Hu Zhaorong walked out of the main gate of Changkun Palace, looking at Cui Xianfei walking in front of her and smiling as she called out: "Sister Xianfei."

  Choi Hyun-bi turned around and looked at her.

  Hu Zhaorong took the hand of the eldest princess and said with a smile: "I'm going in the same direction as my sister, let's go together?"

  Choi Hyun-ji nodded.

  Two people walked side by side in a leisurely manner, with palace maids and eunuchs following behind them. In front of them, the eldest princess held hands with the third prince, skipping and jumping along to look at various flowers and grasses by the roadside.

  It wasn't until they were some distance away from the Changkun Palace that Hu Zhaorong turned her head, looking at Cui Xianfei with a hint of inquiry in her eyes, and smiled as she asked: "I wonder what you think of our new Empress?"

  Choi Hyun-bi's expression didn't change, and she smiled lightly: "Since it was the Emperor himself who chose the new Empress, naturally there won't be any mistakes."

  Hu Zhaorong raised an eyebrow and said, "Sister is just humoring me." She was born beautiful, and when she raised her eyebrows to look at people, she had a natural charm.

  She smoothed out the sleeve on her wrist and continued, "I wonder how the Empress will respond to the Imperial Consort's provocation?" Looking ahead, she said, "It doesn't seem like she's a malicious person..." Seeing how she treated the Grand Princess with genuine kindness and showed compassion towards the Third Prince, it was just...

  "Is he just pretending to be weak, or is he really a softie?"

  Years ago, at the Winter Solstice banquet in the palace, the imperial concubine deliberately let her go forward to serve, and she left without saying a word. After the emperor and empress's grand wedding, the imperial concubine deliberately did not attend the morning assembly of the inner and outer ladies-in-waiting, and the empress also did not say a word. Tonight's small banquet was the same, and the imperial concubine even openly set up a stage in the Zhao Yang Palace to humiliate this empress, but the empress didn't seem angry at all, nor did she make any move.

  She thinks that the foundation of entering the palace is unstable, and temporarily chooses to avoid the noble consort?

  But the imperial harem is like this, it's either the west wind overpowering the east wind or the east wind overpowering the west wind. Once you yield, you can be pushed back all the way to the sea and never rise again.

  Choi Hyun-bi said: "Let's wait and see, look at the former empress, people from Lin's family, no matter how dignified and virtuous they appear on the outside, inside they are all hot-tempered."

  Lin and Cui both came from a family of military generals, and they had fought many battles together. When she was not yet in the palace, her father had sighed to her that there was no one in the imperial court who could make him admire, but only the Lin family made him willing to admit defeat. During the previous emperor's reign, the struggle for the throne was fierce, and the current emperor did not have an advantage. Her father had hesitated several times and couldn't decide which prince to follow, until the Cui family surrendered to the emperor, partly because they saw that the Lin family had formed an alliance with the emperor through marriage.

  The Lin family was not lacking in strategy, vision, and loyalty, so they were able to go through several dynasties without falling, and their door was prominent for over a hundred years. The girl who was carefully selected by the Lin family and sent to the palace as an imperial concubine did not believe that she would be a foolish woman.

  Hu Zhaorong nodded and said, "That's also true. Women who can enter the palace are not something that can be understood at a glance." Some women may never be fully understood in their lifetime.

  Hu Zhaorong paused, then said: "The Empress is a daughter of the Lin family. The Lin family is the outer family of the Crown Prince, so it should be that the Empress and the Crown Prince are on the same page when she enters the palace. The Crown Prince should welcome her. But looking at today's banquet, the Crown Prince seems to not be close to the Empress."

  "Probably it's just a child's temperament, there's something a bit twisted in their heart."

  "Little sister, you don't know some things that happened before. When we were in the Wang Mansion, the late Empress Dowager loved the current Empress very much, and not just her, but also the Emperor himself was very fond of her. He would often bring her to the palace when she was young. The Empress and the Crown Prince are about the same age, they played together since childhood, you could say they grew up together. Imagine if it were you, your cousin who is similar in age and got along well with you since childhood suddenly became your stepmother, and you had to respectfully call her 'Mother', wouldn't you feel a bit awkward? Not to mention the Crown Prince's deep feelings for his mother, now that the Emperor has married a new Empress, he might think someone has taken his mother's place."

  Hu Zhaorong thought for a moment, and indeed this explanation made sense. She smiled and said: "In that case, it's also reasonable. I just remember when we went there earlier, the Crown Prince cried so hard he almost choked to death. It's understandable that he couldn't understand why the Emperor would marry a new Empress."

  Choi Hyun-bi smiled faintly and pursed her lips.

  Actually, Cui Xianfei had more complicated thoughts about the relationship between the new empress and the crown prince. However, she didn't have any evidence for some things and couldn't speak of them out loud. Not only could she not speak of them out loud, but she even had to help cover it up, which is why she gave Hu Zhaorong that reasonable and emotional explanation.

  Choi Hyun-bi looked at her son, who was smiling foolishly in the distance, being taken care of by the six-year-old Grand Princess. Although he was already a ten-year-old big kid, he still needed to be taken care of by the young princess. She sighed and said, "However, my younger sister did say one thing that's right, the Empress Dowager doesn't seem like a bad person at heart."

  She is a mother, and to those who show kindness to her children, she always has a good impression. At the banquet, the third prince's rudeness did not make the queen dislike or resent him, but instead made her patiently considerate, which always makes her grateful.

  Hu Zhaorong followed Cui Xianfei's gaze and looked over, feeling pity for the third prince who had only a childlike intelligence.

  She was initially disappointed that she gave birth to a princess instead of a prince, but now looking at the third prince, she is relieved that she had a princess, as long as she is healthy.

  Hu Zhaorong sincerely advised Cui Xianfei, "Sister is still young, why not consider giving the Third Prince a younger brother or sister of the same parents?"

  Cui Xianfei shook her head.

  If the three princes were healthy, she might have considered it, but after the third prince's accident, even if she wanted to give birth to another child again, she told herself that in this life, she would only have the three princes as her children.

  She fully understands the selfishness of human nature. When you only have one piece of clothing, no matter how tattered it is, it's still your treasured possession. But if one day you get a new and beautiful piece of clothing, you'll discard the old and tattered one like a worn-out shoe.

  The third prince is now wearing this old suit.

  If she were to have another child, she was well aware that when the time came, she would inevitably lean her love towards the healthy child, and at that time, she would look at the Third Prince as a burden and discard him.

  The Emperor won't distribute much love to this defective child, the Third Prince is already destined to have no future prospects. If he loses his mother's love again, then he really has nothing left.

  She gave birth to him, but didn't protect him well, and she couldn't let herself abandon him again.

  In Changkung Palace.

  After Cui Xianfei and Hu Zhaorong had left for a long time, the Crown Prince still sat in the hall and refused to leave.

  He looked at Lin Xiang sitting on the grand throne, dressed in magnificent attire, and said sarcastically: "Congratulations, sister-in-law, you've finally become the empress."

  Lin Yan glanced at him with her eyes and said in a cold tone: "Your Highness, you should call me Empress Dowager."

  The prince got annoyed and stood up from his seat, staring at her.

  He knew she was doing it on purpose, and every now and then she would remind him that she had become his senior.

  Lin Xiao didn't intend to comfort the furious prince, and instead instructed Mu Zhi: "Mu Zhi, see our guest out."

  After finishing speaking, he held Mu Qing's hand and stood up, entering the inner hall.