Ming: I am fake, walking on thin ice

Chapter 296 The Demon Queen’s face flushed: You’re lucky

Zhang Mansion, which is the former Duke of England Mansion.

Today, the lights are on because it is the wedding of the young master Zhang Lun. Although the title of the old Duke of England Zhang Fu has been stripped, his family's reputation and the emperor's favor have not diminished, but have become more prominent in the court and the country, just like a warm sun in winter, shining through the cold wind.

Inside and outside the mansion, there were lanterns and colorful decorations, red silk hanging high, and the golden splendor revealed an indescribable joy and solemnity. On both sides of the gate, a pair of finely carved dragon and phoenix lanterns stood tall, with flickering candlelight. Under the corridor, various flowers competed with each other in beauty, gorgeous and dazzling, as if foreshadowing the future prosperity of the Zhang family.

There was an endless stream of guests, all of whom were prominent figures in the capital, including princes, nobles, important officials in the court, and even envoys from afar, all dressed in gorgeous clothes and smiling, gathering here. Gifts piled up like mountains, including gold, silver, jewelry, and rare antiques, all of which demonstrated the power and status of the Zhang family.

However, amidst this festive splendor, there was also an undercurrent that was not easily detected. Deep inside the palace, Concubine Xian frowned, and occasionally cast a look at the guests, mixed with a bit of worry and vigilance. She knew very well that although the Zhang family was blessed by the emperor, a big tree attracts the wind, and the fact that the old British dukedom was stripped of his title made things even more subtle and complicated inside and outside the family. Today's grand occasion was both an honor and a test. If you were not careful, you might end up in trouble.

Zhang Mao, the current head of the Zhang family, seemed to be unaware of the undercurrents and was very proud of himself. His daughter was a virtuous concubine, and his son was getting married today, marrying the daughter of the Wuding Marquis Guo family.

The Zhang family is the richest family in Beijing.

"Father, I won't go out to meet the guests." Concubine Xian said, "Some of those gifts are too expensive. I think you still have to deal with them."

"It's normal to accept gifts at a wedding." Zhang Mao waved his hand, "I know my limits. I'm an honest official, and I won't accept even a penny that I shouldn't."

The virtuous concubine did not continue to persuade him, but asked: "Isn't Grandpa back yet?"

Zhang Mao sighed helplessly: "Your grandfather is very stubborn and he just won't leave the military academy. Forget it, let the newlyweds go to the military academy to pay him a visit later."

Xianfei nodded slightly, thinking that it was better for Grandpa not to show up, as it would be awkward to meet those old friends. After all, he was stripped of his title.

"Master, the imperial edict has arrived." The butler came over hurriedly.

Zhang Mao hurried to the front hall and took the guests to greet the imperial edict. The eunuch who delivered the edict strode into the hall, followed by palace maids and eunuchs, carrying several large boxes of gifts.

The eunuch's loud voice fell:

"Major General Zhang Lun is a man of great talent, both civil and military, loyal to the country, and has made many outstanding achievements. He is truly my right-hand man and a pillar of the country. Today is the day when Zhang Lun is getting married. The bride is the daughter of the Guo family, the Marquis of Wuding. She is beautiful and intelligent, talented and virtuous, gentle and virtuous, and is truly a perfect match.

I am very pleased, and I have specially bestowed upon you some gold, silver, and jewels as a token of my congratulations and commendation. I wish you and your spouse to live in harmony, build a loving nest together, and have many children.

Admire this! "

The guests were secretly shocked. The emperor was really good to the Zhang family. Not only was the wedding arranged by the court, but His Majesty also gave special rewards.

……

At the wedding, in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Qizhen was also summoning important guests.

They were a group of guests who had just returned from Southeast Asia. Many of them were already gray-haired, but there were also some young ones. They all knelt in the hall, with curiosity and nervousness in their eyes. The leader was a young man who was full of vigor and had an innate noble air.

"Your Majesty has arrived~"

Zhu Qizhen walked out of the side hall, and all the people kneeling in the main hall bowed to him: "Your Majesty, long live your Majesty."

"Stand up." Zhu Qizhen raised his hand.

He sat down on the dragon chair, glanced at everyone in the hall, and said, "Come here, give seats to Cheng Ji, Yang Yingneng, Ye Xixian, Niu Jingxian, Zheng Qia, Wang Zi, Liao Ping and others."

