Chapter 24: Obedience is worse than respect

"Squeak..." The white sand in the hourglass kept falling to the lower layer, a very thin line of sand, falling very slowly, but never stopped. Time is sometimes the sand in the hourglass, sometimes the drum sound on the city wall, and sometimes the almanac printed on paper.

Zhu Gaoxu lay on the table, stretched out two fingers to pinch the sand line in the glass bottle, as if trying to control time. He thought to himself that he could not control time, but he could try to control the urgency of things.

He exhaled, picked up the pen, licked it on his tongue, and wrote on the account in front of him. After a while, he stood up from the round stool, reached out to pick up a bundle of colorful silk, tucked it under his arm, picked up a small wooden box on the table, walked out of the storeroom, turned around and locked the door.

"Where is Miss Du?" Zhu Gaoxu asked when he met Aunt Wang.

Aunt Wang bent down quickly and said, "I just saw her go into the back hall. She said she was going to collect the prince's dirty clothes."

Zhu Gaoxu walked into the middle gate building and came to the upper room. As expected, he saw Du Qianrui and called out to her, "Miss Du, please stop what you are doing and come over to talk to me."

Du Qianrui turned around, put down the clothes in her hands, walked outside the screen, and knelt down to salute.

Zhu Gaoxu put the things in his hand on the mahogany coffee table and said , "Miss Du, I don't use you as a maid. I promised you last time, and I went to the storehouse to find some things today. I hope you can use them."

"How can I have the nerve to accept rewards without doing anything?" Du Qianrui blushed.

Although she refused verbally, her shining eyes betrayed her. Almost no woman doesn't like beautiful clothes and jewelry, and even more so no woman doesn't want to be pampered... For a man to give gifts is the most crude and effective way to show his pampering.

"Take a look." Zhu Gaoxu pretended to be indifferent and raised his chin. In fact, he still cared a lot. The Ming Dynasty treasure notes were just paper, and he had no feeling at all, but the jewelry was very immersive... If he had these things in his previous life, why would he go for a small loan?

Du Qianrui lowered her eyes and carefully reached out to open the wooden box. She did not take the gold, silver and pearls inside, but first picked up an emerald green bracelet.

"It's a pity that it is made of Hetian jade. If the jade bracelet could be full green, it would be priceless." Zhu Gaoxu said.

"Jade?" Du Qianrui asked in surprise.

Zhu Gaoxu was stunned for a moment, guessing that jadeite probably didn't exist at that time. He didn't explain and continued, "Even if Hetian jade is full of green, it's not valuable."

Du Qianrui picked it up with her fingers and glanced at it through the window. "If I buy it with treasure notes, it will cost seven or eight hundred strings of cash, which is also very expensive."

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu thought to himself: As expected of him, he came from the Jiaofangsi, he has seen the world and can see the value at a glance.

At this moment, a dark-skinned maid with big hands and feet walked to the door and said in a hoarse voice, "Your Majesty, Eunuch Wang asked me to tell you that Professor Hou wants to see you."

Hou Hai is back from Nanjing? Upon hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but glance at Du Qianrui, feeling a little guilty.

But he pretended to be casual and said, "Excuse me, I have to go out for a while."

Du Qianrui said, "Your Majesty, official business is more important. I'll take my leave. I'm really ashamed to give these things..."

Zhu Gaoxu interrupted her without further ado, determined to send her off so as to make up for the feeling in his heart, and said, "Don't refuse again and again, I'm fed up with you!"

"Yes, I'll obey your command." Du Qianrui lowered her head shyly.

Zhu Gaoxu strode out, passed the central gatehouse, corridors, halls, and came to the courtyard behind the screen wall. As expected, he saw Hou Hai standing there, looking exhausted. Hou Hai looked over and bowed.

Zhu Gaoxu waved to him and then walked into a living room opposite the wall.

"Close the door." Zhu Gaoxu said when he saw Hou Hai coming in, and pointed to the armchair below, "Professor Hou, you are tired from the journey, sit down and talk slowly."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Hou Hai bowed again. Although his face was covered in dust, his eyes were bright and he seemed very happy to do this job.

Hou Hai sat down, pondered for a moment, and said, "This trip of mine is really interesting! Where should I start? Let's say that I received the order from the prince that day, and I was thinking about where the capital is. If I run into someone randomly when I go out, I'm afraid he is a third or fifth rank official. Who can I find as a ninth rank official?"

