C81

The empress dowager was well aware of his personality, and could only sigh helplessly without trying to persuade him otherwise. She looked at him and asked, "How is Rong'er? It was quite smooth in the northern regions, wasn't it? Are you still thinking about Mu Chen? "

"It's alright. It's just that every time he returns, he'll ask about Mu Chen. But don't worry, when he returns to the Imperial City, I'll marry Mu Xue to him and make him completely give up on Mu Chen." Lin Xiangguo was quite confident in his words, but the empress dowager shook her head and sighed, "You're thinking too simply. Rong'er loves Mu Chen, not Mu Xue. I'm afraid he'll be angry with us if he finds out that you sent Mu Chen to His Majesty."

The Rong son that the empress dowager spoke of was her biological son, the Prince Rong. He was the Third Prince, and he had died young and early on. The second prince's nature was not to be trifled with. The third prince should have been the one to succeed the throne. However, because of his close relationship with Yun Fei, the late emperor ignored the pressure from the officials and forcefully made the Seventh Prince, the current Emperor, into the successor to the throne.

Not only could Duke Rong not swallow this insult, but the entire Lin Family could not. Thus, Duke Rong had a huge argument with the former Emperor. The late emperor, fearing that Prince Rong would be unwilling to accept this and do something unfavorable to the new emperor, immediately seized him and charged him with this crime. Before he could die, he sent him to the toughest of all, northern regions to guard the borders and ordered him to not step foot into the imperial city for three years as a punishment for his crimes.

"In a few days, I will tell him that the Emperor insisted on Mu Chen being his concubine. Our deceit of him was to allow him to live in peace for three years, so he would be helpless." Lin Xiangguo said without thinking much of it.

"Is that really okay?" The empress dowager was still very worried, because she was well aware that her son's personality was tough and unyielding. He would do whatever he liked, just like the current emperor. At that time, he might go crazy from anger.

Lin Xiangguo looked at her and asked: "What's wrong with that? Rong'er knew that the Emperor would only hate Long Zhaofeng even more for stealing his woman. If they joined hands with King Rui, they wouldn't be able to hurt him. In fact, it was the emperor himself who wanted Mu Chen as his consort. Even if I wasn't willing, I couldn't do it. Don't tell me you want me to go against the imperial edict? "

Back then, before the emperor sent the imperial concubine decree to the Lin family, he was constantly considering how to send his third daughter, Mu Xue, to the palace to accompany him. He didn't want the emperor to pass down the decree. At that moment, he was wild with joy. It took him quite some effort to think of how to send Mu Xue to the palace. It didn't matter who the two sisters were, as long as one of them could enter the Imperial Palace.

What made him even more pleasantly surprised was that there were dozens of women who entered the palace together with him, but the Emperor was the only one who doted on Mu Fei. This was something he didn't dare to even think about. Unfortunately … Lin Xiangguo could only shake his head as he thought of the consequences of Mu Fei's death. Even if the Emperor doted on her, she was no longer the original Mu Fei.

"But King Rui and the emperor were once best friends, and grew up together. Will he sincerely stand together with us against the emperor?" the empress dowager asked uncertainly.

Lin Xiangguo took a sip of the tea in his cup and coldly laughed: "No matter how good a friend you have, there will always be a time when people leave their tea. When blood brothers turn against each other, what's more, they are cousins who grew up together. And can't you tell? Rui Wang and the Emperor are no longer as close as they were in the past. I have to thank Mu Chen for this. If it wasn't for her, King Rui and Long Zhai wouldn't have ended up like this. "

The empress dowager smiled and said, "This Mu Chen is very crazy from day to night. He's rather liked by men. I wonder what he's thinking. Sigh, it's said that women are trouble. "

"Therefore, we have to be extra careful, so as to not let this calamity bring about any harm to our Rong'er."

The empress dowager nodded her head. "Alright, Big Brother, you should go back now. Otherwise, people might think we're discussing something." The empress dowager took a sip of her tea and stood up. "Don't worry, I'll pay attention to that little kid Rongfei. I don't believe that old bones of mine can't handle a baby."

"Then be careful. Don't forget that Imperial Concubine Rong is protected by the empress dowager of the Western Palace." Lin Xiang Guo couldn't help but remind him.

"I understand. I'll be careful." The empress dowager saw Lin Xiangguo out the door, and when they reached the courtyard's entrance, she suddenly looked at him and said, "Big Brother, Rong'er will have to ask you to take care of him a bit more. Don't let anything bad happen to him!"

"Don't worry, I'll pay attention." Lin Xiangguo nodded at her, kneeling down in front of the female eunuchs, before turning and leaving.

The empress dowager watched him leave in a hurry. After a long time, she lightly sucked in a breath of air, then turned around and walked back inside the house. She missed her son, it had been so many years since she last saw him!

Because the weather was too hot, Longze had no choice but to order all the papers from the Hall of Management to be moved into the shade of the lotus pond in the imperial garden. It was also because of the presence of the emperor that the concubines who usually cared about this place had no choice but to move on. No one within fifty meters of this place was allowed to approach anyone else.

