"My name is Ziyi." At that time, he had not yet become emperor, and he just said a name casually. Later, this name became his courtesy name.

They exchanged names and became acquainted. Emperor Mingde often disguised himself as a poor scholar to visit Yide, thus forging a childhood sweetheart bond between them.

Empress Yide did not despise him for his humble status as a traveling merchant, nor for his lack of money; she remained devoted to him, which was truly precious to Emperor Mingde.

At this point, Huo Baichuan explained, "The Emperor altered Empress Yide's background. If you check the records, you won't find anything except her name. Everything is fake. In order to posthumously confer the title of Empress on her, the Emperor elevated her background."

Zhao Shu nodded, indicating that she understood. To elevate his status and posthumously confer the title of Empress, Emperor Mingde must have been a devoted lover. But what good is it now that he's dead?

However, Yi De is clearly no longer the innocent and kind-hearted A Qing she once was.

"Later, the late emperor and the empress dowager had a falling out, and the emperor insisted on deposing the empress. The empress dowager produced the edict left to her by the founding emperor, and the late emperor compromised. He moved into the Biyou Palace with the current emperor and stayed there for five years. During these five years, the current emperor and Yide secretly pledged their lives to each other. Five years later, the late emperor felt that his health was not as good as before. He thought and thought, but he could not think of anyone who could help the new emperor stabilize the court. Among all his women, only the empress dowager had this ability, so he returned to the palace."

The late emperor wasn't a good person either, Zhao Shu thought to herself.

"Later, the late emperor passed away and the current emperor ascended the throne. The Empress Dowager put in a lot of effort to help him stabilize the court. Then came the appointment of an empress. The emperor wanted to appoint Yide as the empress. To this day, I still cannot find out what Yide's background is. I'm afraid only a handful of people in the world know her true background."

He paused for a moment, "The Empress Dowager does not agree to make Yide the emperor, and has said that if Yide enters the palace, she can only be a concubine."

Actually, the rank of Consort was already quite high, but how could Yide agree to it? She was so beautiful and intelligent.

"Yide refused to enter the palace, preferring to wander the world in a straw raincoat rather than suffer humiliation in the palace. The emperor chased her out of the palace, and for a time, the affairs of state were neglected. It was the empress dowager who painstakingly saved the situation. Later, no one knew about these things. The emperor forbade people to talk about them, and besides, it was not honorable for a woman to rule the country, so no one would mention it."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Shu snorted coldly, "Women can't govern a country, so how can they salvage the situation?"

"I didn't mean anything by it," Huo Baichuan immediately explained. "The Empress Dowager is actually quite remarkable. If it weren't for those things that happened later that restricted her, the Empress Dowager wouldn't be the way she is today."

People eventually grow old; who can remain shrewd and wise forever? Even Wu Zetian became senile in her later years.

"The Emperor has brought back Yide, and she is pregnant." Huo Baichuan, afraid that Zhao Shu would hold a grudge against him again, quickly changed the subject and continued the story from before.