In the fifth year of Tianxiang, Jiang Cenyun officially appointed Li Xiwei as empress. No one in the court or the country objected, and everyone was happy to see the wedding happen. On the day of the wedding, all the people celebrated.
Yao Yi, who had become the Imperial College's chief academic officer, entered the palace one day and, upon seeing Li Xiwei, sarcastically remarked, "Your Highness is quite resourceful. If you had wanted the position of Empress from the outset, the entire court would have been terrified of you and would have refused to grant your wish. So, you devised a devious plan to save the nation, entering the palace twice to make it clear that your sole ambition was the position of Consort, establishing an image of infatuation and letting others off guard. They were convinced you had lost yourself in love and given up the position of Left Prime Minister, so they were naturally happy to see it happen and were willing to see you ascend to the throne. Now that the position of Prime Minister is vacant, when will Your Highness return?"
"The Grand Master has misunderstood." Li Xiwei said, "I do not wish to hold on to the position of Prime Minister."
"That phase..."
"There will be no more prime ministers." Jiang Cenyun walked over and said, "Zhaiyue has taken advantage of the sudden decrease in hostility among officials over the past two years to delegate power to the six ministries and cultivate a group of his own confidants. Even without a prime minister, government affairs can be carried out in an orderly manner. I have long felt that the position of prime minister should be abolished, and now the time has finally come."
"So these past two years... were a play performed by you all together?" Yao Yi asked.
Jiang Cenyun smiled and said, "Do you think I'm a tyrant who's been blinded by beauty? Zhaiyue has been paralyzing the officials and building momentum among the people. I've been so distant with him to confuse the officials. When I helped him ascend to the position of prime minister, I already angered the officials and the noble families. If I were to take the initiative to make him empress, I'm afraid the opposition in the court would be even greater. I can only let them think that Zhaiyue obtained the position of empress with their help and will give them benefits. They are in the same party and will naturally not obstruct me."
"You even hid it from me. You two are truly a match made in heaven." Yao Yi said angrily.
"Now, teacher, do you believe that I can stand on my own? You can also start a family without any worries. Don't let Xiao Zhuozhen wait until he grows old."
"Don't call him Xiao Zhuo. He's one year older than you." Yao Yi paused and said, "I'll go propose to him tomorrow."
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