Marriage of the Di Daughter Chapter 124.1: Part 1: Opponents

Marriage of the Di Daughter Chapter 124 Part 1: Opponents
The drum for crying injustice in front of Chang’An Gate had not made any sound in many years.
The sound of the drum resounded, startling the people in the imperial palace.
Emperor Hong Xiao was playing chess with Li-pin in the garden. In his harem, Li-pin was the oldest, even older than Emperor Hong Xiao. Yet, she was also the one who received the most favor. Compared to those young ladies who were either arrogant and willful, or gentle and virtuous young ladies who just entered the palace, Li-pin was more charming and interesting.
Besides, she still retained her young and beautiful appearance. In addition she had the bearing that those young ladies could not reach.
As a result, whenever Emperor Hong Xiao had free time, he was not fond of going to the empress nor other imperial concubines, but rather sat in Li-pin’s place. He felt that saying a few sentences to Li-pin could clear off the tiredness from sitting in the court.
It’s the same today.
Emperor Hong Xiao’s black stones had been swallowed half by Li-pin’s white stones. This was one area where Li-pin was different from other women. Those women, whether they were truly bad at chess, or instinctively wanting to win but feigning to lose to the monarch, always lost to him.
Only Li-pin, who was never willing to concede to him, had a true temperament that was hard to come by in the palace.
“I lost again.” Emperor Hong Xiao smiled and shook his head.
“This concubine’s luck is good,” Li-pin was beaming and said, “that’s why Your Majesty will lose to me.”
“Save it, in chess, I have never been as good as you. Ok,” he jokingly said, “if you were a man, I must employ you.”
“This concubine can only play chess, not daring to get involved in the world’s major events.” Li-pin held the teacup with both hands and lightly sipped the tea. “The great things that men do are too tiring, this concubine wishes to play chess in the garden day after day, it’s good to avoid the fatigue and just be lazy, without any thoughts to do these things.”
Inadvertently, Emperor Hong Xiao was raised a little.
Emperor Hong Xiao’s smile became more sincere. Eunuch Su, who was waiting at the side, sighed in his heart. Don’t say, the eldest daughter of the Ji family was amazing, able to amuse the emperor and made him docile. Nowadays, the emperor’s sore point was nothing else but Cheng Wang’s power. The young emperor could only watch, however, his heart was vigilant against the surrounding people who were scrambling for power. In any case, at least Li-pin showed that she had no intention to meddle in the court’s affairs, thus the emperor had more trust in her.
No emperor would guard against this kind of concubine.
As he was thinking, from outside the palace, a few drum beats could be vaguely heard.
At first, the sound of the drum was not very clear. Afterwards, the sound became clearer and clearer, as if the person hitting the drum was changed to another person with greater strength, hitting the drum extremely heavily, making a huge sound. Although it was unlikely to make the sound vibrate in the ears, the sound was completely distinct.
Emperor Hong Xiao was dazed and asked, “What’s going on outside?”
Eunuch Su said, “Your Majesty, this slave will immediately ask around.” He waved to beckon a small internal attendant and instructed a few sentences before sending the attendant away. Soon, the attendant returned, bowed to Emperor Hong Xiao and Li-pin and said, “Returning to Your Majesty, in Chang’An Gate outside the palace, someone is hitting the drum to cry for injustice.”
“Beat the drum and cry injustice?” Emperor Hong Xiao was stunned.
“It’s the second miss from the Chief Assistant’s residence.” The attendant spoke cautiously, “She brought the villagers from Tongxiang and arrived at Chang’An Gate. Heard she has just returned this afternoon and went straight here.”
Emperor Hong Xiao looked at Li-pin, “Oh? It’s your younger sister’s stepdaughter.”
Li-pin smiled slightly, “Yes.” Then she spoke with astonishment, “This concubine has also heard of the rumor outside before, but always thought it was just hearsay, that other people were spreading rumors. After all, I have also seen the little girl, gentle and sweet, not like someone who will cause trouble. Never thought that the rumors outside are actually true, she has really brought people to enter the capital.”
“Causing trouble?” Emperor Hong Xiao said, “it’s not necessarily causing trouble. I know, the person who beats the drum and cries injustice has to receive 50 whip lashes. If it’s truly just causing trouble, the price to pay is not worth it. He stood up and said, “I will personally go out to find out what’s actually going on. Listen and see what they want to express in the end. Eunuch Su, follow me.”
