Xie Ruiyuan returned to the capital, but did not return home immediately. Instead, he secretly entered the palace.

In Qiankun Palace, Emperor Wu just fell asleep with Concubine Rou serving him.

Looking at the sleeping emperor, Concubine Rou showed a trace of pity in her eyes, but it was replaced by indifference in an instant.

She couldn't be soft-hearted. Since she had chosen to take action, she had to be resolute and unwavering.

Only in this way could her son, the eldest prince, ascend the throne, and she would become the most honorable woman in the palace.

Thinking about how she had been caught in an endless struggle to gain the emperor's favor ever since she entered the palace, she didn't know how many women she had harmed and how many unborn princes she had killed to have her current status.

She knew her hands were covered in blood, but there was nothing she could do.

After all, looking at the magnificent palace, it is actually the darkest place in the world. Countless people die unjustly every day, and countless innocent souls are buried in every dry well.

But so what? Since she entered the palace, she must not fail. After all, this not only concerns her future destiny, but is also closely related to the prosperity and decline of her family.

However, in the process of her efforts to win the emperor's favor, no matter how much she devoted to the emperor, it could not compare to the position of the queen in the emperor's heart.

She had been to the gates of hell twice and gave birth to the eldest and fourth princes for the emperor, but she still did not receive the emperor's true love.

Although she knew that once a woman entered the palace, she could no longer have romantic feelings, everything she thought, did, and took, had to be for the sake of her son and family.

But even though she had a clear mind, she still couldn't control her heart and fell in love with Emperor Wu.

As soon as she entered the palace, she knew that Emperor Wu's favorite woman was the Empress. The Empress occupied a very important position in the Emperor's heart. Even if there were three thousand beauties in the harem, no one could replace the Empress.

She was jealous. Every time she saw Emperor Wu and the Empress having such a tacit understanding with each other, knowing what the other was saying and what they were going to do with just one glance, she also wanted to have such a tacit understanding with Emperor Wu.

She knew this was impossible, because Emperor Wu took her into the palace in order to balance the various forces of the previous dynasty.

To put it cruelly, she was just a tool, a puppet used by the emperor to win over the Rou family.

But why? She is also a human being, and she is also a woman who needs the nourishment of love.

Why can the queen be loved by the emperor and be the only one in his heart, but she can't? She is unwilling to accept this.

But what can she do even if she is unwilling? She can't force the emperor to fall in love with her.

They all said that she was a noble concubine and had the highest status in the palace.

In reality, she is always inferior to the Queen, and sees the Emperor only a few times on a daily basis. How can she cultivate feelings with the Emperor?

It is said that if a woman in the harem wants to live a better life, she must give up love and focus on her career. Only in this way can she survive in the cannibalistic harem.

Of course, although the harem is inhabited by women, it is full of murderous intentions. If you are not careful, you will die without a burial place and become an unknown ghost.

And she did it. In the harem, apart from the queen, she and Concubine Sheng had the highest status.

But even so, she felt that something was still missing. She knew that only when her own son, the eldest prince, ascended the throne would she feel that her entry into the palace was worthy.

She had not originally planned to treat Emperor Wu like this. After all, even if Emperor Wu did not love her, he was still the father of her two sons. As long as the emperor could pass the throne to the eldest prince, she would no longer care about the emperor's dislike for her and would only have the empress in her heart.

But Emperor Wu's actions made her really hopeless. It was not enough to give his heart to the empress, he also wanted to pass the throne to the empress's son, the third prince.

How could this be possible? The eldest prince is also the emperor's son. How could the emperor not even consider him?

When she learned that the emperor had issued an imperial decree to the third prince, stating that as long as he handled the task of providing relief to the disaster victims in Qingshan Prefecture, he would be made the crown prince upon returning to the capital, she went mad and even had two palace maids beaten to death, but she still felt unsatisfied.

She was very panicked. She knew that with the Third Prince's ability, not to mention that the court allocated 600,000 kilograms of grain to him, even if not a kilogram of grain was allocated, the Third Prince would have a way to resettle all the refugees.

As for why she thought so, it was because the Third Prince was too tough, like an indestructible cockroach. No matter how many moves she made or how many people she sent, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no news at all.

She knew very well that the Third Prince had eliminated all the people she had sent out. Facing such a strong opponent, the First Prince had absolutely no chance of winning. She knew this very well.

But even so, she had to do everything she could to help the eldest prince ascend to that position. Only in this way could she become the empress dowager, the most noble woman in the palace, and step on the empress under her feet.

After thinking about it, she was still cruel to Emperor Wu and drugged him with her own hands.

The result was just as she expected. Emperor Wu's health was getting worse day by day. All the doctors in the Imperial Medical Bureau took turns to feel his pulse, but they could only find out that the emperor was too tired, had caught a cold, and needed to rest.

She was personally appointed by Emperor Wu to attend to his illness. Under her care, Emperor Wu's health not only did not improve, but became even weaker.

But when she was waiting for Emperor Wu to recover, for some unknown reason, Emperor Wu's health inexplicably improved.

No one knew better than her why Emperor Wu had health problems and why he would become weaker day by day under the effects of the medicine and would never get better.

But what seemed to be a done deal to her had changed, causing her to feel anxious for no reason.

Although she was panicked, she was still rational. She knew what she was doing and what was most important at the moment.