I am a prince in Zhutian Films

Chapter 38: The Third Year of Qingli, End
"Your Highness."

Lai Mingcheng stopped the three princes and bowed down with a great ceremony: "I apologize to Your Highness for my mistake today."

Li Chengzong shook his head: "You, the censor, have heard the news and reported it. I dare not blame you. Otherwise, if you report me again one day, I will not be able to bear it. Besides, you are not apologizing to me, but to those innocent souls who died tragically at the hands of the Feng family."

When it comes to hermaphrodites, Li Chengzong is also an expert.

Lai Mingcheng straightened up and said with a guilty look on his face, "Whether Your Highness believes it or not, I actually have great respect for Your Highness. I remember your efforts to eliminate the malpractices in the imperial examination three years ago and your efforts to eliminate harm for the people yesterday."

“There’s a but.”

Li Chengzong didn't say that he knew Lai Mingcheng very well, but at least he knew that Lai Mingcheng would not come just to flatter him.

"Your Highness is smart."

Lai Mingcheng nodded: "Third Prince, although you did something harmful to the people yesterday, you still violated the law, so I will report you today. If Your Highness violates the law again in the future, I will still report you."

"Hey, are you here to say something harsh?"

Li Chengzong laughed, "To be honest, Lai Mingcheng, I have always liked your integrity, but now I look down on you. Why do you censors only focus on the court and wait until something happens before you intervene, but don't you lower your status and look at the common people? If you censors visited the people more often, would I have violated the law yesterday?"

Lai Mingcheng stood there in a daze, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.

Li Chengzong ignored him and walked out of Chaoyuan Hall chatting and laughing with the prince and Li Chengze.

Just as he was about to say goodbye and go to the Empress Dowager's bedroom and Yuxiu Palace to inform them of his confinement, the eunuch Hou, who had already left, suddenly came and said that Emperor Qing had summoned him.

I had no choice but to follow Eunuch Hou.

When he arrived, Emperor Qing had changed out of his dragon robe and put on a white gauze robe. He was throwing bait towards the big lake under the pavilion. A few strands of hair were scattered, making him look a little messy, but there was a sense of unruliness in the messiness.

"Your Majesty, the three princes have arrived."

"Father!" x3
Emperor Qing turned around and handed the food box to Eunuch Hou, waved his hand and said with a smile: "Today is a family dinner, there is no need to be so particular, everyone sit down."

As usual, the Crown Prince and the Second Prince sit on the left and right.

Li Chengzong sat down opposite Emperor Qing and immediately muttered, "If I had known it was a family dinner, I wouldn't have come."

This so-called family dinner is just a meal between Emperor Qing and his son, showing the loving father and filial son to the outside world. It happens about two or three times a month.

He was not willing to come in the past and didn't come often, so the family dinner was just a meal between Emperor Qing, the Crown Prince and the Second Elder.

Emperor Qing glanced at Li Chengzong calmly, "I want to say it's a family dinner, can you come?"

"Of course not. The food here is too light." Li Chengzong really disliked the meals arranged by Emperor Qing. They were basically all vegetarian. If you didn't know, you would think that Emperor Qing had become a monk.

Speaking of which, although Emperor Qing had a harem, he never went there again after Li Chengping was born, which was almost like a monk.

Emperor Qing snorted and looked at Eunuch Hou, who understood what he meant and immediately bowed and said, "Third Prince, last night, a batch of fresh and plump red-fin snappers arrived from Danzhou. They were still alive and kicking. His Majesty specifically ordered them to be kept for today's family banquet."

"Thank you, Father." x2
Regardless of whether it was sincere or fake, the prince and the second son both smiled and acted very moved.

Li Chengzong was stunned, wondering why Emperor Qing suddenly did this.

Danzhou, where Fan Xian is.

I haven't heard Emperor Qing mention it in the past ten years. Today, he suddenly got a fish from Danzhou. Of course, it is impossible to just eat the fish.

As Li Chengzong expected, not long after the food was served and just after he took two bites, Emperor Qing spoke.

"The fish in Danzhou are good. Speaking of Danzhou, did you know that Si Nanbo has an illegitimate son raised in Danzhou?"

Li Chengqian put down his chopsticks and said respectfully, "I have heard a little about it."

