If not abolished

Chapter 318 Finally arrived

Nearly half a month passed, and Zhu Zhanqi and his party finally arrived in Shuntian.

Prince Zhao had prepared a welcoming banquet early on. When people arrived, Zhu Gaosui pulled them to the banquet before they even sat down.

"Uncle San, I'm so sorry for being late. I'll drink three glasses of wine as a punishment." After Zhu Zhanqi sat down, he immediately picked up the wine glass and poured himself three glasses of wine, which he drank in succession.

"It's okay, it's okay. You have your reasons. Besides, this won't delay anything. Let's drink happily today and talk about it tomorrow." Zhu Gaosui asked him to sit down.

"I would like to thank Uncle San for supporting me during this period. By the way, why don't I see my two younger brothers?" Zhu Zhanqi looked around and didn't see anyone, so he had to ask.

"Oh, it's a long story. Anyway, they fell ill not long after they arrived, and are now at Princess Yong'an's residence. They will come again tomorrow. After all, they are the people arranged by His Majesty, and it would be unreasonable not to let them interfere in the affairs. But they have no experience, so let them follow us and help."

"Didn't Third Uncle arrange things for them? I thought they were already doing things. Since you are sick, I wonder if you have recovered?" Zhu Zhanqi asked with concern.

"It should be almost healed. We'll know tomorrow." Zhu Gaosui hadn't asked about it since they went to the princess's mansion, so naturally he didn't know much about it.

Here, Zhu Gaosui and Zhu Zhanqi were busy with their plans. The Princess and others who came with him were exhausted from the long journey and were ready to rest.

"My lady, won't you wait for His Highness?"

"It's so late and he hasn't finished yet. I'm tired after a whole day. Can't he take care of himself?" Wang Jundai said tiredly.

"If His Highness comes and sees the Queen sleeping, wouldn't that be bad?" the maid asked worriedly.

"He must have a lot to discuss with the prince today, so I'm afraid he won't come. The prince will arrange a place for him to stay."

"What you said makes sense. Your Majesty, please take a rest first." The maid said, looking at her eyes that were about to close.

"Well, I'm going to sleep first. If His Highness really comes, you guys deal with him. He probably drank a lot of wine and isn't sober yet. Prepare some hot water." Wang Jundai was still worried that Zhu Zhanqi might come over, so she gave the order in a daze.

"Yes, Your Majesty is very thoughtful." The maid covered her with a blanket.

"My Lady Concubine, His Highness is still drinking with the Prince in front, you should rest first. I noticed that the lights have been turned off at the Princess's place, so let's rest as well.

"Since the Princess has also rested, we won't wait any longer. What about Yaoyao, is she asleep? I'll go check on her. She's in a new place, so I'm afraid she can't sleep well." Sun Ruoji was originally preparing to rest, but then he thought about his daughter's change of place and decided to go check on her.

"Sister Yao, you didn't cry or make a fuss today. It turns out that you are feeling better and have more energy."

"I'd better go and check on her. Make sure she doesn't kick off the quilt. It would be bad if she catches a cold again." Sun Ruoji still went to take a look, sat beside the crib, looking at her daughter's sleeping face, and left after a while.

The next day, the two brothers in the princess's mansion heard that Zhu Zhanqi had come. Zhu Zhanqi had been ill for such a long time and finally had something to do. His joy was beyond words and he couldn't hide it.

"Second brother, what makes you so happy?" Zhu Zhanji asked curiously, seeing that he hadn't smiled at all today.

"Well, you know that my cousin is here. This means we now have something to do and we don't have to stay here and get moldy." Zhu Zhanjun said happily.

"Brother, do you think we have the opportunity to do those things?" Zhu Zhanji asked.

"What do you mean? Didn't Third Uncle already promise Aunt? He said that he would arrange things for us after I recover and my cousin comes." When Zhu Zhanjun heard this, his smile disappeared immediately. He was afraid that something unexpected would happen. They came here without doing anything, and he didn't know what the Emperor was thinking in the first place and why he wanted them to come.

