Reborn as a concubine's sister, the eldest lady went crazy

With the addition of Xu Yixing's luggage and dress, the atmosphere of being alone was lessened.

"This room is well decorated. Thank you for your hard work."

Xu Yixing was originally thinking about what kind of pattern to put on the window, and turned around and said to him: "Your house is too plain. I have never seen a prince live in such a plain house. It will look much better if you tidy it up."

“Yeah…” Lu Anyuan neither objected nor affirmed. He just hurriedly ate the dinner that he had missed, and carefully instructed Xu Yixing about tomorrow’s itinerary.

"Tomorrow we have to go to our father's place first. The queen should be with him. After listening to the queen's instructions, we will go to the queen mother's palace. In addition, Concubine Ying has given me a man, so I have to go to her palace to pay my respects this time. It should be over in one morning."

When Xu Yixing heard that he was going to Concubine Ying's palace, his mind started spinning a bit: "What if Concubine Ying asks you why you didn't take the person she gave you into your room? How should I answer?"

"This is easy. Just say you are jealous and don't allow it!" Lu Anyuan held Xu Yixing's face in his hands, pinching it to make it round and plump, and it was very easy to play with.

"Bah!" Xu Yixing struggled out, a little unhappy. "Since you have to go to the palace tomorrow morning, go to bed early, so you don't have to wake up tomorrow."

"How could that be? I will call you on time."

Lu Anyuan stepped forward, picked up Xu Yixing from the chair, and walked to the bed in two or three steps: "I will be careful tonight, don't worry."

It has to be said that Lu Anyuan is indeed a man of his word. The next morning, when Xu Yixing was sleeping soundly, he woke him up to dress up.

Even though he was extremely unhappy, Xu Yixing had no way to vent his feelings.

Fortunately, when a younger generation visits an elder, they have to wait until the emperor leaves court before they can enter the palace to meet him. Otherwise, they would have to get up early and be exhausted.

Today, he did not use a carriage to enter the palace, but instead used a sedan chair, which was carried all the way from the Seventh Prince's Mansion to the gate of the palace, which was some distance away from the Linding Hall where the emperor was sitting.

The two of them walked on the uncomfortable corridor of the palace. The morning sun stretched their shadows long, like a group of little people performing a puppet show.

Xu Yixing had never had the opportunity to observe the emperor up close before. Now that he saw him, he found that the emperor looked... just two eyes, a mouth, a nose and two ears. He did not look like the one in the minds of the people of Daxia, with golden light and auspicious clouds.

The emperor was quite satisfied with Xu Yixing. He encouraged him casually with a few words and then gave Lu Anyuan some bland instructions. The meeting ended quickly.

When the two came out of the Linde Hall, Xu Yixing felt like he was dreaming.

"Is this the end of the meeting?"

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Lu Anyuan straightened his robe, which was wrinkled from sitting down. "The royal family relationship must be different from your family. You can't expect the queen to pull you and me in one hand and say something sentimental, right?"

Xu Yixing pursed her lips. She didn't think so. She just felt that the way the emperor and his son got along was really weird. They only saw each other during court sessions every day. When he finally had time to see him again, he was so cold.

She was really curious. She didn't know that the second prince lived in the palace and met the emperor every day. What an embarrassing scene it would be.

The Yian Hall was exactly the same as the last time I came here. The only difference was that the leaves had turned dark green and were no longer as tender as they were in spring.

The Queen Mother was still benign and bewildered, but this time she did not recognize Xu Yiyan's face as Xu Yixing's. Perhaps she also knew that Xu Yixing was dead.

Before leaving, the empress dowager even gave the young couple a hundred-year-old purple ginseng. Her expression was exactly the same as that of an old lady in the countryside looking at her eldest grandson.

This time after Xu Yixing came out, he didn't bother to say anything. Anyway, this was the procedure. After going to Concubine Ying's palace, today's mission would be completed.

But unexpectedly, Lu Anyuan walked directly to the palace gate and was about to take her to the sedan chair. Xu Yixing reacted belatedly and said, "Aren't we still going to Concubine Ying's palace?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that Concubine Ying is not available today, so you don't have to go." Lu Anyuan smiled faintly, stretched out his hand to pull Xu Yixing onto the sedan chair, and the two sat side by side and returned to the mansion.

It was not until they left the palace that Lu Anyuan spoke softly, "Madam, something happened at Concubine Ying's home."

Huh? Xu Yixing was drowsy at first, but upon hearing this exciting good news, he immediately sat up straight: "What what?"

"You know that Concubine Ying has a brother who is now the prefect of Suzhou, right?"

"I've heard of it, but I've also heard from many people that the emperor gave him the title of Suzhou prefect because of Concubine Ying's favor, otherwise it wouldn't have been his turn."

Xu Yixing opened his twinkling eyes full of curiosity and looked at Lu Anyuan with anticipation.

"Indeed. Concubine Ying was not of high birth. Her late father was originally a minor county magistrate in Suzhou and Hangzhou. Later, when Concubine Ying became favored, he was gradually promoted. However, he died within a few years, leaving only one brother in the family."

Xu Yixing nodded. It seemed that Concubine Ying and her brother must have a deep brotherly love. Wouldn’t all the wealth and honor fall into the hands of her brother?

"So it was her brother who got into trouble this time?"

"Yes. In fact, her brother had been serving as governor of Jizhou, which is close to Kyoto. He was promoted to an external post in the summer and went to Suzhou."

Huh? Xu Yixing thought about it and realized that something was wrong.

Although Jizhou is not as rich as Suzhou, it is a first-class province in terms of population and grain production, and it is also a major military province, right next to the capital. Being the governor of Jizhou and the prefect of Suzhou is considered a half-level promotion, but it is completely unnecessary.

"Is there any explanation for her brother's strange behavior?"

"Hehe." Lu Anyuan reached out and rubbed Xu Yixing's head, but her hair was full of jewels and there was no place to start. "You forgot, the reason is what you said at the beginning, it was after the land clearing case."

Xu Yixing rolled his eyes and suddenly realized: "I remember you said that the Second Prince cleaned up his land early and let him out. Is it because of this incident?"

"He was really smart. After the Qingdi case was completely over, the emperor rewarded his uncle for his merits and promoted him to the prefect of Suzhou."

"It turns out that it was a promotion in name only and a demotion in reality."

"Yes, that's what they call being too clever."

"So what happened?"

"Her brother had only been in Suzhou for three months when the Suzhou governor reported him to the capital, accusing him of withholding money from water conservancy projects and extorting money from merchants. The emperor was very angry and has sent people to Suzhou to conduct a thorough investigation. His official position has now been temporarily suspended and he is being replaced by the prefect of Hangzhou."

"Wow! There is actually such a thing!" Xu Yixing was secretly happy. This really held the Second Prince back. No wonder Concubine Ying lost her composure like that.