I just want to live a good life

Chapter 320 Marry a Queen

"Your Majesty, why not take advantage of Xia Qingyan's disappearance to find a wife for Ting'er."

"If he marries his wife at this time, the rebellious son will definitely go crazy!"

"Ting'er will definitely not refuse my choice."

"Who did the Queen choose to be the Crown Princess?"

"Does the emperor still remember Xun Yu's daughter Xun Zheng?"

"she?"

The emperor was a little surprised. "I have heard that Xun Zheng was supposed to be executed with the Xun family eight years ago, but she was replaced by Wang Cen before being executed. She was then placed under house arrest. Today, Wang Cen was executed, and she returned to the imperial city. According to the unjust case of the Xun family, I should compensate that girl, but there is no need to compensate her with the position of Crown Princess."

"Your Majesty, how could I let you use Ting'er's position as a concubine to compensate an orphan girl? The reason why I chose her is because Ting'er has feelings for her."

"Oh? Is there such a thing? Isn't Ting'er deeply in love with Xia Qingyan? How come he has feelings for Xun Zheng too? What's going on?"

"Your Majesty, you forgot that Xun Yu was Ting'er's teacher! Ten years ago, when Ting'er first entered the court, you asked him to learn more from Xun Yu, and he often visited the Xun Mansion. At that time, Ting'er fell in love with Xun Zheng."

"Ting'er told you?"

"No, I saw it. At that time, Ting'er was still living in the palace. I bumped into him a few times when he came back from the Xun family. He couldn't hide the look in his eyes that showed his first love."

"Why didn't the Queen tell me this earlier?"

"Ting'er was still young at that time, and I thought I would wait until he was sixteen before proposing the marriage. But something happened to the Xun family that year, and they were convicted of treason. How could I dare to ask the emperor for a marriage? Ting'er was depressed for several years because of this. If it weren't for Xun Zheng, Ting'er would never have gotten involved with Lou Guang."

"The Queen should have told me this earlier. If I had known that Ting'er had fallen in love with a woman, I would have chosen carefully when I forced him to marry."

"Over the years, I have secretly and openly introduced many women from aristocratic families to Ting'er, but he was always very resistant. I was also afraid that if I pushed him too hard, he would do something out of line."

"If he likes one, he can like the second one. Xia Qingyan is the best proof. If I had known this earlier, I would have married him to a crown princess a few years ago. He would be holding his little grandson now."

"I was not thoughtful enough about this matter." After admitting her mistake, the Queen continued, "Ting'er has been refusing to marry for these years. Even if he agreed to marry, he would not allow anyone to take the position of Crown Princess. I think Ting'er might want to leave the position of Crown Princess to Xun Zheng. It would have been fine if he didn't know Xun Zheng was alive before, but now that she is back and has moved into the Crown Prince's Mansion as soon as she entered the Imperial City, I'm sure he will not refuse if Ting'er marries Xun Zheng as his principal wife."

"What the Queen said makes sense, but Ting'er was busy marrying a concubine right after Xia Qingyan disappeared, which inevitably makes people feel cold and indifferent."

The Queen smiled and said, "If he asks for marriage himself, people will naturally feel cold and indifferent, but if the Emperor grants the marriage to compensate the Xun family, no one will say anything."

The emperor frowned slightly upon hearing this, and then said, "Let's talk about this later. I'm so angry about that rebellious son that I have a headache. I'll take a rest here with you for a while."

Time passed quickly, and three days went by in the blink of an eye. Mu Yunting finally gave up on messing around in the palace and began to investigate the people who attended the palace banquet that day.

Since the person could not be found in the palace, that person might have been taken out of the palace. The palace was not someone's yard, and it was not easy to bring people in and out. Mu Yunting suspected that Xia Qingyan was hidden among the guests attending the palace banquet that day and was taken out.

The investigation actually revealed some clues. According to the guards at the palace gate, there seemed to be more carriages coming to pick up people than those sending people off at the end of the palace banquet that day.

Of course, this clue alone cannot prove anything. It is normal that there are more carriages to pick up people than to send people in.

Because only officials of the third rank or above were eligible to attend palace banquets, apart from princes and nobles, so many young ladies who were not eligible to attend palace banquets but wanted to show their faces at the palace banquet would cling to their relatives to enter the palace together.

For example, if the daughter of a fourth-rank Dali Temple Shaoqing happened to have an aunt who was the wife of Dali Temple Qing, she could be brought into the palace by her aunt.

When entering the palace, they usually ride in the same carriage because they are going together, but after leaving the palace, they will go in different directions and each will ride in their own carriage.

Therefore, the large number of carriages alone does not mean anything. For this reason, the guards in front of the palace gate did not take the matter seriously until Mu Yunting sent someone to inquire.

This clue, which was not really a clue, was investigated without hesitation by Mu Yunting.

This investigation actually revealed the problem.

A carriage left the palace gate and went directly to the west gate.

Because a batch of porcelain that was urgently needed to be delivered to the palace arrived relatively late that day, the closing time of the West City Gate was delayed by one hour. During this hour, a total of three carriages left the city.

Xia Qingyan was most likely on one of the carriages leaving the city.

All of a sudden, all the guards of the Prince's Palace were sent to the western suburbs for a carpet search, and they just had to scrape up a layer of the ground to take a look.

At the same time, in a farm south of the imperial city, Su Nuan was boiling bone soup and frying chili oil in the kitchen. She was going to make hot pot today. Four, five, and six followed behind her, helping her and learning from her.

Su Nuan flipped the pot with the spatula very quickly, and thick smoke billowed out of the kitchen.

The strong and spicy smell made several people cough continuously. Even Su Nuan, who was wrapped in a towel, could not stand it. However, the three men endured it and refused to step back.

"Ahem, ahem, how can this thing be delicious if it's so choking?"

"If it smells this bad, it will definitely taste bad."

"That's not necessarily true. Some of the food these days smells strange, but it tastes delicious. I believe in Concubine Xia's cooking skills."

After saying this, Lao Liu added a handful of firewood into the stove very attentively.

Su Nuan felt a little guilty. She had deliberately made the chili peppers so spicy. Eating too much chili peppers would cause diarrhea. She didn't believe that these three people would still watch her when she had diarrhea.

The peppers were being fried hot in the kitchen and the smell was wafting far away.

And this house hidden at the foot of the mountain welcomed two guests.

Chu Qi escaped from the Prince's Mansion and wandered around the Imperial City the next day.

At first, he wanted to go to the UBS Building to find the shopkeeper Chen, because he had an unfinished item and needed tools and a place to work. However, when he arrived at the UBS Building, he found that the shopkeeper had been replaced by someone else.

He didn't recognize the new shopkeeper, so naturally, the other people didn't recognize him either, so he had to leave in disappointment.

After wandering around the imperial city for a day, I found an inn to stay in at night.

But that night, something strange happened.

I don’t know who lives next door to the inn. He kept knocking on the wall all night. The sound was neither loud nor soft, but it was very annoying to hear.

Chu Qi tried to communicate with that person, but got no response.

In desperation, he had to ask the innkeeper to solve the problem.

As a result, as soon as the shopkeeper arrived, there was no movement next door.

The second half of the night was peaceful.

But before dawn in the morning, the annoying knocking sound on the wall came again.