Volume 1 Chapter 25

  After hearing the report from the palace maid, the empress hastily put down the mirror in her hand and waved her hand saying "Quickly summon him to come in." After finishing speaking, she got up from the carved flower chair and was supported by Wei Yaoyao as she walked to the outer main hall to sit down.

  Half a sound, a slave wearing the eunuch's uniform walked in, followed by a small eunuch. The small eunuch held about twenty scrolls in his hands, with a humble and obedient expression.

  Marquis Feng entered the great hall of the Phoenix Palace and immediately walked to the center, knelt down and kowtowed. The small eunuchs behind him also hastily followed suit: "Your humble servant pays respects to Her Majesty the Empress, may Her Majesty live for a thousand years."

  The queen slightly raised her hand and said, "You may dispense with the formalities, all of you may rise."

  "Thank you, Madam." Only after receiving permission did Mr. Feng stand up.

  The queen immediately asked, "Now that you're here, has everything been arranged for Jin'er's marriage?"

  Lord Feng hastily nodded, "In response to Your Ladyship's words, the birth dates of the young ladies from each mansion have all been matched and I have already sent over the list of selected candidates along with their portraits. Please take a look, Your Ladyship."

  After finishing, he turned his head to glance at the small eunuch standing behind him, gesturing for him to hurry up. The small eunuch, upon receiving the manager's gaze, hastily stepped forward a few steps with the items in his hands.

  The queen smiled and turned her head to glance at Wei Huai'er standing beside her, and Wei Huai'er promptly signaled the palace maid to come over and fetch the item.

  The palace maid handed over the painting and brought it in front of the empress, who happily took over the name list and looked at it.

  These eight words are finally settled, and she has been thinking about this matter in her heart for days, unable to let go. Jin'er is already 20 years old this year, but there isn't even a personal maid by her side, not to mention a concubine or a secondary wife.

  His sister, Yaso, also urged him to get married, but Jin'er never agreed. Yaso couldn't make decisions for him, firstly because she knew Jin'er's temperament and didn't like others interfering in his affairs. Secondly, she didn't want to choose a daughter-in-law without Jin'er's consent, lest he end up with someone he disliked, which would only displease him.

  And so, Jin'er's marriage was delayed year after year until now. The other day, Yasu finally managed to get him to agree to the wedding, and his sister was overjoyed for several days.

  It's just that those ladies from noble families, as soon as they heard that Jin'er was going to get married in a hurry, one by one they either hastily closed their doors and refused to meet, or held grand banquets to get acquainted, openly showing that they didn't want to marry their daughters into the Qingwang Fu.

  They really thought she didn't know, but it's all because they're convinced that Jin'er is no good and are afraid that their daughter will be widowed if she marries him, so they're avoiding him like the plague.

  Her sister had no choice but to enter the palace to beg her. She simply issued a decree, requiring all officials above the fifth rank to report at least one daughter's birth date and eight characters to the palace for selection.

  This is a good omen for the wedding, and I hope that this marriage will bring good luck to Jin'er's health. Otherwise, Ya Su will cry her eyes out.

  The list of candidates has been released, and as her aunt, she must carefully select a knowledgeable, virtuous, and gentle woman for Jin'er.

  The queen became even more enthusiastic, with Wei Ya opening the scroll and her looking at the name list. The two of them looked at each other as if they were ordinary people, selecting the misses from various mansions.

  Suddenly, the queen looked at one of the portraits and stopped after reading the name list, frowning and saying "Nanny, I remember that Hong Lan Ye's aunt was married to the Marquis of Yue Country, right?"

  The old lady looked at the woman in the painting, thought for a moment, and then nodded affirmatively, "That's right, Hong Lan Ye's aunt, Hong Jin Xue, married Liu Shu Xuan, the second son of the Marquis of Yue."

  Upon hearing this, the Empress's face suddenly turned somewhat unsightly. This Prince of Yue, Liu Zhi Peng, was after all the current Empress Dowager's own elder brother, relying on the power and prestige of the Prince of Yue's estate and colluding with the Empress Dowager to cause trouble for the Emperor, wanting to monopolize great power.

