"Second Uncle, you forgot, Eighth Brother is the Crown Prince’s person, so it’s not surprising for Eighth Brother to use this identity to get close to Kong Yuan." Zhao Yao speculated that the reason Kong Yuan allied with the Eighth Prince was likely to avenge his sister. As for why not directly join the Crown Prince, it might be because he looked down on the Crown Prince. "Kong Yuan should have allied with Eighth Brother on his own, without the knowledge of Kong Taichang." Judging by Kong Taichang’s nature and conduct, he would never agree with Kong Yuan allying with Eighth Brother.
"The Eighth Prince is too... A mere word like ’brilliant’ isn’t enough to describe him." Even managing to recruit the Kong Family, the Eighth Prince is truly, truly, truly... remarkable.
Liang Run sighed, "Fortunately, Yao Yao, you and the Eighth Prince are good brothers, not enemies." Otherwise, having such an intelligent and resourceful person like the Eighth Prince as an enemy would be far too dangerous.
"Being an enemy with Eighth Brother is truly terrifying." Zhao Yao couldn’t help but worry about the Fourth Prince in his heart.
"By the way, Yao Yao, where is Mr. Li’s memorial to be held, and are you attending?"
"At the Imperial College, of course, I must attend."
A few days later, Zhao Yao and their group headed to the Imperial College to participate in Mr. Li’s memorial.
Previously, the emperor ordered that Mr. Li’s memorial must be conducted solemnly.
The Crown Prince dared not slack off and prepared with great care.
During Mr. Li’s memorial, the Crown Prince, in front of all the scholars in the capital, praised Mr. Li’s acplishments.
His emotions were very sincere, and his tone fluctuated, making the listeners feel both passionate and moved to tears.
The Crown Prince did not exaggerate Mr. Li’s contributions, yet those present felt Mr. Li was a truly great man after listening. At the same time, everyone felt deeply ashamed for having forgotten Mr. Li’s great kindness.
As Zhao Yao listened, he thought to himself: Who would have thought the Crown Prince also had... Oh, the gift of oration.
Upon hearing the Crown Prince’s words, the Li Family felt not even a bit of joy but rather full of worry. Although the Crown Prince didn’t exaggerate Mr. Li’s praises, they were scared to death listening.
Over the years, the Li Family had always held Mr. Li’s memorial in their family shrine, never publicly, to avoid letting the scholars and intellects of the world consider Mr. Li their benefactor.
Since the Li Family founded the Imperial College, they’ve always drawn attention. The Li Family didn’t want to be high-profile anymore and thus put themselves in the spotlight again.
A few days ago, Minister Li entered the palace to ask the emperor not to hold public memorials for Mr. Li in the future. The elder did not like such ceremonies in the first place.
The emperor understood the Li Family’s disposition and promised only to hold this one-time ceremony, assuring there would be no further grand memorials in the future.
The eulogy written by the Crown Prince was excellent, gaining him favor among the scholars in the capital. However, this did not make the students of the Imperial College support him.
After Mr. Li’s memorial, neither the Crown Prince nor Duke Zhen awaited Prince Dai and Marquis Xuanping to praise the Li Family and found it odd.
Marquis Xuanping had originally planned to do so, but his strategist advised against it. The strategist believed that praising the Li Family held no benefit for them and instead would support the Fourth Prince, unworthy of making a wedding dress for the Fourth Prince.
Prince Dai and Marquis Xuanping agreed with the strategist and decided not to praise the Li Family. Of course, they didn’t give up disparaging the Kong Family.
Because of Kong Kangda, what the former head of the Kong Family had done in the past was brought up again, which was no different than "whipping a corpse" for the current Kong Family.
The scholars who had experienced the events back then were filled with anger, and thus the current Kong Family bore the brunt of the resentment, affecting their reputation today.
Kong Taichang only felt too ashamed to face anyone these days. If possible, he wished he could find a hole to crawl into. He originally wanted to feign illness and rest at home to avoid his colleagues’ ridicule, but he dared not deceive the emperor and had to face the court with a stiff upper lip.
Fortunately, this matter was soon overshadowed by the Fourth Prince ing of age, and now the ministers were more concerned with the Fourth Prince’s princely title and fiefdom.
With the Fourth Prince’s birthday approaching, Zhao Yao couldn’t help but feel tense, even though he guessed the Fourth Prince’s fiefdom might be Liangzhou. Until the matter was set, anything was possible.
By the way, he was also worried about what birthday gift to present to the Fourth Prince.
Lady Liang once reminded Zhao Yao that the Fourth Prince had always been very considerate of him. For the Fourth Prince’s birthday this time, Zhao Yao should present a grand gift.
A grand gift indeed.
What kind of grand gift should it be?
After pondering over and over, Zhao Yao finally thought of the mountainous terrain of Liangzhou and its rugged geography, and thus came up with a grand gift for the Fourth Prince.
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