Long Zhaojing was flipping through the paper in his hand. Suddenly, he raised his head and asked, "Liu An, is Prince Rong preparing to return to the imperial court?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Eunuch Liu replied respectfully. After a moment of hesitation, he said, "It's said that Prince Rong has gathered a large number of men in the northern part of the country. They are all elite soldiers who are more than enough to guard the border."

"That's not good. He can give a portion of it to the southwest. There are a lot of people lacking there." Long Ze showed a faint smile, lowered his head and continued to look at his paper, completely ignoring Eunuch Liu's hesitant look.

Eunuch Liu hesitated again before carefully saying, "Your majesty, you have to be on guard against others. It's said that he personally trained the several hundred thousand elite soldiers of the Duke of Rong's army for two to three years. It's very fierce."

Long Zhaozhang laughed and mockingly said, "Even if it's a golden horse, I can swallow it all in one go. Rest assured, Eunuch Liu."

Eunuch Liu stifled his words. Since the emperor had already said so, he naturally had nothing else to say. He could only obediently move to the side and wait. Seeing how confident the emperor was, he wished that he could really be that bad!

Right at this moment, a young eunuch suddenly walked over quickly, saluting Long Zhaofeng on the imperial table. "Reporting to your majesty, we request an audience outside King Rui's Garden. It's said that there's something we need to discuss with your majesty."

Long Ze's brows twitched, he raised his eyes and looked at him: "How could King Rui enter the palace? Didn't I forbid him to enter the palace? " In order to prevent him from meeting Lin Mu Fan again, he would not allow him to enter the Imperial Palace.

Eunuch Liu hurried over. "Your Majesty, have you forgotten?" Today is the day King Rui and Princess Changxin enter the palace to pay their respects to the empress dowager. King Rui was already in the palace long ago. "

"Oh." He had forgotten that the day after tomorrow was the day King Rui and Changxin were married. Today, they were supposed to come to the palace to pay respects to him and the empress dowager.

Without even thinking about it, he swung his arm and said, "Let them all return. There's no need to pay respects to me."

"Your Majesty …" King Rui said that he must see the Emperor and discuss important matters … " The young eunuch said with a face full of lingering fear. His lingering fear was right. Long Zhaozu was indeed angry and shouted at him, "I have nothing important to discuss with him. Let him go back, didn't you hear?"

"This servant obeys!" The eunuch immediately retreated in a hurry. Long Zhaosu didn't even have the time to refocus his mind on his work before he heard a clamor from outside. It was the eunuch who desperately begged, "Your Highness, you can't go over there. The Emperor has decreed that Prince Rui should return home first. Your Highness …"

Long Zhaofeng's brows tightened and anger immediately rose from the bottom of his heart. It seemed that this reckless King Rui was trespassing his territory again. Damn it! He had never known how to respect his emperor!

With a raise of his eyebrows, he saw that Rui Wang had already arrived in front of him. His appearance was still so beautiful that a woman's heart would be moved by it.

"Your subject pays his respects to Your Majesty. Your Majesty is blessed." While bowing, his ink-like black hair hung down, and when it mixed with the white clothes, it looked very beautiful.

However, this kind of appearance would only anger Long Zhaofeng, and seeing his gloomy and cold expression, he glared at him in fury: "Xiao Jue! How dare you trespass on my territory again? You don't want to live anymore? "

King Rui had long anticipated that he would anger him by doing so, but the Emperor had always avoided him. He had no choice but to force his way in. For Mu Chen, he was willing to bear all the punishments!

He lowered his head and helplessly said, "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. If this subject had even the slightest idea, I wouldn't have barged in. Your subject does have important matters to discuss with your majesty, so I would have barged in. Your majesty, please …"

"From your words, it seems like it's my fault?" It was I who told you that there was nothing you could do? " Long Zhaofeng also interrupted him and said angrily, "Are you not afraid of death? Do you think I won't dare to punish you?! "

"Your majesty, this subject has already been forced to marry a woman I don't love. Would he still be afraid of death?" King Rui suddenly smiled bitterly. With a serious expression, he said, "Your Majesty doesn't dare to have any objections if you want to punish this subject. But I hope that Your Majesty can let this subject finish what I wanted to say today."

Long Zhaofeng sneered as he sized him up, "Prince Rui, you're not going to tell me about Mu Chen again, are you? Other than Mu Chen's matter, we don't seem to have any other common topics to discuss. "

"The Emperor is wise. This subject is going to talk about Mu Chen …"

"You!" Long Zhaojie flew up angrily and glared at him. King Rui paused for a moment because of his excessive actions, but after a while he continued, "..." And there's also the matter of the little prince. "

Long Ze originally intended to ask Eunuch Liu to bring Prince Rui down, but upon hearing the latter half of his sentence, he immediately swallowed his words. The little prince, he didn't understand why Rui Wang would suddenly mention the little prince.