"Uncle San did agree. But if he wanted to hand over the affairs to us, he should have taught us step by step as soon as we came here. But you see we have been here for so many days, and what has he asked us to do? So, Uncle San didn't plan to let us do it from the beginning. Things like waiting for my cousin to come, waiting for you to recover, are all excuses for delay. If the time comes, he will find other reasons to put us aside. After all, we have no experience, and he can find any reason to get rid of us then." Zhu Zhanji analyzed to him.

"You're right. What should we do? We'll just let them fool us and do nothing. I can't stand it even if you can..."

"What if we can't stand it? We don't have any connections here. Third Uncle has been running the business here for so many years, how can we fight him?" Zhu Zhanji continued, "Since they want to find a reason to leave us out, and then tell the emperor that it's because we are inexperienced and put all kinds of nonsense on us, it's better not to provoke them in the first place."

"But what reason do we have? If we engage in passive resistance, won't that give them more reasons?" Zhu Zhanjun said with a frown.

"You're right. After all, you've recovered from your illness, and there's no reason for us to delay any longer. But..." Zhu Zhanqi kept it a secret.

"But what? You're leaving people half-sentenced. You're going to drive me crazy." Zhu Zhanjun lacked patience and would never listen to such words.

"Second brother, don't be so anxious. I haven't thought about the specifics yet. However, as the saying goes, I won't move until the enemy moves. Let's see how they arrange us. We should all say that we don't know how to deal with it and let them teach us. In this way, they can also explain to the Emperor, and we won't say anything. Anyway, let's take it one step at a time." After all, Zhu Zhanji was not very old and lacked experience in handling things. He just felt that this matter was not simple based on his intuition. Alas, it would be great if his eldest brother was here.

At this moment, Zhu Zhanji, who was in Zhongdu, sneezed.

"Your Highness, don't catch a cold." Wu Cheng reminded from the side.

"It's okay, maybe someone is thinking about me." Zhu Zhanji said jokingly.

While the two brothers were talking, someone sent by King Zhao asked them to pass.

The two looked at each other, and decided to fight back. After packing up, they said goodbye to Princess Yong'an and left.

After a while, the carriage stopped at Prince Zhao's place. We followed him inside and saw Prince Zhao and Zhu Zhanqi were already sitting there.

"Finally you two are here. If you hadn't come, I would have gone there myself." Zhu Gaosui said after seeing them come in.

"Uncle San, cousin, we were delayed on the way and kept you waiting for a long time. I wonder if you asked us to come here specially?"

"Didn't I tell you before that once Zhanqi arrives, you will have to do what you are supposed to do. You still want to sit around like this? I specifically asked you to come here to discuss this together." Zhu Gaosui said.

"If Third Uncle hadn't told us that we were here for something, we two brothers would have almost forgotten it," Zhu Zhanjun said in a gloomy way.

"What are you talking about? You have never done this before, and you are still young. You have to wait for Zhanqi to come and take you with you. You are saying that I am bullying you. Besides, aren't you sick? I won't let you go with your sick body."

"Yes, Third Uncle is right. My second brother didn't mean that. He didn't mean it. Just now on the road he said that he was happy to help Third Uncle. He just said one thing and meant another. You are a magnanimous person. Don't be angry with him." Zhu Zhanji tried to smooth things over.

"What you said is quite pleasing to the ear. Never mind. I won't bother with you youngsters. Let's not talk about this anymore and discuss things." Zhu Gaosui didn't want to argue with them anymore and waved his hand.

"Uncle San is a very generous person."

"Okay, no need to flatter and please. Let's get down to business. The construction of the Forbidden City and the Imperial City has been completed, and some places outside the city still need to be improved. This..." Zhu Gaosui assigned tasks.

The three were assigned to inspect the security and facilities of various palaces in the Forbidden City.

The two Zhu Zhanjun brothers have not been here before, but Zhu Zhanqi has been here once before and is a little more familiar with the place.

"Let's arrange it this way first, and then make new arrangements after we've dealt with it." Zhu Gaosui said.

"Yes." After receiving their respective tasks, several people took action.