"Then you'll be all alone. Aren't you supposed to have two senior sisters assisting you? Besides, the personalities of the third and fifth senior brothers aren't suited to managing the Imperial Household Department. You, the eldest senior brother, are the most suitable. Just hold on for three to five years, and when you've trained someone capable for me, you can retire gracefully," Xingxing reassured her.
"Three to five years? You wish! At most, it'll be a year. After that, I'll go back to Immortal Mist Island. Whoever wants to do these things in the palace can do them." Zhu Qiuyu felt that his freedom had been taken away. He disliked life in the palace. If it weren't for his junior brother insisting that he stay, he would have run away long ago.
"No way, Senior Brother, if you don't like it, Senior Sister and I are fine with it. I think the palace is quite fun. We should be able to stay for three to five years without any problem. We can just leave when we get tired of it," Zhu Qingruo interjected with a smile.
Zhu Changge agreed with her junior sister's words, "The imperial chefs in the Imperial Kitchen are quite skilled. I really like the imperial cuisine in the palace. Also, the late emperor's concubines were actually quite pitiful. My junior sister and I would go and play mahjong with them whenever we had free time. It was quite fun."
Among Emperor Taikang's consorts, apart from Consort Duan and the mother of Prince Ming who were banished to the Cold Palace, the other consorts were all settled in the harem. There were more than a dozen of them in total. Some of them had children. Xingxing was very lenient and allowed them to leave the palace to live with their princes.
Oh, those princes have been in poor health since they were poisoned by Yokoyama Eiko. Now that they've all been granted the title of prince, Xingxing plans to send them to their fiefdoms and leave the capital once they've recovered and are no longer so weak.
As for the princesses who were also sent out to establish their own residences, their mothers were also allowed to leave the palace and live in the princesses' residences. This was unprecedented, and when Xingxing brought up this matter, the court officials all opposed it.
But Xingxing made an exception more than once; she insisted on doing so, and the officials had no choice but to comply.
"Aren't you afraid of causing trouble by constantly offending these ministers?" Zhang Xiantao once advised her.
"There won't be any trouble. I know what I'm doing. These exceptions may seem unconventional, but they're not a big deal. If I handle state affairs well, those officials will have nothing to criticize. I have many capable people around me who are dedicated to the people. As long as the people's hearts are with me, I have nothing to fear," Xingxing replied with a light laugh.
What she didn't say was that if there wasn't no one in the royal family who could handle the affairs of the court, she wouldn't want to be the emperor. She would be exhausted from dealing with government affairs and be bombarded by officials every day. How could she possibly want that?
Now she has no choice but to protect this empire. Once she gives birth to a son, she will hand the dragon throne to him, and she and her brother Lin will live a carefree life.
Zhu Chumo's medical skills are extraordinary; he took Xingxing's pulse and confirmed that the baby was a son, which is why Xingxing has this idea.
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