Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 405 King Qi loves mature women

"I lost another three catties..."

"It's better to be fatter, it's better to be fatter. My brother was also fat when he was young. Now he is carrying a knife and riding a horse, chasing Mobei. He was fat when he was a child, but he can be brave when he grows up."

A homely voice sounded in the Kunning Palace. Zhu Youjiao sat happily on the couch in the main seat in the palace, and there were various snacks and iced drinks on the low table next to him.

In front of him, Zhang Yan was taking Zhu Ciran to weigh the three of them. They used the "Taiwan Scale" developed by the Military Armament Academy, and what they were discussing just now was Zhu Ciran's weight.

Zhu Ciran stepped off the scale, and Zhang Yan looked at him, turned back to Zhu Youxiao with a worried face and said:
"Long live, when ordinary children are as old as Ran'er, they only weigh forty catties, but Ran'er already weighs 51 catties."

"Normal, my brother weighed 56 catties when he was this age." Zhu Youxiao replied cheerfully, disapproving in his heart.

He grabbed an osmanthus cake and ate it, and then dug a spoonful of "Sushan" into his mouth with a spoon.

Seeing his overeating appearance, Zhang Yan glanced around, then went to sit next to Zhu Youxiao, and said with concern:
"Long live, Royal Physician Wang told you not to eat, you can't get fatter, if you keep getting fatter, you might..."

Zhang Yan didn't finish talking, but everyone knew that it's not good to be fat.

Speaking of it, Zhu Youxiao is 26 years old. Although he still does carpentry in his spare time, he lacks exercise overall.

This also caused, after he entered the age of 24, his weight began to grow uncontrollably.

Right now, he weighs 150 kilograms and is 180 feet 1.7 feet tall. Converted to the unit of later generations, he weighs [-] kilograms and is [-] meters six in height.

This kind of height and weight can be considered obese no matter what era it is in, and this is the result of Zhu Youjian often taking Zhu Youxiao out for walks and hunting, otherwise he might be even fatter.

"It's true, I just don't know why my brother is not fat."

While eating, Zhu Youxiao touched his big belly, and the three sentences couldn't be separated from Zhu Youjian.

While talking, he looked at Wang An who was standing in the corner, and asked with a smile, "Wang An, how tall is my younger brother? How much does he weigh?"

"Long live back..." Wang An often went in and out of the imperial hospital, and the imperial doctor of the imperial hospital basically checked Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao every day, so he knew it.

"His Royal Highness King Qi was five feet eight inches long yesterday and weighed 130 seven kilograms. The imperial doctor at the Imperial Hospital said that His Highness has a strong pulse, which is better than most people..."

Five feet eight inches, 130 seven catties, this is Zhu Youjian's 20-year-old state, converted into later generations, the height is 1.8 meters six, and the weight is 160 five catties.

This height and weight can be regarded as the standard in later generations, let alone the present.

"My younger brother is three inches taller than me..." Zhu Youxiao sighed after hearing this.

"What is the difference between His Highness's daily diet and Long Live?" Zhang Yan didn't care about that, he only thought that Zhu Youjian was well maintained, and wanted to know the difference between the two brothers.

Seeing Zhang Yan's question, Wang An answered truthfully:

"Since His Highness entered the new year, he has gotten up at the exact hour (seven o'clock) every day, then changed his clothes and had a meal, and dealt with the memorial at four o'clock (eight o'clock)."

"At noon (12 o'clock) Your Highness will ask the chef of Prince Qi's Mansion to prepare meals, and then go to the horse farm of the Prince's Mansion to ride and shoot, and arrive at the corner with the guards. At 30:[-] noon ([-]:[-]), he will rest and go to the Palace of Cunxin for dinner."

"After the meal, His Highness will take a lunch break in the Cunxin Hall for an hour, and get up at Shen Shizheng ([-] o'clock in the afternoon) and go to the Chengyun Hall to continue processing the memorial."

"Return to Changchun Palace at Xushi (seven o'clock in the afternoon) for dinner, and then deal with the memorials for another hour, and basically go to bed before four quarters (midnight) every day."

"Basically, one and a half hours will be set aside for exercise every day, four and a half hours for memorandum, one hour for lunch break, and about five hours for sleep and rest."

After Wang An finished speaking, he took a special look at Zhang Yan, and when Zhang Yan saw this, he looked at Zhu Youxiao complainingly, with a hint of displeasure in his eyes: "Long live..."

