Lu Chen said, "I'm the only son my mother has. If I abandon the position of the crown prince, no matter which one of my six brothers becomes the emperor, he won't easily spare me or Tuan'er.
"In the royal family, the slightest carelessness would arouse a storm of blood…
"Abandoning the position of the crown prince is not as easy as you think."
As Lu Chen explained, his forehead kept bleeding, so he had to leave Tuan'er's palace.
Qiao Jinniang didn't feel guilty at all when she saw the blood on the shards of the teacup on the ground.
Although she knew who would be the crown prince was very important, if he really regarded her as his wife, he would never insult her!
She only regretted her being nosy to save him from the river back then. She shouldn't have been deceived by his pretty face. All of him was extremely disgusting except for his good looks.
After Tuan'er woke up, Qiao Jinniang played with him for a while, and it was not until a servant of the East Palace said that the palace banquet was about to begin that Qiao Jinniang reluctantly handed over Tuan'er.
She earnestly asked the servant to take good care of Tuan'er.
After that, she endured the urge of burning the East Palace and left the palace bitterly.
The palace banquet at the Dragon Boat Festival was very lively.
There was a custom of shooting rice dumplings in the Imperial Palace. Whoever shot a rice dumpling could eat that rice dumpling. The rice dumplings made by the royal chef might not be delicious, but they were the rice dumplings bestowed by the royal family after all.
Everyone had a great time playing.
"His Royal Highness is here."
When Lu Chen came in, all the nobles, officials and their families present saluted him.
The Queen noticed the bright red scar on Lu Chen's forehead at a glance. "Chen'er, come here."
Lu Chen stepped forward and saluted her. "Mother."
The Queen stood up, reached out to touch Lu Chen's forehead, and frowned angrily, "Who did this?"
Lu Chen lowered his eyes and said, "I just fell."
"Again? Last time, she slapped you, and this time you lost a lot of blood! Are you still protecting her? I will never allow my son to be so insulted!"
The Queen was furious. "How could she beat you over and over again? Has she ever shown any respect to the royal family? Even I have never beaten you!
"You didn't lose your life in the South, but I'm afraid that you will lose your life in Chang'an!"
Noticing that the Queen was furious, Lu Chen quickly comforted her, "Mother, I did accidentally fall. Don't be angry. If Father knows that I made you angry, he'll blame me."
Lu Chen winked at Emperor Huilin, but the latter ignored him. Instead, he said, "What your mother said is right. After the palace banquet is over, I'll punish Qiao Jinniang!"
The Queen frowned and looked at Lu Chen. "Why do you smell?"
The warm wind of early summer blew over, and the Yuhua Garden where the palace banquet was held suddenly filled with a strange smell.
It smelled like slops in June and July, very disgusting.
The closer one got to Lu Chen, the more obvious the smell was.
Prince Lu gloated, "What's the matter with the Crown Prince? Why do you stink? Are you sick? Summon a royal doctor to examine you!"
Prince Lu rolled his eyes. His seventh younger brother had always outshone them since he was a child.
He knew that he would never become the crown prince, but he didn't want Lu Chen, who had always been unkind to his brothers, to ascend the throne smoothly.
On the other hand, Prince Mediocre was kind, polite and very nice to his brothers. After getting demoted to Prince Mediocre and sent to the frontier, he still didn't forget to send gifts to them and never forgot about them.
Prince Lu thought, as long as he didn't rebel, he would be a duke no matter what.
He liked to cause troubles for the Crown Prince, which might help Prince Mediocre become the next emperor!
If the Crown Prince really suffered from a foul-smelling illness, even if the father loved him the most, as a sick man, he couldn't become the next emperor.
Lu Chen lowered his head and took away the sachet from his waist. The stench came from the sachet.
He clenched the sachet and looked at Prince Lu sharply, asking coldly, "Fourth Brother, why did you say the smell came from me? Do you have any evidence?"
Prince Lu shuddered, angry yet a bit scared. Lu Chen was the youngest son of Emperor Huilin, but he always dwarfed the other sons. And unlike Prince Mediocre who respected them very much, he was very rude to them!
Prince Lu said, "I'm just concerned about your health… I'm afraid everyone in this hall has smelled the stink, right?"
Prince Mediocre stood up and said, "Fourth Brother, maybe I was contaminated with the smell of fertilizer when I went to the outskirts today to check the growth of the farmers' wheat. This smell doesn't come from the Crown Prince."
The civil officials and Prince Lu all felt sympathetic for Prince Mediocre. The Queen had changed his title to the insulting "Mediocre", but Prince Mediocre still tried to protect the Crown Prince. He was such a noble man.
It was a pity that he wasn't born by the Queen.
However, Lu Chen didn't seem grateful and said with irony, "There is still a month away from cutting the wheat. How could farmers possibly put fertilizer in the wheat fields?
"Fifth Brother, you need to go to the field and do some farm work. Don't talk nonsense. You know, talking nonsense in front of Father will get you punished…"
Emperor Huilin asked Lu Chen, "I remember you still couldn't tell the wheat from beans three years ago, but now you even know when the wheat fields are fertilized?"
Lu Chen smiled meaningfully at Prince Mediocre. "Thanks to Fifth Brother, I got to know it."
Prince Mediocre hurriedly said, "Maybe I was mistaken. They were fertilizing fruits, not wheat…"
After Lu Chen burned the spice in the sachet, the smell in the courtyard was gone.
Lu Chen arched his hands and said, "Father, this is an insect repellent made of mugwort leaves and realgar.
"Although it has a foul smell, it can repel insects. I don't know why Fifth Brother insisted that the smell came from him?
"But since Fifth Brother likes it, I'll have more sachets made and give them to Fifth Brother to repel insects."
Prince Mediocre clenched his hands, his eyes full of resentment after being humiliated.
Emperor Huilin praised, "That's very considerate of you, but don't play favorites. Your Fourth Brother easily attracts insects as well. Give him some too."
Lu Chen chuckled. "Yes, Father."
Everyone in the garden could tell how much His Majesty favored His Royal Highness.
Imperial Concubine Xian and other imperial concubines looked very embarrassed too.
After the Dragon Boat Festival banquet was over, the Queen called Lu Chen over. She approached, picked up the sachet on Lu Chen's waist, and looked at it. "This sachet is not made by the imperial embroiderers. Who tried to set you up?"
Lu Chen said, "Mother, maybe Jinniang didn't know that she used the wrong spices."
That being said, Lu Chen remembered the look in her eyes when she put on the sachet for him and knew that she definitely did it on purpose to let him make a fool of himself.
The Queen's beautiful face turned gloomy. "It's her again? I won't forgive her!"
Lu Chen hurriedly said, "She is upset because she doesn't want to be my concubine. She didn't mean to set me up."
"Hasn't your father changed her title to your first concubine? Why is she still upset?"
Looking at the scar on Lu Chen's forehead, the Queen was very angry.
Lowering his eyes and sighing, Lu Chen told the Queen that Jinniang wanted to be his legitimate wife.
"Today, I said that I wanted to let my future crown princess raise Tuan'er, so he'll be more justified to inherit my throne in the future. Hearing this, she was annoyed, but she didn't mean to harm me."
Hearing Lu Chen's explanation, the Queen paused before she said slowly, "You really deserve it. If it were me, I would have burnt the East Palace down!"
Lu Chen, "?"