Lin's family came from Lin Diao's second aunt, Qi Shi.

  After Zhi arrived, Lin Daiyu handed her the list of candidates for the initial selection of the talented girls.

  Mr. Qi looked back and was shocked, raising his head to Lin Xiang: "The Zhongshan Houfu did not send any message to our family saying that they would send the young lady into the palace, nor was there any news revealing that the Jiang family had a daughter participating in the selection."

  Lin Xiao asked: "What about during the initial selection? The candidates had to go through a preliminary screening, didn't the authorities discover anything suspicious?"

  The Lin family is a noble clan and cannot help but pay attention to the selection of the imperial concubines. At the initial selection, they should go and ask which households have sent girls for selection and then inquire about the situation of the selected girls. The Lin family does not need to know everything, but some important aristocratic families, official clans or noble families must be paid attention to.

  Qī shì furrowed her brow and said to Lín Xiǎo, "This matter requires me to go back and discuss with the mansion. The mansion needs to thoroughly investigate and clarify it before I can come back to the palace to report to Your Majesty."

  The Lin family had not found out in their previous investigation that the Jiang family had sent a girl to participate in the selection. They didn't even know where this "Jiang Xie" came from.

  She nodded and said, "The mansion is still a bit far from the Zhongshan Hou Mansion. Let's just treat each other as ordinary relatives. I don't think the Zhongshan Hou Mansion is worthy of trust."

  "Your Majesty's words will be conveyed by my wife when she returns."

  Lin Xiang smiled and said, "This palace has taken a look at this year's list of candidates for the imperial harem, and there are some other people who have a bit of potential. The Shenguo Gongfu, which has been shouting about sending their daughter into the palace every year, hasn't made any moves at all. The Zhongshan Houfu is hiding and wants to send their daughter into the palace. As for the others, the Bohai Cui family, the Changxuan Houfu, and the Taiyuan Wangshi are all planning to send their daughters into the palace."

  The Bohai Cui family sent the biological niece of Empress Cui Xian, and for a large aristocratic family to maintain its power, the most direct way is to marry into the imperial family and give birth to an imperial son with their own bloodline. However, the third prince is mentally handicapped, and in the future, he will not be able to bring many benefits to the Cui family. Empress Cui Xian is also getting older, and it's unlikely that she can give birth to a new heir. The Cui family is eager to send another girl into the palace, which is understandable.

  It's just that the one being sent is the eldest daughter of the main house of the Cui family, and with such a noble status, it's unknown whether she has any intention of competing for the throne in the future. It should be known that for aristocratic families, the eldest daughter of the main house is extremely precious, and can bring a powerful and helpful relative through marriage, not to mention the eldest daughter of the main house.

  If all they wanted was to have someone from their own clan in the palace who could speak for them and secure their wealth, then it would be enough to just send a side branch or a concubine-born daughter into the palace. Unless they had bigger plans, such as choosing a birth mother for the future crown prince. Only the birth mother of the crown prince needed to be noble and even more noble. To put it bluntly, the eldest legitimate daughter of the Cui family's main line would have been qualified to be empress.

  The Changxuan Marquis Manor sent a collateral branch's clan daughter, so the sincerity of the Changxuan Marquis Manor doesn't seem that sufficient. Probably the Fu family just wanted to test the waters; if the young lady could be selected, it would naturally be a good thing, and if not, there was no need to be too disappointed.

  Taiyuan Wangjia sent, although it was a collateral branch of the fifth house, the fifth house and the legitimate house were close brothers. This belongs to hoping that the girl can enter the palace and give birth to an imperial son, but has no idea about the future heir position.

  The Qi family did not speak, and they naturally also noticed the severe competition among the showgirls this time.

  After the emperor ascended to the throne, the first imperial selection was held. The aristocratic families and nobles had been waiting for a long time, so they were naturally well-prepared and eager to make a good impression. All eyes were on this year's selection.

  The Lin family, as a later clan, naturally hoped that the emperor would choose palace concubines with lower identities.

  After seeing off the Qi family, Lin Xiao realized that this matter of the Jiang family was not something that could be resolved in one go, so she simply put it aside for the time being and would wait until there were any updates from the Wu Guo Gong Fu before doing anything else.

