svetikya Chapter 352 A Family of Three
Chapter 352 A Family of Three
Han Xiao scoffed, "Your Majesty, I wouldn't dare! I'm merely concerned for my wife and children!"
Du Hanyun slapped him. "Aren't you going to apologize to Her Majesty the Empress? When we talked about the Du family, I felt sad, and Her Majesty the Empress comforted me. If it weren't for Her Majesty the Empress, where would I be today?"
Han Xiao thought to himself, if it weren't for the Empress, he wouldn't have had to undergo this vaccination. Why should he be grateful?
The two exchanged a glance, and both Han Xiao and Shen Shixi glared at each other fiercely, too lazy to pay any attention to each other.
Han Xiao then addressed the emperor on serious matters, "Your Majesty, I have a complaint against Prime Minister Cui. What he's doing is utterly inhuman. He actually bribed the gatekeeper of my residence to order him to attack my officials. Don't you think he's lost his mind?"
The gatekeeper agreed and immediately reported it to Han Xiao. Han Xiao was furious. If you're going to bribe someone to attack me, at least make it look decent. At least have someone capable who can hold his own. He's a military officer, after all. But you've got someone who can't even kill a chicken. Who are you trying to humiliate?
Li Yuanke remained silent.
Shen Shixi said, "You hit him back then, and although you gained the upper hand by being unreasonable, he hates you and wants to find a way to kill you. That's not human nature. Alright, we understand about this. Just bear with it for now, and we'll talk about it later."
After leaving the palace, Han Xiao asked his wife, "What do you think the Empress meant?"
Du Hanyun said, "The Cui family has a bad reputation. I've heard about their selling of official positions, and I'm sure the Emperor and Empress have heard about it too. The Empress is someone who can't tolerate any wrongdoing, so she probably won't let it go."
Shen Shixi was also talking to Li Yuanke about Prime Minister Cui, saying, "Yang Jiong, this 'incorrectly named Vice Minister,' was promoted by Prime Minister Cui. Not only can he not recognize all the characters, but he can't even keep accounts."
I had someone find his old memorials and looked at them. In the second year of Yongxi, when he was the principal of the Ministry of Revenue, he miscalculated the tax of a prefecture, which did not match the local calculation. However, this matter was never resolved.
I then had someone calculate the taxes collected by that state that year, and the figure was different; in other words, there were three different figures for the taxes collected by one state.
Li Yuanke was also embarrassed, but this was certainly not due to his oversight; it was clearly a case of his subordinates deceiving the emperor. He said, "That old bastard deserves to die!"
Shen Shixi threw down the folded book, came over and tapped his forehead, "Don't try to shift the blame onto others. You're definitely slacking off too."
Li Yuanke said, "Don't you know what I was busy with in the second year of Yongxi? You scoundrel, I called you back then, but you refused to come back no matter what. I was working day and night, and you still have the nerve to say that?"
He hugged Shen Shixi, and even seemed a little aggrieved.
The grievance lasted only a second before he heard his son and daughter wailing. Shen Shixi felt a headache coming on and pushed him, "Go and see them right away."
Li Yuanke resignedly got up and hurried to the side hall. The crown prince and the princess were actually fighting. The three or four-month-old babies were kicking each other, and after kicking each other twice, they started crying.
Their respective wet nurses picked them up and comforted them.
These two children, they seemed to have inherited their stubbornness from someone, both feeling wronged. Seeing their father arrive, they stared at him expectantly, waving their little hands. Li Yuanke's heart melted, and he quickly took them in, asking, "What happened?"
The two wet nurses hurriedly knelt down and replied, "The Crown Prince urinated, but we didn't notice for a moment. The Crown Prince cried, and the Princess sounded impatient, so she kicked the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince then kicked the Princess, and they both started crying."
The princess was so upset that she cried so hard she hiccuped.
The crown prince was also aggrieved. He had wet himself, couldn't he have cried and reminded him?
My sister is so mean!
Li Yuanke didn't know who to criticize. "Alright, stop crying. It's not a big deal. If you annoy your mother with your crying, she'll abandon you."
