Chapter 228 What’s going on?
The prince entered the Qinzheng Hall and bowed to the emperor.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you. I wonder why you want me to stay alone with you?"
Emperor Jingxi said lovingly, "The Queen Mother has always been worried about your marriage, and she has always asked me to find you a marriage. I heard that the Minister of Rites, Lord Wei, has a legitimate daughter named Wei Yaxian, who has a gentle and quiet personality. I will give her to you as your principal wife. What do you think?"
The prince didn't expect that the emperor wanted to keep him and give him a marriage. He immediately knelt on one knee to refuse.
"Your Majesty, I already have someone I like. I only want to marry the woman I like and do not want to marry anyone else. Please take back your order."
"The person you like is the owner of the teahouse in the world's number one garden?"
The prince guessed that he could not hide it from His Majesty, but he did not intend to hide it from the emperor.
"Your Majesty, it is her."
Emperor Jingxi sighed, "Zi Yu, the woman's parents are both farmers, and their status is too low. You are at least a royal child. Even if I don't marry you a noble lady, you should at least pick a well-educated and well-mannered lady. If you like that country woman, you can take her back in a sedan chair to be a concubine. I will definitely not object. But if she becomes your principal wife, it will be too much of an insult to your status."
"Your Majesty, I don't think she will humiliate my status. I don't care about my status at all."
"No, I can't agree to it. If I agree to it, the Queen Mother will blame me for not paying attention to your marriage. As for the daughter of the Wei family, you should think about it carefully."
Emperor Jingxi and Prince An do not have the same mother, and the current empress dowager is not their biological mother. The empress dowager was deeply loved by the late emperor and was envied by other concubines. She was drugged and unable to conceive her own children.
The late emperor doted on the empress dowager and raised both Emperor Jingxi and Prince An under her name. Therefore, the empress dowager also doted on Prince An and was particularly concerned about his marriage.
However, our prince is very stubborn. Since he has decided on Qianhuan, he no longer wants any other women.
"Your Majesty, I think the Wei family's daughter is a good match for Cousin Meng. Cousin Meng is a few months older than me, and my aunt has always been worried about your marriage. The Meng family's daughter is gentle and virtuous, and I'm sure she will make Cousin Meng settle down. You might as well give the Wei family's daughter to Cousin Meng. I'm sure my aunt will be very happy."
"We were obviously talking about your marriage, why did you bring it up with your cousin?"
"I am not in a hurry to get married. Your Majesty, please do not easily grant me a marriage."
"Well, since you insist, I can put off the marriage for now, but you should think about your relationship with that peasant girl when you go back. After all, you are a royal child. If you marry a woman who is not presentable, the common people will laugh at our royal family."
The prince had long anticipated that they would not agree. If he had discovered earlier that Qianhuan was a girl, he would have arranged a better identity for her in advance.
But the incident happened suddenly that day, and now that the emperor has learned her identity, he is afraid that he will face many obstacles in marrying Qianhuan.
But it doesn’t matter, no one can stop him from doing what he wants to do, and he will marry the person he wants to marry in the end.
Now, he could only use a delaying tactic, "Yes, I will consider it carefully."
"Yes. In two months, various countries will come to Dayuan for cultural exchanges. As the host country, Dayuan will have to prepare some performances to welcome the envoys. Who do you think would be best to be in charge of this?"
"Your Majesty, I think Cousin Meng is a good candidate."
The eldest princess is the emperor's biological sister. Although they were not raised together, the relationship between the siblings is very good. Meng Yuanzhou is the emperor's nephew.
Seeing that the Crown Prince mentioned his nephew again, Emperor Jingxi smiled.
"That brat specifically begged me to assign him a sinecure. All he does every day is eat, drink and have fun. How could you have thought of recommending him?"
"It is because Cousin Meng's position is too idle that he has nothing to do all day long and only thinks about eating, drinking and having fun. If Your Majesty assigns him some tasks to do, he might be able to put aside his temper and do something great."
Emperor Jingxi nodded and said, "Well, Ziyu, what you said makes sense. I will give him this opportunity. If he performs well, I will promote him."
After Emperor Jingxi finished speaking, he instructed Li Dequan, "You will go to the Princess's Mansion later to personally convey my instructions. In the next two months, have Meng Yuanzhou lead people to prepare all the programs for receiving foreign envoys."
"The slave obeys the order."
