Chapter 108
Li Yu patted Da Bao’s head and did not hit Er Bao and San Bao’s buttocks.
Li Yu placed the three little hands together and taught them, “You are brothers. You must help each other and not have internal strife. If your brother has something good, you should be happy for him and not snatch it. Because — ”
Li Yu was stunned. He realized what he was saying and glanced at King Jing uneasily.
Could he teach the children this way? After all, they were the children of the royal family …
But they were his children. If he did not teach them, who would?
King Jing nodded slightly at Li Yu, indicating for Li Yu to continue.
Li Yu was encouraged. He smiled and finished his sentence. “… Because what is yours will be yours in the end. If it is not yours, you can’t hold on to it even if you snatch it.”
Da Bao looked at the cloth tiger thoughtfully. Er Bao and San Bao were not in a hurry to push the blame to each other. They looked at each other mischievously and propped their buttocks in front of their father, willing to be hit by him.
They helped each other put on the cloth the way Li Yu asked them to.
Da Bao understood. He took his favorite brush that his grandfather had given him and placed it beside the sleeping Si Bao. He imitated his father and patted Si Bao’s head.
Er Bao and San Bao sat together and tried to piece the broken cloth tiger back together.
However, the cloth tiger was almost completely torn apart. It was impossible to piece it back together.
Er Bao and San Bao also realized this and lowered their heads dejectedly. Wang Xi received King Jing’s signal and brought a few toys over. He would usually bring some toys with him. Er Bao’s favorite cloth duck and San Bao’s favorite rattle-drum were among them.
Er Bao and San Bao imitated Da Bao and placed the cloth duck and rattle-drum in front of Si Bao.
Si Bao woke up and his eyes lit up. His brothers sat around him and placed many things for him. When they saw that he was awake, they all came over to kiss him.
Si Bao, who loved kissing, immediately forgot about the cloth tiger and started playing with his brothers.
Li Yu had successfully resolved a small grudge between the children, and he had almost forgotten about it afterwards.
King Jing had been listening to him educate the fish cubs. Many of Xiaoyu’s ideas and opinions were very straightforward. King Jing had never heard of them before. The Headmaster and the Grand Secretary would not teach them this way either. He knew that the respect between brothers in the royal family was just for show. But when the fish cubs reconciled, he felt that this was how it should be.
At this moment, the hem of a bright yellow robe flashed outside the hall. Wang Xi, who was not far from the door, noticed it and quickly signaled to King Jing with his eyes.
Wang Xi was afraid that the Princess Consort would accidentally say something taboo and wanted to stop her.
King Jing shook his head and did not allow Wang Xi to go. He liked to listen to Xiaoyu’s reasoning and did not feel that there was a problem.
The Emperor, who was outside the hall, naturally heard Li Yu’s words. Since ancient times, emperors liked to eavesdrop. The Emperor originally wanted to see what King Jing’s husband would say in front of Empress Xiaohui’s coffin, so he secretly followed them. He accidentally saw the Princess Consort teaching the children. The Emperor did not agree with Li Yu’s words and jokingly scolded him, “Nonsense.” But in reality, he was still watching the children play happily for a long time.
Chief Steward Luo accompanied by his side and could not help but criticize silently. Although it was nonsense, the Emperor was more energetic than ever.
King Jing waited for the Emperor to leave before going over. Li Yu, who did not know that he had gained face in front of the Emperor, was speechless.
King Jing also smiled and rubbed his head.
Li Yu, “…”
Da Bao, Er Bao, San Bao, and Si Bao gathered together and said, “So the fish father also likes to have his head rubbed!”
In front of the fish children, the fish father actually blushed.
“That’s right, Your Highness!” Li Yu turned the cloth tiger over to the side with the words embroidered on it and handed it to King Jing and Wang Xi to see.
Wang Xi looked at it several times and touched it. He said with certainty, “This is the rule of Changchun Palace. The palace staff must leave a mark in a hidden place if they have made something. But this Pu Liu on it … forgive this old servant for speaking bluntly, but this old servant has never heard of her. But rest assured, Princess Consort, this mark is most likely a person’s name. This old servant should be able to find out if this old servant checks the Changchun Palace’s personnel register. ”
Li Yu hurriedly thanked him. He did not know if there would be any progress this time, and if this progress had anything to do with the secret he was concerned about.
