Chapter 1157 - 839: Victory Is Certain
Shang Ruyi’s heart also stirred slightly.
There were two ways to read what Yu Wenquan had just said—one was that he was talking about Yu Wenye. His pet name was "Phoenix", and as pet names went, that was indeed too weighty. Yu Wenquan sighing like that was probably because this second son was now far too unruly; even as the Emperor he could hardly suppress him.
The other way to read it was to connect the pet name to the formal name.
If the pet name mustn’t be too heavy, did that mean the formal name he was preparing for this Imperial Grandson of his would be very heavy?
Even though it was just the name of a newborn baby, no one would doubt that it carried very important political signals—let alone when it was the Imperial Grandson of the founding Emperor of the Dasheng Dynasty. If his name was very weighty, then what about when the Crown Prince’s child was born?
At this moment, Shang Ruyi and Yu Wencheng exchanged a glance. The look in both their eyes was complicated, yet both carried a sharp glint. But Shang Ruyi immediately withdrew her gaze, bowed with the swaddled baby in her arms toward Yu Wenquan, and said, "Your daughter-in-law thanks Father Emperor!"
When she finished, she lowered her head and smiled at the baby in the swaddling clothes. "Yuanyuan, brute strength alone isn’t enough. When you grow up, you also have to open up territory for your Grandpa, the Emperor. Do you understand?"
Yuanyuan in the swaddling clothes let out two soft noises.
Hearing this, Yu Wenquan’s eyes and brows were full of a smile. But the harmonious atmosphere hadn’t even had time to spread when they heard Yu Wencheng laughing at the side, saying, "Second Sister-in-law is too impatient. My little nephew has just been born, not even a full month yet, and you’re already thinking about him going off to open up territory?"
"..."
"At the very least, you’ll have to wait another sixteen years!"
Those words instantly cooled the air. Shang Ruyi turned her head and glanced at him.
She of course also understood what Yu Wencheng meant—waiting another sixteen years, because when Yu Wenquan raised troops in Jinyang and left him to guard Taiyuan, he had only just turned sixteen. That was why he said that if this child were to go to war, he’d need at least sixteen years.
In other words, what she was saying now was empty talk.
On an ordinary day, Shang Ruyi would naturally have a thousand retorts waiting for him. But since the topic was opening up territory, and seeing the wound at the end of his brow, she swallowed all those words back down.
Yu Wenquan also lifted his head and looked at him. In his grave gaze, a hint of gloom gradually surfaced. He sighed and said to Shang Ruyi, "Seems like the wind is picking up. Ru Yi, take the child back first. Rest well. Don’t come out again."
"Yes. Your daughter-in-law thanks Father Emperor."
Shang Ruyi, holding Yuanyuan, gave a salute, then turned and went down from the Liubu Pavilion.
She did not look back again. She just walked on with every step feeling as heavy as if her feet were filled with lead, until she returned to Qianqiu Palace and saw a familiar figure sitting inside drinking tea. Only then did she finally breathe out. Hearing her footsteps, Yu Wenye immediately lifted his head, frowned slightly, and said, "Didn’t Doctor Su say you’d best not go out this month? What if you catch a chill from the wind?"
Shang Ruyi handed the swaddled baby to Tushere beside her and said, "Take Yuanyuan down first."
Yu Wenye raised a brow slightly. "Yuanyuan?"
Shang Ruyi walked over and sat down beside him. The fine sheen of sweat on her forehead made her look a bit disheveled. She wiped it away with her own hand, then casually picked up Yu Wenye’s cup and took a sip. The warm tea slightly eased her taut nerves. She said, "I just went to the Inner Court and ran into Father Emperor and Third Brother. Father Emperor gave Yuanyuan this pet name."
Yu Wenye frowned again and repeated, "Yuanyuan..."
Shang Ruyi looked at him with a half-smile. "Father Emperor said, a pet name mustn’t be too heavy."
Yu Wenye still didn’t say much. Frowning, he seemed somewhat dissatisfied as he repeated again, "Yuanyuan."
Shang Ruyi laughed. "Is that the only thing you know how to say?"
Yu Wenye was silent for a moment, then glanced at her again before finally saying, "You just went to the Inner Court and ran into Father Emperor and Third Brother?"
When he said this, he put emphasis on the words "ran into". Seeing the flicker in his gaze, Shang Ruyi immediately understood. She merely smiled, then recounted everything Chu Ruoyan had said when she’d come to visit earlier. After that she said, "I just feel that although what happened has already happened, we shouldn’t sit here waiting to die. I went through all this trouble to give birth to such a big Imperial Grandson for us. We ought to put him to good use, shouldn’t we?"
Yu Wenye gave a dry laugh. "What are you taking our child for?"
"Our child,"
Shang Ruyi widened her eyes and said with full seriousness, "as our child, of course he has to be useful. And he has to be useful from the moment he’s born!"
Hearing this, Yu Wenye did not say much more. The smile in his eyes faded, replaced by a heavier look. After a moment of silence, he said to Shang Ruyi, "Have someone go to Jinyu Garden and tell Ruoyan that for the next while she’d best not come out again. She should just stay quietly in Jinyu Garden."
Shang Ruyi was taken aback. "She’s already been confined for half a year."
"I know."
"Why?"
"Why do you think she came to visit you today?"
Shang Ruyi thought for a moment and said softly, "She brought me some Fuling Cake, but I could see she kept wanting to say something. Was she trying to ask about Jiang Chong’en?"
Yu Wenye nodded. "Mm. Not completely muddle-headed yet."
Shang Ruyi said, "I saw it too, but I’ve been in Qianqiu Palace these days and haven’t asked much about things outside. I don’t know anything and couldn’t bring it up. In the end she just left on her own. By the way, Jiang Chong’en, in the end—"
"He’s already dead."
"...!"
Those four simple, almost icy words made Shang Ruyi shiver suddenly.
In truth, it wasn’t unexpected.
After they returned, Yu Wenye had already said Jiang Chong’en definitely had to die. But because his actions this time had nearly caused Yu Wenquan to be put in danger and had embarrassed the Emperor, he could not be executed in an open, formal manner. These past days had been enough to interrogate everything that needed to be interrogated; naturally, there was no way he would live.
She just hadn’t thought it would be this fast.
Shang Ruyi asked, "When did it happen?"
Yu Wenye said, "On the very day Duke Shenwu’s funeral procession set out."
Shang Ruyi let out a light sigh, then lifted her head to look at Yu Wenye. "You’re telling Lady Chu not to leave Jinyu Garden because—"
Yu Wenye said, "Father Emperor is extremely angry this time. Although it was thanks to the Empress Dowager’s warning that I was able to rush to Longmen Crossing to rescue him, and the Empress Dowager has done a meritorious deed, Jiang Chong’en still committed treason. One merit and one crime can cancel each other out, but they can’t cancel out Father Emperor’s anger."
"..."
Shang Ruyi nodded lightly. "I understand."
Yu Wenye added, "By the way, when you went to the Thousand-step Corridor just now, what else did you hear?"
Shang Ruyi steadied her mood, then told him everything that had happened at the Thousand-step Corridor just now, and said, "Although I took Yuanyuan over to break things up a bit, judging from the way Third Brother looked, he is determined to get this expedition."