"Your Majesty, Cousin Meng is not at the Princess's residence today. I was just about to go look for him. Why don't you let Eunuch Li go with me to deliver the order?"
"Okay, then let him go out of the palace with you. It's almost noon now, why don't you stay in the palace and have lunch before going back."
"Your Majesty, I have something else to do today, so I will not stay in the palace for lunch. I will take my leave now."
With that, the Crown Prince and Eunuch Li went out of the palace to look for the young marquis. The Crown Prince walked in a hurry, and Eunuch Li had to jog behind him to barely keep up.
In Zuixianju, several people were having a lot of fun playing poker. Qianhuan won over a thousand taels of silver, and Chu Yichen also won a few hundred taels.
When it was almost time for lunch, customers started to arrive in the restaurant one after another, so they stopped fighting.
Qianhuan said proudly, "Brother Lin'an, thanks to you, I won a lot of money today. Please ask the waiter to bring more signature dishes. You, Lan'er and Brother Du can also dine with us. I will pay the bill today and take care of your business."
Chu Yichen repeatedly waved his hands to refuse, "Qianhuan, there are only three of us at this meal, so how can we ask you to pay for it? I won't object if you ask to pay for your friends to come to dinner in the future, but I can't take your money for this meal anyway. Just order whatever you want."
Nowadays, whenever you play cards with friends, whoever wins money will treat everyone to a meal. Qianhuan also got carried away today because she won the money.
She stuck out her tongue and said, "Okay, Brother Lin'an, I won't be polite then."
Because today is the first day of the restaurant's opening, Qianhuan had given Chu Yichen a lot of ideas and organized many promotional activities.
For example, if you spend more than 50 taels of silver, you will get an extra dish for free. You can also top up silver to get a membership card, and members can enjoy discounts and other benefits.
These modern promotional methods were also very effective in ancient times. Zuixianju was packed with people who came to eat at noon today.
When all the dishes on Qianhuan's table were served, Meng Yuanzhou was about to start eating when suddenly Eunuch Li and the Young Master came into the restaurant.
The eunuch serving Eunuch Li saw Meng Yuanzhou from afar and quickly called him down from the dinner table.
When Meng Yuanzhou saw that Eunuch Li and the Young Master had arrived, he had no choice but to put down his chopsticks and go forward to greet them.
Eunuch Li stepped forward and said, "Young Marquis, I have finally found you. His Majesty has given you a message that envoys from various countries will come to Dayuan for cultural exchange in two months. His Majesty has asked you to take care of the performances in two months. This is related to the national prestige and reputation of our Dayuan country. Please make sure to prepare well."
Meng Yuanzhou was immediately overwhelmed when he heard this. "Eunuch Li, His Majesty has always known that I am free and easy-going. Why would he entrust such an important task to me?"
Eunuch Li secretly glanced at the prince next to him, but he still didn't dare to tell the truth.
"Young Marquis, I am not a worm in His Majesty's stomach, so how can I know why His Majesty arranged you to do this. I have already conveyed His Majesty's oral order, and I will return to the palace to report. Goodbye."
After saying this, Eunuch Li was about to leave, and Meng Yuanzhou quickly chased after him.
"Father-in-law, can you please tell the Emperor to find someone else to do this? I'm busy chasing after a wife recently and don't have time to do that stupid program of receiving foreign envoys."
Eunuch Li turned around and said, "I will tell His Majesty, but I don't know whether His Majesty will take back his order."
Meng Yuanzhou suddenly looked dejected. He saw that the prince was still standing in the restaurant. Thinking of how he was kicked out last night, he was still a little angry and didn't even call him cousin.
"Why did the prince come to Zuixianju? Did you know that this restaurant has just opened and come to eat?"
The prince only replied with one word, "Yeah."
Meng Yuanzhou said with some pride, "Zuixianju is very busy right now. All the tables have been arranged. There is no room now. My Lord, you should find another restaurant to eat at."
Meng Yuanzhou thought to himself, humph, I asked you to kick me out of the house last night, and now I won’t let you sit at the table for dinner today.
Unexpectedly, our prince ignored Meng Yuanzhou and walked straight towards Qianhuan.
Qianhuan also stood up with a smile on her face and greeted the prince.
"Brother, are you coming to eat too? Come over to my place, our table has just started eating, I'll have someone add a seat for you next to me."
Meng Yuanzhou looked depressed. What was going on? Qianhuan actually called the prince "senior brother"?