Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 372 - 352: Be My Son!_3

Chapter 372: Chapter 352: Be My Son!_3

Zhang San heard the Crown Prince’s words and sneered contemptuously, "So, you’re saying that the more criminals there are, the greater the benefit for the Ministry of Punishment! The more Tujue people in the north, the greater the benefit for the Ministry of War! The more rebels and traitors, the more the Kaihuang era profits! Thus, the Ministry of Punishment devises ways to create criminals; the Ministry of War devises ways to support the Tujue; does the Kaihuang era covet more rebels and traitors? Crown Prince, think this over yourself, does what you’re saying make any sense?"

"Enough!"

Suddenly, Empress Gudu, who emerged shouting from behind, startled the Kaihuang era so much that he shuddered.

However, all the ministers coincidentally failed to notice the Kaihuang’s expressive shudder.

"Zhang San, you child, you’ve grown so handsome, but why did you have to grow a mouth too?"

Zhang San immediately fell silent, even though he had cleverly called her Imperial Concubine when he came in, he knew she was Empress Dugu, the Crown Prince’s mother.

"The Crown Prince is the heir, the future ruler of a nation. How could you always talk back to the Crown Prince?"

Zhang San immediately bowed and gave a salute, expressing his apology, though he didn’t actually utter a single word of apology.

However, seeing this scene filled the Crown Prince’s heart with immense satisfaction.

At critical moments, it still had to be his mother.

As for Zhang San who defied and offended, just wait! Hmph!

"Crown Prince, you too! Zhang San is a minister, why do you always make things difficult for him?"

Hearing this, the Crown Prince wore a bewildered expression.

What does this mean?

Each gets fifty spankings?

But what rights does Zhang San have to be spanked alongside me?

Then, Empress Dugu sat next to the Kaihuang and smilingly said to everyone in the palace, "Let’s end this matter here."

Kaihuang was shocked, looking at his empress.

The Empress, clutching Kaihuang’s arm, pinched his waist.

Kaihuang inhaled sharply and instantaneously understood, nodding, "Let’s end this... here here here!"

Seeing this, Zhang San thought the matter was resolved, even though he had no idea what exactly had happened.

But his foster sister had encountered a fire last night, and today, Kaihuang had called him over saying there had been a fire within the Imperial Palace.

He had vaguely guessed something, but still needed to find someone to understand more about the imperial family before he could be completely sure.

At this moment, Empress Gudu continued, "However, since there’s no evidence to prove Zhang San is the perpetrator, and calling him here early in the morning was also unfair to him, Moreover..."

As she spoke, Empress Gudu gave the Crown Prince a look.

"The Great Sui Dynasty should unite monarch and ministers, collaborate with one heart. So, why don’t we do this... Zhang San!"

At this, Empress Gudu called out to Zhang San.

"Your servant is here."

"I adopt you as a son of the Dugu Family, and from now on, when you see the Crown Prince, you just call him ’big brother.’ How about that?"

At this moment, in the palace, except for the Kaihuang who bowed his head, afraid to show any expression, everyone else was dumbfounded.

What was going on?

Being scolded by the Crown Prince was all it took to be adopted as a son by the Empress?

If such good things were on offer, why not say so earlier! We have wanted to scold the Crown Prince for a long time!

At this moment, not just the crowd, even Zhang San himself was a bit dumbfounded.

But considering his foster sister’s identity, Zhang San had more or less guessed what was happening and immediately knelt before the Empress and kowtowed.

"Greetings, adoptive mother."

After the kowtow, Zhang San turned his head to look at Kaihuang.

Being adopted by Empress Dugu didn’t mean that Kaihuang acknowledged him as an adoptive son, as the Empress’s adoption counted as the Dugu Family’s, but being Kaihuang’s adoptive son was completely different.

So, Zhang San didn’t take the opportunity to call out randomly.

"Good child, since you call me adoptive mother, then your adoptive mother should give you a gift for our first meeting."

Empress Gudu said, reaching into her hair and pulling out a golden hairpin.

Someone immediately took it and then handed it to Zhang San.

"That... I may be poor, but such a precious item, I definitely won’t sell!"

Empress Dugu smiled bitterly, wondering how she had just heard in the side hall that Lihua was so generous, yet now he was being so miserly.

"Take two gold bars from my private treasury and reward them to Zhang San, the boy."

"Thank you, adoptive mother!"

And so, in the bedchamber, everyone dispersed, leaving only Kaihuang and Empress Dugu.

Only then did Kaihuang burst out asking, "What exactly is going on here?"

Empress Gudu then recounted the previous conversation with Chamber Head Changle.

Kaihuang finally understood what was happening and nodded slightly.

"So that was it, I thought Lihua wanted to make Zhang San the Imperial Son-in-law. Pity, I actually quite liked the kid."

"Your Majesty, don’t worry. From what I hear from Lihua, it seems Qiong has some fondness for Zhang San’s sworn brother. Plus, seeing how Zhang San acts, although he is clever, he probably didn’t know about Lihua and Qiong’s real identities before. Treating them sincerely without knowing their noble status, taking such good care of them, I think this proposal for Qiong can be considered."

Hearing this, Kaihuang chuckled and pulled out two scrolls from his embrace and handed them to Empress Dugu.

"I’ve already had people investigate thoroughly about Zhang San’s two sworn brothers. Even their portraits and physical descriptions are here."

After looking through them, Empress Dugu turned to Kaihuang and asked, "Which brother do you think it is?"

Kaihuang burst out laughing, saying, "Of course it’s Wang Ziteng from the Wang Family! Could it possibly be that plain and tall black guy, Wang Junwu?"