Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 1253 Zhen Huan Enlarged to 177

Jiang Xinxin was so absorbed in Daming Lake that she didn't notice that many incidents had occurred in the traveling team. When she came to her senses, things had already progressed to an old nanny kneeling before Emperor Qianlong, begging him to posthumously confer a title on Li Jingui, who had died in childbirth with the late emperor's fourth prince, in order to fulfill her filial piety.

Qianlong was the only master on his ship. The rest were either eunuchs or palace maids, or imperial guards who protected him. If others wanted to board the ship, they had to be summoned by him.

As soon as she got on the dragon boat, Jiang Xinxin already felt a murderous aura, and her heart suddenly shuddered.

Jianqiu lowered her voice and leaned close to Jiang Xinxin's ear to quickly report the recent events: "The Shandong officials prepared a lot of beauties for the emperor to present, but the emperor kept none of them. However, the news that some of them were skinny and even came from brothels has spread within a certain range."

"Not only did the concubines who came with him hear about it, but even the eldest princess heard about it. I heard that the eldest princess even went to the empress and cried during the days when the emperor went to Mount Tai."

Jiang Xinxin didn't have the chance to say anything as she had already entered the inner room of the dragon boat. She saw Qianlong staring at an old woman kneeling on the ground below with a look of surprise on his face.

The moment Qianlong saw Jiang Xinxin, he stood up and walked quickly to her side, kneeling down to salute. Jiang Xinxin pulled him up, and Qianlong supported Jiang Xinxin and helped her sit down.

Looking at the situation, Jiang Xinxin guessed that Qianlong was definitely not just thinking about the rumors or the fact that the rumors affected Jingse, there must be other reasons.

Qianlong seemed to have not thought clearly about how to start, so Jiang Xinxin started chatting: "The emperor went to Mount Tai, and he seems to be a little darker."

Qianlong had long discovered that Jiang Xinxin would prefer fair-skinned and good-looking young men. Hearing what Jiang Xinxin said, he couldn't help but laugh and replied embarrassedly, "Why is the Empress Dowager always thinking about this?"

Jiang Xinxin suddenly remembered the joke about her grandma's dream grandson, and she laughed, "You are still young, and you don't know the preferences of an elderly person like me."

"I just like good kids who are white, plump, have a good appetite and are not picky about food."

Qianlong always felt that he was being implicated, and he quickly defended himself: "My son is not picky about food. My son likes all the food that you, the Empress Dowager, send him."

The old nanny who had been kneeling on the ground and had not reacted, was overwhelmed by the deep affection between Jiang Xinxin and Qianlong. She raised her head and shouted at Qianlong at the top of her lungs: "Your Majesty, the Queen Mother is not your biological mother at all!"

"Your biological mother is Li Jingui from the Old Summer Palace!"

"She had a hard time carrying you, and suffered a lot in the Old Summer Palace. It's possible that the Empress Dowager, the wife of Prince Yong, also secretly attacked her!"

When Qianlong stopped the old lady, Jiang Xinxin was amused by her words. "To be honest, I really don't know where you came from."

"That's right. Although the Ministry of Internal Affairs has cleaned it up countless times, it's not that easy to clean it up even if someone is interested."

When Qianlong saw Jiang Xinxin paying attention to the old nanny, he actually regretted inviting her back from Daming Lake. He apologized to Jiang Xinxin with a sad face: "It's all my fault. I disturbed the Empress Dowager's interest and brought criticism from this servant to her."

Jiang Xinxin smiled at Qianlong in a soothing manner and signaled Jianqiu and Wang Qin to take their people down.

Jianqiu agreed immediately and was about to leave. Wang Qin was eager to leave at this moment. Perhaps when the old nanny appeared, he had thought of using Li Jingui to deepen his weight in Qianlong's heart. But when he saw that Qianlong listened to the old nanny's long talk and only ordered people to invite the Queen Mother Jiang Xinxin to come back, he was glad that he had no chance to speak before.

