Chapter 526 and the Prince

Four days later, Jiang, who had received the news, took Chen Yuqing and her four siblings back to the capital. They knew that they might live in the capital for a long time in the future, so they moved many things from home.

Chen Afu took the children back to have a meal, but did not go to see Chen Yuhui. In her opinion, Chen Yuhui was hopeless and she did not want to have anything to do with her in the future.

On the 16th, the Xie family formally invited a matchmaker to come to the door to propose a match. The Chen family agreed, and Chen Yuqing and Xie Feng finally got engaged.

Jiang was very happy. Xie Feng's family background, character, and talent were undoubtedly the best young man that Chen Yuqing had been told about in all these years, better than all the young men before. She was very grateful to Chen Afu and Chu Hua, because this marriage was secretly promoted by these two people.

On the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, when people were immersed in the joy of the New Year, the emperor passed away.

The new emperor announced that a grand funeral would be held for the late emperor. All civil and military officials in the capital paid tribute and cried for the dead. Officials of a certain level had to fast for three days and could not go home. Women of the third rank and above in the capital had to go to the palace to mourn for three days. They went in the morning and left the palace at night.

This bad news made the Empress Dowager very sad. Her health, which had been good, was bad again. She died on the second day of the first lunar month. The funeral of the late emperor had not yet been completely over, and the royal family ushered in a second funeral.

The death of the Empress Dowager made the Third Lady heartbroken. She fainted several times. Chen Afu had been taking care of her and comforting her, and stayed with her in the palace for three days.

On the evening of the fifth day of the first lunar month, after the mourning ended, Chen Afu helped the pale Third Lady out of the palace.

Chu Lingwei, the fourth master of Chu, was waiting outside the palace gate. Chu Lingwei saw the Third Lady who was almost out of shape, and tears welled up. He stepped forward to help her and said, "Mother, please be patient. If you do this, my grandmother will be sad in heaven."

After handing the Third Lady to Chu Lingwei, Chen Afu finally breathed a sigh of relief. These days, she was very anxious because there were three children aged one to two at home. Thinking of them crying and making a fuss at night, Chen Afu's heart was bleeding.

After returning to the Marquis's Mansion, Chen Afu went directly to Anrong Hall. Chu Lingwei said that the four children had been living with their grandfather in Anrong Hall these days.

As soon as he entered the house, he saw Chu Hanyan sitting on a brocade stool and playing with Luo Mei, the three little ones were playing with the animal house, and Lord Chu was sitting aside watching them.

As soon as they saw their mother coming back, several children rushed to her. The two little brothers each hugged their mother's legs and shouted "mother", Chu Hanyan held Xiao Yu'er, who was holding an unstable stake, and Xiao Yu'er looked up at her mother and cried, feeling very aggrieved.

Chen Afu picked up Xiao Yu'er and said, "Good child, mother is back."

She said goodbye to Lord Chu and led the children back to Zhuxuan.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, a grand coronation ceremony was held. Li Zeping officially ascended the throne and changed Hongnian to the first year of Qingguan. Queen Shan was named Empress Dowager, and the former Crown Princess was named Queen. Several princes who were not crowned as kings were also crowned as kings and given mansions. The eleventh prince, Li Zetai, was crowned as the Hewang. The second prince's brother, the eighth prince, was crowned as the Suwang and sent to guard the imperial mausoleum, and was never allowed to enter the capital.

Chen Afu was very happy to hear that the eleventh prince was crowned as a king and would move out after the mansion was renovated. In the future, he would have more time to see him.

Chen Shiying was also officially appointed as the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, and one of his main duties was to manage the farming and farming.

At the end of February, the remnants of the second prince's party were basically cleared out. For those with serious circumstances, males over the age of seven were beheaded and exterminated, and female relatives were either confiscated to the Jiaofang Division or allowed to be official prostitutes. For those with slightly lighter circumstances, the parties involved were beheaded and exterminated, and the rest of the family was exiled for three thousand miles. The He family was one of the less serious ones. Except for He Quan who was beheaded, the rest were exiled to Qiongzhou.

It is said that before his death, He Quan saw his old wife and eldest son for the last time, and asked his old wife to agree to the second daughter-in-law to divorce and save the child in her belly. When his wife told him that Chen Yuhui's child was aborted by his son and the emperor had sentenced them to divorce, she burst into tears.

The Ma family was in a serious situation, so the host family was dealt with according to the serious situation. As Chu Hanyan's maternal family was only a clan relative, the whole family was sentenced to exile to the north and allowed to be military households. They were much better off than the family exiled to Qiongzhou, and perhaps the emperor did not necessarily do so for the sake of the future Princess He.

Chen Afu felt that the family was related to Chu Hanyan by blood after all, so it would be bad to ignore it. So he asked Luo Fang to give a lot of silver to the escorting soldiers, asking them to help take care of them. In the name of Chu Hanyan, he also gave her grandfather some silver and medicinal materials to make their future life easier.

Perhaps only the future Princess He dared to help the exiled people. Everyone knew that Prince He was the most favored by the Queen Mother and the Emperor.

February 27th was Prince He's ninth birthday, and the Queen Mother would definitely celebrate his birthday. Chen Ahfu made a birthday cake early in the morning and had it sent to the palace. Also sent in were a set of underwear made by Chen Ahfu himself and a beautiful blue bracelet woven by Chu Hanyan.

What Chen Ahfu didn't expect was that Prince He actually came to Chu's house that evening.

Chen Ahfu was happy and puzzled, and asked, "Why did you leave the palace?"

Prince He came to lean beside her and said, "Since my father passed away, my mother has been studying Buddhism for most of the time. I can only see her before the hour of Si. If it weren't for my brother and I persuading her, my mother would have wanted to become a nun..." His eyes were a little red, and he calmed down and said, "I want to eat the minced meat and mixed sauce noodles made by my mother-in-law, so I came."

After hearing this, Chen Ahfu smiled and went to the backyard to make mixed sauce noodles, and asked someone to go to Anrong Hall to pick up the children, and then invited the third wife and Chu Lingzhi to Zhuxuan to eat longevity noodles to celebrate Prince He's birthday. Because there was no preparation and the time was short, he didn't invite all the guests.

Prince He shook his arm towards Chu Hanyan again, and the beautiful blue chain on his wrist was particularly eye-catching. He smiled and said, "My sister's hands are getting more and more skillful, and this chain is really beautiful."

Chu Hanyan smiled and said, "Prince likes it, I will make a few more for you in the future." She also said, "My mother said that I can learn embroidery next year, and then I will embroider handkerchiefs and purses for you."

Prince He was even happier to hear this and said, "Okay, I'll wait."

When the lights came on, a large bowl of noodles and several large bowls of sauerkraut were placed on the kang table in the east room. Chen Afu prepared several kinds of sauerkraut, including minced meat, scrambled eggs with leeks, stewed chicken with shiitake mushrooms, and shrimp with ginger sauce.

Prince He smiled and said, "I only eat minced meat and mixed sauce noodles, no noodles are as delicious as this."

Chen Afu helped him prepare a bowl, and he asked for more after he finished it. Chen Afu prepared another half bowl for him, and then did not allow him to eat anymore, saying that eating too much noodles at night would be difficult to digest.

Seeing that Prince He liked it, the two brothers also had to eat the mixed noodles, eating until half of their faces were stained.

Before Chen Ahfu took out his handkerchief, Prince He took out a silk handkerchief to wipe their faces, coaxing them, "Slow down, there's still more, only the three of us like this kind of noodles."