  Lin Ke remembered the emperor's words in the morning and called Ye Gonggong, saying: "You go to Yanqing Palace and tell the crown prince that he is invited to come over to Changkun Palace for dinner tonight."

  Yong'an Palace

  Choi Hyun-bi was also deeply in thought as she stared at the same list of names of the palace maidens. After a while, she let out a deep sigh.

  The palace maid beside her whispered, "…the Cui family has sent word in, wanting Your Majesty to take good care of Miss Rong, and it would be best if Miss Rong could enter the palace smoothly and soon gain favor and give birth to a royal son."

  Choi Hyun-bi knew the intention of the Choi family as soon as she saw the person they had sent in. However, she thought of the Empress and the Lin family. The Choi family wanted to contend for the throne, but first, they would have to bring down the Empress and the Lin family. But neither the Empress nor the Lin family was so easily defeated.

  Besides, the crown prince is already fourteen years old. Even if the girl from the Cui family enters the palace and gives birth to a son, she will be at least fifteen or sixteen years younger than the crown prince. Although the crown prince occasionally goes off the rails, he is not simply ignorant and can be said to be intelligent and wise.

  She can also understand the thoughts of the Cui family. The emperor is in his prime, and when the emperor grows old, the imperial son born to the Cui family's daughter will have grown up too. On the other hand, the crown prince would easily incur the dislike of the aging emperor. Just like the emperor himself, who was not the eldest or the most favored, and Empress Xiao had no powerful maternal family backing her, who could have thought that the seventh in line to the throne would eventually ascend to it?

  But the situation at that time was different from now.

  Cui Xianfei said to the palace maid, "Have someone pass on a message to the Cui family. Rather than letting the young lady enter the palace and gamble on a future filled with risks that are invisible to her, it's better to set her sights on the position of Crown Princess."

  It is better to form an alliance with the Lin family than to be their enemy.

  The Lin family is not a short-sighted person, having produced two empresses, they would never think about the position of the crown prince's consort again. If Miss Cui becomes the crown prince's consort, the Lin family will likely be very willing.

  Moreover, she also had her own motives. If Ruzi really entered the palace, then she and the Third Prince would completely become abandoned pawns of the Cui family. She didn't care about anything else, but she couldn't let the Third Prince lose his reliance on the Cui family.

  The palace maid looked at Cui Xianfei with some surprise, but ultimately said nothing and just nodded in agreement before using the secret network of the Cui family within the palace to send a message back to the Cui household.

  In the Yanqing Palace.

  The crown prince swept away his depression and looked a bit happy.

  After hearing the message from Ye Gonggong, he tried on clothes, changed several sets before being satisfied, and then carefully combed his hair and washed his face, making himself neat and clean.

  Before leaving Yanqing Palace, he even had a palace staff move over a brass mirror and tried on a smile in front of the mirror.

  He thought that his previous attitude towards Lin Xiao had been too bad, and since Yuan Yuan was now taking the initiative to make amends with him, he couldn't afford to appear too bad and make their relationship even more awkward.

  After everything was ready, he brought the palace people and said, "Let's go, we're going to Changkung Palace."

  When he arrived, Lin Xiao was not in the outer hall. The palace maid first took him to a side hall for tea. After a while, Lin Xiao came out from the inner hall surrounded by palace maids.

  The crown prince stood up somewhat at a loss, wanting to call out "Yuanyuan", but thinking of something, he didn't call out in the end, and instead smiled at her with an awkward grin.

  Lin He looked at him coldly and said lightly: "The prince has arrived?"

  The prince was somewhat disappointed in her attitude.

  But then he laughed again and said: "When are we going to have dinner? I'm starving."

  Lin Yi still looked at him coldly, without speaking, and turned to instruct the palace maid: "Go and see if the kitchen has finished preparing dinner." Then she instructed the eunuch: "Go and ask when the Emperor will return, if the Emperor comes back, just welcome him at the door."

  The crown prince's face fell instantly.

  It turned out she wasn't looking for him to have dinner together alone.