Zichen Hall

  Zong Zhengjin stood in the grand hall, his hands behind his back, looking up at the golden silk banner hanging high above the hall with the four characters "Zheng Da Guang Ming" written on it.

  Qian represents Heaven, Kun represents Earth. The interaction between Heaven and Earth is called Jiao Tai. This is the way of the righteousness, greatness and brightness of Heaven and Earth, and the light of the sun and moon. It can be called the righteousness, greatness and brightness.

  The fifth inkstone and Meng Wentian exchanged a glance with each other, remaining silent.

  "Before Father Emperor passed away, he told me to be friendly and respectful to my brothers, not to eliminate them all," Zong Zhengjin fell into reminiscence, "But now they are all dead, except for me, only this one is left."

  "You say, what should I do?"

  "After a long time, the fifth inkstone still chose to speak out, 'If brothers are not friendly and younger brothers are not respectful, without prior conditions, whatever the emperor does is justified. The late emperor must also be understanding in the underworld.'"

  "No matter what Your Majesty decides to do, we will definitely support Your Majesty with our lives," Meng Wentian said in a rare serious tone.

  "It's like that, then don't blame me," Zong Zhengjin said in an unexpectedly calm tone, as if he were just saying "the weather is really nice today."

  "Pass on My verbal decree: I have been unable to meet with the Prince of Yong'an for a long time, and I miss him deeply. Three days from now, I will hold a banquet and gather together; all officials are to attend and keep him company."

  "We obey your orders," both men bowed.

  Drunken Cloud Villa

  "Master," Deeman said with a somewhat strange expression, clearly looking like he had something on his mind.

  Su Jingxu was very cooperative, "What's wrong"

  Dai Man glanced around, the implication was clear.

  Su Jing suddenly realized that there might be something important, and she gave a wink to Ting Yao, then said to her, "You follow Ben Pei."

  Ying Yao stood guard at the door, while Su Jing walked into the inner room, "Speak."

  "Master, I heard that the Prince of Yong'an has returned to the capital, and His Majesty has also issued an edict saying that a banquet will be held three days later," Dai Man said in a low voice.

  Su Jing furrowed her brow, "How did you know?"

  "There is a fellow countryman of mine in the Shang Gong Bureau. I met him earlier and asked him something, that's all." Dai Man saw her face suddenly turn cold, and hastily knelt down, "Master, it has nothing to do with him, it was me who ran into him earlier and asked him a question, please spare his life."

  Su Jing let out a sigh and personally helped her up, "Ben Pei was just asking, no need to be nervous, don't worry, Ben Pei won't do anything to that old fellow of yours."

  The Shang Gong Bureau is not only in charge of the allocation of palace personnel, but also undertakes the responsibility of going out to handle affairs. It is they who are responsible for proclaiming imperial edicts outside the palace, which is not surprising.

  "Isn't King Yong'an supposed to have his own territory? He shouldn't return to the capital without a reason, what happened this year?" Su Jing asked.

  Dai Man stood up, "I specially inquired about it, Master, do you know who is the birth mother of Prince Yong'an?"

  Su Jing shook her head. She didn't know much about the previous dynasty, and all along, she hadn't had a great relationship with Prince Yong'an, so she had never paid attention to this person.

  "Yong'an King's birth mother was Yu Fei Niangniang of the previous dynasty, who is also the aunt of the current empress, but not a biological one."

  "So he is half a member of the Yu family." Su Jing was startled, and she could already sense that something big was going to happen.

  Yong'an Wang, as the only one who survived the bloody rain and storm of seizing the throne, must have had a great deal to do with the Yu family at first. As for whether it was because of the half-Yu family blood flowing through his veins or other reasons, it doesn't seem particularly important.

  It is important that King Yeong-an is still alive and has returned to the capital.

  "It's said that because Madam Yu is in poor health and her days are numbered, King Yong'an specially returned to the capital to see his elderly relative for the last time. He handed over the memorial, but before waiting for the Emperor's approval, he had already returned to the capital."

  The character "filial piety" is at the forefront, even if the emperor is unwilling to let such a great threat return to the capital, he cannot do anything about it, otherwise it would be giving others an excuse and inviting public discontent.

  Yu Fei is the younger sister of the current Prime Minister, and also the granddaughter of Old Lady Yu. Her son would naturally be Old Lady Yu's grandson, even if not a direct descendant, but having a connection to the imperial family makes it a completely different matter.

  "This matter, I suppose Your Majesty has already made up your mind. We, who are in the inner palace, will temporarily pretend not to know."

  Su Jing quickly understood the pros and cons, made a quick decision, she was a concubine, no matter what, this was not something she could comment on, can only pretend to be unaware.

  "Yes, I understand," said Deeman with a bow.

  At first when she just found out, she only realized that something big must have happened and hurriedly thought of going back to tell her master, but didn't think that this matter had already gone beyond their scope.

  No matter how favored the emperor's concubines are, they must not interfere with state affairs, this is an unchanging principle.

