Husband, please lend me your virtues

临朝

In the 25th year of Fengyuan, foreign countries invaded. Wen Shao, a young general from Weiyuan General's Mansion, was ordered by the emperor to go to war with foreign countries and beat them into pieces.

Unfortunately, Wen Shao, who had won many battles despite his young age, fell into a trap in the last battle and disappeared in the desert with the raiding soldiers.

After many days of searching, the soldiers only found Wen Shao's armor, which was stained with blood, a severed finger, and the mutilated bodies of the attacking soldiers. They concluded that Wen Shao was killed after being tricked, and his body was then swallowed by wild beasts.

When the news of Wen Shao's murder reached the court, the emperor was deeply saddened and suspended court for three days.

At this time, the Northern Di people, who were far away in the barbarian land, took the opportunity to write a letter, hoping to ask for the princess of Dalin to marry their Khan.

The current emperor has five daughters and one son. The eldest son, eldest daughter and second daughter are all born to the empress. Except for the second daughter, all of them are married.

The second daughter, Zhuang Zijin, had also been engaged. She was to the young general Wen Shao. However, Wen Shao grew up with his father at the border and had been fighting for many years. He had no time to go to the capital, so his marriage with Zhuang Zijin was delayed.

Zhuang Zijin had no other feelings for her fiancé whom she had never met, except for admiration for his efforts in defending her country, and she had no intention of staying by his side.

Bei Di's request to marry a princess at this time was clearly for Princess Changning. After all, among the emperor's five princesses, she was the only one who was over 20 years old and still unmarried.

Zhuang Zijin originally planned to ask for another marriage decree for himself so that he wouldn't have to suffer in the wilderness.

But she recently encountered a very strange thing. A play appeared next to her out of nowhere. I don’t know which bold scholar dared to make up a story about her and several sisters, describing them as good-for-nothing, domineering and jealous people.

How ridiculous!

Her elder sister, Princess Le'an, was born to the same mother as her and was three years older than her. She had been married for five years. Although she and her husband were in love, they treated each other with respect. How could she beat and scold her husband and murder his family as shown in the opera?

The remaining three sisters were one or two years younger than her. Although they had the arrogance of princesses after marriage, they were not as bad as those in the operas, who would indulge evil slaves to whip the prince consort and kill the girl who had an affair with the prince consort in the street.

As for her, it is even more impossible that she is the second princess in the opera who was played around by her husband's family. How could she fall in love with the son of a mere imperial merchant, not only marry him but also try to visit her mother-in-law every morning and evening like an ordinary daughter-in-law?

He was just a small imperial merchant who not only dared to ask for marriage by using favors, but also dared to criticize the princess.

He used the princess's power to save his brother who should have been exiled, but not only was he ungrateful, he even wanted to divorce his wife for disrespecting his elders.

It was also reported that the princess was domineering and if his family had not been in trouble, they would have avoided her as much as possible. The reputation of her sisters being domineering was also spread by the Qian family.

Their Dalin was not like the previous dynasty. The prince consort was not allowed to enter the court and hold real power. The aristocratic families were even proud to marry a princess.

How could the Qian family's words bring about the ruin of the reputation of the royal princess and even implicate her royal brother's daughter?

No matter whether they were from noble families or common people, they all regarded Princess Shang as a disaster?

How ridiculous!

Zhuang Zijin threw the play into the charcoal basin and burned it. She waved away the remaining paper scraps in her hand. She was still upset, so she called in her two personal maids.

"Danqin, Danqiao, go find out who wrote the play that was just placed next to my bed."

"Bring him before me."

She wanted to let this stupid author know the royal majesty, who dared to write their sisters' names and titles into the play and discredit the royal family.

"Princess, what kind of play is this? I have never seen it before."

Danqin looked puzzled. There were many palace maids in the princess' bedroom, but the inner room where the princess lived had always been cleaned by her and Danqiao themselves, and they never allowed other palace maids to enter the princess' inner room.

How could she not know that there was a playbook lying beside the princess' bed?

Did Danqin take the folk storybook to the princess to seek credit when she wasn't paying attention?

Danqiao felt Danqin's suspicious look and she immediately said, "Princess, I have never seen a play on your bed."

She really has never seen it!

"Isn't that right? You two take care of my bed, and you don't even know there's something extra on it."

Zhuang Zijin was already angry at the play that made fun of her sisters, and now she was surprised that the two personal palace maids in front of her could be so careless.

"There are still some unburned fragments in the charcoal basin. Go forward and take a good look."

She became even angrier and slapped the table, motioning for the two of them to come forward and take a look at the remaining fragments that had not yet been completely burned.

Danqin and Danqiao knelt down immediately after hearing this, and stepped forward to take a look at the charcoal basin. They both shouted out in surprise at the same time:

"Princess, there are only burning charcoals inside, not the fragments you mentioned."

The two of them wondered in their hearts, could it be that the princess was imaginary? There was nothing else in this charcoal basin.

"how is this possible?"

Zhuang Zijin exclaimed, and asked Danqiao to go out and call some palace maids in, and let them take a look at the fragments on the charcoal basin. They all said that there was nothing in it except burnt charcoal and burning charcoal.

Zhuang Zijin drove them all out, stared at the fragments in the charcoal basin for a long time, and even picked up the fragments on the side with his hands.

She could clearly feel the touch of the paper in her hand, and it was a little hot, so strange!

Zhuang Zijin had doubts in her heart, but she did not dwell on them. She did not believe that her future would be tormented by her husband's family to the point where she would lose the pride of a princess. She was determined to be a virtuous wife of the Qian family and use all her money to subsidize the Qian family's depressed princess.

But what happened next made Zhuang Zijin gradually believe the truth of the play.

There was no other reason, it was because no matter where Zhuang Zijin went, the play book would always appear beside her. Even if she burned it, cut it into pieces with scissors, or threw it into the lake, the play book would still appear beside her.

Zhuang Zijin also confirmed that only she could see the play. She waved the play in front of the palace maids and asked them what they were holding, but they could not see the play in her hands.

Recently, Zhuang Zijin caught a palace maid in Princess Changning's bedroom and asked her what she was holding in her hand, but the maid did not see anything in Princess Changning's hand. This matter alarmed the queen.

She summoned Zhuang Zijin to her palace and planned to ask the imperial physician to take a good look at her.