Chapter 219 Young Marquis Looking for Someone
After the banquet in the palace was over, Li Dequan, the emperor's chief steward, sent someone to Banri Qinghuan Garden to announce the emperor's decree.
The young eunuch in charge of announcing the decree was holding a bright yellow imperial edict in his hand, while the guards behind him were carrying plaques and reward silver.
When they arrived at the gate of Banri Qinghuan Garden, the eunuch shook his Buddhist dustpan, held the yellow silk in his hand, and shouted in a shrill voice, "Everyone in Banri Qinghuan Garden, please accept the order."
When Master Cai saw someone coming from the palace, he quickly took the people in the teahouse out to greet them.
But they didn't understand the rules of receiving the order, and the group of people stood in front of the door in a daze.
Seeing this, the young eunuch said arrogantly, "What are you all standing there for? Kneel down and accept the order."
After hearing this, everyone knelt down.
Then the eunuch took out the imperial edict and read it out, "The Emperor, in compliance with the Will of Heaven, proclaims that today is the Empress Dowager's birthday. The play The Legend of the White Snake performed at Half-Day Qinghuan Garden was very much loved by the Empress Dowager. I hereby grant her a plaque with the inscription 'The First Garden in the World' and a reward of 1,000 taels of gold. I decree this."
Master Cai quickly led everyone to kowtow and accept the order.
Before Qianhuan entered the palace today, she had already left a bag of reward silver for Yinhua. She told Yinhua, "Let's go to the palace to perform. If the Queen Mother and the Emperor like it, the palace will send any reward to the teahouse. If I'm not here, remember to give a reward to the eunuch who comes to announce the decree."
Yin Hua nodded, "Okay, Miss, I understand."
After Master Cai received the order, Yin Hua quickly took out a bag of silver from her sleeve and stuffed it into the eunuch's pocket, "Thank you for your hard work."
The eunuch took the purse in his hand and weighed it, feeling very satisfied. He thought to himself: Finally, there is someone who is sensible.
The young eunuch said, "Since the imperial edict has been delivered, I will go to the palace to report."
Having said that, the young eunuch was about to leave with his men.
Yin Hua saw that the actors and musicians who had performed in the palace had all returned long ago, and now the emperor's rewards had all been delivered, but only their young lady had not returned yet. She couldn't help feeling a little worried.
Yin Hua hurried forward and said, "Wait a minute, eunuch. I have something else I want to ask you."
The young eunuch turned around and asked with rare patience, "What's the matter? Tell me quickly. I'm waiting for you to report to the palace."
"Eunuch, our teahouse owner also went to the palace with the performers today. When he came back, he was called away by the Ninth Princess's men. The Ninth Princess said that she would give our owner a separate reward. I would like to ask you, Eunuch, do you know when the princess will allow our owner to leave the palace?"
The eunuch said doubtfully, "The Ninth Princess has been with the Emperor today. How could she have the time to summon your master? You must have made a mistake."
After saying this, the eunuch led his people back to the palace.
Yinhua suddenly had a bad feeling in her heart, and she couldn't help but ask the actors who came to the palace to perform again.
"Are you sure that the Ninth Princess summoned the Dong family alone to give another reward?"
One of the actors replied, "Miss Yinhua, we are sure that it was the Ninth Princess who sent a little maid to take the host away."
Others who entered the palace also said, "Yes, Miss Yinhua, we all heard it."
Yin Hua was really anxious now. She couldn't help but said to Master Cai, "Manager Cai, the young lady hasn't come back yet. I'm really worried. The young lady had offended Princess Ning Jia before. I'm worried that Princess Ning Jia saw the young lady in the palace, so she took the opportunity to retaliate against her and detained her in the palace?"
Young Master Cai also looked worried, but they didn't know anyone in the palace, so they had no way to find out the situation.
