The beauty of the Hou family and the king's plan

The Mansion of the Duke of Lu is the hereditary residence of the Duke, located near Central Street at the north gate of the imperial city.

The Duke's Mansion was the residence of a princess of the previous dynasty. It covers a very large area, occupying one-third of Chang'an Avenue.

In Kyoto, where every inch of land is valuable, it is difficult to find such a magnificent house unless it is owned by an old family or the current royal family.

The blue bricks and gray tiles, the eaves stand out gracefully, and the three-room gate with animal heads has two huge pillars in front of it, which looks majestic and solemn.

When ordinary people passed by, they would deliberately speed up their pace to avoid accidentally colliding with the nobles.

But at this moment, there were many people watching at the door.

I saw a man and a woman in bright red dresses being thrown in front of the gate of the Duke's Mansion.

When the gatekeeper at the corner gate recognized the man with a face covered in dust as his own son, he quickly ran into the courtyard to report. No one was bothered to chase the thief.

The woman was still sitting on the ground, motionless. The man was in so much pain that he had no strength to struggle and lay on the ground like a dead dog.

People around were pointing and talking.

"What's going on? Isn't the Duke's Mansion marrying the Crown Prince's wife today? Aren't the two people on the ground the Duke of Lu's Crown Prince and his bride?"

“Needless to say, the bridal sedan had just left the Ning’an Marquis’s residence when it encountered thieves.

The bride and groom were abducted, and the Wucheng Bingmasi were searching everywhere for them. Who would have thought that they were sent back again? "The person who said this must be well-informed.

"Wow, the young lady from the Marquis's Mansion is so beautiful, with that snow-white neck." Someone in the crowd made an inappropriate exclamation.

Many men turned their eyes to Shen Yan after hearing this. But after all, it was at the gate of the Duke's Mansion, so no one dared to do anything.

Within the time it took for a stick of incense to burn, the steward of the Duke's Mansion came out in a hurry.

The servants carried Chen Ke on their backs and walked in. The old woman also helped Shen Yan, who was still sitting on the ground.

Today was the prince's wedding, and the main door was open. At this time, the Duke's Mansion closed all the doors, even the corner doors.

The onlookers dispersed immediately. There will be more things to talk about in Kyoto's teahouses tomorrow.

Chen Ke is the biological son of the wife of the Duke of Lu. When the wife of the Duke of Lu, Gu, saw her son being carried back with more breathing out than breathing in, she almost fainted.

Duke Lu hurried home after receiving the news, bringing with him the imperial physician from the Imperial Hospital.

The imperial physician was treating the patient in the inner room, while Gu leaned on her maid, holding a handkerchief and crying. Shen Yan sat aside like a log, silent.

Duke Lu paced back and forth in the hall, angrily scolding, "Okay, stop crying."

After a while, the imperial physician came out, bowed to Duke Lu, and said carefully: "The prince is safe. I prescribed a few doses of medicine, take them first. He should wake up tonight."

After hearing the imperial physician's words, the Duke of Lu and his wife breathed a sigh of relief.

"But the tendons and bones in both legs are broken. I'm afraid it will be difficult to recover as before." The imperial physician was afraid that the Duke of Lu and his wife would find it difficult to accept, so he said something nice.

As soon as these words came out, Gu started to cry again. Duke Lu's face turned pale. This son could not even inherit the title, let alone go to the battlefield.

However, although Duke Lu was sad, he was not as grief-stricken as Gu. He had more than one son, so he would definitely not lose his title.

"Stop crying and think about what to do now. The daughter of Ningyuan Marquis's Mansion hasn't married Ke'er yet. Whether we send her back or something, we have to come up with a plan." Duke Lu said.

Gu glanced at Duke Lu's expression and probably felt that crying would be useless.

Thinking of his son's current situation, he looked at Shen Yan again. The child seemed a little scared and hadn't come back to his senses yet.

But it doesn’t matter, the wedding should still go on, because the girl from Ningyuan Marquis’s mansion is the younger sister of Concubine Shu, the most favored lady in the palace.

If Ke'er's leg cannot be healed, he will never be able to marry a girl of such good family background and appearance.

Gu stood up and told the housekeeper, "Take the prince's wife away and continue the wedding."

The old woman looked at Gu with embarrassment and said in a low voice: "I'm afraid the prince can't get married right now."

Gu pondered for a moment and remembered that many families wanted to bring good luck to the bride and groom, so if the groom was unable to get up, they would ask his brothers to bow in the hall on his behalf.

She did have two legitimate sons, but the remaining youngest son was not yet an adult.

Under the current circumstances, it is not known whether he can keep his position as the Crown Prince. He is even more unwilling to let other illegitimate sons take over to replace Chen Ke.

So, he told his wife, "What are you afraid of? Use a rooster instead."

The maids didn't dare to offend their master again, so they went downstairs to prepare.

By the time the news reached Ning'an Marquis' Mansion, it was already dusk.

The wind made the swing in Zhaoming Garden swing, the window of the study was open, the blue curtains trembled slightly, and Shen Baozhao was practicing calligraphy in the study with great concentration.

Hearing the fluttering sound, Shen Baozhao rubbed his wrist, looked up and saw Xiaobai pacing on the window frame. Baozhao walked over and it was not afraid.

I took the note off my feet and opened it. The handwriting was still the same as last time.

It reads "Shen Yan is pregnant, Chen Ke's legs are disabled."

Shen Baozhao pinched the note and guessed that this person was the one who kidnapped Shen Yan and Chen Ke.

Otherwise, knowing that Chen Ke had broken his legs was easy, and also knowing that Shen Yan was pregnant, that would be unusual.

Although both times were warnings and reminders, they were released with good intentions and did not seem to conflict with themselves.

But this person is hiding in the dark, so you need to be careful when you act.

Baozhao then took out a piece of paper, wrote a line of words, and stuffed it into Xiaobai's bamboo tube.

Prince Huai's Palace.

In the study, Xiao Yuanhuai was stroking the note sent back by Xiaobai. There was only one sentence on it: "You gave me a papaya, but I don't have a jade pendant."

Could it be that this little girl meant that I was being too sentimental and shouldn't even think about her repaying me?

Are you really keeping people at a distance?

Whatever, he didn't ask for anything in return. With him around, he would definitely not let her make the same mistake again.

Otherwise, the memories of that life will be like a long dream. What is the point?

Xiao Yuanhuai didn't know what he remembered, and he raised the corners of his lips and smiled slightly.

An Yi, who was standing by, thought he had seen it wrong. When did his master smile so gently?

Even though it was only a moment, it was extremely rare. For a moment, I even forgot what I was going to report.

"An Yi, the Duke of Lu will lead his troops to Hengyu Pass tomorrow.

Inform the deputy commander of Hengyu Pass that he must not act on his own and must obey the orders of the Duke of Lu. "The deputy commander of Hengyu Pass, Yuwen Fei, was a general promoted by King Huai.

An nodded and said angrily: "The Northern Di had been defeated years ago. We just need to pursue them and push them back fifty miles.

I never thought that the emperor would be so wary of the prince that he would rather keep the Beidi as a threat than allow the prince to return to the court. This is to prevent the prince from getting military merit."

"Now they are just a few small teams of Northern Di, and we can easily deal with them. This is a gift to the Duke of Lu and his son, but it's a pity that the Duke of Lu's son is not blessed enough to enjoy it." An Yi snorted.

Xiao Yuanhuai didn't care about what An Yi said. If the things in the previous life didn't happen again, Dali would have a strong army and horses, and the people would live and work in peace. There would be nothing wrong with being an idle prince.