"The gardener...is this Ziwei?"

"It seems to be called that."

Before evening, Lu Fusu came to Zhuge's house to collect water from Xinyuan.

When Shui Xinyuan heard Lu Fusu say that the gardener was still in Zhuge, he couldn't help but tilt his head.

She borrowed clothes from Qing'er and tied her hair again, finally combing it neatly.

"I remembered that before I escaped, I met Ziwei..."

Ziwei said some incomprehensible words at that time, saying that he knew that Shui Xinyuan actually did not want to be the queen, and that he would take her to escape with him.

Zhuge Qing, who accompanied Lu Fusu back home, smiled and looked at Lu Fusu and then at Shui Xinyuan.

"Because someone told him that the emperor fell in love with the empress out of wishful thinking and forced her to become the queen."

"What?"

Who said that?

She was about to ask, but then she realized that she knew who said it even without asking.

Shui Xinyuan pouted and said: "Nonsense..."

"Fortunately, you said it was nonsense. If you felt the same way, how embarrassing would it be for me?"

"How could it be the emperor's wishful thinking? I also..."

"Shui Xinyuan..."

They stared at each other affectionately, and Zhuge Qing and Qing'er coughed at the same time.

"I beg your Majesty to respect yourself in your home...about the gardener."

"Oh, yes."

"He is currently being held there, do you want to bring him here?"

Qing'er pointed to another house, looked back at Lu Fusu and asked.

"Okay, bring him here. I also have something to ask him."

Hearing what Lu Fusu said, Zhuge Qing smiled bitterly.

"If the emperor were to interrogate him in person, he would probably faint from fear."

"Do you mean to tell me not to be too harsh?"

"The emperor's expression is already stern enough."

"... Then why don't you ask on my behalf?"

Shui Xinyuan peeked at Lu Fusu, who was holding his arms solemnly.

"Uh...what's wrong?"

"...for a while, the gardener... brags everywhere that he has proposed to you before..."

"What?" Qing'er exclaimed, "Is this happening?"

"Ask for marriage..."

This time it was Shui Xinyuan's turn to frown.

After a while, the soldiers of the Zhuge family brought in the tied-up Ziwei.

"ah……"

The haggard-looking Ziwei saw Shui Xinyuan and wanted to say hello to her, but when he saw the frowning Lu Fusu standing next to Shui Xinyuan, he immediately shut up... Moreover, even Shui Xinyuan looked angry.

He seemed to be thinking about something.

"Gardener, how are you doing?"

"yes……"

Zhuge Qing asked, "Of course Ziwei can't live well."

"Do you know that what happened this time was all about you talking nonsense and being taken advantage of by others?"

"..."

"If you hadn't spread rumors that you had asked the Queen to marry you, you wouldn't have been called to Chunhua Street, and you wouldn't have been tied up like this."

Ziwei's pale face twitched.

"I...I, I..."

"... Put it this way, it seems that he has really asked for marriage."

"Did you really ask for a kiss?"

Shui Xinyuan slowly raised his head.

"But, in our village, this kind of thing is not uncommon. Moreover, asking for marriage before the age of fifteen is meaningless at all..."

"What's the meaning?"

Lu Fusu, Qing'er and Zhuge Qing all looked at Shui Xinyuan, only Ziwei looked away awkwardly.

"In our village, children are sold to traffickers or sent to the city to work as maids before they are fifteen years old, so there are very few girls left in the village to be married."

Therefore, when there is a son in the family who wants to inherit the family business, the parents will find a girl of similar age in the village when the child is about ten years old, and go to the girl's home to ask if she is willing to be their wife.

"Ziwei and I are the same age, so I guess Ziwei's parents should have come to my house to propose marriage, but I have long decided to leave the village and ask my parents to reject all proposals for marriage."

"Shui Xinyuan, you mean that he is not the only one who has asked you to marry him?"

"Yes, there used to be several families who came to visit us, but it is the same for every family with a girl in the family. It has become a custom in our village."

Not only Lu Fusu, but also Zhuge Qing and Qing'er looked at Ziwei with sharp eyes. Ziwei was so ashamed that he didn't even dare to raise his head.

"You're really bragging..."

"However, if they are really in love, even if they are rejected by the girl's parents, the boy will still officially come to propose marriage. Many girls in our village have married boys from the same village and stayed in the village to work hard together."

After accepting the man's marriage proposal, the girl who stays in the village will marry into the man's family when she is fifteen years old.

But Shui Xinyuan left the village...

"Because no one in the village proposed to me directly."

"……Yeah?"

"right."

Shui Xinyuan snuggled next to Lu Fusu, looked up at him, and smiled.

"Only the emperor formally proposed to me."

"Shui Xinyuan..."

"I am only willing to agree to the emperor's marriage proposal."

"……Yeah?"

"right."

Seeing Lu Fusu's beaming smile, Zhuge Qing and Qing'er couldn't help but sigh.

"If the gardener had seen the emperor and the queen getting along before, I'm afraid he wouldn't believe what that fool said!"

"The king of a country always has this attitude in front of the queen, which makes people unbelievable, right?"

Ziwei stared blankly at the emperor who looked completely different from the previous moment.

…

On this day, people were coming and going in the palace in a hurry, and the atmosphere was extremely tense.

Tomorrow is the Enthronement Day, and while people are busy making preparations, they are spreading one thing by word of mouth.

The wives of eight noblemen, including Han Shizhong, wanted to frame the queen, and Ma Shilang, the Minister of Rites, tried to take the opportunity to assassinate the queen, but they were all arrested...

Both the Zhongshu Sheng and the Imperial Censor tried their best not to publicize the fact that the Queen was in danger on Chunhua Street. However, because a large number of officials rushed from the palace city to the streets of the capital and launched a search near Chunhua Street, it was difficult not to attract attention.

Notice.

It is said that there is no airtight wall in the world. In less than half a day, everyone knew that someone had attempted to assassinate the Queen.

After successfully finding the queen, just as rumors were spreading, eight aristocratic couples who had returned home under surveillance were called back to the palace again.

...Although they were dressed as brightly and brightly as usual, their embarrassment, surrounded by heavily armed imperial troops, with their hands tied with ropes, was completely different from the way they usually showed off their power in the palace.

When everyone saw it, they laughed dumbly at the fact that these people had chosen to attack the emperor's most beloved queen.

Sixteen nobles were tied with ropes and brought to the Rising Sun Palace, and eight noble ladies were taken to the Spring Ying Palace.

Their husbands kept bowing and begging the emperor to give him a lenient sentence, but the ladies didn't know whether they were willing to go all out or they were just shameless. After learning that lying about never going to Chunhua Street would not work, they still insisted.

It was just a joke. I didn't know that Ma Shilang had evil intentions, so there was no reason to blame them.

When they were ordered to wear shackles to see the queen, everyone came to Chunying Palace in a bad mood and did not hide the displeasure on their faces...
To be continued...