The eunuchs brought chairs and placed them behind the elderly people in the hall, asking them to sit down. If Emperor Taizong were still alive, he would be furious when he saw these people.

Because they were all important officials of Jianwen, and disappeared with Jianwen. Decades later, these people were already gray-haired. Zhu Qizhen looked at them and said, "Don't be so reserved, go home. I have already issued an edict that there are no restrictions on your descendants, and those who should enter the government can do so."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace." They bowed again.

The young man at the head was not given a seat, and a sharp look flashed across his eyes. Zhu Qizhen seemed not to notice him, and continued to talk with the old men.

After a while, the old men left, leaving only the young man in the hall. Zhu Qizhen then looked at him and smiled: "Zhu Zunyuan, we are of the same generation."

It turned out that this young man was the grandson of Zhu Yunwen. Zhu Qizhen issued an edict to pardon the Jianwen clan, so Zhu Zunyuan brought these old people who followed Jianwen to Southeast Asia back to the Ming Dynasty.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace." Zhu Zunyuan bowed respectfully, "I can finally return to my clan."

Zhu Qizhen smiled slightly and said, "I will confer upon you the title of Prince of Run. Now you will settle down in the capital and then go to Fengyang to worship your ancestors."

"Yes, sir." Zhu Zunyuan had tears in his eyes.

Zhu Qizhen chatted with him for a long time before he left the hall.

……

The emperor rewarded Zhu Zunyuan with a prince's mansion, but when Zhu Zunyuan came out of the palace, he did not go back directly to the prince's mansion, but came to the Chamber of Commerce's hall.

He was led by a maid to a private room. There were already two women drinking tea in the room, they were Roujia and Xiyao. Roujia saw Zhu Zunyuan, stood up and saluted: "Greetings, Your Highness."

"Roujia, I haven't seen you for many years. You are more beautiful now." Zhu Zunyuan chuckled and reached out to touch Roujia's face. Roujia took a step back and cleverly dodged.

Zhu Zunyuan smiled coldly: "Are you all going to hide from me?"

Xiyao's cold voice came: "Zhu Zunyuan, be honest, this is not Nanyang."

"Haha." Zhu Zunyuan walked up to Xiyao and said, "Little sister, you are here too. What's the matter? Do you still want to control me, your big brother?"

Xiyao stood up, her eyes like knives: "Next, I will arrange for you to leave the capital as soon as possible and settle down in Fengyang."

"Why?" Zhu Zunyuan was furious.

"Humph, this is an order." Xiyao said fiercely, "I warn you, don't cause trouble during your time in the capital. I will send people to your palace. If you cause trouble, you can forget about leaving."

Zhu Zunyuan instantly became flattering: "Okay, okay, I'll listen to you. Who made those old men believe in you? No wonder they all said you can become Wu Zetian."

"Shut up!" Xiyao shouted angrily.

Zhu Zunyuan shrugged, sat down, drank a cup of tea and asked: "Has Ning Rongrong not sent any letters recently? How is she? How about this, if you think I'm in the way, send me to Japan?"

Xiyao smiled coldly, pointed at Roujia, and said in a deep voice: "She and the Ning family are both the emperor's women. Don't dream about it, otherwise, if something goes wrong, everyone will die."

"Is that so?" A fierce look flashed in Zhu Zunyuan's eyes.

……

Sunchon University.

The winter sun finally warmed up a lot. Today, the campus was very lively because the Ming Emperor Zhu Qizhen came in person to do an experiment.

If a 20-jin iron ball and a 5-jin iron ball are dropped from a building at the same time, which one will hit the ground first? Most people, including Western students, believe that the heavier one will hit the ground first. This is because Aristotle said that the speed of an object falling is proportional to its weight. For more than a thousand years, people have believed this.

As a time traveler, Zhu Qizhen wanted to conduct this experiment, so of course he knew the result, because more than a hundred years later, a man named Galileo conducted this experiment.

He is doing experiments today to inspire the thinking of university students.

The school had made the corresponding preparations early in the morning, and when Zhu Qizhen arrived, the experiment began. To everyone's surprise, the two iron balls landed at the same time.

At first, everyone thought it was an experimental error, but after ten consecutive experiments, all of which landed at the same time, everyone accepted the result in amazement.

"Incredible, they landed at the same time."

"His Majesty, the great Ming Emperor, how would he know? My God, he is a physicist."

