The stupid son of Chongba

Chapter 5: Swear
That night, Zhu Ju's room was brightly lit.

Three people were sitting, and the rest were standing sideways with their bodies slightly bowed.

Snapped!
"It's either radish and cabbage, or green vegetables and tofu. You idiots are giving us this to eat? Do you really think we are vegetarians?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the food that was served and became annoyed again, and started to yell at the Taoist priests.

Taoist priests: "!!!"

"Your Majesty, we are a lineage that practices Quanzhen and are all vegetarians, so the kitchen did not prepare any meat."

The thin Taoist priest had a bitter look on his face, and explained with his hands clasped in his hands.
"Besides, it's very inconvenient to travel in the mountains. The nearest market is 20 to 30 miles away. It's really too late..."

A good cook cannot cook without rice. You can't ask them to go hunting in the mountains, right?

"Oh, you are really good at finding excuses, and you are very eloquent."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered and swept his eyes over the Taoists, frightening them even more. They all trembled and dared not say a word.

"Okay, Chongba, please stop making things difficult for these Taoist priests."

Ma Xiuying picked up a piece of tofu and put it into her mouth, then said,

"What he said makes sense. After all, this is in the mountains. The conditions are not as good as those in the capital. Where can we get any delicacies?"

"It's not easy to prepare this vegetarian feast. When we were in hard times, we didn't eat much radish and cabbage, did we? Let's think of it as a reminder of the past."

After chewing it for a while, she suddenly raised her eyebrows, picked up the chopsticks and picked up another piece for Zhu Ju, and said with a smile:

"This tofu is fried in sesame oil and it has quite a bit of flavor. Come here, Xiaojuzi, and try it."

Zhu Ju hummed, picked up a few more dishes with his chopsticks, and started chewing them with great relish.

He is a foodie and wants to try anything delicious. His favorite meat is pork elbow, and his favorite vegetarian food is tofu.

Ma Xiuying's words, accompanied by Zhu Ju's slurping sound, also helped to dispel the oppressive atmosphere in the room. All the Taoists looked at her with gratitude.

Your Majesty, you are so kind!

"Humph! Do you think we are just dissatisfied with the food?"

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly.

"I come from a poor family, so it's okay for me to have a vegetarian meal, but I'm not happy with these stinky idiots, so I don't like anything about them!"

"At that time, the child's mouth was crooked and his eyes were slanted, and blood was flowing from his mouth. It was a matter of life and death! We really had no other choice, so we agreed to let that old bastard Peng Xuan take the child away and send him to be a Taoist priest."

"At first he said the child would recover in three years, and I believed his lies and obeyed him. I also allocated funds to repair the mountain roads and Taoist temples in Sanqing Mountain. The Sanqing Palace and the Dragon and Tiger Hall, which one was not funded by the court? The Ming Dynasty was founded not long ago, and the treasury was tight, but I gave money without hesitation. This treatment is also generous, right?"

"But three years later, he said it would take another three years! Well, three years is three years. Out of trust in him, I agreed, hoping that the child would regain his intelligence one day. Haha, but how did he do it? How did you do it?!"

boom!
When Old Zhu said this, he was so angry that he stood up and slammed the table!
There was a loud bang, like a thunderclap, which frightened the Taoists so much that their hearts skipped a beat!

"Yunyou, if he didn't cure my son, what right does he have to travel around! Does he really think I'm a sucker?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang glared and scolded,

"And you bastards! How did you take care of the child when he fell into the water and nearly drowned? For something like this to happen, it shows how careless you are in your daily care!" "My poor child has suffered so much at your hands, and endured so much inhuman torture! I will settle accounts with you for every single thing!"

Old Zhu became angrier as he spoke, and at this point he already had the intention to kill!
Ma Xiuying had been married to him for many years, so she naturally noticed his emotional changes. She quickly stood up and massaged his back, saying:
"Chongba, don't get yourself hurt by being angry. Sit down for a while and have some tea. I'll teach them a lesson for you."

Hu Chi.

Zhu Yuanzhang let out two heavy breaths from his nostrils. After Ma Xiuying's repeated consolations, he reluctantly sat down and took a sip of tea.

At this moment, the Taoists had already been frightened by the emperor's pressure and had prostrated themselves on the ground. Apart from trembling in fear, they could not utter a word.

Ma Xiuying turned her gaze towards them and raised her hand:

"Don't kneel down, stand up and answer the question."

The Taoists dared not stand up and continued to kneel on the ground.

"Right and wrong will be judged by the public. I will give you a fair judgment."

Ma Xiuying said in a deep voice,

"If you were just careless for a moment, and now the emperor has turned a disaster into a blessing, I won't blame you."

"But if you are careless or harbor evil intentions, then I tell you, my punishment will be even heavier than your majesty's!"

"Please explain yourself. I'll only give you one chance."

The merciful Queen's tone was still gentle, but at this moment her aura was even greater than that of the Emperor.

Even Zhu Ju stopped eating and looked at his mother.

Swish!
The thin Taoist priest quickly stood up and said earnestly:

"Empress, the young prince's falling into the water was definitely not intentional on the part of our disciples. It was indeed a momentary negligence!"

"I swear to the Three Pure Ones that since the little prince came to the Three Pure Ones Mountain, we have all treated him like the apple of our eye. We hold him in our hands for fear of him breaking, and hold him in our mouths for fear of him melting! All the best things are used to support the little prince first!"

"In order to make the little prince happy and wise, Master and we have really tried every possible way! We have used all the methods that can be used. Although Master went out this time, he was actually going to look for a way. But we dare not tell His Majesty the truth..."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but snort coldly.

"As for the young prince falling into the water, we also find it very bizarre... Normally, the young prince doesn't like to move around and won't go out, but he went out that day and walked two or three miles to the lotus pond."

The thin Taoist priest had a complicated expression and said,
"It just so happened that there was a big Dharma Assembly that day, and everyone was there to do the Dharma. That's why no one was watching, which led to the accident. This is really..."

What a disaster!
Who would have thought that a mentally retarded child who could not move and could not take care of himself could run three miles alone? And even fell into the pond!
It’s really...unbelievable!
"Fortunately, two Taoist children who were responsible for cleaning the mountain road happened to pass by and rescued the little prince who fell into the water. Otherwise, we would have really committed a heinous crime..."

When the thin Taoist priest said this, he suddenly stretched out three fingers and said with great determination,
"Empress, everything I said is true! If we say that it was due to a moment of negligence that the young prince almost drowned, we cannot shirk this responsibility, we accept it!"

"But to say that we neglected or even tortured the little prince, this is absolutely impossible! If we did this, even just once, we would be struck by lightning from heaven!"

Wow!
As soon as these words came out, all the Taoists stood up, stretched out three fingers, and said in unison:

"I swear! If I tell even a single lie, we will be struck by lightning and all of our ancestors will be banished to the back of Mount Yin, and we will never be able to be reborn!"

(End of this chapter)