Wang Xi ordered an attendant to fetch the register. Soon after, the attendant came back and reported that after Empress Xiaohui passed away, Changchun Palace had lost some things, and coincidentally, one of them was a register. Wang Xi took the rest of the register and looked through it, but he could not find Pu Liu.
Wang Xi knew that this was the palace’s habit of passing the buck. If something could not be found, they would say it was lost. Wang Xi was about to scold him when Li Yu hurriedly said, “I’m just curious about who made this cloth tiger. I don’t mean anything else.”
On the surface, it was just that they could not find it, but this register was missing from a pile of registers. Intuitively, it was somewhat strange.
Moreover, according to the person in charge of guarding it, the register had been lost for many years. The people recorded on the register must have been from many years ago, and not the current palace staff.
Li Yu hit a wall again. He decided to ask Steward Luo, including whether King Jing had other wet nurses in the past, and who this Pu Liu was.
He was still thinking about the palace he saw in his memory. King Jing watched the children playing. Li Yu said, “Tianchi, can I look around?”
King Jing agreed, but he did not let Wang Xi follow Li Yu or let Wang Xi stay behind to look after the children. Instead, he picked up the two children himself and ordered Wang Xi to also carry two children. Then they all followed Li Yu. Li Yu was in charge of strolling around, and he was in charge of looking after the children and protecting Li Yu.
Li Yu grinned, found a palace servant to open the way, and wandered around the palace room by room.
Soon, he finished walking around, but he could not find the exact same palace room as he remembered.
Li Yu also thought that the palace rooms in the palace should be similar. The furnishings were very likely to change, but the ceilings and beams were basically the same. Li Yu originally hoped to find the palace room in his memory based on these details, but he could not find it. After looking around, he found that he had finished looking around.
Li Yu counted the rooms he had visited and felt that something was wrong.
Generally speaking, the total number of rooms would be in pairs or pairs. King Jing’s palace was like this. Empress Xiaohui’s palace would not be so careless, but he clearly remembered that he had visited an odd number of rooms.
Li Yu inadvertently mentioned it, and the palace servant who led the way panicked and knelt down. “There was originally an extra room, but it was sealed by His Majesty …”
Li Yu was shocked. He was just speculating based on King Jing’s palace, but there really was an extra room?
The palace servant pulled open a corner of the heavy cloth curtain, revealing the yellowed seal.
It turned out that the cloth curtain covered a palace room that he had not visited before.
“This was sealed by His Majesty when Empress Xiaohui was seriously ill. His Majesty did not allow the servants to open it.”
The date written on the seal confirmed the palace servant’s words. Since it was sealed by the Emperor’s order, Li Yu could not rashly open it. However, the positions of the Changchun Palace were symmetrical. Li Yu repeatedly compared it with another symmetrical place and concluded that the palace room he was looking for should be the one that was sealed.
If the words “Pu Liu” embroidered in the cloth tiger were not necessarily related to the secret, then this palace room was definitely related to the secret.
This secret, the Emperor seemed to know. Otherwise, why would he seal the palace room?
Moreover, it was when Empress Xiaohui was seriously ill. It was also very embarrassing for Empress Xiaohui. Was he not afraid of provoking Empress Xiaohui?
Li Yu thought that the Emperor would not disregard Empress Xiaohui. That was because the existence of this palace room was even more important than Empress Xiaohui’s face.
What kind of secret was this? Why was it that every time he felt that he was very close to it, he was surrounded by more and more doubts?
Li Yu asked the palace servant, “Do you know what’s going on inside?”
In his memory, he saw the wet nurse eat a packet of powder. He did not know what happened afterwards. Could it be that the wet nurse later died of poison in this palace room and was therefore sealed by the Emperor?
After all, it was somewhat disgusting. Even just thinking about it made him feel disgusted.
The palace servant shook his head and said, “This servant was transferred to the Changchun Palace later. When I arrived, this room was already like this. This servant does not know what is inside.”
Li Yu also expected this and did not ask any more questions.
King Jing noticed that he was staring blankly at the sealed palace room and also realized that something was wrong.
What’s wrong? King Jing cast an inquiring look at him.
Li Yu slowly shook his head. This matter was not easy to describe to King Jing. The main reason was that King Jing was too young at the time and did not have any recollection of it.
“Your Highness, Princess, the Emperor has a reward.” Steward Luo’s voice came from outside.
The Emperor had come to eavesdrop. After returning to the Palace of Heavenly Purity, he ordered Steward Luo to come and deliver the gifts.
