In the imperial palace.
Night after night of revelry and song.
Heir Apparent Han returned home, and his father learned that he had brought back another woman, and this time even brought a child directly.
He was left speechless.
What a foul habit, ignoring his newly wedded wife.
As it turned out, he didn't touch the woman who brought the child either, giving her a separate courtyard and hiring a bunch of old nannies to take care of them.
The Imperial Son-in-law couldn't help but ask who this woman was.
Upon learning that this time it was the eldest daughter-in-law of Old Lady Jiang, the lawfully wedded wife of Jiang Huaisheng named Wu, he nearly fainted from anger.
He grabbed a whip and charged towards the Young Master.
The Young Master ran, sprinting all the way to the imperial palace.
He sought help from his Uncle, the Emperor.
The Emperor, after hearing the whole story, also had a headache.
Originally, he had intended to compensate the former Grand Preceptor Jiang. Since the man had passed, letting his son take an official position would fulfill his wish.
The Emperor didn't want to harbor grudges or feel guilty.
But Jiang Er had actually rebelled, and this time he accepted amnesty and became a Commander.
Others could rebel, but the Jiang family couldn't.
He didn't care about their twists and turns, filial piety or lack thereof. The fact that the Jiang family rebelled was a betrayal of his trust.
He no longer mentioned bringing the Jiang family back.
His nephew had indeed acted outrageously this time, abducting someone's wife and child.
He had originally wanted the Jiang family to return, but now the thought irritated him. However, the wife and daughter were innocent.
It seemed to be a girl from the Wu family; he had briefly discussed it with Grand Preceptor Jiang before.
"Outrageous, utterly outrageous," the Emperor was at a loss for words regarding this matter.
Heir Apparent Han, seeing that his Uncle wasn't truly angry, quickly said, "That Wu is a good girl. Jiang Huaisheng beat her, and she tried to flee to the County Government Office at night with her child for shelter. I was staying at the County Government Office and caught her by mistake. Uncle, why don't you bestow her to me as a Secondary Consort? I opened my eyes and there was already a child, ready-made. I quite like little girls too. In the future, my household will have two sons and a daughter. How lively it will be with so many people."
The Emperor: ... A good girl running out in the middle of the night.
The Imperial Son-in-law: ... A good girl running to your bed.
So, the Crown Prince's Mansion gained a Secondary Consort for the Young Master.
The Capital City had another piece of gossip: the Heir Apparent Han had become a father again.
However, gossip in the capital updated quickly, and this matter didn't circulate for long before being replaced by something else.
Wu was very anxious for a while in the Crown Prince's Mansion.
There were too many people in the Young Master's inner court, making it very complicated.
She was very afraid and stayed behind closed doors to take care of her child.
At most, she would go when summoned by the Young Master's wife.
Most of the time, she just stayed behind closed doors with her child.
Wu's mother and elder sister also came to visit once.
The three women hugged and cried bitterly.
They never thought they would see each other again in this lifetime.
And when they did, it was under such circumstances.
Wu was originally the youngest daughter in the family, and actually hadn't changed much upon seeing them again.
Her mother and elder sister had aged considerably.
Her mother said she was foolish, had been foolish since childhood, and was even more foolish now.
Her elder sister told her, "It's good, you finally used your brain for once. This counts as returning to the capital. Just focus on raising your child."
"This child looks intelligent and beautiful. You'll have good fortune in your later years. Don't think too much. Since things are already like this, just focus on raising the child. Don't fight or struggle, just concentrate on bringing up the child."
The mother and daughter tried hard to talk about how adorable little Shushu was, trying not to mention the other two children or Jiang Huaisheng.
They cried once when they arrived.
They cried again when they left.
Although they cried, they felt that having her before their eyes, alive, was better than anything.
Eunuch Duan, having attended the wedding, also tottered back.
Although he had been abandoned by Heir Apparent Han, and although Meng Young General wasn't going back, he still had to return.
Upon returning to the palace, the Emperor summoned him once more.
The Emperor was curious about what was going on with the Meng family's Meng Shaoxia.
He went to offer amnesty but ended up marrying the daughter of a rebel and staying for three years.
Could it be that he was planning to rebel along with them?
Meng Qingshe had previously come to the palace to seek instructions.
The Meng family had always been known for their frank and straightforward demeanor.
It was as if the children had grown up under the Emperor's nose, saying whatever came to mind.
The first time Meng Shaoxia went out traveling with a good friend and returned, Meng Qingshe complained to the Emperor.
That child said he had fallen in love at first sight with some girl and wanted to marry her.
It scared his mother so much that they had us pack the child off to the army overnight, saying he needed to suffer some hardship to come to his senses.
