King Xing's fiefdom is located in Anluzhou, Huguang (Zhongxiang, Hubei), located in the middle reaches of the Han River, with very convenient water transportation.

On August 27, the 14th year of Zhengde, Xu Jin and his wife left Nanchang, took a boat down the Gan River to Poyang Lake, entered the waters of the Yangtze River, then went upstream to Wuchang, and then turned into the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze River. On the afternoon of the sixth day of September

After ten days of sailing, we finally arrived at Anluzhou Pier.

Xu Jin and others abandoned the boat and landed. After entering the city, they first found an inn and settled down for one night. The next day, they went to visit Prince Xing's Mansion with invitations. However, when Xu Jin and Xie Xiaowan arrived outside Prince Xing's Mansion,

But they happened to see the servant of the palace tying Bai Ling to the stone lion in front of the door, and couldn't help but look at each other in surprise.

At this time, several royal guards wrapped in white cloth came forward. Before Xu Jin could answer, the beautiful maid Yue'er blurted out: "Lu Dianzhang!"

The leading royal guard was slightly stunned, looked at Yue'er carefully, and said hesitantly: "Are you Xiao Yue'er?"

This guard was in his thirties, and he was Lu Song, the official of the Imperial Guards Department. He was often on duty in the palace. Lu Song’s first wife, Fan, was the wet nurse of the crown prince Zhu Houcong and could enter and leave the palace freely. Before Yue'er

As a maid in the palace, she naturally recognizes Lu Song

Yue'er smiled sweetly and said, "Yes!"

Lu Song suddenly said: "No wonder he looks kind-hearted, then this young master should be the talented scholar Xu Sanyuan from Shangrao."

Everyone in Prince Xing's palace knew that the prince had adopted a maiden in Shangrao, Jiangxi, and had taken Yue'er, the palace maid who was supposed to serve His Royal Highness, as a dowry girl.

Xu Jin cupped his hands and said, "I am Xu Jin. I received a letter from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince a few days ago. I heard that the prince was ill, so I came to visit the prince with my jade."

Lu Song sighed and said, "You guys are a little late. Your Majesty passed away at midnight last night, and I will mourn you today."

"Ah!" Xie Xiaowan and Yue'er covered their mouths and exhaled softly. Xu Jin was not too surprised. He had expected this. He was just a little regretful that he came late and did not see Prince Shangxing for the last time.

In the 14th year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, on the seventh day of the ninth lunar month, King Xing Zhu You passed away and remained in mourning for seven days. The whole city of Anlu Prefecture was in plain mourning, and all local officials went to pay their respects.

…

On September 20th, half a month has passed since the death of King Xing Zhu Youqi. The funeral has come to an end for the time being. The palace of Prince Xing has also returned to its former peace, and the sad atmosphere is gradually being diluted by time.

Autumn rain is falling in the sky, and the autumn rain is beating on the remaining lotuses in the pond. There is a small pavilion near the water. At this moment, Xu Jin and the little slave Zhu Houcong are standing side by side by the railing outside the small pavilion, watching the autumn rain falling outside.

Zhu Houcong was born on the tenth day of August in the second year of Zhengde. He just celebrated his twelfth birthday last month. He is obviously taller than last year, but his face is still pink and jade, so handsome that even girls would be jealous.

At this time, Zhu Houcong was playing with a monocular telescope, but his eyes were looking at the pond outside, his eyes blank, and he said with a reminiscence: "Every spring, there will be many tadpoles swimming around in this pond.

.I remember one year when my father taught me how to fish, I reached out to catch tadpoles in the water while my father was not paying attention, and ended up falling in. At that time, my father was so anxious that he jumped down to save me, but he almost drowned himself. Later,

I have been sick for half a month. In fact, the guards were behind me at the time, so my father didn’t have to jump down at all.”

Xu Jin looked at Qiu Yu outside and was speechless. He was also the father of two children, so he understood the reaction of Prince Xing Zhu Youqi very well. If his own child fell into the water, he would not hesitate to jump in to save him. This

It is fatherly love.

Zhu Houcong retracted his vacant gaze, looked at Xu Jin and asked seriously: "Xu Jin, where do you think people will go after they die? Are there really heaven and hell?"

If it were in the past, Xu Jin would have answered without hesitation: "Death is like a lamp going out, earth returns to earth, dust returns to dust. There is no such thing as heaven and hell."

But since the incredible thing like time travel happened to him, Xu Jin himself was confused. He didn't know what state he was in now. Resurrection of a dead body? Memory transfer? It was really unclear, so Xu Jin shook his head and replied: "I don't know either! "

Zhu Houcong said a little disappointedly: "I thought you knew everything."

Xu Jin smiled bitterly and said, "I'm not a god who knows everything."

Zhu Houcong sighed and said: "It would be great if there were gods in this world. I would trade ten years of my life for an elixir that can bring the dead back to life, so that my father can come back to life. My father has been gone for half a month, and the child misses me so much." See you again, father!"

Xu Jin couldn't help but feel a little moved. King Xing Zhu Youqi only had two sons. Among them, the eldest son Zhu Houxi died five days after he was born. Therefore, King Xing poured all his fatherly love into his second son Xu Houcong and personally enlightened him and taught him knowledge and etiquette. This is very rare for a prince.

There is no doubt that King Xing was a loving father. Now it seems that Zhu Houcong is also a filial son and has very deep feelings for his father. It is no wonder that after he ascended the throne, he launched a more than ten years of rebellion in order to gain a name for his father. The "Great Rites" controversy.

