When Zhao Yuanyan returned to the clan mansion with his son Zhao Hongmin, who was eating and drinking well in Prince Su's mansion, Zhao Hongrun also came to the palace by carriage and came to the Ningxiang Palace of his mother, Concubine Shen Shu.
After all, he had been detained in the clan mansion for seventeen days, and he was a little worried about the situation on his mother's side.
When Zhao Hongrun arrived at Ningxiang Palace, it was already very late. Emperor Wei, Concubine Shen Shu, and Zhao Hongrun's younger brother Zhao Hongxuan were sitting at the dining table eating harmoniously.
Concubine Shen Shu was very happy to see Zhao Hongrun and quickly asked Zhao Hongrun if he had had dinner.
As a result, before Zhao Hongrun could say anything, Concubine Shen Shu ordered her maid Xiao Tao to get some more bowls and chopsticks.
In fact, Zhao Hongrun had already eaten while waiting for his second uncle Zhao Yuanyan, but he could not refuse his mother's kindness, so he lied and said that he had not eaten dinner yet and sat down at the dining table.
"Run'er, is the Smelting Bureau very busy these days?"
When the maid Xiao Tao brought Zhao Hongrun a bowl of rice, Concubine Shen Shu looked at her eldest son and asked.
"Smelting Bureau?"
Zhao Hongrun was quite puzzled when he heard this. After all, he had been locked up in the meditation room by the clan for the past seventeen days, and he had never been in the Smelting Bureau.
And when Zhao Hongrun was in a daze, he noticed that his younger brother Zhao Hongxuan kept winking at him.
On the other side, his father Emperor Wei also glanced at him intentionally or unintentionally.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun immediately realized: his father and his brother, probably considering his mother's physical condition, deliberately concealed this matter.
So, Zhao Hongrun pretended to be distressed and said: "Yes, mother, there are too many things in the Metallurgical Bureau recently, and the child almost stays in the Metallurgical Bureau day and night, unable to get away..."
Concubine Shen Shu didn't know what was going on and said worriedly: "Run'er, although it's good to contribute to the country, you also have to take care of your own body..." After that, she said with a look of reluctance: "Look at you, you've lost weight...
"
Zhao Hongrun looked stern.
It’s no wonder that after seventeen days of mediocre meals in the meditation room, I didn’t lose weight.
So throughout the meal, Concubine Shen Shu kept picking up vegetables for Zhao Hongrun, which made both Emperor Wei and Zhao Hongxuan jealous.
But Zhao Hongrun came over after eating. Looking at the large piece of fat on the bowl, his eyelids twitched wildly.
Looking at Concubine Shen Shu's expectant eyes, Zhao Hongrun forced himself to swallow the food in the bowl.
After dinner, Concubine Shen Shu chatted with her husband and son for a few words, and then went to the inner room to rest as usual.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun could no longer hold on. Sitting upright, he suddenly slumped on the chair and almost burped the food in his stomach.
"Brother, did you eat it here?" Zhao Hongxuan looked on in confusion and asked.
"Yeah..." Zhao Hongrun replied lazily because his stomach felt so bloated.
At this time, Emperor Wei, who was drinking tea, asked: "I heard that you... um, after you left, did you go to see Prince Chengling and the others?"
Zhao Hongrun had known that such a thing could not be hidden from his father and the clan's informants, so he did not defend himself and responded feebly.
Seeing this, Emperor Wei snorted coldly and said: "Stupid! What else can you do now?"
"That's not necessarily true..." Zhao Hongrun replied lazily: "It depends on people, there will always be a way."
"Hmph!" Emperor Wei snorted coldly and said lightly: "You want to deal with the clan, right?"
Zhao Hongrun clapped his palms twice with great effort and said: "Father, you don't want to see the clan overriding the imperial court, do you? How about I help you?"
"..." Wei Tianzi glanced at his son, took a sip of tea from the tea cup, and said calmly: "Convince me."
There was a hint of depression on Zhao Hongrun's face, and he thought to himself: Why can't I be a father who supports his son regardless of the consequences?
Compared with those fathers who were extremely protective of their children in the branch family, the direct descendants of the royal family were simply like grandma who did not know them and uncles who did not love them. They had to fight and fight for everything on their own.
"My son has convinced Prince Chengling and the others, as well as the second uncle... Is this sentence enough?"
"..."
At this time, Emperor Wei was drinking tea. Hearing this, he was startled and coughed repeatedly.
He stared at Zhao Hongrun dumbfounded and asked in shock: "Really? Even your second uncle..."
Zhao Hongrun chuckled.
Seeing this, Emperor Wei frowned.
In the view of Emperor Wei, although the scoundrel in front of him sometimes behaved dishonestly, he was never vague or exaggerated on major matters. Since he convinced those people, this must be the case.
However, Emperor Wei was very curious about how this scoundrel managed to convince those people.
But he couldn't ask. After all, he had predicted that unless he asked his son in a low voice about something like this, how could this scoundrel tell him? This scoundrel would only mock him, "Huh? It turns out that my father is the emperor."
Can’t you guess it?』
No, once he caught a glimpse of Zhao Hongrun's seemingly sparkling eyes, the veins on Emperor Wei's forehead popped out.
Because that look seemed to say: Come and ask me, come and ask me.
"I am your father!"
Emperor Wei cursed secretly in his heart, then snorted and said lightly: "Well, you did a good job! In this case, I might as well help you..."
As he spoke, he glanced at his son secretly to see if the scoundrel would not be able to bear it and reveal the truth.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Hongrun ignored him at all and said to Zhao Hongxuan: "Xiao Xuan, by the way, you are also fifteen this year, right?"
