Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"Investigate Consort Wan's movements this morning. Did she use my horse to secretly inform that scoundrel Chu Mingkong? If so... Hmph! Compile the intelligence and hand it over to the Imperial Clan Court. Report that she disregarded her status as a consort and secretly left the palace to commit adultery with Chu Mingkong! Chu Mingkong must die!"

Chapter 49 I Rampage into the Emperor's Harem!

"System, system, you've already given me the payment notification, but couldn't you at least indicate who sent me the token of filial piety?"

Chu Mingkong felt uneasy looking at the thousands of filial offerings. In the past, the benefits of filial offerings usually came after he had flattered someone or given a gift. These filial offerings of unknown origin... just looking at them made him very uneasy.

【Can. 】

"So readily agreed?"

Chu Mingkong was startled, thinking that the Silver Thief System was asking him to upgrade something again.

The Filial Piety System has broken through several times in a row, and there are many more elders that can be bound to it. However, so far, it has only bound to Zuo Qiuchi.

The "filial piety" reward is too slow to accumulate, so I need to carefully consider who to bind it to next. It seems like it can't be changed, so I can't make a decision easily.

He searched through the system interface in his mind and indeed found a "filial piety bill".

Upon clicking through, one could see that each person had previously shown him filial piety, with each recipient clearly identified. The large sum of money he had just received as a token of respect was from Consort Wan.

"Given to me by Consort Wan? Did I do anything? Oh!" Chu Mingkong guessed, "I guess it was from shooting the Fifth Prince with a bow and arrow. He wasn't seriously injured, and Consort Wan was touched."

Is this really something that should be described as great maternal love?

"Speaking of which, since you were able to specify the recipient of the filial piety donation, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

You didn't ask.

"..."

The user experience of your product is not good!

I wonder if there's a filial piety-based investment feature. I could set up a filial piety fund, invest the money I earn in it, and receive dividends.

That won't work either. What if he invests in a liquor fund and loses everything on the spot? That would be the first lesson a young, filial son would learn.

"With this filial piety gift, I won't be short of money to buy blind boxes to give as gifts in the short term, as long as I don't get any lucky ones."

Back at the academy.

Chu Mingkong rode the Fifth Prince's horse around the library a few times before finally putting it in the stable, satisfied, and then went into the library to find Shangguan Rong.

Shangguan Rong had just witnessed this person's pointless drive from the window and asked speechlessly:

"Didn't you say you were going to return the horse to the Fifth Prince?"

"That was my original plan, but on the way to the palace, the more I rode, the more I felt that the horse suited my taste. I decided that the horse would be mine from now on, and I would develop it."

Shangguan Rong instinctively felt that his words were strange, a little hard to understand, and seemed like he was talking nonsense, but she also felt that he had ill intentions.

"You only shot the Fifth Prince at the palace gate? I thought you would really take that big sword and kill him because you felt guilty for taking his beloved horse?"

Tsk!

Chu Mingkong wanted to explain to Shangguan Rong the value of accurately shooting legs without violating the rules, but the news spread so fast that I didn't even have a chance to brag about it!

What kind of person do you think I am?

"Not quite like it."

“Arrowsing is the best way. If I charge at him with a sword, I’m afraid I might lose control and be cut down by the Fifth Prince. That would be breaking my promise.”

However, Shangguan Rong had indeed guessed what Chu Mingkong was thinking. He really did want to take his horse by force, but he was too guilty to bring his knife. He used a different weapon to hurt him less.

In reality, it was still a profitable deal. He could take the horse with a clear conscience and also gained a wave of filial piety from Consort Wan.

This means they've expanded their filial piety services to include the mothers of their enemies—that's a good thing!

The Wuji Sword Saint once said: Your mother is my mother.

Chu Mingkong was in a great mood, finding Shangguan Rong's men's attire particularly pleasing. After calming down, he asked:

"Rong'er, what kind of person is Consort Wan? Did you know anything about her when you were a teacher to the princes and princesses?"