"I also set aside two hours a day to repair furniture for the palace and Prince Qi's mansion. I can only say that my brother is not easy to gain weight, Baozhu, you are too worrying."

Zhang Yan's complaint is nothing to Zhu Youxiao, he justified himself very frankly, in order to prevent Zhang Yan from continuing, he looked at Wang An and asked:

"How's the meal in Prince Qi's Mansion?"

Seeing the emperor's inquiry, Wang An said one by one like a few treasures:

"His Royal Highness is thrifty. In the three meals a day, a bowl of noodles, or a bowl of rice noodles, rice noodles, plus a few eggs, and a cup of tea are enough for breakfast."

"I don't eat much for lunch, basically six dishes, two meat, three vegetables, one soup and one tea."

"Dinner will be lighter, basically one meat, two vegetables and one soup. Occasionally, I will eat some pastries at night, but not too much."

"That's all?" Zhu Youxiao was a little taken aback, he didn't expect his brother's meals to be getting simpler and simpler.

When he was in Xuqin Palace, Zhu Youjian basically ate about three dishes for breakfast, eight dishes for lunch, and six dishes for dinner.

It never occurred to him that after moving out, his dietary standards would drop instead.

Compared with him, Zhu Youxiao who eats six dishes for breakfast, twelve dishes for lunch, and nine dishes for dinner can be regarded as overeating, and gaining weight is inevitable.

"Starting today, the harem will also follow this standard."

After hearing Wang An's words, Zhang Yan made up her mind and spoke to the female officer in charge of the inner court, and the female officer glanced secretly at Zhu Youxiao.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao quickly said: "My younger brother eats alone, but we are a family. This is different."

After finishing speaking, he looked at the female officer: "Five dishes for breakfast, nine dishes for lunch, and six dishes for dinner. Remember to prepare seafood stew and delicacies from Yunnan for lunch and dinner."

"The maidservant takes orders..." The female officer responded when she heard the words, and Zhang Yan was quite satisfied when she heard that Zhu Youxiao had reduced six dishes, and did not refute.

"By the way, how are you preparing for the concubine election?"

Zhu Youxiao remembered Zhu Youjian's marriage.

"The local concubine is still being selected. The imperial court has three hundred mansions, and each mansion selects three people. There are 520 beautiful women in total. Including the beautiful women from various countries, the contract is [-] seven people."

"The internal funds allocated 3 taels to the various prefectures, and it was counted as travel expenses for the beautiful girls of each family."

Zhang Yan explained to Zhu Youxiao, but at the same time she said:
"His Royal Highness has made some requests, that is, to raise the age of Xiunu to 20 to [-] years old."

"But Toffee felt it was inappropriate after hearing it, so it was reduced to fifteen to nineteen."

"The concubine feels that fifteen to nineteen is a bit too high, and wants to drop it to fourteen to nineteen..."

The age of the princes and concubines in the Ming Dynasty was basically limited to between 13 and 16 years old.

For a person like Zhu Youjian who has memories of later generations, this age range is no different from crime, so he naturally asked for it.

But the problem is that if the age of show girls is raised to 22 to [-], it will become more difficult to choose a concubine.

Normally, when a woman in the Ming Dynasty was 14 years old, her parents began to choose a husband for her.

This time will not exceed three years, that is to say, women over 17 years old are considered "leftover women" in Ming Dynasty, and those over 20 years old are "older leftover women".

If Zhu Youjian's request is followed, the people may feel that she, the queen, and Concubine Liu are deliberately embarrassing King Qi.

Zhang Yan still had to consider the face of the Zhu family, so she chose the less embarrassing age group of fourteen to nineteen.

"It's really a bit big, so let's choose from fourteen to nineteen."

Zhu Youjian's request was rarely rejected by Zhu Youxiao, and even at the same time of the rejection, Zhu Youxiao suspected that his brother's orientation was a bit abnormal.

Most of the women mentioned above are already wives. My younger brother deliberately set the standard at 20 years old. Could it be possible...

"..." Zhu Youxiao didn't dare to think about it anymore, so he turned to Wang An and said:

"You don't need to tell my brother about this. Fourteen to nineteen is very suitable."

"Your maidservant takes orders..." Wang An responded readily, because in his opinion, there was nothing wrong with this standard.

Zhang Yan glanced at Wang An, and then remembered Zhu Youjian's second request:

"Your Highness doesn't seem to like women with bound feet..."

