Chapter 273 Sleeping Princess

"Ah Xuan, what's wrong with you?"

Princess Ankang asked with concern after noticing Li Xuan's abnormality.

Li Xuan swallowed hard, then shook his head slowly, indicating that it was nothing.

Princess Ankang looked curiously in the direction where Li Xuan had gone before, and happened to see the figure of Princess Yuan An.

Princess Ankang didn't say anything, but just curled her lips and shook her head.

At this time, Princess Yuan An in the distance actually noticed Princess Ankang's gaze and nodded at her with a smile.

Princess Ankang immediately changed her expression, put on a gentle smile, and nodded generously, as a greeting.

While Li Xuan was looking around, the fourth prince had already walked down from the stage.

Li Xuan couldn't help but rub Princess Ankang, and then meowed at the fourth prince twice.

Princess Ankang naturally understood what he meant and gently nodded Li Xuan's head.

"You, you didn't look good just now, but now you ask me."

Princess Ankang rubbed Li Xuan's head in annoyance, and finally told Li Xuan the answer.

"Fourth brother drew 'Wannian, Jiasi'. I think the first two characters should be the names of two counties. As for the numbers behind, I don't know."

Li Xuan still knew Wannian County and Chang'an County.

After all, he had followed Shang Zongguan out of the palace once before and learned some basic common sense.

The capital is divided into Wannian and Chang'an counties by Zhuque Avenue.

Zhuque Avenue is the gate in the center of the imperial city, the avenue in front of Zhuque Gate.

The imperial city and the capital of Daxing pay great attention to the aesthetics of symmetry. With Zhuque Avenue as the center line, the imperial city and the market on both sides are almost the same layout.

It seems that everyone is going to different places in this competition.

"What kind of competition did Emperor Yongyuan arrange this month?"

"It's fine if the competition venue is arranged outside the palace, but the scope of the competition venue will not be limited to the entire capital city, right?"

If this is really the case, Emperor Yongyuan will have a lot of fun this month.

And Li Xuan couldn't help but worry, if the scope is set so large, can Princess Ankang's safety be guaranteed?

In fact, after Li Xuan learned that this month's competition was scheduled outside the palace, his first reaction was not to be happy that he could play outside the palace again, but to worry about Princess Ankang's safety.

During this period, Princess Ankang won several competitions in the Imperial Garden in succession, and her points were far ahead. If she continued to maintain this momentum, I am afraid that the quota for the New Year's worship next year will be locked by Princess Ankang.

If Li Xuan remembered correctly, the current points should be Princess Ankang's cumulative four points, the eldest prince's cumulative two points, and the other four princes, the sixth princess, and the eighth prince, each with one point.

Now it is mid-July, and the remaining days of this year are getting fewer and fewer.

Under such circumstances, the best way for others to win is not to accumulate more points, but to eliminate the biggest candidate for victory.

That is Princess Ankang.

Although Li Xuan also believed that Emperor Yongyuan would be on guard against such a situation, and Shang Zongguan and Zhao Feng were secretly taking care of them, the possibility of real danger was negligible.

But it is better to be safe than sorry.

Now he vaguely realized that the scope of this competition seemed to cover the entire capital, which made him even more uneasy.

After the fourth prince, the fifth prince, whom Li Xuan had seen for the first time today, came on stage to draw lots.

Coincidentally, the lot he drew was the same as the fourth prince, and it also started with "ten thousand years".

The expression of the fifth prince did not change much. After putting away the signature in his hand, he slowly walked off the stage.

Judging from his attitude, he did not care much about the competition, but was more happy that he could leave the palace.

It was not just the Fifth Prince who had this mentality. Princess Ankang and other princes and princesses who had no chance of winning also had the same attitude.

The drawing of lots continued. After the Sixth Princess finished drawing lots and stepped down, the impatient Eighth Prince was about to step on stage, but a burst of hurried footsteps came from outside the Imperial Garden.

"Your Highness the Eighth Prince, Your Highness the Eighth Prince..."

"Please wait a moment!"

A little eunuch ran in panting and shouted in a suppressed voice.

He was afraid of disturbing the nobles here, and afraid of not being able to stop the Eighth Prince.

The feeling of wanting to shout but not daring to shout made the little eunuch anxious enough.

The nobles in the Imperial Garden frowned and looked at the little eunuch.

The little eunuch was also a person who could read people's expressions. Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, his face turned pale.

But when he thought of his master's order, he could only bite the bullet and get close to the Eighth Prince.

Seeing that he was a stranger, the eighth prince could not help but ask:

"Who are you? Why are you stopping me?"

"I dare not, I dare not..."

The young eunuch kept apologizing, but he just didn't explain the reason.

The Eighth Prince could not help but frown:

"If you have nothing to say, get out of my way."

Seeing that the Eighth Prince was about to push him aside to go on stage, the eunuch hurried forward and whispered to the Eighth Prince.

