zChapter 1044 - Inflated Yuan Shu

She wanted to say: “Could it be abolishing the Empress and re-instating a new one?” But the Empress was still here after all, and it was not a good thing to say, so she could only speak halfway and swallow the rest.

At this time, everyone had already followed the Empress’ lead to greet and kowtow to the Emperor, and Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu was sitting there, naturally enjoying these greetings together with the Emperor. Her head was lifted slightly, completely not hiding her arrogant air and insolence.

At the beginning, Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu was quite good at acting, acting sensible, acting kind, acting virtuous. But today, her increasingly inflated heart could no longer be hidden, especially since after what that person in the bathroom did last night, the Emperor reverted to his state when he was being strictly controlled. This caused her to fill up with confidence again. In her opinion, the Emperor was already fully controlled by her, no mater how the others struggled, the old Emperor could not escape from the palm of her hand.

In addition, it was the first day of New Year today, for this kind of event, though she would attend every year in the past, she would always be mixed in with the crowd of concubines. In addition, concubines like them were just decorations to the Emperor, so even if she came every year, it was like she was only passing by, she was completely unnoticed.

But it was different this year, the Emperor proactively pulled her over to sit at his side, this seat was only exclusive to the Empress in the past. In the end, she was a woman, she was vain, with this temptation of power, she could no longer resist and sat on it with almost no protest. Then until now, the Empress was giving her greetings, but she did not stand up but looked down at everyone from above, thinking that one of these days, these people would have to submit to her.

Other than Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu’s position, the Eighth Prince’s seat was also changed. In the past, the princes sat in order, from the First Prince to the Ninth Prince, they sat in a line. Because Da Shun did not elect a crown prince, that seat meant for the crown prince had always been empty, with no one sitting there.

But this year, under the signal the Emperor made in front of everyone, the Eighth Prince Xuan Tianmo walked out from the group of princes and sat down on the treasured seat belonging to the crown prince in an impressive manner. The seat which had been empty for many years was finally filed. Though the Emperor did not clearly state that he was going to elect the Eighth Prince as crown prince, but this action was too obvious. The ministers were not stupid, who would not understand these things? Therefore, the Eighth Prince’s faction swelled up, all of them glowed and smiled widely. The people on Xuan Tianming’s side were frowning instead, thinking to themselves why the Emperor had changed so much? However, no one had thoughts of changing sides, and no one suspected if the Ninth Prince did anything to lose the Emperor’s favour. In their hearts, they only believed in Xuan Tianming and always thought that Xuan Tianming was the only one who was suited to take over the Emperor. This was because of Xuan Tianming’s ability and the fact that he had an amazing Feng Yuheng behind him as his wife. It had nothing to do with Imperial Concubine Yun.

It could be said that the loyalty of the Ninth Prince’s faction was very high. The Eighth Prince’s action was very far behind with regards to this, but at this kind of time, the Ninth Prince’s faction did not fall apart just like when the Eighth Prince was in trouble, but became more united, trying to find the reasons for why the Emperor changed like this.

The greetings of the Empress who was leading a small number of women did not evoke any smile from the Emperor, he just let out an “Un”, nodded, then spread out one arm: “All of you are late, but forget it, sit down everyone!”

With his words, the women looked for their own places to sit. Feng Yuheng immediately walked to the table with the other prince’s wives and sat there. Xuan Tiange looked around and simply pulled Xiangrong and Feng Tianyu to sit at the same table as Feng Yuheng. Only Fendai was left, looking left and right, there was no seat which suited her and it became awkward.

Feng Yuheng told Xiangrong softly: “Go and ask her to sit at this table!”

But without waiting for Xiangrong to call her, they saw Fendai had already looked for a remote corner to sit down. The people around her were the Madams and Young Misses who walked together with them from Jing Ci Palace and were still considered their own people.

As for Feng Zhaolian, that person was completely unreserved and walked over to the table where the princes were sitting and reached out to kick the Sixth Prince Xuan Tianfeng’s chair, saying: “Your Highness the Sixth Prince, can you shift over a little? Make some space for me.”

Xuan Tianfeng glanced at Xuan Tianhua in exasperation. He had already heard about Feng Zhaolian setting his sights on Xuan Tianhua, but he did not think that Feng Zhaolian would be so bold, brazenly wanting to sit here at the imperial banquet. Should he give way or not? In the end, this Feng Zhaolian should be considered a man, and was the past royal prince of Qianzhou, so there was nothing wrong with sitting with them. The strange part would be that Feng Zhaolian was wearing his usual female attire today, so if he sat over here, it was a little awkward.

He looked towards Xuan Tianhua, hoping that Xuan Tianhua would give him an opinion, but Xuan Tianhua was silent, looking down and pondering about something. So Xuan Tianfeng and no other alternatives. Moreover, since Feng Zhaolian was being pushy, he could only shift to the side a little, creating some space for him. Feng Zhaolian got his wish and sat down, but did not rush to talk to Xuan Tianhua first, speaking to Xuan Tianfeng: “I heard that Your Highness the Sixth Prince just returned to the capital yesterday, and that your 30,000 northeastern army might fall into Old Eighth’s hands?”