"Isn't it good to bind the feet?" Zhu Youxiao was a little surprised, after all, in his opinion, the shape of the feet after binding the feet is still better.

Of course, this is because foot binding in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is completely different. Women in the Ming and Song dynasties bound their feet with cloth, but generally speaking, the shape of their feet is relatively normal, and women can also travel and walk normally.

As for the women in the Qing Dynasty who had their feet bound, they basically looked like what later generations would recognize. Not only were they deformed, but walking was also extremely difficult.

Even if the foot is released afterwards, it is of great significance, because the foot after the foot binding is already disabled.

Most empresses and concubines of the Ming Dynasty had their feet bound. The most famous one was the empress of Emperor Wanli, Wang Xijie. But even if her feet were bound, the soles of her feet were [-] centimeters, which is normal.

Zhang Yan's bound feet are also very normal. Zhu Youxiao doesn't think it is ugly, but thinks that such bound feet make the soles of the feet slender, which is very beautiful.

"Choose some with small feet, since my brother asked for it."

Zhu Youxiao didn't understand why his younger brother's aesthetics were so "weird", but he couldn't reject two of them in a row, so he could only choose a compromise method, which was to choose some beautiful girls with small feet.

"Since this is the case, the concubine will send the news to the various prefectures later."

Zhang Yan breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the words. She was most worried about Zhu Youjian's marriage recently. Now that the standard is finalized, it will be much easier to choose a concubine.

"Mom! We're done!"

When she was relieved, Zhu Ciran yelled, Zhang Yan and Zhu Youxiao followed the trend, and then saw Zhu Ciran, who had finished the physical examination, looking at them eagerly.

Seeing them like this, Zhu Youxiao waved for them to come over.

Seeing this, the three of Zhu Ciran hurried over, while Zhu Youxiao hugged Zhu Ciran and Zhu Cixuan who were running, and asked with a smile:

"Did you go to a government school to observe and study recently?"

"Go! I went there for ten days last month. I think sensuality is more interesting."

As soon as official studies were mentioned, Zhu Ciran chatted with bright eyes, while Zhu Youxiao said curiously:
"Interesting? What's the point?"

"It's just that there are a lot of people, and there are a lot of people who are as old as children. It's fun to be with them!" Zhu Ciran's cheerful explanation made Zhu Youxiao's hands stiffen.

He thought that Zhu Ciran would talk about some things in class, but he didn't want Zhu Ciran to patronize and play.

"You can't just know how to play, you have to study hard." Zhu Youxiao pretended to remind Zhu Ciran sternly, not thinking about his own problems at all.

"But Dad, don't you also play with wood every day?" Zhu Ciran's childish words made Zhang Yan and others a little bit astonished.

"Father is saving money for the palace, and it costs money to hire craftsmen."

In terms of sophistry, many times Zhu Youjian can't beat Zhu Youxiao, let alone the young Zhu Ciran.

In Zhu Youxiao's mouth, he almost became a model of thrift, Zhu Ciran frowned after hearing this, and didn't know how to refute for a while.

"Okay, let's play."

After patting Zhu Ciran's butt, Zhu Youxiao asked the female officer to take them out.

It's just that not long after they left, Zhu Youxiao and Zhang Yan didn't have a few words of family life, and an eunuch walked up to Wang An and whispered in a low voice.

After Wang An heard this, he bowed to Zhu Youxiao:

"Long live, Your Highness, please allocate 500 taels of gold, ten pairs of shark's fins and ten bear's paws to the residence of Sun Chuanting in Zhenwu County, and send someone from the Imperial Hospital to Zhenwu County to organize a free clinic."

"Huh?" Zhu Youxiao paused for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "You can arrange it..."

"The maidservant leads the decree..." Wang An respectfully responded, and then arranged for someone to do it in front of Zhu Youxiao.

As for Zhu Youxiao and Zhang Yan, they started chatting about homework again, and when they were chatting about homework, the whole capital was bustling with activity.

This kind of excitement does not belong to the common people, but belongs to the nobles and civil servants, as well as some common people's families with young girls at home.

However, before these families had time to prepare, they heard that the court had changed the selection criteria the next day.

The original selection criteria of 13 to 16 years old has now suddenly changed to 19 to [-] years old, and bound feet have also become small feet. This change has shattered the hopes of many families who wanted to reach the sky in one step.

"What's so good about small feet, bound feet are beautiful!"