Zhao Hongxuan chuckled.
When a prince is fifteen years old, he is an adult and is eligible to leave the palace, open a palace and be crowned king. For example, Prince Rui Zhao Hongzhao, who is far away in Qi State, still stayed in the palace when he was eighteen years old. That was an exception.
Because Emperor Wei loved his son so much at that time that he was reluctant to leave the palace.
"Brother, will you give me a gift?" Zhao Hongxuan said enthusiastically.
Zhao Hongrun was a little depressed, thinking that when I established a palace and became a king, you didn't see any congratulatory gifts from you.
However, for the sake of being his younger brother, Zhao Hongrun did not argue with him. He nodded and said, "What do you want? As long as my brother can do it, you can ask for it."
"This..." Seeing Zhao Hongrun say this, Zhao Hongxuan hesitated a little, because although he really wanted to get a congratulatory gift from his brother, he really hadn't thought about asking for anything.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun joked: "Otherwise, my brother will give you some beautiful girls?"
When Zhao Hongxuan heard this, his face immediately turned red.
It has to be said that the children of the royal clan, due to strict discipline since childhood, are still very innocent at the age of fifteen.
For example, when Zhao Hongrun had the opportunity to leave the palace, he would be very satisfied even if he just looked at the girls coming and going on the street.
"What's the point of being embarrassed? Look at the beauties in the harem..."
"Ahem!" Seeing that the topic involved him, Emperor Wei interrupted Zhao Hongrun with a cough, and then glared at the latter with a dark face.
It's no wonder, after all, Concubine Shen Shu's two sons, the eldest son Zhao Hongrun, has obviously grown crookedly and is going further and further down the road. He doesn't want this bad son to lead his youngest ninth son again.
What's more, during Zhao Hongrun's absence in Daliang, Emperor Wei gradually discovered that his younger son Zhao Hongxuan was actually a smart and studious person. Although he was not as talented as his elder brother Zhao Hongrun, at least in terms of character, he was much better than his elder brother.
It won't hurt your heart and lungs like that.
"Hongrun, solve the urgent matter first!"
Emperor Wei said with a serious face.
"Is it urgent...?"
Zhao Hongrun touched his chin and smiled conspiratorially.
Seeing his son smile like this, Emperor Wei secretly sympathized with the clan that was about to suffer misfortune.
On the twenty-second day of the first month of the eighteenth year of Hongde's reign, just as Zhao Hongrun predicted, after two days, the Zongfu once again sent people to Prince Su's Mansion to invite him to discuss the matter of Sanchuan.
The person sent here is still Zhao Hongrun's cousin, Zhao Hongmin.
"Hongrun, what you did last time was not authentic."
When Zhao Hongmin saw Zhao Hongrun, he said with a wry smile.
Zhao Hongrun smiled coquettishly. After all, in order to let his second uncle Zhao Yuanyan take the initiative to visit him last time, he asked Shen Yu and Lu Mu to kidnap Zhao Hongmin and bring him to Prince Su's Mansion.
Of course, they said it was a kidnapping, but in fact they invited Zhao Hongmin to Prince Su's Mansion and entertained him with delicious food and drinks.
At that time, Zhao Hongmin didn't know what was going on, so he didn't refuse Zhao Hongrun's invitation and came to Prince Su's Mansion. As a result, he drank heavily and fell unconscious under the frequent persuasion of Shen Yu, Lu Mu and other clan guards, and did not see Zhao Hongrun's arrival.
In the end, it was his father Zhao Yuanyan who brought him back to the clan mansion.
Of course, there will inevitably be a lesson learned afterwards.
However, Zhao Yuanyan did not blame Zhao Hongmin for attending the meeting at Prince Su's Mansion. He was just disappointed that his eldest son Zhao Hongmin was too sincere and did not see through Zhao Hongrun's intentions. He was frequently made drunk and drank tincture of ground ether by a group of the latter's clan guards.
Very drunk.
If he goes to the appointment knowing everything, then as a father, how much face does Zhao Yuanyan have?
But what’s the result?
When Zhao Hongrun took Zhao Yuanyan to visit Zhao Hongmin that day, he saw the latter sleeping soundly in the guest room of Prince Su's Mansion.
For this reason, Zhao Hongmin will naturally be scolded severely by his father Zhao Yuanyan, no doubt.
"Thanks to my cousin, these two days have been really great for me..." Zhao Hongmin looked at Zhao Hongrun complainingly.
Zhao Hongrun shrank his head and asked cautiously: "Second uncle, he will not treat you, cousin..."
Zhao Hongmin laughed miserably when he heard this and said: "After my cousin left the clan, wouldn't the meditation room be empty? So I moved in..."
"No way? Is the second uncle so cruel to his eldest son?"
Zhao Hongrun was taken aback, and then he quickly made various promises to Zhao Hongmin as compensation. After all, he had a good impression of this cousin whose temperament was quite similar to that of his sixth brother Zhao Hongzhao.
About an hour later, Zhao Hongrun, led by Zhao Hongmin, arrived at the clan mansion.
Coincidentally, when Zhao Hongmin's carriage arrived at the Zongfu, on the other side, the carriages of Chengling King Zhao Wenshen, Jiyang King Zhao Wenzhuo, Zhongyang King Zhao Wenxuan, and Yuanyang King Zhao Wenkai also seemed to have made an appointment to arrive together.
Arrived.
Zhao Hongrun glanced at the four clan uncles.
The four clan uncles also looked at him.
Both parties seemed to have entered the clan mansion without any conflict.
However, Zhao Hongmin seemed to vaguely see something and seemed a little confused.
Because he felt that both Zhao Hongrun and the four princes and kings on the other side seemed too calm.