20demayo Chapter 52 Do You Know? 6
Chapter 52 Do You Know? 6
Having suffered repeated blows, the original owner finally grew wiser. He endured and lay low, wanting to seek justice for his stepmother and expose Minglan's true colors. However, so much time had passed, and Minglan had become an important figure who could influence the fate of the Sheng family. The Sheng family would not allow a settled matter to be brought up again, and no matter how hard he tried, it was to no avail. In the end, the original owner died of depression, still harboring resentment about this matter before his death.
Sheng Changfeng had some initial ideas about the original owner's three wishes.
He didn't delve too deeply into the root of the matter, right or wrong. He was there to fulfill the original owner's wish, not to help the original owner repent and reform.
Furthermore, setting aside the facts, are the other people completely without fault?
Sheng Changfeng abandoned the last shred of conscience in his heart and began to think about what to do next.
Exposing Minglan's true colors is easy. Minglan may seem cautious, but she has plenty of weaknesses. Once her affair with Qi Heng is exposed, her problem will be solved. Sheng Hong will even prevent her from doing anything shameful. Even if he doesn't kill her, he will quickly marry her off, which can be considered as repaying her for scheming against Molan in her previous life.
The remaining two things are essentially the same thing. As long as he can quickly enter the court and make contributions, and occupy an important position in the Sheng family, Sheng Hong will not choose another scholar as a husband for Jiang Molan out of respect for him. Lin Xiaoniang will know that her daughter has a promising future, so she will not take the risk of letting Molan have an affair. And if his career surpasses Sheng Changbai's, he will not live in Sheng Changbai's shadow, and may even be able to suppress him.
So how can he quickly gain entry into the imperial court?
He's too late now. This year's imperial examination is over, and the original owner has failed. The next examination will be three years from now, and by then it will be too late. Even if the new emperor Zhao Zongquan ascends the throne and holds a special examination in the meantime, it won't be until next year. There's still not enough time.
What he lacks most now is time. He doesn't have time to take things one step at a time, so he has no choice but to find another way.
Throughout history, the greatest merit has been saving the emperor from peril, followed by the merit of following the emperor's lead.
When the Prince of Yan rebelled, it was Gu Tingye who saved the emperor; it was not his place as the illegitimate son of a fifth-rank official.
As for the merit of following the emperor...
Sheng Changfeng set his sights on the three potential heirs currently in the court: the Prince of Yong, the Prince of Yan, and the Eighth Prince Zhao Zongquan.
Zhao Zongquan was the first to be eliminated by him, no other reason than that!
Purely, Sheng Changfeng felt that Zhao Zongquan was really not fit to be an emperor. He was cowardly and incompetent, and his behavior revealed a petty and narrow-minded attitude, lacking any demeanor of a ruler.
She seized power from the Empress Dowager by tricking the imperial seal; she won over the court officials by breaking up an arranged marriage and marrying the Duke of Yingguo's daughter to Shen Guojiu as his second wife. Not only that, she also bestowed an imperial title upon Shen Guojiu's concubine. This outrageous move almost cost Zhang Niangzi her life.
Not to mention that he was cowardly by nature. The barbarians outside were already eyeing him covetously, sharpening their knives, but he didn't care. He focused all his wits on internal strife.
His descendants were also mediocre. They could barely maintain the status quo, let alone expand the territory. However, after fifty or sixty years, they faced the most humiliating 'Jingkang Incident' in history. The two emperors went north to plunder, and the entire royal family and nobles were wiped out. The Jurchens then burned, killed, looted and massacred soldiers and civilians indiscriminately within the territory of the Song Dynasty, and the people suffered unspeakably.
Then there was Wanyan Gou, who summoned Yue Fei back with twelve gold tablets after Yue Fei had reached the high ground. Yue Fei surrendered and was killed on trumped-up charges.
Oh dear! I can't think about it anymore!
Although this wasn't his world, he was still so angry that he got carried away.
Let's just eliminate those few at the root. Even if the new emperor is bad, he can't be worse than them.
Of the remaining two, Prince Yong was arrogant and domineering, and acted without any bottom line. Just because his daughter wanted to marry Qi Heng of the Duke of Qi's family, while Princess Pingning preferred Rong Feiyan, the younger sister of Consort Rong, he sent someone to ruin Rong Feiyan's reputation, forcing her to hang herself. Afterwards, he imprisoned the Duke of Qi and forced Qi Heng to agree to the marriage.
Prince Yong acts entirely on his whim, is arrogant and complacent, complex and unpredictable, and difficult to control. Most importantly, he has no moral bottom line and will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. He will do anything as long as it benefits him. If such a person comes to power, he is highly likely to become a tyrant and a foolish ruler, which is certainly not a good thing for the world.
Of course, the Prince of Yan was no good person either, but he was more principled than the Prince of Yong and more principled than Zhao Zongquan. Seeing that there was no hope of succeeding to the throne, he went all out and forced the Prince of Yong to abdicate. He was just a little bit away from successfully taking the throne.
Objectively speaking, the Prince of Yan had people, power, and courage. By joining him, he wouldn't even need to do much. As long as he intercepted the blood edict during the coup, he could successfully ascend to the throne. If he then took advantage of the chaos to kill Zhao Zongquan and his son Zhao Ceying, he could reap huge benefits.
Gu Tingye, who was originally very popular because of his role in helping the emperor rise to power, could no longer be as proud as he was in his previous life, and Minglan would not be able to become a marquis's wife.
The choice is yours, Prince of Yan!
Sheng Changfeng had made up his mind to let the Prince of Yan ascend the throne. He began to plan how to get close to the Prince of Yan. It was not enough to just pledge allegiance; he also had to become the Prince of Yan's confidant. Otherwise, even if the Prince of Yan ascended the throne in the future, he would not get any benefits, and then all his efforts would have been in vain.
While Changfeng was racking his brains, Lin Xiaoniang of Linxi Pavilion was also racking her brains to figure out how to get justice from Sheng Hong.
Lin Qinshuang was truly terrified this time.
It was so close!
She almost got sold off.
If Sheng Changfeng hadn't pleaded with the old lady back then, the eldest daughter-in-law, with the right timing and circumstances today, would really not have shown any mercy.
She and Wang Ruofu's wives and concubines had been fighting for nearly twenty years, and it had long since become a life-or-death struggle. Now that Wang Ruofu had caught her red-handed, he was determined to destroy her.
Luckily, she has a good son!
Mo Lan was really worried about Lin Xiao Niang, so she came to Linxi Pavilion again, and the mother and daughter had a talk at night.
Looking at her daughter, who was still in shock, Lin Qinshuang could no longer hold back her sobs and cried to her, "The news that your father was detained in the palace and that the Emperor was going to punish him was flying around the mansion. That's why I lost my composure and wanted to make plans for the three of us as soon as possible. I sold the property deeds I had in hand, but who knew that Wang Ruofu would catch me red-handed. This is definitely not a coincidence. Someone must have planned it. Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence? But Wang Ruofu doesn't have that kind of brain. Of course, the old lady was involved in this."
Mo Lan was still young, and what happened today was truly terrifying. Even Lin Qinshuang was terrified, let alone a teenage girl like her.
Mo Lan's face was also streaked with tears: "Young lady, according to you, the eldest mistress and the old lady have joined forces. Now we don't know when Father will return, and my brother is being punished by kneeling in the ancestral hall. Doesn't this mean that whatever they say goes in this mansion? What should we do?"