books44 Chapter 343 The Prince's Mystery: The Cannon Fodder Bride Forced into a Substitute Marquis'
Chapter 343 The Prince's Mystery: The Cannon Fodder Bride Forced into a Substitute Marquis'
When the three of them entered the villa and went to pay their respects to Princess Ning'an, Su Jinyue confirmed it.
Emperor Xinghe did not have many children. The two older princesses had already married, and the next ones were the eldest prince Tang Ruibin, the second prince Tang Ruijie, and the third prince Tang Ruiqian.
The eldest prince, Tang Ruibin, is 20 years old this year. He was born to the empress, but it is said that the empress's rise to power was not a glorious one.
It is said that when Emperor Xinghe was still the Crown Prince, he had not yet decided on a Crown Princess. When the Crown Prince attended a banquet, he accidentally had intimate relations with the Empress, who was then the daughter of an official. The Crown Prince was responsible and accepted her as his Crown Princess.
However, according to rumors, Emperor Xinghe was never very satisfied with the Empress. However, the Empress was quite fertile. After marrying Emperor Xinghe, although she was neglected for several years, she became pregnant during an occasional sexual encounter and gave birth to the eldest prince.
The second prince, Tang Ruijie, is 19 years old. His birth mother was a concubine from the former Crown Prince's residence.
The Empress's family background was not prominent, and when it came time to select a concubine for Emperor Xinghe, who was then the Crown Prince, the late Emperor had a great headache.
It's best if one's family background isn't higher than the Crown Princess's, otherwise it won't look good for either of them.
Therefore, the Second Prince's birth mother did not come from a high-ranking family, and she lived a very cautious life, whether in the Crown Prince's residence or the current palace.
Later, after Emperor Xinghe ascended the throne, in order to stabilize the court, he finally issued an edict to select two concubines from prominent families to enter the palace.
One was Qin Lanxi, the eldest daughter of Qin Wenzhong, the Crown Prince's tutor, Grand Secretary of the Inner Cabinet, and a first-rank Grand Academician, who was granted the title of Virtuous Consort.
One was Song Zhihua, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Wu'an, who rose to power through military achievements, and was granted the title of Consort De.
The third prince, Tang Ruiqian, was born to Consort Xian and is 18 years old this year.
As for Consort De, she also gave birth to a prince 18 years ago. However, in that year, Marquis Wu'an was guarding the border, but his soldiers risked their lives to send a message back to the capital, informing the emperor that Marquis Wu'an had colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country!
That year, the Marquis of Wu'an in the capital suffered a bloodbath, and Emperor Xinghe was furious, ordering the execution of the Marquis of Wu'an's entire clan.
Consort De pleaded for her family to no avail, and in the end, she embraced her newborn son and immolated herself in the palace.
From then on, Consort De became a taboo in the palace and even the entire capital.
Su Jinyue watched coldly. The eldest prince was arrogant and domineering, the second prince was humble, and the third prince was too well protected and somewhat naive.
The plot of both lives that Su Jinyue knew revolved around the original owner and Su Jinlan.
The fact that Su Jinyue was not involved much in the power struggles of the imperial court meant that she could not rely on her foresight to make arrangements in advance or take timely precautions.
All Su Jinyue knew was that Emperor Xinghe would suddenly die five years later, and then the third prince, Tang Ruiqian, would become the next emperor.
The Ye family was only exonerated and returned to the capital after Tang Ruiqian ascended the throne.
But Su Jinyue always felt that something was wrong. Su Jinyue considered herself to be quite good at judging people. The Third Prince Tang Ruiqian in front of her was an innocent, naive, and bookish young man who was not experienced in the ways of the world.
Su Jinyue simply couldn't connect him with the emperor who would ascend the throne five years later.
Can a person be completely transformed in just five years?
Or is there something else going on?
Su Jinyue shook her head, deciding not to think about it anymore. Royal affairs were too far removed from her, so she should worry less about them.
Originally, Su Jinyue was thinking of offering something to the emperor to increase Shen Huaizhi's chances of survival.
But the situation with the Royal Family is unclear right now, so let's wait and see.
The arrival of the three princes brought the flower-viewing banquet to a climax.
Princess Ning'an's garden was cleverly designed, with a stream running through the middle that divided it into two halves.
Men and women each occupy one side, which maintains social distance between them without hindering their ability to look at each other.
The key point is that none of the three princes have chosen a princess yet, which makes the girls attending the flower viewing banquet even more eager.
If you could catch the eye of any one of them, even if you were just a concubine, you would be on a meteoric rise to fame.
Su Jinyue sat in the corner, munching on sunflower seeds, watching the young men and women in the garden, their hearts fluttering with first love, doing all sorts of silly things.
Su Jinyue initially watched Zhi Le, but gradually realized that something was wrong.
Shen Yuxi, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Xuanping, was also in the garden. The circles of legitimate daughters and illegitimate daughters were different, so Shen Yuxi was not with her two other illegitimate sisters.
Shen Yuxi was originally playing with her girlfriends, but things started to go wrong after she went to a pavilion to change clothes with the maids in the garden.
After changing her clothes, Shen Yuxi was subtly led by the maids in the garden to a small pond.
Su Jinyue clearly saw that the eldest prince, Tang Ruibin, was waiting not far from the pond, and he was instructing an inconspicuous servant to find an opportunity to push Shen Yuxi into the water!
Su Jinyue was surprised. Did the eldest prince take a fancy to Shen Yuxi and want to play the hero and save the beauty?
But after the servant who was about to attack took his place, Su Jinyue discovered that the eldest prince had been knocked unconscious by another group of people, and they dragged him to a side room!
Su Jinyue looked outwards along the paths leading to the small pond and saw servants guiding the Third Prince, Tang Ruiqian, to the pond.
The naive third prince followed the servants, but just as he was about to see the pond, he was attracted by a peach tree that was blooming exceptionally beautifully.
Ignoring the servants' advice, the third prince insisted on personally picking a few beautiful peach blossom branches to bring back to the palace and give to his mother. Then, the third prince abruptly left halfway there.
Shen Yuxi was eventually knocked into the pond by the servant, but the two important figures who were supposed to come to her rescue were either knocked unconscious or attracted by the peach blossoms and failed to come to her aid.
Finally, Shen Yuxi was rescued by her maid. Fortunately, the pond was not deep, and Shen Yuxi was not in any danger. However, after struggling in the pond for so long, the spring water was still cold, and Shen Yuxi would probably catch a cold and be ill for a while.
Su Jinyue was speechless. What was all this about?
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. If the Third Prince ultimately saves Shen Yuxi, then the oriole will be the Third Prince.
But now the situation is that the mantis was intercepted halfway, the oriole ran away on its own, and Shen Yuxi, the cicada, although injured, was not as seriously injured as imagined.
The two groups of people took action but failed to achieve their goal. Even if the matter is investigated, nothing will be found in the end. At most, a scapegoat will be found and the matter will be over.
After this incident, Su Jinyue felt she wouldn't be able to stay much longer.
Sure enough, the maidservant beside Lady Hou rushed in and whispered something in Lady Hou's personal nanny's ear, and the nanny's expression immediately changed.
Lady Hou sensed something was amiss and found an opportunity to speak with the old nanny, after which her expression changed.