Love Lock

Chapter 67 Fierce Output
First, there is Princess Chang Le, who is full of anticipation for the imperial decree to grant her marriage.

The thunderclap exploded, shattering all her expectations and dreams into pieces.

She looked at the emperor and empress sitting on the dragon throne in disbelief, as if she had never known them before.

You promised to help her!
What happened to the promised on-the-spot marriage?

What happened to the promise to marry off this old maid?
Why is there nothing?

The imperial edict she had been hoping for had absolutely nothing to do with her.

All her years of admiration, fantasies, and waiting vanished in an instant at this moment.

She wanted to cry, but she couldn't seem to cry at all. She could only stand there blankly, letting her tears silently slide down her cheeks.

Secondly, there was the overjoyed Prince Zhao Zun. No, he should now be called the Prince of Cangzhou.

The imperial edict left him completely bewildered and seeing stars.

He wanted the emperor to grant him and Han Lei a marriage decree, thinking that with the imperial edict, he would have a legitimate reason to keep Han Lei by his side and grow old with her.

But the emperor offered a buy-one-get-one-free deal, bestowing a marriage upon a prince. He also ordered the prince to take his family to his fiefdom on the sixth day of the new year, and not to return to the capital without an imperial edict.

The term "vassal king" mainly refers to members of the imperial family who were granted the titles of prince or duke.

They were related to the emperor by blood and were usually granted certain territories and governing authority. Their economic source was mainly the salary and income from their fiefdoms granted by the court.

He was merely a prince of a different surname, with no blood relation to the emperor. Why would the emperor suddenly grant him a fiefdom?

He had just returned to the capital from Cangzhou, and now he's being sent back to Cangzhou again.

Why is the emperor in such a hurry?
Are they going to banish his entire family from the capital? What about his marriage to Han Lei, which was originally scheduled for the second day of the second lunar month?
Another person who was completely stunned by this imperial edict was Han Lei.

She almost burst out laughing. To suppress it, she lowered her head and pursed her lips, letting the laughter escape. As a result, she even managed to snot bubbles from her nose.

She had seen many eccentric emperors in Chinese history books.

For example, Emperor Ling of Han, Liu Hong, loved bustling markets and was fond of doing business. He had a market recreated in the palace, with some of the palace maids and concubines dressed as various merchants hawking their wares, others as customers, and still others as singers, monkey trainers, and so on.

Liu Hong himself dressed up as a merchant, pretending to be a seller of goods, and wandered around the artificial market, or drank and made merry in the tavern, arguing and fighting with the shopkeeper and customers, having a great time.

She also knew about the Bodhisattva Emperor, Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan. He was a devout and lovable emperor.

To demonstrate his respect for the Buddha, Emperor Wu of Liang, despite holding the throne, became a monk at Tongtai Temple four times, which is now Jiming Temple next to Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing.

Each time, he would have court officials spend a fortune to redeem him from his servitude, and this process would repeat itself over and over again. The redemption fees he donated amounted to hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

There was also Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Dynasty, who was skilled with his hands and loved woodworking; and Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Ji, who loved playing football, also known as Cuju.

Han Lei even knew about homosexual emperors in history, but she had never seen an emperor as eccentric and refreshing as Emperor Jing. He didn't even understand the common sense that an emperor's word was law.

Emperor Jing had just issued an edict two months ago to enfeoff Zhao Zun as the Prince of Xiaoyao, and now he has issued another edict to change the title of Prince of Xiaoyao to Prince of Cangzhou.

What is this thing? An imperial edict can be changed so easily? Isn't this emperor playing a ridiculous game?
However, although it was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, it still tasted quite delicious.

Aside from the emperor's unreliable practice of changing his orders frequently, the content of this imperial edict was exactly what Han Lei wanted.

It should be understood that a vassal king was a ruler appointed by the emperor to govern a certain region.

If Zhao Zun became the Prince of Cangzhou, they would be far removed from imperial power. In Cangzhou, as a modern person, she wouldn't have to kneel before everyone. That's one reason. Secondly, she could bring her family to her fiefdom.

If Zhao Zun's family members were all taken away from the capital, freed from this constraint, Zhao Zun would be like a tiger returning to the mountains, a dragon entering the sea. And she wouldn't have to live cautiously under imperial power; she could fly freely and build her business empire in Cangzhou.

Cangzhou may be a poor and barren land, but now that she's here, and with the system providing her with a mineral map, she has ways to transform even the most desolate places into useful resources. She will assist Zhao Zun in transforming Cangzhou into their ideal home.

Isn't this like having a pillow delivered to your head when you're feeling sleepy? No wonder Han Lei was trying so hard not to laugh that snot bubbles were coming out of her nose.

After Prime Minister Wei finished reading the imperial edict, everyone involved in the matter had their own thoughts.

Emperor Jing sat on his high throne, unable to discern whether Zhao Zun was pleased, angry, or worried. He simply accepted the imperial edict with a calm expression and then kowtowed in gratitude.

With the official business concluded, the palace banquet bell rang, and Emperor Jing announced the banquet was over. After everyone present kowtowed in gratitude for the emperor's grace, they all turned and went home.

Stepping out of the Food Official's Hall, the cold night air, carrying snowflakes dancing in the sky, heralded the arrival of the new year.

Princess Chang Le followed Han Lei and Zhao Zun at a distance. She saw Zhao Zun lift his cloak and pull Han Lei into it. The two of them disregarded the proper boundaries between men and women and walked forward intimately, hugging and cuddling.

Princess Chang Le felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave; her heart, soaked in a jar of jealousy, was colder than the icy night.

"Get out of here! You filthy slut."

Princess Chang Le cursed angrily, shoved aside the maid who was holding an umbrella to shield her from the snow, and ran headlong into the snowstorm, startling the maids following behind her who quickly chased after her.

"Princess, Princess. Where are you going? Please be careful."

Zhao Zun was worried that Han Lei would get cold, so he pulled her into his thick cloak. But in Princess Chang Le's eyes, the two of them were deliberately showing affection in front of her.

She didn't want to watch them show affection; she wanted to escape the palace quickly and get into a carriage to go home.

Just as they were about to reach the palace gate, a figure suddenly jumped out of the darkness and grabbed Princess Chang Le's sleeve from behind.

"Princess, please wait a moment. Please come with me for a chat."

Princess Chang Le stopped in her tracks and turned around to see that it was Wei Chengchao, the son of Prime Minister Wei.

"What are you moving around for? What are you talking about? Get out of my way. Can't you see I'm in a bad mood?"

Princess Chang Le flung his hand away and unleashed a furious and intense outburst.

Even after being scolded by Princess Chang Le, Wei Chengchao remained unperturbed, a frivolous smile still playing on his lips.

"Princess, don't be angry. It's just about a man, isn't it?"

Upon hearing Wei Chengchao's insightful words, Princess Chang Le looked astonished. "How did you know?"

Apart from the Emperor and Empress, she hadn't told anyone. Was she really that obvious?
"Hehe! I saw it all."

Wei Chengchao looked around and saw that everyone else was hiding under umbrellas, hurrying to leave the palace and go home, and no one paid any attention to them.

He pulled Princess Chang Le aside into the shadows, then smirked and said in a low voice, "You want Prince Zhao Zun, but I want that wretched girl. How about... we cooperate?"

"cooperate?"

Upon hearing this, Princess Chang Le raised an eyebrow, and her heart, which had been numb with coldness, seemed to be pierced by a ray of light.

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(End of this chapter)