"I'll record it and send it back to Europe."

After the experiment, Zhu Qizhen gave a speech, encouraging young students to be skeptical and actively explore. He also hoped that this experiment would spread to Europe, so that more talents from there would come to the Ming Dynasty.

Sunchon University aims to become the strongest university in the world. Its goal is to spread the university's atmosphere and attract more talents.

Of course, there is also the wisdom of the Ming Emperor.

……

After the experiment, Zhu Qizhen did not return to the palace, but went to the city gate to see Zhang Lun off. Today Zhang Lun was going back to the southeast, where he was needed.

The two walked on the road outside the city. Zhu Qizhen smiled and said, "This time we are going to expand the navy. I told you that we need a good navy to fight for supremacy in the future." "Your Majesty, rest assured. I understand." Zhang Lun bowed and said, "Build a truly invincible fleet. I will implement it step by step according to your majesty's idea."

Zhu Qizhen smiled slightly: "Don't worry about the family affairs, I will take care of them. By the way, are you taking the bride with you this time?"

"I brought it." Zhang Lun was a little shy.

Zhu Qizhen laughed out loud: "Your grandfather must be thinking about having a grandson, so you can't fall behind in this aspect."

"Yang Guifang hasn't even gotten married yet." Zhang Lun blushed.

Zhu Qizhen was annoyed: "You have surpassed me in this? Yang Guifang is smarter than you. I will call him back after a while, one is for the war in the Western Regions, and the other is to grant him marriage."

Zhang Lun frowned slightly: "War in the Western Regions, can he leave?"

"Remember this, you can't rely on just one person to fight a war." Zhu Qizhen waved his hand, "When you go to the southeast, you have to train talents. Even if you are not there, they can still be relied on."

Zhang Lun nodded heavily: "Yes."

Zhu Qizhen continued, "You need to find a way to contain the Japanese queen. We can't let her lose control, otherwise, she will become the queen of Japan, and we will have another opponent."

"I will control her in terms of supplies and weapons." Zhang Lun said.

The two men walked for a long time before Zhu Qizhen stopped and watched Zhang Lun go away.

……

Night falls in the harem and the courtyard.

In the room, several braziers were burning with charcoal, making the room, which had no floor heating in winter, warm as spring, and filled with a faint fragrance. The white bed curtains were swaying violently, and after a while, they finally slowly stopped.

On the phoenix couch, the beauty is like mud.

Bulma curled up in Zhu Qizhen's broad chest, her eyes flowing like delicate silk, looking up at her beautiful and charming face, her eyes full of affectionate coquettishness and love. There was a touch of laziness in her words, and her tone was so gentle that it seemed to melt people's hearts, and there were some delicate complaints cleverly interwoven in it, which made people feel pity and love involuntarily.

"Your Majesty, can you come more often?" she asked sadly.

Her jade-white fingers rested lightly on Zhu Qizhen's cheek, as if with a hint of mischief, as if she wanted to pinch it gently, but she hesitated at the last moment. She could only lower her eyelids helplessly and stare at him quietly with those beautiful eyes full of resentment and affection.

"I'm not used to you taking the initiative like this." Zhu Qizhen smiled.

Since Bulma knew that it was the legitimate emperor who killed her father, she seemed to have become a different person, pestering the emperor to help her get revenge. She had no capital, the only thing she could use was herself.

"Your Majesty, hasn't the fake emperor been caught yet?" she asked, looking up.

"It will take time. He may be dead." Zhu Qizhen smiled. "Sister-in-law, I will not let him go. If he is still alive, I will find him."

Bulma blinked her beautiful eyes, and a sharp flash appeared in her soft black and white eyes.

She sighed softly, and lay in Zhu Qizhen's arms with a tender and sweet look on her face, her eyes full of spring.

Zhu Qizhen frowned.

He was thinking about how to make use of Bulma. In his opinion, a big reason why the legitimate emperor finally came to the capital was because of Bulma and her son.

……

The next day.

After the morning court session, Zhu Qizhen held a small court meeting in the Qianqing Palace as usual to discuss current important matters with the cabinet ministers. The tea-serving maid came up and served tea to the ministers.

As an emperor, he did not follow the rules. He set up chairs in the Qianqing Palace for the ministers to sit on. It was not that he did not want to show his majesty and rules, but sometimes he had to stand for several hours to discuss matters, and his feet hurt.