Li Yu was embarrassed. Their family had only left the Palace of Heavenly Purity not long ago, but the Emperor was acting as if one day without him felt like three years.
However, the Emperor had a reward, so he really could not stop him.
King Jing and Li Yu held the children and listened to the reward.
The Emperor rewarded Dabao with the smallest weasel hair brush that could be held in his chubby little hands. The other three treasures were exquisite toys of the twelve zodiac signs.
Li Yu thought that the Emperor had already rewarded a lot. Why did he suddenly want to reward the children?
No matter what, the Emperor’s fondness for Dabao was quite obvious. Perhaps it was Dabao who made the Emperor feel like three years had passed.
In addition to rewarding the children, the Emperor also rewarded the children’s father — — Li Yu — with a famous painting of Mother Meng teaching her children.
Li Yu: “…”
He felt that the Emperor had misunderstood something. Was the Emperor hinting that he wanted to imitate Mother Meng and move the children?
“Your Highness, Princess, and this.” Steward Luo personally delivered two boxes of fish food.
“The Emperor knows that Your Highness likes to raise fish, so he ordered this old servant to deliver some fish food to Your Highness. This is fish food flavored with soy sauce and shredded pork. It’s a new flavor that the imperial kitchen has recently come up with.”
As Steward Luo spoke, he handed the box of fish food to Wang Xi. Wang Xi immediately took it.
Since it was considered food, he had to open it and take a look as usual. Wang Xi opened the box and the smell of fish food wafted out. Steward Luo’s vision blurred for a moment before he saw the Princess Consort and the other young masters all staring at the fish food without blinking.
Dabao, Er Bao, San Bao, Si Bao: I haven’t eaten fish food in a long time. It smells so good, I want to eat it!
Li Yu: “…”
Although Li Yu really wanted to eat the fish food, he knew that he couldn’t expose himself in front of everyone, so he could control himself. However, the children couldn’t. Fish food and peach blossom cakes were two delicacies that they couldn’t forget when they were young fish. However, after they turned into humans, they only had peach blossom cakes. When the children saw the fish food, their eyes widened.
How could children like to eat fish food? It was too ridiculous!
Seeing that the children were about to scream, Li Yu glared at them fiercely. Da Bao and Si Bao were all frightened by their father’s terrifying gaze. They didn’t dare to move or scream.
Li Yu seized the opportunity and closed the box of fish food with a “Pa” sound, and swiftly stuffed it into his sleeve.
King Jing had been paying attention to the children almost all the time. Since Li Yu put away the box, King Jing cooperated seamlessly with him. He quickly took out a few pieces of peach blossom cakes and stuffed them into the children’s mouths. The children immediately forgot about the fish food.
Head Steward Luo rubbed his eyes: It seemed that he was seeing things. He actually thought that King Jing’s children liked fish food …
“Head Steward Luo, can I ask you something?”
Li Yu asked in a low voice while Head Steward Luo sat down to drink a cup of tea.
“Your Highness, please do as you wish.” Head Steward Luo had a very good impression of this princess, so he was happy to answer her questions.
Li Yu then asked, “Do you know a person called Pu Liu? She should be a woman. She might have even worked in the Changchun Palace.”
“Your Highness, why are you asking this?”
A trace of unnaturalness flashed across Head Steward Luo’s face, and Li Yu noticed it.
Li Yu was more careful. He took the torn cloth tiger and let Head Steward Luo see the words embroidered on the lining. He casually found an excuse and said, “This cloth tiger was accidentally torn by the children. Then I saw this mark. It was said that it was a person’s name, so I was a little curious.”
“I see …” Head Steward Luo smiled and said, “Your Highness guessed correctly. This mark was used by a mama called Pu Liu who served Empress Xiaohui in the past. She was the wet nurse of the Eldest Prince and the Fourth Prince. Empress Xiaohui trusted her very much and wanted her to continue to be King Jing’s wet nurse. However, not long after, she made a big mistake and could no longer take care of His Royal Highness. Empress Xiaohui had no choice but to expel her from the palace. The Emperor also sealed up her former residence. ”
Li Yu: “…”
Li Yu felt that she had seen a ray of light and connected several puzzles together.
Pu Liu was indeed a person’s name. If it was a mama, her age was also correct. She had taken care of King Jing for a very short period of time, and the residence was sealed by the Emperor …