After hearing what the eunuch said, the Eighth Prince's face immediately became a little strange, and he could not help but confirm again:

"You said that the sleepyhead is coming too?"

The eunuch's face was bitter, and he dared not nod or shake his head, not knowing what to do.

On the contrary, the Eighth Prince became interested, smiled, folded his arms and looked towards the direction outside the Imperial Garden, and waited under the stage.

At this time, the Fourth Prince on the side urged:

"Old Eighth, what are you waiting for if you don't go on stage to draw lots?"

"Are you going to give up?"

After the last fight, the relationship between the two sides has not been very good.

When the Eighth Prince heard the Fourth Prince speak, he also replied unhappily:

"Why are you in such a hurry? It's not my turn yet."

After hearing this, the others couldn't help but frown, and looked in the direction where the Eighth Prince was staring with some curiosity.

The next moment, a group of people came running with a stretcher like a gust of wind.

As the stretcher entered the arena, the people who were originally expecting rolled their eyes, looking disappointed.

Li Xuan kept looking at it curiously, wondering who was so persistent that he went into battle with an injury and came to participate in the competition while lying on this stretcher.

The two eunuchs carrying the stretcher almost blocked most of the stretcher, and Li Xuan couldn't see the figure on it clearly.

The stretcher was carried directly onto the stage, and Zhao Feng couldn't help but twitch his mouth when he saw the person coming.

"It's rare that the Seventh Prince is also in a good mood."

Zhao Feng greeted politely, but the person on the stretcher ignored him and remained silent.

Zhao Feng's expression was not very good, but he still waved his hand and asked someone to bring the box for drawing lots.

However, even after the box for drawing lots was handed to him, the person on the stretcher still didn't even have the intention to move.

The maidservant who was waiting on the side was about to reach out and grab an arm on the stretcher, but Zhao Feng said leisurely:

"You must draw the lot yourself, and others are not allowed to do it for you."

When these words came out, the maid trembled with fear and didn't even dare to look at Zhao Feng.

"Your Highness, Your Highness..."

The maid gently shook the person on the stretcher and called a few times.

Li Xuandu couldn't help but stand up in Princess Ankang's arms, put his hand on Princess Ankang's shoulders, and stretched his neck to look at the stage.

"What on earth is going on?"

After a long struggle on the stage, the upper body of the person finally stood up on the stretcher, and Li Xuan could see who was lying on the stretcher.

It was a princess with heavy dark circles under her eyes, about the same age as the Sixth Princess, and she was also pretty, but now she kept her eyes closed, looking like she didn't care about anyone.

"Ah?"

"Is she not awake yet?"

Li Xuan had a bold guess, but he thought it was a bit outrageous.

He turned his head silently and looked at Princess Ankang, but Princess Ankang also shrugged and shook her head silently, indicating that she didn't recognize this person either.

"Hiss——"

"Who is this princess? Ankang has never seen her before?"

"From what the Eighth Princess said before, the princess who hasn't woken up seems to be the Seventh Princess?"

I don't know how the palace maid did it, but the Seventh Princess slowly opened her eyes.

But her beautiful eyes were half open, and she looked dazed. She looked like she hadn't woken up at all, and she looked like she was in a dream.

When the maid saw her open her eyes, she quickly leaned over to her ear and said hurriedly:

"Your Highness, draw the lot quickly. If you don't draw the lot, you won't be able to leave the palace!"

After hearing this, the Seventh Princess finally regained some energy. Her white jade hand swayed towards the lottery box, but she didn't aim in that direction from the beginning.

Zhao Feng sighed helplessly and took the initiative to put the lottery box in the Seventh Princess's hand.

But after she put her hand in, she didn't mean to take it out.

She kept her hand in there for a long time, but she didn't move.

Zhao Feng looked out and found that the Seventh Princess had fallen asleep with her head tilted again.

"Your Highness, Your Highness..."

The maid next to her was almost crying in a hurry. She gently shook the Seventh Princess' body, trying to wake her up.

But the few seconds of opening her eyes just now seemed to be the limit of the Seventh Princess.

Now she couldn't wake up no matter how she was called.

The scene on the stage made the nobles in the audience couldn't help but laugh. Some of the strict concubines were very dissatisfied with the performance of the Seventh Princess.

This was not only damaging to the Seventh Princess's personal reputation, but also to the dignity of the royal family.

Zhao Feng saw that this was not going to work, so he took the initiative to move the lottery box back slowly.

The Seventh Princess took her hand out of the box.

Fortunately, there was a piece of paper between her fingers.

"Your Highness, please show us the lot in your hand."

Zhao Feng on the side reminded.

The maid was also smart. She immediately stepped forward to hold the Seventh Princess's hand, as if she was helping a weak patient, and helped the Seventh Princess show the lot in her hand.