When the palace maids serving tea came in, Zhu Qizhen saw Xiyao in the lead and was surprised: "Why are you back?"

Xiyao served him tea, pursed her lips and said, "The Jinyiwei still needs some time to investigate the case, so I came back. I always miss my master in his courtyard, so I might as well come back to work."

Zhu Qizhen sighed softly: "Alright, but let them do most of the work, just give them your orders."

"Yeah." Xiyao nodded and stood aside silently.

After the meeting, Zhu Qizhen began to review memorials, which lasted until the afternoon. Xiyao waited on the side, and when he finished, she served him tea and asked, "Your Majesty, can I give you a massage?"

"That's fine." Zhu Qizhen twisted his neck and said, "It hurts so much. Without you, they can't do it accurately."

Xiyao smiled slightly, came behind him, stretched out her delicate hands and began to press. Zhu Qizhen closed his eyes and enjoyed it, feeling much more comfortable, and asked: "How do you do your master's funeral?"

"The school will host it." Xiyao said softly, "Master doesn't have any relatives here."

Zhu Qizhen opened his eyes and said, "How about inviting your parents? They are your master's close friends, right? They can also come and visit the capital."

Xiyao's eyes flashed with fear, but her voice was calm: "Forget it, it's too much trouble. My mother is not in good health and can't stand the fatigue of the journey."

"Oh." Zhu Qizhen closed his eyes and stopped talking.

Xiyao looked down at him, dazed for a moment, wondering why the emperor suddenly mentioned her parents.

……

At dusk, the setting sun fell on Kunning Palace.

Zhu Qizhen hugged the Queen, stood in front of the window, and admired the sunset until the sun went down.

The Queen snuggled tightly in his arms. Zhu Qizhen stretched out his hand and pinched her slender waist. The Queen felt pain and raised her charming and enchanting face to glare at him. Zhu Qizhen patted her with his big hand and said, "I wanted to accompany you to live in the small courtyard by the Gaoliang River for a few days, but I'm too busy with government affairs during this period."

"Haha, you're not busy anymore because you went to find Bulma and Alena? Do you like women on the grassland recently?" The corners of the Queen's mouth rose slightly, outlining a meaningful smile, but in the depths of her charming eyes, there was a deep and rich sorrow.

Zhu Qizhen smiled generously and raised his eyebrows: "If you don't let me touch you, can't I find another woman?"

"Humph, you are just quibbling. It's not like there are no concubines in the palace."

The queen's eyes flickered gently, as if every blink carried a subtle wave of charm. Her long and curled eyelashes, like delicate brushstrokes, outlined seductive ripples in the air. She stared at him with a smile, her hands gracefully shuttled through her long black hair, carefully arranging each strand of hair. Against the backdrop of her black hair, which was as deep as the night, her skin was even more crystal clear and flawless, and her innate noble temperament was also more prominent at this moment.

"No one is worse than you." Zhu Qizhen said, pinching her delicate hand.

"You only know how to coax me." The Queen covered her lips with her hand and uttered a crisp and slightly coquettish chuckle. Then, her charming eyes were filled with obsession and deep affection. She hesitated and said, "Shuangxi in my palace, if you don't like her anymore, I will select a few good-looking palace maids to serve you."

Zhu Qizhen was speechless: "What are you thinking about?"

The demon queen rolled her eyes in grievance, and said in a resentful tone: "I just want you to come to Kunning Palace more often."

"I'll do it, okay?" Zhu Qizhen said sternly, "Don't mention looking for a palace maid in the future, it's ridiculous, don't forget your identity."

The Demon Queen pursed her lips, like a child who had done something wrong, and nodded: "I understand."

"You are becoming more and more outrageous." Zhu Qizhen said.

"Okay, I was wrong. I have to apologize to you." The Demon Queen glared.

Zhu Qizhen smiled and said, "How do you apologize?"

The demon queen's face flushed, she squatted down, raised her eyes and said, "Little thief, you got a good deal."

……

Zhu Qizhen came out of Kunning Palace, feeling refreshed, and returned to Qianqing Palace to deal with the remaining memorials. Xiyao came up with tea and bowed: "Your Majesty, have a cup of hot tea."

"Well, Xiyao, it might be late tonight." Zhu Qizhen waved his hand, "You guys go and rest first."

Xiyao shook her head: "I will accompany your majesty."

(End of this chapter)