Suddenly Master Cai remembered that the Chu family had a relative who was an official in Beijing, so he said to Yin Hua, "Yin Hua, isn't the young lady familiar with the Chu family? Why don't you go find the young master of the Chu family and ask his relative who is an official in Beijing to help inquire about the situation."
Yin Hua suddenly ran upstairs, saying as she ran, "Manager Cai, I know who I can help. Please ask Ji Feng to bring the carriage out. I will take the token and go find someone."
Yin Hua went upstairs to get the jade pendant from the young marquis, and then asked Ji Feng to drive the carriage straight to the princess's mansion.
When the gatekeeper of the princess's mansion saw the young marquis's jade pendant, he immediately went in to report it.
The young marquis thought it was Qianhuan who came to see him, so he ran out in a hurry.
Unexpectedly, it was only Qianhuan's maid who came. Yin Hua said to the young marquis anxiously, "Young marquis, I have no choice but to come to you for help. Our young lady went into the palace with the teahouse staff today. When she came back, the maidservant beside the Ninth Princess called her away alone, saying that she would reward her separately. But the eunuch who came to announce the decree said that the Ninth Princess had been with the Emperor and the Queen Mother today and had no time to summon our master. I feel that something is wrong, so I can only come to you for help, Marquis."
The young marquis realized that something was wrong when he heard it, and he immediately comforted her, "Don't worry, I will go to the palace to inquire about the situation right now, you go back to the teahouse and wait for news."
Yin Hua immediately knelt down and kowtowed, "Thank you, young marquis."
After saying that, Meng Yuanzhou hurried into the palace in the mansion's carriage.
When he arrived at the palace, he went straight to find the Ninth Princess.
"Shiyao, did you send a maid to summon the owner of Banri Qinghuan Garden alone today?"
"Cousin Meng, I have been with my grandmother and my father and mother today. How can I have the time to summon the owner of the teahouse? You came to the palace in such a hurry just to ask me this? Is there something wrong?"
When Meng Yuanzhou heard this, he immediately felt that the situation was not good, and then he told the whole story.
After hearing this, the Ninth Princess immediately said angrily, "How could someone dare to falsely convey my will? But Cousin Meng, the owner of the teahouse has just entered the palace for the first time, how could anyone be against him?"
Meng Yuanzhou immediately remembered that Qianhuan had offended Princess Ningjia, so he quickly asked, "Shiyao, did anything unusual happen in the palace today?"
The Ninth Princess thought for a moment, and then said, "Is it unusual for Uncle Runan to get drunk and hit his head? And is it unusual for Cousin Ziyu to bring a palace maid back home from the palace?"
Meng Yuanzhou exclaimed, "What? Ziyu actually returned home with a palace maid in her arms?"
The Ninth Princess nodded, "Absolutely true."
"The sun really is rising from the west. Ziyu has never brought a woman home since he was a child."
Meng Yuanzhou didn't even associate that palace maid with Qianhuan. At this time, the secret guard who was gathering information around him came back to report.
"Master, I found out that the maid took the owner of the teahouse to the resting place of the King of Runan. Then the King of Runan was injured, and the palace started to look for the assassin. In the end, they searched the whole palace but couldn't find the assassin."
How could Meng Yuanzhou not know what kind of person King Runan was? The little palace maid led Qianhuan to the room where King Runan rested, and she had no good intentions at all.
He simply couldn't imagine what would happen to Qianhuan if she fell into his hands. He thought that the injury of Prince Runan must have been caused by Qianhuan, but where did she escape to?
Meng Yuanzhou thought of what the Ninth Princess said and immediately sensed something unusual. He said to his subordinates, "Follow me to the Prince's Mansion immediately."
The Ninth Princess hadn't figured out the situation yet, so she called out from behind, "Cousin Meng, aren't you going to look for the owner of the teahouse? Why are you going to the Prince's Mansion?"
Unfortunately, Meng Yuanzhou had already walked away and no one responded to her.