"Your Highness, birth, old age, illness and death are natural laws. No one can escape from this law. There are no gods in this world, let alone elixirs that can bring the dead back to life or achieve immortality."

Emperor Jiajing worked hard for the first twenty years after he ascended the throne, but later he became obsessed with cultivating immortality and alchemy, and actually did not go to court for more than twenty years. Xu Jin had previously thought that Zhu Houcong might have been influenced by his father, but now it seems I'm afraid this is really the case, so I quickly vaccinated him to prevent this kid from going astray in the future.

Zhu Houcong glanced at Xu Jin and said, "Don't you know if there are ghosts and gods in this world? Why are you so sure now that there are no gods in the world?"

Xu Jin was at a loss for words when he was asked, and Zhu Houcong said a little proudly: "How can Xu Siyuan, a great scholar who is full of talent and learning, also be short of words?"

Xu Jin sighed and said: "The promulgation office is looking for talents and visiting ministers, but Jia Sheng's talents are even more incompetent. It's a pity that he only sat down at the front table in the middle of the night and didn't ask about the people or ghosts and gods!"

Zhu Houcong rolled his eyes and said: "Come on, you are not Jia Yi, and I am not Emperor Wen of Han. What's wrong with asking ghosts and gods?"

Xu Jin joked: "Not to mention anything else, Jia Yi's talent is definitely not as good as mine."

Zhu Houcong curled his lips and said: "I say you are fat and have asthma, but I guess Jia Yi really doesn't know as much as you do."

"His Royal Highness, who is Jia Yi you are talking about? Why haven't I heard of it?" A child who had been standing behind couldn't help but ask.

The boy's name was Lu Bing, the son of Lu Song, the official of the Yiwei Si Dianzhang. Since his mother Fan was Zhu Houcong's wet nurse, Lu Bing often followed his mother Fan in and out of the palace, and he had been Zhu Houcong's playmate since he was a child.

Although this Lu Bing is only about ten years old, he is no shorter than Zhu Houcong. Because he has practiced martial arts with his father since he was a child, he is as strong as a calf, and his legs are extremely long. He will probably be tall in the future.

Zhu Houcong tapped Lu Bing on the head with a monocular telescope and said: "Read more books, and you will know who Jia Yi is."

Lu Bing touched his head and laughed and said: "I don't want to be the top scholar, so why read so many books? I don't care who Jia Yi is. His talent and learning are definitely not as good as Mr. Xu's. That Jia Zhiri is a big fireball."

, do you know why the apple doesn’t fall into the sky? Do you know how far away the moon is from us?”

"You are really good at flattering me. Do you want to hear stories again?" Zhu Houcong scolded with a smile.

Lu Bing smiled and said: "His Royal Highness is wise, Mr. Xu, what interesting things should we talk about today?"

Zhu Houcong also looked at Xu Jin expectantly.

It is said that Xu Jin is very famous now, and he is recognized as a child prodigy that is rare in a century. King Xing praised him a lot during his lifetime. Princess Jiang of Xing had summoned Xu Jin before and had a very good impression of him, so she tried to retain him.

I stayed in the palace for a while and tutored my son Zhu Houcong in his studies.

Of course, tutoring for schoolwork is only secondary. In fact, Princess Xing wanted Xu Jin to accompany her son Zhu Houcong and help him get out of the shadow of his father's death as soon as possible. This son had a very deep affection for his father, and Princess Jiang was afraid that he would not be able to think about it!

In addition, Xiaowan was the adopted daughter of King Xing after all. Although there was no requirement to observe filial piety for King Xing, she still had to be considerate, so Xu Jin agreed to stay in the palace for a month and then leave for Beijing in October.

During this period, Xu Jin lived in the courtyard arranged by the palace. In addition to reading every day, he took time to teach Zhu Houcong. However, Xu Jin did not teach Zhu Houcong the Four Books and Five Classics. Instead, he taught some modern astronomical and geographical knowledge in the form of storytelling. This

Let the boy broaden his horizons.

Xu Jin's interesting teaching method was naturally very popular. Even Zhu Houcong's playmate Lu Bing liked listening to it and came to support him every time.

Xu Jin smiled and asked: "What do you want to hear?"

Lu Bing said quickly: "I want to hear about the Bigfoot savage. I haven't finished talking about it last time. Last time I talked about the savage kidnapping the village girl... Hehe!"

Zhu Houcong immediately said contemptuously: "Xiao Luzi, can you pursue it a little bit? Xu Jin, let's talk about Pirates of the Caribbean, or you can go to Thirty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea."

Xu Jin shook his head and said: "Today we won't talk about geography, but about biology and the origin of species!"

Xu Jin felt that it was necessary to educate Zhu Houcong on how people came to be and let him know what metabolism, birth, old age, sickness and death were, so that he would not forget about the so-called elixir.

Xu Jin took a sip of tea and was about to give a lecture when a eunuch ran in in a panic and said anxiously: "Your Highness, Princess Yongfu is ill again. Even after taking Taoist Zhang's elixir, I'm afraid it won't work.

It’s been used, go and have a look!”

Zhu Houcong's complexion changed drastically, he spread his legs and ran out.

Zhu Houcong had a total of three sisters, one brother and one sister. Two of them and his brother died early in life. Princess Yongfu was his only remaining sister. She had not been in good health since she was a child and had been taking medicine all year round.
Chapter completed!