  Su Jing was still enjoying her peace in the palace, and three days had passed in a flash. The people in the palace already knew about Yong'an Wang's return to the palace, and they often discussed it privately, but they would never bring it up openly.

  Everyone says that the emperor values loyalty and personally sent someone to visit Old Lady Yu, sending countless gifts. He himself drank with Prince Yong'an until late at night, sharing fraternal affection.

  Su Jingxi smiled and let it pass after hearing it.

  Kunning Palace

  "The Empress Dowager said that since the year-end is approaching, all of you sisters do not need to go to Cining Palace to pay respects again. Each palace and courtyard has many things to attend to, just take care of your own affairs, and it's most important to give birth to a crown prince for the Emperor as soon as possible." The Empress and others came forward, reiterating and conveying the Empress Dowager's meaning.

  The people below bowed their heads and showed a gentle attitude, but in their hearts they were all sneering. The empress was a typical example of "standing up to talk without waist pain". They had been guarding the empty chamber for several months, and the emperor's shadow had not been seen, where did the offspring come from?

  As for what the people below think, it's none of her business. The queen smiled faintly, "Yesterday, I was still talking to the emperor, saying that many sisters have entered the palace for some time now. Taking advantage of the festive New Year's day, we can also promote the ranks of all the sisters, and make the palace lively again. The emperor agreed too."

  This sentence immediately caught everyone's attention, isn't the purpose of competing for favor just to win the emperor's favor? So they all chimed in unison, praising the empress as virtuous and so on.

  "This is just a suggestion from me, after all, the final decision still lies with the Emperor," the Empress said calmly, suppressing the sarcasm in her heart as she glanced at their restless expressions.

  Although the queen said so, everyone present knew that the queen was the master of the six palaces. Whether she had imperial favor or not, she was still the queen, and the probability of her meaning being adopted by the emperor was very high.

  "The Empress Dowager said that it's likely to be very lively in the palace this New Year," Consort Shu said with a smile, especially emphasizing the two words "very lively".

  At the stage of her life, she was already a consort of rank Shu, and this kind of promotion had little to do with her. Firstly, there was no imperial favor, secondly, there was no merit in having children, besides, being a virtuous and wise woman, although she was the lowest among the four consorts, even the virtuous consorts were not yet promoted, let alone her.

  The empress obviously had no mind to listen to their meaningless "quarrel" anymore, waved her hand and said, "Alright, the noise is up to you. A few days ago, some new fabrics were presented as tribute, I will send someone to deliver them to you later, make a few more clothes for the New Year."

  Regardless of what they thought in their hearts, everyone stood up and bowed, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the gift."

  "Never mind, you may withdraw since there's nothing else," The queen rubbed her eyebrows, with a hint of impatience.

  "The concubines and maids request to withdraw."

  Su Jing swept a glance at the queen as she stood up, and the queen's face was only slightly pale, it was unclear whether it was due to too much makeup or not. However, it could be seen that she was obviously somewhat unwell.

  Su Jing did not notice that in the moment she turned around, the queen had already put down her jade hand that was rubbing her temples, and was looking at her back with a rather complex gaze.

  "Your Majesty, have you really made up your mind?" Jinmomo watched from the side with a clear understanding of what was on the Empress's mind.

  The queen fell silent for a moment, shook her head, "It wasn't this palace's decision, it was hers that made this palace decide."

  The queen got up and went into the inner chamber, "I hope this time the palace has chosen correctly."

  "By the way, Ya'er caught a chill the other day, I wonder if she's better today. Mother will go to the study room in a while to take a look."

  The crown prince of the Chu Zhou kingdom, whether a princess or a prince, all start attending school at the age of six by virtual reckoning, entering at dawn and leaving at dusk, so the empress had not seen her own children in person early on.

  Jinmomo nodded, "Yes, Your Highness can rest assured."

  Drunken Cloud Villa

  Su Jing swept a glance at the two pieces of brocade sent by the empress, one in lake blue and the other in orange yellow, both were quite vibrant colors and also quite bold, but they somewhat exceeded her current status. However, with her current favor, it wasn't impossible for her to wear them.

  "Master, this brocade is very rare, but I'd like to use it to make clothes," Dai Man asked.

  "Can you tell what kind of fabric is used in other palaces?"

  Daiyu knew what she was worried about, so she said, "I've inquired about it, and this time the distributed fabric is only two kinds, one is like our colorful brocade, and the other is rain flower brocade."

  Su Jing knew that Caixuan Jin and Yuhua Jin were naturally better or worse, according to her grade, either should be one of the better ones in Yuhua Jin, or one of the worse ones in Caixuan Jin, but now it seems not to be the case.

  When something goes wrong, there must be a demon. Su Jing had never believed that good things would fall from the sky, but no matter what it was, as long as it came, she wouldn't be afraid anyway.

  "Let's put it away in storage for now. Anyway, I've already made several sets of clothes over the past few days, so let's talk about it after the New Year."

  "Yes, I understand," Daiman also agreed with this approach and bowed out.

  It's another brand new year, great!

  Palace Concubine (Yi) / 33 / 33265

  Gong Shu