"A few days ago, Si Nanbo asked me for permission to arrange a marriage for his son. Do you have any recommendations?"

Why did they bring up the fish from Danzhou for no reason? It turns out it was for the marriage of Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er.

Li Chengzong suddenly realized and had no intention of speaking. He pretended that no one had heard and just ate voraciously.

This redfin snapper is known as the beef of the sea, and it tastes really good. I was too poor to afford it in my previous life. Although I am too poor in this life, fresh seafood is not easy to come by either. I would be unworthy of my current status if I don’t eat more.

The Crown Prince and the Second Son naturally did not dare to do what Li Chengzong did. They both pretended to be thinking and remained silent for a moment.

The second son spoke first: "Father, I don't have any suitable women to recommend."

The Crown Prince followed closely and said, "My second brother doesn't have any, so it's even more impossible for me to have any in the East Palace."

After all, they are father and son, and they know Emperor Qing to some extent. Since Emperor Qing said so, he must have a candidate in mind, so it doesn’t matter whether they recommend it or not.

It would be fine if the recommended person met the criteria in Emperor Qing’s mind, but if not, it would be a mistake, so both of them chose to shirk their responsibilities.

"Li Chengzong, what about you?"

"I don't have any girls around me."

Li Chengzong shook his head and stood up to salute: "Father, I'm done eating. I'll take my leave now."

"Have you finished your meal?" Emperor Qing asked softly.

"I've finished eating, and it's getting late. You ordered me to stay home today, so I have to go tell the Empress Dowager that I can't eat with her if I'm too full. The old lady will be unhappy."

Li Chengzong didn't care what Emperor Qing's intention was in wanting to keep him. He only knew that they would talk about Lin Wan'er and the matter of the inner treasury next, and he didn't want to get involved.

"In that case, go ahead."

Emperor Qing waved his hand, and suddenly said meaningfully: "Don't forget to practice martial arts during the confinement period."

Li Chengzong was a little puzzled, but he nodded and slipped away.

First I went to the Empress Dowager's bedroom, then to Yuxiu Palace, and then I left the palace and went to Zuixianju Painting Boat.

I told Si Lili that I was under house arrest and could not come to Zuixianju openly for the next year, and asked Si Lili to keep the door open at night. For this, I got a cold eye from Si Lili.

Just this one roll of the eyes made Li Chengzong, a great master, feel moved, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "No wonder they say that concubines are worse than secret lovers."

After returning to the palace from the pleasure boat, he concentrated on practicing martial arts.

After breaking through to the Grandmaster level, Li Chengzong had not practiced due to being busy with other things and had not noticed anything. So when he practiced for the first time after returning home, he was shocked.

It turned out that after breaking through to the Grandmaster level, his cultivation speed was extremely fast, almost advancing by leaps and bounds compared to his early years.

But after more than half a year, he discovered a serious problem.

That is, the speed that was originally advancing by leaps and bounds suddenly hit a bottleneck, just like a bottle that is almost full of water.

Li Chengzong could feel that after half a year of rapid improvement, he seemed to have evolved into the perfect life form in the world. At this level, it was very difficult to improve further and the improvement speed was very slow.

He suddenly understood why Emperor Qing said such a meaningful sentence.

Because after breaking through to the Grandmaster level, one can get a period of rapid improvement, allowing one's strength and physical fitness to quickly enter a relatively perfect state. This is also the reason why after breaking through to the Grandmaster level, the combat power between Grandmasters is not much different.

Because it won’t take long for everyone to become a relatively perfect life form.

If he were to fight against Emperor Qing now, there would be no telling who would be better, regardless of life or death.

Of course, during this half year, in addition to practicing martial arts and occasionally secretly visiting Si Lili, Li Chengzong also listened to some news circulating in Kyoto.

First of all, it is Lai Mingcheng.

After Lai Mingcheng reported him, he immediately impeached the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple.

The reason was that the injustices suffered by the Feng family were all caused by the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple. It was their inaction, mutual protection among officials, etc. that led to Li Chengzong violating the national law and setting up a private criminal court. He demanded a strict investigation of the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice from top to bottom.

As a result, thirteen officials from the Ministry of Justice and Marble were dismissed and exiled, and the Minister of Justice, who was in his fifties, retired.

But these people did not stop Lai Mingcheng from impeaching him.