Eunuch Su caught up at once.
Li-pin also stood up without delay and saluted Emperor Hong Xiao’s departure. She did not follow him. After being with Emperor Hong Xiao for so long, she also knew the emperor’s temper. It’s better for her to avoid when he’s doing business. The thing the young emperor most disliked was the harem meddling in politics. Those days, Cheng Wang’s mother concubine, Liu tai fei, relied on the previous emperor’s pampering and her natal family’s power and nearly made Cheng Wang sit on the emperor’s seat. If the current dowager empress did not contend with it, afraid today that position was no longer his.
Emperor Hong Xiao was fond of her, this fondness was precisely the weak cloud and light wind, never getting involved in the court’s affairs. It was most relaxing at her place.
However….. Li-pin thought with uncertainty, regarding the Jiang Li and the Xue family’s case, she actually could not make out Emperor Hong Xiao’s reaction. If said to be furious, he clearly did not show an angry expression. If said to be supporting, it was not necessarily so. Year after year, it’s getting harder to see the emperor’s delight and anger. Many times, she also could not make out Emperor Hong Xiao’s mood.
As the Ji family’s daughter, she knew that Ji Shuran met with troubles in the Jiang family due to Jiang Li. Naturally, Li-pin did not wish for Jiang Li to have a smooth road. She even had the same wish as Ji Shuran, hoping to use this matter to eliminate Jiang Li effortlessly.
However, in the palace, even if she had the emperor’s love, she had to be even more cautious and must not act blindly without thinking. She could only take one step at a time.
Emperor Hong Xiao arrived at the study room and sat down.
There were constant attendants coming in, carefully informing him of the circumstances in Chang’An Gate. When talking about Jiang Li’s speech of “not just one person crying injustice and beating the drum, 100 people receiving 50 whip lashes, each person only receives half a whiplash”, his face that was stretched tautly could not help smiling. He cursed while smiling, “Jiang Yuan Bai, this old fox, the daughter he gave birth to is just as crafty!”
Eunuch Su watched from the side. Although Emperor Hong Xiao said so, there was no anger on his face. A feeling came to his heart, at least the matter of Jiang Li bringing villagers to enter the capital and beat the drum to cry for injustice did not anger Emperor Hong Xiao. Emperor Hong Xiao did not have the thought of blaming Jiang Li.
“Your Majesty, for over ten years, no one had beaten the drum and cried injustice under the foot of the emperor…..” Eunuch Su said, “This time, Miss Jiang second caused a major event in Yanjing, and many eyes are staring.”
“Eunuch Su, why do you think she is doing this?” Emperor Hong Xiao asked.
“This….. Slave does not dare to make wild guesses.” Eunuch Su said, “Just, don’t know whether Master Jiang is aware of Miss Jiang second’s actions.”
“Of course he didn’t know.” Emperor Hong Xiao laughed, “This Jiang family’s young lady did not even return to the Jiang residence and rushed to Chang’An Gate to cry grievance. Even if in a hurry, there’s still a way to return to the residence first. If it were Jiang Yuan Bai, there’s no way he would let her travel this hurriedly. It’s obvious that the Jiang family’s miss was afraid of unforeseen accidents occurring, being obstructed by Jiang Yuan Bai, thus deciding to take actions before prior approval.”
Eunuch Su looked at Emperor Hong Xiao, smiled and said, “The Jiang family’s second miss is a clever person. Last time Your Majesty still bestowed gifts to her because she had huge courage. Aristocratic families’ young ladies, who dare to do these? And still mingle with the commoners.”
“What’s wrong with mingling with the commoners?” Emperor Hong Xiao said, “The land under heaven is made up of the commoners, without the commoners, there will be no country.
The Jiang family’s miss’s village, I have seen the memorial submitted by the official Ye Shijie! Without looking, no one knows. Just a look made me see that in this country, under the foot of the emperor, there’s still such rampant bandits!”
Since Ye Shijie had shown the memorial regarding the Xue family’s case to the emperor, and the emperor had such an attitude, the current circumstances could be understood more clearly. At least in this Xue family’s case, Miss Jiang should be stable and would not suffer. There wouldn’t be any error.