Xuan Tianfeng nodded, what could be done even if he knew? If the Emperor decided to give it, could he still ask for them to be returned? It was a pity, those 30,000 soldiers were brothers who had gone through life and death with him, though the military tally was still in his hands, Father Emperor would definitely take it back today and pass it to Old Eighth. Once the Emperor said so, even if he did not want to give it, he could not do so.

Feng Zhaolian knew what he was thinking, and said softly: “Actually, handing over the military tally might not be a bad thing. A military tally does not represent much, as long as the hearts of those 30,000 people only see you as their commander, then you will always be their commander, no one can steal them from you. If you get those 30,000 people to become 30,000 pairs of eyes, then Old Eighth would not be able to sleep well.”

Feng Zhaolian pointed out the crux of the matter, causing Xuan Tianfeng to have new thoughts over the matter of military authority. That’s right, a military tally did not represent anything, so what if he handed over the military tally? What those 30,000 brothers handed over to him were 30,000 hearts. Old Eighth happily thought that he had increased his support by 30,000, but he could change that support into resistance, fighting a splendid turnaround battle.

Everyone had seated, and only the Empress was still standing in front of the main hall. She only walked forward a few steps and stood in place, staring at the Emperor and Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu.

Everyone was curious, pausing their conversations with each other, directing their gazes towards the main hall, thinking who would win in the battle of power between the Empress and Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu.

However, the Emperor, the one who created this incident, snapped at the Empress: “Everyone is already seated, why are you still standing there?”

The Empress looked up with a cold gaze, asking: “Asking Your Majesty, where will This Wife sit?”

“In such a large Jade Hall, Empress means to say that there is no place for you to sit?” The Emperor’s face darkened, looking out of place in the atmosphere for the first day of the New Year.

Immediately, people from the Eighth Prince’s faction seated below shouted in unison: “Do not be angry, Your Majesty, your health is important!” At that same time, someone told the Empress: “Your Highness the Empress, it is the start of the New Year today, do not make His Majesty angry.”

At this moment, Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu who was sitting next to the Emperor stood up, speaking to the Emperor: “Your Majesty, it is all This Concubine’s fault, it was This Concubine who took up Her Highness the Empress’ seat. Her Highness the Empress is blaming This Concubine! This Concubine will now move to the side, this seat can only be sat on by the Empress alone, This Concubine does not dare to be this impudent.”

As she spoke, Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu was going to back up, but the Emperor pulled her back, “Beloved concubine, sit here and do not move. We allowed you to sit here. Other than Us, no one else can chase you away from here. Empress, We wish to ask you, are you unhappy with Our arrangements, or do you feel that this massive Jade Hall is not big enough for you?”

Every sentence was said in irritation, every sentence was ruthless and every sentence was directed at the Empress, forget about the Empress herself, even the people listening felt their cheeks burn up when they heard this and felt ashamed. She was an Empress, but was pulled down so many pegs by the Emperor in front of so many people, how could she still have any face left?

However, the Empress had experienced many major events and this small setback was truly insignificant. She only nodded calmly and spoke to Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu: “Yuan Shu, sit, since His Majesty allowed you to sit, then you should sit properly and stably. His Majesty is correct, in this massive Jade Hall, This One can just find any seat, then This One will help myself.” After saying this, she walked straight towards the many concubines and noble ladies, found an empty seat and sat down.

And these concubines and noble ladies who curried favour with Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu, once they saw the Empress come, they quickly shifted their chairs further away. No one wanted to be too close to the Empress at this time. The Emperor’s attitude was shown clearly and no one could tell how many days this Empress had left, so it was better to distance themselves.

In the past, the imperial banquet would formally start with the arrival of the Empress, but it was different today, before the Empress’ group came, the start of the imperial banquet had already been announced. Even if the Emperor had accepted the group greetings together with Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu, and the women who came along with Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu had all bowed, they were currently fully focused on watching the song and dance, chatting to pass the time, as if the arrival of the Empress’ group was just a small incident, dissipating as they took their seats, with no one paying attention to it.

Some third and fourth rank official were discussing: “His Highness the Eighth Prince has not accepted any wives, and does not have an official wife nor concubines, this is a great opportunity for us!”

“That’s right, that’s right! With our official ranks, wanting to send our daughters into Sheng Palace as an official wife would only be a delusion, but there’s still hope for being a secondary wife. Based on the Emperor’s attitude, when His Highness the Eighth Prince inherits the rule in the future, the secondary wife will be an imperial concubine in the palace, a proper ruling highness!”

“And seeing the seat His Highness the Eight Prince is sitting at today, that is the seat of the crown prince of the east palace, and it was the Emperor who allowed him to sit there. This means that the Emperor already has the candidate for crown prince in mind, it will definitely belong to His Highness the Eight Prince.”

“But what do all of you think, why did the Emperor suddenly give up on His Highness the Ninth Prince and chose His Highness the Eight Prince?”

“You still don’t understand?” Someone confidently pointed towards Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu, “The Emperor was loyal to Imperial Concubine Yun for 8 years but was unable to obtain anything in the end. I heard that Imperial Concubine Yun allowed the Emperor to end Winter Moon Palace but did not allow him to stay over. The Emperor is also a man, with Imperial Concubine Yun messing with him repeatedly, who can tolerate it? But Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu is different, kind and charming, entering the Emperor’s heart at this time, she would naturally get anything she wants!”

All these sentences entered everyone’s ears, and at this, everyone had their own analysis in their hearts……