Chapter 109 Let Me Borrow the Tiger's Power Once
The Empress Dowager, who had remained silent until now, raised her hand to dismiss the other two concubines before speaking, her voice filled with malice: "If the soft approach doesn't work, then we'll use the hard one."
Emperor Yongming turned his head and stared intently at the Empress Dowager: "Use force? How do you use force? Just kill Chu Jichen?"
The Empress Dowager frowned, her gaze towards Emperor Yongming conveying a sense of utter incompetence: "If we could just kill Chu Jichen directly, would we need to go through all this trouble?"
The Empress Dowager took a deep breath and gritted her teeth: "The one we need to target is naturally Shen Qingci."
"Regardless of Chu Jichen's true motives for marrying Shen Qingci, and regardless of whether Chu Jichen's kindness towards Shen Qingci was genuine or not, since Shen Qingci became the Regent's Consort, she is Chu Jichen's obvious weakness."
"She is a member of the royal family, and I can summon her to the palace from time to time to have a chat. She is invited to various palace banquets or banquets between other noble families, and she naturally has to attend."
"We have too many opportunities to make a move."
The Empress Dowager's eyes turned cold: "Just drug her, find more people to gang rape her. Or have someone tie her up, or even just kill her."
"In any case, it would be best if we could get her to hand over the Shen family's private army."
“But if she doesn’t hand her over, then we should just destroy her and kill her. It’s better than letting that private soldier fall into Chu Jichen’s hands.”
Emperor Yongming's throat moved slightly, then he chuckled softly: "Yes, Mother is absolutely right."
"If I can't have it, I'll destroy it."
The Empress Dowager and Emperor Yongming exchanged a glance, their eyes both filled with the same madness.
...
Shen Qingci had already boarded the carriage with Chu Jichen. Chu Jichen took out a teacup from a hidden compartment, poured a cup of tea for Shen Qingci, and then said with a smile, "How did Qingqing know I was here?"
Shen Qingci took a sip of tea and shook her head: "I don't know, I'm just guessing."
"Your Majesty's previous words were really too much like an attempt to sow discord."
"Since it's about sowing discord, then naturally we need to be both here to achieve the best effect. Otherwise, his words would lose most of their meaning."
Chu Jichen's lips curled up slightly: "Qingqing is really smart."
“It’s just that some people are a bit too restless.” His gaze suddenly turned cold and sharp: “Although I hold the position of regent, the emperor is still sitting on the throne.”
“He sits on the throne, he is the emperor, and no matter how absurd his actions are, there will always be people in the court who will support him.”
"For example, those people led by Prime Minister Liu, and the maternal families of the concubines in the harem."
"Because of my disability, some people always feel that a disabled person cannot hold great power, and that imperial power will eventually return to the emperor's hands."
“During my three years as regent, I removed some people like that. But before, I thought they couldn’t threaten me, and keeping them around might still be useful, so I only removed some of the most aggressive ones. The others were left behind.”
"But now, I feel it's time to thoroughly purge them."
Chu Jichen stared intently at Shen Qingci: "After all, people I didn't care about before weren't particularly eager for power."
"But now, I have it."
"When you have someone you absolutely must protect, you want to give them the best things in the world, including power."
Shen Qingci's heart skipped a beat, but reason quickly suppressed her restless heart.
A man's sweet words cannot be trusted.
She once lost everything because she believed a man's sweet words.
Shen Qingci's mind raced for a moment before she asked in a low voice, "Your Highness is already the Regent. The only power you want must be that position, right?"
"It's a pity that the maternal families of His Majesty's many concubines can provide considerable support. But I am just an orphan now, and I can't help the prince in any way."
Shen Qingci bit her lip: "If only my father had left me an elite army."
“I can then hand over that elite force to Your Highness. Although I know Your Highness probably doesn’t need it, at least it can help Your Highness in some way.”
Chu Jichen looked at Shen Qingci with a smile in his eyes, making Shen Qingci feel as if he knew what she was thinking.
Shen Qingci's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she lowered her eyes.
"Qingqing, you don't need to do anything. Just... like me."
"To me, Qingqing's affection is worth more than a thousand troops."
Smooth-talking.
Shen Qingci's eyelashes trembled slightly, but for some reason, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly.
Chu Jichen changed the subject: "It's still early, Qingqing, is there anything you'd like to do? I happen to have nothing else to do today, so I can keep you company."
Shen Qingci snapped out of her thoughts and thought for a moment: "Anything is fine?"
"nature."
Shen Qingci looked at Chu Jichen: "I think I should go and take a look at the Sheng family."
"Previously, I spread rumors immediately, revealing that Sister Sheng's stepmother had spent nearly a year finding all sorts of unsuitable men for her, and even that she wanted to arrange a ghost marriage for Sister Sheng immediately after she hanged herself."
"It has indeed had some effect. Madam Sheng has temporarily stopped arranging a ghost marriage for Sister Sheng and has also denied arranging a ghost marriage for Sister Sheng."
"But I heard from Wanqing that she still keeps Sister Sheng's coffin at the Sheng family home and has no plans to hold a funeral."
"I don't know what she's trying to do, but it's definitely not a good plan."
"Therefore, I want to meet Madam Sheng, as the Regent's Consort."
Shen Qingci smiled slightly: "If Your Highness has the time, it would be wonderful if we could go together."
After all, it was only the first day of her marriage to Chu Jichen.
Many people know that Chu Jichen got married yesterday, but probably not many know that he married her.
Since she wants to leverage Chu Jichen's influence and use the identity of the Regent's Consort, it would be even better if Chu Jichen could join her.
"It'll be good for me to take advantage of the situation once."
Chu Jichen lowered his eyes and smiled. Perhaps because he had married Shen Qingci, he was in a very good mood these past two days: "Sure, I said that even if the princess marries me just because I am the regent, just because of my power, I will be happy to accept it."
"only……"
"I performed for the princess, shouldn't the princess... reward me?"
Shen Qingci raised an eyebrow: "A reward? What kind of reward?"
What does she have?
As Shen Qingci was thinking, she met Chu Jichen's gaze.
"..." Shen Qingci bit her lip. Although Chu Jichen didn't say anything, his eyes seemed to say everything.
But Chu Jichen kept asking, "Is it okay?"
Shen Qingci raised her hand and pressed her temple, immediately thinking of last night when Chu Jichen seemed to have asked her the same question.
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