  Both sides have been at odds with each other for a long time, and the Emperor has also been looking for an opportunity to get rid of the Yueguo Gongfu once and for all, completely removing this tumor. In this way, the Empress Dowager will also lose her support and can no longer confront the Emperor.

  Now the Empress Dowager, what does this mean? Isn't it obvious that she wants to take advantage of this opportunity to plant someone by Rong'er's side? Humph, her calculations are quite loud. Knowing that Rong'er has always been highly valued by the Emperor, I'm afraid she wants to use this opportunity to plant a mole by his side to gather information.

  At this thought, the Empress's face completely turned cold, looking at the twenty or so scrolls in the palace maid's hands and saying "Each one must be thoroughly investigated."

  The eunuch nodded solemnly, knowing that the empress wanted to bring out all the people who had been planted by the Empress Dowager. From now on, he didn't dare to be careless and carefully examined the name list and portrait.

  After investigation, it was found that nine women were from the Empress Dowager's faction.

  The queen's face turned even darker, these people almost took up nearly half of the quota for the selected candidates. The empress was indeed going to great lengths, in order to successfully plant her own people, she didn't hesitate to spend a lot of money and chose so many women with good family backgrounds to enter the palace and participate in the selection.

  The queen coldly snorted, as long as she was there, the empress dowager wouldn't be able to get her way.

  "Look up and instruct Mr. Feng directly, 'Delete the names of Hong Lanye, Li Yunyan, Xie Qiurong, Bai Yuzhu, Wang Xiuhong... etc., and put them in the number of people who did not match with Jin'er's eight characters and were eliminated.'"

  Lord Feng carefully wrote down these names and nodded in understanding "I understand."

  The queen immediately frowned and looked at the remaining dozen or so portraits, crossing out those people who had been arranged by the empress dowager, leaving no women with a good family background.

  Either a high-ranking concubine-born daughter or a low-ranking legitimate daughter, and some are not only of low birth but also born to a concubine.

  None of these people are worthy of Jin'er's noble status, what can be done about it.

  The imperial concubine saw at a glance why the empress was worried, and smiled saying "Your Majesty is probably unhappy because among these remaining people, not one of their family backgrounds can match that of the Crown Prince of Jing."

  The queen rubbed her temples, looking a bit headache "Yes, which of these people is worthy of being Jin'er's legitimate wife? Does the nanny have any good ideas?" She absolutely cannot let Jin'er marry one of these women from small families as his legitimate wife.

  The old lady walked a few steps closer and said, "It's not that there's no way. The reason for combining the eight characters is just to let King Jing's son marry a woman with a good fate to bring good luck back home. We can have the prince take a wife and concubine."

  The queen sat up straight and said "You mean..."

  The wet nurse nodded and continued, "Let the young master choose a few of these people to take as concubines, and then hire a girl from a good family to be his proper wife. As long as their eight characters are not in conflict with the young master's, that will be fine. This way, we can both rush into happiness and marry a principal wife of equal status."

  The queen heard this and couldn't help but highly approve of it, "This is a great idea."

  But then frowned again "But the selection of the queen...". Where to go and find? Which of those noble ladies would be willing to marry their daughter off.

  The imperial concubine thought for a moment, then said, "In a few days, Your Majesty can host a flower appreciation banquet and invite the wives of those families with noble titles of marquis or above to enter the palace. At that time, you can think of a way to intimidate and entice them, and they will surely dare not refuse to send the birth dates of their eligible daughters to the palace."

  The queen also felt that this method was indeed feasible, so she nodded and said "Well, let's do it as you said."

  She turned her head to face Old Master Feng and said, "You immediately leave the palace, take this name list and portrait to Jing Wang Fu and hand it over to Jing Wang Fei. Tell her to let Jin'er first choose a few people she likes from inside to serve her, after a few days, I will send another batch of portraits over, and then we can carefully select again."

  Digression

  Everyone, sorry about this, this chapter is a bit shorter, don't be angry, I'll add an extra chapter on Sunday.