After the scene was cleared, Jiang Xinxin looked at the people kneeling below and said, "There is nothing wrong with the emperor's background. In fact, he is not the child born by Li Jingui at all. The emperor's biological mother is a commoner woman that the late emperor secretly brought back from Jiangnan. I have no way of knowing her name. The late emperor only said that the two of them had some true feelings for each other, but were blocked by reality and could not be together."

"As for the child that Li Jingui is pregnant with, the late emperor has no way of knowing whether it is the eighth brother or the ninth brother's child, but the incident when the late emperor was drunk and flirted with a palace maid in the Old Summer Palace was indeed a play arranged by the ninth brother himself, in order to undermine the late emperor's image in the eyes of the Holy Ancestor."

"At that time, my life was not easy. The Old Summer Palace was a garden bestowed by the Emperor Shengzu. Most of the servants there were slaves from the Imperial Household Department, and there were also some girls purchased from the public."

"But at that time when the battle for the throne was very intense, the late emperor's every move was closely watched by more than one force, so Li Jingui's origins can only be confirmed to be a Shandong refugee."

"The late emperor once told me that Li Jingui was extremely cunning. She replaced the people arranged by my eighth and ninth brothers to have sex with the late emperor, but the next day the late emperor arranged for the then chief steward Su Peisheng to give her a strong contraceptive soup. Su Peisheng even watched Li Jingui drink a whole bowl of contraceptive soup with his own eyes, and then left after nearly half an hour."

Qianlong had been stunned for a long time. He really didn't expect that his life experience would be so complicated.

The old lady kneeling on the ground couldn't help but stare in amazement.

Jiang Xinxin was very proud of herself when she saw this. She knew that all this fabrication would come in handy one day.

Jiang Xinxin's mood became better as she spoke. "But I didn't expect that three months later, the chief steward of Yuanmingyuan reported to the emperor that Li Jingui was three months pregnant. The late emperor was furious and even had Su Peisheng beaten. Then the late emperor followed the Holy Ancestor Mulan to hunt, and later made Concubine Yu pregnant with the prince in the Rehe Palace."

"The late emperor did not take action against Li Jingui. First, the Prince Lian's residence was keeping a close eye on her at that time. Second, it happened that the emperor's biological mother was also pregnant, and the babies were about the same month apart. At that time, the late emperor only hinted to me that he would keep the child born in the Old Summer Palace in the Old Summer Palace and would not easily bring him back to the palace."

"I didn't have a good impression of Li Jingui at the time. After all, because of her existence, not only was the late emperor criticized by the Holy Ancestor for this affair, but I was also ridiculed when I went out to visit other people. So I decided to take action against Li Jingui when she was giving birth."

"It's just that, at that time, all I could do was bribe the midwife. I didn't even know that no one had assigned a midwife to Li Jingui, so I spent a lot of money in vain, but in the end, all my tricks were useless."

"As for the late emperor, as the master of the Old Summer Palace, even though he decided to keep Li Jingui until she gave birth, he never thought of letting her live, so he deliberately ignored the matter of the midwife."

"Later, Li Jingui gave birth prematurely in the Old Summer Palace, but in fact, she did not die of dystocia and heavy bleeding. Instead, she lived to see the emperor's third birthday. Later, she was killed by the late emperor himself."

"From that time on, Li Jingui's child was replaced by the emperor. Although the child she gave birth to did not die prematurely, it was replaced by someone else on the night of delivery. The late emperor did not know who replaced the child at the time. Anyway, he had no way of being sure that the child in Li Jingui's belly was definitely his blood, so the child who was replaced died with Li Jingui."

"As for Li Jingui's biological son, the late emperor did not dare to take any action at the time, so naturally he did not know his whereabouts. But the late emperor also warned me that he had never lacked children, and if a person of unknown bloodline was born into the royal family, it would only be a disaster."