jdhmnovel Chapter 322 Hongli's Reluctance
Chapter 322 Hongli's Reluctance
After Li Yu left, Yu Ying'er carefully wiped Hongli's red and swollen knees with a handkerchief dipped in cold water, for fear of hurting him.
"Master, please have a cup of hot tea to warm yourself up first. I will bring the meal over."
Yu Ying'er lowered her head and placed a cup of tea in Hongli's hand.
At the beginning, she chose to follow the kind-hearted Fourth Prince without hesitation, and gradually realized from his words and actions that he was not a man who was content with being ordinary.
Whenever the emperor brought his people to the garden to escape the summer heat, her heart would be in her throat.
It was not until the Fourth Prince had a conflict with the adopted Third Prince and was injured on the face that she found an opportunity to catch his eye.
A prince with facial blemishes is destined to have no chance of becoming the emperor, and will not be suppressed by other concubines and princes.
Yu Ying'er secretly thought that if the Fourth Prince stayed obediently in Changchun Garden, it would be the best outcome if he could obtain the status of prince after the new emperor ascended the throne.
But the death of the Queen Mother disrupted their peaceful life.
When the Fourth Prince learned from the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict that the Emperor had summoned him back to the palace to keep vigil over the Empress Dowager's wake, Yu Ying'er saw the scorching light bursting out of his eyes.
I don’t know whether entering the palace this time is good or bad.
Yu Ying'er tiptoed out of the door. Boiling white porridge was cooking on the clay stove in the small room.
She skillfully poured the shredded radish sent from the kitchen into the pot, stirred it a few times, and a pot of salty porridge was ready.
Those dogs and slaves in the Imperial Household Department were opportunists. A prince whose mother was of humble origin and was disliked by the emperor would naturally not be taken seriously.
What was served for dinner was a piece of cake, a bowl of rice, a plate of dry snacks and a plate of shredded radish of unknown color.
Smelling the salty aroma coming from the casserole, Yu Ying'er brought the casserole into the house.
Hongli, who was very hungry, grabbed the bowl and started eating, drinking the whole pot of shredded radish porridge with the warm bread.
Only then did he turn his attention to the people who were attending him.
"Ying'er, have you and Li Yuke had dinner?"
"My Lord, I have already eaten the brown rice and boiled cabbage prepared by the kitchen."
Yu Ying'er didn't hide anything.
The common meals that palace ladies ate in winter included steamed buns, brown rice, and boiled vegetables, which were nothing compared to the treatment they received in Changchun Garden.
If you can't get the meals you want, you can have someone send you some fruits and vegetables from a nearby farm.
Yu Ying'er applied cold water to her master's knees and then stood up to clean up the dishes.
After she left, Hongli slammed his fist on the couch. While keeping vigil in Shoukang Palace, he accidentally heard Hongyao whispering to Concubine Shu that he wanted to eat mixed vegetables, mushroom buns, vegetarian stuffed tofu boxes and osmanthus cake for dinner.
But his dinner was almost the same as that of the servants in the palace, which was simply too much.
Earlier, after the emperor ascended the throne, the servants in Changchun Garden did not dare to be too harsh on him because he had no children.
Later, he was fortunate enough to enter the garden, and the servants' attitude towards him changed greatly.
Until his face was disfigured by the idiot Hongshi and he returned to Changchun Garden in a mess, everything was back to square one.
All the hard work he put into studying privately and the connections he had built up over the years were basically destroyed.
After half a year of living in a daze and drunkenness, Li Yu, who had served him since he was a child, said that the emperor had fewer than one prince on his palm.
Moreover, children raised in the harem are prone to death, so she begged him not to give up on her.
After a night of cold wind, Hongli wrote a memorial to the emperor, requesting him to assign him a martial arts master.
Although no other words were heard in the palace, his servants in Changchun Garden had eyes.
From then on, Hongli sent letters to his father from time to time, and occasionally received one or two replies.
You can also receive rewards from the palace before festivals.
Before entering the palace, Hongli thought it would be nice to live his life like that.
But after seeing his father surrounded by beauties and with ministers submitting to him, Hongli's resentment surfaced again.
Hongli pressed his red and swollen knee hard, causing him to hiss in pain.
The pain sobered him up, and he began to analyze the current situation.
The seventh brother has a mental problem, the eighth brother is obsessed with food, and only the sixth brother looks relatively stable.
If these three younger brothers were gone, would the emperor be able to see his existence?
The First Emperor Feng Zhun, the Hongwu Emperor had faces full of black spots, and the late Emperor had a face full of pockmarks. Don’t these three people have facial defects?
What’s the harm in having another masked emperor like him?
The more Hongli thought about it, the more it made sense.
But his background has always been a big problem.
It seems that he wants to take advantage of this funeral to find himself a foster mother with a good background.
Shu Guifei, who came from a humble background, had two sons, and this person was not among his considerations.
The families of Concubine Hua and Concubine Hui, who only had princesses, did have some power, but they both came from the Han army flag.
Concubine Jing, who raised the Seventh Prince, has always lived in seclusion and is not favored by the Emperor, so this is not acceptable either.
After much deliberation, Hongli still felt that Concubine Lan, who came from a prominent family, was the most suitable.
He had to plan carefully.
After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, Hongli shouted outside.
"Yu Ying'er, is Li Yu back?"
"Master, I will go and take a look."
Yu Ying'er hadn't seen Li Yu come back for a long time, and she had already understood something in her heart.
Not long after she went out with the lantern, she found Li Yu crying quietly at the corner of the palace wall not far away.
"Quickly tidy up your appearance. If someone sees you, it will bring trouble to the master."
Yu Ying'er reminded quietly.
She hesitated for a moment and handed over the handkerchief.
"Didn't you go to the Imperial Hospital to look for some ointment? But what trouble did you run into?"
"Madam Yu, the guards at the gate said the palace gates are closed and told us to go to the Imperial Hospital early tomorrow morning to get medicine."
"The servant told me the master's identity, but they still said the same thing."
Li Yu complained indignantly.
Except for the time when his face was injured, the master had never suffered such hardship.
"Little Li, this is the palace rule. Tomorrow morning, as soon as the palace gates open, you will go and ask the imperial physician to come and examine the master."
Yu Ying'er comforted softly.
The Fourth Prince had no support from his maternal family and could only survive on the meager salary.
Since Little Leo had no money to reward him, the guards' attitude was naturally not going to be good.
Before entering the main hall, Yu Ying'er touched the tree in the yard a few times and made two hard snowballs.
The sound of the door curtain being lifted woke Hongli up. He looked up and found that the person coming was Yu Ying'er, so he looked away again.
Yu Ying'er, holding the snowball, approached silently and rolled the round snowball on her swollen knees without saying a word.
"Yu Ying'er, where's Li Yuren?"
"Master, he failed to find the ointment for you and is kneeling outside the door to apologize."
Yu Ying'er replied in a low voice.
She had been with the Fourth Prince for quite some time and knew that he was a moody person.
Li Yu's incompetence is a manifestation of his master's unfavorability. Yu Ying'er doesn't know how the Fourth Prince will react.
She didn't dare to plead for Li Yu at all.