"Empress Pei is a very aloof person, and I have had very little contact with her. I don't know when it started, but in the Tianji Empire, all the empresses are women with aloof and ruthless personalities."

But the Empress is the head of the harem. If Empress Pei doesn't put pressure on the concubines, then infighting and power struggles among them will occur. Consort Wan Hua's ability to navigate this environment smoothly naturally demonstrates her considerable wisdom. However, she dotes on her own flesh and blood, the Fifth Prince… only the Fifth Prince doesn't seem to appreciate it much.

Good heavens, she risked her life to sneak out and plead for him, and she doesn't even appreciate it despite having a mother like that.

"How exactly are you being ungrateful?" Chu Mingkong asked curiously.

Shangguan Rong closed her eyes and recalled what she had seen and heard in the palace, as well as the emotions and attitudes that the Fifth Prince had expressed in his words.

"The Fifth Prince is a hardworking and diligent person who cultivates seriously and has high expectations for the throne. However, because he was not born as the eldest son of the empress, he was defeated by the First Prince, who was far inferior to him. Since then, he has rarely paid attention to Consort Wan. His words usually convey a sense of jealousy that the First Prince and Jin Yu's birth mother is the Empress."

Afterwards, the Fifth Prince went into a period of decline, and when news of him came out again, there were suddenly many comments about him, such as his homosexuality. But I think he used homosexual relationships to win people over.

He inherited Consort Wan's outstanding looks and was handsome. He quickly gathered many advisors around him, but his method of "treating scholars with respect" was somewhat unscrupulous.

Chu Mingkong remained silent. This was quite ruthless; at least he didn't have the guts to take it, to make connections with retainers and win people over.

The situation of the Fifth Prince seems a bit familiar... It's like a poor boy losing to a rich second-generation, and then blaming it on his mother not being as good as the other boy's mother?

Chu Mingkong thought of himself.

His own wife, the Princess Consort of Chu, didn't give him, the adopted child, a very friendly look, but she wouldn't do anything to annoy him. He also didn't bother to argue with his mother, spending most of his time in the military camp, and was probably even closer to the circumcision physician, Old Master Cui, than to his mother.

"Suddenly, I feel that being an orphan without a mother is actually quite nice."

【? 】

System, why are you typing question marks again?

Shangguan Rong was puzzled by his perplexing statement:

"Mingkong, isn't your mother still alive? She should be doing well in Tianya City right now, right?"

"Why is your information so out of the loop when it gets to me..." Chu Mingkong suspected she was pretending not to know, and explained:

"Aren't there any rumors about my origins in the capital? My father, Prince Huai, was tired when he went hunting and found a shady spot to rest. In his dream, he traveled to some place and met a goddess. When he woke up, he found a big, chubby six-month-old baby lying next to him. He immediately took him back and made me his heir."

At the time, my mother was pregnant with an unborn child. If it had been a boy, he would definitely have been the legitimate son of the principal wife and then made heir apparent. But I was thrust into the running, and my mother was furious.

"..." Shangguan Rong was speechless. His family affairs were not worth commenting on, so she changed the subject back to the present: "You shouldn't have ridden those horses back, at least you shouldn't have appeared in front of the Fifth Prince on them. When you got near the palace, you should have let the horse go back to the palace on its own. The guards recognized it and would have let it pass."

"How to say?"

"This horse was a gift from the Empress to the Fifth Prince. It is well taken care of and fed better than a person. The Fifth Prince himself is reluctant to ride it."

Consort Wan had no choice but to borrow this horse when she sneaked out of the palace, and she could return it secretly afterward without causing any trouble. But you rode it so freely in front of the Fifth Prince...

Seeing that Shangguan Rong suddenly stopped talking and did not continue, Chu Mingkong frowned and pressed for an answer:

"What specific troubles might there be? Is it too late for me to return now?"

