilled his responsibilities as a father, nor has he been filial as a son. Just because his right hand is disabled, he can't do anything else?

Prince An was filled with shame and kept silent with his head bowed. Emperor Shenwu was annoyed by them and waved his hand to let them leave.

Lan Qingwu then met up with her third aunt, Shen, who brought along her seventh and eighth daughters, twelve and eleven respectively. After exchanging pleasantries, she handed the letters to the two teachers to her third aunt, asking her to mail them. She also prepared gifts for her third uncle, aunt, and the other brothers and sisters of the Lan family.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Third Lady Lan looked at Lan Qingwu and said, "There's one more thing. Fourth Miss Lan Qingtong has reached the age of marriage. Second sister-in-law wrote to say that she wants to bring Fourth Miss to the Imperial City."

Lan Qingwu looked at Madam Lan San and said, "The human relations in the imperial city are complicated. Although our Lan family knows some people, our foundation is shallow. How can we find a good family?"

Mrs. Lan shook her head and said, "That's what I told your Third Uncle as well. Let your Third and Second Uncles discuss this matter."

Lan Qingwu pondered for a moment and then said, "Surely you're not pinning your hopes on someone like me, who has a similarly shallow foundation in the harem?"

Lan Qingwu put the tea lid on the teacup and made a crisp sound, "If that's the case, please ask Aunt San to tell Uncle San to refuse directly." Lan Qingtong is really ambitious.

The autumn hunt lasted for nearly a month and was finally coming to an end. On the fifth day of October, a long caravan headed towards the imperial city.

Lan Qingwu finally returned to Suowu Palace. Second-class maids Ruyan and Ruyue had kept the palace in perfect order, having been suggested by Ruping. Lan Qingwu asked Ruping to reward them as usual.

Ru Ping left Suo Wu Palace for a stroll and returned to report to Lan Qing Wu: "Master, during my time away from the palace, something serious happened. Concubine Lin had a miscarriage. Several concubines were present at the time, including Concubine Wen and Concubine Bai Shu. Concubine Lin somehow fell and immediately experienced bleeding. Your Majesty must have received the news during the autumn hunt."

Lan Qingwu frowned slightly. "They were probably less than three months pregnant at the time, right? So they all went to enjoy the flowers?"

Ru Ping nodded. "Later, I heard that Bai Shuren seemed frightened and stayed indoors. Wen Guiren also came out less often. I heard that Lin Cairen was shocked and bedridden."

Lan Qingwu remained silent. There must be quite a few such incidents in the harem.

Two days later, Lan Qingwu took Ruping to the Goldfish Pavilion to feed the fish. They chose a small path where they would hardly run into anyone. Lan Qingwu sat on the stone steps, watching the fish swim around, sometimes gathering together, sometimes dispersing.

Suddenly Ruping leaned forward and said, "Master, this is Lady Wen."

Lan Qingwu looked up and saw Concubine Wen coming towards her. She frowned slightly. This place was sparsely populated. Was he coming for her?