After completing these steps, the maid thanked Zhao Feng gratefully, asked two eunuchs to carry the Seventh Princess down, and found a quiet corner below to wait.

And by chance, they just stood next to the three little ones.

The three little ones couldn't help but look at the sleepy Seventh Princess with curiosity.

Even Princess Ankang was seeing this strange Seventh Princess for the first time.

Li Xuan was curious about why the Seventh Princess was so sleepy.

And looking at the dark circles under her eyes, it was probably not a day or two of hard work.

"Could it be the royal immortal cultivation party!?"

The maids around the Seventh Princess saw the curious eyes of the three little ones and couldn't help but smile at them embarrassedly, but they looked as if they were used to it.

It seems that the people who looked at the Seventh Princess in this way were not just the three of them.

The draws were carried out one after another, and soon everyone finished drawing lots.

Princess Ankang got "Wan Nian, Ding Yi".

It seems that the three little ones are going to Wan Nian County to play this time.

Speaking of which, the Baoningfang that Li Xuan went to last time was actually in Wan Nian County.

Baoningfang is right next to Zhuque Avenue, right on the edge of the dividing line.

However, Baoningfang is very close to the South Gate, where there are a lot of good and bad people, many merchants from other places, and people in the capital who live in a difficult situation.

In addition, there are many people living around the capital who will enter the city after the city gates are opened every day to run their own businesses.

The lives of these people are more difficult than those of the people in the capital.

As the saying goes, poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people, which is actually somewhat true.

When there is no way to guarantee your own food and clothing, it is difficult to ask others to pay attention to the so-called etiquette and integrity.

Therefore, although the economy of Baoningfang is not bad, because it is close to the city gate, there are many outsiders traveling to various places on weekdays, so the public security conditions are also a little worse.

It does not mean that the emperor's feet will be too peaceful, because there are dark places wherever you go, but no one will do too much and attract the attention of the superiors.

Otherwise, when that time comes, no one will have a good life.

Therefore, even the gangs in the slums have their own rules.

Whoever breaks the rules will destroy everyone's rice bowl and will be attacked by everyone.

These are some small knowledge that Shang Zongguan told Li Xuan when he left the palace last time.

Li Xuan hoped that he would not need these things when they left the palace this time.

After all the royal descendants finished drawing lots, Zhao Feng did not continue to keep them in suspense, but explained the content of this month's competition.

"Your Highnesses."

"The content of this month's competition is very simple. We have held a similar competition before."

"The first two characters of the lot drawn by your Highnesses represent the location, which are Chang'an County and Wannian County."

"And the numbers behind..."

Zhao Feng paused slightly, glanced at the people below the stage, and then a smile appeared on his face.

"These are the case numbers."

"Your Highnesses, you need to go to the corresponding county government office and get the case with the corresponding number."

"If you find out the case, arrest the criminal and bring him to justice, and successfully close the case, then the content of the competition will be completed."

"And the result of the final competition will be judged by His Majesty himself to determine the winner."

"And while your Highnesses are solving the case, there will be someone responsible for recording all the details on the side, and your Highnesses can also tell them their ideas for solving the case, so as to record it in the case."

As soon as Zhao Feng finished speaking, a team of eunuchs in flowery clothes holding a booklet and a small brush stepped into the imperial garden in neat steps and stood in a line below the stage.

"They will be responsible for recording the process of solving the case. Please stay within their sight."

"Otherwise, even if the case is solved, if the process is not recorded, the final score from His Majesty will not be high."

"After all, His Majesty needs these records to know the process of solving the case by His Majesty."

"Isn't it?"

When Zhao Feng asked the last question, his eyes narrowed into two lines. In the seemingly harmonious words, there was a hint of warning.

After hearing this, Li Xuan's eyes rolled around, but he still shook his head.

"If we just send someone to guard, I'm afraid these guys will have many ways to play tricks behind the scenes."

"I hope Emperor Yongyuan has also sent someone to watch in secret."

This flowery eunuch in charge of recording has nothing to do with the three of them.

Even if the three of them wanted to stir up trouble, they didn't have the ability.

But it's different for others.

Many people's mothers' families are the tyrants of the capital.

Li Xuan silently turned his eyes to the eldest prince's three siblings.

According to their mother's temperament, I'm afraid that this time when she leaves the palace, she will definitely ask her family to take good care of the three little ones.

Others don't know, but how can Li Xuan not know?

That Concubine Zhang now hates Princess Ankang who suppresses the eldest prince.

Now there is such a good opportunity, I'm afraid Concubine Zhang will try something.

As the saying goes, if there is a date, hit it twice.

With Concubine Zhang's personality, she will definitely hit their date tree bald.

Li Xuan rolled his eyes, feeling that his future was a little bleak, and couldn't help but look at Zhao Feng silently.

As a result, Zhao Feng secretly blinked his eyes on the stage, with an expression of watching the excitement and not minding the big things.

"This old man!"

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See you tomorrow~

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