Shangguan Rong pursed her lips and shook her head, saying with a complicated expression:

"I'm afraid that won't work. Although I may have thought too badly of the Fifth Prince, since you shot and humiliated him in public today, he won't be able to take his anger out on you. He might just shift the blame onto Consort Wan."

In the worst-case scenario, he might find out who rode the horse out of the palace, and if it was Consort Wan, he could report to the Imperial Clan Court that Consort Wan had secretly left the palace to meet you in the academy's library, which would be perfect for revenge.

"It can't be that bad, can it?" Chu Mingkong's lips twitched.

Shangguan Rong said seriously:

"Absolutely! Because if he really reports it, you can't clear your name. It's a serious crime for a concubine to go out without permission. If she comes out looking for you, then you're her lover. You won't even need a physical examination. Even if you haven't done anything, you'll still be implicated."

Unless you, Mingkong, preemptively report Consort Wan, saying that she came to plead for your life and that you went to the palace gate to ambush and kill the Fifth Prince out of fear of being misunderstood by the Emperor.

He only had a moment of greed and took someone else's horse, yet it still caused such a huge disaster.

Rong'er is only talking about the worst-case scenario. But if you don't plan for the worst, you won't even know how you died.

He said with a headache:

"If it were a vicious mother or something, I would let it go, but I find it hard to imagine that children could treat a mother like Consort Wan like that. I don't want to do that, and I won't use Consort Wan as a shield."

"Rong'er, is there any other way to resolve this?"

Shangguan Rong pondered, realizing that this kind of trouble was really hard to resolve.

If you want to be thorough, the easiest way is to directly eliminate Consort Wan. If you want to get rid of the Fifth Prince, you also need to find a way to eliminate his trusted associates, otherwise these henchmen will continue to harm Consort Wan and help the Fifth Prince take revenge.

People who aren't the same type of people can't get together.

Chu Mingkong's idea was clearly to protect Consort Wan while preventing her from leaving the palace without being exposed.

As she racked her brains, Shangguan Rong suddenly looked at Chu Mingkong suspiciously, her beautiful eyes narrowing slightly:

"Mingkong, you don't really plan to have Consort Wan dress up as your mother and take your anger out on her, do you? She's your aunt!"

Chu Mingkong avoided the main point and did not give a direct answer:

"I don't want to harm Consort Wan because of me. I really like that horse. If the Fifth Prince really makes that kind of plan, even if I escape in the future, I'm afraid I won't be able to ride that horse with peace of mind."

Shangguan Rong was incredibly clever; she immediately saw the flaw in his words.

"You didn't answer my question, so that means you admitted it. You didn't even spare a concubine who is already a mother. You despicable scoundrel! You lecherous thief!"

"Oh dear, Rong'er, you're getting addicted to cursing, aren't you?"

Chu Mingkong laughed and scolded, forcefully picked up Shangguan Rong, pressed her against the window so that she faced outside, and then pulled the curtains over to block the view between them.

In this way, even if someone passes by outside, they will only see Shangguan Rong, dressed in men's clothing, standing at the window looking at the scenery, and will not see Chu Mingkong behind the curtains.

"Mingkong! Someone's passing by... You'll be spotted."

"Where did your arrogance go? Be a good girl and hold onto the windowsill; I'll try not to waste too much time."

tear-

With a tearing sound, a hole appeared in the white trousers, revealing a fair, firm, and rounded nipple.

"Then let's try another method... We can cultivate together, but not there... umm..."

Shangguan Rong took the initiative to soften her stance and even proposed dual cultivation herself.

Because it was broad daylight, although there weren't many people passing by the secluded area near the Forbidden Library, students reciting scriptures would occasionally appear in this quiet spot.

They saw Grand Tutor Shangguan standing by the window, gazing at the distant sky with a stern face, and occasionally they could sense her biting her lip in suppressed anger.

He must have been furious with Prince Chu, right? Well, he was still under house arrest, yet that bastard went and shot the Fifth Prince.