Tianliangyuan

Chapter 166 The Truth That Isn't Revealed Is the Most Terrifying

With the deaths of the two insignificant ants in the Prince Zhong's mansion, the matter of Jiang Baolin's miscarriage seems to have come to an end.

After the Empress discovered the Prince Zhong's residence, she reported the matter to His Majesty.

But the emperor still had his pride. Since it involved his own son, he certainly couldn't let the investigation continue, so he stopped there.

Perhaps, the emperor dared not allow anyone to investigate, for fear that it would lead to the same outcome he had predicted.

However, when the Prince of Zhong was summoned to the palace by His Majesty, he was reprimanded for nearly an hour. When the Prince of Zhong came out, his eyes were bloodshot and he was walking with a limp.

This matter seemed to have little impact on any individual or family, and even the Prince Zhong, suspected by the Emperor and Empress of being the mastermind behind it all, did not receive much punishment.

Everyone thought that the matter was over.

But Xu Zhaozhao knew that this matter couldn't be let go!

Because Consort Jiang would not let this go easily.

However, because of the Emperor's decision, Consort Jiang would not defy imperial authority, so she would definitely cooperate with the Jiang family to do something else.

Jiang Yanping hated Prince Zhong to the core at this moment, never expecting that it would be his son-in-law who would disrupt all his plans.

However, attacking the Loyal King is clearly inappropriate.

When Princess Zhao Yue, the wife of Prince Zhong, entered the palace to pay her respects as usual, she was punished.

News from the palace says that Princess Zhong offended Consort Jiang, so Consort Jiang punished her by making her kneel on a path for an hour.

I heard that when Zhao Yue returned home, her legs were also clearly uncomfortable.

Because Consort Jiang had enjoyed the Emperor's favor for many years, she lived a very unrestrained, or rather, arrogant, life in the palace.

The Empress knew she was not as favored as Consort Jiang, so she would avoid her whenever possible.

There's nothing wrong with Consort Jiang punishing Princess Zhong, after all, Consort Jiang is an elder.

This matter did not attract much attention. After all, in men's eyes, women are petty and temperamental, so they would just listen and forget about it, without thinking about anything else.

Although King Zhong felt that the punishment of the Queen Consort was tantamount to his own humiliation, what could he say when he thought of the unborn child?

So even though they knew it was Consort Jiang's revenge, they still had to endure it.

Not long after, a junior member of the Zhao family was detained by the county government for fighting in the street. Later, a servant of the Zhao family was publicly flogged, and the young master of the Zhao family was imprisoned for ten days.

This is tantamount to the Zhao family being slapped in the face!

However, the Zhao family tolerated it.

Minor squabbles are not enough to anger the Zhao family.

Xie Zheng was quite satisfied that the matter had been resolved smoothly. He was afraid that someone would investigate Zhao Zhao again, so once he was sure that the matter was over, he was in a great mood and almost wanted to go to the Marquis of Anxin's residence every day.

Fortunately, the elders of the Xie family were reliable, so under their guidance and obstruction, Xie Zheng only visited the Xu family every three or four days, and he always came up with different reasons for visiting.

That day, Xie Zheng finally managed to get Xu Zhaozhao to come out, and the two went to stroll around the East Market together.

The East Market is expensive; everything sold here is of the highest quality, and the streets are cleaner, with more luxurious interiors.

The two strolled leisurely, followed by two maids and two guards. In a place where Xu Zhaozhao could not see, Jian Qi was also following.

"Zhaozhao, do you like this?"

The two were strolling around a flower shop, where they could admire the flowers and chat, thus strengthening their relationship.

"Hmm, do you know what kind of flower this is?"

Xie Zheng shook his head. The number of flowers he could recognize was basically no more than a handful.

Xu Zhaozhao smiled but didn't tell him the name of the parrot. Instead, she gestured for him to continue walking forward, intending to check out the shops ahead to see if they sold parrots.

To Xu Zhaozhao's disappointment, there was nothing.

To be more precise, there are no talking parrots, but plenty of non-talking ones, but she wanted a talking parrot.

"This is a bit difficult to handle. I'll send someone to tell the caravan later and see if they have any in the caravans traveling to and from the border regions."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work. Actually, it's not that I absolutely have to have it, I just find it novel."

When the appointed time arrived, the two of them went to the place where they had arranged to dine with Xu Junting.

It was inappropriate for Xu Zhaozhao and Xie Zheng to dine alone, so Xu Junting was brought along as a pretext.

As soon as they ordered, before any of the dishes had even arrived, Qi Yunze showed up, looking quite annoyed.

"What's wrong? Brother Yunze, is something troubling you?"

Qi Yunze sighed, "It's all because of Cheng Yuan! I'm really fed up with her. I don't know what she was thinking. Yesterday she bought a huge pile of jewelry and even had the shopkeeper put it on our Marquis's account. I got home late last night and didn't know about it. This morning, my mother called me over to ask her about it."

"You wouldn't believe it, my mother thought I was out there fooling around, trying to win over some young lady with a large sum of money! Turns out I was completely clueless. Only then did my mother realize something was wrong, and after sending someone to inquire, she found out it was Cheng Yuan who had done it."

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhaozhao could only laugh.

Qi Yunze has been framed!

"And in the end? How was this matter resolved?"

Qi Yunze snorted heavily: "What else can we do? I didn't show up. My mother sent the servants to retrieve the jewelry and deliver it to the shop. When the shopkeeper learned that it was from our Marquis's residence, he didn't try to cheat us. However, two pieces of jewelry had clearly been worn, and one of them had a flaw, so we only paid for those two pieces."

Xu Zhaozhao smiled but remained silent, while Xu Junting felt that the Dingnan Marquis's mansion was petty in its actions.

"It's just a few pieces of jewelry, Yunze, why are you making such a fuss? Just send someone to tell them not to do this again. Isn't it undignified to ask for them back?"

Qi Yunze smiled wryly: "That's because you don't know how much she took! It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she moved half of someone's shop."

Xie Zheng raised an eyebrow: "Really?"

"Is this for real? She actually got a shop for free, worth a hundred strings of cash! That's a hundred strings! That's enough to buy three warhorses. Where did she get the confidence to think that our Marquis's mansion would give her a hundred strings for free?"

Xu Junting hadn't expected Cheng Yuan to be so formidable; she truly didn't value other people's money!

Qi Yunze said bitterly, "Before this, when I settled her in, I specially left her ten strings of cash as household funds. If it were normal expenses, these ten strings of cash would be enough to support her and her servants for two months. But I only found out today that those ten strings of cash have now been spent and there are hardly any copper coins left."

Xie Zheng grimaced upon hearing this. Luckily, it was Qi Yunze who took the person away back then; otherwise, if they really stuck with him, it would be a real hassle.

Xu Zhaozhao also found it amusing that a grown man like Qi Yunze could be manipulated by a shameless young woman.

Quite interesting!

However, Cheng Yuan does act too impulsively; to put it bluntly, she's a silly, big-headed girl!

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhaozhao's expression changed. Was it really so?