Zhu Gaoxu didn't say anything, but nodded from time to time and looked at him to show that he was listening.

Hou Hai continued, "Before leaving, I met with Wang Gui and asked him if he had any strong connections in the capital so that I could find someone to help. Wang Gui told me that if I had no other options, I could ask Princess Huaiqing's son Wang Zhenliang for help."

Zhu Gaoxu coughed and said, "You'd better not talk nonsense about these people."

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, I'm sensible!" Hou Hai clasped his fists and said, "Now that I've arrived in the capital, I'm unfamiliar with the area, so I had no choice but to find out where Wang Zhenliang lives and go find him first.

When Wang Zhenliang heard that I was working in the Prince's Palace, he really received me. I told him my story, but Wang Zhenliang refused outright, saying that he was working in the Governor's Palace and had no right to manage the affairs of the Jiaofangsi!

Zhu Gaoxu nodded again.

Hou Hai said , "I finally met him, but he just left like that? Fortunately, I was quick-witted and was able to hear the interesting things below!

That day at the palace, the prince asked me about the major events in the world. I told him about several new officials in Peking, and the prince seemed quite interested... When I met Wang Zhenliang, I asked about the details of those three or four people. It didn't matter! Wang Zhenliang told me a secret. "

"What's the secret?" Zhu Gaoxu became interested when he heard that it was about a senior official in Peking.

Hou Hai was beaming with joy, and was obviously more interested in the "hidden truth" than Zhu Gaoxu. He leaned forward, stretched his neck and said, "Zhang Xin, the commander of Beiping, had a feud with Qi Tai, the Minister of War...

Although Qi Tai is now in a high position, he was a minister of the Ministry of War. He was very poor when he was studying! In the 18th year of Hongwu, Qi Tai went to Beijing to take the imperial examination and lived in an inn in a run-down area. That kind of inn not only provides food and accommodation, but also prostitutes.

Qi Tai naturally had no money to find a prostitute, but the prostitute found him... When Qi Tai was young, he was handsome, tall, and fair-skinned. He studied upstairs in the inn every day. The prostitute listened to him studying every day and fell in love with him. She took the initiative to throw herself into his arms and offered him a pillow. Not only did she not ask for money, she even paid him!

The girl gave all her savings to Qi Tai to help him take the imperial examination. Qi Tai was extremely poor, but he did not expect to meet such a person who treated him wholeheartedly. He cursed and swore that he would come back to repay her after he passed the imperial examination.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded expressionlessly and listened patiently to how he was related to Zhang Xin.

Hou Hai finally talked about Zhang Xin, "Soon Zhang Xin also found that inn and came to look for a prostitute... Well, his father was a high-ranking military officer back then, so why did Zhang Xin go to such a run-down place to look for a prostitute? This is unclear. If it hadn't been so long ago, I would have been able to find out."

Zhu Gaoxu thought to himself: It seems that Zhang Xin's hobby is not something that happened overnight. Now that he is in Peking, isn't he going to the "Poor Man's Market" to look for prostitutes?

Hou Hai continued, "Zhang Xin spent a night with the prostitute and couldn't let her go. He insisted on buying her from the shopkeeper. After the shopkeeper received the money, he naturally didn't care whether the prostitute was willing or not, let alone whether Qi Tai was willing or not. Zhang Xin was a warrior, so he beat up Qi Tai who was making trouble and forcibly bought the prostitute.

Later, I heard that the prostitute went to Zhang Xin's house, but Zhang Xin soon got tired of her. Once she fell out of favor, she was bullied by the main wife every other day and beaten by Zhang Xin. Not long after, she died..."

"Oh!" Zhu Gaoxu's eyes lit up, "Isn't this a rumor?"

Hou Hai said, "It shouldn't be. The two people involved are a minister and a commander-in-chief. Who would dare to make up stories about them? Even Wang Zhenliang would not do that!"

Zhu Gaoxu calmed down and pondered for a moment, "In this case, Qi Tai will regret it for the rest of his life? The things he didn't get are the most regrettable."

Hou Hai said, "That's inevitable! I guess there's something else he has for Zhang Xin..."

"What?"

"Hate!" Hou Hai said.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't say anything for a while, then couldn't help asking, "So you're back?"

Hou Hai glared and said, "How can that be possible? I am here to investigate Du Qianrui's background, so I will definitely not do this!"

Zhu Gaoxu said nothing.