Ye Jingchen had no intention of dealing with the Ji family, but it would be good to have the opportunity to learn more about this behemoth.
The foundation of a thousand-year-old family is indeed terrifying; you can feel it from the letters from the three little ones.
He didn't let the emperor see some of the more sensitive letters, fearing that the emperor would be unable to sleep at night after reading them, and also fearing that the emperor might suddenly decide to confront the Ji family.
After all, the Ji family had connections or businesses in almost every prefecture and county they traveled through, so they were not so easy to deal with.
He still hoped to reach a cooperation agreement with the Ji family, at least while he was alive, so that they could cooperate with each other.
As for the Ji family's threat to imperial power, and their longer-term plans, he considered them meaningless.
Nothing in this world is eternal except time itself.
Dynasties last only two or three hundred years at most. While aristocratic families that have lasted for a thousand years are indeed formidable, they too can one day be lost in the long river of history.
Because the main body that makes them up is people, and the human heart is the most fickle thing.
Therefore, his plans for Dayuan only extended to the time he was alive. As for what would happen to Dayuan after he died, that was not something he should worry about.
He only hoped that while he was alive, the lives of ordinary people would get better and better, that they would have surplus grain and money, and that they would be able to eat their fill and stay warm.
In the imperial city, a new round of selecting prince consorts and imperial sons-in-law has begun.
Ye Jingshu is already nineteen years old, and the emperor has decided that no matter what, he must choose a husband for her.
Ye Jingchen also needs to choose a Crown Princess!
But imagination is beautiful, reality is cruel. The Duke of Anguo's mansion held three flower-viewing banquets in a row. Ye Jingchen and his group cooperated well, but the right people just couldn't withstand investigation. Every investigation revealed some problems.
Originally, invitations from the Duke of Anguo's mansion were highly sought after in the capital, and noble families considered it an honor to receive one. However, later on, everyone avoided them like the plague, and people in the capital secretly called the Duke of Anguo's flower-viewing banquet a "beheading banquet." The Duke of Anguo's mansion became deserted for a time.
Even the imperial censors with children of marriageable age dared not bring up the marriage of princes and princesses, fearing that the marriage would fall on their own heads and bring annihilation to their families.
The court officials tacitly agreed not to mention the matter again.
The emperor, however, felt as if he had a fishbone stuck in his throat.
He had realized how the current situation had come about; the rebellious son's scheme wasn't even a conspiracy, but a calculated move, yet he had no choice but to fall into it.
He was neither at ease nor willing to casually arrange a marriage for his child with someone whose background he didn't know, but if he continued to be picky, he was afraid he would lose all his court officials.
However, apart from summoning Ye Jingchen and scolding him, the emperor was powerless to do anything about it.
What can we do?
The emperor had never known that his imperial guards were so capable of investigating the affairs of noble families and nobles. Things they didn't know before, they could now find out. Even the people investigating the information found it unbelievably easy, as if those people had deliberately given them leverage.
What does this tell us?
This shows that the rebellious son has someone more powerful than the Imperial Guard, at least in terms of intelligence gathering.
Some things shouldn't be overthought; if you overthink them, many flawed points will come together.
Over the years, the plans targeting the powerful families have gone very smoothly, and the newly appointed officials have rarely made mistakes. Government orders have been implemented effectively, and everything has been incredibly successful.
It was as if an invisible hand was driving everything.
Half of the faces in the court have changed without anyone noticing. Although few of the newly appointed officials hold high positions, most of them are outstanding in ability and have performed admirably. Even if the Imperial Guards were to investigate their backgrounds, they would find them to be completely innocent.
It's precisely because she's so innocent that she seems all the more suspicious.
After all, these positions in the imperial court were all contested by aristocratic families and nobles. Apart from a few scholars from poor families who could fight their way out through the imperial examinations, what chance did the other honest people have?
Are his court officials still truly loyal to him?
The emperor was very suspicious.
But he was unsure what to do.
After all, the national treasury revenue is increasing every year, the administration is clean and efficient, and even he himself feels much more relaxed than before. Everything is developing in a positive direction.
How did a seventeen-year-old manage to be under his protection, or rather, under his surveillance, all the time?
The emperor couldn't understand it.
I've thought about it for several nights and still can't figure it out.
How did his crown prince, who was clearly a pleasure-seeking, cunning, and intolerant of hardship, accumulate such terrifying power right under his nose?
No matter how you look at it, there's no way he could do it, right?
But if the person secretly manipulating all of this is not the Crown Prince, but someone else, then his motives become even more difficult to fathom.
After all, so far, apart from the marriage that's giving him a headache, he's been the beneficiary of everything else!
Ye Jingchen was fully prepared mentally before going to pay his respects to the emperor.
Their marriage plans fell through again. The emperor must be furious and might give him a severe dressing down. But it doesn't matter. As long as he doesn't take it to heart, no matter how harsh the emperor's words are, it's all in vain!
Sure enough, after dinner, the emperor kept him behind alone.
However, the emperor did not scold him, nor did he even speak to him; he simply looked at him, and kept looking at him.
He then noticed that the emperor looked very tired, with obvious dark circles under his eyes.
He was familiar with this state. In his past life, his mother always told him that she couldn't sleep at night because she was so anxious about him not getting married at his age!
“Father, we are still young. Even if we can’t find a suitable marriage partner for the time being, you don’t need to be so anxious that you can’t sleep at night, right?” Ye Jingchen decided to break the silence first.
The emperor, who had indeed been unable to sleep all night, glared at her. It wasn't this matter that kept him awake!
He couldn't sleep because he felt threatened, afraid that the chair he was sitting on would become unstable.
His anxiety was all thanks to this rebellious son.
"I had no idea you were so capable. How could you know so much about things that even the Imperial Guards couldn't find out?" The Emperor narrowed his eyes, looking down at Ye Jingchen, and probed.
"Father, what do you mean by that? If even the Imperial Guards can't find out, how could I possibly know?" Ye Jingchen asked, feigning confusion.
When he used this method, he already knew that this day would come.
However, this day came a year later than he had expected.
This shows that his father trusts him a lot now.
Otherwise, given his father's suspicious and sensitive nature, he should have noticed something was wrong last year!
"Then explain to me why all the marriage partners I chose for you are problematic? Who leaked those incriminating pieces of evidence to the Imperial Guards?!" the emperor asked coldly.
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