"19 years old? Could it be possible that the King of Qi likes a milf?"

"Probably not. I heard that apart from two female family members, there are no older court ladies or mature women in Qi Wang's mansion."

"It's hard to choose now..."

Zhu Youjian's standard was released after Zhang Yan's repeated changes, but even so, it still attracted a lot of criticism, especially the age.

After reading the standard, many people agreed that King Qi liked mature women, and some people also felt that they might not be favored due to their young age, so they chose to quit one after another.

In this way, the scope of concubine selection has been reduced a lot.

However, some people are sad and others are happy, and the happiest of them are some families who were unable to participate in the draft because their children were too old.

For example, among the crowd at the root of the inner city wall, a middle-aged county citizen who was over [-] years old couldn't hide the excitement in his eyes after seeing the notice, and hurried home.

Judging from his silk and satin clothes, his family is not bad, and his mansion is in Huanghuafang, which can be regarded as a small rich family.

With excitement, the county citizen walked through the streets and alleys, and finally came to his house through the streets.

He knocked on the door, stood at the door and looked around, visibly suppressing his excitement.

After a while, when the courtyard door opened, a woman of eighteen or nineteen years old appeared. The woman was beautiful, especially her skin was as fair as suet jade. The facial features were not excellent alone, but they looked very good together. national color.

"Daddy..."

"Sujie, happy event! Happy event!"

The woman wanted to say something else, but the county official pushed the door open, then entered the courtyard and closed the door, turned around and said excitedly:

"Prince Qi's criteria for concubine selection have changed. Fourteen to nineteen is fine. You haven't passed your birthday yet, so you can pass this age. Don't even mention it. Dad will go find the selection officials now."

"No, I have to go to Master Chen!"

Zhou Kui was talking to himself, walking towards the courtyard while talking, and rejoicing by the way:

"Fortunately, you and my father and daughter stayed for an extra day, and didn't return to Suzhou with the servants yesterday, otherwise we would have missed it."

The Zhou Mansion's courtyard is not big, it is just an ordinary small and medium-sized landlord's courtyard, with three entrances and five exits.

Passing by some dental rooms, it can be seen that there used to be at least five or six servants and maidservants in this yard, but now they are all dismissed, and only one old lady who cooks is busy.

"Father? What did you say? Are we not going back to Suzhou?"

Zhou Sujie followed Zhou Kui, frowning tightly, not understanding what happened. Just now Zhou Kui was too excited and spoke too fast, she didn't hear clearly.

"I'm not going back! I'm not going back! Sujie, your looks are here, so I'm sure you'll be chosen!"

Zhou Kui danced excitedly, walked into his bedroom, and pulled out a small box from under the bed in the bedroom.

The box was opened, and it was filled with gold, silver and copper coins. Although most of them were copper coins, they were worth thousands of taels.

Zhou Kui hurriedly took out ten gold ingots from it, and said with some reluctance:

"Ten, 100 taels, it's almost enough...Forget it and take a few more."

"Father, what are you doing?" Zhou Sujie looked at Zhou Kui in confusion, and Zhou Kui picked out ten more gold ingots, returned the box, put the gold ingots in a purse, and then released them. He took a breath and said:
"Give a gift to Mr. Chen, so that you, Sujie, can participate in the draft."

"But my daughter is past..." Zhou Sujie was puzzled, while Zhou Kui happily explained again:
"The rules have changed..."

Zhou Kui explained with dancing, it took a while for Zhou Sujie to understand what happened, and then frowned and said:
"But my daughter is going to be Double Ten in three days..."

"That's why I need to give Mrs. Chen a gift. Add your name to it today."

Zhou Kui was proud, and by the way, he didn't forget to complain:
"It is said that the king of Qi's rules for choosing a concubine are from sixteen to twenty at the beginning, but now the announcement says that the age is fourteen to nineteen."

"In my opinion, the King of Qi probably likes mature women, and when he finds out that you, Sujie, are 20 years old, he might be so happy."

"I can't say more, I have to go to give a gift to Mr. Chen, as long as you add your name before your birthday, the palace can't say anything."

After all, Zhou Kui hurried out of the bedroom with the 20 taels of gold, leaving Zhou Sujie alone with a tangled expression.

She didn't care who she married, only his father did.

Ever since she was seen by the scribe Chen Renxi when she was young, and Chen Renxi said to her father the words "a gentleman is a noble woman in the world", Zhou Kui has been immersed in choosing a concubine with all his brains.

