The Lucky Farmgirl-Chapter 1912 - 1887: Everyone Is Biased

Seeing the Emperor somewhat doubtful, Mingda said, "Although his attitude is still bad, he does things for the good of others but insists on saying unpleasant words..."

The Empress on the side said, "In this regard, he is quite like your father."

Emperor: ...

The Empress turned to the Emperor and said, "You two are so alike in temperament, especially like when you were young."

The Emperor didn’t believe it, "I’m not like his mad dog temperament."

The Empress smiled without speaking.

Feeling injured, the Emperor continued discussing with Mingda the grand plan to reconcile the two sons.

Mingda carefully recounted the matters Bai Shan and Zhou Man discussed with them, "Father, you see, Third Brother didn’t even report Prince Brother this time, which is an improvement."

The Emperor said, "Before, your Third Brother also didn’t complain about the Prince."

Mingda’s face was difficult to describe, holding on for a while before blurting out, "Then why did you always get angry at Prince Brother after meeting Third Brother, convinced he bullied him?"

The Emperor wanted to say, isn’t this common knowledge?

But facing his wife and daughter’s gazes, he couldn’t speak for a long time.

After a prolonged silence, the Emperor said, "Just now, Dalang was badmouthing Sanlang."

Mingda said, "Prince Brother has a sharp tongue but a soft heart."

The Empress also said, "He should change that temper, though good deeds need not be widely publicized, speaking evil words doesn’t help. Evil words cause harm." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

With that, she looked at Mingda and the dazed Changyu on the side, sternly saying, "In the future, whether you have disagreements or arguments, you must not utter evil words, understood?"

Mingda and Changyu lowered their heads in agreement.

Looking at his two daughters and thinking of his two sons, the Emperor regretted not having the Prince and Prince Gong raised by the Empress.

The Empress already said, "Let Zhou Man and the three of them rise, this matter does not concern them, Sanlang is too hasty. Punish Dalang by making him kneel in the shrine for half a day."

The Emperor, who only planned to make the Prince kneel outside the hall for an hour for the ministers to see, softly said, "Isn’t that too harsh..."

The Empress flushed with anger, "The two children argue, you favor Sanlang. A child gets into trouble, you can’t bear to punish them. Your sense of right and wrong is obscure, judgment unclear..."

Seeing her angry and flushed, the Emperor quickly comforted her, "Zitong, I just don’t want Dalang to blame Sanlang and me..."

The Empress turned and left, heading to the rear hall to see Prince Gong.

The Emperor quickly followed to placate her.

Mingda got up from the floor, Changyu stepped forward to assist her, asking somewhat bewildered, "What do we do now?"

"No worries, let Father go soothe Mother." Mingda grabbed Changyu to watch the four kneeling at the front hall door.

She told the Prince, "Big Brother, Mother wants you to kneel in the shrine."

The Prince’s face stiffened, looking up at Mingda.

Mingda nodded slightly, saying, "Mother says you shouldn’t have teased Third Brother."

Then she told the kneeling Zhou Man and the others, "You can rise now, this matter no longer concerns you."

The three exchanged glances, realizing Mingda had convinced the Emperor and Empress, and kowtowed in thanks before rising.

The Prince also stood up slowly, unwilling to kneel in the shrine.

He was already a father, how would it look to kneel in the shrine?

But it was an order from the Empress, one he clearly couldn’t disobey, so he sulked and walked out. Seeing the four had left, Mingda led Changyu to the rear hall to see Prince Gong.

Bai Erlang, confused, followed them out, unable to resist asking, "Is that it?"

Bai Shan asked, "What else do you want?"

At the fork outside the hall, the three bowed and watched the Prince turn to go kneel in the shrine.

Once he was far away, they noticed no little eunuch was left to guide them, so they leisurely walked out.

Surviving a disaster, the three exhaled a sigh of relief.

Bai Erlang sympathetically said, "The Prince is really pitiful, the Emperor is so partial."

Bai Shan and Manbao both nodded but shook their heads, saying, "The Emperor indeed favors, but the Prince isn’t that pitiful."

Bai Shan said, "The Emperor is partial to Prince Gong between him and the Prince, but favors the Prince over the ministers. Originally, both were wrong, and both should be punished."

Not only should the Prince and Manbao be punished, but Prince Gong should too.

Why did he kick the table?

Was it dissatisfaction with the Prince or the Emperor?

Seriously speaking, despite Prince Gong losing a leg, according to ministerial standards, his faults were above the Prince’s.

However, the Emperor sympathized with Prince Gong, so he scolded the Prince first to take the blame but also feared the ministers would truly assign him an unbrotherly label, limiting the matter to family without issuing a decree.

Even Manbao benefited slightly, directly punished by kneeling, otherwise, they’d be thoroughly questioned about what occurred in the room before being released.

Bai Shan had calculated the Emperor’s favoritism, daring to urge Mingda to intercede before things escalated, reducing major to minor issues.

Otherwise, if Manbao was detained, questioning might involve the Ministry of Justice and Punishments or capital prefecture, even passing through the Mingtang.

Bai Shan was well-versed in procedural errors involving officials.

As an official, Manbao nodded repeatedly, "Alas, if Prince Gong faced a medical mishap rather than injury, it would be interrogated internally by the Imperial Doctor’s office first."

Bai Erlang pondered a bit after saying, "Such a hassle, I’d have refused Princess Mingda’s request to treat Prince Gong."

Manbao disagreed, "One cannot buy foresight, if there were foreknowledge, things would change immensely."

Bai Shan nodded, "Since the event happened, let’s resolve it."

The three strolled through the Taiji Hall, turning to an aisle to exit the palace.

Reaching the palace gate, two little attendants came panting, calling, "Imperial Doctor Zhou, Imperial Doctor Zhou..."

The three paused, turned to see the attendants running towards them.

Bai Shan asked, "Can we pretend not to hear now?"

Manbao: "You’re dreaming?"

Bai Erlang complained, "I told you to cry knee pain, now it’s too late to leave, we would have been out of the palace without being stopped."

Manbao and Bai Shan couldn’t help but say, "You also cried pain earlier."

They worriedly said, "The Emperor wouldn’t call us back to kneel, would he?"

Bai Erlang turned to Bai Shan and said, "It’s only calling for Manbao, should we leave?"

Bai Shan seriously started to consider.

Manbao didn’t intend to drag them into punishment, but seeing Bai Shan actually pondering, she got angry, shouting, "If you dare leave me, I will..."

Bai Shan smiled and asked, "What will you do?"