The Emperor laughed and asked, "Young love, look how scared you all are. If he likes her, just let him marry her, what's the problem?"
Meng Qingshe waved his hands repeatedly: "We have a fierce woman at home, we wouldn't dare."
This piqued the Emperor's curiosity, and he sent people to investigate what kind of girl could inspire love at first sight.
Then he learned about Grand Preceptor Jiang's family affairs.
It was said that after Grand Preceptor Jiang's death, there was unrest in the inner court.
Jiang's second son was very improper and was expelled from the family for being unfilial and disrespectful.
The Emperor found it amusing for a while. He remembered that Jiang's second son and the Young Master were born around the same time, one right after the other.
As he laughed, he found he couldn't laugh anymore.
His own nephew, this little devil, would have been expelled from an ordinary family eight hundred times over by now.
The children born during this period seemed to have issues with their birth times, none of them were any good.
This time, Meng Shaoxia was sent to offer amnesty.
Meng Qingshe came to the palace again to beg forgiveness.
With a heap of matters in the court, this useless Meng Qingshe, unlike his father Old General Meng, came to trouble the Emperor with every tiny family matter.
Meng Shaoxia wanted to marry the girl.
It was the daughter of Jiang Er, the rebel who had just accepted amnesty.
If it weren't for the previous context, the Emperor might have truly thought the Meng family harbored rebellious intentions.
But the person was still the same person, just their status had changed, and now it had changed again. They had accepted amnesty, so they could be considered half-affiliated with the court now.
Young Meng had liked the same person from beginning to end, and hadn't changed his mind due to the changes in the other party's family circumstances.
The Emperor wanted to say, only your Meng family has so many issues, just beat him and it'll be fine.
But thinking about it, Meng Shaoxia had probably been beaten countless times in the army, he really did have thick skin.
It seemed that persisting to the end, being single-minded, was the Meng family's style. This was very Meng-like.
As for marrying the girl and having to stay at his father-in-law's house for three years, this kind of outrageous thing didn't sound so outrageous anymore.
Eunuch Duan very officially described Meng Young General's wedding in a narrative style.
"It was lively, with many people. In the middle of the night, Meng Young General took his bride to the kitchen to steal food. Qin thought thieves had broken in and almost knocked Meng Young General unconscious. Early the next morning, Meng Young General had a big bump on his forehead. Meng Young General was also scolded by his father-in-law Jiang Er, telling him to exercise restraint."
Eunuch Duan's words made Meng Qingshe's face twitch.
They made the Emperor laugh so hard he was twitching.
The eunuchs and palace maids who could hear nearby all revealed knowing smiles.
Lord Yan, who had secured his high position with his first-class singing voice, wore magnificent theatrical costumes and was one of only two people sitting in the scene.
The other was the Emperor.
While Eunuch Duan was reporting, everyone else was listening attentively.
Only he was checking his theatrical costume, leisurely arranging his hair.
Extremely arrogant.
Yet the Emperor currently favored this style.
After talking about Meng Shaoxia's wedding and embarrassing incidents, Eunuch Duan mentioned another matter. Someone impersonating the Seventh Prince went to pick up Jiang Er's mother and elder brother. Jiang Er couldn't bear to let his mother leave, so he went to snatch her back. His elder brother and niece even attended Jiang Er's daughter's wedding.
The Emperor wasn't very interested in other people's family affairs.
Moreover, his own nephew had just snatched someone else's wife, making him feel inexplicably guilty. So he let this matter pass, not wanting to hear about it.
The Emperor turned to ask Lord Yan, "Wenxin, look at this, this line, should we change it? Should we change 'pick flowers' to 'pick flowers, ah'? It sounds smoother this way."
That's right.
Yan Jiexi had changed his name to Yan Wenxin.
It was quite amusing for a eunuch without testicles to be called Wenxin.
He had been mocked for this name for a long time when he first entered the palace.
But now no one dared to laugh at him.
Lord Yan sang two passages on the spot.
Impromptu.
Far-reaching and vivid.
After singing, he frowned and said, "The latter one. The lingering charm of 'ah' is better."
"Good, then let's go with 'pick flowers, ah'. Come, Wenxin, let's sing a passage together."
The Emperor abandoned Meng Qingshe, Eunuch Duan, and a pile of official business to go sing opera.
Today, Lord Yan sang exceptionally well.
Tears welled up in the man's eyes, suspended but not falling, incredibly moving.
"All is well at home, conditions are better than before. If you're not happy out there, you can come back anytime," Eunuch Duan relayed this sentence to him as soon as he returned.
"Alas, the sad wind shakes the ears of grain, come back, ah, soul come back, ah..."
The Emperor excitedly beat the drum himself.
"Beautiful."