If Zhou Sujie hadn't been too young to comply with the rules when Zhu Youxiao chose his concubine back then, I'm afraid he would have sent Zhou Sujie to choose his concubine long ago.

After that, even though Zhu Youxiao did not choose a concubine for the second time, Zhou Kui stayed in the capital all the time. Even though the land in his hometown had been almost sold, he gritted his teeth and insisted, hoping to wait for the powerful Zhu Youjian to choose his concubine.

Zhou Kui was waiting, and Zhou Sujie was also waiting, one was waiting with a purpose, and the other was waiting without knowing why.

From thirteen to nineteen, and now at the age of twenty, Zhou Sujie has long been numb, and has no hope of entering the palace.

A few days ago, when the concubine selection announcement came out, when she found out that she was not in the rules, she felt a little lucky for some reason.

In the next few days, Zhou Kui was in a daze, first dismissed the servants, and then posted the news of the sale of the house.

Originally, according to the time, they had to move out of the yard in three days, and then return to their hometown in Suzhou with the money they got from selling the yard.

She waited for six years, seeing many daughters of great families getting married, and seeing herself getting older, she was naturally anxious.

Originally, Zhou Kui had already made up his mind to choose a local official as husband-in-law for Zhou Sujie after returning home, but in the end...

Who would have known that the rules had changed and Zhou Kui had hope again, so naturally he would not be willing to give up the "national beauty" he had raised for 19 years to ordinary people.

Facing such a father, in this era when filial piety is greater than the sky, Zhou Sujie can only accept it submissively.

She didn't have any excitement or joy, but just returned to her bedroom, and continued to mend some of her father's worn-out clothes, even though she knew that he couldn't wear them because of his face...

"Fourteen to nineteen?"

"Yes, fourteen to nineteen, but even so, folk still..."

While Zhou Sujie was submissive and Zhou Kui was ecstatic and running around, Zhu Youjian in Prince Qi's mansion also got the standard rules for choosing a new concubine.

He was a little uncomfortable, perhaps because he felt helpless that his future princess might be a teenager.

However, Cui Yingyuan, who reported the news, didn't notice it, but talked about the criticism of Zhu Youjian's "hobby" from the people.

It goes without saying that he likes mature women, and some people even spread rumors that he likes married women.

"People can say whatever they like, but some scholars who spread rumors should be caught and beaten."

Zhu Youjian got up and walked to the window, turning his back on Cui Yingyuan and giving orders.

He doesn't care what the people say, but he can't stand a word of slander from some literati.

"Yes, people have already arrested them for their humble positions." Hearing what Zhu Youjian said, Cui Yingyuan breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he had made the right bet, and His Highness really didn't like these gossiping literati.

"Has Sun Chuanting returned home?"

Hearing Cui Yingyuan's treatment, Zhu Youjian didn't praise or dissatisfy, but turned his back to ask with a flat expression.

"Not yet, there should be two more days."

Cui Yingyuan answered honestly, but after answering the question, he said something that Zhu Youjian didn't like to hear:
"However... Although Governor Sun did not return home, some powerful gentry have already come to the door to send greeting cards and salutes."

Because he was afraid that Zhu Youjian would misunderstand him and slander Sun Chuanting, Cui Yingyuan quickly explained:
"However, the Sun Mansion did not accept these things. Instead, they purchased a lot of rice and wheat from the imperial store in Zhenwu County. It seems that they are going to thank the guests behind closed doors when Governor Sun returns home."

After he finished speaking, he took a vague look at Zhu Youjian's back, but Zhu Youjian didn't say a word.

After a while, Zhu Youjian turned his back to Cui Yingyuan and said slowly:

"Continue to monitor..."

"The humble official takes orders!" Cui Yingyuan responded, and seeing that Zhu Youjian didn't respond, he got up and slowly exited the palace.

But after he exited the palace, Wang Chengen, who had been standing in the corner, bowed and said:
"Your Highness, Wang Bingbi has settled the matter and sent everything to the Sun Mansion."

"Hmm..." Zhu Youjian responded without making any response. After a long time, he turned around, walked back to his seat and sat down, picked up the memorial and said at the same time:
"Tell Sun Chuanting to rest for two years first. He has been tired these past few years, so he should spend time with his family..."

"Yes……"

Responding obediently, Wang Chengen withdrew from the palace, and the news of the palace reached Zhenwu County before the sun set.

(End of this chapter)