Because of Li Chengzong's words, Lai Mingcheng also realized it, and the censors of the Censorate began to go among the people.

Within half a year, sixteen officials were held accountable in succession in the court. Together with their families, a total of more than three hundred people, they were beheaded at Caishikou in the autumn.

From then on, Lai Mingcheng became known as Lai Qingtian among the people of Kyoto.

Li Chengzong couldn't say that he disliked Lai Mingcheng, but he definitely didn't like him either. He could only say that he admired his integrity, but he totally disagreed with the way he did things.

Next, it is the marriage of Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er.

Not long after the family dinner that day, word spread among the rich and powerful that His Majesty was going to grant a marriage between Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er.

Although Emperor Qing did not issue an explicit decree, these rumors still shocked Princess Li Yunrui.

Therefore, in the war with Northern Qi shortly afterwards, Li Yunrui took the initiative to bear a large amount of military expenses.

Unfortunately, what Li Yunrui never expected was that in the late winter of this year, after the war between the two countries ended, a rumor suddenly appeared in Kyoto: whoever could marry Princess Chen, Lin Wan'er, would be able to control the financial power of the inner treasury. Immediately afterwards, Emperor Qing directly issued an imperial decree to grant the marriage, and the marriage partner was Lin Wan'er and Fan Xian, the illegitimate son of Sinanbo Fan Jian, which completely caught Li Yunrui off guard.

As soon as the imperial decree granting marriage was issued, it caused an uproar in Kyoto.

First of all, the inner treasury is of great importance.

Secondly, there is Fan Xian’s identity.

The financial power of the inner treasury has always been controlled by the eldest princess Li Yunrui. Although it is not the national treasury, it can be said that it controls half of the world's financial power. It is so important that it cannot be passed on at will, let alone to an illegitimate child.

Of course, what people talk about more is the marriage between Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er.

Although Lin Wan'er is an illegitimate daughter, she is the daughter of the eldest princess and Prime Minister Lin Ruofu. She is also adopted by Emperor Qing as his adopted daughter and named Princess Chen. Even though she is an illegitimate daughter, her status is very noble.

On the other hand, what is Fan Xian?
He is just Si Nanbo's illegitimate son. Even though Fan Jian is Emperor Qing's confidant, his illegitimate son cannot be shown in public after all. At least his status is far different from Lin Wan'er.

However, Emperor Qing has already issued the decree, and no matter how much other powerful people talk, it will be useless, let alone dreaming of the financial power of the inner treasury that is still in Li Yunrui's hands.

Finally, it has something to do with Li Chengzong himself.

When he walked on the waves and composed a poem to express his love for Si Lili, everyone thought that Si Lili would be taken into his room, but unexpectedly, Si Lili actually stayed in Zuixianju.

At first, the sons of officials were intimidated by the power of the Third Prince and did not dare to ask for an audience with Si Lili rashly. However, no one expected that Si Lili would take the initiative to invite Prince Jing's son Li Hongcheng.

The key point is that nothing happened after Li Hongcheng attended the banquet.

What does this mean?
This means that the Third Prince doesn’t care about Si Lili at all.

So, the young man from a famous family in Kyoto felt that he was doing well again.

There are more and more suckers who spend huge amounts of money on Si Lili than before, which makes Si Lili's value rise again and again and she becomes very famous in Kyoto.

Since Si Lili became famous, she would inevitably mention Li Chengzong, and then rumors spread that Li Chengzong was unfaithful and ungrateful.

However, the rumors have disappeared without a trace recently, because the Blood-Clothed Guards of Prince Ding's Mansion went out again and smashed four or five wealthy families in succession.

The main theme is domineering.

In addition, the matter of the guards of Prince Ding's mansion redeeming people has also made Li Chengzong an active topic of discussion among the people.

Nowadays, everyone in Kyoto knows that there are many bachelors in Prince Ding's Mansion. There are often groups of guards going to Zuixianju for fun, and then redeeming prostitutes from Zuixianju.

Because of the relationship between Si Lili and the guards of Prince Ding's Palace, even if Li Chengzong did not leave the house and did nothing, he was still the focus of heated discussion in Kyoto.

It can be said that: Even though I am not in the world, there are always legends about me in this world.

As the news spread in Kyoto, the third year of the Qingli period came to an end.

(End of this chapter)