Chapter 4 Part 2 Flower Party

The Emperor had five imperial sons, four of whom are alive.

  The First Prince's mother is the current Empress, but has been out of favor with the Emperor for many years.

At the end of last year, the Eldest Prince and "one family three minister" Lu Family set a marriage, with marry the Di granddaughter of Taifu Lu Yanbo. Although Eldest Prince's future father-in-law Lu BingCao is only a fourth grade official with mediocre political achievements, but his father, Tai Fu Lu YanBo has a lot of disciples and friends in imperial court. For example, the current Grand Secretary is a student of Lu YanBo.

The marriage of the Eldest Prince appears ordinary on the surface, but the power behind it is endless. Next year, when the Eldest Prince turns eighteen, he will be designated as the crown prince.

When the second prince was seven years old, he got smallpox and soon died. His mother Mei Xianfei also died of depression soon after. 

 The Third prince's mother Chen Guifei has long been in favor with the Emperor. The thirteen-year-old Third Prince has been appreciated by the Emperor several times for his efforts in learning literature and martial arts.

The fourth prince is eleven years old and last summer he broke his leg after falling off a horse, he was still limping badly after he was healed, and shortly after, his mother, Jiang Shufei, died of illness.

Only after death did Shen Wen find out that the Fourth prince's leg was broken by his mother, Jiang Shufei, who ordered someone to create a falling horse accident and then took the opportunity to hammer it off. It is thought that this woman was prepared for a rainy day, hoping to protect her son in this way. 

However, later the crown prince ascended to the throne, the fourth prince was secluded, never left an heir, and was poisoned to death when the crown prince was seriously ill. It can be seen that his legs had broken, but still did not live a good life. I do not know whether Jiang Shufei regrets such a ruthless hand.

The Five Prince is not yet three years old and is said to be unable to speak at all. When Beirong invaded this 13-year-old Prince died of illness on his way to escape. 

At this time, the Eldest Prince’s marriage only decided half a year ago, and his fiance's uncle's family came to the imperial court’s First military General's Mansion to attend a flower party  and purpose marriage for the eldest son of the Hou Fu. The future father-in-law's family of the Eldest Prince is already taking care of him. 

In the previous life, Hou Fu did not choose Sun's eldest daughter. This time the Third Prince came and met with Shen Yi Shen Jian, and so on. According to the development of the previous life, they will become close friends. This is not already destined to the future demise of the Hou Fu?

Shen Wen is six years old at this time. If she is a normal child, naturally does not understand anything. The other children are not much better. The eldest son of the Hou family, Shen Yi, is only fifteen years old, so what kind of political sensitivity can he have? Yang Shi and the Old Furen are both straightforward women in nature. And the Marquis has long been at the border military to prevent foreign enemies, and there is no spare energy or heart for political affairs. Regardless of whether the thirteen-year-old Third Prince came intentionally, but at this moment, no one in the Marquis Mansion would certainly have foreseen the evil consequences buried in this flower party.

A few years later the Marquis probably sensed that something was wrong and brought both the elder brother and the second brother to the border, perhaps to show the neutral. But this move is no longer helpful to the overall situation, the Marquis Mansion has long been classified into the camp of the Third Princes.

So what if you have a strong army on your side? There is a strong enemy outside the country to clean you up. The other side is calculating with intention, with preparedness. Their own family has been at a disadvantage from the beginning.

Looking at the back of Furen Yang Shi, who took her eldest son Shen Yi and second son Shen Jian to the front yard, Shen Wen squinted her eyes, her face was sad, and she was a little bit about to cry.

Seeing this, Zhang Yunjin, the youngest daughter of the Marquis of Pingyuan, moved a step to Shen Wen's side and asked in a small voice, "What's wrong with my sister?"

Shen Xiang also turned her head, saw Shen Wen's appearance, and muttered to Zhang Yunjin: "Don't care, my sister is like this, she has to cry from time to time, she probably can't let go of her mother and elder brothers."

Shen Zhuo leaned over and said, "No, she's hungry. Look, she's so fat because she always wants to eat."

Zhang Yunjin laughed, Shen Wen looked at Shen Zhuo with a flat mouth. Shen Zhuo put his hands behind his back and raised his head, no longer looking at Shen Wen.

Zhang Yunjin smiled and took Shen Wen's hand, whispering: "Sister, don't cry, you're not fat at all."

On the side, Zhang Yunming smiled and pulled down Shen Zhuo: "You still don't apologize? If I say that, I will be scolded by my mother."

Shen Zhuo stretched out his somewhat swollen right hand: "Just a rebuke? See? My hand is like this, so I don't lose if I don't say a few more words?”

Shen Xiang whispered, "You deserve it!" Zhang Yunjin gave another low laugh. 

Shen Wen bowed her head. In her previous life, she had been staring at the women of the civil officials, did not love to take care of Shen Xiang and Shen Zhuo, and they did not provoke her.

Zhang Yunjin was then acquainted with Shen Xiang and Shen Zhuo at the time. Later Yang Shi once wanted to propose marriage with the Marquis of Pingyuan, but the other side did not take the straw.

It is thought that the Marquis of Pingyuan is determined to stay away from the imperial government and does not want to be involved with the Marquis of Zhenbei who has a heavy army in his hands, but in fact, he did not escape in the end.

Zhang Yunjin finally married a merchant's son on her mother's side, Shen Wen forgot the end of her life later. And in the previous life, Shen Zhuo has been dragged until the age of twenty-two before the marriage. I do not know if it is because of Zhang Yunjin.

Yang Shi welcomed the Fifth Princess and the Third Prince, and a group of people returned to the courtyard. There is someone helping the old Furen, who is " praying to the Buddha in the back" to come out, and everyone is saluting again. In fact, Shen Wen knows that the old Furen is just too lazy to meet the guests one by one, when everyone has arrived, just come out and meet.

Yang Shi then asked someone to take the Xiaojies to play in the garden. She herself led the Furens to the outer hall, where a card rack was set up and there were various snacks for the ladies to talk and rest.

The crowd dispersed, Shen Zhuo, Shen Xiang took Shen Wen, led the Zhang family's eldest son Zhang Yunming, the second young Miss and the sixth young Miss Zhang Yunjin towards the garden.

Shen Wen looked at the Third Prince from afar, many Young girls not far from his side. This young man wears a golden ring worn by the prince, his eyebrows are upright, wearing a collar of pale yellow long clothes, a jade belt wrapped around the waist, and a straight figure. He has a kind of royal people's unique aura of superiority.

The Fifth princess was pointing at the side, while Shen Yi and Shen Jian accompanied them and talked. Suddenly the Fifth princess pointed at Shen Yi's belt, and then at Shen Jian's belt. Shen Jian turned around to look back and forth, found Shen Wen's gang, waving to them, but not waiting for them to go over, but the Third Prince and his gang came this way.

The two groups of people came to one place, and the onlookers next to them tried not to move to this side. In the previous life, Shen Wen did not give the incense Sachet, naturally did not get the attention of the Third prince and the Fifth princess.

The Fifth Princess is two years older than her and the same as Shen Xiang's age. When she was fifteen years old, she was married to the second son of the Dahan of the BeiRong and died before the BeiRong invaded the border.

Some later records say that she was actually killed to show the determination of the BeiRong - there is no reason to attack people and still keep their daughters as wives, in case there is a son whose kingdom will be inherited?

There are also wild histories that she learned of the Beirong’s plans and tried to escape to report the news, but she was killed in the middle of the process and should be included in the biography of the Martyr's daughter.