Lan Ying brought over water to wash the prince's bottom.
Li Yuanke had the wet nurse hold the princess while he washed the crown prince. As soon as he handed the princess to the wet nurse, she cried, and he couldn't free his hands. So he had the wet nurse wash the crown prince instead, but the crown prince still refused to let go.
He had no choice but to support the prince with one hand while the wet nurse washed him and put a diaper back on. Looking at the prince's little penis and the tears in his eyes, Li Yuanke found it amusing and cursed, "What a troublesome thing!"
Li Yuanke carried the children to the bedroom. Shen Shixi was taking a nap at the time, and he also wanted to sleep for a while, so he talked to the two children, "Don't make noise, don't make a fuss, be quiet and you can sleep with your mother for a while. If you cry and make a fuss, even your father will get scolded, do you hear me?"
It's unclear whether the two of them understood or not, but the whole family of four slept on the dragon bed.
Li Yuanke was the first to wake up. He reached out and found his son was gone. He sat up abruptly and saw Shen Shixi and the Crown Prince sleeping in the corner of the bed, each occupying a foot of the bed, a long way away from him and the princess.
Shen Shixi's sleeping posture is quite unique. Her head is tucked into a corner, and her back is arched, like a cat. It's thanks to her regular yoga practice that she has a flexible body; most people can't fold themselves into that position.
The prince was curled up like a shrimp. He was sleeping right next to him, but somehow he had ended up in the corner of the bed.
The prince is less than four months old and cannot move at all.
Li Yuanke felt a chill run down his spine upon closer examination, and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
That bastard never sleeps peacefully; she can easily fall and seriously injure herself. It's really too dangerous for two kids to sleep in the same bed with her.
Being a new parent is really tough; without experience, problems are easily made.
When Shen Shixi woke up, she didn't dare to move. Li Yuanke lifted her up, and she turned around and hugged Li Yuanke's neck. "Li Yuanke, if you want to sleep in the same bed with your son and daughter again, go sleep in their bedroom. Don't hurt me."
She was constantly worried that she might accidentally crush her son and cause him great suffering.
Li Yuanke put her down on the floor, then got out of bed himself to stretch his limbs. He glanced at his son and daughter, who were sleeping soundly in bed, and said, "They can sleep by themselves!"
Ordinary people and this bastard can't even share a bed.
Lu Shixun requested an audience. The Ministry of Rites' main task at the moment was the investiture ceremony of the Crown Prince in February of next year. In addition, the court was currently short-handed. Li Yuanke's idea was to hold a special imperial examination.
In the past, the Secretariat would draft the imperial edict. Now that the procedure has changed, the Ministry of Rites is responsible for drafting the imperial edict for the special imperial examination.
Li Yuanke took the folded document, looked at it, and handed it to Shen Shixi. Shen Shixi didn't look at it, but handed it to Li Fude. "Eunuch Li, pick a few clever, sensible, and literate people for this organization, and call it the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs."
All subsequent memorials submitted must be meticulously recorded, including the Emperor's annotations and dates, for future reference. This matter is of utmost importance; Eunuch Li must carefully select the appropriate person to handle it.
Eunuch Li was overjoyed, for this meant that the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs would now have certain authority.
Li Yuanke instantly understood Shen Shixi's meaning. The Directorate of Ceremonial and the Grand Secretariat were both advisors to the emperor, but they also supervised, prevented, and checked each other.
As for the possibility of the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Cabinet joining forces, if his descendants were to become emperors at that level, then the downfall of the country would be deserved.
Lu Shixun was a seasoned official, and he quickly understood what was going on. It has to be said that the Empress was a natural-born ruler.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty the Empress, I have another matter to ask of you. Today, I must shamelessly plead for a favor for someone!" Lu Shixun knelt down and performed a deep bow.
"Song Yan was a Jinshi during the reign of the late emperor. He was elegant and refined, with abundant literary talent and considerable ability to govern the world. He was originally the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, but he was transferred to Weizhou because he offended Prime Minister Cui. I am afraid that he is a weak scholar and suffers from asthma. The north is bitterly cold. Wouldn't going there in this way be to kill him?"