"Your Majesty, we beg you to spare the Prince of Chu this time. He was just confused for a moment and only started raising a private army to protect himself!"

When Emperor Wenjian arrived at Consort Liu's palace, Consort Liu immediately knelt on the ground and begged.

At this moment, she looked haggard, with a dark layer under her eyes that even powder couldn't cover up.

Emperor Wenjian glared at her angrily, dismissed all the palace servants from the main hall, and slowly walked up to Consort Liu.

He threw the hairpin in front of her and said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, are you now threatening me? Were all your affections from back then just a lie?"

Consort Liu looked at the hairpin that had fallen to the ground. One of the beads on it had fallen off due to gravity and rolled to the side.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she looked at Emperor Wenjian with a helpless expression.

"Your Majesty, I was just too anxious. You refused to see me, so I had no choice but to say this."

"Hmph, the Prince of Chu has committed a capital offense this time. I didn't kill him, but only planned to strip him of his princely status and demote him to a remote place. That's already showing you some consideration. What more do you want from me!"

Emperor Wenjian coldly flicked his sleeves and sat down on the stool next to him.

When Consort Liu heard that the Prince of Chu's title was to be revoked and that he was to be demoted to a distant place, she was instantly terrified!

How can this be allowed?

If that's the case, wouldn't it mean that the King of Chu will never have a chance to ascend the throne?

Then all their efforts over the years have been in vain.

"Your Majesty, you mustn't!"

Consort Liu immediately lost her composure and cried out for mercy.

Emperor Wenjian remained cold and said, "He dares to raise a private army. If I don't deal with him, will he be able to force me to abdicate? Shouldn't I hand over the throne to the Prince of Chu?"

"No, that's not what I meant. The King of Chu keeps a private army for his own protection, fearing that His Highness the Crown Prince will kill him when he ascends the throne. That's why he keeps a private army. He absolutely has no intention of rebelling!"

Consort Liu frantically tried to find excuses for the King of Chu.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Wenjian calmed down slightly, realizing that the reason was not entirely unreasonable.

The Crown Prince and the Prince of Chu have always been at odds, and the Empress and Consort Liu are even more incompatible. If the Crown Prince successfully ascends the throne in the future, he will indeed not tolerate the Prince of Chu.

He just felt that the Crown Prince might not necessarily kill the King of Chu; at most, he would just demote him to his fiefdom.

"Don't worry, I plan to demote the Prince of Chu to Chuzhou and make him the governor of Chuzhou. Although he will lose his royal status, as long as he behaves himself, he can still live a life of luxury!"

Emperor Wenjian thought for a moment, and his tone softened somewhat.

Even though what Consort Liu said made some sense, keeping a private army is still a serious crime. If it were anyone else, they would have been exiled long ago.

His treatment of the King of Chu was exceptionally lenient.

But Consort Liu didn't think so. She still felt that Emperor Wenjian was too heartless. He was just raising a private army and hadn't actually rebelled!

He thus permanently excluded his son from the list of heirs, which shows that he never truly wanted to pass the throne to his son.

All the doting he showed her over the years was fake!

Thinking about all this, Consort Liu felt increasingly resentful and finally made a tough decision.

"Your Majesty, you cannot strip Prince Chu of his royal status, otherwise I will..."

"Your Highness, you are threatening me!"

Emperor Wenjian looked at Consort Liu's resolute eyes, which revealed disappointment and warning.

Yes!

Only Consort Liu knew about that incident, which was one of the reasons why she was the most favored concubine in the harem.

Back then, Consort Liu loved him so much; he never imagined that one day Consort Liu would change.

"Your Majesty, I was forced into this!"

Consort Liu knelt on the ground with a resolute expression, biting her lip tightly.

She knew that once she started this, her decades-long relationship with Emperor Wenjian would also be torn apart.

But she had no choice but to do this in order to prevent the King of Chu from being demoted.

Who could blame her, since the King of Chu was all her hope!

All her efforts in the latter half of her life were devoted to the King of Chu!

Emperor Wenjian glared angrily at Consort Liu for a long time before finally bursting into laughter, "Good, good, you're really good!"

"I agree!"

After Emperor Wenjian finished speaking in a sullen tone, he left the Consort's palace with a look of disappointment.

The empty palace was suddenly left with only Consort Liu kneeling alone on the ground, her body suddenly going limp.

She knew that the King of Chu had finally been saved!

*

"Father Emperor only stripped the Prince of Chu of his authority and confiscated his property?"

Inside the Crown Prince's residence, Xiao Ye listened in disbelief as his subordinates reported that Emperor Wenjian had sent an imperial edict to the Prince of Chu's residence.

He believed that raising a private army was such a serious crime that even if the King of Chu did not exile him, he would at least be demoted to a commoner.

But I never expected the punishment to be so lenient!

What exactly happened inside the palace?

Xiao Ye continued to ask.

"Your Highness, I heard that Consort Liu met with the Emperor with a hairpin, and the Emperor chased everyone out. What the two talked about is unknown."

"hairpin?"

Xiao Ye narrowed his eyes, puzzled.

It seems that there is some secret between the Emperor and Consort Liu.

Soon, Su Liluo also learned from Xiao Ye about how the King of Chu had been treated leniently.

The two discussed it for a while, and Su Liluo also felt that Consort Liu had used something to threaten Emperor Wenjian.

As for this, it must be a big secret.

They can only investigate and dig deeper slowly.

The power held by the King of Chu was divided among Emperor Wenjian. Because Xiao Ye had made meritorious contributions and held military power, Emperor Wenjian felt that he had too much power, so he did not give it to him, but instead gave it to the King of Xiao and the King of Cheng.

Of course, since Prince Xiao had just returned to the capital, Emperor Wenjian felt that his foundation was still shallow, and the power allocated to him was mostly limited.

Therefore, King Xiao gained an easy advantage for nothing.

Although Xiao Churen escaped death this time, he was still deeply distressed because all the power he had accumulated over the years had not been removed.

Now, he is just an empty shell as the King of Chu, and everything has to be started all over again.

However, having just committed a crime, he dared not immediately take any action to seize power and gain benefits, so he could only irritably go out and drink heavily.

Sure enough, he went to the restaurant where he had met Su Liluo before for several days in a row to drink. He went for many days and got drunk.

Today, I happened to run into Su Liluo, who came to the restaurant to check on the business.

"Su Liluo? Heh, she, what's she doing here? Is she here to laugh at me?"

The King of Chu, his eyes glazed over, was already quite drunk. His gaze fell upon Su Liluo, who was walking up from downstairs.

He was so drunk that he had completely forgotten that this restaurant was owned by Su Liluo.

The servant next to him quickly advised, "Your Highness, this restaurant is owned by the Crown Princess. She's not here to make a fool of you."

Xiao Churen ignored him and flung the servant aside.

He scoffed, "She's just here to make a fool of myself! She's jealous of Su Wanshi, so she's taking it out on me! If she hadn't married the Crown Prince, I wouldn't be in such a bad situation."

right!

From the moment she married Xiao Ye, everything slowly began to change for some unknown reason.